If you’re interested in my Big Thoughts about the idiot with the valknut and Mjolnir tattoos, check out my article on Patheos about it. I encourage you to read it primarily because a friend in the Northeast Heathen Community made a hugely important point about the bigger issue: the headdress that’s being mocked as a cheesy viking helmet? It’s a Lakota Sioux war bonnet. So not only are heathens being painted with the neo-Nazi bullshit brush again, but Native Americans are dealing with the double blow of seeing something intensely sacred of their own being defiled by that fool and being whitewashed as failed Nordic cosplay. Stop mocking the war bonnet, and start amplifying the voices of our Native neighbors who have already suffered immensely at the hands of white Americans and continue to be overlooked and ignored.

This blog isn’t as, er, professional as my Patheos column, so I can ramble on a bit more here. So.

Wednesday, 06 Jan 21.

Prefacing this with a “I really wasn’t as surprised as I should have been” disclaimer, because I already addressed the ramifications of 45’s dogwhistle call to action from the presidential debate in September. We knew something insane would happen. He’s been stoking the fires and keeping his cult at the ready for violent action for months. Of course something would happen.

Still, it was a shock in the sense that I wasn’t really aware of what was going on until several hours into the siege. This blog’s tagline isn’t tongue-in-cheek: I really am chronically oblivious. At least this time I had a pretty valid excuse. I was at work, and we were absurdly busy Wednesday afternoon. I hadn’t had a chance to check in on headlines or social media since late morning, so the last thing I was aware of was everyone joking about how weird it was to agree with Mitch McConnell for once, but I didn’t know the context behind the memes. I just knew it was Election Certification Day, or whatever, and apparently Mitch actually said or did something right for once.

Then I left work and checked my phone.

I was instantly greeted with pictures of morons wandering around the Capitol building with confederate flags and headlines about how all of our state reps were evacuated safely and that someone had already been shot.

Peachy.

Luckily, because it was Wednesday and I have a habit of getting a little sweet treat for Loki on Wednesdays, I already had an offering at the ready. I didn’t even know exactly what was going on, but I didn’t need to just yet. Before I even unlocked the door, I dumped all of my stuff on the back steps and made my offerings at the little fox statue that watches over my house. “Loki, I trust you. Whatever is going on, do what you need to do. We can’t keep going on the way we have, we need to expose some hard truths about this country, and I know you’re on it. Do what needs to be done. I just ask that the outcome is the right one, the one we really need. I trust you.”

Instead of keeping the second sweet treat for myself as I normally would, I placed it at the fox statue too, this one for Óðinn. “Hey. You. The patron of leaders and all that. I know you’re also doing stuff here. You and your buddy are always a two man con, the two of you are never far apart. We need to keep your strength up, too. Do what you need to do, and thank you.”

Once I got inside and settled in with a coffee and a pack of Camels to catch up on the chaos that ensued, pics of That Guy started flooding my feeds. “Here we go again,” I sighed as I saw the valknut and Mjolnir ink on full display in dozens of pictures and clips. “Fucking fantastic.” I’m 38 years old, I’ve been heathen for nearly my entire life, and I’m long past being surprised and up in arms when some asshole taints Nordic symbols for their own perverted agenda. It’s little more to me now than an annoyance, awful as that sounds.

At least this time, I have a few platforms from which to speak out against this nonsense.

And on a purely selfish note: while I’m obviously not thrilled any of this happened, I’m extra not thrilled that this went down the week before my deadline for the Loki and Sigyn book. C’mon, you assholes. I have a book to finish. I don’t have time to deal with the aftershock of your idiotic cult coup.

Morons.