A Nokian, or Nokean, is someone who opposes Lokeans. A Lokean is a type of pagan or heathen whose personal religious practice is primarily about following Loki. Some Lokeans also consider themselves to be Asatruars, or Wiccans, or other sects, and some don't. Asatru includes Loki in its traditional list of gods, so many Asatruars who do not consider themselves Lokeans do honor Loki, just not as their primary deity.
A Nokian actively tries to get people who follow or honor Loki to leave public heathen spaces or stay silent within them, and tries to convince people who are seeking a religious path that Loki isn't an acceptable part of heathenry. While Lokeanism is a religious practice, Nokeanism is a form of proselytizing. People who simply prefer not to acknowledge Loki and don't have a relationship with him are not Nokeans; they are just ordinary heathens, pagans, etc. who don't have Loki in their personal or group practice. A Nokean is someone who tries to control the personal and group practice of other people to get others to exclude Loki.
Frequently Asked Question: Why do some American heathens hate Loki?
My Answer: Most Loki-haters hate him because other people taught them to. Of course that begs the question, how did the original teachers of Loki-hate decide to hate Loki? Some of them had bad experiences with Loki or Lokeans, some of them based their opinions of Loki on lore, some of them based their opinions of Loki on a mistaken impression that every pantheon has a Satan figure in it, and some have other reasons. Recently at least some hatred toward Loki and his followers is because of a perception that they are Marvel fangirls and therefore are not serious about heathenry.
Lokabrenna Day is on the heliacal rising of Sirius. This year, that will be August 8th through most of the USA. Lokabrenna means Loki’s Torch, and is the Icelandic name for Sirius. Some heathens and other pagans celebrate this day as sacred to Loki.
I'm not the most recon of Loki's followers (I'm sure some of you snicker snorted: GOOD), however, I do enjoy sumbel - yes I know, Wiki, but I lack the spoons to vet heathen sites for racist, folkish bullshit today, so you're getting the wiki. If you need a non-Wiki recon take on Loki worship, read Nono's blog entry on it. Anywho, the practice of Lokabrenna celebrations in July/early August are a modern Lokean practice.
I'm fortunate enough to live near a number of Lokeans - one of my distance kindred members actually wondered aloud recently "why are there so many Lokeans in Florida?"
As previously mentioned, my kindred is kicking around an idea for a shared ritual this July for Loki. Since people expressed an interest in this, I thought I'd post some simple ritual tech for this Working. We're keeping it simple, and using a variant on "Come to me in whatever form (or a specific form) and share with me whatever You choose."
ex: "Loki shapechanger, Loki Witchfather, Loki Mother of Monsters, come to me as You like; share with me whatever you please. Come to me in love, as I love You." (or honor, or other verbiage that suits your relationship with Him)
"Come to me in whatever form You want, and share with me whatever You choose."
It's almost July for Loki again, and because He is a Man of many faces, my kindred is talking about doing a ritual to ask Loki to show us a new face or facet of Himself - or Herself, as Lady Loki* has been the subject of much discussion lately. The main point, however, is to learn more about Loki. Lore is great and all, but people grow and change, and so do our Gods.
After some prodding by Himself and some encouragement from friends, I'm taking a stab at the Pagan Experience Project. I'm not necessarily going to do every prompt all the time, but if the prompt elicits good thinky thoughts, I'll share them. I've decided to start with week two's prompt on personal practices.
Loki's not a terribly formal Deity, and and so many of my practices are not either; I share morning coffee with Him every day; I meditate once a day; ideally I do yoga, but that practice is a work in progress.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Anthony, it's a huge subject and I'm only just barely introducing it in my comment. The main takeaway here is that the impact of N
I should probably have added the qualifier "currently available" to "lore and practices" though a 40 day time frame would give the
