The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/norse-mythology/page/2)
Sometimes, the Mead of Poetry works indirectly. An old rock ‘n’ roll song is stuck on repeat in my head, spinning unceasingly between my ears. Actually, it’s not even an entire song. It’s just a verse or a chorus or sometimes only a line or two. Someone else’s creative creation gets lodged in there, doing work on my mind that only I can hear.
A newly-discovered species of dinosaur, Lokiceratops rangiformis, shares its name with the Norse trickster god Loki.
In direct contrast to the supposedly universal “golden rule” and the “turn the other cheek” message of Christ, Odin teaches that we have no responsibility to be love our enemies. That particular Heathen teaching is a large part of what leads someone like me to be uncomfortable with some of Martin Luther King’s principles, but it does not mean that the embrace of violence is the answer.”
We choose how we relate to the deities of our tradition. Our choice is not made for us by ancient poets, modern practitioners, or academic scholars.
I know I’m in a tiny minority, but – as a practitioner of a tiny minority religion – I’m used to caring about things that are way outside the mainstream of our cultural discourse. And I wonder what we practitioners can offer during this cultural moment in which the majority of us are passively experiencing a major paradigm shift, in which most of us are just unquestioningly along for the ride.