The Weekly Rune - Othala – Soul Intent Arts

For the week of 31 May 2020

Navigating the Unflow

Othala is the half-month stave through 14 June. Tiwaz is the intuitive rune, and Laguz reversed indicates Regrowth’s message to us. Read right to left is Othala, Tiwaz, then Laguz 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 life for us all. That realization process includes learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal. 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 we can create ourselves as fit elders, so that upon our good death, we can be well Ancestors.

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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

As with last week’s cast, at least according to the runes, we’re digging out of something. Whether it’s the pandemic, a personal dynamic, or a much older system that’s long-needed gutting, now’s the time.

And maybe it’s all of that.

I’ve noted in TWR and podcast over the last few weeks how normally around now, we feel a spiral into the intensity of Summer Solstice. My caution has been that this ramping up of intensity is still happening, we’re just internalizing it along with our already heightened stress in the moment. That’s not necessarily a good thing. The ability to cultivate healthy coping skills in the moment is critical, although realizing the depth of how stress is affecting us and when we can’t (and shouldn’t) bear it alone is just as important. This memo comes as we enter the runic time of the Ancestors, and are urged to cultivate deep, past-inclusive, and forward-reaching allies.

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?

Othala is the rune of inheritance, yet encompasses a wide understanding of what that means. Clan, tribe, family, what ties us to each other, what we inherit from those before, what we leave for those who follow–all of that is Othala, and more than mere words can describe. It is the deeply felt embodiment of all that came before us, all that we are, and all that will come as a result of our actions on the planet at this time. It’s big shit.

This rune often frightens some folx, because while it gets much discourse around estate and familial assets, it forces them to confront uncomfortable truths around legacy and death. What’s most on the table with Othala is what time we have and what we’re doing with it. This fact is no more true than in this time of pandemic, as we are confronting uncomfortable realities around death and how we live, every day.

While this cast points to growth and having resources in place to support us in that, it also indicates some sore spots along the way, and instructs in how we can hold our perspectives to move through it as elegantly as possible. Read more…

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

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Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

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