I finished this project this week. The longest, lowest string (not pictured) of the jewelry for my gythia apron had had temporary repairs made too many times and the latest pics I saw of myself in it (from the Yuletide Heathen Visibility Project Photoshoot) convinced me to finally do something permanent with it. Because the repairs had gotten ratty and lopsided over the years, and I wanted it to look nicer. So, I took the pendants and big beads off, added more big beads, strung it on chenile yarn, and made it to be worn with other pendant necklaces, so the new version has no central pendant. The Thor's hammer in the photo is an independent pendant, hanging in the blank spot of the new necklace, as I planned. The small beads removed from the string are now displayed on a kintsukoroi plate near other special things.

This week I also got back in touch with the goddess Skadhi. I had been close to her in my early 20s when I lived in California and used to go snowshoeing and cross country skiing on Donner Summit, where I stayed with a Sierra Club group at their private lodge. It was back then that I wrote / was inspired by Odin to write my poem Skadhi: Water Cycle, which I still think is my best poem, even 30 years later.

I had grown closer to other gods and goddesses over the years after I left California, and since being inspired to write Some Say Fire and the whole inspiration process that led to my becoming a godspouse of Odin / Honir / Loki who is Lodhur, I had been a little wary of Skadhi because of some of the story elements that cast her and Loki as antagonists. But Loki has told me the Fireverse was not even this universe, it was a previous or alternate universe or timeline (the difference between the two is rather fuzzy) and in this universe the bad things didn't happen and Loki and Skadhi are friends, just with opposite powers and personalities, literally fire and ice. There is really no reason to be hesitant to get back in touch with Skadhi just because I am close to Loki, I was mistaken to think the story represented the reality of the gods in that way.

So, I made some peppermint tea in a cute snowman mug and raised a toast to her, and dedicated a clear rock crystal to her. The quartz crystal is now in my wall altar aka spiritual souvenir shrine.

It's amazing to me that I am still learning and growing after all this. At several points I thought I was "done." lol.

Image: Viking Age style women's jewelry of amber strings hanging between 2 brooches, plus a Thor's Hammer pendant and a necklace with two pendants, one a Valknut for Odin and the other a face with garnet eyes and mouth for Loki.