For the week of 11 March 2020
The Communal Self

Tiwaz is the half-month stave through 14 March. Wunjo is the intuitive rune, and Mannaz indicates Gratitude’s message to us. Read right to left is Tiwaz, Wunjo, then Mannaz.
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
First off, I can’t believe we’re in March already. I can’t believe we’re entering the third aett already, either. I remember last year when we approached Tiwaz, life was up-the-hell-side down, for almost everyone I knew–including myself. I do think it’s worth re-education on the relationship Tiwaz can have to mental state and management of it, which I talk about in the blog and podcast. Every half-month rune is a point to go back and sit with how personal relationship to the rune, the season, the Self, The Rune have all evolved since the last visit. This cycle’s visit is framed more with wanted outcomes and folx to share them with, which ultimately feels more downhill from the taxing aspects of Tiwaz, and also less lonely.
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?
I consider Tiwaz the survivor rune. It’s the point in a trajectory that we realize it’s just not going to work, and it’s never something we felt half-way on. The rune comes when it’s something we have longed for, learned skills to create, dreamed of, and devoted ourselves to. Alas, it’s not going to be, or not that way, and therein lies the rub. There is a way, though our attachment to it going the way we’ve envisioned must be set down fully first, before the successful route is revealed.
It sounds easy. It sounds clear, and it is. Tiwaz is about emotional involvement with things that are screaming impediments in our wyrd. Just don’t do that thing, and it’s all good. But those clear lines blur when it comes to emotional involvement, and that’s what we’re dealing with this week. Yes, we’ve set up the dominoes well. Yes, we did the work. Yes, we’ve woven that wyrd. Somewhere along the way we became more invested in the idea of its completion than with the thing, itself. We attached emotionally into our relationship with the thing and are now not letting it stay its own course. And of course, that’s just not going to work. Read more…
For more insight into the runes, tending your unquiet dead and Ancestors, and cultivating a strong spiritual path
join my community Runes for Change.
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
Elder Well
To bear your unique gift to the world.
Die Well
To leave the planet better than you found it.
Ancestor Well
So that your descendants never elder alone.