The trickster god is a complex character, a master of guile and deception. He is also conceived of as a fire spirit, with all the potential for good and ill associated with fire. Loki is also an adept shape-shifter, with the ability to change both form (examples include transmogrification to a salmon, horse, bird, flea, etc.) and sex.

On at least one occasion Loki gave birth to a horse – none other than Odin's eight-legged steed, Sleipnir: "A giant had undertaken to build the gods a fortress, his reward being Freyja and the sun and moon, provided the work was done by a given time. His sole helper was his horse, Svathilfari. The work being nearly done, and the gods fearing to lose Freyja and the sun and moon, Loki turned himself into a mare, and so effectually distracted Svathilfari from his task that shortly afterwards Loki gave birth to Othin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir." (The Poetic Edda, translated by Henry Adams Bellows, 1936). Loki's other offspring are Fenrir the wolf, Jormungandr (the Midgard serpent), and Hel, the queen of Nifelheim, the world of the dead (underworld).

Ásatrú is an Icelandic/Old Norse term consisting of two parts: Ása (Genitive of Æsir) referring to the gods and goddesses. The faith is also referred to as Norse or Germanic Heathenry.

"In the myth of Baldr´s death in Gylfaginning 48 Loki´s demonic aspect reveals itself at full strength: here he lives up to his reputation of being the most evil and malevolent of the gods. The story runs as follows: Baldr has been having dreams which reveal to him that he soon will be dead. The Aesir decide to try and stop this and Frigga makes every creature, living as well as dead take an oath not to harm Baldr in any way. The mistletoe is left out, as it was believed to be too weak to harm anyone. Baldr then becomes practically invulnerable, and the Aesir make it their sport to try their weapons against him, inflicting no harm on him whatsoever. This annoys Loki, who assumes the shape of a woman in order to trick Freyja into telling him how Baldr can be harmed, and he is told that the mistletoe were exempted from the oath. He then designs a missile weapon out of mistletoe, and talks the blind god Höder into using it on Baldr. The missile hits and kills Baldr. The Aesir decide to bring him back from Hel, where he lives after his death. They send a messenger to Hel, who returns with the answer that Baldr may return to the living if all creatures on earth would cry over him. Every creature does so, except for one giantess, who refuses to shed a tear for Baldr. This is, of course, Loki in disguise, and the Aesir decide to catch and punish him, not only for being the instigator of Baldr´s killing, but also for keeping him from coming back to life again. Loki flees, and hides in a house with doors in all directions, assuming the shape of a salmon during the days. He designs a net out of linen, but throws it into the fire when he realises that his hideout has been spotted, and takes refuge in the river in his salmon shape. The Aesir enter the house, and Kvasir, the most clever of the gods, sees the net pattern in the ashes and figures out how the net works. He designs a net of his own, and the Aesir then go fishing. Loki is captured and tied to three pointy rocks with the bowels of his son Narfi, and has to stay confined until the end of time. A poisonous snake is placed above his head, dripping its venom on his face, thereby causing him tremendous pain. Sigyn, Loki´s loyal wife, then takes a bowl and holds it over Loki´s head to protect him from the venom, but when she has to empty it every once in a while, Loki writhes in pain, causing the writhings of the ground we know as earthquakes in the process."   Source

As a trickster (like Raven and Wolverine in North American mythology), Loki's other day is April 1 – April Fools' Day.

Loki and the Dwarf    Loki, the Unappreciated and Misunderstood

The Demonology of Northern Europe    Vikings! at the Scriptorium    More on Sigyn at Godchecker

The blue and white protrusion visible on the limb is an eruption of Volcano Loki. This picture of Io was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in July 1979, during its closest approach to Jupiter's satellite. Source: NASA

The Trickster of Folklore

By Susanna Duffy

Folklore includes a traditional trickster figure, the subject of many stories in a cycle. Trickster tales are in the animal tales genre, with the trickster himself – he seems always to be male – identified with a particular animal. These include the fox in Japan, mouse deer in Southeast Asia, the coyote and the spider among the Native Americans, the tortoise and spider in West Africa, and the mantis in Southern Africa.

These tales feature a trickster-hero who may be regarded as both creator god and innocent fool, evil destroyer and childlike prankster.

Tricksters are usually small in size next to the large, strong animals that appear in the same folktales. Tricksters survive by their wits, but they do more than just survive. They constantly play tricks on the animals around them, outwitting and mistreating their powerful neighbours even when these larger animals haven't done anything to deserve it. Occasionally he overreaches himself and finds that he's been too clever for his own good.

It's the Trickster who points out the flaws in our carefully managed societies. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates complex schemes and generally plays with the Laws of the Universe. He constantly questions the rules, and causes us to question these same rules. The Trickster appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded, when old ways need to be changed.

The Trickster is a creator, a joker, a truth teller, a story teller, a transformer. We are most accessible to the gifts of the Trickster when we ourselves are at, or near, boundaries - when we are experiencing transition states. As an archetype, the Trickster, the boundary dweller, finds expression through human imagination and experience.

Trickster tales are great favourites in many cultures. They represent the underdog who uses skill and cunning to outwit a superior. West African trickster animals have a significant presence in the New World, when they travelled as part of the folklore of enslaved Africans. The rabbit is best known as Br'er Rabbit in the folktales documented by Joel Chandler Harris in the USA. We also find him in his modern avatar, Bugs Bunny !

The spider is best known as Anansi, and you find him throughout the former English and French colonies of the West Indies.

The role of the slave trickster tales was an important one giving a sense of pride and hope for the future. They showed that the weak could conquer the strong. The tales were devices that taught helplessness can triumph over virtue and mischievousness is better than malice. For the slaves, trickster folklore was also a weapon by which they were able to take subtle revenge on their masters.

Susanna Duffy is a Civil Celebrant, grief counsellor and mythologist. She creates ceremonies and Rites of Passage for individual and civic functions, and specialises in celebrations for women.  

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ Republished with permission.

Hekate, or Hecate
"The last day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Hekate. In ancient times, worshippers would leave a 'Hecate's Supper' with specially prepared foods as offerings to Hecate. The offerings were also gifts to appease the restless ghosts, called apotropaioi by the Greeks. These offerings are best prepared for the goddess on the eve of the new moon, to be left behind at crossroads at night, without looking back."    Source  

Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

Esala Perahera (Festival of Buddha's Tooth), Sri Lanka (Jul 22 - Aug 1) (2004)

Lammas Eve (Oidche Lugnasa), Celtic

Feast day of St Germanus of Auxerre

Feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
(Great mullen, Verbuscum virgatum is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Ignatius (possibly December 24, 1491 - July 31, 1556), was born in the castle of Loyola in Guipúzcoa, Spain, a part of Biscay adjoining the Pyrenees, and baptized Iñigo Lopez de Loyola. As a mystic and writer, he is best known for Spiritual Exercises. He grew up in the court of Ferdinand V, as a page and, after entering army service, he distinguished himself and was injured in the siege of Pampeluna (Pamplona) (May 20, 1521). He was, however, licentious, and also wrote poetry.    ;)

St Peter appeared to him on the eve of St Peter's feast (in other words, on June 28), and said he had come to cure him of his injuries, and a cure did indeed follow. However, later he had part of the injured bone cut off because of the deformity that had been caused. He would not allow himself to be bound for the sawing off of his bone. His leg shrank so he put it on a kind of rack.

One night when he was praying, the Virgin Mary, with Jesus in her arms, appeared to him after a great noise shook his chamber. Thereupon he vowed to embrace a life in which he might inflict his body with pains.

Setting out in 1522, walking to Jerusalem wearing a coarse canvas cassock, he never cut his beard, hair or nails, and slept on a board or else the bare ground. He spent much of the night weeping, praying and watching. This will hardly surprise the astute reader. Ignatius also scourged himself three times a day. By 1523, he had become infirm because of this, and arrived at Jerusalem on September 4, often stumbling on the way.

In 1528, he begged money and goods from merchants and founded the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, whom he later persuaded Pope Paul III to send as missionaries to the East Indies (Indonesia) where Portugal was gaining a colonial foothold. In an underground chapel on August 15, 1534, at Montmartre, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, Diego Lainez and several others, took solemn vows of poverty, celibacy and devotion of their lives to the care of Christians and the conversion of infidels. Such was the foundation of the Society of Jesus. By 1534, he had six key followers, including Francis Xavier, who is generally credited with taking Christianity to Japan.

Ignatius used to weep so much while praying that the doctors told him it would affect his health, so he prayed for control over tears. He was later able to weep at will.

Satan and demons came to him and tormented him: one night two devils whipped him cruelly. He could work miracles: after his death, water in which one of his bones had been dipped was used at Burgos hospital to cure the ill. A later saint had his autograph for a relic to work miracles. In 1599, at Ancona, at a schoolmaster's house, there was tremendous poltergeist activity, but it stopped when the man hung up a picture of St Ignatius. Or, so it is said.

Famous Jesuits

Some famous Jesuits who are remembered for achievements other than being Jesuits, and who we mention in the Book of Days, include German polymath Athanasius Kircher, British Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, and French palaeontologist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

 

Did Loyola's follower, Xavier, introduce Christianity to Japan?

The introduction of Christianity to Japan is frequently, one might say usually, credited to St Francis Xavier, and the date given is 1549. For example, Kondansha's Encyclopedia of Japan makes that claim, and Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopaedia of Religion, seems to accept the received wisdom.

However, modern research indicates that the Christian gospel was already ancient in Japan when Xavier first set foot there ... More in the Book of Days

Feast day of St John Colombini, founder of the order of the Jesuati

Feast day of St Justin de Jacobis

Feast day of the Marytrs of Syria

Feast day of St Neot
This monk of Glastonbury was a hermit who reportedly stood a mere 15 inches tall and spent much of his day up to his neck in a well during his devotions. Neot had an empathy with animals and birds, and worked miracles with them.

Feast day of St Peter Quy

Feast day of St Zdenka Schelingova

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Ka Hae Hawai'i, Hawaiian Flag Day
In 1990, Governor of Hawaii John D Waihee III proclaimed July 31 to be Ka Hae Hawai'i or Hawaiian Flag Day.

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

Upswing of the Revolution, Republic of the Congo

 

 

 

On which day of the week were you born? Find out here

1396 Philip III of Burgundy (d. 1467), duke of Burgundy

 

1578 Juliet Capulet, ill-fated fictional lover of Romeo Montague in Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet.

How do we know this was Juliet's birthday?

"Come Lammas eve at night shall she be fourteen. That shall she, marry; I remember it well. 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, an' she was weaned."

Shakespeare's characters spoke as if they were English people living in his own times; London had an earthquake in 1580. She would have been two when weaned. Tomorrow, August 1, is the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Lammas, and today is Lammas Eve. These clues can make us confident that we may wish Juliet a happy birthday today.

 

1803 John Ericsson (d. 1889), Swedish inventor and engineer

1816 George Henry Thomas (d. 1870), American general

1892 Herbert W Armstrong (d. January 16, 1986), founder of the cult known as the Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College; father of Garner Ted Armstrong. Allegations have been made that he was guilty of incest with his daughter for a period of approximately ten years.

Survivors of Armstrongism    Ambassador Watch

Christian evangelist scandals    More    More    And more

1901 Jean Dubuffet (d. 1985), painter and sculptor

1912 Milton Friedman, American economist, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics

1912 Irv Kupcinet, newspaper columnist

1914 Louis de Funès (d. 1983), actor and comedian

1916 Bill Todman (d. 1979), game show producer

1919 Curt Gowdy, sports announcer

1919 Primo Levi (d. 1987), author, chemist

1921 Peter Benenson (d. February 25, 2005), British lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI)

1921 Whitney Young (d. 1971), civil rights activist

1923 Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive

1928 Kurt Sontheimer, political scientist

1930 Oleg Popov, Russian clown and circus artist

1939 France Nuyen, French actress

1943 William Bennett, former US Secretary of Education and 'drug czar'

1944 Geraldine Chaplin, Charlie's actress daughter

1945 Gary Lewis, rock and roll musician

1946 Bob Welch, rock and roll musician

1958 Bill Berry, rock and roll musician (of the band REM)

1958 Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner

1959 Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist

1962 Wesley Snipes, actor

1964 Jim Corr, singer, musician (The Corrs)

1965 JK Rowling (pictured at right), novelist (Harry Potter stories)

1966 Dean Cain, actor

Year unknown Harry Potter (see this explication for the confusion surrounding the year of his birth), born on the same day as JK Rowling (see above), also born on July 31 (1965)

 

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