I love the work that the Wycked Griffin does. The shop artisan made these two devotional runic rings for me for Sigyn and Loki. Not only are they gorgeous but inexpensive as she offers them in aluminum, copper, silver and bronze.
I couldn’t be happier and they make a beautiful pair.
So why did Sigyn not simply dump the bowl, flip it upside down, and stick it on Loki’s idiot head? The poison would slide down the side and away from his eyes…
Myths are myths, not entirely literal accounts of what’s going on in a
literal cave on some other plane. They’re stories that allow us to
grasp otherwise inexpressible truths, and as such they work on a number
of different levels. It’s not always about what makes the most rational
or least painful story.
One one level, this story was an
explanation for why there are earthquakes. We’re talking about Iceland,
where there’s a lot of geological activity. Since the earth was said to
tremble from Loki writhing in pain, it would kind of defeat the point if
he never had to deal with the poison.
In a narrative sense, you have to remember that the Aesir want Loki tortured. That’s why Sigyn and Loki are in this predicament. There are theoretically a lot of things she could do or build to stop the poison drip, but the Aesir probably wouldn’t let that slide. The only reason they put up with the bowl thing may well be that she’s actively suffering for it too.
The torture also helps to justify why Loki fights against the Aesir at
Ragnarok, since let’s face it, you need some pretty hardcore motives to
actively fight to end the world.
But on a deeper level, the
myth isn’t really talking about snakes or bowls or chains. It’s about
concepts like order and chaos, betrayal and loyalty, suffering and
mercy. If the myth were different–if Loki didn’t have to be bound, or
Sigyn didn’t have to make the same sacrifice–then it wouldn’t reflect
those deeper truths.
So, this illustration is really powerful to me. I can’t stop looking at it. I’m struggling not to cry, and clutching this stone that I associated with Sigyn just this morning . It conveys so much of their agony. It hurts me.
Illustration of Sigyn and Loki by John Egerkrans in the book Norse Gods.
Okay, I have to say a thing: Can I just… I’m literally trying not to cry. Someone abusive in my past was obsessed with Sigyn, but reduced her, like Marvel, to a nitwit who blindly loved Loki regardless of transgressions and emotional abuse, as she so often idolized with so many of the relationships she sought to imitate and force onto her… targets. This, I feel, brings so much more life to the Goddess of Fidelity . The agony in this illustration. You do not blindly do this shit for someone you don’t truly care for. True Fidelity must be earned, not gained through tricks. Blind faith in abusers is sickness and dependency, not fidelity and loyalty. Fidelity and loyalty is earned through hard work and built upon trust. Trusting a trickster sounds foolish, but you don’t eternally hold a bowl to save your lover as best you can from agony without them truly deserving it. I’m not saying much on Loki here, aside from I believe he is a god of change, not evil, or malice, or any of the other cruel insults wrought in misunderstanding. People who fear the change, and the other, and the odd might call it evil, but it’s a necessary part of life. The cycle of life, death, and rebirth. You can try to hold it off as long as you can, but the rot that forms will be worse than the cleansing fire of change. This is the principle I live by.
When I am feeling like focusing on the spiritual, particular the Divine I’ve always been in tune with Loki in terms of energy: I’m a chaotic kind of person; I tend to change quickly and without warning (part of being in parts manic and depressive); I believe myself to be a thing of fire and of blood and the moon and all things that shift.
Sometimes the sheer endless chaos of the universe (and my life) is overwhelming and I sink into that cacophony. I have a tendency to lose track of the every day important things when I get obsessed with the novel and the exciting – even if that’s in a negative way like focusing on the ways my depression or mania are manifesting. Work, relationships, my own health (mental and physical) get lost in the whirlwind. I sleep all day, missing appointments, avoiding commitments, then stay up way too late reading and writing and thinking at a mile a minute.
Reading about and meditating on Sigyn is a good way of grounding myself: reminding myself that stability isn’t weakness and that sometimes the mundane requires attention so that the creative and cerebral – art and the pursuit of new knowledge and experience – can be explored more efficiently. So thank you Sigyn for manifesting tonight, letting me find your book again and showing yourself and your spirit in the kindness and care of the people who care about me. You hold the bowl and keep the chaos at bay: our Lady of the blessed mundane, the foundational baseline to the harmonies of the turmultuous universe.
Holding the Bowl 