Shifting Your Reality: A Case For Working with Loki
Let’s go back to July of 2020. COVID-19 had been declared a national emergency for four months and cases of the infection had risen above two million. Businesses closed their doors, international travel came to a halt, countless medical workers were scrambling to treat the infected while exhausting themselves, individuals struggled with isolation while shelter-in-place orders were set, and millions of people across the globe were navigating the new terrain of working from home amongst technological equipment shortages. It felt like the world was on fire and that Ragnarok was right around the corner. So naturally, when the Norse trickster showed up in an unusually cinematic dream of mine and shortly thereafter requested to work with me, I was less than thrilled.
The morning was July 8th, 2020. Like most people, I use my phone as my alarm, so when I came out of what felt like a wild trip of a dream, I grabbed for my phone and started writing down notes of the visions I saw before my feet even hit the floor. As I said, the dream itself was highly cinematic and had multiple parts to it, which is unusual for me. My dreams are often about work or consist of nonsensical snippets of random things that just make me scratch my head. Because it was so long, I will spare you the details of each section as that would easily be the length of a novel chapter. Instead, I’ll summarize the part where Loki came in. Perhaps if you catch me at a gathering, and I’ve had enough mead, you can encourage me to recount the full story.
In the beginning of the dream, it was apparent that I had been traveling on foot with the Allfather for quite some time and there came a point where we met Thor and Loki during which the Allfather sort of “handed me over” to them. Interacting with the Allfather was not new to me during waking hours since he was the one who drew me into exploring Norse paganism when he showed up for me in 2018. But I hadn’t yet interacted with Thor or Loki.
In the dream, Thor and Loki took me to what looked like an old English cottage made of timber posts and a turf roof that sat at the edge of a forest line. It became clear to me that this was my place, my safe place, and so I turned it into a home for myself. Here I grew my own food, made my own soap, fashioned my own clothes, and created a self-sustaining little space for myself that any little witch would be proud of.
The dream shifted and it became clear that some time had passed and there was suddenly a knock on the door. I answered it and found myself staring into Loki’s eyes.
“I can help you,” he said.
Looking around the cottage, I confirmed that my food stores were stocked, there was plenty of firewood in the corner, and I had a surplus of other provisions. Remembering the shenanigans that often take place in the stories concerning Loki and wanting no part of that, I said, “No.”
“Are you sure? You’ll soon run out of provisions,” he said with a lofty smirk.
I closed the door.
Loki returned in the dream two more times and on the third time, I found myself huddled in the corner of the darkened cottage with no food, no more firewood to light the hearth, and clothing that lacked proper warmth for the winter. Unsure as to why I had faced such hardships, I used what little strength I had to rise to my feet and answered the door.
Loki stood there smiling at me. “I can help you,” he said. “Just say the word and I’ll make sure you have what you need for the rest of your days.”
Feeling desperate and unsure as to how I got here, I begrudgingly agreed, “Okay.”
Loki snapped his fingers and as soon as he did the hearth blazed with a bright fire, delicious food and lit candles covered the kitchen table, dried herbs hung from a line that stretched over the hearth, a pile of dry firewood that nearly reached the ceiling appeared in the corner, and I had proper clothing for each season. It had returned to the perfect little witchy cottage I’d made it out to be.
When I woke up I found myself in a daze but had enough wits about me to begin feverishly typing notes on my phone. This was clearly more than just a dream. I knew the Allfather was real and had gotten used to his bearish Grandfather ways when he wanted my attention. Could this be the actual Loki trying to reach me? And what the heck for?
The first thing I thought to do was to reach out my mentor and friend, Noelle Holmes. A practitioner of modern shamanism and energy work since the 90s, I’ve trusted her spiritual guidance since 2016. I booked a phone appointment with her for the soonest time slot I could manage. The only downside was that it was in a couple of weeks.
Feeling anxious, I reached out to a former coworker who I knew worked with Odin and Loki on a personal level. I sent him a message on Facebook and asked if we could set up a Zoom call to talk about his experience working with the trickster. Three days later, he and his girlfriend chatted with me from Des Moines about his experience working with Loki. The greatest piece of advice that came from that conversation is this:
“I see Loki as more of a navigator of chaos. Think of it like this: you’re in a crowded mall during holiday shopping season. The aisles are packed with people with shopping bags, parents are pushing kids in strollers, people are talking loudly, and everyone’s trying to get to the next store. But Loki steps in front of you, taller than the rest, and paves a path for you to follow him. If you walk behind him, he’ll help you get to your next stop easier than the rest. When things seem chaotic and I can’t make sense of it, he helps me through.”
I took that in and started to feel a little better about the situation. A couple of weeks passed and once I was on the phone with Noelle, I gave her a brief summary of the dream and asked, “Can you tap into this and see what messaging you get? Was this just a dream? Or is the actual Loki part of this?”
Noelle did her usual thing of setting up a protected space, calling upon the ancestors, guides, and angels of the highest frequency, spoke my questions, and then went quiet. After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, she said, “Oh my, what an interesting partner in crime you have here.”
My heart lept and I began to sweat.
“You’re right, it is Loki and he acknowledged that the dream is metaphorical. The way They’re [Spirit] presenting it was by showing you with a lot of energy around your solar plexus [chakra]. The dominating figure in the background was Loki and he was a shadow figure. He was a deep indigo but his image kept changing; lots of shapeshifting. At one point he was a horse, then a griffon, then a smaller dragon, a dog, and then a panther, but he was always indigo. He was trying to assist you but there was always resistance on your side that prevented him from gaining proper access to you. It didn’t look or feel invasive, but what he was doing was removing energetic scar tissue from your solar plexus - old wounds and blockages that had been created by damaged or prohibitive energy.”
She paused to ask if I had any questions. Again, I was feverishly taking notes while my head spun.
“No.”
“Okay. He’s coming in with a sense of transformation, transmutation, to open you up and challenge you in places where you’re holding rigid borders that need to relax and become more empowered with a deeper sense of who you are to activate the fire within. It’s powerful medicine that’s meant to challenge you in uncomfortable ways where you’re overly cautious or skeptical. But he’s here to help break those down and put you into a state of greater fluidity and power.”
Again, I wrote down notes as fast as my thumbs could type.
“Is the energetic scar tissue from past lives or this one?” I asked.
“Predominantly from past lives, but it’s both. He’ll help you honor and empower the divine feminine within you so that it can balance with the divine masculine. His trickster energy is necessary because it helps transmute and empower you. He recognizes you as powerful and will help you step into that more fully.”
“Do you know if he’s associated with fire?” she asked.
Not having known a whole lot about Loki at this point, I said, “I’m not sure, but I think so.”
She went quiet again as she took a moment to look something up on her phone.
“Yes, that’s correct. He is associated with fire, and from what I can gather, since you’re a fire sign, he’s helping you burn through some of the old energy to clear away stagnation. What I’m seeing is really positive and it’s almost . . . affectionate. He’s showing you compassion, Laina. This is all for your highest and best good should you choose to work with him.”
Noelle and I finished our conversation and after I hung up I just sat on my bed for a moment contemplating what had just happened. How was it possible I had drawn the attention of the Norse trickster? How could I be someone he’d want to show compassion to? And what kind of power could he possibly see within me?
When Odin first appeared to me in 2018 I was shocked. When I began my studies in 2016, I never expected to work with any of the Norse deities, but at the time I thought, Who am I to turn down the Allfather?
So, even though I was intimidated and hesitant, I began calling out to Loki and asking him to help me, all in accordance with my highest and greatest good. Most of the time, I would speak to him at night before I would go to sleep, giving him permission to remove this “energetic scar tissue” Noelle had referred to, saying, “Please remove that which no longer serves me, that which doesn’t belong and replenish my energy with only the good.”
And you know what? He did just that.
After inviting Loki to work with me, I’d feel a pulling sensation. It felt like someone was gently moving my arm except my arm remained still and I never felt the pressure of a hand. It’s difficult to put it into words, but I could tell things were being removed from my energy field and I began to feel lighter. I worked with him on this throughout the summer and got to know his energy. Throughout the process of getting to know Loki, there were a couple of moments when he would play his little tricks on me, but for the most part, I was lucky and received his compassionate side when he showed up. By the spring of 2021, Hel stepped forward to work with me too.
Fast forward to North Central midsummer 2021. Taking place in Wisconsin, I traveled to my very first gathering and had a profoundly healing and emotional weekend. Based on circumstances that I knew were not mere coincidences, I realized that Loki and Hel had been slowly guiding me to remove some deeper emotions stored in my heart space too. When the moment presented itself I once again had the choice: am I going to face and release this or remain stagnant?
I chose to face the pain.
Through the help of a compassionate and trustworthy Fellowship Leader, I held the Loki idol and completed a guided meditation that allowed me to travel up the world tree into the upper world, and back down the world tree into the lower world with the ancestors. It was here, amongst those who walked before me, that I realized I had the courage to let go of pain that was stored in my body and my emotional field. I cried then as I am crying now while writing this blog because I firmly believe that my reality would not look like it does now if I had not been brave enough to accept Loki’s help.
After working with Loki, and completing shadow work with Hel shortly thereafter, I began to recalibrate myself throughout the rest of the 2021 year. I attended more gatherings but it was as if I was rebirthing myself and stepping into who I am for the first time.
One of the things I’d always wanted to work towards doing, but didn’t have the client base to support, was to rent a practitioner room at the local metaphysical shop where I could offer singing bowl sound sessions, energy work, and more. The offer had been extended to me once before but I turned it down since I didn’t know if I would even make rent.
In April 2022, the opportunity to rent a practitioner room presented itself again, and this time, I felt Freyja’s gentle push to take it. I hadn’t been working with her for very long, but I trusted her encouraging energy, so I considered it. After texting and messaging some of my fellow pagans in the community when the opportunity knocked (thank you Shannon and Runa!), I trusted Freyja’s recommendation and didn’t look back.
When taking the practitioner room, I knew that I wanted to represent the Norse deities. Once Freyja and Freyr became a steady part of my life, they presented the idea of offering Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine Healing sessions with them, as well as a third session option that focuses on balancing the two. During the sessions, I allow Freyja and Freyr to work through me to clear away anything that is blocking the person and to bring their energies into balance. At the end of the session, the client receives the messages related to their feminine and/or masculine energies that I channeled from the gods.
I am incredibly humbled to be working with the gods in my work and the best part is that I haven’t had to worry about making rent. As Shannon says, “Sometimes you just have to let fate take over and simply go along for the ride.”
As the parent of the Chaos Crew, Loki may not have the most outwardly sensical methods, but my story is proof that he has a compassionate side. He is helpful to work with despite the many shenanigans the mythology recounts. If he knocks on your door, trust that it’s for a reason. He may be encouraging you to stop hiding from yourself, to get out of your own way, or to heal the parts of yourself you never planned on facing so that all the good things in life can come your way. The allthings, if you will.
Thank you, Uncle Loki,
Laina
This is the first blog post written by a non-fellowship leader, we are interested in sharing the voices of the members of our community. If you are interested in adding to our community blog please email us at fellowshipofnortherntraditions@gmail.com with your idea for a blog. We publish once a month, so please understand we cannot accept all entries.
