Shortcut to poems from the Poetic Edda featuring Loki:
Völuspá: The creation myth, Ragnarok, and such
Þrymskviða: Loki and Thor crossdress to get Mjolnir back
Reginsmál: Loki pisses off a dwarf and inadvertently causes the Volsung Saga
Lokasenna: Loki crashes a party and challenges the gods to a rap battle
Völuspá hin skamma: Loki eats a witch’s heart and becomes the “father of all monsters”
The Prose Edda - main index
Shortcuts:
Skáldskaparmál: The abduction of Idunn by Thjazi, Loki tying his balls to a goat to entertain Skadi, the creation of Mjolnir, the seal fight with Heimdall over Freyja’s necklace
Gylfaginning: The birth of Sleipnir, Loki’s binding, the visit to Útgarða-Loki
Other:
Loka Táttur: Loki rescues a kid from a giant
Keep in mind that these translations are public domain due to their age, so a lot of the scholarship in the annotations is outdated. We recommend a newer translation of the Eddas if at all possible.
Other Primary Sources:
Icelandic Saga Database
Sacred Texts
Northvegr (defunct but archived)
Thorraborinn’s List of Primary Sources
Recommended Edda Translations
Audiobook versions of the Eddas
Various Retellings:
The Theft of Idun’s Apples - a retelling
The Abduction of Ithunn (audio)
That one time Loki cut off Sif’s Hair
The continuation of that ^
The Building of Asgard’s Wall
Loki’s Flyting and Binding (audio)
Articles, eShrines, and Useful Loki Posts:
Wikipedia Entry on Loki - Surprisingly accurate for Wikipedia. Go nuts!
Loki in Scandinavian Mythology
Loke in Younger Tradition
Loki, the Vätte, and the Ash Lad
Lokrur, Lóðurr and Late Evidence
A Little Bit of Lokrur: A Portion of an Old Icelandic Mythological Poem and a New English Translation
Lokean Book List
Loki in the Archaeological Record
Loki as a Queer God
Dealing with Nokeans
Temple of the Flea
Lokaheim
Lokean Playlists
Info on Heathenry and Norse Myth in General:
GLE’s Frequently Referenced Posts
Lokavinr’s Master List
Hedendom’s Resources
Fuck Yeah Norse Mythology’s Resources
Thorraborinn’s List of Secondary Sources
Heathen Terms and Concepts
Jackson Crawford’s YouTube Channel
Huginn’s Heathen Hof
Books to Avoid
Old Norse Pronunciation Basics (text)
Pronunciation of Old Norse (video)
Pronunciation of the Gods’ names (video)
Homosexuality and Gender Roles in the Viking Age
The Valkyrie Squad’s List of Non-Folkish Heathen Blogs
Quick tip for new pagans (something that took me years to understand): faith isn’t a chore, or at least it shouldn’t be. If your religion starts to feel like it’s taking a toll on you, that’s a sign to take a step back, maybe practice more casually for a while. There’s no obligation for you to feel the connection 100% of the time. Faith is a great help, but it’ll come through when you need the help. So don’t force yourself into spirituality at a time when it doesn’t come naturally. It’ll leave you exhausted, not to mention spirituality is one of things that just can’t be forced. Trust me: fluctuations in your faith are temporary. Plus, there are lots of ways to keep a steady, yet casual connection to your faith. The Gods have always been there, whether you feel their presence or not.
🎉 Write everything you wish to accomplish before your next solar return.
🎉 Make a spell jar just for yourself (add herbs, crystals and elements to attract good health, succes, love and joy :D)
🎉 Learn about numerology and connect with the energy of the number representing your new age.
🎉 Carve witchy symbols on a scented candle and blow it out while visualizing yourself achieving all your desires.
🎉 Bake or eat food with magical correspondences that attract good health, love, prosperity, abundance, and fulfilled wishes.
🎉 Create a personal altar as an act of gratitude and self-honor.
🎉 Write a gratitude list for yourself.
🎉 Bake a cake (or any favorite food) and decorate it by carving sigils, runes, or magical symbols.
🎉 On the morning of your birthday, do a tarot reading to help guiding you for the year ahead
🎉Take a gold (or yellow) candle and carve your birth date on it for luck and success.
🎉 Do self-care magick with intention and love.
🎉 Connect with your ancestors (leave some offerings for them and also ask for some guidance in your life)
🎉 Honor your sun sign by meditating on your horoscope, especially if you know your exact birth time.
🎉 Analyze your natal chart (especially your transits) and find insights that could improve your life.
🎉 Do any form of divination (tarot, runes, pendulum, etc.) to receive guidance.
🎉 Go out in nature and allow yourself to feel free and open.
🎉 Write a letter to your future self. Imagine this is a manifestation letter you'll read on your next birthday to see if you managed to fulfill your wishes.
🎉 Reflect on your achievements and also on the challenges you faced this year, consider what lessons they taught you.
🎉 While baking, practice kitchen magick and connect with the properties of the ingredients (e.g., milk for abundance, eggs for new beginnings, sugar for sweetness).
🎉 Treat your birthday as a personal new year celebration, a chance to start fresh and grow into the best version of yourself.
🎉 Write a list of wishes on bay leaves, one for each year you're turning and burn them with intention.
🎉 Do a guided meditation to release the old version of yourself and welcome blessings and opportunities for the year to come.
🎉 Thank yourself for everything you’ve done and overcome this past year.
🎉 Since it’s your birthday, do only what you truly want, whether that means dressing up or staying in, spending time with others or being alone. It’s your day!
🎉 Treat yourself and buy that thing you’ve wanted for a long time but couldn’t bring yourself to get, you deserve it <3
🎉 Celebrate your birthday with your deities and spend time connecting with them in your favorite way.
🎉 Play music that has positive messages or high-vibrational energy (or listen to subliminals).
🎉 Wear or hold the stones associated with your birth date.
🎉 Look at your natal chart and explore what the next year might bring.
🎉 Choose a special candle, set an intention, and blow it out to mark a new beginning.
🎉 Practice sun magick to honor your solar return and purify yourself with its radiant energy.
🎉 Try something new that you’ve never done before, to break the ice and step into this new age with boldness and curiosity.
🎉 Connect and meditate with your birthstone and wear it as a charm for the coming year.
It's all well and good to Google "spiritual protective herbs" and pick a couple random ones off the list, but do you understand why that herb is protective? Does it align with your intention?
I've always liked to use baking as an analogy for spellwork:
Let's say you want to bake a cake - yummy! You'll need flour for the basic structure, sugar to sweeten, eggs to bind the ingredients, a fat for texture and a leavening agent to make it rise.
So you pop to the shops and you grab bread flour, icing sugar, eggs, shortening and yeast.
Technically, these are all correct: bread flour is a flour, icing sugar is a sugar, yeast is a leavening agent etc. And they all work great for other baked goods! Yeast is great at making bread rise and icing sugar is super sweet on top of a cupcake.
But if you mix all of these together, the final result probably isn't going to be what you wanted. Why? Well because you haven't understood why each ingredient is needed or how a cake works!!
When crafting a spell it's important to understand what your intention is and how the spell is going to work - it can also help to think about how certain ingredients might interact within the spell.
The best way to start doing this is to experiment. Have a go at crafting your own spells and working with different ingredients. What does their folklore say? What does their energy feel like? How do they interact with the other ingredients! Keep a journal or notebook full of your notes as you build up your knowledge!
reminder than simply being outside, drinking water, opening the windows, sun bathing and moon glancing, etc. are all real devotional acts to our earth — no matter how small !!!
being low on time, effort, and energy does NOT make you a bad witch or pagan. it makes you human.
Casual late night reminder that witchcraft does not always need to involve spells and candles and crystals and cards. Some days it is my embroidery and my tea against the world and that is OKAY
I see a lot of posts on Tumblr about how to go about having casual relationships, or showing your devotion subtly but never have I seen ways in which those who wish to move on from that realm of being would actually start having a dedicated practice. People don’t need to be subtle to worship the Gods - in fact, most practices aren’t blatant and don’t need to be blatant. It is understandable and often necessary to be in a closet but you can still have a very deep relationship with the Gods while it still being meaningful.
Here’s a list of things you can do to strengthen your devotion with the Gods as well as build and deepen your relationship.
Build a shrine dedicated to an individual Deity and take time to know Them by using it.
The idea that you need to have multiple Deities all the time and worship all of Them together is a very strange way of doing polytheism and it is a more powerful usage of space to have one singular Deity at a time rather than a mix together. People may feel less of a need to be so bent out of shape if they can’t afford offerings for an entire pantheon of Gods if they only have one household Deity and the rest are specific to other tasks or needs. I’m not saying you need to pick one above the rest, but I am saying that when you work with the Gods, it’s not about quantity of your relationships, it’s about quality and how long you actually spend together in a similar fashion.
Design your shrine to be simple.
You don’t need a bunch of things on your shrine and in fact, that won’t make it any more detectable to the Gods or show how dedicated you are as a polytheist. It is not about how much work you put into the shrine to make it more about the Gods you worship but it’s more along the line of what needs to happen when you go to the shrine, what actions you take while you’re there.
Hypothetically, all you need is a candle to light to show that you wish for a Deity’s presence, but to make it more usable and detectable to a Deity, it is recommended you also have an image, statue, or likeness of the Deity. You can also have a bowl or a glass to fill for your offerings. Do not make huge offerings if you are going to forget to empty them out. Only make the offerings that won’t rot should that be the case, and only do that if you know you’re going to throw it out, eat it, or dispose of it shortly after.
Make a plan to go to your shrine at least once a day if not several times a week.
The more time you spend at the shrine, the easier it will be for the Deity to realize your intent of showing interest. It isn’t because you’re more devoted, are special, or show any signs that you’re worth looking into, but rather, the concept is mostly around how much energy is built up gradually over time. Energy is only built up because of the amount of time you spend there and how much meaning is there. It is not some moral issue you should feel guilty about should it not happen.
The fact is, the Gods aren’t waiting around and checking off boxes above your head so when you fail They mark it against you for the rest of your time with Them. They are, however, flawed in the way that They only can go about recognizing the material world based off of the flow of energy and how much is stored that is unique to Them.
Having a journal at your shrine to write to Them in while a candle is lit is a perfect way of building a relationship. The act of writing is a perfect way to build energy.
Keeping a specific divination tool at the shrine for that single Deity to use and to build Their energy around is also extremely important. It has to be unique to Them while also being used and stored at the site where you are making the most attempts at being at your shrine.
It is important to keep the shrine contained in a way that makes sure that other energies cannot get in. So even if you are closeted or must keep it on the low, go to the craft store and get a photo storage box. You only need a few items in there to make it meaningful. Over time, the use of those items will become more and more sacred. You can take them in and out of the box - it doesn’t matter how it’s stored but as long as it is contained and out of reach of animals and other things that can be hazardous to them and also maintain the cleanliness of the shrine. If not a box, a closet, cabinet, or bookshelf that is high up are all good places to keep it.
If you’re going to keep the shrine out in an open space, make sure the environment around the area is kept free from dust, dirt, animal hair, organized and vacuumed around it. Dirt that is built up makes it harder for the Gods to reach you energetically - cleaning the room it is in is going to be required if you have it outside of a container. If you’re low on spoons or live in a place that is impossible, a box is perfect. As long as the items are kept tidy energetically, no harm would be done if you’re not super hellbent on keeping a very energetically and physically pristine home.
Most people don’t have the space to have a dedicated area that is solely meant to remain clean for the Gods it is dedicated to. If that’s you, don’t worry about having it out at all.
I realize I’ve spoken a lot about using a shrine in this post and that is really a very important thing when trying to build a better relationship with a Deity. It isn’t about who you are or what you’re doing, it’s about recognizing the importance of what the Deity needs to get to where you are first before going about creating a relationship. That’s all that matters for those starting out on the path looking for ways of transmuting their effort into a meaningful way instead of basing it off of appearances and looks.
Gods don’t have eyes and do not see the way humans can. It is necessary that you build up energy as that is what They are and how humans and Deities can interact. Your devotional actions will likely be unseen unless you do them based on the idea that it is repeated, somewhere dedicated to that Deity, or building up a framework of a practice to continue daily.
Not because it’s a moral issue, not because you should feel obligated, but because the Divine are not omnipotent beings who know everything going on and can see everything. Otherwise, you’re not going to get very far in your devotional activities or rituals.
The usage of a dedicated space over time will make communicating with the Gods easier. Consider a shrine like a window in this world for the Gods to look into. The more you use it, the easier it will be for Them to have access to you and the easier it will be for you to hear Them. Yes, discernment is important and having a sensitivity is a great start, but it’s not the only thing that matters in communicating with your Gods.
If you are having issues listening for and hearing the Gods, the problem likely is not just you, it’s that They cannot reach you. The Gods are the most obvious beings on this realm. They are enormous. They take up a lot of space and energy. Those who have experienced Them know that it is not subtle and the more you make it easier for Them to access you, the easier it will be to have Their energy available in order for Them to talk back in a meaningful way and use what’s available in your life to communicate.
Their presence is about as subtle as an elephant sitting in your bedroom. It really isn’t that hard to detect Them once you get the hang of having Them in your specific area in this way. You’ll also know you’re not hallucinating because there is no other experience quite like it. You really won’t know what hit you.
That’s all for now. For more tips on building a shrine or finding more material on this topic, check out my blog.
I'm a big supporter of "the gods love you, regardless of how much you're able to do to worship them", but at the same time, it's difficult to forge a relationship with any deity (or even other people) if you don't allow yourself to be known by them. If you don't have moments of vulnerability, moments of silliness, moments of small joy even, then it's difficult to forge relationships or take them to a deeper level. Loving gods (or even other people) can be a scary thing for some people (hell, it was for me), but if you don't allow your heart to be exposed, even just a little, then you're not going to get back as much as you're hoping to.
Anything that's worth anything in life is going to require some level of risk, as terrifying as that feels sometimes, and in my opinion, having a deeper connection with a deity is one of those things that's worth the risk.
My point isn't that we aren't loved by the gods if we don't do a ritual everyday or pray every hour; my point here is that we cannot deepen our bonds if we aren't willing to dip more than just our toes into our deity relationships. Love your gods, and know that you are loved, but they can't really help you if you won't let them in, you know?
I’m so glad this religion exists and isn’t lost to time. I listened to a hymn to Hermes today and I’m just so overcome with emotions. We worship beautiful gods. Kind gods. Gods who care about us and want us to succeed. I’ve seen so much proof that this religion is real. It blows my mind every time. I adore the gods I worship. I live for them. And I would die for them. This religion is so much more than I could ever ask for. It’s such a great honor to worship the gods.
technically pjo Artemis, but I still prayed to her and believed in her separate from the pjo books, despite all of the information I knew about her being from those books, because yknow I was nine.
My friend and I at the time would pray to her together, and would do little nine-year-old rituals on the playground to honor her (these consisted of holding hands and running in a circle around a pile of offerings such as weeds and pinecones). We drew her in our art classes, and I even decorated my room in colors that reminded me of her, navy blue walls covered in silver stars and moons and paintings of flowers (I had just moved into that bedroom from sharing a room with my little sister).
After a few months, I was told it was silly to pray to a “book character” and I stopped, but I never stopped loving Artemis, reading her myths whenever I could and looking into her and her twin.
Now, many years later I still pray to Lady Artemis and even just thinking about her brings me back to the little boy who wanted to be part of the hunters of Artemis, and instead began to love a real goddess.
Artemis being the goddess of girlhood is so fitting and shows why I was so drawn to her, and why she has always been close to my heart ever since I first read about her in the goddess girls books.
Often, I see many folk in the community asking permission to do things, requiring confirmation that it’s okay to do.
“Should I give this offering to said deity?”
“Can I add this to this spell?”
“Is it okay to do this instead of this-“ JUST TRY IT!! SEE HOW IT GOES!!
We have to accept the possibility of trial and error, and acknowledge the fact that it’s okay to do things our own way. It may yield the same results as another, for its intentions that matter after all in most cases; it doesn’t hurt to try something new (as long as, obviously, it’s not an act that will harm oneself or any other living thing)
When I first took up the witch title, I literally had nobody to ask.
In 2012, Social media wasn't like it is today. I was the only witch in my life. I had no social network, certainly no Witchblr (if it even existed at the time).
So I tried things out, based on what I already knew. I didn't start calling myself a witch until age 25, but I already had things that I could use. I knew folk magic. My grandmother was a medicine woman and she taught me things. I knew spirituality. I knew folklores. I knew my native land and her people. I knew the ways of my ancestors. I had the internet, Google, and my background.
I fucked around and found out.
I encourage you to do the same. Go with what you already know, work with what you already have, and just try things out. Who should be going around giving permissions to witches for doing witchcraft anyway? No one, is the answer.
You are your own witch, your own magic.
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