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Thoughts, lessons, and theology from an eclectic witch from a varied background.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

July for Loki: Post No. 21 - Sky-Treader & Lightning

Dear Reader,

Here's something of an old familial thing in my family. Loki is the lightning and the thunder is Thor's hammer striking its target, possibly Loki depending on how well they're getting on that day. When the days are hot and the air shimmers, making illusions of water on dry ground, that's attributed to Loki through familial stories. 

I honestly don't know how many others have this in their familial background of stories. This came down from my mother's side. Which is a little weird because they're fundamentalist Christians, but pretty much everything about Loki and my family is weird. Sky-Treader would drink with my mother, keeping her distracted from my brothers and I. He would encourage her to leave a bit of drink out for the land-wights. He encouraged her to tell us stories about the Norse pantheon. I learned about the Loka-tattur many years after my mother told me a story about Loki helping a farmer's son outwit a troll.

My mother wasn't a devotee by any stretch of the imagination. She was publicly an atheist. She actively mocked people for their religious beliefs, if not to their face then behind their backs. Yet, at the same time, she had these habits that she had. Like always cooking enough food so that there was enough for at least one more person (in addition to whatever was planned for leftovers) and she called it "god's portion".

But, one of the stories she told me was that Loki was lightning and Thor was the thunder following after. That one stuck with me for a long time.

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