A Personal Anecdote about Loki

Here's an interesting article about possession from Phil Hine:

"Possession remains a powerful form of magical work. It can be used to derive oracular information (as used by the Greeks and Tibetans), to charge magical weapons, to share in the power of the God (as in ritual Masses) or 'live' a particular mythic transformation. In constructing possession-workings, it can be useful to examine magical and religious paradigms where possession is a recognised and culturally-defined technique. The experience itself can be related to wider phenomenon such as religious conversion, hypnosis, and abreactive therapy. As with all types of magical technique, it's use requires careful analysis and evaluation if it is not to devolve into a habituated limitation. In general, magical possession is both useful and enjoyable, if a little hair-raising at times."

And here's an anecdote about a friend of mine who was working with the Norse god Loki:
It was either friday or saturday, I was with my friend who invoked Loki, but stopped right at the point where she had gotten Loki basically over her shoulder. Then the overarching ritual was literaly rained out and so we had to pack up and leave. I told her she should thank Loki for coming and then dispell him. But she didn't. She was strangely very excited about his presence, and mentioned a sensation around one of her shoulder blades, as well as just the sensation of something behind her.

This actually lined up with later web research we did on Loki interaction people had had over at Barberlith which you can read here. At any rate, before I left her house she went on and on about her excitement and enthusiasm for Loki and intended to build an altar and work with him one on one. Later I talked to her when I got home, and she talked about how she felt that she had always had this identification with Loki but never had a name for it or a feeling for it. Basically she was very up on Loki at the time.

So then the next thing that happens is two days later, I talk to her about Loki, and she brings up a dream, which on the surface doesn't have to do with Loki, but I'll relate it anyways. The gist of the dream was she was at a lake and she saw a turtle pop out of the water. This is significant because we were also working with Eshu the Yoruban god of the crossroads, and one of the things he likes is turtles. At any rate, she was frightened by this and ran into her house and locked herself inside. While this was going on, another spirit we dealt with the Coyote, which is a native american trickster god, who actually is much like Loki, took the turtle in it's jaws and bit it in two. So symbolically just using the metaphors of the gods in play, you have the trickster god running in on the god of the crossroads, fortune, misfortune, death and life, who my friend was afraid of, and snapping it in two, which brought her relief.

So we have that dream. But then the other thing that's going on, is she has this event in her life take a sudden very bad turn on Monday. And I mention to her, that it may somehow be connected with Loki, in that it may be an overarching trick. Because typically Loki's blessings come through a roundabout route where they initially seem quite hellish and wrong. He seems to have wronged you, and then he gives you a magical horse. That sort of thing. But she took this as a reason to hate Loki. And basically said to hell with Loki, and immediately dispelled him from her. Then was quite miserable for the rest of the evening.

Then later that evening she gets a call, and the thing that had gone bad, suddenly turned into something extremely beneficial and exciting--ala the magical horse.

There would seem to be two interpretations that you could have here in terms of these spiritual metaphors: 1. That Loki was a malevolent spirit in her life, and as soon as she got rid of him, things in her life righted. OR 2. That the nature of Loki is that he plays tricks to get a reaction and rise out of the people he's with (usually Odin or Thor) and then once he has achieved the reaction he wants, then he gives a blessing. And that he tricked my friend and got the reaction he wanted from her which was that she was justifiably pissed. And then after that he gave his blessing.

If it's the first thing, then she should have nothing further to do with Loki, I would think. If it's the second thing, then I think she owes him some kind of sacrificial thanks.

Oh. There's a third way to look at this. That there was no magical influence. Life just happened. Stop thinking about it. Blah blah blah. And that's definitely TRUE. But the reason that you would accept the magical metaphor in a world view is because it is a kind of a trip. We all have to live life regardless, but why live a boring one dictated by your material situation? When you can live a trippy fantastic one? There are things you can learn about yourself as well through magic. Things that you can strengthen about yourself through magical metaphor. In the end, even if you don't believe in it, and I certainly do and don't--it's a powerful psychological metaphor for dealing with the conscious and sub-conscious.

FOLKLORE MONDAYS! YEAH!

Hey sportsfans! It's folklore mondays! For your enjoyment only, I'm going to be running through eight spiritual entities and doing a brief synopsis on what they are about. You can do this too with a little bit of wiki/google/godchecker.com work. Or you can just read my blog and hope for more entries like this .Tamamo No Mae
First up is the popular figure from Japanese Noh dramas, Tamamo No Mae. She is a kitsune (japanese shapeshifting fox spirit). Her whole bag is that she seduced an emperor in an attempt to bring down his empire. She was found out, turned back into a fox, and ran off. Only to be murdered and imprisoned in a death stone which has it's own story. Personally I think she was a revolutionary and as with most tricksters was misunderstood.

The next god I have, doesn't really have a picture. And the only reference to her I can find is from Neil Gaiman. But supposedly she is a slavic goddess.

Zorya Polunochnaya

She's the third of the Zorya sisters. The one in charge of midnight. As with most lunar goddesses she is associated with magic, death, rebirth--yada yada. She's kind of a tragic figure in that every night she has to watch the sun die in her arms. But then comical because every morning she sees it resurrected. So maybe she is used to it by now? Other neat tidbits is that she doesn't lie, is a bit wise, pretty generous, and generously pretty. Which makes it so strange that there's no picture of her on the internet that I could find, beyond weird role playing pictures. There's actually some debate that she's not even real. I say she is, even if Gaiman made her up. I should email him and see if he'll drop some knowledge on me. I promise I will have my own drawing of her if nothing else happens by sometime in the future. Just you wait.

Eshu
Next up is Eshu. Pictured above. Eshu is a pretty cool dude. He's basically a god of the crossroads. He is from the Yoruban mythology. Which makes him an effective vodoun diety to evoke. He's in charge of a lot of things ranging from fortune, misfortune, life, death--and all points in between. He's also a really good messenger between the human and spiritual realms. So forget your priest and learn to pal around with Eshu, and you should be in good shape. He is a trickster god though, and he delights in bringing people trials that eventually strengthen their character. So in that way he's kind of like your dad.
Baba Yaga
This scary lady is Baba Yaga. Who if you aren't hip is the wrong lady to mess with. She's the wild witch in the woods all the fairy tales scared you about. She's magical, maniacal, and a child cannibal. She'll definitely be interested in swallowing your soul if she has the chance. That's one way of looking at it. The other though is that she's had a lot of annoying guests and heroes bugging her over the years when all she wants is a little piece and politeness, and that's what has made her mad. Who really knows? I actually kind of dig her. Nobody is all bad, and if you treat her well, you'll probably be the first to do so.
Bamapana
Bamapana. This is an aboriginal trickster god, who loves foul language and lewd offensive acts. Think of him like a dirty construction worker with too much time on his hands and a hefty porno collection. Bamapana is hard to get ahold of these days because ever since Grand Theft Auto came out he's had no reason to leave his home.
Loki
The original trickster. Loki. Some people think Loki is the Norse Satan. But if you look at all of the tricks he has played, in the end almost all of them resulted in benefits for the gods. I think on the whole he's actually done more for the Norse Pantheon than any other god there. Which is probably why he was tolerated for so long. My favorite Loki story is when he shape-changed into a female horse to tempt a giants horse away from pulling boulders and was then impregenated by said horse, and gave birth to Odin's mystical horse Sleipnir. So in a way Loki predated Thomas Beatie as the first man to be pregnant. And as with Thomas Beatie it didn't make him less of a man, no matter what Bill O'Reilly says.
Coyote
No, not Wile E. Coyote. Just Coyote. The native american trickster god, whose annoying antics led to the diversification of mankind, the milkway, and lord knows what else. My favorite story involving him is that he loves to impress girls by juggling his eyeballs, and one time he tossed one of his eyes up so high that it got stuck in the sky and became the star Arcturus.
Manabozho
Amazing how many Looney Tune representations of native american dieties there are. Anyways, this is for Manabozho, who I may write a lot more about on Bunniesz. He's the great giant rabbit trickster god of pretty much every rabbit mythology ever done. He's the originator. He's actually the basis for the Brer Rabbit stories. There's not much to really say that you don't already secretly know about him. Basically take all of the Bugs Bunny cartoons you grew up on, and put them into elaborate creation stories, and you're most of the ways there.

If you would like to make your own blog about folk dieties, here's a fantastic link to start with (best site ever? MAYBE!):
Godchecker.com