lokavisi

[lokavisi]

I love this! I want to incorporate some of these into my own practice.

Low-Energy Ways to Work with Nature and her Spirits:

Look outside. That's it - just open the curtains and see the sunlight, find the trees outside your window and watch the birds.

Put on a documentary or youtube video about a cool animal, ecology, the natural world etc

Talk to nature - whisper, talk out loud, say it in your head - just talk. Compliment pretty flowers, chat about how creepy but cool you think spiders are, picture light dancing off morning dew.

Trace the shapes of leaves/flowers/animals etc on your bed sheets or skin - try to see how many different shapes make up the natural world, find the patterns and fractals within them

Learn the name of one new local plant a week! Just one a week! If you have the energy, research a little about their ecology, history or medicinal uses

Make a flower crown/daisy chain/leaf crown

Take up nature photography - you don't need a fancy camera, jsut your phone!

Collect some shells/rocks/bones etc!

Just sit outside! can be just outside your front door, next to an open window, or in the woods (whatever you can manage)

Take your daily activities outside!! Read in the garden, eat your breakfast under the sun etc

Create art from nature - paint rocks, press flowers, create patterns using feathers or leaves as paintbrushes/stamps

Cloud watching!

More High Energy Activities:

Go for a walk or hike outside and take some offerings. Introduce yourself to the trees and plants and streams and leave them a gift.

If there's one nearby, visit a local farmer's market and buy some local produce; honey, meat, vegetables, fruit, etc! Chat to the sellers and talk about their practices and produce

Do a small spell outside! Find a secluded, comfortable spot and invite the spirits to observe your spellwork - let them get used to your energy and way of working

Make a small diary of your time outside! Don't worry about filling it in regularly, just whenever you have the energy! Write down when the bees start coming out or leaves return after winter. What plants stay during the cold season?

Research local plants and come up with your own correspondences based on their ecology/medicinal use/folklore etc

Go on a walk to see what plants and animals exist in your area! Research them - are they native? Invasive? What is their ecology? Medicinal uses? Even the most urban areas tend to have some wildlife!

Join a local facebook group for birdwatching!

Research your area and figure out what plants or animals would be native, or used to live there - create artwork or something to honour and remember them

Research gardening groups nearby - some cities will have volunteer gardening projects or local groups that help maintain natural spaces! See if any would be feasible for you to join and get out there

Join a local allotment or community garden if you have the means - do some weeding, plant some tomatoes, say hello to the coal tits nesting in the old shed!

If you have the means - invest in a hardy houseplant! Name it, research its care and talk to it! Make a ritual out of watering and talking to it.

Take an online ecology course! Free courses exist and can be super interesting!

Watch youtube videos on a favourite taxa and make notes - build your own knowledge at a pace you're comfortable with on the things you're interested in!

Invite some nature spirits in for a meal - cook something you enjoy and set the table (if you can) for the spirits. Enjoy a meal with them.

Please add any suggestions you have below and I can add them! Everyone has unique energy levels and capabilities, but I hope that I've given people a quick idea of things they can do, if they want!

[lokavisi]

[lokavisi]

Realizations and Update Time!

Over the past weekend I got to participate in two very different rituals: one for oracular seidr and a CUUPS Summer Solstice ritual.

In the seidr ritual, I got to practice sitting in the seer's chair again. This time, I used the name Lokavisi in the ritual. The outcome was that Loki was so loud that I had greater difficulty finding and hearing other voices to answer people's questions. (Note to self: if it's not specifically a "talk with Loki" ritual, maybe don't invoke him specifically to talk to.) I've been contemplating this a lot over the past few days. I love Loki, but do I need to call him into every aspect of my spiritual/magical practice? The short answer is "no," but a more nuanced response is that names hold power. Using this name is not in and of itself an issue, but it need not be the only name I use to refer to myself. People go by multiple names all the time: nicknames, pet names, pen names, stage names, even just having more than one name in your full legal name could count here. So perhaps Lokavisi is one of many names I use in magical and spiritual contexts, using it at times and in spaces where proclaiming my connection with Loki serves the purpose of the gathering/working. It may seem counterintuitive to not use a Loki-related name when Loki is your Main Guy, but taking various shapes (or names) is quite on brand for working with a Shapeshifter, no?

This connects with the next point that was annunciated during the CUUPS solstice ritual. Being a UU group, we encompass many Pagan traditions. This solstice ritual very intentionally highlighted this. A fellow kindred member and myself represented Heathenry at one altar among four, which also represented Hellenic, Celtic, and agnostic pagan paths. The Hellenic altar and their piece of the ritual centered Apollo, which reminded me that Loki has pointed me in his direction before.* It was a very tangible reminder that doing the Work Loki points me to is often done without him. The metaphor they've returned to time and time again with me is: I go off to school, do the work, I come home and tell Dad what I learned in school today, and maybe there's some homework that we work on together if I'm struggling. I lose sight of that so often. Within my practice, following Loki so frequently means focusing on someone completely different, including focus on myself. I think growing up in a monotheistic religion has made this rather difficult for me to practice, as I'm always thinking about what this One Particular God (Out of Many) wants me to do over everyone else, including me. And I know as soon as I start diverting my attention to other people or things, Loki will be/feel all the more present. When I focus solely on them, they feel much more distant in my experience. Focusing solely on Loki misses the point of our work together. Another thing they've said to me numerous times is, "You're a polytheist. Act like it." They're not the only one here for guidance, wisdom, or any other thing you might go to a deity for.

*Another way this all ties together: Loki originally pointed to Apollo largely due to my interest in divinatory practices across cultures. And this reminder was the day after participating in a divinatory ritual, in which I did for a brief moment feel Apollo's eye on me. Albeit it incredibly far away, likely from atop Mount Olympus. That pantheon doesn't seem to jive with our particularly Heathen style ritual, so I was incredibly surprised to sense him at all, even from such a distance. But it makes sense that he might keep an eye on me if I'm interested in divination and was actively participating in an oracular ritual.

So where am I going with this? All of this has made me reconsider my approach to this blog. That isn't to say I'm going anywhere, but I'm contemplating the use of this name, the nature of the content, and how I might like to generally proceed. This started as a way for me to connect with others and share experiences I've had with Loki. Doing my Loki-Work of expanding my interactions with other deities, even across pantheons and traditions, to me feels related and appropriate to share under this name for that reason. That said, I realize folks who came here for Loki and Heathen specific content may expect something different from someone using such a name. I've thought about creating other side blogs, but that just feels like too much to manage for me. (I have enough trouble as it is maintaining a queue and writing posts for just this one. Speaking of, my queue is low so forgive me if there's a lapse in daily posts!) I may center the UU aspect of myself and my practice more to encompass All The Things that I might want to share and connect with others about. Loki and Heathenry will still be here, don't worry! It just might not be the only thing you see around here. As always I happily accept feedback from followers on this. I'll ultimately do what feels right and best for me, but I do want some idea of what you all think.

Thank you for bearing with my long and winding post. Whether you stick around for any potential changes or not, I always appreciate your support and interest. <3

[lokavisi]

Hail be to Loki,

He who walks Between;

He who moves effortlessly between realms.

Let me give my thanks to the god most Cunning;

To Flame Hair,

Scar-lip.

Hail be to Loki,

Who walks the crooked path; the path few dare to tread.

Hail be to Loki;

He who is the End of the World and ushers in a new beginning.

Praise him that is both chaos and order; for one could not exist without the other.

Please give me strength to transform as I should; to step out of the flames of your making as someone new and whole. Please lend me the strength to care for those that the world has discarded and please know that my devotion is unending.

[lokavisi]

Water makes up most of our being. Basic biology courses tell us this. Take this reality and expand upon it. Water flows through all of life in this way. We are connected to water's flow through the physical and natural world. Let not just your body, but also your mind and spirit find this natural watery flow. Water may have dark depths, but it is equally glistening pools of refreshing relief from heat and dehydration. Whether connecting with water physically (bathe and drink your water, kids!) or energetically, find a sense of lightness. Let yourself float and feel the sun's light reflecting on you. Let yourself be fluid, slipping and sliding into new ways of being that bring light into your life. Let your ice melt in the warmth of the sun.

[lokavisi]

Sleipnir (Odin’s horse)

[lokavisi]

"...in spite of all their disruptive behavior, tricksters are regularly honored as the creators of culture. They are imagined not only to have stolen certain essential goods from heaven and given them to the race but to have gone on and helped shape this world so as to make it a hospitable place for human life. In one Native American creation story, the Great Spirit speaks to Coyote about the coming of human beings: “The New People will not know anything when they come, not how to dress, how to sing, how to shoot an arrow. You will show them how to do all these things. And put the buffalo out for them and show them how to catch salmon.” In the Greek tradition, Hermes doesn’t simply acquire fire, he invents and spreads a method, a techne, for making fire, and when he steals cattle from the gods he is simultaneously presenting the human race with the domestic beasts whose meat that fire will cook. A whole complex of cultural institutions around killing and eating cattle are derived from the liar and thief, Hermes."

-Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde

[lokavisi]

I saw this and thought you might enjoy it. May the gods bless you in these trying times!

LOL I do enjoy it, thank you! (I have seen it before, but I really needed the random act of meme sharing today. I appreciate being thought of, so thank you 🙏❤️)

[lokavisi]

[lokavisi]

The pre-Christian Norse spiritual worldview is animistic, which means that it's informed by direct experiences and observations of nature, interpreted through the lens of human experience and feelings. You know how we watch snow swirl around think that it looks playful, or watch a wildfire and think that it looks angry? It involves that kind of thing.

But when most people think of pre-Christian religions, they tend to imagine later forms of Greek and Roman polytheism. The problem here is that these Greeks and Romans had begun to think of divinity in more abstract, transcendent ways, and had begun to imagine the gods as rulers of things rather than the spirits of things.

Loki isn't the lord of mischief, he's the spirit of mischief. He's in the little voice telling you make that shitpost and to stop caring about being "cringe." He's in your cat's impulse to knock something off the counter to watch it bounce or roll. Loki manifests in every accidental innuendo and hilarious typo, in every spilled cup of coffee, and every paperwork mix-up. (This is why he's a shapeshifter! He can be anything!)

So when media depicts a Loki riddled with repression and shame - say, for example, a Loki who sneers at modern media or the culture of the common folk - it's depicting a Loki who can't really Loki. That poor spirit has been bound and gagged.

Certain popular media has depicted Thor and Loki as some kinds of opposites, but when we consider the animist perspective we can see there is a serious problem with this. Loki and Thor being depicted as companions isn't some random whim; it's a reflection of the reality that thunderstorms bring chaos.

A Loki informed by Norse mythology shouldn't be complaining about Thor's "oafishness" or whatever, he should be encouraging him to wreak even more havoc. Loki shouldn't be here out of some real or imagined obligation, he should be here because he expects he's going to have a pretty good time, and because he hopes to make the situation as ridiculous as possible.

Loki being the spirit of mischief is also why depicting him as hostile to humanity isn't really in the spirit of the pre-Christian Norse worldview. Mischief and chaos are not anti-human; they're just realities of the world that humans inhabit. I get how it's easy to infer that Loki must have something against humans due to his oppositional role toward the Aesir in the Ragnarok story, but that's an extremely Christian reading of the narrative. The story is simply describing the collapse of civilization and end of the world as we know it through Norse animistic comprehension. Loki only has an issue with the Aesir, who bound him in a cave to be tortured with serpent venom. Humanity is neither here nor there for him.

[lokavisi]

“My imagination expanded, I became wise, I grew, and I thrived. One word chased another word flowing from my mouth, one deed chased another deed flowing from my hands.” Havamal 141 Óðin’s Wise Words

[lokavisi]

Thank you for this. Just because pagan religions are or based on historical indigenous practices from Europe does not mean ALL indigenous practices (or practices rooted in the history of other cultures) around the world are "pagan." Let the practitioners of each path tell you who they are, even if your practice/language has a word meaning something similar. It's not your business to define it.

I do need to remind the pagan community, as a native Chinese: the majority (if not all) of the native practitioners of the ancient eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, folk religions, Shinto, shamanism, etc.) do not want to be referred to as pagans.

Many (if not most) Asians find it highly offensive when Asian religions get put under the paganism category.

In many parts of the world, "pagan" is a derogatory description that indicates "abnormal", and the people have never wanted to associate with the term.

Just like "witch", "pagan" is not universally reclaimable, and all of us need to simply accept and respect this.

It doesn't matter what the word "pagan" means from an English dictionary. You can argue about its definition until the cows go home, but the whole world doesn't go by what something means in English and you need to understand this.

[lokavisi]

Frigg, Bragi, Idun, and Surtr

Art by me, ink on paper

[lokavisi]

There are so many wonderful things that exist around you every day. Try to see them for the gifts that they are. Even if dark clouds loom around you, there's still positive and helpful things among those clouds. This isn't about toxic positivity and "finding the good in everything," but rather recognizing that good things can and are coming to you even in the midst of a dark time. Light and dark exist together. Even when it feels like life is only sending you problems, it's sending you some relief, too. Don't let the gifts get lost among the millieu.

[lokavisi]

Norse gods

(Tyr, Thor, Freyja, Skadi, Heimdall, Loki, Sigyn, Angrboda, Hel, and Sol)

[lokavisi]

I love this interpretation of Thor. I feel like all the uber muscley depictions forget that he eats multiple whole animals in one sitting and drinks mead like it's his job. Like, he's got muscle for sure but...I mean, come on lol

Big man on the Pantheon

[lokavisi]

This is the most amazing UPG I've ever heard. Loki is the best 🤣

Storytime : when I first started working with Loki, I didn't get much contact as I was spiritually constipated lol.. But one night, after praying and crying to Loki, I had a dream, a weird, 𝙡𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙙 dream about a gay horse (no idea how I knew it was gay) by my bed, saying "You gotta serve more cunny, hunny~" And I still think about it to this day..