For the week of 3 January 2021
Needing less

Eihwaz is the half-month stave through 13 January. Kenaz is the intuitive rune, and Fehu reversed indicates Revolution’s message to us. Read right to left is Eihwaz, Kenaz, then Fehu reversed.
The Elder Futhark runic calendar provides to humanity keys for how we live in season with All Things. Through #theweeklyrune I share the Futhark’s insight on how to live better as animists, to make better choices based on keen insight into the present, and to help each of us be more active in creating a better life for us all. That realization includes living with All Things as family, learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal to do so. 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 that 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
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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, 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.
The Runecast
Our experience of Eihwaz thus far has felt a bit reckless, if not without focus. This week the pace slows, deepens, as we still come down from the eclipse, stellar events, and shift into new year celebration. A theme that has emerged from the collusion of all this energy is that of smallness, simplicity. Certainly this year, though in deep detail over the last 2-3 weeks, we have been asked to cull through every aspect of our lives and engage some intense housecleaning. If nothing else, the last few weeks have been an extreme purge of social, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual levels. In short, it’s been an overhaul of our entire inner cosmology.
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?
In my vernacular, the inner cosmology is comprised of All That We Are: frith guardian (personal protection), fylgja (the bouncer), hamr (astral self), Valkyrie (sacred self), hamingja (personal life force), etc. It’s also composed of other aspects, like shadows, dreaming selves, child aspects. All of these internal components make up who we are, and to really embody ourselves, we need to have an active relationship with them. We need to touch base with them, talk with them, make sure their needs are met so that the whole system is healthy and on the same page.
The challenge with assessing and sustaining that rapport and health is that we aren’t taught how to do that in American culture. In fact, doing so is de-valued if not demonized. Even when we do have those skills, the ability to assess and regulate the inner cosmology doesn’t magickally improve life circumstances. Despite that we aren’t taught those skills, we all know when our insides are out of balance. We all know when our life circumstances are poor. We feel it, and in that way the inner cosmology being wonky is a barometer informing us that something happening in our life–from the past or present–is interfering with the balance of our inner cosmology. Factor in eclipses, decaying systems, pandemics, challenging family dynamics and all the other fun of the last year and the seasonality of a rune like Eihwaz really packs a punch. Read more…
For more insight into the runes, tending your unquiet dead and Ancestors, and cultivating a strong spiritual path
join my community Runes for Change.
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
Elder Well
To bear your unique gift to the world.
Die Well
To leave the planet better than you found it.
Ancestor Well
So that your descendants never elder alone.