The Weekly Rune - Tiwaz – Soul Intent Arts

For the week of 5 March 2023

Generational Grief and Personal Truth

Tiwaz (lapis lazuli) is the half-month rune through 14 March. Ansuz reversed is the intuitive rune, and Othala indicates Loss’ message to us. The spirits of place anchoring the runes this week are fossilized Echinoid (sea urchin) and element Mycelium (mushrooms preserved in resin) in Spring, in the direction of Within (temporarily represented by the mink skull). Read right to left is Tiwaz, Ansuz reversed, then Othala

The full runecast will be publicly available here, two weeks from publication. You can find it in full on Patreon, now.

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 a (mostly) three-rune cast, situated among spirits of place. Those runes are the half-month, the intuitive rune, and the sacred overview. When the runecast falls at a half-month transition, the fourth rune is included. The half-month is a set rune, which for the most part follows the traditional ordering of the Elder Futhark. However, in the calendric ordering observed by Pennick, the order is slightly different. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, and 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 voices other-than-human, which are non-human concepts and beyond Earth beings. These sacred voices are Allies, and have been Nature, Earth, Continuity, Creation, First Ancestor, Survival, etc. I note who’s speaking each week, as it is revealed.

Spirits of place 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 season on a more personal level in the reader’s geographical and cosmological context. Osteomancy honors other-than-human Helping Spirits on Earth. The elements indicate our best deathwalking/enlivening/tempering force for the time, and the directions offer relationship to place as the best energetic grounding or area where work is needed. These additional beings in the cast give us actionable ways to engage the runes in season and move among with them. Readers should feel free to work with Spirits of Place that most resonate with this runecast, even if they show up differently in their cosmologies and relationships.

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 a two-week examination of our relationship with the rune.

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, 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.

Why Join Patreon?

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
audio blog, with galdr of the runecast and instruction on how to use each sound for felt sense resonance
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

Other Patreon offerings:

Community connection via Discord
live video classes
runic insights, book excerpts, release news, free classes
optional services with me
discounts on soul tending services

The Runecast

The somber beginning of the third aett sits hard after the chaos of the second. Add to that, the suspended shock of Tiwaz follows the bright expressiveness of Sowilo, which seems like a bad joke on the surface. We move from months of clashing with other beings, figuring out how we human among everyone else doing their thing, to close that aett with a rune that shows we get it. We endure friction learning how to soul-in-form among others, so that we can help each other do it better. We get the rhythm of it down and are feeling good about it. Then Tiwaz.

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?

But that process isn’t without its losses, and I think that’s why Tiwaz comes so quickly after. We have to learn to grieve, which is an act that American settler culture doesn’t acknowledge let alone hold space for. As a result, we don’t know how to grieve. We don’t get allotted time out from hardship to have the process we need, yet we also aren’t taught skills to get through our days carrying underlying duress (PTSD). We often don’t even understand what we’re grieving, because we’ve compounded years (if not lineages) of trauma.

Then Tiwaz.

To access the audio blog recording and continue reading:
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For more insight into the runes, tending your unquiet dead and Ancestors, and cultivating a strong spiritual path

join my community Runes for Change.

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For suggestions on how to weather the season gracefully, subscribe to my private runes community on Patreon.

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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