“Lord of Serpent
Lord of flies
Trickster God before my eyes
Shifting, changing, horned one
Father of witches
hear and come!”

The Great God Loki is a Norse trickster God venerated by the ancient Viking people and often considered to be one of the Asgardians or a members of the royal family of Gods of Norse Heaven. In truth the legends actually state that Loki was the offspring of two giants who were in fact the enemy of the Vikings Gods! Loki swore an oath and became a blood brother to Odin, an act which allowed Loki into Asgard and gave him some of the same powers and privileges possessed by Odin and the other gods. In most Norse myths, Loki is portrayed as a prankster and trickster. His misadventures often involve creating great problems for the Norse gods and for the inhabitants of the other worlds. However when things seem at their very worse for the Gods, Loki often provides the remedy to save the day. His loyalty was often torn between the giants and the gods of Asgard and in trying to please both, he often found himself in deep trouble. Because of his wit and his cunning and mischievous character, Loki earned the name "God of Mischief" or “God of Lies”. He was also considered the "God of Fire" one of the first connections that link him to the Titan Prometheus with whom, in my opinion, he shares a great deal.

Loki could travel freely between the various Norse worlds and often accompanied Odin and Thor on their journeys and adventures throughout the universe. He was a shape shifter and mighty magician, sometimes being referred to as the Father of Witches. The gods often sought his advice, yet when they followed his plan, he sometimes tricked them into dangerous situations.

Loki had a couple of wives and many mistresses. He was the father of at least five children. Three of them came from his marriage to a frost giant named Angrboda. They inherited Loki's shifty character and were a great threat to the Norse gods. One of Loki's children was named Fenrir. He grew from a friendly puppy all the gods loved to a mean shape-shifting wolf that frightened the gods so much they had him leashed, a task that cost the god Tyr his hand. Fenrir plays a powerful role in the eventual demise of the Asgardians and is part of the Norse prophecy for the “end of days”. Another child was named Jormugand who became a serpent. The Aesir threw him into the sea where he grew so large he encircled the earth biting his own tail. This is now of course a powerful occult symbol called the Ouroboros, a symbol for infinity and eternity associated with the enlightened seeming to suggest that the Asgardiams were in some way frightened of these qualities. The last of the three was Hel, the Queen of Death. Half of her was as white as snow representing life while the other half was as black as night representing death. Hel lived (though some sau against her will) in Helheim, the Underworld. This was the land of final rest for all Vikings (except a select number of warriors who joined Odin in Valhalla) she was also a mighty sorceress and much feared by the Asgardians. In many accounts she would later team up with her Father and attempt to over throw those who had banished her.

Sometimes the tricks Loki played backfired on him and the trickster suffered the consequences of his own reckless behaviour. The gods' toleration of Loki ended on one of these occasions. The story "Baldur's Death" is very popular in Norse methodology and marks the beginning of the prophesy of the end of the universe as the Norse believed it existed. The myth begins with Baldur's dream that he was going to die. Frigga, his Goddess mother, decided to protect her kind and gentle son from danger. She travelled the world asking every living and non-living thing not to hurt Baldur. All agreed. Thinking it harmless, Frigga overlooked the simple mistletoe plant that grew just outside the kingdom (a plant sacred to the Druids!). When they gathered, the Gods enjoyed throwing deadly objects at Baldur only to see his invincibility protect him from death. Loki, trying to learn what was happening, changed into a pestering old woman and questioned Frigga about the game. Loki listened with interest as Frigga explained how nothing could hurt or kill her son. He asked if there were any exceptions. Unable to lie, even to protect her son, Frigga told of the mistletoe she had overlooked. Not wasting any time, Loki took some mistletoe and fashioned it into a sharp dart and joined the gathering of gods. He approached Hod, Baldur's blind half brother who was not participating in the game, and tricked him into throwing the deadly dart at his sibling. The dart struck Baldur in the heart, killing him instantly. Distraught, Frigga assembled all the gods and asked that one of them travel to the underworld to ask Hela, the Goddess of Death and keeper of the underworld, to spare her son. Hermod, the God of Courage and another of Odin's sons, volunteered for the nine day journey. Hela agreed to Frigga's request only if everyone mourned Baldur's death. Hermod returned to Asgard with Hela's condition to spare Baldur of his fate. Soon all living things and even the mountains and rivers wept for Baldur. Loki, who was now disguised as a female giantess, refused saying she would only shed a dry tear. Baldur was doomed to stay in Hela. The Gods were angered by the giantess who they now believed to be Loki in disguise. Fearing his fate at their hands, Loki fled into the mountains to hide. He built a house with doors on each wall so he could watch for and escape from the gods who he knew would be looking for him. One night he wondered what the Gods would use to capture him and invented a fishing net. Surprised by the Gods' sudden appearance, Loki threw the net into a fire, shape-shifted to a salmon (an animal sacred to the Druids and considered to be the most wise of all animals) and hid beneath a waterfall in a nearby stream. From his thrown in Asgard, Odin spotted Loki and sent Thor to capture him. Finding the ashes of the net and guessing what it was, Thor had another made and waded into the river. Each of the three times he cast the net, Loki escaped. On the fourth cast, Loki, still a salmon, leaped out of the water to evade the net yet again. This time Thor grabbed and held the trickster by the tail. Loki was taken to a cave deep within the earth where he was bound by unbreakable iron chains. The cave was the home of a poisonous snake which dripped its venom on Loki's face. It caused Loki great pain. His devoted goddess wife Sigyn tried to comfort him by catching the poison in a bowl. When the bowl was full, she left Loki to empty it. The poison covered his face once again. The muscle spasms caused by the pain shook the earth. To the Vikings, Loki's squirming was the cause of earthquakes.
This tale is of course allegorical and in time I shall explore its true meaning under Loki’s direct guidance!

Loki and I
I have always been fascinated by Loki, as an early child I was both drawn and repulsed by the marvel comic book depiction of him later conceding to my fascination and researching him a little, choosing his name as part of my first ever email address (lokibadwitch) and even contemplating adopting it as my magickal name (until a friend of mine put me off!). However it is only since moving to Cumbria that I have made direct contact with this God and entered into an agreement with him. Almost the moment Andrew and I decided to move here I began to be stalked by the God. On visiting the house that we now live I remember being horrified to be confronted with a hedge in the back garden which seemed alive with flies, an insect I have up until recently detested and seen only as being a totem of infestation. I later re discovered that these are one of Loki’s totems and represent his mischievous, naughty nature as well as his power to spy and see. Later Andrew and I discovered, when looking at magickal and spiritual sights in the vicinity, the Loki stone (see picture above) . The Loki Stone is a Viking artefact, a carving of the Great God Loki which lives in a church not to far from where we live! Andrew and I visited it last Halloween, walking in on a funeral held in the Church (despite our assurances from the Tourist Information that nothing was scheduled for that day), one of Loki’s pranks but later returning to find it a most incredible and powerful object indeed. Later still I came across an article written by Mordant Carnival in a magazine called The Oracle about the difficulties and delight of working with Loki, it was after this (and after much deliberation and assurance from my guides that it was a safe thing to do) that I connected with Loki directly and we made an accord. Loki believes that the role and archetype of the trickster (as well as himself) have been misrepresented and desires, in part through me, to set the record straight. We agreed to create this page in which the spiritual teachings and truths could be documented and revealed so that others might recognise the true power and role of the Trickster and see how they might call upon this power and use this wisdom in their lives. This page then is an attempt to do just that! Over the weeks and months of this year I will be adding more and more to this page as it is given to me by Loki concerning the tricksters power, role, path and function as well as those exercises and magickal devices that can be used to call upon his power safely and for good purpose. Please then do check back regularly to read the updates as they come and be open to the wonders and truths of this most maligned, overlooked and misunderstood Gods.

Part 1 - Signs and Symbols - The Double Headed Serpent
One of the symbols associated to Loki (and the trickster archetype) is the serpent or snake or in particular the Double Headed Serpent (see background). The double headed serpent has one head with closed mouth representing its release of the past and acknowledgement of the importance of experience and the other head with the mouth open, representing the embracing and acceptance of what the future brings, as well as foresight and prophecy. Loki says the trickster does not live in the present, having no concern for the consequences of his actions but rather always in the past and the future. The what was (and is to be learned from) and the what is yet to be (the potential, the future). As the double headed serpent has no tail he moves silently, sneaking up on his victim (those he might transmute and alchemise). He is deadly (as in a shamanic or psychic death) and transformative bringing change and metamorphosis. As the double headed serpent/trickster has no tail (no tale) he has no story to tell about himself other than those which he inspires and brings into being. The serpents tendency to shed its skin is also symbolic of the trickster shape shifting power, his power to assume the forms that those people impose upon him, becoming what others want him to be. The trickster teaches and inspires, transforms and initiates by making the student their own teacher, inspiration and initiator through his trickery, which is all the more powerful and empowering. The trickster will risk anything in order to teach (as seen in the Loki myth) including self destruction, risking the inducement of chaos in order to expose the truth, those things most people do not want to see. The serpents/tricksters eyes beguile, enchanting with their luminous nature, they hold sacred light. The light of many truths and many lies, the light of inspiration and revelation.

Loki says that the double headed serpent lies within every heart, where deception (self deception and the ways in which we deceive others and the world) as well as truth is found. Once head is raised to heaven (the illusionary planes of truth which grow ever clearer as they raise higher towards the Divine Source) and one head pointed downwards to earth (the illusionary and deceptive planes of nature and reality). The trickster being of course a twin, the twin heads of the serpent representing truth and lies, deception and revelation, chaos and order, using one to expose the other and enable it to be seen. “Unwelcome truths …” Loki says “ … being the greatest teachers! When someone is tricked and then realise this to be so they are in that same moment exposed, changed and transformed forever!” This then is why Loki is seen as a God of Fire, because he is an alchemical God of change, his venom (the venom that ultimately he himself suffers from) being the alchemical elixir which brings about lasting change through trickery, deceit and often pain.

Part 2 - The Danger Of Self-Deceit
It is easy to think of the Trickster as evil or negative, as a nuisance presence that serves no purpose other than to confound, delay, irritate and baffle, wound and offend, humiliate and bind but of course this is not so.

The Trickster is much more than someone who betrays and endangers for no sake other than to amuse or empower their own self. The trickster is no weak willed insipid fool, powerless and lacking confidence, finding merit in how nimbly they can tie lesser devious minds with their wit or fill their greedy coffers with the spoils of their clever art. The Trickster is a teacher, an initiator and friend to humanity. Someone who warns of greater impending danger than they might ever pose by illuminating the world with their tricks.

The Trickster is an anti hero, a being who shows the way by guiding the hero through a trial that will ultimately make them wiser and more experienced, exposing them to truths that they would never have encountered were it not for the Trickster’s merry dance and although these adventures are never painless or pleasant they are ultimately beneficial and essential. They are educational and an initiation of the highest order and without them humanity and many of its hero’s would have been lost. Ill equipped to deal with the true dangers that life would later face them with.

In the past the Trickster has been wise magician like Merlin, or mysteries priestess like Morgaine Le Fey, they have been the wise and respected Solomon and the enigmatic Queen of Sheba, they have been Delilah, Pandora, the Native American Peyote and the cunning wicked Queen in snow White and all those in between. All those who have fooled and tricked, who have exposed and shown danger and deceit so that its face might be learned and people initiated. Prepared so that they needn’t be endangered by this folly again.

The wisest teaching of course that the Trickster has to give is that of the harm that lies do, not just the ones woven like a spiders web that the Trickster uses. Lies that are often, in many tales their own undoing, no! The lies that the Trickster exposes as being of great danger, like dark seeds planted absent mindedly in the hearts of humanity daily, the lies and tricks that they use against themselves! For these lies do great harm to the very fabric of the human being, to their health, to their Soul. These lies, which many granted do not even know that they hold and enforce, disrupt the nature of the harmony of the subtle forms of man, creating separation from the mental, emotional and physical bodies that allows infection and disease to enter in!

Self deception is a killer, the little falsities that humanity commits to, admits to and excuses themselves with … “my memory is poor” when in truth you could just not be bothered to try to remember! “I’m a little deaf” when in truth you were simply not paying attention! “I’ve had a sleepless night again” when in truth you did not sleep at all because you were making merry or too drunk to sleep and take the rest you needed! These lies, these simple lies that seem to do no real harm other than debase yourself in truth programme you and go against your inner sense of right and honesty. These lies are the greatest danger that the Trickster often will expose, using all their guile and magick to catch you out and expose you to yourself before it is too late.

For some of course it is already too late, they have convinced themselves that these lies are true, that they need the drugs or did not hear the cries, that they did not have any change or cannot make a difference even if they wanted to! These people have not only disempowered themselves to making changes to the world around them or someone else’s lives but signed away their right to health, taken harm to their own body and being and by affirming something they know, deep in their heart of hearts not to be true! They have harmed themselves, sometimes irreparably and at the same time disempowered themselves in their own life!

So .. . what can be done? Humanity needs to be more honest with themselves, this much is clear and although in principle this sounds like an easy thing to do, after all who doesn’t know deep down when they are being lying, in some cases when the lie has been accepted it is hard to find and unearth! In these cases the Trickster can be invoked to set you free! To trip you up and without any danger expose you to yourself. To show you what you need to know and free you from those practices of self deceit that may do you harm.

Here then is a simple prayer which can be used to help you, this too can be used on another, to expose them if you feel they are hiding from a truth which is doing them harm or even those who are using lies to harm others! This prayer does not in any way impede their free will but rather holds a mirror of truth, illuminating their lives with a light that can expose them for their greater good and the greater good of others. This prayer, this spell is powerful and of course is not to be used selfishly or for entertainment. To do so will incur the Tricksters wrath, something which I assure you is not a wise course of action so beware! However for those whose hearts are filled with good intentions this may help considerably and is my gift to you.

“Trickster, Trickster veiled in night,
leave your shadow for the light,
bring that which only you can see,
reveal, reveal these lies to me.
Let them be known,
let them be seen,
reveal and heal,
so mote it be.”

Say then this simple rhyme three times and leave the rest to the power of the Tricksters.