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Of course we are probably closer to the gods than the Greeks were, for multiple reasons.

We come from a less conservative culture and have the legacy of Protestantism affected how we thing the divine can be approached by humanity.

But also there’s an explanation in that so few people worship the gods at all that they have more interest in their individual worshipers than they ever did before.

#paganism #this is good stuff!

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I noticed the Newbie Devotee Challenge has brought in a bunch of new followers. Welcome! ❤️🌈

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Newbie Devotee Challenge—Days 7, 8, and 9

Day 7: Discuss your UPG for your deity. What inspired those UPG? Afterwards, do a little research and try to find other popular UPG. Do you agree or disagree with that UPG, and why?

I’ll admit I sort of struggled with this question, since I feel like my UPG is still evolving. There are things I feel to be intrinsic truths about my experiences working with him, but that I haven’t been able to quantify yet.

I see a lot of discussion among other Lokeans as to what aspect he appears to them as, and for me, that hasn’t settled, and I kind of hope it never does. said: I talked a little bit about this earlier in the challenge, and he definitely first Appeared to me as the God of Broken Chains or the Worldbreaker, which is the opposite of a lot of other Lokeans whose stories I’ve read. I’ve ALSO gotten what people refer to as the childlike aspect or the raver, but he came to me as a god during a time when 1) I was most open to accepting him as a deity, 2) I was on an extremely self-destructive path and needed to change, so it makes sense that he’d open with “I AM A GOD”. As I’ve gotten more comfortable in my working relationship with him, and since I’m in less immediate danger (I hope) he has definitely seemed to show me more of his sense of humor.

I feel the place where I might diverge most from other Lokeans is my views on Ragnarok. I don’t see him as the Bound God or not bound so much as the God Who Was Bound. I read Ragnarok as a cycle or specifically as a metaphor for the Norse pantheon falling in power as Christianity swept through the continent. I see Ragnarok as something representative of the changes that are always happening in our world, small and large, and that there is always the risk of catastrophic or even world ending change. It happened, the gods were reborn/reformed, and it or something like it could happen again, but I don’t see it as this looming, inevitable thing.

Loki as a god who has suffered and validates suffering is important to me, but the idea of him presently bound is kind of too painful? As a survivor of abuse myself, I need to think he also has left his abuse in the past, and him bound RIGHT NOW isn’t consistent with the signs and visions I’ve had. Likewise, I think of Ragnarok as something that has already happened for the same reason.

However, I know he’s shown up in that aspect for others and it’s important to them, so ymmv.

I think he’s been present throughout my life as a joyful or comforting presence, or an illuminating one, but I wasn’t religious at the time and wasn’t aware of the possibility that those things could have been the work of a deity. I needed help, frequently, because of my background with abuse, so therefore the idea of him reaching out to and comforting abused children and survivors of abuse is something I see among others that also relates to my own experiences.

Also, I don’t know if this counts, but I saw it mentioned that Loki never had a hall, and modern devotees connect this to the idea of him as a god of wanderers. I still don’t know what my feelings are re: afterlife, but at this point I feel like I could do worse than wandering with one of my gods. Again, freedom is one thing that brought me to paganism, and Loki in particular, so that’s an aspect of UPG I share with some other folks.

Day 8: Describe what you have placed on your altar for this deity. If you don’t have an altar yet, discuss what you would put on the altar if you had one. Is there anything “missing” on your altar/are there items you wish you could add? What are they, and why do you want to add them?

*points to my banner on my Tumblr* it’s pretty small. It’s all contained on a plate, with a candle in the middle. It’s full of various pretty things. There are a few different kinds of gems and rocks. There’s a little metal wolf and a little metal salmon. There’s a blue bird’s feather I saw on a walk and he absolutely demanded I go back and get. I need it to look pretty low-key since I don’t live in a pagan household. Because his Broken Chains aspect is so important to me, I have a chain with a severed link.

He really seemed to like the first candle I burned regularly, but I haven’t been able to find it again, and I’ve had mixed results with the others.

I am expanding my altar a little bit. I got a small statue, and a large rainbow candle (yep, FINALLY CRACKED on that one). I don’t presently have an altar cloth, but don’t feel pressure to run out and get one. I would also like to have a place to specifically put offerings. I’d also like to get a box for a portable version of my altar to travel with (a pagan go-bag).

Day 9: Discuss your daily/weekly/monthly/etc. worship “schedule.” What do you do for your deity? What offerings do you give? How often do you pray? And so on. Are you happy with how much/little time you give your deity? If not, what could you do to change that?

I try to regularly do altar sessions. I did one every day for about a week when I first set up the altar, but let him know that I wouldn’t be able to keep up that level of involvement with my spoons being what they are (and I think he gets it). Also, I don’t live in a super candle friendly house, so the hours I can burn candles are sometimes limited (may get a tea light to make up for this a little bit). I try to do one thing that I sense he wants me to do about once a week. Volunteering with kids is one way I honor him. I do feel very connected to him when I’m out and about—when I’m walking in the woods or the park or it’s a little cold out.

This may seem paradoxical...but I also have been going to a very, very universalist church for Sunday services, but I kind of get the sense that it’s more Persephone who wants me to do that (I don’t consider myself a Christian pagan or witch, I don’t specifically work with Christ and the Christian God, although when I’m in a church I do honor and respect them). I am hungry to experience positive religious spaces, and the local pagan gatherings are few and far between. I get the sense all my gods are pushing me to do new things, and I do use my time in this extremely open religious space to ponder the nature of polytheism/the role of gods in my life now. Again, I can’t quite tell if it’s coming from more from Loki or Persephone, but I also think they want me to make peace with Christian tradition so I can let go of some of my old religious baggage.

I like playing multiplayer FPS games and tried to dedicate my competitive matches to him, but he didn’t seem too into it.

Another weird dedication/worship thing I do is actually exercise? In particular, I took up kickboxing. Physical might definitely seems more like a Thor or Freyja thing? But I think it comes from 1) his overall browbeating me into caring about my health, 2) his demand that I be READY. These are uncertain times, especially for LGBTQIA folks, and although he also asks me to avoid physical conflict if at all possible, one way I honor him is getting myself fit enough to survive/to act on my cunning should the need arise.

As for offerings, I sort of need to consume them since wasted food would not go unnoticed in my house. I saw the suggestion here a while ago to set aside a portion of a meal for your gods that you eat at the end, and I’ve been trying to do that at least once a day. I’m firmly in the spoonie pagan category where I do what I can even if it isn’t perfect or ideal, and he doesn’t seem to be responding too negatively so far.

#newbie devotee challenge #lokean

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does anyone know of any lokean or loki-friendly discord servers? i’ve recently started connecting with him and would like to meet others who follow him!

#same #lokean

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Thor and Loki from Norse Mythology :)

#art #new heathen #thor #loki

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Bless the hated is becoming my motto really and I love it..! 

#art #loki #the red head #paganism #new heathen

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We do not walk this land alone. Assemble your own court around you until the end of your exile is prepared.

#paganism #quotes #inspiration #i love this

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what Loki has taught me

to lighten up

to be irreverent sometimes 

to test people

(and oneself)

to stand up when things are not right 

to make change 

to rattle the status quo

to mess with people 

to help those deemed worthy

to not be afraid to offend 

this is what Loki has taught me

#lokean #new heathen #paganism

[anxieteawitch-blog]

Loki is the kind of deity who won’t take your shit and will leave you some space to figure yourself out rather then try to shove you down a specific path but will also always let you know that he’ll be 100% there for you once you’ve decided what the fuck you actually want

#lokean #new heathen

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Newbie Devotee Challenge—Days 5 and 6

Day 5: Describe your favorite story/myth that involves your deity. Discuss why this one is your favorite, and if this story/myth somehow influences your practice.

I think my favorite tale is probably the story where he saves the farmer’s son from a troll (the post I reblogged before this one actually has a really nice summary of the story). 1) because it’s a different side to the god than we see in other writings, and 2) because I think it probably represents a wealth of lost pre-Christian myths that were discarded because they complicated the convenient Norse Satan narrative (and we can’t forget, Christianity on its own doesn’t HAVE a trickster figure). It tells me that he wasn’t, at all times and places, seen as a source of negativity and wickedness.

It doesn’t impact my practice directly (other than reinforce the suggestions I’ve seen that Lokeans teach/volunteer with/take care of and protect children), but it does reassure me that the image of the Red Head that many Lokeans have isn’t completely a modern invention. It shows him as a wily protector of humanity, even if his way of doing so is different from say, Thor.

And sometimes we need to be smart about how we protect ourselves—that can mean being ready to physically defend yourself, but it can also mean needing to be able to lie or know when NOT to fight.

Loki’s followers are likely to be queer folks, trans folks, and survivors of abuse. These are people who have sometimes needed to lie to survive, or resort to other less “honorable” ways of protecting ourselves. Stories like this are a sign to me that he won’t condemn us for that, because sometimes it’s necessary to preserve your own life. The story with the troll shows that to save an innocent, those are the tools he has and uses. I like the story with the dwarves for the same reason (“I offered you my head, but you said nothing about my neck”)—he won’t inherently judge his followers for surviving in ignoble ways, because he’s saved himself and others the same way. The story with the troll shows that cunning doesn’t have to be selfish, and that there’s a way to reapply the skills you learn when you can’t directly defend yourself.

But yeah, tl;dr, it’s a sign that there is more to how he was seen in Scandinavian oral history than we’ll probably ever know, and sometimes lying is necessary for the preservation of life/it’s a valuable skill if you turn it to good purposes.

Day 6: Describe your least favorite story/myth that involves your deity. Why is it your least favorite? (Is it because it shows a different aspect of your deity that you don’t see often?) Try to turn that negative into a positive, and use this as a learning experience.

The story where he cuts Sif’s hair is one I struggle to understand his motivations for. Metaphorically I understand the story’s purpose (I have seen arguments that it represents the harvest/rebirth). The cutting of womens’ hair is also a misogynistic shaming act, and I think that’s blocking me from really connecting with that particular tale.

I don’t want to discount it just because it makes me uncomfortable, because I think that’s part of working with a freaking trickster, but he hasn’t quite shown me what it means in my language yet. I don’t love it, but my learning curve for this one is that I think it’s okay that I’m uncomfortable with it

#newbie devotee challenge #lokean

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Loki and Children

I have been having some thoughts about the original mythological Loki and the thought that has been on my mind most is this:

Loki is

1. Surprisingly great with kids

2. Is addicted to parenthood

Let me explain.

As to the first bit, well, yeah, it’s surprising. Or it should be at first glance. Because, seriously, this is fucking Loki. Standing in close proximity to him for longer than a minute is bound to result in theft, arson, a splash of bloodshed for color, and at least one confused party waking up in bed with the fucker. He’s a chaotic, manic, and generally hazardous force to be reckoned with.

To us. That is, adults.

Mortals, gods, giants, trolls, dwarves, et cetera–but only those who are mature.* *Read: there is Something to be Gained from conning, seducing, or otherwise messing with us. Whether it’s to save his own skin, or to get some sweet petty vengeance, or to steal a bauble, or to satisfy some carnal itch, or to just fuck up somebody’s day for the Hel of it, Loki only ever targets those he can take something worthwhile from. 

And what is there to take from kids? 

Plenty of folks on his extremely extensive Enemies List have children, of course. No one in the Norse mythos was especially mindful of dropping their seed. So. Children.

Children–easy to fool, easy to make a hostage, easy to charm and siphon their parents’ secrets and treasures from–should be great big bullseyes to the God of Mischief and Trickery and Assorted Other Unscrupulous Things. Yet there isn’t a single Edda or snippet of lore in which Loki makes cruel use of them. Not once. 

But what’s the big deal? Most of the rude and/or villainous characters in Norse mythology don’t bother with harassing kids either. Except in the case of stories like Loka Táttur.

Loka Táttur is a tale about how a farmer loses a bet with a vicious troll who swears to kill the farmer’s little boy. The farmer calls upon three gods in turn. Odin, Hoenir, and Loki. Odin and Hoenir both disguise the boy and hide him away, but the troll is too clever and each time manages to sniff out the boy’s hiding place. Ultimately it is Loki who hides the kid–pulling an Idunn-in-a-Nutshell gag and hiding him as a speck on the eye of a flounder in the water–and then, rather than stepping back as Odin and Hoenir did from their work, he sits in his boat and lets the troll see him.

The troll, being suspicious, asks what Loki’s business is. Only fishing, obviously. The troll demands to join him. Lo and behold, they bring up a wealth of flounders, including the one where the boy’s hidden. Loki manages to change the boy back to his true shape and hide the kid behind his back without the troll noticing. As Loki brings the boat back to shore, and to the farmer’s boathouse with the latter’s doors open, Loki tells the boy to run through the boathouse. He goes, the troll gives chase, and the troll becomes wedged in the entryway. 

At which point Loki proceeds to chop off the troll’s legs and stick an iron stake in the bastard’s skull. Then he walks the kid back home. The grand payoff for Loki after all this? 

The boy is safe. The troll is dead. The End.

Huh.

Now, much as Loki may have been the catalyst for a lot of corpses pre-Ragnarok–see his business with Thor getting his hammer back and leading more than one giant into a death trap–Loki is actually very rarely, if ever, one to get his hands dirty by killing a victim himself. Even Baldr was done in by an arrow he aimed with blind Hod’s fingers. So why did Loki personally orchestrate this plan in such a grisly way? For what gain?

What, other than the satisfaction of personally slaughtering the would-be child-killing prick troll?

In a less bloody narrative, we see his hand in getting Thialfi and Roskva, a pair of mortal siblings, taken into Thor’s service. While the exact ages of the two aren’t mentioned, they are young enough to still be in the care of their parents. When Thor and Loki are travelling it’s their father who invites them under their roof. Thor’s goats are slaughtered for the evening meal and–in some tellings–it is Loki who entices the son, Thialfi, into breaking a leg bone to taste the marrow. When morning comes and Thor resurrects his goats, one has a broken leg.

Thor’s visibly pissed—never ever a good thing–and so the family offers to make some compensation.

Loki, coughing through his hand: ThialfibroketheboneheshouldpledgeservicetoThor

Thialfi: Uh–

Loki, clearing his throat: Alsotakethesistertwoforonedeal

Rosvka: But I didn’t do anything—

Loki, en sotto voce: Kids, consider your options. Teensy mortal lifetime of toil on Midgard, harvesting dirt and snow on one hand. Potentially immortal lifetime, I don’t know, scrubbing giant blood off Mjolnir in Thor’s hall on Asgard on the other. Verdict?

Both: Sold.

Loki: Excellent! Really, Thor, you’re a master dealmaker, a born barterer, I’m in awe.

Thor: Wh—

Loki: AND WE’RE BACK TREKKING LETS GO

Cue laugh track.

Point being, Loki has been shown to purposefully go out of his way to help kids because…because. Yet how does this translate to the idea of him being good with kids?

I ask this purely hypothetically and am trying not to laugh as I do, because really. Really. How in the hell is a kid not going to be entertained by the Norse god of revelry and recreation?

Oh yeah, that bit’s often left off the résumé.

Loki, God of Mischief, is also God of Recreation. Play, in other words. Because playtime is a thing that is Chaotic rather than a product of Order, and so Loki is naturally all over it. There are some who even credit him with having added that trait to the first humans, Ask and Embla, while Odin, Vili, and Vé were carving them and breathing character into their souls.

On top of that, he’s also the god of flyting—poetic shit-talking.

So we have a shapeshifting, storytelling, magic-wielding, game-spinning, trickster god who can also teach young ears every bad word they could ever hope to learn, and he’s expected not to be a hit with kids? This is all without even mentioning the fact that Loki is a bit of a hyperactive attention hog all on his own. What better audience for him than a gaggle of credulous little onlookers who are too young to sneer at his antics rather than take delight in them? Children are wee balls of mischief themselves, muddled in with imagination and wonder and an eagerness to be wowed or made to laugh themselves into weeping.

All of which brings me to point number two:

Loki is a kidaholic.

Like, even though a lot of his and/or her sleeping around the Realms can be chalked up to an insane libido, there’s also just the sheer number of kids they’ve produced to factor in. Maybe more than even Odin or Thor could boast. At least half being born from Loki herself. Not because Loki was helpless against the workings of nature—it’s impossible to believe that Loki wasn’t smart enough or powerful enough to get around producing new Lokisons and Lokisdottirs with every other bedmate—but because Loki wants more kids. There will never be enough kids.

The guy’s got a case of severe paternal/maternal hoarding going on. I mean

Loki: I need another one.

Odin: You really don’t.

Loki: You’re right. I need two other ones.

Odin: I am positive that you do not.

Loki: Three. Triplets. Need them. Right now.

Odin: Loki.

Loki: Four? Four. Definitely four.

Odin: Loki, please.

Loki: Yeah, let’s go with four. I can give or get. I’ll flip a coin.

Odin: Loki, as Allfather, I am expressly forbidding you to impregnate or be impregnated for at least a century.

Loki: Fine.

Odin: …

Loki: …I’ll settle for three.

Odin: What did I just say?

Loki: Three’s a good number, isn’t it? All good things come in threes. You and your brothers—

Odin, fighting an aneurysm: You and your brothers—

Loki: So you agree!

Odin: I did not—

Loki: Three it is!

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Be back when I feel like it

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Give my love to Sleipnir

Odin: LOKI—

Loki, pantsless, vaulting over the wall, cartwheeling towards Jötunheimr’s Ironwood forest: Bye

It’s in that Ironwood that he meets Angrboda and fathers a giant wolf, a giant snake, and the literal corpse-faced queen-goddess of the dead by her. Being that Loki’s scope of attractiveness/aesthetic acceptability is elastic enough to let all sorts of species between his legs, I find it hard to believe that his kids’ unique looks would repulse or even faze him. They’re his children. Therefore they’re great.

And we all know how that happy family ended up. Ditto his second family with Sigyn and his two little twin boys.

Enter Ragnarok, warfare, general Bad Times, and so on.

Anyway.

Comical as it is to envision a Loki who cringes at the notion of parenthood and/or fears his more monstrous children, I just don’t believe it lines up with what we know of the Loki of myth.

Myth Loki is a god who would spend hours entertaining a child, simply entertained that the child is entertained.

Myth Loki is also a god who would hunt down and methodically dismember whichever idiot thought it would be okay to make a child cry within said god’s earshot.

#lokean #new heathen #this is some GOOD THINKNING #wrote about this today for my daily challenge.

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21 Day Newbie Devotee Challege—Day 4

Day 4: What symbols/animals/plants/etc. are associated with your deity? Start out by listing the ones that you know. Then, do a little research to see if you can find more. In a separate list on the same post, list those ones, too. Make note of which ones you think fit and don’t fit your deity.

A lot of the symbols associated with him are of modern invention/mistranslation, or come from popular adaptations. The ones I know off the top of my head are:

Fire. I understand there is flimsy scholarly reasoning for this one—there’s one depiction of Loki as a hearth god, but the primary association comes from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and the conflation with Logi, the god of fire. This is also probably where the image of Loki as a red head comes from. I still like it because even though there is weak evidence (as far as I know), the idea of Loki as a hearth god/originally as a conveyor of offerings via burning is a really interesting one, and as others have said, is a possible explaination for why there’s no record of worship.

Foxes. Similarly nothing to back this up, but they’re both trickster figures, and like the Lokean YouTuber (WhySoSirius) keeps saying, red foxes are also European transplants, so I like to think there’s some comaraderie there.

The Urnes Snakes—associated with Loki via a modern jewelry line.

Spiders—again, no reason why these would be associated with him, but I think Lokeans made it happen because after I started working with him there were an UPTICK in house and car spiders. (Like, THANKS. I think he did that just bc it was funny tbqh ).

Mistletoe—he used a dart of mistletoe to kill Baldr.

The runes Berkan (rune poem) and Laguz (first initial). I’m still making up my mind about rune work.

Salmon—he turns into a salmon to try and escape after Baldr’s death.

Snakes—he fathered the World Serpent and a snake was held over him while imprisoned. I don’t totally dig this one as one of my personal associations with him since it’s mostly a symbol of suffering, but I can see why people do (the exception being the Urnes snakes, which I haven’t made up my mind on and appreciate as a really recognizable talisman for our little community).

Sirius/the Dog Star/Lokabrenna . I keep wondering if this is the Star I see in the mornings during the summer, but everything I saw said the one I was looking at was Venus/the Morning Star. If so, I really wonder where Lokabrenna is, because everything I read said it should have been visible.

New ones to me:

Earthquakes. I could see it, especially for people working with the bound god aspect.

Falcons and Horses. I always forget about him using Freyja’s falcon cloak, and I know of his association with horses via Sleipnir, but I never think of it as a direct connection. I also just read that he turns into a seal at one point, so that’s cool!

Masks. I could dig it

#newbie devotee challenge #lokean

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UNFRIENDLY REMINDER TO RACIST NORSE PAGANS

Vikings were historically recorded trading in the far east, middle east, and into large parts of northern Africa. They set up colonies and outposts, married local women, and absorbed local customs and traditions.

So your rascism is ahistorical and you are wrong.

#new heathen #anti-racism

[anxieteawitch-blog]

21 Day Newbie Devotee Challenge — Day 3

Are you just starting a relationship with a deity? Or have you been working with a deity for a while, but feel as though you’re stuck in a rut? Or do you just want to take the time to research your deity a little bit more? Despite being called the “Newbie” Devotee Challenge, this challenge is perfect for both beginners and well-seasoned devotees! This challenge is perfect for helping you reflect on both your deity, and your practice.

Tag all posts with “newbie devotee challenge” so we can all see your hard work! And please reblog this post if you plan on doing this challenge!

Day 3: Does your deity have any alternate names or epithets? If they do, what are they, and what do they mean? What does the name you call your deity mean.

Aaaaaah I’m about to get real basic so bear with me:

Light bringer

Flame-hair

Laufey’s Son

God of Broken Chains

Bound God

Worldbreaker

Skytreader

Dog-Star

Mother of DragonsMonsters

The Red Head

There isn’t a ton of historical precedent for most of those, but I like them. My favorites are “The Red Head”, “Light Bringer” for regular usage. I guess I don’t use his aspects as names so much, though.

I do wonder if he has any nicknames for me 🤔

#newbie devotee challenge #lokean

[anxieteawitch-blog]

You: blood brothers

Me, an intellectual: ~blood brothers~ *wiggles eyebrows suggestively*

#new heathen #eyes emoji

[anxieteawitch-blog]

hope your pets stay healthy in 2017

[anxieteawitch-blog]

if anyone’s interested: the study my professor did was basically with children who were 2-3 years old.  they laid out toys for them to play with that were commonly associated with one gender or the other (action figures vs. dolls, a pink and therefore “girly” bike vs. a non-pink and “masculine” bike or w/e).  for a while they would observe them in the room and the children would be aware they were being watched by them.  during this period pretty much every child played with the “appropriate” toys

what they did next was then have everyone leave the room, but be watching behind one-way glass, and observe which toys the children would choose when they didn’t think they were being watched. a lot of children would play with any toy, regardless of which gender it was “meant” for.  they had no problem with it.  but they were aware of the fact that adults and other people had a problem with it.  they had already learned what they were “supposed” to do, despite the fact they didn’t seem to honestly care.  just as long as they thought they weren’t being watched and wouldn’t get in trouble for not playing with the “right” toys… which in itself says something

basically it supported the idea that children internalize gender roles at a young age, are aware of them, and it isn’t innately something a certain gender prefers over the other (or someone with one type of genitals innately prefers, as most people correlate gender with genitals, especially regarding a child. so it seems logical to assume it’s unrelated)

they’re just kind of arbitrary associations that seem to do more harm than good

#the world #yep #gender shenanigans