The Weekly Rune, For the Week of 15 December 2024
Urgency and Rest in The Dark Time
Every Solstice I make the full runecast available to everyone. I do so partly for folx to see what a full runecast comprises, and because the runes in these casts hold impact not just for this week, but throughout this half of the year. You can access the full runecast every week by joining Runes for Change.
December Solstice occurs on 21 December at 4:21am EST this season.
This week we greet December Solstice in Jera, through 28 December. The intuitive rune is Isa. The earthly spirits of place anchoring us for the time being are the natural deathwalkers of Midgard and the well Ancestors (skull, bones, teeth, wee spoon). We are held by Direction Above, with element Flesh (bottle of hair) facilitating us, and Season Winter holding our space (tree button). From right to left is Jera then Isa.
Why Join the Runes for Change Community?
Gathering with Runes for Change offers:
- Monthly gatherings (seasonal rituals, dreamwork, Ancestor tending, deathwork, high seat mediumship, runic divination…)
- Quarterly book club
- The Weekly Runecast in its current format
- Early access to What in the Wyrd episodes
- Community connection via Discord
- Previews of essays and books
- Exclusive first peeks at current projects and galley copies
Additional ways we connect:
- Community-only classes, self-paced and live
- Access to Reawakening with the Runes
- Interval Soul Readings (diagnostic overview of spiritual needs)
- Interval Soul Tending Sessions (soul retrieval, shadow tending, energy balancing, etc)
- Discounts on pop-up classes soul tending services
What's a runic calendar?
The Elder Futhark runic calendar I work with is based on the work of Nigel Pennick. It has the potential to provide 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.
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).
How is the runecast done?
The Weekly Rune is animistic honoring of the Elder Futhark in season. This means it's focused on honoring the current half-month rune among spirits of place. The spirits of place are likely different for each of us, so it's up to us to take the current rune into ecosystem and sit with it. This runecast is sharing my relationship with this rune in my ecosystem.
The half-month is a set rune, which follows the calendric ordering observed by Pennick. As such, the order is slightly different than the traditional Futhark order.
This runecast isn’t divinatory in the sense that each half-month rune represents events to occur in its fortnight. Rather, the timing of each rune allows us to greet where we are with what the dynamics each rune represents. It offers an examination of our relationship with the rune and what it may teach us about current events and dynamics.
What do Spirits of Place have to do with runes?
Everything we do is rooted in place. We are ecosystem. We are relations with place. In order for that relationship to truly be exalted we must formally invite Spirits of Place into our rituals, and ensure that we craft our rituals to the benefit of the whole ecosystem.
I don't live in Europe, where the Elder Futhark flourished. I don't live in 200CE, when the runes were in wide use. But my Ancestors did, and to honor them I must carefully include them in my place-space rituals, including this runecast. In order to do include them in a way that benefits the whole ecosystem of my present, I introduced my ancestral Spirits of Place to the Spirits of Place I live among now. Negotiations were made and boundaries were drawn to support this full relationship I walk among to bless us all, as well as readers and their ecosystems.
In terms of the runes, Spirits of place for me are represented through osteomancy, season, elements, and directions. Each brings a nuance of how to work with the half-month rune, or how to engage forces of the week on a more personal level in your geographical and cosmological context. Osteomancy honors earthly other-than-human Helping Spirits, which includes humanity's animal and plant Ancestors, and other earth-centric Ancestors and helpers. The elements indicate our best deathwalking, enlivening, tempering, and/or transmutational force for the cast, and the directions offer insight into the best boundaried space for where transmutational work can be done. Season provides an expression of how we can best hold our agency, or the energetic tone of the cast. These additional beings in the cast give us actionable ways to engage the runes for the week and move among with them. Feel free to work with Spirits of Place that most resonate with this runecast, even if they show up differently in your cosmologies and relationships.
New to Runecasting?
- 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.
- 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's a bindrune?
Bindrunes are combinations of runes drawn together in such a way that they intertwine, not only in appearance but meaning. For this reason, bindrunes present a form of magick that delves beyond mere meaning of the runes and into sigils that carry connotations beyond the runes. I don't advocate that folx work with bindrunes unless or until they are very fluent in working with the runes and in aspects of mysticism.
Where can I learn more about the runes?
Learn more about working with them from an animistic relationship in my book Runic Book of Days.
Explore each rune of the Elder Futhark through Liveable Runelore.
Explore them, also, through my podcast, What in the Wyrd
What Does The Weekly Rune Mean?
This week we are fully in Jera, though not by much. The last three runecasts have been heavily influenced by Isa, Jera, and its successor rune, Eihwaz. There’s definitely an important moment happening here with these get-the-memo runes, despite that we’re moving at a crawl through them.
Runic Book of Days - A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
On Jera
“Be realistic. Jera isn’t about pie-in-the-sky expenditures or fist-clenching conservation. It indicates the time to truly and deeply assess where we are on every level of being. This stave encourages us to celebrate our accomplishments and then ground ourselves in the plans of what we most want to grow next. In that way we’re not just reacting to a cycle; rather we become an active participant in its process.“
Gain animistic insight into the runes, learn to elder well with ancient wisdom, and cultivate a strong spiritual path
by joining the Runes for Change community.
#beyourcommunity #youareyourecosystem
Meet Kelley

S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.
Kelley Harrell is an animist, author, deathwalker, and death doula held by Tuscarora, Woccon, and Sissipihaw land. For the last 30 years, through Soul Intent Arts she’s helped others ethically build thriving spiritual paths. Her work is Nature-based, and centers soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral tending, and deathwork. She hosts the podcast, What in the Wyrd, and also writes The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Work with her in the Runes for Change community or in her intensive soul tending training, The Spirited Path. Full bio.
#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem
elder well, die well, ancestor well




