The Weekly Rune – Dagaz

Dagaz is the half-month stave through 29 June. Fehu is the intuitive rune, and Ingwaz indicates Consistency’s message to us. Read right to left is Dagaz, Fehu, then Ingwaz.

This week’s cast is presented in full, to celebrate and support our time with Solstice. If you want to receive TWR in full, please join my community on Patreon, or if you want to just show your support for this week’s cast, send a one-time donation.

I truly believe that #theweeklyrune includes the keys to making better choices based on keen insight into the present, to help each of us be more active in creating a better life for us all. That realization process includes learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal. The runes are such a tool, and in the Old Norse tradition, this process is wyrdweaving at it deepest potential. The runes provide one way we can create ourselves as fit elders, so that upon our good death, we can be well Ancestors.

This is the free version of The Weekly Rune.  Get the full benefit of the  ad-free, detailed version every Sunday, by joining my private runes community at Patreon.

The paid runecast includes:

• more detail 
• ad-free
• the current runes’ impact on human life force 
• insights on how to best manage the curves and twists therein
• introspective prompts to nuance and tend self-work
• galdr of the runecast, with sound files and instruction on how to use each sound
• live video sessions
• runic insights,  book excerpts, release news, free classes
• optional services with me
• discounts on soul tending services

What’s a half-month rune?

“Half-month” is an astronomical concept in which each month is divided into two parts: days 1-15, then 16-month’s end. In terms of the runic calendar, each half-month rune is one of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, and governs for a tad over two weeks (14 and 1/4 days, or a fortnight).

Learn More

The Weekly Rune is a three-rune cast. Those runes are the half-month, the intuitive rune, and the overview. The half-month is a set rune, which for the most part follows the traditional ordering of the Elder Futhark. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, to the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus. It suggests how we can best handle the half-month energies. The final rune (also drawn blind) provides a high overview of the current time, and speaks from different voices. These voices have been Nature, Earth, Creation, though are sometimes others. I note who’s speaking each week, as it is revealed.

New to The Weekly Rune?

• Catch a couple of my IGTV videos, which explain the intention and process behind the runecast, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.
• Listen to my What in the Wyrd podcast, which is available across all popular podcast platforms, including Google Play and  iTunes.
• A few people have asked the reason that I switch between different rune sets for TWR. The short answer is: because. The more nuanced answer is, I ask which sets wants to speak each week. I don’t assume the same elements are in play according to the timing of the runes; I also don’t assume the same elements of my runes are appropriate to speak each week. I did a podcast on this subject, so there’s more info there. (See above)
• Also, for deep work on coming into relationship with the runes in season, check out my book, Runic Book of Days.

What does it mean?

Dagaz is the root of the English word, “day.” It references the 24-hour cycle of darkness and light with a checkpoint emphasis similar to Jera, which means “year.” The challenge with Dagaz is to distill the process we go through when we reach yearly harvest into the examination of a single day. On the surface it sounds easy, though when we sit with what that micro-accounting looks like we realize we’re really talking about meaning. In that light, Dagaz represents having really good skills to identifying what facilitates our self-care, community tending, and calling advancement, and being able to adjust and act on each of those things–daily. Of course what that looks like also changes daily, and the framing runes of our cast give deep insight into what that means during this time of anti-racism reform and pandemic restriction.  Read more…

Fehu is the jewel in this runecast. As the intuitive rune, it points to our actions now as investments for later. It says that because we are willing to tend the intersections of ourselves, time, and paths now, we will be better prepared for what come. We will have knowledge to bring into what comes, we’ll have a solid internal process in place for what comes, and what comes will be tended well. If we’re learning anything right now, it’s that our extremes aren’t separate from each other. There’s no such thing as sovereignty, in terms of us being disconnected from the world around us, or in terms of our shadows, wounds, and biases being disconnected from our joys, tending, or actions. As with last week’s cast, this sweetspot under the bright light isn’t a comfortable place to be, though discomfort was never disconnected from our experiences as humans, either. We just were sold the lie of separation that has bought us various levels of bypass and privilege.

For more insight into the runes, tending your unquiet dead and Ancestors, and cultivating  a strong spiritual path

join my community Runes for Change.

Ingwaz, through the voice of Consistency, is where this runecast sings. We know that the Futhark closes and renews at Solstice. In the space where that ending and beginning occupy the exact same spot is where we have to be willing to stand, and stay, for as long as it takes. We have to be willing to take what we see there and apply it to our lives in a consistent and sustained manner. Shadows and light will be in that spot. Trauma and love will be in that spot. The wounding and the healing will be in that spot. The healing and the teaching will be in that spot.

As ever, being able to just hold that space is challenge enough. Dealing with that’s found there is also required, yet will feel extra. It’s a lot. It is every year, yet this year we stand in more tension and active potential. Yes, we observe our personal and human-spirit relationship to the extremes of Nature at this time. We also stand in the space of our personal and communal extremes, what about them is dear and must be preserved, and what about them is outdated and needs deathwalking. We hold the feelings all of it brings up, at once. Don’t underestimate the power of this inner Solstice.

Remember, it’s not a race. This way of holding the space for the extremes is not just Solstice; it’s the way of life, for now. Do what’s required, process, then when ready do more, better. This is the pace.This is why Consistency. 

Half-month Rune Prompts

• What extremes are you confronting right now?
• What resources do you have to manage them?
• How are you witnessing the extremes of other folx?

Galdr

The way that I use galdr is through chanting. I find repetition of the base phonetic helps me feel the rune. Remember that the Elder Futhark isn’t a language. It was originally an alphabet, incorporated into mythical origin. It functions phonetically, both in spelling and pronunciation. Given that, galdr isn’t terribly different from the overall pronunciation, and the emphasis is on the intention of the chant, not so much the pronunciation.

My personal emphasis in galdr is on the vowels initially and I incorporate the consonants later. For instance, with Ansuz, I focus on ‘ahw-oo,’ before incorporating the middle ‘n,’ such as ‘ahwnsoo.’ There is no right or wrong with galdr (although I guess there could be a flat-out wrong?), though often the final consonants aren’t pronounced, as in ‘ahwsoo.’ Practice galdring different ways, and go with the way that you feel in your body. 

• Dagaz – Dthah, Dthahg, Dthahguh
• Fehu – fee, feehoo, fay, fayhoo
• Ingwaz – Een, Eengwa, Eengoo

For suggestions on how to weather the season gracefully, subscribe to my private runes community on Patreon.

#beyourcommunity

S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

I’m an animist, author, deathwalker and death doula. For the last 25+ years, through Soul Intent Arts I’ve helped others to ethically build thriving spiritual paths as fit, embodied elders, who upon death become wise, capable Ancestors. My work is Nature-based, and focuses soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral healing, and deathwork. I’m author of Runic Book of Days, and I host the podcast, What in the Wyrd. I also write The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Full bio.

#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem

elder well, die well, ancestor well

@kelleysoularts

Ancestor Well

So that your descendants never elder alone.