Update on those following those who protested the Loki...
Update on those following those who protested the Loki ban at Trothmoot
avenging-superwholock-with-loki:
According to the official Trothmoot website Loki is and always is banned…. Here is an excerpt:
The Troth affirms the right of individuals and groups to freely…
First of all…you’re from Indy?! Holy crap. I am at IU in Bloomington!!
Now…I can definitely understand not wanting to invoke certain deities that might not “work well together” at the same time, even if it doesn’t quite mesh with my conception of divine powers. I even felt awkward last night sitting down to write something honoring Baldr for Midsummer. I know all this is very silly, but the thought still entered my mind. What if Loki shows up when I am trying to honor the very God He killed? Stuff like that. I don’t think I would call Baldr and Loki specifically at a ritual, strictly out of principle. As I said, the thought that they might burst out fighting or something doesn’t mesh with my idea of how the Gods manifest during offerings, but it’s the principle of the thing.
This is the part where I go red in the face because I forgot the format for how a Troth Ritual would be performed. Apologies. All the public rituals I’ve ever been to have been very…Wiccaish. Even the less denominational ones, and even that Hellenic one. And then I realized that’s not how the Troth does things. They’re a little more reverential and less ecstatic and invocational, from what I’ve been able to gather.
Also, I realized that a) Loki wouldn’t be stupid enough to start anything and b) I doubt the other gods would be so barbaric as to start something either. Also, there’s a simple fix that a person organizing or ANYONE ELSE AT THE EVENT could quietly ask that someone (Tyr, Frigga, Heimdall, any of the upper tier deities more Lawful than Chaotic) keep the peace.
I think a lot of my vitriol (that has two ‘i’s?) was primarily a knee-jerk distaste for Loki, looking more at his crimes and never once really considering His necessity, and that of the other Jotuns, in the cosmological standpoint, their roles in the things. I’m sorry. Thank you for helping jolt me out of my complacency a bit. I need to reconsider and reevaluate my position and attitude towards the Jotuns and other Non-Aesir/Vanir beings.
I am going to go ahead and stop complaining after this one, because my journal has become a long stream of rants about the Troth tonight, and I am already setting myself up for a shitstorm from some of my followers, I know it. XD I don’t want to make anyone feel like I don’t respect them: I respect all heathens, even when I intensely disagree with some of the things they do. I respect the Troth for honoring our Gods (well, most of them) and working to rebuild the old traditions. These are all good things. I am not calling them a “bad” organization, or anything. I also don’t expect people to agree with me. My “boycott” or whatever it is of the Troth is a personal decision on my part, and one that, admittedly, reflects a lot of my biases.
I THINK the ritual where this ban would really be an issue is in Sumbel. I don’t know if you have gone to one before, but basically a horn of mead is passed around and everyone raises it in toast to honor a specific God, etc. (Usually it’s done in three rounds: God, hero or spirit, and your own accomplishments) Now, of course, this would be intensely problematic for someone who honors Loki and wants to toast Him publicly, even though there would be no particular reason not to do so. Everyone is going to be toasting and honoring different deities, and honestly I think He would be more inclined to crash a party He wasn’t invited to than one where He was honored alongside the other Gods.I also want to know where they are going to draw the line here. From reading their “About Us” I can gather that Fenrir, the Midgard Snake, and Angrboda are definitely also banned because They are seen as “hostile” forces. Hel, shockingly, seems to have escaped this label. But Loki is not even included in their list of “hostile” powers: actually, no reason is given for the Loki ban at all, nor are the perimeters specified. For example, what about the following toasts:
Hail Sigyn, loyal wife of Loki, who stays by His side even when He is cast out by the Aesir and Vanir!
Hail Vali and Narfi, innocent victims of a burden that was not Theirs to bear!
Hail Skadi, loyal daughter who sought to avenge Her father’s death!
Hail Hodr, the forgotten victim!
Hail Hel, Baldur’s warden and Captain of the Ship of Nails!
In short, it’s not as black and white as “excluding Loki from Sumbel to spare some Heathens’ delicate sensibilities and easily offended temperaments.” It is unclear where they want the line to be drawn, and why. Hailing Loki because He presented Thor with Mjolnir or something of that nature is not nearly as “antagonistic” towards the rest of the Gods than some of the other hails I listed above. Banning Loki might be a “quick fix” to appease some uneasy heathens, but with it comes a gross simplification of Deities and horribly antagonistic attitudes towards a part of our community that already feels very excluded from the broader Heathen world.
