In a dream,
a little while back, I was wearing a Laughing Dog talisman I had made recently in waking life. I was moved to make it after I came across the body of a coyote during one of my desert mountain walks. The bones spoke loud, bringing me to them. I didn't take it anywhere. I wanted to bring it home with me, but Coyote wanted to stay in its most lovely resting spot, beneath an old juniper tree among red rocks. Its face was frozen into a snarl and I hope one day only the skull and some pieces remain. Those it said, I may take home.
So I wait and watch, the desert taking its course blending body to dirt.
The bones also gave me a dream. After making this necklace honoring The Trickster I found, I dreamt I was walking across a field of snow at the edge of a forest. I was approached by a coyote and as he stopped in my path, he grinned—and grew upward—into a human figure wrapped in a cloak.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"You know Loki", he whispered next to my ear, grabbing my necklace and pulling it taut on my neck. His scent was wild, like elk and fur and antlers freshly shed.
"I rather like this, will you make something for me?"
I noticed he was bewitched by the necklace he held, and his canine teeth betrayed his human face. They had not shifted away with the rest of his coyote form.
My life has been one often guided by The Tricksters in their various forms, so I accepted his request, along with one of my own: I would like them to be a little softer in the ways they teach. A barter. He laughed and commanded me "You be wiser in finding the lessons within", pulling my chin with a clawed finger to look into his eyes.
An Idea
I awoke and knew what to do.
As this encounter swirled throughout my mind, I sketched out a bracelet for Loki. I took the coyote form from the pendant to honor how he approached me in the dream, and I put two moons next to it, my spirit and his in the dreamtime. As I said, it has been a long journey with tricksters so I selected a series of runes to symbolize the life journey.
Part II up next...