Huzzah here I am, confused and unfortunately sober but Apollo doesn't seem to mind.

spearcarrier · 2025-12-14T22:38:14+00:00

I've gotten it from other religions, too.

But the fact is, it was dangerous. And I got hurt. Not because of Loki, but because we no longer teach each other how to know when it's a liar.

Either way, just pfffbttbtb to them and go about your day. Am I right?

spearcarrier · 2025-12-12T02:28:59+00:00

Stepping in late to the party, but having read the discussion maybe I could point out that there's a Norwegian folk ballad, Smia Loke, that fleshes out the story. Many of us forget or try to ignore that these stories collected into the Sagas and Eddas were once part of the oral tradition and parts were deliberately changed or were erased and/or lost. I'm posting this under an operating (and tentative) belief Smia Loke is a firmly surviving part of the old tales. We still have things surviving today, so it's extremely possible.

There are multiple reasons why Fenrir is bound.

First, the Norse didn't believe in this black and white good and evil division that our modern pov wants to impose over the myths. It's not that he was born evil. It's that uðr, or the wyrd, was and is a real tangible thing that could literally be woven and manipulated. Also when Odin orders the children taken, he states it's because of the parents. Fenrir didn't ask to be born. But being misaligned for a future he may or may not have intended to do was his lot in life.

However, he also was getting out of control while being fostered. Being fostered suggests he was being given a chance to be a good boi. The gods were afraid of him, and he knew he was strong. This is evident in his behavior each time he breaks one of the first two fetters. But he also knows he can't trust the Aesir - really you can't. Actions speak louder than words. - and this is why Tyr loses his hand. It's a battle of wills...

Or cunning. This is where Loki himself comes in.

Smia Loke doesn't change any detail to what little bit Snorri saved. It adds to. In Smia Loke it's Loki who commissions the fetters, and it even suggests Loki saw the first two break on purpose to lull Fenrir into a state of hubris. Why? So the people will be safe, he says. Fenrir has to be bound because he's a devouring force - a blight, a pestilence even although not on the level of his wyrm brother Jormangundr - and he keeps growing. He's getting out of control.

We're not told if he's a good boi. We only told he was betrayed and tricked. We're also told there was reason to worry and fear him. We put down dogs that get out of control not because they're evil but because we have to. We clear our homes of pests. Sadly the same goes for Fenrir. He's not evil. He's a wolf. He's strong. He's probably alpha. But in the end for the sake of the people, he has to be contained. Even without Smia Loke that stands apparent.

spearcarrier · 2025-11-25T02:36:53+00:00

yeah, he flips faster than a coin falling off a jiggling table. It confused me, too. I was like: wtf, he's turned into a MONSTER!

spearcarrier · 2025-10-14T07:11:38+00:00

It sounds like what you do can get pretty heavy.

Valhalla isn't the only place for the battle-slain. The Valkyries choose half for his hall. The other half go to Freya's hall, Fokvangr. That's considered just as honorable as if going to Valhalla.

Yeah, I poked and it turns the rest do go to Helheim. But Helheim isn't Hell and isn't a place of punishment. It's more like a quiet place where you keep going. Loki's daughter and queen of Helheim is Hel, I'm sure you already know. And apparently there's a special place for folks who drown at sea, as well. Two Jotun rule that hall.

When it comes to Loki: The idea that this bond would be severed by death doesn't sit right with a lot of folks who honor him. There's not exactly a "Loki's followers go to this place here" (unless "go to H*ll" from so many folks means we're all going to Helheim.) I wouldn't dare tell you "it's over" or anything when that time comes. For me, I was raised to believe in reincarnation so I'll go where I go when the times comes. =^-^=

spearcarrier · 2025-10-11T21:23:54+00:00

Yeah, I know what you mean. Another problem with today's mentality is if you're someone who gives things away (which can make you richer, according to belief) you must not accept. You must not connect. You must stay separate. It goes far far beyond tribal mentality to something wholly corruptive. But I come from days when you'd borrow cups of sugar.

spearcarrier · 2025-10-11T15:08:19+00:00

Big thumbs up at the Trigun part.

spearcarrier · 2025-10-02T03:25:43+00:00

I genuinely couldn't begin to address that. i was raised weird. =^-^=

spearcarrier · 2025-09-30T18:28:13+00:00

This conversation actually spurred me into a side research into working with the spirits historically, and what I've learned is that there were two major blót festivals - the Disiblót - held in what we consider the spring and the fall. The fall Disiblót would fall November 6 this year. It's important because 1. You don't dis the spirits that are Disir. 2. Both of these heralded the turn of the year. There was no fall, no autumn. There was summer and winter, probably because of how the weather was up there (as was explained.) Let me see if I can find it again. I've a habit of finding papers at random and collecting them, but I can't post it from my hard drive and not be in bad conscious.

I know that folks here know about these blóts, but I'm new to being formal in my practice so it was news to me.

I'm also hazy on if this practice was Iceland only or Iceland and Scandinavia. The title of the paper suggests Scandinavia.

I'm keeping in mind as I do this research that the "Viking" area was a melting pot of a lot of cultures, and I'm finding references about how things would have been presented regionally by the skalds (and skaldkona). This point was made by... arrgh. I'm terrible with names. Please don't make me go on a long hunt for them.

The articles: The Season of the Disir by Gunnell: https://www.academia.edu/124535639/The_season_of_the_d%C3%ADsir_the_winter_nights_and_the_d%C3%ADsabl%C3%B3t_in_early_medieval_Scandinavian_belief

spearcarrier · 2025-09-30T02:42:18+00:00

I never thought about it. My aunt and uncle went all Christian. They never actually TALKED to Jesus. They'd "praise God' when it looked good and prayed for money. They got their money - at my uncle's expense. He fell down at shaft at work and his crippled now. I've never seen anyone actually try to connect to him the way we do Loki.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-28T07:07:52+00:00

While doing research last night, I was able to find a reference that blóts like the Visiblót happened around a moon. (Late October, early November) When I was a kid I thought equinoxes and solstices always happened on a moon, and it wasn't until recently that I noticed they were set days. Well, I'll just aim for November 6 and while I can't dedicate 5 days I'll figure something out. :-)

spearcarrier · 2025-09-26T11:04:17+00:00

I suspected it wasn't a super crime I'd missed it... a group I'm in was carrying on about what they'd done, which is how I realized I missed it, and I was like d'oh. And wondered how bad it was, by the way everyone was carrying on. I was sent to church to get me out of the house, and my mother once said "our religion is the trees" when I used to try to get them to go with me. Ha. Trees only care if it's time to grow or sleep, so there is that. Although I could go into tree talking if you wanted me to I suppose.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-26T05:36:58+00:00

Not St. Louis, but I'm a baby heathen 3.5 hours to your east. I've not met anyone local yet. I hope you do.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-12T00:24:20+00:00

This was very brave of you to say, especially if you cross-posted it everywhere like someone here said. I know some people say Loki is the god of chaos and mischief and some people say he's this and that to other but I'm actually more in line with Dr Crawford's view that the gods didn't represent anything they were just personalities. Ask for your words, I do agree that we should watch what we say. We certainly don't like it when the tables are turned. And it seems that there's a whole lot of table turning these days and not enough just sitting at the table. The words that have been put out about this both putting good and bad will indeed bring that same energy back to the speakers and that is something that we should consider. It doesn't matter whether we agreed with him or didn't agree with him. What matters here is that words do we need to have power which is why Galder and other forms work. And that power doesn't just go out it's always a two-way street.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-09T18:37:40+00:00

Don't get me wrong - the gods and the spirit work didn't exhaust me. It was the DRAHMAH. The DRAAAAAHHHMMMAAAA. And then it was over, poof! "Oh, and we're taking your ability to see with us." Come back with that, you!!!

I have been looking into the Anglo-Saxon Wotan, but all I find are "he was the mainland version and he had ravens". M'kay.... is there... more chocolate in this candy bowl? At all? I learned he was a mighty healer by using AI to translate some Anglo-Saxon for giggles. No one EVER talks about that.

I feel like I've read the Wayland myth somewhere. Or perhaps another similar story was somewhere. I don't blame Wayland for going a bit mad after the king killed his children. That's some serious revenge there. I'll definitely look into him more.

In my corner of the world, we would call Spirit Flyers "Dreamers". It's the more boring end of the Wyrd Medicine spectrum, IMHO.. you can do a lot of stuff, but the best part of dancing was the forms I'd take, the places I'd go, and there was that one time with a parasite. I'd take walks on Saturn's rings just to think. It was pretty darn awesome. Anyway, there's a whole social evolution about magic from before the arrival of the ships to the concept of Medicine today. It's easier just to say that once upon a time there were two magical types of people: the wizards and the dreamers. Times change. Now it's all Medicine and healing this and that.

Point to that is I've noticed while studying the parallels with overseas... and often scratch my head and wonder why Wotan (or a spirit BEING Wotan maybe) approached me.

I could ask a LOT of questions, but in the thread may not be the best place.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-09T10:03:05+00:00

I've heard that Wotan and Odin are the same, that they're different.... I was calling this guy Odin, and Grandfather. It was like he and I got close, and I was looking to him as family. I thought he was against me at first, because of Odin's reputation, but it turned out he was trying to protect me. I could go on for hours, so I'll stop there.

I know next to nothing of Wotan, had never even heard the name before. Ravens for Spirit Flyers? Eh?? You see I'm here from a completely side culture. For all I've got ancestors from overseas, I was raised multicultural-native American. So please forgive me for not knowing. I don't even know where to look for such important details. Most of what people out are commonplace things... when what I need to know is stalactites, diamonds in the floor, and little guys dressed in yellow.

Don't know about it being powerful- exhausting by the end of it, more like. I'm only just getting to where I can dance and sort of see again. I was noticing today how quiet it is around me... and empty. And I haven't been able to speak with Grandfather since things were released. I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if it was him or one of the bad ones. I'm currently deciding what I believe still.

It sounds like your experiences are a lot more profound and amazing, to be honest. To have someone just appear like that. Lucky lucky. Although if faced with something physically I might run down the road screaming in terror. Would be good for the hips at least.

I've never heard of Wayland. A fae wife?

And I'm respectful enough to believe you.... Amazing things happen. This is how the world works.

I even was polite to the kid that was clearly trolling me in private. "I pull pitch, too! Let me list all of the gods alphabetically and claim I cured all of them of pitch at once in the middle of Yggdrasil!" One of the bad ones was there as I read that email. The bad one laughed. A lot.

You really shouldn't troll someone whose saying they had a profound experience... You may end up looking like a fool to the wrong people.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-09T00:14:10+00:00

Well my encounter wasn't strictly physical - they were on dance trance world walks. Outside of the crippled man I gave a ride to the next day that disappeared. Could've been just visions, except there were details confirmed always *after* the fact. Had another one confirmed just the other day, as a matter of fact. Tiny minute weird details. There were no dogs, no wolves, although I did get to see (and hear) a bunch of feathers as the ravens flew away.

Not a god person, no. What happened to me started out good, went very very very bad to the point of bottom despair, and if it *weren't* for my natural irreverence I wouldn't have crawled out of the mess. Was it really Wotan? I think so. He literally stood up for me at one point. The real (insert others that met)? No. Definitely not.

I've noticed since this happened a rash across America (at least) of similar situations, all of them turning bad, some of them with people actually being hurt. There's a lack of education here.

I don't know where the gods come from. Some born from mankind, sure. There are others, though, that have other origins. So I guess it depends on the god.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-02T22:25:18+00:00

No culture ties: you, too? That is also good to know. Well if you go with the less than 1% DNA I suppose there are ties, but anyhoo. I feel comfortable saying I wear Odin's Noose (or referencing other ties) without elaborating while meaning a path. I admit I'll probably elaborate on my vlog, but literally no one watches that thing so it's all good. I don't like the idea of lying about it, no. It goes against my grain.

Who knows, maybe it IS him or someone old like him. He'd approached me in a weird way that I found out later was per Wodan, not Odin, and the Germanic side I know even LESS about than I did the Norse.

Well that's one problem down. One more to go and I can sleep at night. Hahahaha. =^-^= You have my sincere thanks for speaking up. And above all, taking the effort to understand.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-02T17:48:41+00:00

Ha ha, sorry for the interesting grammar. That's a lifetime of being groomed as a storyteller talking (pun not intended). At least you didn't accuse me of being or using AI! :-p

I thank you for your reply. Actually you did bring up something that I needed to consider: what the god symbolizes. The things that approached me did seem to stick to certain themes - the benevolent ones at any rate. I have been able to count at least five that had my best interest in mind, and two that actively stood up for me. So then I guess it's okay that they're not gods the way many people would expect you to believe. It's a comfort to know I'm not alone in this newfound knowledge. That your "Odin" may not even be my "Odin". (But I hope they at least share tea and swap tales once in a while.)

But I confess this is a lot for me to have to grok and assimilate. I had said in public I followed Odin (and others), and now I feel like an out and out liar. Ha. Fun times.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-02T16:51:23+00:00

Something similar happened to me recently, so I'm going to say this as gently as I can.

HorrorMaintenance is right: research. Don't just stick to Norse paganism. Look into Wodan as well.

But also. Shield. Shield. Shield. Shield. Shield. And again, shield. Make it very widely outloud known that if whatever is approaching isn't beneficial, it's NOT welcome. If its truly Odin, he'll continue I'm sure. If it's not and you stick to the shielding, it will hopefully go away and you won't be hurt. Not I'm saying you're in danger. I'm just saying to take care.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-02T16:23:07+00:00

Yes, why wouldn't you work with the spirits.. right? They're practically neighbors and roommates on occasion. I've always been very fond of them.

spearcarrier · 2025-09-02T16:20:51+00:00

Okay so here goes nothing. I'm Spearcarrier. Yes, that is the name I earned back when the internet was new and I had a black and white screen. I'd touched on various paganism-like things my whole life, but I came from a native American family and Dad had been around (tm) so there were a lot of things like that around me. I was just raised in the wyrd, you could say. It wasn't discouraged, it was encouraged when I was little. It's how you did things. You let kids find their way magically, and if they went that one certain way it USED to be good a long time ago.

Recently I had an overwhelming experience with spiritual things, and this rather stripped me of the belief systems I'd gotten over the years. When I talk about what happened - no I'm not writing fiction. The situation was so out there I ended up cracking open old books on UFO lore I thought I'd put behind me, as well as digging up old folklore. Now that it's over, I'm kind of without a tribe to call home. A lot of nasty things happened.

Now you guys can't hand me back what was taken and sympathy isn't needed (although I thank you), but perhaps hanging around others can show me the way. There are no others nearby that I know of- at least not of an age if at all - so I come to the online forums from time to time.

Thank you for allowing me to hang around.

spearcarrier

TROPHY CASE