Devotional blog dedicated to the Goddess Sigyn offering support to those who are "holding the bowl" within difficult relationships.
Sigyn embodies and teaches everything we could ever hope to learn about love, compassion, and many other virtues as well. Where is love in our religion? It rests with Sigyn. Where is compassion? In Her heart.
Sigyn is about wholeness too, in the face of sometimes crushing anguish. She is the Lady of Enduring Grace, the One Who does not yield ever. She does what she committed her heart and mind and hands to do, even when the cost is terrible.
In the name of the love Sigyn and Loki have for Their lost sons, remember Vali. In the name of the love between Narvi and Vali, who some said were as close as twins, remember Him. Remember Him as you remember all children torn too soon from their families. Remember Him in the name of all, who, like Vali himself, have suffered from the horrors that have befallen them.
July for Loki
So back in June when I was doing my Litha ritual, I believe I had a sort of incident with Loki, where he revealed/ introduced his wife Sigyn to me and sort of encouraged me to honor Her as well. It was very sweet and very overpowering; I could absolutely feel the love He has for Her. So in exchange for this… vision I guess I could call it, I offered to dedicate one of the offering days in July to Sigyn. This is the prayer I designed for Her.
Please, please, please, if you work with Sigyn or know anything more about her, and see something offensive or wrong with this, please tell me! I am just staring in my honoring of Sigyn (and Loki for that matter) and don’t want to dedicate anything to Her that is glaringly incorrect. Does this prayer jive with anyone else’s experience with Her?
Sigyn, Devoted Lady and Wife
Surrounded by gillyflowers/wallflowers, which symbolize loyalty in adversity
Sigyn’s way is simple: constancy of heart, in the face of hatred, opposition, jealousy, slander, exhaustion, grief, anguish, rage, despair and a thousand other obstacles that life has a way of creating. She is constancy of purpose.
[We] call Sigyn “My Lady of the Staying Power,” because She is vast, and Her strength is vast even as it is so completely unassuming. It simply is and will not be moved. She is the “Lady of Unyielding Gentleness” for much the same reason. Her gentleness of spirit is Her shield and Her strength, and in it She is fierce. Her devotion is Her armor.
Our Lady of the Staying Power, by Galina Krasskova. (via einmyrias)
Take notes here Marvel if you decide to try this character again in future.
(via thormovies)
^^^All of this. Though there is still a lot of assumption that because a woman is gentle, she cannot also be strong. (Or that in order to be strong, she has to wield a big ol’ sword.)
I was reading Clash of Kings and I felt inspired to write a Mother’s Hymn but for Loki and I
I just
Im so sorry
That first stanza I just
And then I started laughing and I
Im so sorry
by Fuensanta Arismendi
I am burned beyond words.
Deeds are hollow.
My soul is as light as a fossil
beyond all passion, all joy, all love.
But love spawned duty once and for love’s dead sake,
I’ll hold the bowl,
go through the motions,
and hope they taste to You
as once loved ones did.
Please may this be as cruel and brief
as the ebbing tide;
and may the blessed waves
wash us clean of this drought.
I’ll hold the bowl.“Hold the bowl. I never thought it would feel so foreign and yet so right to do so. We always think of serving the Gods by scurrying around doing things. Now I serve by ‘just standing there.’ I serve just by keeping still. My back itches. Hold the bowl. What does She have to look at as She holds the bowl day after day, year after year? Is Her Husband all She looks at, all She needs? Or does She sometimes look away, to dank walls and bare ground? Can She see Loki at all, or is it dark in the cave, endless night? Hold the bowl. If it is dark, how can She tell when the bowl overflows? When Loki screams? Damn, I’m crying and I can’t blow my nose. Hold the bowl.
Do They speak to each other? What is there to articulate when this endless choice to stay and endure says all that needs to be said? Does Sigyn think of Her children or has grief turned Her to stone, the better to give Her strength? No, I don’t think so––She is the Lady of the Invincible Heart, the Goddess of Unyielding Gentleness. Hold the bowl. Time is going so slowly and I know I’ll stop after ten minutes––what must it feel like for Her, who does not even know if this will ever stop, this infinity of stillness and grief and pain? Hold the bowl.
The monologue goes on, combining fervor and triviality. At times, one reaches a state of grace in which no thoughts or feelings intrude. All one’s being is intent on simply being still, and being there. And when the ten minutes have elapsed, part of me is relieved to stop, and part of me feels exiled from my true place, the place I fear, the place I pray to be in because if They are in that cave, then that cave is my only home. Hold the bowl…
Ten minutes seems like nothing until the weight of the bowl fills my hands, pulls at my arms. It seems to me that if everyone who loved Sigyn and Loki held the bowl for just a little bit, just ten minutes a day, perhaps She would not have to hold it at all.”
––––––
[A bit lengthy, but I needed to share this excerpt because it hit me in a really deep part of my heart. That last sentence, in particular, almost moved me to tears.]
The thing about Sigyn is that she’s a perfect example of how a woman can be strong and powerful without picking up a sword. Warrior women are amazing and wonderful and I love them but physical strength is not the only way a woman can be strong. I think a lot of women who are strong in other ways tend to get overlooked as weak when really their power is simply manifested in less obvious ways.
Sigyn’s strength is in her constancy and her loyalty and her compassion. She may not be skilled with a blade like Sif, but her heart is a shield for the people she loves and it takes a great deal of endurance to shoulder that burden.
She has a quieter strength and she wields patience and compassion as her weapons of choice and I just think that’s really beautiful.
Holding the Bowl 