appealing to the children of the Gods.

In Ibn Fadlan's Risala (§ 85), when Viking trading trips to Russia didn't work out after their first four attempts at the market after leaving offerings at the large godpoles, merchants would then employ a roundabout appeal via Gods' wives & children by instead leaving offerings at their smaller statues surrounding those godpoles to then intercede for them and get their Gods' attention & favour that way.

This one-degree-removed hierarchy networking seems amusing, yet let's NorsePlay this idea from a religious practice standpoint and look at the divinity of the children themselves.

Some modern Asatruar point out that the Æsir Gods & Ásynjur Goddesses are usually too busy to attend to individual appeals since on a cosmic level they are big picture beings keeping the Norse Níuverse in order. For instance, Odin's chessmastering things so Ragnarök either never happens or to make it so that the Aesir get the upper hand to defeat the prophecies, while Thor's managing the flow of universal electrical fields and proactively hunting the ever rampant thermodynamic breakdown of the jötnar who would otherwise freeze the universe to a deathly standstill or burn Yggdrasil to ash. 

So unless you're hero material, or a brilliant visionary, or someone at a saga-level exceptional position who could help with that, they usually haven't the time to broker your business trading deal on the Volga, or get you a new car. (You have the Ancestors for that.)

By contrast their children may not be as busy, and in many ways seem to handle some of the same divine job titles as their parents. So if you had needs of evoking strength, you could possibly appeal to Thor's sons Móði, Magni, or his daughter Thrud, whose names mean "wrath", "mighty", and "strength". Or if you desired the wealth of love, ask Freyja's daughters Hnoss & Gersemi, both meaning "treasure", for some of that rich emotional beauty in your life. If you required the forethought & purposeful planning of Odin, his sons Váli & Víðarr, names meaning "the slayer" (roughly [he has a planned vengeance context/purpose]) and "wide ruler", could be appealed to in your long-game success.

And whether Ragnarök occurs or not, it would stand to reason that this second generation of Aesir will eventually take on, or help, share, and expand their parents' metaphysical domains, so if we were to more directly begin to acknowledge their roles & obvious worth in our blót then this gives us as adherents more connections to a wider array of Aesir as practicing polytheists, which only has the possibility of strengthening our praxis.

Hail to the Ásbarnar!

[you'd think that there would be tons of cool-looking teens dressed up for Viking re-enactment festivals, but all we could find was the above photo from Vikings: Season 4 of the Ragnarssons as stand-ins.]

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology, field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.