Skadi was the first goddess that I began working with. I was living in Rhode Island at the time, and desperately seeking a mountain goddess. I found Skadi, or rather, she found me. I would meditate on her, and as a reward I was given snow. Not blizzards, just slight snow dustings as if to say 'hullo'. She taught me a lot about sacrifice, about offerings, about loyalty, and even, to some extent, about betrayal. Her land, Thrymheim, is a very, very sacred and beautiful place.

Skadi, much like Hela and the Nornir, is one of the best known and best loved of the Jotnar. It is not surprising to me in any way that she has garnered this type of affection from a multitude of groups. Her name finds her way into almost all aspects of the northern traditions, including Anglo-Saxon heathenry (which, though justified by etymology, is probably the farthest reach in my mind for her to have traveled). For me, my association with Skadi is extremely important, as she is the first Jotun I connected with - and, for that matter, the first being from the northern tradition that I encountered at all!

So, who is Skadi, what is her history, and what can be gained from knowing her? I mean, really, that is why you are reading this, is it not?

First, I must start with my usual "why are you here" question. This isn't a light question. In fact, it is one that is encountered on the Jotun path every day. I ask that of you now, only because I know that if and when you contact any Jotun being, you will be asked this. Why are you here? Is it because you want to prove that you can meet them? Is it because you have some Jotun-killing obsession? Do you think you are better than them? Do you have some Odin complex? By this, I am asking you a two-part question: Are you seeking their knowledge, or, are you seeking their things? Are you doing any of these things honestly, or do you have a hidden motive and agenda? Of all the questions, this is perhaps the most critical and important. Especially when you meet Skadi. 

I'm going to assume that you know the lore and basic background of Skadi, of the story of her and Loki, and, of course, her father Thiazi. There are some important clues to Skadi in this story, and they are things that cannot be taken lightly. Her love of her family, for instance, and in turn, the love that Thiazi has shown for her, giving his life (and I fully believe that he knew what he was getting into) so that she could bridge the gap between Jotun and Aesir and insure her own immortality and godhood. These are not small portions of the mystery of Skadi. 

She is a compassionate, and passionate, being. She can be one of the most loving and amazing wights you will ever know, but this does not come without its price, and it is not an easy one for most people. This price is not a sacrifice of the external. You cannot kill an animal, cut yourself for a self-blood animal, or give any material thing to Skadi to garner her affections and interests - or, for that matter, to learn from her. To work with her, to learn from her, to allow yourself to grow within her, requires a lot of work. I realize that at this point, you've heard "don't go into anything blindly", "watch your back", "be genuine", "know that they can hurt you, and will hurt you given the chance", and any other innumerable thing that is common to all of the Jotnar. You've probably glanced and read other sections that say, "Work is imperative." This is so very true, but with Skadi, it runs so deep that it cannot be denied. Accounts of the types of work she demands can be found almost everywhere, and most notably in Diana Paxson's article on Skadi, available on the Hrafnar website.

Her mythos is surrounded by dishonesty and half-truths. She has been lied to and deceived so many times that she has no patience for it. So what does this have to do with work? You can't lie to her about what you do or have done. She'll know, and then she'll test you. So what is this work?

She is a very physical being, strongly interested in physical health and stamina. The first thing to know about Skadi is that you will have to learn how to exercise, take care of your body, survive in the wild to some extent, and deal with winter in a constructive way. This is actually the hardest part of working with Skadi for me, and actually, for most people I know. She does not deal well with sloth and gluttony. She abhors any type of laziness involving the body - regardless of your health concerns. If you want to work with her, you need to know how to exercise, and you need to do it outside on a semi-regular basis. It is one of the hardest things, particularly in our current consumer society, to understand this. I think that this aspect of her is why so many unsavory groups have attached themselves to her. She lives by the axiom of might and survival of the fittest. This, unfortunately, attracts some of the crappiest people on earth. In fact, if you search for Skadi online, you will find a major fascist/racist group uses her name as the URL. Her cold, methodic and detached nature is magnetic to them.

She also shares certain connection aspects of Tyr, in that she is somewhat concerned with ethics and morality. This is not to say that she has the ethics or morality of Christianity. She is concerned with honesty, truth, fidelity, and, again, the truth of ones physicality is a portion of her morality/ethical concerns. 

Fidelity is one of the more troubling aspects with working with Skadi. She is not opposed to polyamory, as long as it is honest and all persons involved are aware of the parameters of the relationship(s) that they are in. She seems to be uncomfortable with it, but this seems to only be connected with the notion of honesty and truth, and how poor humans are at these things, and that she little trusts them to do it rightly. Loyalty to your oaths, whatever they are, is important to her, as it is to Tyr.

She is associated with hunting and skiing, particularly cross-country skiing. This is important, too. Her huntress side is not that of the human hunter, particularly of today. It is a primal hunt, one of survival. There is no sport to her hunting. It is about eating, survival, and sacred death. I don't mean sacred death in the way that Hela is about death; Skadi is intrinsically linked to the act of dying, the death of the physical body. She is not concerned in the least about what happens to your soul complex; she is only interested in the carcass.