Gender Benders in Polytheistic Religions or The Significance of the Flyting of Loki

An old Northern tradition known as the 'flyting' consisted basically of the trading of insults between two individuals or characters in a poetic structure.  The Poetic Edda contains a few of these and one of the most famous is the 'Flyting of Loki' or 'Lokisenna'.

Odhin to Loki:  Winters eight wast thou under the earth
Milking the cows as a maid;
(Aye, and babes didst thou bear,
Unmanly thy soul must appear.)

Loki retorts:  They say thou with spells in Samsey once
Like witches with charms didst thou work;
And in witch's guise amongst men didst thou go
Unmanly thy soul must appear.

Dumezil, the famous comparative mythology expert, wrote copiously about his belief that the Northern religion stemmed directly from Indian Aryan roots.  I personally believe that the old Northern religion is a mixture of ancient native beliefs with the foreign Aryan traditions and myths.

Nonetheless, it is important to understand the entire basis of any sophisticated polytheistic religion which is far more complex and logical than supporters of monotheism would have one believe.

For a start, the 'gods and goddesses' in polytheism never are omnipotent or infinite but are ruled by an omnipotent, infinite Divine entity that cannot be described or reduced to any set of attributes or power, much like the Universe itself.  This is true of Hinduism, the ancient Greek and Roman religions and the old Norse religion, as well as others.

The 'lower' gods and goddesses, for want of a better word, are subject to as many rules, regulations, limitations and consequences as humankind and indeed are somewhat like humans in many respects, although they tend to be given higher rank as they have greater powers than ordinary humans and sometimes even have jurisdiction over the Elements.

Hinduism uses the term 'avatar' to denote different manifestations of the same power at different points in time or in response to different situations or threats to the existence of the world.  The ongoing confusion in Norse mythology between Frigga and Freyja may be due to the fact that, ab initio, they WERE the same Goddess in the forms of two different avatars.  Likewise, the fascinating Goddesses Gefjun and Gullveig are manifestations of Freyja.  Gefjun is mentioned in the Lokasenna.  Gullveig, a name that means 'Gold Greedy' was burned 3 times in the initial war between the Aesir and the Vanir and rose from the ashes like a phoenix each time according to the Voluspa.   She is Freyja of course, the Great Goddess.

The seer speaks of her:  'Now she remembers the War, the first in the world, when Gullveig was studded with spears; And in the Hall of the High One, she was burned, thrice burned, thrice reborn, often, many times and yet she lives.  She was called Heidhr when she came to a house, the Witch who saw many things.  She enchanted wands, Divined and enchanted what she could; In a trance she performed seidhr and brought delight to evil women.'

Seidr was the type of magic that was exclusively practiced by women and one of the insults in the Lokasenna deals with Odhinn's disguise as a female witch who practiced the art of seidhr.   The witch with the power to divine the future and empower runestaves or runic wands sat upon a three-legged stool traditionally to practice her art.  It was thought that Freyja taught the All-Father the mysteries of seidhr.

'Evil women' in this context probably means women who were willing to use dark magic to curse their enemies or otherwise use magic for acts of destruction rather than creation.   Alas, the Norse and Germanic myths and religious poems do not survive in their original uncorrupted form.  They only survive because Christian writers took an interest in writing them down for posterity.  Thus, they contain many moral judgements that probably lend inaccuracies to the texts.

This brings me to the Hindu gods and in particular, the great God Shiva in his form of Nataraja or 'Lord of the Dance' as well as his/her avatar Ardhanarisvara, explictly hermaphrodite.

There are many different iconic depictions of all the Hindu gods and goddesses but usually if you study a statue or drawing of the 'Dancing Shiva' or 'Lord of the Dance', you will see that the God wears two earrings of different design.  One is male and the other is female.  As Ardhanarisvara, half of the deity's body is male and the other half female.

In other words, gender is not as permanent in many polytheistic traditions as it is in Christianity, Islam or Judaism, the three 'monotheistic' traditions that rule modern and contemporary Western consciousness.

Actually, this makes perfect sense.  Why would any entity that has within it some of the powers of the Divine or Elements be limited to a specific gender?

In fact, the patriarchal social cultures that robbed women of their ancient equality with men and their social, economic and political powers probably were responsible for hardening the gender definitions in religion.  Ancient goddesses were able to teach the arts of war, rule the world and do almost anything a male could do.  Likewise, ancient gods often bore children and had the power to commit other deeds that are 'female' in nature.

The Lokasenna remembers epic events in the history of the gods and goddesses but has perverted the originals and made great, glorious deeds into shameful ones.

Freyja, the Great Fertility Goddess is described as 'wanton' rather than a force of Nature who shares her potency with males from different species, including humankind, dwarves and animals.  Odhinn is called 'unmanly' for his acquisition of the great female powers of Seidr, which are those of foretelling the future and casting and enchanting runes.  Rune power is Elemental Power to some extent as every Rune contains within it the seed of a particular natural force or element.  Loki, who bore possibly the most significant offspring of all in the forms of Sleipnir, Odhinn's eight-legged steed, the Midgard Serpent that encirlces the Earth, the Fenris Wolf and Hel, the Goddess who rules the lands of Death, is described as 'unmanly' and insulted again and again with that term.

Yet, this dovetails with the ancient form of Shiva as hermaphrodite, for it is the feminine side that is 'Shakti' or Divine Energy...

It is interesting to note, as an aside, that if you study statues of the Lord of the Dance, you often will find radiating serpents on either side of the god's head, almost as though his hair, flying in the wind, were made of living serpents.  Is this not the ancient Greek form of the Medusa whose glance could transform any one to stone?  And is not the transformation of a moving, breathing entity into stone a cessation of movement and time?  For the Lord of the Dance has power over time and movement, Creation and Destruction both.