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The Havamal or "Sayings of the High One" is a poem within the Poetic Edda. The High One is Odin, and the Sayings of the High One are said to be the words of Odin. A question that came up on the Asatru Facebook Forum I admin is, Who is the Havamal for? My answer:

The Havamal in general is for whoever wants it, but specific passages are specific advice for specific purposes. General advice: don't get too drunk at the assembly. Specific advice: IF you want to take something from an opponent THEN get out of bed and get it done. Some passages in the Havamal are literal if/ then statements, like BASIC computer code. They flow as binary logic: off, on, off. IF you want x, THEN do y. IF the "if" doesn't apply to you THEN you skip it.

This is a story about inspiration. I was chatting online with a friend and received some inspiration, which came to me as a poetic description, and then he used that prompt to meditate and receive his own inspiration, which came to him as a formula for his craftwork. 

My local friend Derin Deschain is a perfumer. He is Romani, and a hedge rider and witch. And this week he has green hair, lol. He sells his perfumes from his Etsy store Cherry-ka's Trunk. 

The valknut or "Knot of the Fallen" is used by contemporary heathens as a symbol of Odin. Those dedicated to Odin, most but not all of whom consider themselves warriors, wear a valknut to indicate their dedication. Some heathens say that wearing a Valknut means you are willing to die in battle and hope to be chosen to become an Einherjar, one of Odin's warriors in Valhalla. 

Odin and his brothers are a trinity (or triple god, depending on how you see it.) The brothers Odhinn, Honir, and Lodhur sculpted the world out of the body of Ymir, the primal giant, and sculpted the first humans out of driftwood. They are creator gods. The trinity has three sets of names: Odhinn / Honir / Lodhur, Odhinn / Vili / Ve, and Odin / Honir / Loki. In other languages, these names have slightly different forms. For example, Odin and Wotan are basically the same god, although one could have different experiences with the different cultural variations. 

This is how abundance manifests in my life. It's a story about something that happened in my life, and how I chose to interpret it. This is the kind of story that this blog, Gnosis Diary, was created to share, because it's about my personal gnosis. 

I lost weight this summer. When the weather turned cold, I dug out my winter gear, and most of it didn't fit. I told my god-husbands I needed money. They asked me what I needed it for. I said, I need clothes in my new size. Not long after that, a lady I'd never met died, and her daughter (whom I know through one of my family members) gave away all the lady's clothes. Four big boxes of clothes in my new correct size arrived on my doorstep.

Loki borrows Freya's falcon cloak in the story of the Theft of Idunna's Apples. Loki is a shape shifter. In the Eddaic stories, he appears in various forms, including a fly, a seal, etc. In Continental European folklore, he appears as a red fox. It's very likely that he could have turned into a bird without Freya's divine object. For what purpose did he borrow it? It would make sense in the story to borrow it to have a greater flight time, but that would only be the answer if his shape shifting power was limited, and there does not appear to be any evidence for that. So, I think the answer is that he borrowed it to mask as Freya. So that when he flew over Jotunheim, the giants below would not know it was him. 

Freya must have known that Loki intended to mask as her when she lent him the cloak. Freya also once helped Thor mask as her, in the story in which Thor puts on a wedding gown to retrieve his hammer. 

It's a truism of modern mythography that Odin, Lord of the Runes, hanged himself from the branches of Yggdrasil, the old Norse Tree of Life.

But did he?

According to the famous passage from Hávamál:

I know that I hung

on the windy meiðr

all nine nights:

It's the little shadows that linger out of view, the waking me up at 3am, the subtle touches in the middle of the night to let me know that you are there, but invisible.

I know you are contacting me to let me know you are there.  I know you are bringing me information about someone that I do not want to hear.  But you don't tell me.  I see you as you wear a hat, sometimes you even look like Odin and I hear the call of his ravens, sometimes like Jesus, sometimes just a white feathery being, and sometimes as a small dark spot or shadow lurking outside of my field of vision.  But you are always the same.  I don't understand why you take all these shapes, but I know it's you down deep within.