The Weekly Rune

For the week of 31 December 2017

Confronting discomfort with the unknown.

Eihwaz is the half-month stave through 13 January. Uruz is the intuitive stave, and Perthro reversed indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Eihwaz, Uruz, then Perthro reversed.

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The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks (a fortnight). The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet, and where noted, of Nature, well beyond the earthly sphere. If you’re curious about how I do the cast every week, catch a couple of my Instagram videos, which explain the intention behind The Weekly Rune, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.

Also, check out my What in the Wyrd podcast. It’s runes, wyrd, shamanism, animism–all together. Best yet, it’s short, little conversational bites designed to help us all bring our paths more deeply into the everyday. It’s available across all popular podcast platforms.

Winter Solstice, check.

“Hearth Accounting,” check.

We’re left with Eihwaz, which is a carefully greeted ally. Tinged with all nuance of unknown, it’s often compared to the Death card in tarot, which is where all the fear of it comes from. Of course its historic association with death existed long before the tarot, which is where its grounding comes from.

Associated with the yew, like the tree, Eihwaz is considered a current of life and death. It represents the meeting point between the two, which is us–the middle strata–of animate, embodied life. So when this rune comes up in casts, it hints at a strategic moment we need to be ready to defend and take action on. The key word is “embodied,” as all the inspiration in the world is pointless with the mental clarity and physical stamina to carry it out. Eihwaz is the fusion of these things, into our own higher guidance. Called the High Self, True Self, etc., it is the introduction to the aspect of ourselves that is at the level we believe guides and Ancestors to be.

Combined with the primal rawness of Uruz, there’s a strong suggestion that our ability to do best by Eihwaz will come through the body. While the deep unconscious and body are different levels of being, of awareness, they are in a way more combined and informed on each other than our waking consciousness. They are our liminal signalling system that draws on old developmental instinct.

Again, this week’s rune of the strange comes from a voice greater than our Earthly vantage point. From where, I don’t know precisely, though it echoes the Jotnar life force. Perthro is all about chance. It’s the rune of the unknown, the unknowable, and very similar to Eihwaz, it frightens people when it comes up in casts. The thing about Perthro is it’s a natural force. When reversed, it presents not that we have less of a chance at some undertaking, rather that we have less faith in that chance.

This week take time to come back into relationship with personal process. If parts of it aren’t working to meet needs, identify them and set in motion what changes are needed in that process. Again, these are the parts we do have control over. If there’s a general feeling of not liking the direction things are going, consider other options. Being open to consideration isn’t commitment. It’s opportunity for creative problem-solving.

Emotion can’t get in the way of something that has to happen. That said, we can’t just dismiss emotion. Where it (Perthro reversed) pops up as angst in turning the corner (Eihwaz), remember to fully embody unconscious and conscious wisdom (Uruz).

Ie, be the change.