S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 105

The Weekly Rune – Raidho

Raidho - travel - Anytime Raidho appears in a cast, I pause, because it draws on all the things most vital to me: words, travel, and the interconnection of All Things. In short, Raidho indicates how we tell our story.

Many people read Raidho in a very literal context, meaning, a journey between two points, emphasizing the mode of transportation involved, movement across space and time, and everything that occurs between origin and destination. Indeed, the stuff of our most compelling stories.

Sometimes to best understand a Rune, examining those framing it gives it deeper context. The journey of the Runes in the first aett is about inspiration becoming form for the first time; thus, it emphasizes the realization of self-empowerment through connection with All Things. Just before Raidho is Ansuz, which is often interpreted as “mouth,” or “breath.” With Ansuz we begin ascribing words to concepts. We begin the murky examination of the thing versus the name we give it. Likewise, we become aware that as we build the language of our formed experience, someone is listening.

Following Raidho is Kenaz, torch, presenting the complex experience of sudden awareness, the spark that ignites, the Aha! moment. It is the moment that meaning has been derived from our experience. With that fuller understanding in mind, let’s revisit Raidho.

Inspiration + Storytelling = Meaning

Ansuz + Raidho = Kenaz

Oversimplified, but it conveys well. Raidho clarifies the importance of holding focus over duration, associating a starting point and result with every choice, decision, thought, and deed committed along the way.

Are we acting in support of our intention? Are we really making the choices that align us with what we say we want, where we say we want to go? Are we fixed on a precise destination with blinders to the journey, or are we easily taken off course, dazzled by every glittering crossroad?

This week consider inspiration and how it’s expressed. In particular, as we approach Winter Solstice, observe how the process of expressing it shapes you, creates you. What words best describe the light you need in your life? What words express how you move forward into the sun’s new year?

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Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful to have some weekend time at home!

I’m pleased to be able to buy gifts for my family.

I’m thankful for special events during the holidays.

I’m glad that I can give back to my community.

I’m so happy to teach classes and engage in spiritual groups.

I’m happy to make nifty holiday things with our kids.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

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Thursday Betwixt – Holiday Totems

The origins of our holy day icons are significant, though it’s easy to get ensnared in what symbols you “should” honor, what they’re “supposed to mean,” who gets to claim them, and understanding what they really mean to you. For that reason, in this exploration of seasonal totems I offer the entire Internet for you to peruse and learn about the symbols that have the most meaning to you at this time of year. My hope is that through sharing the seasonal totems that mean the most to me, that others are encouraged to cull out the holiday symbols that move them, connect with their power and bring them more deeply into personal holiday celebrations.

Totems, for most shamanists, are largely revered as soul animal kindred, though those who know me recall that I work extensively with plant and elemental spirits. Bear in mind as I explore the possibilities of holiday power allies that when I refer to totems I include animals, plants, minerals and elements. Generally speaking, totems are complex symbols that move us in some way. For me, the power of totems extends through several layers. I greet them as archetypes — collective traits found through the particular species, as spirits of nature, as an energetic manifestation specifically visiting me, which some refer to as “Unverified Personal Gnosis” (UPG), and as creatures of the wild, drawing from study of the totem’s behavior, habitat and anatomy.

Popular holiday totems today are mostly of Western European origin and influence, such as mistletoe, fir tree, reindeer, the Yule log, doves, geese, holly, ivy. More recent imports are the Mexican poinsettia and Middle Eastern persimmons and pomegranates. Most of my holidays totems happen to be among the fairly well-known; however, my reasons for including them may be a bit lesser common. Also, a couple of them aren’t typical at all.

Reindeer. The mythology that they can fly is attractive, though I work with their energy this time of year for their stamina. Reindeer are known to be resourceful in extremely cold, almost unbearable conditions, and they work well in large groups. I call reindeer in to help me get through the social anxiety that can come with holiday gatherings, to remind me that I can survive anything, well.

Yule Tree. I regard the Yule Tree as the altar hosting the entire season, and as my indoor connection to the frigid, wild outdoors when I least want to weather it. If there is one totem that I can’t do without, it’s the Yule Tree, which is usually some variation of a fir. From its branches hang decades of holiday memories and virtually every other symbol of the season, making it the center of sacred space in my home. At its base I leave gifts for those I love most in my life; thus, I imbue the tree with gratitude that I am able to give them gifts, and I feel an excitement for sharing that is greater than any other time of the year. To the tree itself, I’m grateful for its evergreen inspiration to persevere through all things, for being a symbol of beginning and ending, both at once.

Yule Log. The symbol of fire is potent this time of year, largely because I’m always cold, and because I want to be reminded of light, of inspiration, of a reliable rotation of seasons. Somewhere in my honoring of the season is a lighted fire reminding me that the sun is returning. It is also where I burn my summary of the year — what I’ve accomplished, and what I do not wish to carry forward — blessed with flame. The ashes are then scattered through the garden, to build the life of the near year. Both the log and the fire are relevant to this act. While the fire transmutes the sacraments of my own wellbeing, the log reminds me that I don’t have to be my only vessel. I don’t have to carry everything by myself.

Snowman. Yep. The snowman is shamanic in essence because mythologically it is the direct result of a manifest human creation taking on its own life force. It’s the shamanic narrative of entering some magical space and shapeshifting with the elements to return some inspirational spirit to the world, and carrying on its teaching long after the ecstasy has melted–with a button nose and two eyes made out of coal. If we have snow, there will be a snowman in our yard. And if we don’t have enough precipitation for frozen art, through the spirit of the snowman I recall the power of the elements to mirror myself, to remind me that everything is alive and looking back at me, extending an opportunity for partnership.

Rosemary. Yes, the culinary herb. I grow most of the herbs used in my cooking and ceremonies, and my relationship to this particular plant spans about 12 years. Rosemary figures into my ritual work often as a smudging agent, clearing away mental, emotional and energetic clutter. Tying into evergreen life force, consuming rosemary at this time of year gives me a sense of inner purifying and connecting with that renewable stream of life force. It reminds me also that ultimately, I consume life.

As you decorate for this season, think about the totems that are important to you and the reason that they move you. Are they traditional to your family or religion? Have you discovered new totems as you explore personal meanings of the season? How do you incorporate totems into your ceremonies and observations? If you’re not sure where the totems of your holiday expression originate, look them up. Learning their history can help delineate their potency for you. And if you’re truly ready to embark on the spirit of the season, ask the totems of your holy days to speak their spirit of the season to you, themselves.

For a comprehensive study on totems and how to work with totems, check out Lupa’s Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic and DIY Totemism, and Peter Aziz’s Soul Intent Arts.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by On Being

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Q&A – Breaking Unconscious Patterns

Dear Kelley, I am writing with great anxiety, pain, and desperation because of a deep sense of loss and sadness and affection, of which I cannot make sense. I have found myself feeling very attached to a man I met briefly a few months ago, and with whom I have kept in contact online. Since meeting him I have felt so powerfully drawn, and deep pain in my heart in ways I have not felt ever before. We live in opposite sides of the world, different lives, etc. Part of me wants to somehow break ‘free’ from this, yet I feel as though I am being punished. Any advice, guidance would be deeply appreciated. Many thanks in advance, Liz.

Thanks for your note, Liz. When I ask to see the dynamic between yourself and this man, I’m taken to a familiar place. I tend to see how people organize their lives as sand drawings along a coastal  shoreline. When I examine yours, it loops and scrawls spiraling back on themselves in a jumble, and this man is a dark tower in the distance. No trail in the sand leads to the tower. The proxy of you who stands with me on the shore is experiencing a great deal of anxiety and stress around finding a straight line in the sand, yet she just keeps doubling back to where she starts.

My sense of that image is the unfulfillment of this relationship is connected to a perceived pattern of wanting things you can’t have.  It isn’t at all about whether the relationship will work, if there’s a connection, or how the two of you are connected. It’s about an internalized dynamic for you, that says, “Anything I really want is clearly out of my reach. Anything that feels good to me must be unobtainable.”  The obstacles you perceive in distance and life are real. However, the angst around them is being exacerbated by these beliefs, which came long before this man was in your life. They feel like unconscious patterns that have been with you for a long time, and to varying degrees, manifest a sense of not getting what you want in other life areas, as well.

Focusing on the romantic desires will derail you from releasing these beliefs.  Clarify if you really want to work on the source of these feelings. If so, I suggest doing some releasing work around them, and possibly soul retrieval to locate and learn more about your personal power in discerning what you want at a deep level, and learning to create life around having it. If you are comfortable doing distance work, I’m available for that, and if you want to find someone close to you to work with, I may know someone who can do just that.

My best to you, Liz.

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If you have a life challenge that you’d like insight on, or questions about everyday shamanism, contact Kelley.

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The Weekly Rune – Mannaz

Mannaz - human- Again we have another reversed Rune presenting us with an opportunity to go deeper within. As Mannaz reminds us of the strength in human connection, the power of acting with All That Is, so it’s merkstave position calls us to be aware of when we are not connected, when we don’t feel part of the greater flow. Note that Mannaz is pictured upright, or bright-stave.

Last week, Eihwaz encouraged us to change, and Mannaz may be asking us to sit with the effects of that change.  It calls us to put down rational thinking and go with gut feeling, which for some may be frightening to do.

Likewise, as this Rune is about connecting with other people, its reversed position gives caution to the way in which we socialize this holiday season. Calling to mind community concerns, it may be helpful to tend the web, itself. It may not necessarily be about any personal need, but to be aware of our interconnectedness, and perhaps give a little extra to the care of our bonds.

Also, Mannaz  illuminates the human in balance with itself. Take time this week to address Mind/Body/Soul/Emotional needs. Just as you draw on support around you, truly, deeply support yourself. This act of self love is your calling, your gift, and your greatest secret potential.

As you come to terms with your own challenges in connecting, know that you’re not alone. Even through our isolation, we are joined. Everyone you know is going through something that leaves them feeling separate.

Mannaz isn’t without bright notes, regardless of position. Just as merkstave, it indicates feeling outside the web of All Things, so it portends our rejoining.

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Winter Solstice Blog Hop

On behalf of Pagan Writers Press, Shauna Aura Knight is organising a Winter Solstice Blog Hop! All of the authors involved are giving away something wonderful, so be sure to comment on all the sites involved, to be entered to win.

The topic for this Hop is ‘winter,’ which brings all sorts of thoughts to mind. This time of year I feel great conflict, as my urge is to hide in a cave. I’m not a cold-weather person, and I spend the darker months seeking heat. As such, I tend to be less active. Yet, life goes on. We don’t hibernate in western culture. If anything, our lifestyle speeds up around the holidays. As a result I tend to feel a bit more anxious and tired through the cold season.

Likewise, I take a break from my writing schedule in the winter. I generally hit the year with a very strict outline of projects and when they need to be completed, submitted, etc. It’s pretty intense, and when I reach my goals, I’m done. I write articles year-round, but I’ve learned the hard way not to overdo with manuscripts.

Ultimately, I prefer to enjoy the slower pace of winter. In reality, though, the pace is the same. I merely adjust how I respond to it better in the winter.

Comment here for a chance to win an ebook copy of Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World, and don’t forget to stop by other sites on the Hop, to win their goodies, as well! Click below to check them out!

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Winter Solstice Blog Hope

On behalf of Pagan Writers Press, Shauna Aura Knight is organising a Winter Solstice Blog Hop! All of the authors involved are giving away something wonderful, so be sure to comment on all the sites involved, to be entered to win.

The topic for this Hop is ‘winter,’ which brings all sorts of thoughts to mind. This time of year I feel great conflict, as my urge is to hide in a cave. I’m not a cold-weather person, and I spend the darker months seeking heat. As such, I tend to be less active. Yet, life goes on. We don’t hibernate in western culture. If anything, our lifestyle speeds up around the holidays. As a result I tend to feel a bit more anxious and tired through the cold season.

Likewise, I take a break from my writing schedule in the winter. I generally hit the year with a very strict outline of projects and when they need to be completed, submitted, etc. It’s pretty intense, and when I reach my goals, I’m done. I write articles year-round, but I’ve learned the hard way not to overdo with manuscripts.

Ultimately, I prefer to enjoy the slower pace of winter. In reality, though, the pace is the same. I merely adjust how I respond to it better in the winter.

Comment here for a chance to win an ebook copy of Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World, and don’t forget to stop by other sites on the Hop, to win their goodies, as well! Click below to check them out!

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Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful to have hosted all of our family for a custom-fit holiday weekend!

I’m pleased to have the privilege of buying holiday gifts for my family.

I’m thankful for the life that I have.

I’m glad that I can give to others.

I’m thankful for the ability to laugh at myself!

I’m happy to have a ridiculously resourceful flist on Facebook and Live Journal. They know everything!What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

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Thursday Betwixt – Becoming Self

First off, thank you for the enormous support and comments on the Betwixt series.  I’ve gotten so much feedback, praise, and insights, and I’m grateful for your thoughts.

In this series, we’ve talked about  how vital it is to incorporate the ecstatic experience into the everyday, if both are to evolve. We’ve covered how the relationship with Spirit Guides must serve as inspiration for self-initiated exploration and healing. Allowing our own insight to guide us was a powerful topic, as were learning to call on the unnameable ally, and how western folks can better approach working with ancestors. In this instance, I’d like to explore how we connect with All Things through the body.

There is an assumption that when we discuss anything spiritual, we’re automatically referring to something beyond the body layer. One of the greatest omissions of New Age “wisdom” has been that of the body. We’ve heralded amazing techniques that teach us to be more mindful and guide us down our spiritual paths,but the body as innately spiritual has been overlooked.We tend to separate approaches to wellbeing into Mind-Body-Soul, as if they are actually separate. We take care of the body (?), we feed it, we give it exercise, though we don’t generally hold the perspective that the body is spiritual. We consider it the vessel of what is spiritual. The thing that New Age dogma hasn’t thoroughly addressed is that the body is the constant through which we experience everything. Without its health, its neurotransmitters, its processing ability, what we intuit has no meaning, certainly no application. It’s more than the temple.

Most of our mindfulness and ecstatic exercises to bolster the mind and soul lead us out of the body. And frankly, many masters of such techniques teach them as such, as if observing life beyond the body fixes everything. It most definitely can expand our understanding of a great many things, though unless we can ground that information back into the vessel housing us, unless we can interpret that ecstatic trip in a way that better grounds our physical reality, trance isn’t worth much.

The reality is, the body is Nature. It’s wild, and it’s already connected to All Things, that is every living thing in Nature and beyond. Cosmology isn’t out there. It’s in our cells, and always has been. We don’t have to journey out to get that.  In fact, only ever journeying out is missing a vital component permanently residing within: the body doesn’t have a relationship to the soul. The body is the soul.  The ability of our body to know this isn’t broken. It didn’t fall, it didn’t disconnect. It’s always been there. All we have to do is remember that fact. We have to learn to witness through it, and develop our unique system of understanding what its information is telling us.

My clients and students often joke about needing an owner’s manual for being human, for getting through the human experience. In reality, that’s what the body is. It’s the perfect system of feedback for our choices, discerning our truth, our health. How, then do we allow the body to become the divining rod? How do we become the fully sentient, between-worlds being we were meant to be? Most of us don’t recognize when we’re fully, deeply in our body. We don’t know how to get there. We want to know our life purpose, the best use of our innate skills, and to help all of cosmology better itself, yet we don’t know how to seat into our own bodies to tend ourselves.

Sometimes changing only a very small part of our ecstatic process produces dramatically altering results. Learning to go more deeply into the body’s wisdom doesn’t have to be any more detailed than that. For instance, take a skill already known, such as shapeshifting, something we all learn fairly early in shamanic education, a skill we generally use to connect with some ally outside ourselves, and apply it to the body. We shapeshift into animals trees, rocks, elements, plants…  Shapeshift into ourselves!

In a quiet space (preferably outdoors), close your eyes and alter your breath so that your inhale is more deeply than usual, your exhale more prolonged. Stay with this style of breathing.
When breathing in this way is comfortable, bring your awareness to the sensations of being precisely where you are. Notice the effect of the atmosphere on your body. Is it cold/hot? Gentle/abrasive? It’s okay that as you take in your body’s observation of the space around you, that the influence of Nature becomes more pronounced. Your body is at home. It’s natural for it to take in its surroundings.
Move as you feel led. If song comes up, sing it to the sounds around you. Engage the elements as they support your body.
As you allow your awareness of the space and your body’s interpretation of it, ask your body to fully engage with your mind, your senses. Release thought. Bless it, then let it go. Release programmed response, movement, utterance. The same way that you allow a strange animal, plant, element, or guide to shapeshift into your form, allow your body to take full command of every faculty you can offer.
Stay with this process of allowing only the body’s dialogue. Interact with it as feels right for you.
When you feel ready, bring the focus back to breathing, and awareness back to the space around you.
Open your eyes, and observe who looks out of them.

Maybe each time we shapeshift into ourselves, the same sense of self comes. Perhaps a new one does. It doesn’t matter, because we are infinite. The more we come into our body’s experience of soul, the more we live no division, the more we learn the body as ancestor to everywhere we’ve been, and everywhere we are going.

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