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I don’t usually do book recommendations/reviews on here, but for this one, I had to. This was an incredible read, both because of the depth of description of this specific Norse Pagan practice, but also because of how well-researched it is and the author’s firm stances on inclusion and anti-fascism. There’s an entire chapter section devoted to identifying and condemning fascist movements trying to co-opt Norse Pagan practices, and some of the literature cited to explain fascism are texts that I have used in my grad program (I specialize in Holocaust and Genocide Studies), which was really awesome to see! Definitely highly recommend this book 👍🏼

A lot of people interpret this as "sacrifice is a value of the Norse people" but I think it's actually an allegory for a practical experience we all go through.

The waters of Mimir's well is wisdom. But in order for us to gain wisdom, we have to let go of how we currently see the world. This is neccessary for growth. In sacrificing his eye, Odin wasn't sacrificing his vision, but rather his way of looking at the world.

The reason why he only sacrifices one eye though is also part of the allegory: He still needs the ability to see things the way he used to, because wisdom is found not in looking at things exclusively from the new perspective, but in understanding the space between the old perspective and the new, and how it is bridged.

Over and over, people in my family history had an identity, but that identity marked them as an immigrant. And all the opportunities and privilege of whiteness was right there. All they had to do was not let people know they were immigrants.

I don’t like posting works-in-progress but you must understand what I mean when I say this man is bastard-shaped.

The first charm I know is unknown to rulers Or any of human kind; Help it is named, for help it can give In hours of sorrow and anguish - The Havamal

The Old Man is a bastard. Let me say that at the outset; he’ll twist things to his advantage always. There’s a reason he backs heroes and gets them killed, there’s a reason he’s blood-brothers with Loki and gets thralls killed so he can gain access to Gunnlodh’s chamber deep within the mountain. He has his own agenda, something just as vast and terrible as he is.

I’ve said before that he understands the dark times, that he’ll teach you to see the light in the depths, just as he sees with an empty eye. And this help he brings, it’s not a ‘human’ easing. It’s something else, a strangeness that moves a different way, within and beyond what we consider human, but never being bound or defined by it.

It’s unknown to rulers - which is to say it has little to do with so-called traditional exercises of power; an odd, asocial kind of negative capability which exists beyond systems of thought or structure. In a sense, it’s the shadow which is only spotted when the light is blocked, the ice which exists only because of fire - cold is, after all, measured in terms of temperature, is it not?

It’s an indefinable quality, a particular ever-shifting shape which exists as the endless, inevitable alternative process of Being.

shadow (v.) Middle English schadowen, Kentish ssedwi, from late Old English sceadwian “to protect as with covering wings” (also see overshadow), from the root of shadow (n.). Similar formation in Old Saxon skadoian, Dutch schaduwen, Old High Germanscatewen, German (über)schatten. From mid-14c. as “provide shade;” late 14c. as “cast a shadow over” (literal and figurative), from early 15c. as “darken” (in illustration, etc.). Meaning “to follow like a shadow” is from c.1600 in an isolated instance; not attested again until 1872. Related: Shadowed; shadowing.

shadow (n.) Old English sceadwe, sceaduwe “the effect of interception of sunlight, dark image cast by someone or something when interposed between an object and a source of light,” oblique cases (“to the,” “from the,” “of the,” “in the”) of sceadu (see shade (n.)).Shadow is to shade (n.) as meadow is to mead (n.2). Similar formation in Old Saxon skado, Middle Dutch schaeduwe, Dutch schaduw, Old High German scato, German schatten, Gothic skadus “shadow, shade”

shade (n.) Middle English schade, Kentish ssed, from late Old English scead “partial darkness; shelter, protection,” also partly from sceadu “shade, shadow, darkness; shady place, arbor, protection from glare or heat,” both from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (cognates: Old Saxon skado, Middle Dutch scade, Dutch schaduw, Old High German scato, German Schatten, Gothic skadus), from PIE *skot-wo-, from root *skot- “dark, shade” (cognates: Greek skotos “darkness, gloom,” Albanian kot “darkness,” Old Irish scath, Old Welshscod, Breton squeut “darkness,” Gaelic sgath “shade, shadow, shelter”). 

 .sciamachy (n.) “fighting with shadows, shadow-boxing” 1620s, from Greek skiamakhia “shadow-fighting, a sham fight” but perhaps literally “fighting in the shade” (i.e., in school; ancient teachers taught in shaded public places such as porches and groves), from skia “shade, shadow” (see shine (v.)) + makhe “battle” (see -machy).  shine (v.) Old English scinan “shed light, be radiant, be resplendent, iluminate,” of persons, “be conspicuous” (class I strong verb; past tense scan, past participle scinen), from Proto-Germanic *skinan (cognates: Old Saxon and Old High German skinan, Old Norse and Old Frisian skina, Dutch schijnen, German scheinen, Gothic skeinan “to shine, appear”), from PIE root *skai- (2) “to gleam, shine, flicker” (cognates: Sanskrit chaya “brilliance, luster; shadow,” Greek skia “shade,” Old Church Slavonic sinati “to flash up, shine,” Albanian he “shadow”). Transitive meaning “to black (boots)” is from 1610s. Related: Shined (in the shoe polish sense), otherwise shone; shining. -machy word-forming element meaning “battle, war, contest,” from Latinized form of Greek -makhia, from makhe “a battle, fight,” related to makhesthai “to fight,” from PIE root *magh- (2) “to fight.” magic (n.) late 14c., “art of influencing events and producing marvels using hidden natural forces,” from Old French magique “magic, magical,” from Late Latin magice “sorcery, magic,” from Greek magike (presumably with tekhne “art”), fem. of magikos “magical,” from magos “one of the members of the learned and priestly class,” from Old Persian magush, possibly from PIE *magh- (1) “to be able, to have power” (see machine). Transferred sense of “legerdemain, optical illusion, etc.” is from 1811. Displaced Old English wiccecræft (see witch); also drycræft, from dry “magician,” from Irish drui “priest, magician” (see druid). 

might (n.) Old English miht, earlier mæht “might, bodily strength, power, authority, ability,” from Proto-Germanic *makhti- (cognates: Old Norse mattr, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Dutch macht, Old High German maht, German Macht, Gothic mahts), Germanic suffixed form of PIE root *magh- (1) “be able, have power” (see may (v.)). 

This is the power-that-is-not-power; the facility with the quality which abrogates the known;  it removes & annuls & attacks the thing we have been taught and have come to believe as implicit reality.

“We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know ” - Donald Rumsfeld.

Zizek points out there are also  the unknown knowns - those things which we intentionally refuse to acknowledge.

These are the Old Man’s bread and butter - the terrible things, the unacknowledged darknesses hidden in the brightest lights, and the massively contrary brightness found within the darkest places.

The help he brings is the help learnt by nine nights of suffering; his inescapable, inevitable binding and wounding upon Yggdrasil, the sacrifice of his eye, the ‘gelding’ of himself as he went amongst witches as Jalkr.

The unspeakable truths uttered by Loki in the Lokasenna, which even Frigg would keep buried; the oathbreaking, which for our ancestors was tantamount to undermining the fabric of society - all these things has Odin done.

There in the shadows he stands, with his thirst for knowledge, for Gnosis; a yawning hungry maw, as hungry as the wolf that he knows will devour him. There he stands, wings spread, to cover us protectively with their shadow.

His help comes from the knowing-there-is-no-escape and turning even that to his advantage. By doing that, he violates even the idea that any deployment of conventional power merely perpetuates the pre-existing frame and context.

His help says: leave what you know, and come follow me. His help says: we shall wander forever, together, and you shall never go back to what you were.

His help says: when you come to the place you thought of as home, it shall be as a stranger, and you shall see it all, in every way, anew.

Reborn, reconfigured; strange in shape and form  and casting a long shadow, the knots and lines of force and oppression which were laid upon you will no longer bind you. Instead, you will have plumbed them with an awful, glorious depth, and returned - singing songs of wisdom all the while.

 But ask, friends. Ask truly, and from the core of you, from the beat of your heart, with every fibre and sinew. Ask like that, and you may very well see the Old Man smile like the sun. Because when you ask, that’s when you realise that this help has always been with you, waiting to be noticed, to be discovered.

And if you never asked? That doesn’t matter. Remember - the help he brings is unknown to any of human kind.  

Unknown unknowns and unknown knowns

Time is short, the end is nigh, and the wolf is always hungry. You have only the whole of eternity to play with, after all. 

Lockwood Metaphysical is a small, independently-owned workshop specializing in metaphysical home decor, perfect for witches, pagans, and general fans of the occult. All designs are created by myself—an experienced witch and lifelong artist—in ritual space in the upper Midwest. Everything is crafted one-by-one for individuality and character.

“The Mountain listens.”

Anyway, Arith concludes this in his video:

Loki was historically not a god, but a folkloric figure and cultural hero of sorts; a trickster spirit who interacted with people on the daily as opposed to during rituals like with deities. (Arith mentions how there was greater focus on spirit work than deity work in Old Norse religions, due to the religion’s decentralized, Animistic nature.)

As a particularly powerful folkloric spirit, Loki dwelled in the best part of the house; by or beneath the hearth.

This area is also where offerings were placed for the house spirits.

Loki was not considered the fire itself but something that interacted with it.

The way I interpret it, the hearth fire’s behavior reflects Loki’s disposition. Fires need to be stoked and well-fed and paid attention to otherwise they escape the hearth (cause mischief) or die out (get bored and leave). In folklore, the hearth fire’s behavior of cracking, etc., is caused by Loki the same way he causes wavy heat lines on a hot day, or spilopper; tricks both good and bad.

It seems Loki’s involvement with fire was just one representation of his trickster nature, rather than something superseding it. I’m still baffled it was spun into a Fire God thing…but Heathenry is full of bad scholarship, as we know.

(Also, this potentially adds a real layer of metaphor to Loki’s eating contest with Logi. This contest might be a literary representation of a hearth offering and how Loki fights with Logi over it. Perhaps all this confusion stems from the fact Loki’s just a giant mooch.

So, when you see trees in a forest, they stick up outta the ground, some distance from each other, and you're like 'these are unconnected critters,' right? But! The thing is! Just like the trees in the picture are connected above-ground, trees in a forest are normally connected below-ground. There's this whole complicated thing involving a symbiotic relationship with fungi, but we're gonna simplify it to this: trees connect to each other through their root systems.

And they use it to share resources, across the whole forest.

If there's a tree over here growing in soil with a lot of, like, potassium, they'll pull up more potassium than they need, and send it out through the root system to other trees that are living where there isn't much potassium.

And one of the coolest things? Trees communicate their needs. If a tree is sick or damaged or starving, they send chemical messages out through the root system that tell the other trees to send them more food and tree-equivalent-of-immune-system.

Trees will share so much of their resources, they'll even keep trees alive that are almost entirely dependent. Like this tree! The tree above is getting some energy from its leaves, but no other nutrition of its own. And it wasn't able to link up to the shared root system. So the other tree reached out and hooked up to it directly, feeding it all of the nutrients it needed!

You see it more commonly the other way around: in an old-growth forest, where the roots are well-established, you can find stumps where a tree was cut down a century ago... but if you scrape the stump it's still green wood. The tree's still alive, without a single leaf. Because all the other trees in the forest are feeding it.

I promised to talk about matriarch trees, so here's where we get to them.

In a very old forest, you have very old trees. You have some trees that are so very, very old, their own roots cover entire regions of the forest. Their leaves reach up to the sky over everyone else. And after so long, they've developed to where they can take in way more resources than they need.

So what do they do?

They feed baby trees.

Baby saplings in an old forest can't reach up to the sun. There's no light down there. And their roots are too small and shallow to dig down to the nutrients they need. So the matriarch tree will draw energy from its towering canopy, and nutrients from its massive, ancient roots, and feed them to the little trees that are too small to feed themselves. For anything she can't get on her own, she'll act as a central hub, taking in spare resources from the rest of the forest and giving them to the little ones.

And one of the best parts - she won't just do it for her own species. She'll connect to all kinds of trees, because they're all necessary for the ecosystem to work. She'll adopt the whole forest's children.

Sometimes in forests you'll find a spot where there are a lot of small trees in an open space around an old, fallen tree. People generally assume they could find more light there, or maybe the soil's more fertile from the decomposition.

But no.

Otherwise, it depends on the day what I associate with him. Wind and air feel right for him, the ever-shifting, ever-changing atmosphere around us. And also I associate him with trees and nature in general, more so in the sense of how they change and cycle with the seasons, the impermanence, and sometimes unexpected wildness you can find in your own backyard sometimes.

Classic Loki: “We’re the God of Outcasts”

Me, a Lokean: