i am fighting to be wild

Both Njord and Aegir are "gods" of the sea. But Njord is the god of the sea in a way a fisherman might be, he commands the sea and it's bounty. His wealth comes from the sea. His home is the shoreline.

Aegir on the other hand is the sea. A primordial manifestation of the oceans power. Uncontrolled. An anthropomorphic representation.

This is how I tend define the roles of both aesir and thurs. It casts the aesir in the role of civilization, of building, of man. And in opposition the Jötnar as the wild and untamed natural forces.

Rökkr is a movement that came about in North America in defiance of the way American Asatru intentionally excluded worship of jötnar—specifically jötnar that stand against the Aesir during Ragnarok. And American Asatru does this because it misinterprets Ragnarok as the Norse End Times, rather than understanding it for what it is: A cautionary tale about the conditions that create societal collapse.

(Most of these conditions were created by Odin casting out Loki's kids because of their natures, and for threating Loki like dogshit and threatening his life whenever his mischief caused them problems. Loki turning malicious was a consequence of the Aesir's actions... especially when we consider that Loki is an allegory for the behavior of children, and if we threaten kids for being kids they turn into vengeful adults.)

Unfortunately this has led to the impression amongst American heathens that this dualism inherently exists in Heathenry, rather than being the product of how American Asatru interprets Ragnarok.

Now, this isn't because American Asatruar are stupid. It's because, for many of them, a life of opposition is their lived experience. Many come from a background of being VERY heavily disenfranchized by both Christianity and society, so this is a paradigm that makes sense to them.

1) all the above additions are good. It's your upg use it when you need it.

2) I will say this is more a commentary on practical use rather than just deity portfolio. But again it's your upg use it when you need it.

3) @skaldish is absplutwly right. I've been a practicing heathen now for probably 20 years, I've lost count. And this post and blog were specifically made at a time when the idea of INNANGARD AND UTANGARD were far more central in heathenry. And I think that's great, that you can see where a spirituality started and what trends are becoming more applicable or less applicable over time.

Production costs aside, clothes tell the audience about how characters think of themselves.

Loki's shoes in the S2 finale raised a lot eyebrows, but I find them quite fitting: they are comfortable, practical, and most importantly, they are humble. The camera brings this to our attention to communicate his evolution in character.

In terms of the rune Cen, it’s worth pointing out that only the Anglo-Saxon rune poem associates it with fire. The others associate it with disease. So associating Cen with fire in a Norse context is already kinda iffy to begin with.

But there really isn’t any solid evidence for a connection between Loki and fire before Jacob Grimm. Based on a theory that has since been disproven, he conflated Loki with Logi, the god of fire, who is explicitly a separate figure in the lore. Logi even beats Loki in an eating contest in one myth. (Here’s an excellent thread that goes into this distinction further.) 

But Wagner used Grimm’s scholarship when writing his immensely popular Ring Cycle, which, up until recently, remained many people’s first introduction to Norse myth. He too combined Loki with Logi, and took other artistic liberties with the Nibelungenlied as well. People ran with Wagner’s version of things, kind of like how many people today run with Marvel’s version of things. And since then, there have been a ton of fiery depictions of Loki floating around that pop culture continues to perpetuate.

There’s arguably a little pre-19th-century evidence for the fire symbolism, such as the Snaptun stone and medieval folklore about the Ash Lad, but both of those are kind of iffy. We don’t know for sure that the Snaptun Stone depicts Loki and not just some random smiling dude with stylized teeth and a killer mustache, and we don’t know how closely medieval folklore reflects beliefs from back in the Viking Age. While it’s not a perfect comparison due to differing technology, etc., how well can you really say you know the folklore from your region 500 years ago? And how much of what you do know was actually passed down from your family as opposed to something you had to actively seek out and study?

But some modern writers like Dagulf Loptson have still taken the fire thing and run with it, trying to argue that Loki was historically seen as a god of sacrificial flame, derived from the same place as Agni in Vedic religion. But…this just isn’t sound methodology. Academics are really reluctant to assume you can trust stuff from medieval Scandinavia to reflect pre-Christian Scandinavia. We definitely can’t go by something 2000 years older on an entirely different continent. Furthermore, Egil’s Saga calls Odin, not Loki, the guardian of sacrificial fire. So if anything the lore comes closer to contradicting that theory.

But all that said, Loki does indeed represent a lot of the same things that we use fire to represent nowadays. He has, well, a fiery personality, lively and passionate and hot-tempered. He’s driven to create change, both creative and destructive. He makes room for the new by getting rid of the old. It’s quite possible that he leverages this modern symbolism for his own ends.

So there’s nothing wrong with associating Loki with fire or using it as a symbol in your practice. It’s just inaccurate to treat those associations as attested pre-Christian beliefs.

KE HUY QUAN IN SEASON TWO???

"Sacrifice" is the important part of Loki's character FROM THE BEGINNING.

And he sacrificed himself at least THREE times during the movies. It's more than the most part of the heroes ever did.

And Waldron&Herron called him "careless narcissist".

Because Loki is all about stories, and human capacity, and identity and identification.

Kelly Marie Tran wore a custom áo dài by Thai Nguyen Atelier to the 94th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on March 27, 2022.

It compromises my godphone.

It clouds my understanding of the deity I'm projecting onto.

It causes me to disassociate from my own traumas and incorrectly ascribe them to someone else.

The deity I'm doing this to will gently, but firmly, course-correct me.

My deities have also made me recontextualize my traumas back upon myself.