Loki – Question Everything

When I first had the idea to work with the deities of my Norse ancestors for a whole year, I wasn’t sure how at first. I also wasn’t sure which ones to choose. However, it soon became apparent that I had to work with Loki. Why? Because my main goal for the primary goal in the year ahead (starting this Samhain) is to know myself better. Without the Trickster God Loki, I wouldn’t give myself to question everything.

My secondary goal with my year-long journey through Norse Paganism is to learn as much as possible about the faith of my ancestors. I have already learned that they never worshipped Loki as a Deity. But I gather that he was a much-loved figure. In fact, other than Odin, he is the most prominent figure in the Eddas. By the way, in my post about Odin, you can find out a bit about the Norse spirits and deities I will be working with.

The Function of Loki

As the Trickster, Loki helps us liberate ourselves from self-imposed boundaries and limitations. He is associated with the liminal spaces in existence (the betwixt and between), according to Freya Norling. According to Freya Aswynn (Northern Mysteries and Magick), the main rune associated with Loki is Dagaz, definitely a ‘betwixt and between’ sort of rune. Dagaz is the rune of daybreak and awakening. Awakening from what? Our Matrix programming!

It’s much more comfortable to keep snoozing though. That’s why Loki gets such a hard time but truly, without Loki, the world would stagnate, rot and die. He is the catalyst for change that takes any guise necessary to shake us from our slumber.

How Lokean Energy Shows Up

Loki’s energy typically meets us through someone who creates a lot of problems or chaos in our lives. Can you think back to someone who meets that criterion in your life?

There are two reasons that are intimately entwined in why this energy appears. The first reason is so that we can have a shadow aspect mirrored back at us. The second reason is to act as a catalyst for change. How much we suffer as a result of that change depends on our willingness to own what is mirrored back at us.

Loki’s Dream

After falling asleep listening to stories about Loki last night, I had a dream about the ex I mentioned in a post about my journey with Hel. I can’t recall dreaming about him at all since I decided to move on. However, when I woke up I knew exactly why I had that dream. Loki gave me that dream to illustrate how his energy can flow through other people in our lives.

On waking, I realized that through my ex I had invited Lokean energy of awakening and transformation. Had our paths not crossed and had I not suffered to the extent I had because of it, I would have never plucked up the courage to begin my self-employment as a Tarot reader. It was only after scraping myself off the floor that I went ‘Sod it, I’m just going to do it.’

Lokean Healing

Could it be that a lot of people who have suffered trauma of some kind are drawn to working with Lokean energy? My working hypothesis for the year ahead is that this is the case. I’m already experiencing a sense of liberation in connecting with his energy. It’s freeing me from a black-and-white way of thinking and perceiving things.

I have come to the conclusion that my CPTSD made me predisposed to get pulled in by fundamentalist Christianity as a teenager precisely because it presented me with a ready-made black-and-white system. Perfect! That way, I didn’t have to learn to navigate this scary existence the way it really is… No, not 50 shades of grey but the full spectrum of colours, including the ones we can’t detect with our physical eyes.

Religion and CPTSD

Who else suffers from black-and-white thinking? Narcissists and psychopaths do. You are either for them (whitelisted) or against them (blacklisted). Another hypothesis that I’m testing out is that religion is created by someone that has been traumatized but imposed by psychopaths on a quest for control and power. On a more subtle, Lokean level, it could be a way of turning the victim’s subconscious defences against them until they are willing to look at their own shadow.

So, for instance, could it be possible that the Hebrew religion is the result of collective CPTSD among the Jews after hundreds of years of enslavement? Would that level of victimhood not breed black-and-white thinking?

Jesus and Loki

I actually see a lot of Lokean trickster energy in the Yeshua I know and love. Studying the Gospel of Thomas, it’s easy to see that Yeshua dishes out uncomfortable truths as if he was sponsored by Loki. He was definitely seeking to awaken people by confronting them with their shadows.

In fact, the more I read the Gospel of Thomas, the less I feel that modern-day Christianity reflects Jesus’s actual teachings. And isn’t Loki’s confrontation of the Aesir in Lokasenna a bit like Yeshua confronting the Pharisees?

So now that I have managed to rub exactly everyone the wrong way, Loki tells me that I can stop typing and start enjoying my weekend 😉