Goddess of the Week: Freyja

Sometimes, you might feel like you have to cross a line to get what you want. You might even feel that you need to give up a part of yourself to get what you want. For example, my secret boyfriend, Colin Firth, recently thought he had to make himself all frumpy and old looking (which he may be, but not when he's being my secret boyfriend) and star in a totally boring movie in order to get accolades as a serious artiste. Instead, what my secret boyfriend should have done was thought of the goddess Freyja and practiced some personal restrai

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Freyja is a Norse goddess. Think Venus and Hades all wrapped in one. She is the goddess of beauty, fertility, and love, but also of death and war. I know what you're thinking. How can one goddess represent such opposite concepts? Think lust. Think desire. Now let them out of the bedroom. Let them grow like yeast in anger and resentment, in infidelity and broken promises. There you go. You got Medea. You got Mia Farrow. You got Charlie Sheen. Love, poisoned, leads to bad places.

What Freyja lusted after was the Brisingamen, a golden necklace of dazzling beauty made by four dwarves. She went to the dwarves to buy it.

"No way," they said. "This thing is priceless."

"Everything has a price," she said. "Even a goddess has a price."

So the dwarves made a deal. In return for the necklace, she would spend one full night with each dwarf.

When Freyja returned to the gods wearing the necklace, and when the other gods found out how she had cheapened herself for the sake of mere bling, they were totally grossed out. They couldn't even look her in the eye, and soon she became the butt of so many jokes that she basically had to go star in a Holocaust drama just so that people would take her seriously again.

The lesson here is that what you want, isn't always what you should have. Some prices are just too high. Goddesses may have a price, but self respect does not.

Channel this goddess: If you must channel unbridled lust, be like Freyja. Indulge in precious medals. They're a sure bet in a weak economy.

Need a goddess: The queue is open! Tell me what you need a goddess to help you with, and I will find the perfect goddess just for you. Just post a comment specifying your particulars, and I'll see what I can do.