Lokablót

Yesterday was April Fool's Day, a day that some modern Lokeans (I stress this is modern; this is definitely not an ancient Viking belief!!!) devote to Loki because, well, Loki loves fun and trickery, and it's a whole holiday for fun and trickery!

So I took my little toy seal/representation of my fylgja into Prospect Park this morning to go do a blót to Loki! (For my muggle friends, a blót is the most common ritual within Heathenry. In the old days this was done by feasting on an animal consecrated to the Gods and then slaughtered. As we are no longer farmers and our needs are simpler today, the most common blót is an offering of mead or other alcoholic beverage to the deities. In my case, it was some pumpkin cider because in my experience, Loki likes sweet flavoured beverages.)

It was a beautiful morning to do it, too. It was sunny, but in the mid-40s. Not cold enough that it'd be miserable to go outside, but cold enough that I'd have some relative privacy (and to remind me of Scandinavia). I brought my drinking horn and runes, as well as two bindrune stones that I've dedicated to Loki (the red and green one, with a bindrune for creativity) and to his wife Sigyn (the blue one, with a bindrune for health), the pumpkin cider, and of course my seal. I associate seals with Loki because:
A) He turns into a seal in at least one myth
B) Seals are fun and, as I've said before, personally significant for me
C) I grew up on the California coast so I have a closer connection to seals than to foxes, which are an animal a lot of other people associate with Loki

I walked through the park to a secret pagan altar that a friend of mine had previously set up for these types of rituals. I'm not telling you where it is because I don't want it getting destroyed, but admit it, you're chuffed to know it exists aren't you? Now I know secrets in TWO large NYC parks - the survey bolt in Central Park and this altar in Prospect!

I set up the ritual space by placing the seal on the altar with the bindrune stones, took a few deep breaths to ground myself, and filled the drinking horn with the cider. Then, I hailed Loki and His family, offering each one a small prayer and a thanks for their blessings, in this order:

1. Loki
2. Sigyn
3. Narvi and Vali - or rather, to their memory
4. Hel
5. Jormungandr, Fenrir, and Sleipnir, Loki's animal kids
6. Odin (Loki's blood brother; Odin and Loki will only drink, according to the lore, if both of them are offered the drink)
7. Loki again

I think the pumpkin cider got everyone's seal of approval. 

After this, I did a rune pull for myself, and it was a very positive one - and, as has been my experience with Loki, quite straightforward. When I do a rune pull with, say, Freyja, it's harder to interpret and has more layers of meaning, but Loki is pretty straightforward with the runes. This is what I pulled:

ᚷ - Gebo: "gift"

ᛏ - Tiwaz: "justice"

ᚠ - Fehu: "wealth"

Gifts of justice and wealth... if I continue with my mental health journey, part of which includes accepting change instead of being terrified of it, which is so Loki.

It's extremely difficult to see, but there's a robin in the photo at right. The entire time I was doing this ritual, this robin was watching me. Even afterwards, when I cleaned up and stood up and walked towards it, it didn't move. It stared right at me.

A good omen? A god in disguise? Just an extremely brave robin? Who's to say? It was adorable at any rate.

And the whole thing was all just so personally meaningful for me, and I think (hope) the deities were most pleased with it all. 

As a bonus, since I get in for free anyway, I walked over to the Prospect Park Zoo afterwards (watching for signs of spring on the way - early spring blooms like crocuses and daffodils; and of course many more robins, as well as a snowy egret and some woodpeckers) to go see the sea lions! I got to the zoo just as it opened, which I would highly recommend because all the animals were oh so active. And the sea lions, much to my delight, seemed quite taken with me:

She swam right up to me! And posed for me! What a beautiful and perfect model! And I'm choosing to take it as a good omen.

All in all, it was a perfect morning, pleasant on both a spiritual level and a mundane one. Utterly amazing.

-Nym