I’ve written elsewhere about being a flame tender with Clann Bhride which means every twenty days I light a flame and look after it for twenty four hours as a devotional act. During my last flame tending I found myself thinking about both Brigantia and Loki both of whom have fire symbology.
Brigantia and Her sister-self Brighid have many links to fire but it seems to me that the link is to a tamed and channeled fire. The fires of the smith, of crafting tools and artworks; the fires of inspiration burning in our minds transforming imagery and emotion into words and pictures others can see; the fires of justice wielded with fierce discipline to forge a fairer community; the fires of the healer used to brew, to warm, to comfort; the long ago fires of a home hearth bringing warmth and security to our human homes. She is not the fire itself but the one that wields, channels and tames the fire and in turn teaches us ways to use fire.
Loki is not one that uses fire, instead he is a fire. He does not teach how to channel the heat, how to use the energy to craft and create. He transforms. He changes. That doesn’t mean that he can’t direct and wield fire, he can because he knows what he is and so he can choose what to burn, what to transform, whether to be a single glowing ember that waits or a burst of flame that burns.
They are beings of different cultures, Loki and Brigantia, and yet I feel that there can be harmony between them, probably not always, but enough.
Neither being can be constrained into just one aspect of their identities and I’m in no way intending to give the impression that I wish to do that. This is just what musings have come to mind at this time where fire and flame symbologies are concerned.
Where I am concerned I feel they have in some way joined forces. I need to change but I have a fear of loosing control, I fear the untamed burning and yet I know I need to be pushed forward.
Musings of a Scottish Hearth Druid and Heathen 