just a girl

⋆｡°✩ melanie | 29 | norse pagan ✩°｡⋆

[phantomwiser]

「 about 」

⋆｡°✩ melanie | 29 | norse pagan ✩°｡⋆

hello! i'm melanie, a 29 yr old norse pagan living in california. i use she/they pronouns, either or is fine. i'm not picky. i am devoted to freyja and loki. freyja in particular has been a presence in my life for years now, and i feel incredibly encouraged and empowered by her. i practice divination through tarot and rune reading. i also work with my pendulum quite a bit. i would love to be a seiðworker, and am in the process of learning all i can to carry on tradition. it's complicated though, as not much about seið has survived the sands of time. i'll be documenting my learning process here, though!

main content: hyper-focused solely on norse paganism, and our practices. not just freyja and loki, but all gods. i want to teach others and be taught, too! lots of thought posts, information, art, and music.

please note..

norse paganism is not restricted to a specific race. norse paganism is an open practice, that welcomes all regardless of their background. in other words: neo-nazis, fuck off.

i will not be posting any nsfw images, but may discuss triggering topics such as domestic violence or self harm (as it's related to my career). posts discussing such will have a tw on it.

i do free readings, both rune and tarot, when i have the free time. feel free to request one. however i ask that you don't request more than one a week, and keep in mind that i will respond when i am free. this means it can take a few days, if i'm busy with work and irl stuff.

do not feed my readings to ai. like genuinely, please do not. i really, really, really dislike this current trend of people using ai and chatgpt to read runes and tarot cards. if you have trouble understanding what you have pulled, message me. i'll help. but for the love of all things that are right and well in this universe, don't use ai. you're doing yourself a disservice.

[lokean-shrine]

🔥Prayer of Humor and Survival

Loki,

when the world grows heavy

and seriousness becomes a cage,

teach me to laugh without cruelty

and endure without breaking.

Let humor be my shield

and wit my way through.

[phantomwiser]

i'm sorry i haven't been very active here. life has been crazy. i'm working two jobs now. one at the shelter, another at a tax office. the tax office wants me to do even more hours- basically two people's job, but i said i wouldn't. not without a raise. so, they're getting back to me on that. i might become even more busy. the next four months are definitely going to test my limits. freyja give me strength. i hope you are doing very well and staying safe, especially with the shitshow that is the US. it's scary times out there. be safe, take care of one another.

[phantomwiser]

starting my second seasonal job next week and the hours are so good, i might be able to re-purchase my freyja necklace that i previously had to sell to pay bills :(

[phantomwiser]

update on that spider situation for anyone interested. i havent seen ANY since. just a half week or so full of spiders and now.. none. nowhere. poof. if anything it makes me stronger in my conviction that it was loki trying to subtly sign to me that he had my back/was lurking about in that moment.

[phantomwiser]

i swear i'm not crazy. it's been at least a week since i've seen the spiders. i make this post, then an hour later. the spider is back. talk about timing.

[phantomwiser]

update on that spider situation for anyone interested. i havent seen ANY since. just a half week or so full of spiders and now.. none. nowhere. poof. if anything it makes me stronger in my conviction that it was loki trying to subtly sign to me that he had my back/was lurking about in that moment.

[phantomwiser]

digital scrapbooking—

decided to start making some digital scrapbooks! the first page i've made here is in devotion to loki.

[pigsongpearls]

Norse Goddess Freyja and her Boar Hildisvini

Lady of Vanir Painting by Annie Stegg

Work in progress here:

[bluegoldfaerie]

we're all just weirdos online who like to engage in spiritual practices. but at the end of the day we're behind a screen and no one knows who anyone truly is, so don't take anyone's word as 100% absolute. that's risky and could lead to cult behavior

if someone comes in with "facts" about a god/goddess, you need to do your own research before you absolutely believe it

[phantomwiser]

wow. today just fucking blows. constantly working and yet i cannot afford gifts. finally was able to get my dad one but it'll be here after christmas. it's the anniversary of us finding my grandma's body. it's the 1st christmas after going no contact with my sister. and the cherry on the cake? i get on a game with friends, they talk for a bit then get dead fucking quiet. say they're gonna get off for the night. i say okay, goodnight, and leave... only for them to stay in the voice chat and keep on doing their own thing. like lmao, even. okay. fuck me.

[phantomwiser]

this is probably going to sound harsh, but i saw a post early (not on here) that has been weighing on my mind all afternoon.

the gods aren't out to get you. they aren't going to spend their time or energy bothering you, appearing before you in an attempt to scare or intimidate you, or punishing you. they will not try to jinx you, manipulate things to end poorly in your favor, or any other nefarious acts you may think they are performing. they aren't out to get revenge against you.

if you don't worship a god, or do not want to communicate with said god, they aren't going to harass and stalk you. they aren't going to appear as dark shadows. they aren't going to try to manipulate your relationships or hurt you.

quite frankly, it's ridiculous. it sounds mean, but it would be as if a lion was concerned with the opinion of an ant. there's so many pagans, so many devotees, why would a god frankly care about a person who doesn't even practice their religion, or care for them? and quite frankly, it seems a bit self-centered to be of the belief that your personal opinion may hurt a god so much that they'd spend their time and energy trying to enact revenge against you. it's just... silly.

also, please keep in mind: loki isn't 'inherently a god that will trample your boundaries and force a conversation with you'. loki is not the marvel character. he's not some evil dude who's going to start haunting you just because you don't want to talk to him. please. do some research. marvel and fanfiction do not count.

[cheerfulomelette]

Children do not go to Valhalla

I saw one of those "Valhalla does not discriminate against the type of battle you lost" posts go by my dash. I really want to say something but the notes are full of people grieving and saying how much comfort this re-interpretation gave them and I'm not that much of a bastard.

This story of the littlest cancer patient going to Valhalla is kind of upsetting but I struggle to articulate why. It's like Christianity wearing my faith like a costume.

I don't want to call it cultural appropriation because, you know, Norse Paganism/Heathenry/Ásatru is a reconstruction of a dead faith - a (more or less) historically-informed best guess based on scanty surviving evidence (much, if not all, of that Christianised). It's public domain mythology, reuse and remix as you like, etc, etc.

But...

Valhalla is not and has never been a place of rest and healing, and to say it is is to fundamentally misunderstand the mythology. Valhalla is where Odinn is building an army to fight the war at the end of the world. It is not a place for children or victims of domestic violence or cancer patients or anyone like that.

If you're drawn to Norse mythology, if you're grieving and you want to believe that your loved ones are in a better place, let me give you a different story.

It starts with a little girl, a child whom the gods deemed monstrous. Her name is Hela and she's the daughter of Loki, so she every right to claim a home in Ásgard. But, as I said, she was called monstrous for her appearance and her heritage and all but cast out. She was given her own realm, far away from the gods, and tasked with caring for the dead that Odinn (etc) have no use for.

The charge that the gods give this outcast child was considered shit-work. Un-honourable, if not actually dishonourable. An insult for a goddess.

But Hela took that duty with solemnity and made Helheim a home for her wards. It's not a hall full of warriors feasting and drinking and fighting. It's quiet; a rest at the end of a hard life. A place full of children and grandparents, mothers and fathers, farmers and shepherds. You and me.

Helheim, like its mistress, is misunderstood and maligned. When we, who have no place in war, die, Hela will accept us into her hall, care for us, and let us to rest, instead of demanding we keep fighting forever.

It's where most of us will go, and that is not a bad thing. There are no entry requirements. It's not heaven, it's not even The Good Place, it's the default - to be with our people, to be cared for and looked after, to be free from pain and struggle. Helheim is a place of acceptance, care, peace, and rest. It's not paradise, but I don't think it sounds that bad.

[broomsick]

Scandinavian myths for children, Katya Anikina

[phantomwiser]

y'all ever see a post on the norse pagan subreddit and heavily sigh

[theogonyofbeauty]

'Then Frigga called to her all beasts, birds, and venomous snakes', illustration from 'The Heroes of Asgard, tales from Scandinavian Mythology'. By Charles Edmund Brock.

[phantomwiser]

finally i have some days off work. i've been exhausted. my work has me doing my main job, then filing for a second job at our other location/office, AND my seasonal job training started. so, i've been exhausted. but hello, hi. i hope you all have a wonderful yule and that the rest of the season treats you kindly.

[hippiewitchesbohemianparadise]

“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic—the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.”

—  Charles de Lint  (via ignitelight)