Gnosis Diary: Life as a Heathen

My personal experiences, including religious and spiritual experiences, community interaction, general heathenry, and modern life on my heathen path, which is Asatru.

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Sacred Jewelry for Lodhur

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Dedicating jewelry to specific gods or goddesses and wearing it to honor them is something that many heathens and pagans do. Most heathens have a Thorshammer pendant, although for some of us it is not so much for Thor as it is just to identify as heathen. When I want to dedicate something to a god, I usually try to make it myself or repurpose something I already have, to use both less money and fewer of the Earth's resources (green living and frugal living usually run together.) 

Approaching my 2 year anniversary with Odin on June 28th, 2016, I asked my ninefold god-husband what he would like for our anniversary. It was Lodhur who spoke. “Acknowledge me more.”

In thinking about it, I realized that I have dedicated a physical ring for Loki, Odin, and Honir, but I don’t have a physical ring dedicated to Lodhur. Lodhur is Loki, sort of. But he’s also himself. Just like Marvel-Loki is sort of Loki but has a different personality and different symbols. I even have things for Marvel-Loki, although they aren’t jewelry (the keyfob Bri sent me that I turned into a lceiling fan pull, and some ribbon in Marvel-Loki’s colors, which also happen to be the colors of a guild I camped with, that I once wore in my hair at Renfaire.)

So I decided to dedicate something specifically for Lodhur on June 28. I decided to dedicate the necklace that consists of a green chrysoprase pendant on a heavy gold chain. I chose it because it’s one I used to wear as a teenager for the asthma relieving properties of chrysoprase, so it’s appropriate for the function Lodhur was performing when I guessed his name, and therefore it references our history together.

This pendant is something my dad made. I would not have been comfortable with dedicating something dad made before wearing the fire agate ring for Loki all this time, which is also something dad made, but I’m comfortable with that now. So I dedicated that necklace.  

The rings for Odin, Loki, and Honir are all things I already had for years before dedicating them, and the Lodhur necklace is also something I already had for years. It's not made the way that a professional jeweler would have made it. The bail of the pendant is glued on, slightly asymmetrical, and not made of real precious metal. That's OK. It has more meaning as a thing hand made for me by my (now dead) father than it would have if I just bought something, no matter how beautiful, perfect, valuable, or appropriate. The flaws that make it valueless from a resale point of view don't harm its spiritual value, which is based on personal meaning. 

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Erin Lale is the author of Asatru For Beginners, and the updated, longer version of her book, Asatru: A Beginner's Guide to the Heathen Path. Erin has been a gythia since 1989. She was the editor and publisher of Berserkrgangr Magazine, and is admin/ owner of the Asatru Facebook Forum. She also writes science fiction and poetry, ran for public office, is a dyer and fiber artist, was acquisitions editor at a small press, and founded the Heathen Visibility Project.

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