Dancing Down the Moon

Runic Wednesdays - Aett One - The Flame

(Kenaz)

I am the spark that ignites creation
Burning away the shadows and doubt
I lead you out of the darkness
Beyond your old boundaries
Hold me aloft and fear not.

Sound:  hard C (as in cat)

Translation:  Torch

The Flame is the Rune of inspiration and sudden understanding--the "aha!" moment.  Imagine a light bulb going on over Bugs Bunny's head; that's Kenaz.  It is a flare of light amid the darkness of ignorance.

The knowledge gained by the Flame Rune isn't the slow result of years of work; it's more like the out-of-nowhere insights you receive in the shower or while driving.  It's a moment when everything clicks together, when separate parts of your knowledge on a subject finally arrange themselves in your mind to make sense.  I used to have moments like this during Calculus (unfortunately not enough to pass the class).

The Flame brings divine inspiration, grace--a gift that we may not feel we've earned, but that comes to us as a result of being connected with the Source of All Wisdom. 

The Flame in Divination

The Flame often shows up in readings for people who are involved with creative endeavors and the arts; it can signify a period of intense inspiration or a breakthrough after a period of writer's block.   The difference in energy between Kenaz and Ansuz (the Voice) can be thought of as right brain versus left brain.  Ansuz governs language and words, but Kenaz speaks of more artistic creative work or at least of disengaging your intellectual wisdom in favor of something more abstract.  Drawing the two together, for a writer, is like winning the Muse's lottery (this combination can also describe a more spiritual form of inspiration or even something as intense as trance possession).

Often it also indicates that the answer to a long-held question is about to hit you out of the blue, you simply need to stop fretting over it and allow the information to come to you. 

Most of the time the Flame is referring to a smaller issue, not the sudden revelation of one's life purpose or anything so grand.  Drawing it with Raidho can contradict that, however.  At the very least, if you are facing several options, the Flame can illuminate the one that would be best for you.

As a Rune of Fire, the Flame does more than enlighten; it energizes and enlivens everything around it.  It is both a struck match and a lightning strike.  If you are in a stagnant situation, particularly one involving creative problem solving or unanswered questions, the Flame can be the cosmic kick in the pants you need to get moving again before things get so bad that bigger guns like Jera (the Harvest) and, gods forbid, Hagalaz (Destruction), are required. 

Whatever its intent--to inspire or to energize--heed the knowledge that comes to you following an encounter with the Flame.   Whatever it is, it won't be subtle the way, say, the Voice would be; Fire isn't known for its subtlety.

(I apologize for both the lateness and the shortness of this post, but there's more on the way--the Flame is starting to work its magic on me as well.)

Runic Wednesdays - Aett One - The Journey

(Raidho)

I am the long and winding road ahead
the great wheel of stars in the turning sky
I return and return,
but I always return changed;
You may not pass by the same star twice.

Sound:  R

Translation:  Wheel

The previous Rune, the Voice, called us out of our old lives once and for all; Raidho, the Journey, is where that Voice leads us, from where we began to what we will become.

The literal translation of Raidho is "wheel," and it could easily be viewed as the Wheel of the Year--four seasons, eight Sabbats, twelve months, or however you mark time.  My experience with this Rune however is that it speaks of something larger than a year.  It speaks of your entire unfolding life path, and as such it is less of a wheel and more of a spiral, as you travel past the same places over and over, but each time as a slightly different person. 

If you went to your tenth high school reunion you know the truth of this.  It's the same place, the same people, but you (hopefully) have changed. 

The Journey is a Rune of becoming.  One could expand its definition even further to encompass multiple incarnations and karma, but I find it most useful to stick with a single lifetime's worth of travel.  I've never found past life recall all that interesting, myself, but your mileage may vary.

At this point in the Aett, we've already made the decision to undergo the initiatory quest--once the Voice is heeded, there's no going back, at least not until the entire cycle pivots on itself and returns to the beginning.  By the time that happens, though, you will have shed your old skin and learned to see the world with eyes that are both younger and much, much wiser. 

The Journey in Divination

Your readings with Raidho may simply place the symbol in the context of one year, but keep in mind that it can also indicate larger forces at work.  I think of the Journey as a Big Rune, speaking of Big Damn Things Afoot.  Whatever other Runes land with it, they are directly involved with the unfolding of your life as a whole, and should be considered accordingly. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, drawing Raidho with Ansuz often speaks of a vocation; anything you draw it with, however, automatically assumes much greater weight in a reading.  Any time you see the Journey, whatever question you asked opens up to include far more than a few months and a couple of issues. 

Another thing to consider when the Journey appears is whether or not your past is influencing the present (of course it is, it can't help but do so, but I mean in a way that is within your power to change).  Are you clinging to the Wheel, to your history, looking backward instead of forward?  Are you simply refusing to move at all?  I'd recommend against that--there are Runes ahead that will work you over hard if you try to entrench yourself in one place. 

As life coaches like to say, "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten."  (Attributed variously to Mark Twain, Yogi Berra, and Anthony Robbins, et al.)  The Journey could also be saying that you're letting your past dictate your responses to current situations, and that in order to get back on your path, you need to change how you walk or at least get some new hiking boots.

The main thing to remember is that whatever a reading is describing, the presence of Raidho means that the choices you make in the near future will affect you on a grand scale.  You aren't just walking along the threads of the web, you are weaving it strand by strand.

If you can think of any more metaphors to add to the above section please feel free to do so.

What to Think About when the Journey Appears in a Reading

1.  Where am I going?  If nothing changes, where will I probably end up?

2.  Where do I want to go?  What small step can I take to help me head in that direction?

3.  What are the larger consequences of the choice I am currently faced with?

4.  Am I trying to do things the way I have always done them, just because I always have?

Runic Wednesdays: Aett One: The Voice

(Ansuz)

I am the holy Tree bridging heaven and earth

The call of the deepest dark and highest light

Hear me, hear me, even in the stillness

I will lead you by word and thought

If only you will follow.

Sound: Aa

Translation: Mouth, God

Ansuz, the Voice of God, is the divine breath, the song that existed before matter, before time.  It is usually connected to Odin, the All-Father of the Norse pantheon, God of wisdom who first brought the Runes forth from the World Tree. 

The Voice represents words, yes, but also the sacred essence that lies within, beyond words.  After you have made the necessary sacrifice of Thurisaz, you are left with an empty place in your life, and to progress along your path you must reach the silence, the stillpoint in which the Divine can be heard.  The gods are always speaking, always singing; are you listening?

The Rune of Sacrifice demanded that you give something up, probably painfully.  You may be wallowing in that pain, or have reached what you think is rock bottom, when you find ourself empty and echoing--and in that echo, if you are willing to listen, comes the Voice.

The Voice in Divination

Ansuz often turns up when there's something the universe is trying to tell you but for whatever reason you're not listening.  It's basically God saying "Shut up, I'm talking!"

More than that, however, the Voice can be an indicator that you have a calling that you may be ignoring, or may simply not have found yet, especially in conjunction with the next Rune of the Aett, Raidho, the Journey.  These two together often speak of a vocation of some kind. 

The Voice can also represent a more mundane kind of communication--speaking, writing, reading, study, anything involving words and wisdom.  As it is connected to Odin, it carries the mantle of leadership and authority, particularly over spiritual groups like covens, churches, and prayer meetings. 

Additionally, Ansuz can be an indicator that an important question in your life is about to be answered...or has already been answered, if you can quiet your mind enough to find that answer.  If it turns up in a reading, pay special attention to portents and signs in nature--Odin employed two wolves and two ravens to gather information for him, and indeed the gods speak to us through the natural world every moment of every day.  Ansuz bears messages relating to the other Runes in your reading, and often it's up to you to figure out who's talking.

Combined with the Flame (Kenaz), the Voice can speak of spiritual ecstasy and inspiration.

What to Think About when the Voice Appears in a Reading

1.  Have I been meditating and keeping to my spiritual practices, allowing the Voice of the Divine to be heard?

2.  Do I need to devote more time to reading and study of my path or field?

3.  How can I improve my communication skills?

4.  What am I ignoring?  What am I denying?

Runic Wednesdays: Aett One - Sacrifice

(Thurisaz)

I am the blood that wells to the righteous wound
I am the scar that remains
I will make the cut at your word:
Draw me not without discernment,
Nor lower me without honor.

Letter/Sound: Th

Translation: Thorn, Giant

In Norse myth, the Frost Giants were considered the adversaries of the Asgard, but their role was more vital than simply a foil; they were prime motivators in most of the myths, and kept the Asgard from falling into complacency (from regressing back to the Fehu stage of the journey).

The Thorn, Thurisaz, is the Rune of Sacrifice. It is in its way the opposite of the energies of Uruz, which is wild and untamed power; the Thorn demands that we learn discipline, and learn the often painful lesson that nothing comes without a cost. The Thorn cleaves away what is not serving us in our evolution. It helps clear a space for the Divine to enter, but often that space is full of our own issues and baggage, and these are what we must sacrifice in order to learn.

When I think of Thurisaz, rather than a thorn, I think of a tattoo gun. When you get a tattoo or body piercing, you willingly give yourself over to a rite of initiation by pain—even if you don't view it as such, you are paying someone to permanently change the only body you get for this Earthwalk. The Thorn is the needle, and it cuts through the skin to leave behind beauty, meaning, strength, and symbol. The cost is your blood, and your pain.

The Rune of Sacrifice's first counsel is always this: choose the pain that will count instead of letting pain choose you. Take the riskier road, rip the bandage off and sing. Make the choice to take on the responsibility of your own life instead of having it forced on you by circumstance. Offer up your demons before they must be stripped from you by later Runes like Hagalaz. Here, at this point in the Aett, there is still an element of choice in what is to come—you are choosing later consequences with your actions now.

Leaving the safe road almost always means peril and pain. But almost all the great literature of our time would agree that leaving home is the only way to fulfill your potential as heroine of your own story.

The Rune of Sacrifice in Divination

When the Thorn appears in your readings, look around at your life and see what the gods might be asking you to sacrifice in order to receive what it is that you want out of life. What is standing between you and your goal? What are you willing to give up for it?

That sacrifice might be time—the time to commit to a spiritual practice or a health regime, the time to read, the time to meditate, the time to spend with family. Whatever the Thorn is asking, it will not be easy to cast aside; if people had cheerfully jumped onto the altar to have their hearts cut out by ancient priests, they wouldn't have been sacrifices, they'd have been volunteers. Right now the universe is giving you the chance to cut away the parts of your life that are holding you back; you have until the end of this Aett to do so, before the next set of Runes does it for you in a much more painful way.

The lesson of Thurisaz, then, is: Make the pain count. Think of yourself as an artist confronted with a new block of stone: chisel away everything that isn't you. Make a space inside you for wonder to flow in—take up your sickle and clear the land, cut down the weeds and brambles, and open up your life to the change that's coming instead of fighting it. Make a space before the wildfire comes.

What To Think About when Sacrifice Appears in a Reading

1. What am I resisting? What stands in my way?

2. What am I willing to give up in order to get what I want?

3. Are there relationships or people in my life that are toxic and need to be excised?

4. Am I willing to commit to a practice or routine that will, through my self-discipline, yield the results I desire?

Runic Wednesdays: Aett One - Strength

(Uruz)

I am the Wild Hunt and its quarry

The courage to fall and rise again

I bring to you the strength of the high mountain

When you think I have left you,

Seek me within.

Letter/Sound: U

Translation: The Aurochs

 

The Rune of Strength also represents an animal, this time a species of ox called the Aurochs, which once populated the European wildlands. The Aurochs was driven into extinction by overzealous hunting, and the last one was killed in the early 17th century. It was a large animal, powerful, and its Rune serves as a counterpoint to the domesticated beast of Fehu. The shape of the Rune is reminiscent of the horns of the ox; here in my home state we have a similar animal, the Longhorn, and if the Aurochs was at all bigger it must have been a formidable animal indeed.

Uruz is a masculine Rune to Fehu’s feminine, but more than that, it is the Call of the Wild. We begin our journey at home, in mundane life, becoming secure in ourselves and our situation in the world. At some point, however, we pause and look around, perhaps asking, “Did anyone else hear that?”

Something has to lead a seeker into seeking. In the case of many would-be Pagan practitioners, it is a feeling of connection to Nature, a realization that there is spirit and energy in every living thing. When we first begin to see and sense there is more to life than work and sleep, we catch sight of the hoofprints of Uruz.

At this point, however, we aren’t quite ready to leave behind all that is familiar and safe to go haring off into the unknown. Uruz isn’t the journey itself, but the knowledge that a journey is coming, and soon. What the Rune symbolizes in essence is that which we must find in ourselves in order to take that first step: Strength.

The Rune of Strength is also the Rune of Will. Your Will is not the same as a whim, not simply a desire; your Will is the soul-deep understanding of the path before you, the choices you must make, and the lessons you are slated to learn in this walk around the Earth. Your Will comes from a grounded place and is carved out of stone; the usual plethora of wants and “needs” we get so entangled in is no more substantial than the wind, and changes just as readily. Your Will does not take the easy way out, and as such, it is hard to follow--especially when you’ve gotten so comfortable with your life.

Think of Fehu as the homestead, and Uruz as the far horizon that beckons. At this point in the Spiral you aren’t ready to go chasing after the second star on the right, but you can feel something you never felt before, a pull, drawing you away.

The Rune of Strength in Divination

When you see Strength in your readings, there could be several forces at work in the situation. First, and most likely, it indicates that in order to be successful and to triumph in whatever part of life the reading describes, you must look to your own inner Strength and call upon your true Will to make the right decisions. Determination is called for here.

Another thing Uruz can sometimes speak of is an actual person, either one in our lives or one that will be, almost always male. If you draw Uruz and Fehu together it’s possible the two are speaking of a couple, no matter what combination of actual genders is involved. The two are complementary. The man in question is likely a strong figure, one with definite ideas about what he wants and how the world should be; occasionally he can be a bully or have what my friends and I call “testosterone poisoning.” Uruz is almost stereotypically masculine in energy, but can be harnessed by women just as well to help with situations where we need to stand up for ourselves.

There is an undercurrent of sexuality to the energy of this Rune--not love, but purely physical, often intense, red-hot monkey sex. If Uruz appears with the Rune of Love (X) you may see a sudden inrush of sexual activity that could very well yield up a lasting relationship. On its own, however, Strength has no emotional attachment to its partners, and is in it for the enjoyment of the moment with no strings. If you are in a situation that feels stuck, or have a creative block, and Uruz appears, you might try spicing up your sex life a little to get your energy flowing again.

In fact, another difference between the two opening Runes of this Aett is one of embodiment; while both are symbolic of manifest reality, Fehu represents the material world, our life situation; Uruz is more in tune with our bodies themselves, our very physical existence.  Drawing Uruz can indicate you need a more literal kind of strength, and that you should turn your attention to your body's health and needs. 

 

What to Think About When Strength Appears in a

Reading

1. Am I following through on my plans, or am I procrastinating?

2. Is there something I know has to be done that I am afraid to do?

3. What about this situation am I genuinely afraid of?

4. Is there a person in my life who is exerting too much influence over my decisions?

5. What is it that I truly want?

6. Am I willing to do what it takes to achieve my dreams?

7. Have I been dreaming of a different life lately? What about my life could I change?

 

Runic Wednesdays: Aett One - Wealth

The first eight Runes in the Elder Futhark prepare us for our initiation.  We begin in everyday, mundane life, taking care of our physical needs.  Most people do not dare venture beyond the ordinary; some see beneath and through the materialism of modern life, and venture into the unknown, seeking something more.  There is joy in the journey, and sacrifice; we are charged to be strong, to listen, and to learn.  We begin to understand that we are not alone in the universe--there is something, or Someone, waiting to guide us, calling us, at once as far away as the corners of Creation, and as close as the ground beneath our feet.

This is the beginning.  A journey of a thousand miles lies before you, but before you can take the first step, you have to choose to get up and walk.

Runic Wednesdays - an Introduction

Before I get into the individual Runes themselves, or into any depth regarding the alphabet as a whole, I thought I would begin by linking to two posts I made a long while ago that introduce my basic approach to the Elder Futhark, its history, and what I believe it means. 

The Runes as a Spiritual Oracle, Part One

The Runes as a Spiritual Oracle, Part Two

 

Runic Wednesdays - Storytelling

In an effort to get back into the swing of regular posting, I have decided that Wednesdays shall now be dedicated to posts about the Runes of the Elder Futhark.  I'll do a Rune of the Week, discussing the symbolic meanings as well as my own way of interpreting them in a casting.  This may interest no one, but it does me, and anything that gets me fired up about writing again is more than welcome to stay and play.

To start things off, I thought I'd share a short piece I wrote several years ago with the intent of using it in a book about my approach to the Runes.  I may still, but I'm trying not to force myself to think strictly in terms of books these days, and it seems a shame for this story to gather dust in a lonely My Documents folder. 

Therefore, I give you,

Odin's Tale, based on the Runatal section of the Havamal, the mythological account of the origin of the Runes.

The Runes as a Spiritual Oracle, part Two

Part two of an introductory essay on the Elder Futhark.

The Runes as a Spiritual Oracle, part One

First of a two-part introduction to working with the Runes of the Elder Futhark. 

(This essay is from the last version of Dancing Down the Moon)