July for Loki: Post No. 10 - Morning Coffee.

Dear Reader,

We all have our little habits and rituals. When I don my hair covering for the day, I invoke Déa's blessing and protection over myself and my home. When I put on my jewelry for the day, I consciously invoke the various forms of blessing or protection associated with the items I am wearing. I have another daily little ritual that I do. I pour out a small cup of coffee that I dedicate to the gods, wights, and ancestors who love and protect my family. As I pour the coffee, I offer the first few drops to Odin. The second few drops are to Loki. Then to Freyr and so forth until the little cup is full. I do this every morning and then set it on the altar. I have an entirely different set of little rituals for Déa, but I'll post about that later.

Odin tends to like his coffee black with a bit of sweetner in it. Loki says that all coffee is good coffee and my coffee is the best. Frey pretty much says he'll have whatever I'm having, provided I have the first sip. It could result in my altar looking like a collection of all my coffee cups sitting on there if I filled each request independently. This is where I take advantage of the fact that you can leave spectral offerings of energy along with physical ones. 

So, as I am pouring out that cup of coffee, I give the essence of a pot of coffee with an assortment of goodies to go in it. I take my memories of things like milk in coffee and real sugar and put them out there on the astral plane. While I am physically placing a single cup of coffee on the altar, on the spiritual plane, I am putting down a tray of coffee with sugar, milk, cream, and other goodies to add to it that I am familiar with. There's a host of cups and spoons for all who want them.  (The art of making spiritual constructs is fairly simple. I'll post something about how to do it soon.)

But my morning ritual of pouring out coffee and giving it to the gods is something that Loki cherishes. He enjoys that I share my precious bit of quiet time in the morning with him. It's usually just quiet companionship as I drink my coffee and try to wake up. Sometimes it is consolation when my morning fasting blood sugar is too high for my liking (and a gentle reproach that I shouldn't have eaten the whole delicious fish fry the night before).  Just being with him is enough, however, because I know that spending time together with someone you cherish is precious.