For the week of 16 April 2017
New support, old blood, old shadows.
Mannaz is the half-month stave through 29 April. Othala reversed is the intuitive stave, and Thurisaz reversed indicates Nature’s message to us. Read right to left is Mannaz, Othala reversed, then Thurisaz reversed.
The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. 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.
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Moving from Ehwaz to Mannaz shifts our focus from that deep, animistic observance of our latest initiation to a communal expression of what we took from it. Mannaz enters at a point that we’ve gained a new perspective, and in order to fully develop it, we must engage others–specifically others with whom we don’t already have established interaction.
That can be quite an uncomfortable dynamic. What if people don’t get it? What if they say it’s wrong? What if they encourage us to try yoga? (just kidding) What if they don’t care?
In order to know what we know, we must take that awareness into new places, among new people. As long as we keep it to ourselves, it can only aspire to be escapist Precious.
Othala reversed signals that something in the family camp isn’t right. Maybe there’s no support from the family in the new way. Maybe they don’t get the new perspective, maybe they have a radically different perspective. Whatever the individual manifestation, the collective understanding is not being able to count on the birth tribe or clan for support in the new frontier.
This calls to mind a discussion on elderhood that The Spirited Path initiates have been having for the last week. Western culture has a distinct lack of elders, defined as those with integrity, wisdom, and respect, who have been recognized by community as befitting qualities of power and knowledge. As we have saturated into a culture fixated on youth and ageless presence, we have laid down wisdom and natural courses of ascension into ancestorhood.
Of course, therein lies the rub–or prick? Thurisaz, meaning “thorn,” has only featured in the weekly runecast once, and that was January of 2016. Anytime an infrequent stave pops up I pay close attention to its timing and position. In this case, the voice of Nature is telling us to honor what bubbles up as we bring our new shiny into new territory. Conflict comes not only from only clan, but also from within.
Thurisaz speaks of deeply seated unconscious urges–id, ego, superego, and all those reptilian brain motivations that likely saved our asses a time or two. They are that imperative and important. They cannot, and I assert should not, be driven out (if that’s even possible). However, they have to be known. They have to become part of awareness, so that when a wonderful awareness emerges from initiation, we know how to healthily and sustainably root it into how we live.
Ultimately, new influences will help ease all of the above. Stay open to them, and they’ll impart new life in dealing with the old.
Thank you for staying the course of your personal initiations. We need you. We need what you bring, what you know.
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Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.
