For the week of 9 December 2018
Careful planning
Isa is the half-month stave through 13 December, at which point Jera debuts. Fehu reversed is the intuitive stave, and Thurisaz reversed indicates a guardian’s message to us. Read right to left is Isa/Jera, Fehu reversed, then Thurisaz reversed.
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).
Learn More
The Weekly Rune is based on 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
For the last couple of weeks Isa has held us in a place of examining our needs and how to give them the attention they need, before we move forward. This runecast catches the transition from Isa to Jera, and informs us of how to make sure we’ve prepared ourselves for what comes next.
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?
Isa has had us resting for the last couple of weeks, whether we wanted it or to jump back into the fray. What’s pivotal about moving from Isa to Jera is we go from the stillness of personal introspection–likely the deepest of the year–to deeply assessing how to implement the results of that contemplation. Jera moves into position around 2pm local apparent time 13 December.
Jera is the rune of Hearth Accounting, so I say. It means “year,” and comes at the point that we feel a closing to what has been and begin leaning toward what can be. It is the rune of Winter Solstice (in the north), and in its seasonal interpretation it’s a bit more obscure than its divinatory perspective. We generally look at it as an opportunity to assess the year. We inspect what worked, what didn’t, what we need to tweak, what we need to throw out and never approach again. It’s a true inventorying of process and yield, with an eye to how it can be done better over the next year.
Seasonally Jera comes at our most challenging time of year. Winter Solstice historically would have been a combination of worry of surviving the cold, while at the same time instilling hope of the minutely lengthening days. While we don’t have that same worry in modern times, we are surviving the onslaught of patriarchal holidays, seasonal depression, and the most social engagement of the year.
Reversed Fehu suggests that now isn’t the time to splash out big bucks or endeavors as a means of changing things. The approach needs to be more restrained and conservative, if not homegrown and grassroots. This time of re-evaluation calls for more creative and personal interventions. The effort it would take to engage larger energies is too much of an expenditure, and quite possibly missing the point of keeping things close to home, for now.
Fehu, above all, is about tending. In this position in the runecast, heed its caution to keep things small and take extra care to look after what is.
Get the Winter Solstice Runecast
From the voice of Creation, this week Thurisaz reversed also brings a message of not pushing forward. It suggests a finesse in understanding the elements and dynamics at hand, and letting them and our innate compasses lead us forward. The visual of Thurisaz reversed is realizing thorns are afoot. We can’t mindfulness our way out of them, we can’t fight the thorns, we can’t push through. Our task is to slow down, look at the micro-circumstances of ensnarement, and work from within that information to move freely. We can’t skip it.
This week continues to move slowly, though the actions we take feels more progressive than in the last few weeks. As we approach various stages of winter in the northern climates, we start to feel more useful and capable of right action and engagement. Such is the result of the winter trio, and the historic precedent for the weeks of un-time between Samhain and Yule.
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