What it means to be one of Loki's!

First off: The first question that anyone should ask themselves when first landing on a blog with a title like this one: One of Loki’s what??? Precisely? His eyeballs? His feet? Teeth? Testicles?? Nope, nope, nope, it refers to one of Loki’s followers. Precisely. That applying to myself.
(Who Loki?? Norse god of mischief, chaos, destruction, creativity, trickery and a lot else besides!! See Wikipedia article but don’t believe all you read.)

If you, gentle reader, random browser, really want to learn a lot more about Loki, I suggest that you log on to the livejournal community, http://community.livejournal.com/lokeans. It’ll tell you all you want to know (lots of links to articles on the first page) and also quite a lot about what kind of crazy people worship him (like me) and the general tenor of modern Heathenry nowadays. (Heathens = pagans who worship the gods of the North.) Apparently, I find that it is no longer (if it ever was) populated by dirty hairy biker white supremacists. (Well, there are a few, but they are mostly in US state and federal prisons!) It’s pretty politically enlightened, these days, is Heathenry. I think so. Pretty racially mixed too. (Yes, there are black people and people of Jewish ancestry who are extremely attracted to worship of Thor, Odin, etc!) I’m a bit of a mongrel myself, though neither black nor (very) Jewish. Do I have a bit of Germanic ancestry? Yes…. And I speak the language.

Having said that, if you worship Loki, and therefore count yourself as a Lokean (that’s how it’s spelt) or “one of Loki’s”….. (That’s how they go on…. It’s “one of Thor’s”, “one of Odin’s” etc… I think it’s got as much to do with your personality, or personal archetype as much as anything else. Well, mine corresponds to Loki’s, and there’s nothing I can do about it! It’s an affliction - as some people at the above lokeans community seem to admit!)

If you are one of Loki’s - you’re stuck with him! (And should be proud, I might add.) But if you are one, you tend to be a bit of an outcast, among Heathens, as much as anyone else - because Loki is really a very naughty boy!!! Even among gods. You see. However, a lot of that, in the mythology, might have been because of Christian influence on the faith and culture in the 9th and 10th centuries, and even before…. And also stellar write-ups of our favourite gods by slightly later medieval Icelandic scribes like Snorri Sturluson, who was a fervent Catholic, and couldn’t RESIST writing Loki up as the equivalent to Satan, the “blemish upon all gods and men”… but Snorri also said “and he is one of the twelve [Aesir] whose natures are to be regarded as divine” (!!!) I think Snorri had a split personality.

But even allowing for that, Loki is a pretty bad lad, at times. Well, he’s a Trickster! Go and look that up on Wikipedia: they had a fairly good article on it, about 12 months ago. Understand that archetype, and you’ll understand the Universe, my friend.

What might people not like about Loki?? Well, he’s a shape shifter and also a sex changer - consummate gender bender and pansexual being! Oh, and he’s also a murderer, according to the later stories in the cycle. But don’t let that put you off!

IS THIS A RELIGIOUS BLOG?? Well no, not really - thought I set it up because I thought I might discuss some stuff of relevance to the lokean community that won’t fit on their site. I set this up mainly for literary purposes though, to discuss literature and mythology, particularly as it pertains to stuff like Norse Gods - AND the Trickster archetype, my be all and end all.

(How did I come to all this?? Well, that’s for another post, if I feel like it. But briefly: I’ve only really recognised myself as a Heathen quite recently, though always knew I was attracted to the mythology - and I’ve been into general paganism and Wicca before, still am. But I wanted something a bit more definite than New Age fluff; also Wicca proper is more based on Celtic type ideas, and while I like them (especially the Fairy Faith - which is something else! Yet again!)…. I can’t really get my head around them like I can with the Nordic. I was always attracted to that - just waiting for the spectre of racism to go away… now it looks like it has, I can come out safely!)

How did I know before I even “joined”… have I joined? Which one my patron god was?? That’s so easy. Like I said, there WAS no choice. I’ve been attracted by, possessed by, Tricksters, ever since my early-to-mid-teens. I like them all, the mythological and the literary. I used not to differentiate. But of late, I’ve decided that one has to commit oneself to something, a “proper religion”, if you will. So I’ve made some small steps in that direction.

But sure, I’ve never met a Trickster I didn’t like - “real” or fictional - from Warner Bros’ Bugs Bunny, to Richard Adams’ El-Ahrairah (a lot of them are rabbits, surprisingly, or not!) to the Native American Raven and Coyote, to Hermes to Prometheus to Loki… I like them all!! (Anyone who can tell me who the Celtic Trickster is, BTW, will get my eternal gratitude, or a cookie or something.)

So this blog is also intended as a paean to all Tricksters, literary and mythological. Rather than a religious blog devoted specifically to one religion, eg. Asatru or whatever.

So - that’s it!! Somewhere in all the above is the answer to what “one of loki’s” means!!!

Oh - and the id. picture?? That’s not Loki specifically, it’s a Fool from a Tarot deck. Rather a nice picture…