I can’t get away with not giving Sigyn and Loki by Vera-Ist-44 a mention. It’s my current background, and I will order a print of it for my shrine to Them / Their family / kind of predominantly for Sigyn.
Other than that, I can’t think of a specific example. I know there’s art
in my tags for Them on tumblr, and the faves of my pocky DA account are
primarily of deviations that are associated with Deities (definitely
including Them).
S I G Y N “G O D D E S S O F F I D E L I T Y ; from her birth until her death” |Listen|
i. you’ll be queen one day – ramin djawadi | ii. once upon a dream – lana del rey | iii.love is blindness – jack white | iv. young and beautiful – lana del rey | v. bedroom hymns – florence + the machine | vi. if i had a heart – fever ray | vii. the rains of castemer – sigur rós | viii. sending the earl to valhalla – trevor moriss | ix. he is lost – ramin djawadi |
XXVII. Worst misconception about this deity that you have encountered
I don’t know how prevalent it is, but I’ve found several posts on tumblr responding to the idea that Sigyn only stays with Loki in the Cave because She’s a battered / abused wife. I’m not even quite sure who started this idea, but I think certain fundamentalist / extreme Asatruar are the ones typically referenced. I think it’s the only way they can conceive of a Deity wanting to associate with Loki, and lessen His punishment in the Cave, but I can’t say this with 100% certainty.
Without knowing why someone has made this claim, I can only put forth potential responses.
If they have an issue with Sigyn primarily being a housewife and raising Narvi and Vali, as opposed to being a Warrior Deity like Freya (for example), I’m not sure how they’d react to motherhood in general. Frigga raised Her children and is associated with household duties, but I’ve never heard of anyone trying to say She’s a battered / abused wife.
If they have an issue with Sigyn being married to Loki, there’s only so much I can say to help them out on this. Sigyn and Loki love each Other and made the decision to get married. Loki speaks hard truths that No One will, and He’s associated with keeping events from stagnating (chaos or being a Trickster), but that does not mean He’s abusive. I’ve honestly never heard of anyone having UPG in which Loki’s abusive to Sigyn (or Anyone else He’s associated with), so I can only assume there’s some issue with Loki Himself at the center of this misconception.
Loki doesn’t threaten Sigyn into staying in the Cave, and She chooses to stay there and hold the bowl out of love for Him. I’m honestly not sure if a battered / abused wife would stay and do that, since Loki has been restrained to the point that He cannot leave the Cave and wouldn’t be able to force Anyone to stay with Him. It would be the ideal time to leave an abusive partner, but I can only speculate to a certain degree since I have no experience with domestic abuse. The idea still doesn’t seem to fit with anything that followers of Sigyn and/or Loki have shared regarding holding the bowl and how They feel for each other.
Sigyn, bride of Loki. Goddess of loyalty and forgiveness. Lives with Loki in his subterranean dungeon collecting the venom that drips into his eyes. Some myths say that when Sigyn goes to the river to empty the bowl she holds over him the venom drips into Loki’s eyes and causes him to scream in his agony and it is from his screams that causes earthquakes.
I don’t know if it’s a common mistake so much as a misconception that I’ve run into that Sigyn is weak and flies in the face of feminism. I’m honestly only aware of some people holding these ideas from the presence of responses and take downs on tumblr about how Sigyn isn’t weak and doesn’t go against feminism. She has the emotional strength to make the decision to walk into the Cave and start holding the bowl over Loki despite having lost at least one son (my personal mythology hasn’t settled definitively on whether Vali ran away on the same day that Narvi died or it was sometime afterwards). Sigyn makes the decision to return to Loki every time She empties the bowl, and it’s the decision making that is important. Feminism isn’t one-size-fits-all, and there needs to be the room for individuals to make their own choices. Sigyn chooses to stay by Loki.
Other than those points, I think the only ‘mistake’ someone may make is thinking that Sigyn will only come to a person in a certain way. People bring up Her Child and Bowl Holder aspects, but there are other ways that She can appear – various points in childhood, as a teen, as a bride, as a newlywed / wife, as a mother, bowl-holder, mother of mourning, post-Cave aspects that may include care-taking and/or Ragnarok inducing / contributing, etc. Sigyn is a Goddess, and She is mind-blowingly complex. She can come forward with varying degrees of personal relationships, or offer to help with grieving, or contribute to shadow work, or as a Dom*. The possibilities are large and varied, and She is more than a Bowl Holder or a Child.
Holding the Bowl 