“Friend of Fire,
Bringer of Brightness,
You lead me through the dark,
a flickering flame from a distant candle.
When it goes out,
all feels abandoned,
my heart hurts,
but in the distance,
that flickering flame returns,
guiding me down a door I didn’t anticipate.
O’ Loki,
Blood-brother of Bǫlverkr,
I hail you for the lessons you’ve taught me,
and the warmth you’ve washed my woes away with.”
— hesy-bes
This is such a big deal.
Lokeans and other Rokkatru devotees have been waiting and campaigning for the Troth to change their stance regarding the worship of the Jotnar for a long time.
I am so glad to see that it is actually happening – that things are moving forward, as the Troth issued a new position statement recently:
Hail Fenrir: Celebrating the Troth’s New Position Statement
Hail Fenrir!
Loki has shown up several times in my life, and most often, it has been whenever I was struggling….
And this particular song resonates with me when I think about those times wherein I was struggling with my mental health:
“Jumper” lyrics
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
You could cut ties with all the lies that you’ve been living in
And if you do not want to see me again
I would understand, I would understand
The angry boy, a bit too insane
Icing over a secret pain
You know you don’t belong
You’re the first to fight, you’re way too loud
You’re the flash of light on a burial shroud
I know something’s wrong
Well, everyone I know has got a reason
To say, “Put the past away”
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
You could cut ties with all the lies that you’ve been living in
And if you do not want to see me again
I would understand, I would understand
Well he’s on the table and he’s gone to code
And I do not think anyone knows
What they are doing here
And your friends have left you, you’ve been dismissed
I never thought it would come to this
And I, I want you to know
Everyone’s got to face down the demons
Maybe today, you could put the past away
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
You could cut ties with all the lies that you’ve been living in
And if you do not want to see me again
I would understand, I would understand
I would understand
I would understand
I would understand
I would understand
Can you put the past away?
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
I would understand
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
I would understand
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
And I would understand
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
I would understand
I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
And I would understand.
– Stephen Jenkins, Third Eye Blind
Welcome to July!
As some of you may or may not know, July is the month that many Lokeans dedicate specifically to Loki.
For this reason, every July, I like to spend a bit of time each day either writing, meditating, or engaging in some form of devotional activity, and then dedicating those efforts to Loki.
This year, I will be using some writing prompts developed by fellow Lokean, Dagny created for each day in July.
For the 1st of July: I first discovered Loki when…
As I may have written before, I don’t know exactly when I first ‘discovered’ Loki for myself. What I do know is that my love of reading fairy tales, folk tales, and world mythology probably led me to read about Him at some point.
Perhaps it began when I read about Loki in D’Aulaire’s Norse Gods and Giants:
Or maybe my knowledge of His existence began even earlier than that when I discovered Him within the various stories found within The Children’s Library Collection, a 12-volume set of books that my father had read throughout his childhood in the 1940s.
I remember sitting in my grandfather’s leather easy chair, with this or that volume propped up on my lap, trying to work my way through a European folktale, and feeling delighted with the lively orange and black line illustrations of a clever fox who can run as fast as the wind if only one can hold unto his bushy tail with both hands, or that big helpful bear who carries a young girl on his back so that she may travel safely through a dark forest to reach the witch at the edge of the valley :
Either way, Loki became familiar to me as a short word that I was confident that I could read (and pronounce!) because it only had four letters — and I remember my Dad mentioning that the capital letter meant that it was a name.
When I first moved south – nearing twenty years ago! – one of the first people I met was a wonderful woman named T. Her daughter was almost the same age as my son, and though that’s where our similarities ended, T was a great neighbor, who went out of her way to introduce me to others, and make me feel welcome in my new neighborhood.
But as I said, T and I didn’t have that much in common.
For one thing, T was a Christian; a devout Baptist to be exact…and well, as you may know, I most certainly am not — but it did not stop us from (mostly) getting along. And as you might imagine, in the interest of neighborliness, T did invite me to various church events.
And in the interest of friendliness in return, I went to many of those church events with her.
And, as a result, I was introduced to many aspects of this particular form of Christianity that I’d never experienced, and while I’d like to stress that T was well aware that I’d no intention of converting, I realized very quickly that T was like a lot of my neighbors: her social life/community did revolve around the church on a daily basis.
So that is what I’m thinking of today, how T introduced me to a particular daily prayer that she referred to as ‘a war room prayer’ – a form of prayer that she told me is rather familiar to many Baptists.
I find war room prayers fascinating.
So, would it surprise you that I would find myself reworking it?
And so:
“Loki, thank you for this day.
Thank you for the breath in my lungs, the flush in my skin, and the ground beneath my feet.
I am grateful for Your gifts and Your challenges.
Thank you, sweetest friend, for Your love and wisdom that brings me comfort and strength in times of despair.
The Havamal says: ‘The unwise man lies awake at night and ponders everything over; when morning comes, he is weary in mind, and all is a burden for ever.’
In this, You remind me how I should not be anxious for tomorrow; for when morning comes, I would be as weary and anxious as ever.
Beloved, come – quiet my heart and mind. Free me from the chains of doubt and anxiety.
Grant me a peaceful rest so that I may be refreshed in spirit for You tomorrow.
Thank You.”
~~~
Hail Loki! ❤
Someone wrote a poem about how Loki will push you to the edge but He will never let you fall into the abyss.
Those are pretty words.
On some days, such words would give me much comfort, certainly.
But not today.
I find more comfort in these words:
‘There are many truths that I could tell you
But none of them would serve your growth today.
If you should fall into the abyss
There are times I would not save you.
Your falling is sacred.
Your failing is sacred.
Because you are learning, my love
To embrace the dark, to plumb the depths
Of shadow within you.’
~~~
Hail Loki!
This poem seems very Loki-esque to me — especially when one considers Loki’s association with dandelions:
“Let them try to stop you
in every way they know;
Even if they poison you,
Cut you down,
Uproot you,
Burn you to ashes,
Bury you deep,
And pave over the place
where you lie;
The weeds of your tenacity
will sprout through the cracks
And bloom.”
— Bree NicGarran, “Dandelion Roots” May 2022
Describe your God as something that occurs in nature.
*** UPG alert ***
Hail Loki!
#30 days
Has there been a time when you feel They have sent something to appear to you on their behalf?
No.
When I saw this prompt this morning, my first thought was to…ignore it.
I even looked through the next few prompts in the list, fully intending to skip this particular one, telling myself that I didn’t have an answer for this question, certain that my answer to this prompt would definitely be No.
The Gods have never sent me anything to appear to me on their behalf.
Well, at least as far as I know, I said to myself. There. That’s settled.
But then, as the day went on, I will admit that my mind kept circling back to this prompt, almost annoyingly so.
I mean, if I’ve learned anything these past ten years (ten years?!) I’ve learned that as soon as I think I’ve resolved to avoid something or I start pushing away thoughts of something, reminders of whatever it is that I’m avoiding will inevitably pop up again and again in the weirdest ways.
Because, on the surface, the answer is No. I do not think that The Gods have sent me any tangible thing to appear to me on their behalf.
I’ve seen others answer this prompt with stories involving sightings of an animal oracle, the blessed re-appearance of some previously lost items, or according to a few Lokeans’ interesting tales, the mysterious and impossible appearance of physical items such as a sterling silver ring, an unopened CD of the finder’s favorite band, or, most bizarrely of all, an envelope with the finder’s full name on it containing a letter signed with the initials of their deity…
But that has never happened to me.
But what has happened to me has been a string of odd coincidences, happenstance, and pandoramancy, so many little moments where the flow of my mundane life has been interrupted by an occurrence or experience that only became a Meaningful Piece (in a spiderweb of Meaningful Things) sometime later…sometimes years after the fact.
And yet, for all the Meaningful Things that have occurred, I still find myself analyzing – and maybe even questioning – the legitimacy, the reality of them all, at times.
I was raised by skeptics, after all.
So, the short answer is Yes. Perhaps I have been sent signs – and maybe even wonders! – but in the end, while many of them were inexplicable, all of them were intangible.
I’ve only had experiences, and unfortunately, there isn’t any proof of them that I could show you, much less tell you.
#30 days
bloodteethandflame 