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From Fen comes this topic idea:
“Inspired by your recent post, would it be possible to talk more on your experiences with the relationship between Odin and Loki?”
My relationships with every Heathen God, Ancestors, and vaettr has been mediated in some way first through Óðinn. Yes, even my relationship with Fenris. My relationship with Loki came about through Óðinn. I sometimes jokingly refer to this phenomena with the Heathen Gods as “Come meet my Family!” but as much as I find the phrase amusing, it is quite true. I came to know Frigg, Þórr, and the other Aesir through Óðinn, and through Loki I came to know His family.
When I first began worshiping Óðinn it was only Him. Then, as I began digging into the lore at the same time as I was developing a relationship with Him, I kept running into Loki whether or not I wanted to. When I sat down and read the Lokasenna and the reference to Their blood oath was made when Loki spoke to Óðinn in it, something clicked hard for me. For all that folks up to this point had made a big issue of offering to Loki to keep Him away or to stave off issues in ritual, here, through Óðinn, I was being brought into relationship with this God.
This is where things get interesting. In loving Óðinn I came to know and love His Family, and part of that Family is Loki. Through learning to love Loki, I in turn came to love His Family, despite how much Fenris in particular scared the Hel out of me (pardon the intentional pun). My portion was to wrestle with that discomfort with His Child as much as it had been to wrestle with my discomfort with Loki Himself previous.
Through all of this I understood fairly quickly that I could not indulge or entertain the idea that Jötnar = evil, because both in the lore I was studying and in my emerging relationships with several Jötun this was simply not the case. Worshiping Óðinn and Loki shattered a lot of early binary thinking that still exists in many forms of Norse and Icelandic Heathenry, something I am deeply grateful to Them both for shattering. It expanded my understanding of the Gods, of course, and it also forced me to look at the binaries of understanding around Ancestors and vaettir. In coming to understand my Gods in deeply powerful, personal, and in some cases boundary and binary-shattering ways, it did the same for my Ancestors and vaettir.
As far as understanding the relationship between Óðinn and Loki, I have gotten some flashes of brotherhood, and things more intimate than brotherhood. In other words, some of the interactions I have seen between Them point to Them being lovers. However, it has never been my interest in digging into that with Them. Not because such a thing repulses me on principle -no, I just do not want to dig into my Father’s sexual exploits with my spiritual Uncle. I’m good.
Given I am an Odinsson there’s some things about Óðinn I’m okay with not digging too deep into. I have other things and other ways of relating to these Gods in my life, and if I want advice on sex and such I would be sure to reach out to either one, but Their relationships are just that. It’s worth pointing out that I do not ask similar questions of Óðinn and Frigg of Their relationships either. It’s rude, not my business, and if They wanted me to know (for…whatever reason) I am sure They would make a point for me to know it.
Knowing both of these Gods has revolutionized my life as a polytheist and a Heathen. It has brought what had been a relatively stationary understanding of Ancestors and vaettir into a much more complex understanding. When I was primarily a priest of Anpu and devotee of Bast, while also worshiping Lykeios, Lupa, and Brighid, I did not have anywhere near the experiences I began to have with land spirits that I did when I came to understand Them through the lens of landvaettir and húsvaettir. Oh, They were there and real, that much I knew. However, despite doing regular offerings and prayers to Them I did not receive anywhere near the response I did until after I became a Heathen. Likewise, most of the spirits I interacted with at this point and time were the Dead, and most of my Ancestors were quite quiet. So in ways great and small coming to know, worship, and develop good relationships with these Gods completely rewired my spirit and relationships with everyone and everything around me.
Sarenth Odinsson 
Not going to lie. I think it makes perfect sense that Odin and Loki would have a sexual component to Their relationship. Loki probably doesn’t care about any potential stigma and if Odin is interested in Loki enough to be oath brothers then He’d probably be willing to engage in that kind of relationship if it meant gaining something valuable from the experience. It might also be in connection to how both are both connected to warrior groups (Galina once told me that Loki has something to do with the berserkergang state or at least that’s something I remember her saying). Those kinds of warrior groups often did have homo-erotic stuff going on (the Sacred Band of Thebes comes to mind). I don’t know how prevalent it is in the Northern lands if at all but its presence in other parts of Europe makes me wonder if maybe something similar is going on in what you were picking up.
I know you don’t necessarily want to dwell too much on that but those are some thoughts that came to mind
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