The Birth of Loki

Nowadays when we think or speak or hear of Loki, most immediately think of he Marvel villain with black hair and green eyes, filled with thoughts of revange and lust for power, but the real Loki the trickster god of mischief from the Norse mythology, isn't such a character.

After the death of Ymir and the creation and formation of worlds and the great flood, the surviving Jotnar found a land for themselves and called it Jötunheim. The etin-folk settled all over this realm, some in the north mountains, others by the coasts, and some of them went south and found a strange forest, dark, filled with short and hard trees, the ground itself was magical and that magic spread all over that forest, every living creature there was tainted by that very magic, the entire forest was tainted, most Jotnar there became deformed but with special abilities in magic and it was they who started to work with such powers and teached them to other beings and deities. The Jotnar named this forest, Ironwood.
The Jotnar folk divided themselves into nine clans, and elected a chieftain for each of the clan. But the clans were always fighting against each other, as to who would be the chief of the chiefs. This war went on for many years until only two clans were left to fight agaisnt each other and one of the chiefs would claim leadership over all the nine clans of Ironwood. One of the chieftains was Farbauti, of fire-etin blood, tall and strong, living in the stony hills of Ironwood, the other chieftain was a very young witch some say, who could see into the future, and she saw that she would be the chief of chiefs and would claim leadership over the entire Ironwood and its nine clans. So it came to pass that she succeeded, and Farbauti went off into the western mountains and then into the ocean. For many a year he wandered by boat from island to island, he went so far from the costal line of Jötunheim, that at one point he could see the realm of Vanaheim. It was there, on another island that he met Laufey who came from the lineage of the earth-goddesses, she was so beautiful that Farbauti couldn't think of nothing but her, and love struck his heart like a lightning. Laufey loved him likewise and in that great love a child was conceived. But in the early months of pregnancy, her womb began to burn, and the pain was excruciating. Farbauti feared for her and the child, so he asked her to come with him into Ironwood in Jötunheim, he told her that there were healers in his land that could take care of her and the baby, she agreed with him and left her island, it was difficult for her, for she loved her home, but she knew that the baby was in danger and that that child would be the next chieftain of his father's clan should he die, this child was the rightful heir.
At Jötunheim, Farbauti build an house for Laufey and their child, hidden in the hills, he feared that the chieftess of the other clan would know about this and came after them, after Laufey and strike at her and their unborn child, to wipeout the bloodline of Farbauti and claim rulership over his clan once and for all. But this chieftess was cunning, and news of Laufey came to her and she saw in her dreams the prophecy that Farbauti's child would master her one day, so she set out with her clan towards the stone house where Laufey was. Long and terrible was the battle between Farbauti and his  clan, again the chieftess of the other clan and her followers, in this confusion Laufey left, she fled from Ironwood and Jötunheim itself, but the Chieftess ran after her. Laufey came to Midgard, not would own world, but Midgard of the humans of the spiritual world, the realm very much alike our own, the realm where we have a strong connection to also. Laufey came to the border of Midgard, which is Myrkwood, a dangerous place filled with foes, strange beasts, everything in there is a menace and wants to kill you, but even so, Laufey went and ran like the wind until the trees of that forest were no longer with leaf, and they started to be blackned, scorched, the very ground was burnt. She came to the realm of Muspelheim, the land of fire and dust. Surt the fire-lord came to her and asked her what she was doing there, Laufey told him that she seeked shelter, and that she was carrying the child of Farbauti, who shared the same blood of the Fire-Etins such as Surt himself. He agreed with her to give her shelter in exchange that he would be the godfather of her child and the second father. Laufey was in much pain and was also tired of running away, the chieftess was on her heels, and so she agreed with Surt and he brought her to his Castle. The chieftess and her folk would not dare following her into Muspelheim itself, Surt was a very powerful being, and so they stayed at bay.
Laufey had her son within the land of fire, a red-flaming-hair boy. Laufey sent word to Farbauti, telling him that he had a son and that she and their child wanted to return to Ironwood, but Farbauti was still at war, and it wasn't safe for his wife and son to return there, so Laufey stayed at Muspelheim for many years, and Surt himself taught the boy in the ways of fire and all its secrets, and told him about the power he had in his own veins, Surt raised him as his own child.
When the boy was leaving his childhood, Farbauti sent word to Laufey that the war was over and that the Chieftess had won and claim the title of ruler of the entire Ironwood and the leader, chief of chiefs of all the Nine clans, Farbauti gave her the title and rulership over his own clan and agreed with her that by doing so, she would never harm his wife or his son. So Laufey made ready her departure from Muspelheim with her son, but before that a Seer from Muspelheim prophesied the future of the child. The child would be a wanderer for all his life, he would never have a place to cal home, yet every place he would be in would be his home, he would achieve great power and would be dearly loved but also terribly hated, but his name would be very much known all over the Nine worlds and outsider them also. After this prophecy he left with his mother to meet his father in Ironwood at last. When Laufey arrived, she was angry with Farbauti, for he ordered her apart, when she wanted to be by his side, fight by his side and die by his side if it should come to that, he did not share with her all his troubles, and she declared that she would not live with him anymore, so she went into the mountains overlooking Ironwood, in there she built her own dwelling and stayed, but Farbauti could visit her any time he wanted, but she would not live with him anymore. Their child went to live with Farbauti but only until he reached adulthood.
Laufey asked that Farbauti should take their son into a counsel with all the nine clans gathered so that their son should be welcomed and claim his heritage, to this Farbauti was fearful, for the great chieftess of the nine clans could break her oath and kill their son, but Laufey was confidente, for she remembered the prophecy of the Seer at Muspelheim, so Laufey herself came forth with her son when the counsel was called. The great chieftess remembered what she has seen in her dreams some years ago, that Farbauti's child would master her, so in spite of her word, she really wanted to kill him, even if this seemed to be wrong to her and break her word, but when she saw the child coming near the fire at the counsil, her dream came to her again, but this time with much more details. The child would indeed master her, but this mastery was with love, and he would become her concort and would be the father of all of her children, and she also saw what the Seer at Muspelheim had seen. So the great chieftess, Angrboda welcomed Farbauti and Laufey's son, and he became a member of the nine clans, and so Loki, that was the name of this child, started here his path, that would bring much joy and also hate to many, and few would understand him, but he would change the lifes of many.

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Working with the gods: Loki

Those who work with the god Loki the Trickster, said to be a very hard god to work with and to handle. The first thing you need to have in mind if you are a spirit-worker willingly to work with this god, is that Loki will likely do things to the spirit-worker, that he/she will not like or expect. The knowledge i have earned with the shamans i speak with and an important friend who is also a shaman ( RavenKaldera ), it was told to me, that when working with this god, it is important to have an other god as your protector, to set limits when working with Loki, so you dont end up "bad" or doing things that goes beyond your likings. Also this god may not stick to the agreement and the rules you may have had and stipulated, before you started the spiritual work.

When inviting this god to work with, you dont have to worry about which food he might like, he will eat all kinds of stuff, but that doesn't go the same way when dealing with drinking, in that he will prefer alcoholic beverages with cinnamon and red pepper in it if possible.

Don't forger and always keep in mind, that if you will work with Loki, you best be prepared for the ways and doings of this god, and it is always better to work alongside with an other spirit-worker who already has a good relationship with Loki or perhaps if you work with Hela, in case you need to protect yourself, you can always call upon Loki's daughter to calm him down.

Lokiblót - 1st April

Lokiblót
As the name indicates, at the 1st of April, its not just the April Fools' Day, but also the day that in the Northern Tradition Paganism, it is celebrated the Lokiblót to honour the God Loki.

This was not a celebration held in the ancient times, it is a new one that came with the NeoPaganism. In My opinion, i do celebrate the ancient traditions and celebrations, and i dont give too much heed to the new ones, but this is a good day to show you the importance that all Gods have.

There is no such thing as Evil Gods and Good Gods, and most of the time, people tend to see Loki as the Evil one, like the Devil or Satan in the Christian myths, but this is not true, all Gods are important, all of them have their powers and purpose.

Loki is the god of mischief, of fire, and a very cunning god, and we all need to be cunning in this world, in order to survive the mischief of others, we have to workout our minds or we will be "eaten" by the society. Loki is also a shapeshifter and also we have to be like that many times in our lifetime, not like Loki of course, we do not have those powers, but shapeshifting in a diferent way, to shape our personality and tastes sometimes, in order to fit into some work, that we realy need, or to be happy in places we hate to be but we must, for exemple, working in an other country, we must do that, but the native people in it are of our dislike, or the weather isn't that great, but we have to change in order to survive that and be happy with it.

I have talked about Loki in my blog for many times, you can see it in the labels such as "About Shamanism" , " Gods and Mythology" and even "Northern Pagan Traditions". A curious thing is that the post that was read the most in my blog, was the post that talks about Rökkatru, as you may well know, it is for those who work with the deities such as Hella and Loki etc. So people are realy interested in that.

As i have talked about Loki so many times, i leave you here a brief text so that you may know how to work with him:

Loki the Trickster is  hard to handle and to work with for a spirit-worker. First of all, he may do things to the person who is working with him that the spirit-worker doesn't expect or like. (This is where it is important to have a spirit-worker with a patron deity to set limits and look out for their best interests.) Second, he may not stick to the agreed-upon rules regarding the event. Third, he tends to want to stir things up - for example, none of the other Gods would hit sexually on anyone who wasn't already open to the idea, but Loki might go hit on a straight guy while in a male body just to stir things up. People present at a Loki spiritual-work should all be well aware of the situation and ready to roll with the punches, or things can go very wrong.
Loki will work with men, women, and third gender people happily, although he prefers to have sex in a body with a working natural phallus. He will eat fast food, junk food, candy, booze (especially spicy food and booze with cinnamon or red pepper in it) and likes to have a table full of weird toys that he can play with, the weirder the better. He has been known to bless whisky and tell people to add it to their bath water or pour it over themselves in the tub, which is at least kinder than the Afro-Caribbean trickster spirits who will spit rum on people.
Any page assigned to Loki has to have a wacky sense of humor, not be easily upset or offended, and willing to give him their full attention and be a sort of "chew toy", as one spirit-worker referred to the job. Make sure that they know that it's not their job to prevent him from doing ill-advised things, except as a matter of self-protection. Getting in Loki's way is the dangerous job of the priest/ess, who should be another spirit-worker with a good enough relationship with Loki to be able to make noise, or perhaps one of Hela's who can call in his daughter to ride herd on him (something that actually works sometimes).
In general, though, it's not about confrontation as much as redirection and distraction. Loki has a short attention span and this can be exploited, although don't think he doesn't know what you're doing. Nobody ever gets one over on Flame-Hair. If he goes along with it, it's because he feels generous or thinks that it's worth it to him, perhaps for the new toy, or the entertainment value of watching people jump to distract him with new toys.