For the week of 6 January 2019

Darkness, madness, and body wisdom

Eihwaz is the half-month stave through 13 January. Tiwaz reversed is the intuitive stave, and Uruz indicates Nature’s message to us. Read right to left is Eihwaz, Tiwaz reversed, then Uruz.

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 reality for us all. That realization process includes learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal to accomplish that. The runes are such a tool, and in the Old Norse tradition, this process is wyrdweaving at it deepest potential.

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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, the half-month rune is based on the Elder Futhark, and governs for a tad over two weeks (14 and 1/4 days, or a fortnight).

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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 are usually 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. The latest episode discusses the nuances of Raidho.
• 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.

The Runecast

The last couple of weeks have been a deep dive into the unknown. The crux of Eihwaz is realizing the work that’s been done, the groundowrk that’s been laid through the first half of the Futhark, so that as we step into the darkness of Eihwaz, we can rely on our own wisdom with confidence.

Learn more about this seasonal progression, and how to draw its insights into the personal spiritual path in Runic Book of Days.

What does it mean?

Eihwaz is a cardinal rune, meaning, it can’t be reversed. Whatever challenges it brings, the demands it makes must be faced. I experience Eihwaz as walking down a narrow passage, so narrow that turning around isn’t possible. Yet the path ahead is obscured by a corner. What lies beyond the corner can’t be seen. With the inability to back up, the only choice is to go forward. With that limitation, Eihwaz signifies a leap of faith.

It also provokes deep fears, akin to feeling trapped.

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But doesn’t that feeling always present before growth? The significance of Eihwaz is that it reveals where we don’t trust ourselves. We’ve done all this self-work to manifest and figure out how things work in the Earth plane, as we’ve come through the first aett and half of the second one. We’ve really dug in and committed to doing what it takes for us to root and grow here, to be of use in our time here. Yet, in our modern spiritual paths, we’ve been taught to give it all over to a Higher Power, or to our guides, or even Ancestors. We’ve steeped in a place of bypass with regard to our own wisdom, or straight up been told that our intuition and knowledge can’t be trusted.

Eihwaz says otherwise.

In fact, it demands otherwise.

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The kicker for this week is Tiwaz reversed. Most people run screaming when they see Tiwaz, period, let alone upended. Native, Tiwaz is the second wind, which is quite literally a battle metaphor. It’s being in this place of realize our best effort isn’t going to cut it. The one we put every dime on, wrapped our heart and soul into, our soul growth, emotional grit, and energy is. not. going. to. succeed. So our only option is Plan B.

This week no one is coming. No one is riding in at the last minute to save us. We’re it, and if we don’t have the goods to do the deed that needs to be done, we at least have internalized through this winter that we need to get new skills.

Listen to the Runecast Galdr

Uruz gives good insight into one of those resources. The voice of nature reminds us that body knows all. For years I’ve called body the owner’s manual we so often cry out for. It’s the record of everything that’s ever passed in our lives. Uruz is our connection to our wildness. It reminds us that we, in our own human way, are Jötunn-sourced. We house our own unconscious and extra-conscious in our cells, our skin, and that wisdom is available to be tapped anytime.

Spend some time working with Uruz this week, through galdr, to tap into the body’s gifts. Learn its insight on how to go forward in the dark. What map does it innately carry? What connections into Nature does it inherently have, that we overlook? Consult Nature, as well. What does the wildlife around us reflect in how we can problem-solve better? In how we can find workable, progressive method in the madness?

For suggestions on how to do that gracefully, subscribe to my private runes community on Patreon.

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