A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

Now Playing: The Cursed Cavalier by Elvenking

So it should come as no surprise at this point that I work with both Loki and Cernunnos in my practice; I am generally pretty open about it.

Most people who know anything about anything regarding Loki (yes, even the Marvel depiction, as embellished as artistic interpretations tend to be) will understand why I categorise him as a very chaotic entity. However, my reasoning for considering Cernunnos a chaotic entity may be less obvious, especially considering some of their roles as a balancing force among certain flavours of paganism.

As a quick note before going forward, my own experience with both of these deities involves some fuckery in terms of gender, with Cernunnos being both masculine and neutral, and Loki being, well, Loki and being any gender he sees fit at any given point in time. As such, it’s quite common to see me switching which pronouns I use to refer to each of them, based purely on vibes in the moment. For the sake of consistency in this specific post, I will be referring to Loki using he/him pronouns and to Cernunnos using they/them pronouns. Cool? Cool.

So, Loki as a deity has suffered from the Christian need for an enemy or “Devil” figure. This isn’t an indication of something specific to Loki, but instead it’s a need in the Abrahamic religions to frame everything as being either good or evil, with basically no middle ground. When actually looking at the myths as they stand, far more nuance becomes apparent in that deities like Loki are more forces of change, rather than evil. (Though, considering how often the Catholic Church has opposed social change in the past with regards to equality of minorities, it doesn’t really surprise me that they’d label a deity of change and chaos as being evil.)

Now, a lot of information on the pre-Christian Celtic faiths that is available publicly is vague at best, and often drowning in academic language and/or written from the perspective of invading Roman armies or Christians aiming to discredit and demonize other religions. (There’s a discussion there about the term “pagan” and how it has derogatory roots that are still occasionally seen today, but that’s a discussion for another time.) However, Cernunnos has depictions across much of Europe, including as far south as northern Italy. These depictions are generally consistent, having the antlers and the snake and the torque and all that fun stuff. Christianity would also go on to depict them as an extension or avatar of the Antichrist, despite them being purely a nature deity. (Source here.) There is also some level of association with fertility, but that’s a bit more loose, from what I could find in a preliminary google search.

But, one may ask how these deities are related, and that’s a very good question. They’re from different cultures and they have different domains, so there shouldn’t really be any overlap, right? Wrong! Now hear me out.

So a prevailing sentiment with Cernunnos is that they’ll bring whatever energy is needed to the relationship, for the purposes of being sort of a guiding force to what the person needs. As a sort of contrast, Loki is basically always at least kind of chaotic, regardless of what other factors surround one’s practice with him. Now, in my particular case, I’ve found Loki’s chaos to be quite helpful with how I’m able to approach my practice, and I do think that has some level of influence in the more chaotic nature that Cernunnos has also been bringing.

Another little fun part of working with both of them is that they’re both quite large personalities, shall we say. When I started working with each of them, it was this sense that there was a presence and an instinctual knowledge of who that presence was. This has also led to a bit of a realisation that Loki especially has a bit of a jealous streak. (Seriously, I’ll sometimes be writing something with the intention to dedicate it to Cernunnos or Bragi and Loki will just come along and be like “dude what about me” and I have to tell him to piss off for a bit. Note that doing that without an established relationship in place is a very bad idea and I can get away with it because we’ve been working together for like a year and a half.) Cernunnos can also have a jealous streak if they’re left alone for too long, but they’re also a bit more of a “I’ll let you do your thing” deity than Loki.

I’ve also noticed that I can generally do well with both of them by offering them apples. I don’t really know what’s up with that, but I’m assuming something with deer and/or chaos. It would not be the first time.

So in terms of practice, it’s very fun to have both of them around. I do sometimes have to put out fights and take some distance, but it’s more fun than I think most people realise. They’re both chaotic and weird, and I don’t think I’d have it any other way.