As someone who has been fond of Loki for decades, I’ve often been asked why I honor him given his role in Ragnarok. Of course, after pointing out that my attitude towards the mythology is not one of literal belief, and the Ragnarok thing may well have been a Christian addition, I get to my actual answer: sometimes society needs a reset. Complacency is dangerous, and corruption isn’t always intentional.

These days, of course, I understand Loki’s role in the story of Ragnarok on a deeper level, and it’s one that’s becoming increasingly relevant in my life. The corruption in this case is very intentional. And the comforts and perceived security Americans have enjoyed will be our undoing if we let it. Now is Loki’s time to shine. Gone is the winter of our discontent; now is the spring of Loki’s resurgence.

As many – if not most – of you know, I grew up heathen in a military family. Loki was part of our culture, which is why it was such a shock to learn others feared /ignored him when I learned of American Heathenry in college. Over the last twenty-odd years, I’ve watched as strict Nokian policies were relaxed, then overturned; the explosion of new Lokeans in the last several years has been a fascinating thing to witness. Thanks to the horrific events in American politics, I understand why he’s been so active “recruiting.” His surge in popularity makes sense: the old order is harmful, and it’s time for a political and societal reset.

Sigyn, too, has had a reawakening in the American Heathen community, and for good reason: she’s the steadfast compassion we need to fuel our determination to right these wrongs. I’m positive I’m not speaking only for myself when I say I’m enraged by the harm and cruelty being perpetrated against marginalized groups. I’m fighting against this fascist regime because human rights are my top priority. I’m not personally affected by most of what’s been going on (yet), but I’m doing what I can to educate and spread the word about how to resist. Trying my damndest to educate myself, too, to ensure I’m spreading good information. But Sigyn is the greatest influence for me right now as I prepare for the World Breaker to take center stage.

(Quick caveat: this isn’t just Loki’s influence, nor is this solely a heathen matter. I know other gods and other communities are involved, but as a Lokian, I can only write from my perspective and my own spiritual experiences.)

So. Sigyn is offering compassion for other people and the inspiration to do what must be done to protect them. Loki is teaching us to embrace the chaos that comes with destroying what no longer works and giving us the chance to rebuild something better.

So how do we do this?

The first step is to recognize this isn’t a matter of left vs. right anymore – politics are just the tool used to wage the real war, which is the working class vs. the ultra-wealthy. Protesting in the streets isn’t going to scare the current administration because they have proven time and again that they’re not held accountable and they’re not going to face consequences. What do they care about their chances for reelection when they’ve made it clear they’ve no intention of relinquishing the power they’ve already taken? 

That’s not to say protests are pointless – they’re still an effective tool for networking with organizations, resistance groups, and mutual aid groups. They’re still important to broadcast to the rest of the US population and the world that we oppose what’s happening in this country and we’re not about to lie down and let Musk and Trump destroy everything that matters.

The best way to fight what’s happening is to recognize that this is a class war. Politicians have been bought and sold over the last few decades, which is why the wealth disparity has skyrocketed since Reagan’s terms in office. Because the wealthy own politicians, they’ve enjoyed tax cuts, tax breaks, a federal minimum wage that’s remained stagnant since 2009, etc. They’ve bought up scads of properties to develop and lease out at exorbitant costs, raised prices on everything from bread to entertainment to healthcare, they use cheaper, crappier materials and ingredients in the production process while outsourcing the work to countries with lower wages and fewer safety regulations and worker’s rights. Money is the only thing that matters to them, and they’ll do whatever it takes to maximize their profits. And so Americans face unemployment as workers are laid off, wages remain stagnant, their debt increases as credit cards and personal loans are used to pay soaring utility bills & basics (and remember, our debt makes the rich even richer – mind those interest rates!). The job market is abysmal and only going to get worse as mass layoffs spread throughout various industries; the federal employees Musk axed were just the start. We are a country crippled by medical costs, housing costs, predatory student loans, pay that is wildly out of sync with the cost of living, and gods help you if you’ve got kids or disabilities. 

Let’s not forget that the more safety and federal regulations to be shed in the production and consumption of consumer goods, the worse off everyone will be. Clean water and air? That’s for suckers. National forests and parks and natural wonders? Wasted opportunity for mining and development. Sure, the CEOs can pocket more money – safety is expensive! Think of the savings! – but the workers and public will get sick and/or die, the environment will die, and all hope will die. Dramatic? Maybe. If you think so, might want to brush up on what life was like for the average person in the working class during the Industrial Revolution. Hell, two hundred years ago even the well-to-do were dying because someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to use arsenic to produce a vibrant shade of green in everything from clothing to wallpaper. Remember that all regulations are written in blood. They’re in place because people died before those regs were enacted. 

Thing everyone seems to be forgetting is there’s more of us working class than there are multi- millionaires & billionaires combined. And how do those CEOs and oligarchs get wealthy? From our labor. We produce the goods, and we buy the goods, and they pocket/hoard the profits. They’d rather their net worth climb than re-invest those profits back into their employees. So the working class is pushed further into poverty, but that’s okay, because the company is boasting record profits! They’re proof that money does not indicate intelligence (as so many Americans seem to think) –  if everyone is too poor to buy products and services, sales will tank. So in order to preserve their falling profits, companies lay off their employees. Cool, way to guarantee even fewer people will be able to patronize your company’s offerings! 

What we must do is organize & unionize. CEOs and politicians don’t care about the employees actually doing the work, so we have to advocate for ourselves. Our forefathers shed blood, sweat, and tears fighting for worker’s rights, which include reasonable wages, reasonable schedules, and safe working conditions. The Battle of Blair Mountain was barely 100 years ago – that’s how quickly a society can forget the injustices and wide-spread poverty that was so commonplace before worker’s rights became A Thing. (Interestingly, it’s been almost 100 years since Hitler came to power. And since vaccines became widely available. And so on. Amazing how short lived cultural memory really is). Yeah, we think of unions as being for “blue collar” industries like auto workers and plumbers and electricians, but y’all, there’s unions in place for office drones trapped in cube farm dystopia, too!

While unionizing and advocating for wages that are in line with the cost of living in this country, we need to boycott the hell out of the companies supporting the current administration and who are the worst offenders regarding workers rights and union-busting practices. Stop consuming – buy only essentials and use what you already have until (and if) it must be replaced. This is pretty easy to do since who the hell can afford to shop just for fun anymore anyways?

Profits, as we’ve established, are the only thing that matter to CEOs and the ultra wealthy, so deny them their profits. Wear the clothes you already have, shop second-hand, use no-buy or swap sites to avoid giving your hard-earned pennies to the conglomerates kissing Trump’s ass. Cancel Amazon Prime and Netflix and all Meta accounts and apps, avoid Target and Walmart, get only what you actually need from local businesses or order directly from the company’s website instead of Amazon.

(Another caveat: if there are products you need, like medical supplies, baby supplies, etc that you can only afford through some of the companies being boycotted, or you live in a rural area where the big box stores have already eliminated local businesses, then by all means, do what you need to do to survive. Plenty of us in this country have options and alternative stores we can access and afford, so please don’t put yourself or your family in a worse situation just because Target and Walmart are the only affordable options in a 30 mile radius. Do your best with the resources you have. Don’t get discouraged by trying to be perfect. We don’t need perfect, we need honest consideration).

A nice thing about broad and sustained boycotts is the way your spending habits and eco-conscious habits will change for the better. We’ve all grown up in a hyper-consumer capitalist society in which Things and Stuff are all-important. One only needs to look at fads like the Stanley cup craze and shopping haul content on TikTok and YouTube. Retail Therapy has been so normalized for decades, and even things like stocking up on snack foods and sodas are seen as normal. Remember when things like Coke and ice cream were considered to be occasional treats? I don’t, and I’m in my 40s. I do know that in prior generations, sodas and snack foods like chips and cookies were a rarity, as was going to McDonald’s or clothes shopping. Not saying you have to deprive yourself, but consider buying that stuff every other week instead of every day. I myself used to have an avid Dunkin habit (iced coffee is my raison d’etre and one true love. . . don’t tell K that last bit). It was so bad I was doing multiple Dunkin runs a day. Last year, I cut that habit and use concentrates at home to ensure the blood to coffee ratio in my bloodstream doesn’t get too out of whack. I do still indulge in Fancy Espresso That Other People Make For Me more than I probably should, but at least it’s dropped to a few times a week as opposed to several times a day. Same thing applies to snack foods and sweets – when grocery shopping, instead of including candy or chips for nibbling in between meals, I just get extra veggies and hummus. It’s not about being healthier, it’s about being more purposeful in my shopping – we use a LOT of bell peppers in our cooking, so they pull double duty as “snack food” and “ingredient for dinner.” Rather than buying ultra processed snack foods from big corporations, we get to support local agriculture with dual-purpose foods. Baby steps, y’all. But I digress, as usual.

Point is, a lot of what we think of as normal really isn’t; we don’t need to buy new or seasonal home decor every few months, or buy books in bulk (especially when we already have a stack at home waiting to be read), or buy new shoes just because they’re cute when you’ve already got a closet full of acceptable footwear for a multitude of seasons & occasions. No one needs seven eyeshadow palettes at a time for personal use, or a 13-step skincare routine with different products marketed for AM vs PM use. Are these things fun? Fuck yeah! Are they essential? I won’t answer that for you, but I do ask you keep that in mind, especially as we head into a global recession & quite possibly another world war. Just, please, be mindful of how much of your money you’re giving to billionaires next time you see cute halloween home decor or a new formula of lipstick (in a color you probably have a dozen variations of anyway. For the record, that’s something I’ve been guilty of myself, so trust me that I’m not being judgy, just speaking from experience). Withhold your money, reduce their profits, and demand fair pay & practices.

Another way to engage in economic disruption is to simply slow production at work. Call off sick if you have the PTO to use, work slowly if your pay isn’t dependent on per-piece/metric production. It’s a classic tactic that’s been in use for a long time. It’s still a useful tool in 2025.

All of this leads up to the greatest and most powerful weapon the working class has: the general strike. Work towards community building: networking with mutual aid groups to build the infrastructure to sustain a long strike. Start saving (preferably with the money you’re not spending on non-essentials) and slowly build a stockpile of non-perishable goods (don’t forget pet food!), hygiene products, and medicines in case the strike goes on for a few months. When the infrastructure is in place, we strike. All of us peons in industries & positions that can safely manage to do so, that is. We withhold our labor and refuse to produce or contribute to anything that lines the coffers of those at the top who already have more resources than they, their children, and their children’s children will be able to use in all of their lifetimes combined. 

We demand fair pay, safe and fair work practices, affordable housing, affordable health care, human rights, civil rights, and the right to fucking exist. We demand the end of the fascist Christonationalistic cruelty of this administration and rebuild partnerships with our old allies to secure peace and prosperity on a global scale. We are part of a global economy and a global society – Splendid Isolation doesn’t exist in the 21st century. 

I’ve seen the following slogan echoed in multiple resistance groups and discussions, and it’s vital to our cause: Remove, Reverse, Reclaim.

Remove the fascist, narcissistic, selfish wannabe dictators from power.

Reverse the harmful, cruel orders and acts that have destroyed our feeling of safety and ability to survive, everything from unlawful deportations to everything DOGE has done to anti-LGBTQIA+ rulings. 

Reclaim what actually makes America great: diversity, innovation, the basic opportunities for education, employment and survival. And while we’re at it, let’s get universal healthcare and greater social support: assistance for the elderly, disabled, sick, and poor. This country has the ability to generate wealth: plenty-there’s no reason anyone should be without food, shelter, and basic security.

Tax the rich, tax corporations if they expect to be legally recognized as “persons” and eligible for federal handouts, and close the gap in the extreme disparity between a CEOs paycheck and the paychecks of the employees actually doing the work and producing everything for the company.

Enough of this MAGA vs liberal divide. Enough culture war bullshit propaganda designed to make us worry more about if a trans woman should be allowed in a women’s restroom (uh, yes, you asshole) than why a company reporting record profits is enacting a pay freeze and potential layoffs. This shouldn’t be a fight between progressive citizens against conservative citizens. It’s a fight between the working class and the ultra-wealthy who are pushing us deeper into poverty.

My friends, we are on the cusp of great devastation on a global scale. I’m angry. I’m ready to face whatever comes next as though my entire life has led up to this: childhood living by the Fulda Gap in the last decade of the Cold War, joined the Army myself in 2004 with 9/11 fresh in my memory and full expectations of being deployed in Afghanistan, the 2008 collapse, COVID, and this current regime. 

Having spent my formative years in West Germany a mere 40 years after the Third Reich, I’ve always wondered how Germans could allow the concentration camps, the fascism, the cruelty. I’ve always thought about what I might have done to fight back, to resist, to protect the people being targeted.

Now’s my chance.

And now’s your chance.

Loki has been preparing us for this. The system under which we struggle is broken, and there are a great many people at risk of suffering the kinds of horrors we’ve only heard about in history class. Now’s our time to, as the phenomenally Honorable Senator Cory Booker said, “get into some good trouble.” (That statement takes my breath away – doesn’t it sound like something Loki would say?)

Chaos is coming. But remember the end of the Ragnarok myth? The survivors rebuild society into a utopia.

If we’re going to level the playing field, we have to get our hands dirty breaking up those dirt clots & filling in the divots.

We’re Lokians. We’re ready.

Let’s Ragnarok and roll!