Devoured by Flame

It’s April 1st once more and as is tradition, many people see April Fools’ Day as Loki’s holiday because of His trickster aspect and the fact that He is full of surprises and jokes. When I first became His devotee, I thought of it as Loki’s day off because people were already making a mess of themselves enough in this world for the day that He wouldn’t really need to be around. I also thought He was significantly less present on the day we thought would be His holiday and I thought maybe He just needed a vacation. 

However, the longer I sat with the thought of Loki being a “fool” and being full of jokes, the more I realized that this is not really an apt description for Him. 

People see the word “trickster” and equate Him with foolish pranks and jest. They diminish Him to a fool to make it easier for them to feel like they can control the narrative around who Loki is. It’s not just people who don’t want Loki around – though that’s usually who mostly does this – but it’s also followers of His that I often see floating around. People are afraid of what they don’t know and I think that’s why April Fools just seems to be so incredibly reductive. 

After my 6+ years of working with Him, I have only ever seen Him being sincere. His “pranks” are more like clever role reversals, mirrored behavior, and pulling the wool over the eyes of his followers so they might see more clearly and see themselves in their own eyes rather than someone else’s. People reduce His behavior to petty games and tricks and though He might not be above being petty, I have never seen Him do things just because it’ll be funny. 

Loki is the experimenter, the scientist, the doer. He is the one throwing spaghetti at a wall until it sticks. He’s the one making sure that the scale is still balanced. He’s the keeper of wisdom that few ever dare to seek if only because seeking it might mean finding out more than you ever wanted to know. 

Loki is far from games and tricks and jokes. Most jokes on the internet are cruel and unnecessary which I have never found Him to laugh along with. He never plays tricks at the expense of others in order to make them feel shitty. Instead, he plays mindfuckery and twists meaning until you are never really sure what anything means.

He is cunning and wiser than people ever really understand. He was here since the first human walked the earth and will be here until we’ve left. He gave the gift of the Divine within humans – the gift we have always craved but have left to rot with our humanity. 

He is organized, particular and extraordinarily detail oriented. You will never know the level of detail He goes through to get the point across. Most people see the first level as some cruel trick and then walk away. Those who take a minute longer to gaze upon the genius of it all will likely see that this was never supposed to be clear and if it were, it would have never happened. 

That’s why He’s good at His job. That’s what makes Him, Him. He is the balance and the key to it all. He is what makes it all fit together instead of break. He is the gardener of fate. He pulls the weeds with His bare hands until the dirt rots under His nails if only because He is the only one who will do it. Everyone else wonders if it’s too poisonous.

We’ve turned our back on Him because we’re scared of what we will find if we look too hard on our own reflection. We diminish Him to a fool because it’s too hefty a price if He wasn’t. 

His joy comes not at the effects of suffering but at the means of what comes after the storm has cleared away. He paints the picture in the clouds before the rain has washed the paint. He is the architect of reason and reasoning. He is the one who braves things through the beginning and up until the end, regardless of if it fails or succeeds.

To say that He is a fool is to diminish our own humanity as He is what makes humans Divine. We are also the experimenters, the creators of our own wealth and destruction. We are the gods’ own reflections as Loki is ours. What They see in us, we see in Them. We work together to foster a new beginning or we bring our demise when we turn away such as the Gods had with Loki.

Loki is complex as you or I but even more so as He is far from human yet His humanity is what brings Him even closer to us. I am so tired of seeing the constant feeling that He is just a trickster or a joke. 

I hate being that person who just takes everything seriously. Loki is far from serious all the time. He is playful and childlike at times but only because novelty is His most sought after friend. To have a new experience is Loki’s bread and butter and I have always known Him to want to experience everything. 

I also hate seeing His followers treat Him like He is just not serious ever. I have never known Him to play pranks on people for shits and giggles. I have never known Him to ever laugh at the expense of others. His wisdom isn’t used against humans, but rather in service of our own interests.

I don’t know what people think He is doing but I can never say I have ever felt Him around on April Fool’s Day. And I think I know why. So no, I don’t really think it’s His holiday and those that gave Him this crown might not truly understand the complexity of His very nature.