The Weekly Rune – Gebo

Because the message of this week’s cast is so vital to how we move among as animists right now and to celebrate **200 runecasts on Patreon**, the full Weekly Rune is available for public viewing. The audio of it will go up later today.

Gebo is the half-month rune through 13 October. Mannaz is the intuitive rune, Jera indicates Creation’s message to us, and the fossilized Echinoid occupies Spring. Read right to left is Gebo, Mannaz, then Jera.

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
• 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?

We’ve talked a lot about how external leadership is gaslighting us into a consensus of normal, when there isn’t one. The runes of the last 3-4 months have been focused on having us sit with the fact that this gaslighting is happening, and to be very clear with ourselves about personal truth and moving it through the world. This confrontation has generated deep tension for everyone, which adds to any pre-existing trauma and/or othering. In other words, the last few months have been a wakeup call for everyone, albeit some groups more than others. We all carry the deep truth that humanity is facing Collapse. The big systems of the world are crumbling, and really, many smaller ones that just can’t bear the weight anymore are, as well. What we aren’t as clear on is that we must also collapse within. In fact, that is the first step in the external improving.

This week Gebo moves us from having clarity on what’s happening and seats us squarely in the position to act on that truth. The key action is engagement. Gebo is the rune of a gift usually born of engagement. It’s the bond made, what is exchanged within it, the partners therein, and the feelings generated by the engagement. More than ever, we have to realize our allies in all realms and step into active engagement with them. It is what’s going to allow us to collapse and hold the space for wherever that needs to go.

Maybe Gebo indicates partnerships and the benefits therein for some in the traditional relationship way we interpret this rune. From an animistic viewpoint in this moment on this plane, I think it points to us tending all of our relationships well. Cull out what ones are functional for what the senses are saying is real and let go of those that aren’t. Again, this isn’t always possible with the bigger systems. What’s important is that we hold to the truth that we know the difference and rally relationships that do, as well. Truly, remember the Allies: landvaettir, well Ancestors, Spirit Allies. Remember that they are here to assist–not to do for us. I still think most of us aren’t clear on that note, and that will be part of the heartbreak of Collapse. We have to cultivate impeccable boundaries with our support systems, know the limits of depths of reciprocity, and hold space for the nuance of it all being in flux for a long time. Who walks with Self? Where do those relationships need to be shored up? What ones need to be allowed to step back while others come to the fore–if any come to the fore right away? How is reverence and blessing being shown to the Allies in the day-to-day, so that they know where they stand in daily life? How is Self hold their power to clearly communicate to Allies what’s needed?

Mannaz exalts Gebo here. This pair points to external support being in abundance, and being able to trust our judgement in locating them. Reaching out will be required. Resources will not just roll to us. Effort will have to be made, and it will likely be excruciating. Not because the liaison is fraught, but because we already are hurting. We are living trauma real-time. We already are discombobulated and our etheric fields are constantly trying to ground through that displacement. Remember that the planet is going through enormous upheaval right now. This is how we feel it. Pandemic Collapse is our version of Earth Parent’s shift, and every cell, every vibe in us knows it.

This all, of course, applies to inner relationships, too, which may be the stickiest point of all. Yes, mitigating the gaslighting dynamics of the external is real and difficult to do, and as sinister as they are they aren’t the real problem. The real work now is the gaslighting we are doing to ourselves, and in order to understand where that’s happening we must inventory. Jera through the voice of Creation both challenges us to ask the hard questions, and helps us find how to respond to them the way that meets the needs of now. Where are we resisting Collapse? Where are we holding onto versions of Self that no longer suit us? What fears are we not facing in dynamics that need to be let go? Where are we refusing to feel who we really are? Because until we are willing to shake it down internally, we can’t gain the skills needed to move among the very harmful dynamics in the external.

When Jera emerged in my hand and Creation spoke, it was very clearly asserting itself as the act of, not the result. It was very much about the verb, not the noun. All of us still-waiting to manifest ‘create your own reality’ wishes of 90s spirituality, all the shame entanglements and victim-blaming inherent in the original sin that we carry even if we don’t believe them, all the places where supremacist being displaced who we were–now is the time to deal with it. We can’t outcreate the system until we do. We can’t help our communities until we do. This deep self-work is the oxygen mask of our lives. It is the process of Creation that we must harness now. We truly can’t go forward carrying what we have up to this point, and the bounty of Jera brings tools and resources to help us do it. The same as with Allies, though, we have to seek out what to do with it all. We have to connect with Dream Team members who can teach us the skills we need, release the traumas that hold us back, take us to the next depth. The old skills, the way we used to ground won’t continue to work, and that is right given the times.

Nothing is wrong with the rituals and ways that worked for so long. It’s just that times have changed and we need new ones in order to be who we really are in this place. We have to hold the grief of this depth of change even as we move to new ways of being.

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

join my community Runes for Change.

The fossilized Echinoid in spring is such a great omen. In Old Norse culture, Echinoids were good luck charms, specifically around disputes working out in our favor. The implication with this creature is that there will be struggle. There is struggle. And the struggle will persist even as the solutions are lived. They are no less the solutions, even though they will not feel congruent with what is happening in the world. Rather, they will be both the foundation and new territory we discover as we step more into who we really are. The solutions are spring’s regrowth as we are move forward in deeply being here; they are the blossoms of success from the seeds our Ancestors planted.

Half-month Rune Prompts

• What are you most unwilling to feel at this time?
• How viscerally needy are you for blessing?
• Can you accept that these two are related?

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. 

• Gebo – Gay, Gaboh, Geh, Gehboh
• Mannaz – Mah, Mahn, Mahna
• Jera – Yer, Yeruh, Yair, Yairuh, Yer/Yairaw

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.