X. Offerings – historical and UPG
I’m not aware of any historical offerings for Sigyn.
As far as physical actions go, the first one would be holding the bowl, which is simply holding an empty bowl in this world in order to take Her place in the Cave. Sigyn may request other actions from an individual, but most people tend to suggest holding the bowl to anyone wanting to interact with or do anything with Sigyn.
In a less literal fashion, a person can hold the bowl in more metaphorical ways – helping to support and aid caregivers, being a caregiver, becoming a hospice worker, volunteering to spend time with physically and/or mentally ill patients, volunteering to spend time with people in nursing homes, providing emotional support and resources to those who are mentally ill, volunteering with hotlines, carrying someone’s baggage on emotionalbaggagecheck.com, etc.
I often share my meals with Someone, and offer the energy to Them as an offering, which provides an extra incentive to remind myself to eat. It also works as a compromise for Them when They want food offerings, and I don’t want to throw out perfectly good food. I had a method for giving water offerings that didn’t require as much energy in the winter, which would involve using a certain ice cube tray and technically making ice cubes that I could let melt for Them. Now, I offer up the water in my water bottles, so I can drink it later.
When it specifically comes to Sigyn’s offerings, I tend to prioritize Her and certain devotional acts for Others (such as Narvi and Vali at Her request). I have basic daily devotional activities that I do for Everyone, which is mostly just a prayer that involves Them all, though I have a few separate ones for certain Deities. While I would feel guilty about doing one of the weekly prayers on a different day, I sometimes just had to meet the daily stuff, do Sigyn’s activities, and call it a day.
As far as causes go, Sigyn is typically associated with caregivers and those who assist the mentally ill through Her aspect of Bowl Holder. She can also be associated with single mothers or parents who have to raise children alone while their spouses are away, helping runaways or children who are homeless for whatever reason, providing food and shelter to the homeless, helping children in domestic abuse situations, raising children with disabilities, and children in the foster system. Though I use ‘children’, I don’t think She would turn away assistance to teens or young adults.
Depending on if one relates to Sigyn as being raised by Njord, there may be a certain amount of ocean or beach related causes, and if She’s related to as a Mother, there may be causes that are more associated with Her children. Groups that work to help find missing children and work that tries to reunite children taken away from their families (such as through war efforts in some countries) may work, or groups that assist and support mothers who have lost their children may work.
If one relates to Sigyn more as Bowl Holder or Loki’s Wife, there may be a greater focus on assisting those who are mentally ill and/or have gone through traumatic experiences. Rehabilitative work may be more focused on, or there may be a focus on those who are the ones helping the mentally ill (caretakers, partners, families, staff, etc.). There may be a focus on spouses or partners that hold the fort in their family such as a military member’s spouse or a partner to someone serving prison time. There may be a general approach to prison volunteering, and someone may opt to be a pen pal to an inmate.
Sigyn may also be associated with helping those who are poor such as helping families to meet their needs – back to school drives to help those with school age children, donating to food banks, and donating to applicable thrift stores. After school programs that assist parents who work late and don’t want their children alone, babysitting, or other community appropriate assistance / volunteering could be causes that Sigyn supports. It depends on how one relates to Sigyn, if they’re focusing on their immediate community, and what resources are available to the community / group one is wanting to help.
The above portions are all from previously written answers, but I still feel they apply here. It can really just depend upon how one relates to Sigyn and what the comet-shard of Sigyn one interacts with asks for, since my Sigyn as a Child may ask for butterfly and snail imagery while someone else’s Sigyn as a Child may focus on lady bugs and starfish. Quite a few of the above suggestions deal with helping someone else, but devotional activities (or sporadic actions) can also focus on other areas. Some versions of Sigyn as a Child or a (rebellious) Teen may focus on independence and survival more so than what others are doing.
This could include learning actual wilderness survival skills, learning first aid that can also be applied to oneself, knowing the resources one can use if one suddenly has no job / no access to food / needs medical assistance without insurance / etc., learning basic self-defense moves, knowing less than legal survival skills (such as picking a lock), etc. Self-dependent skills and acquiring them could also work – knowing what to do when a tire needs changed on a vehicle (whether that’s knowing who to call, or knowing how to change a tire), knowing how to cook / prepare basic meals, knowing basic repair skills until a qualified person arrives (unless one really knows a lot about what just went wrong), knowing how to drive / navigate public transportation, knowing how to manage one’s own finances, etc. Confidence boosting activities or skills can also apply – knowing how to dye one’s hair (or getting it done), getting a temporary (or permanent) tattoo, learning some form of the martial arts, learning how to handle a power tool (or other equipment, such as welding equipment), etc.
It depends on the person and what they know and don’t know. A man could cook really well yet not have the carpentry skills to repair something around the house, and a woman could be a badass at welding and carpentry yet not know what do in a first aid situation. It’s not necessarily about breaking the binary gender expectations, but having a certain amount of knowledge about how to live on one’s own can be extraordinarily helpful (and provide hope, depending on one’s situation).
I tried not to get too narrow in saying what offerings could work for Sigyn, and in the process, I wound up broadening it to an extremely large range of possibilities. I’m going to go ahead and specifically give examples from my own practice, which are quite likely to not apply to others and their practice.
- Food offerings – Butterscotch candies (Child), whatever I’m eating. Drink offerings – water (current default), potentially another drink that I’m drinking, and once I can legally acquire alcohol I’ll probably have some sort of alcoholic beverage for Her.
- Physical actions – holding the bowl once a week (plus the holy day of Loki’s capture), carrying baggage on emotionalbaggagecheck.com , and complying with m’Lady’s rules.
- Not really physical actions – prayer; writing prayers, poems, and other pieces on / for m’Lady; having a tumblr tag for Sigyn, observing certain holy days, and having a tumblr sideblog for m’Lady.
Holding the Bowl 