Nauthiz – Need – Finally, we have a brightstave Rune! Although Nauthiz presents a ‘rock-and-hard-place’ dynamic by being the middle stave of the second ǽtt’s winter trio, it place us firmly in the middle of transformation. Where Hagalaz greets us with harsh freezing hail and change, and Isa closes with a lingering chill that demands we process and implement those changes, Nauthiz forces us to confront our limitations and what we’re getting out of them. By that I mean, how the things we say we don’t want we hold fastest to.
Related to the youngest of the Norns, Skuld, who is the keeper of what “should” be, many assume Nauthiz points to the future. However, wordsmiths among us recognize ‘should’ as a modal auxiliary, indicating that outcomes manifest based on conditions met. In other words, we can set the dominoes up any way we like, and based on our knowledge, skill, and perhaps wisdom, they should fall the way we’ve planned. Yet there are always variables we can’t foresee. The dominoes will fall the way they fall, and we have only to react in the best way that we can.
Keep this relationship between need and fate in mind this week. So often what we think we need is connected to what we think should happen, what we should get. The appearance of Nauthiz isn’t suggesting that we will or won’t meet our need, but that we be positively certain we can handle what comes. By that I mean, as this Rune carries a red flag coloring our efforts, it also brings us the ability to find peace, regardless.
When we meet resistance in fulfilling our needs, do we respond compulsively just to make the tension stop? Do we buckle down and address the core issue? Do we risk the reality of learning that our needs are really wants? How we deal with this kind of stress is the heart of Nauthiz, as in learning to move through that stress, the need is either released or met. It is transmuted into movement to the next place we need to be.
Find the places where you stand in your own way, and open dialogue between these two aspects. What parts of you benefit from where you are? What parts are deprived from not moving forward? There’s no wrong answer, only two different perspectives on the present. How you nurture both is the solution.
—
Available now for pre-order on Amazon and other stores, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism covers several more concerns about shamanic journeying, and how to resolve them.
