Devotees of Frigg, this one is for you: the newest work from Reverend Máire Durkan, Frigg’s Twelvefold Flame: Creating Justice & Healing with the Goddess and Her Court, is now available from Llewellyn! I am appreciative of the publisher providing a review copy, so I can share this incredible book with you.

If you have had the good fortune to attend a Frigg-centered ritual with Durkan, you know the depth and intensity of her connection with the All-Mother and her court, and the many facets Frigg presents to us. This new book provides a thorough discussion of Frigg and the members of her Sovereign Council, grounded both in research and in Durkan’s practice of many years. Those who have read her prior work on Frigg, Circle of Frith – A Devotional to Frigg and Her Handmaidens published by The Troth in 2021, will find some familiar content, but this new book happily is not just a rewrite of the earlier work. Durkan presents Frigg and her retinue not just as historical goddesses, but also as living, active, passionate forces who are strong allies in modern times as we work to make the world a better place for all people.

The book opens with an introduction to Frigg and her lore. Durkan provides an explanation of key terms, explains personal gnosis, and discusses the concept of sacred activism.

The second section of the book looks at Frigg in multiple aspects, from All-Mother, to Queen, Beloved, Magick Worker, and Key-Keeper. For anyone not familiar with this multi-faceted goddess, this section is invaluable as a means to understanding Frigg’s role in the Norse pantheon and lore; those who have some knowledge of Frigg will be pleasantly surprised to learn more about her.

Not only does she discuss Frigg’s role in lore and historical matters, Durkan brings Frigg forward to our modern times, discussing how Frigg can be called upon in social justice and social healing work. Frigg is not an ethereal queen; she is here today, present with those doing the work to make the world a better place. “Frigg’s archetype of sovereign, mother, and wise protector resonates deeply in a time when bodily autonomy, racial justice, and trans rights are under attack. Her quiet strength offers a counternarrative to capitalist individualism, reframing caregiving, community building, and boundary setting as sacred acts of resistance.” (Page 66)

While motherhood and mothering have often been dismissed and devalued, and at the same time aggrandized as a means of controlling those who can bear children, Durkan insists (and I agree) that mothering is a gender-neutral activity. “In this context, mothering includes nurturing and protecting as well as empowering and advocating for others….Through our actions, we show that mothering is a powerful force for social change, capable of transforming communities and shaping a more inclusive and compassionate world.” (Page 84)

This section closes with a discussion of general correspondences, as well as ideas for honoring Frigg in daily activities and on holy days, as well as through social work and activism.

Durkan then presents each of the twelve member of Frigg’s retinue in Section Three. Even as someone who has done more than a bit of reading about Frigg and The Twelve, I learned new information about each of the goddesses.

My practice includes a relationship with Saga (for reasons which might be obvious), who is the first one featured. Reading a chapter about her written by someone who is also passionate about Saga and her work was an absolute delight. The power of stories to both preserve and to transform is remarkable. As Durkan notes: “An unshared story is like an unhealed wound, but in her name, we speak out, hold on, and weave stories into history.” (Page 162)

The other goddesses then appear in turn: Eir, Gefjun, Fulla, Sjöfn, Lofn, Vár, Vör, Syn, Hlín, Snotra, and Gná. We are given an introduction to the goddess in the lore, then ideas on working with her in our current era. Each has a list of vocations and professions associated with her, a set of correspondences (symbols, crystals, plants, and runes) to use in workings, and suggested offerings. Durkan also provides a prayer, a meditation, and a suggested ritual for each goddess, as well as a charge from the goddess and an affirmation to help the reader connect more closely.

Durkan suggests activities to honor each goddess, deepening the connection and taking it from personal practice to practical effect in the world. These range from fun things, such as dancing, to self-care suggestions such as “Take a nap!” (page 209) (one of my personal favorites), and ideas for community activities to create healing and promote justice and joy, such as organizing events where marginalized peoples can share their knowledge, history, and practices.

Durkan draws on her rich life experience as a birth midwife and death doula in this book, which gives it that much more authenticity and power. Throughout the book, Durkan maintains an excellent level of social awareness and inclusiveness in her language: she makes references to families of all types—extended, those with same-sex partners and parents, polyamorous families, and blended families of all kinds—as well as including Indigenous, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ persons in her discussions. All of these less traditional and marginalized groups are presented as simply a part of the fabric of life, and not as unusual case studies.

This book is a work of scholarship and also a work of hope. As Durkan reminds us, “You are never alone at the hearth!” (Page 296)

With Frigg and The Twelve at our sides, we can make this world a better place.

If you are a Lokean and also Tumblr user, you know this story. Everyone else, gather ‘round to learn the Sponge Cake Lore!

Waaaay back in the simpler times of 2012, a devoted Lokean on Tumblr posted a photo of their offering to Loki—a prepackaged sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Knowing what I know of Loki, this is a 100% Great Idea. I mean, assuming you are not allergic to one of those items, sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream is an absolutely luxurious delight!

Unless, of course, you are a Terminally Online Absolutist Reconstructionist. Then, this offering would be “inadequate”, “insulting”, and “blasphemous”, among other terms thrown about in response to the post. People were outraged because, “The Vikings didn’t have strawberries!” Well, maybe not in Iceland, but you know they happily ate strawberries when they encountered them in other lands.

Being an online forum, the debate raged for a good 24 hours, until everyone had had enough, and the conversation dropped—until the next September, when several people reblogged the original post, along with their own version of a sponge cake offering, and/or recipes for sponge cake. The tradition is now well-established, and if you are a cake baker, September 5 is a great day on Tumblr to collect new recipes! I have almost 20 that I have saved and not yet had a chance to try.

The original post was made late on September 4 in the Pacific Time Zone (USA), and the discussion blazed for most of September 5. This is why some people celebrate on one day or the other, or both! Both is good. Most people seem to go for September 5, and compose memes using variants of the verse used in the UK for Guy Fawkes Day—“Remember, remember, the fifth of September,/ The Sponge Cake argument brought./ I know of no reason why the Sponge Cake Day/Should ever be forgot!”

In 2017, the post author created a post on their new Tumblr blog with some background on the offering [https://tinyurl.com/spongecake1]. At the time of the original post, their family had been going through extreme financial difficulties, and the sponge cake and fruit were a rare and unexpected treat. However, instead of devouring the entire thing, they decided to share it with Loki, an offering of “rare, precious deeply loved things. Things I wanted, on instinct to hoard for myself. I was hungry . . .I couldn’t think of anything that might mean more to Loki, aside from the fact that it’s, well, cake. Come on. He loves His cake.”

In 2020, they posted an update [https://tinyurl.com/spongecakethoughts] in which they encourage people to consider donating to “a legit charity that helps families facing food insecurity and making a donation when SpongeCake Day comes around. . . . (This would be in edition [sic] to tomfoolery and cake, naturally.)”

This practice has now been incorporated into the holiday as well, for those who have the means.

For Idunna #130, the Loki-themed issue, I had intended to include a sponge cake recipe, but we received a staggering number of article submissions [Editor’s Note: it would be great if this happened again, hint, hint], and we did not have enough space. In preparation for that, I tried seven—yes, seven—sponge cake recipes, and my patient spouse dutifully (and delightedly) tried each one. My favorite version, created by combining steps from some of the original seven recipes, follows below.

For our gluten-free members, I have heard good things about the King Arthur Flour recipe, although I have not tried it. You can find it at https://tinyurl.com/glutenfreespongecake.

For our vegan friends, this recipe comes recommended (again, I have not tried it): https://tinyurl.com/veganspongecake

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

Makes one 9” x 13” cake, or 24 cupcakes.

You want to treat the batter gently, so that it retains all the air incorporated in the making to become light and fluffy in the baking.

Ingredients
2 cups (397g) granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup (67g) vegetable oil or canola oil
2 cups (240g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter
1 cup (227g) milk, (whole milk works best; sadly, non-dairy milks do not work at all)
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking pan and set aside.
3. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites at medium-high to high speed until they are so fluffy, you might expire from the cuteness. (About 2 minutes).
4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until they are also light and fluffy, about 2 minutes at medium-high speed.
5, Sloooooowly beat in the canola oil.
6. Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the egg yolk mixture, beating just enough to combine. It should be thorough enough to incorporate any sticky bits and remove blobs, but do not overbeat.
8. Gently, gently, gently, fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture. I prefer to do this step by hand, rather than using an electric mixer.
9. In a saucepan set over medium heat, heat the butter and milk just to the very beginning of a boil. Do not actually boil it. It’s okay if the butter is not completely melted.
10. Remove the pan from the heat, add the vanilla, and gently stir the mixture until the butter is completely melted.
11. Slowly add the hot milk mixture to the cake batter, mixing until everything is well combined and smooth. Again, I prefer to do this by hand, rather than using an electric mixer, so I can stop the instant it’s perfect.
12. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
13. Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes. Rotate halfway through baking to keep the layer even.
14. The cake is done when a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, and the top feels set.
15. Remove the cake from the oven, and place it on a rack to cool.

You can serve as-is, or add your favorite icing or sauce. I am happy to cover it in freshly whipped cream and as many berries as will fit in the dish:

If you want a fancy finish, lay a paper doily (actual lace isn’t stiff enough for this, and you’d have to wash it to remove the sugar) on top of the cake, and sprinkle with powdered sugar dyed with food coloring. Carefully remove the doily, and voila—a pretty pattern on the cake!

You could also cut a pattern into a sheet of regular paper and do the same—names, symbols, runes, abstract geometric shapes—whatever makes you happy, and charges your cake with the meaning you want it to have.

This is taking me right back to January 1991. We had all been on edge since Operation Desert Shield, a cooperative effort of 42 countries, began in August 1990. It was clear that it was not a going to remain a protective stance, and would lead to war (despite the fact that it is listed only as “an armed conflict” and not a “war” in US military history).

On January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Storm began, a military action to free Kuwait from the invasion and takeover by Iraq.

My friends and I were calling each other to check in (email was not A Thing then, much less social media or online messaging). “Are you okay?” “Do you have anyone deployed?” “What do you need right now?”

The US attack on Iran today is nothing like that. It is not done in coordination with our allies. It is not to check the ambitions of a would-be tyrant and restore sovereignty to a nation.

It is a blatant attack on a country that was not in violation of its treaty. It is a sop to Trump’s ego and an attempt to further fray the people. It is homage to Putin, and the manifestation of his plans. It is horrifying in every aspect.

My friends and I are checking on each other—mostly text messages. “Are you okay?” “Do you have anyone deployed?” “What do you need right now?”

And this is what we do as we face One More Damn Thing in a year that has brought us Too Many Damn Things already.

We still have to get up each day. Make breakfast, feed our children and keep them healthy and safe, tend to our pets and plants, go to our jobs (or look for a job, which is also a job), do laundry, have the car’s oil changed, pay bills, and also take time for our own self-care, from brushing our teeth, exercising, and taking our meds to meditating and making necessary behavioral changes. Everyday life is a lot, already.

And now we have this work of trying to have a life during a war. All of those things still need to happen, and there’s a war lurking in the backs of our heads, and displayed in large type in the front of the news.

There’s fear, uncertainty, dread, and the frustration and anger at living in circumstances we can’t control, but to which we must adapt.

What do we do?

We protest this war as best we can. Some people can write letters, make phone calls, write speeches. Other people can be in the corridors of government. Others can be out on the streets. And some protest by getting up every day and getting through the day, in spite of it all. What you can do will vary each day, and there is no judgment on you for that—it’s true for all of us.

And we protect each other as best we can.

We check on each other.

We care for each other.

We stay in communication. We stay in community.

We do our best to take care of ourselves, so we can take care of each other.

We make bread. We make art. We make time for what matters.

We make it through, day by day, hour by hour. By the minute, or by the second, if that’s what it takes.

So, I am asking you now: “Are you okay?” “Do you have anyone deployed?” “What do you need right now?”

O You,
Who came upon me once
Stretched under apple-trees just after bathing,
Why did you not strangle me before speaking
Rather than fill me with the wild white honey of your words
And then leave me to the mercy
Of the forest bees.

Little children, never give
Pain to things that feel and live:
Let the gentle robin come
For the crumbs you save at home,—
As his meat you throw along
He’ll repay you with a song;
Never hurt the timid hare
Peeping from her green grass lair,
Let her come and sport and play
On the lawn at close of day;
The little lark goes soaring high
To the bright windows of the sky,
Singing as if ’twere always spring,
And fluttering on an untired wing,—
Oh! let him sing his happy song,
Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.

This poem is in the public domain. It has been around for decades, but no author has ever been identified.

Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Whatever we were to each, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be the household word it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of your mind
because I am out of your sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near just around the corner…
All is well. Nothing is past, nothing is lost.

One brief moment and all will be as it was before,
only better, infinitely happier
and forever we will be one together.

(Anastasia’s note: I miss you, Rachel. You’ve been gone a year, and I still can’t believe you are not here.)

• Lights Up. Only the lights in the half of the room closest to the screen will be turned off.
• Sound Down. The volume will be lower than at our Monthly Movie Nights. Captions will be on as well.
• Hands Busy. We will provide a basket of fidget toys you are welcome to choose from. We encourage you to bring any sensory aids or comfort items that would enhance your experience.
• Rules Relaxed. Feel free to move, vocalize, dance or sing along! There is no expectation to sit still and remain quiet. Snacks will be provided. You are welcome to bring your own (easy-to-clean-up) options as well.
• Flex Seating. A space will be open at the front with wobble cushions to sit on. You can also bring along a blanket or pillow and make yourself comfortable!

What a great idea! This makes it easier for people in general, and, in particular, people with children who have sensory issues.

Wouldn’t it be great to have this available for adults in regular movie theatres? It could be a special showing, like the “Mommy and Me” that one of our local theatres does—crying infants are not a problem, and if you book tickets for this showing, you know what you are signing up for.

Any California resident can get a free library card at the following city libraries — just fill out the application to access all their digital “stacks”!

Los Angeles: click here

San Diego: click here

San Jose: click here

Oakland: click here

Checking out books and other materials from the library is great for several reasons:

• • Increased use of library services allows libraries to request additional funding from state and local budgets.
  • Authors get royalty payments for library check-outs — another great way to support the writers, musicians, and artists you love!
  • It gives your library a better idea of what’s in demand. If you’re looking for a book, film, or album that your library doesn’t carry, please request it so artists can get their work into more libraries and seen by more people!

First, Angbroda and children:

Next, Saga:

And, last but not least, the Norns: