S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 37

The Weekly Rune – Isa

Isa is the half-month stave through 13 December. Fehu reversed is the intuitive rune, and Jera indicates Constellation’s message to us. Read right to left is Isa, Fehu reversed, then Jera. 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.

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The Weekly Rune – Nauthiz-Isa

Nauthiz is the half-month stave through 28 November, at which point Isa moves to the fore. Kenaz is the intuitive rune, and Wunjo reversed indicates Peace’s message to us. Read right to left is Nauthiz above, Isa below, Kenaz, then Wunjo reversed. 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...

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The Weekly Rune -Nauthiz

Nauthiz is the half-month stave through 28 November. Sowilo is the intuitive rune, and Kenaz indicates Recapitulation’s message to us. Read right to left is Nauthiz, Sowilo, then Kenaz. 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.

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Free Live Event – Walking The Spirited Path

My first experiences that I was walking a different awareness came in the form of seeing souls of the dead in childhood. They came to me seeking company, acknowledgement and release. I didn’t have elders to frame those experiences, who could teach me situations in which I should engage, just hold space, or step back. I didn’t learn about soul tending and deathwalking until my late teens.
Most of us in the west similarly walk broken spiritual paths. We haven’t been raised in living spiritual traditions that tend souls. Yet we are called to do so and are charged to respond in a way that’s authentic to how we live and engage, without disparaging ancient paths, the people or practices of traditional shamanism, or indigenous cultures. And we can create ethical experiences of soul tending where we stand.

We all share the calling to be fit, embodied elders, who upon the good death become wise, capable Ancestors. To fulfill that calling, we must respond at a soul level.

I teach embodied soul tending through Nature to create lasting change. Through actionable animism and soul tending, I teach you to find your unique spiritual path in support of your quiet dead, healed ancestors, fellow humans, and peaceful coexistence with your land spirits, so that you can leave the planet better than you found it by living your calling.

This is walking The Spirited path.

January begins a new season of that teaching with The Spirited Path, the soul tending training intensive that I mentor. Join me for a free one-hour live discussion about what it means to walk an animistic path as a soul tender, and ask questions about The Spirited Path Intensive.

Walking The Spirited Path Live Event

You are invited to attend:
When: Nov 23, 2019 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/4476e69f79b3f7b44ac87b605f06faf5

Save Your Seat!

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
For more information on The Spirited Path, visit Soul Intent Arts.

The Weekly Rune -Nauthiz

For the week of 10 November 2019Listening to our story

Nauthiz is the half-month stave through 28 November. Ingwaz is the intuitive rune, and Raidho indicates Nature’s message to us. Read right to left is Nauthiz, Ingwaz, then Raidho.

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 reality for us all. That realization process includes learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal to accomplish that. 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 we can become well Ancestors upon death.

This is the free version of The Weekly Rune.  Get the full benefit of the   ad-free, detailed version every Sunday, by joining my private runes community at Patreon.

The paid runecast includes:

more detail  ad-free the current runes’ impact on human life force insights on how to best manage the curves and twists thereinintrospective prompts to nuance and tend self-workgaldr of the runecast, with sound files and instruction on how to use each soundlive video sessionsrunic insights,  book excerpts, release news, free classesoptional services with mediscounts on soul tending services 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 are usually 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

In the runic calendar, part of our procession into darkness in the north involves deep internal assessment. Specifically, with Nauthiz we are challenged to examine our needs and re-evaluate whether they reflect our current wants, desires,  life plans, and community duties. The gamut of the winter runes–Hagalaz, Nauthiz, and Isa–puts us through our paces of sitting with how we respond to external adversity, how we acknowledge and express our needs, and how we sit with the changes we must make in order to proceed through the second aett. Fun times. Again, in the way TWR is structured, this doesn’t mean we will be faced with the tension these runes can indicate. Rather, we have the opportunity to gain the skills they teach.

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?

We know that Hagalaz is the rune of externally motivated abrupt change. It wants us to have skills and a plan for how we handle adversity in our lives. It also wants us to understand that through adversity we remember our power. This isn’t a runes thing; it’s a way-humans-actually-function thing.

Likewise, Nauthiz is the rune of needs. When we know what we’re dealing with environmentally (Hagalaz), we can then assess or reassess how to meet our needs under new constraints or changes (Nauthiz). Really, evaluating our needs should be an ongoing habit, though it’s not one that’s culturally supported. Unless we make the time and space to do it, little outside of us provides opportunity to do it. Even when we do it, we don’t always know how to meet our needs, or have the boundaries for understanding when they should be met by others.

Personal emotional hygiene isn’t something that’s automatically associated with the runes, yet here it is, for two weeks. We’re in catharsis season, just in time for the darkness.  Read more…

If you've benefited from my work and the free content on my site,please support it (me)

by buying my books, joining Patreon, or making a one-time donation. Thank you!

For suggestions on how to weather the season gracefully, subscribe to my private runes community on Patreon.

#beyourcommunity

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts. S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

 Kelley is an author, animist, and deathwalker in North Carolina. She teaches rune work, ancestral healing, and deathwalking, as well as mentors and leads the soul tending intensive training, The Spirited Path. As an interfaith minister, she has served her local community and an international client base since 2000 through Soul Intent Arts, and advocates embodied soul tending and sacred activism through Nature. #beyourcommunity

@kelleysoularts

The Weekly Rune – Hagalaz

For the week of 3 November 2019Flowing in the hard times

Hagalaz is the half-month stave through 13 November. Ehwaz is the intuitive rune, and Eihwaz indicates Wind’s message to us. Read right to left is Hagalaz, Ehwaz, then Eihwaz.

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 reality for us all. That realization process includes learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal to accomplish that. 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 we can become well Ancestors upon death.

This is the free version of The Weekly Rune.  Get the full benefit of the   ad-free, detailed version every Sunday, by joining my private runes community at Patreon.

The paid runecast includes:

more detail  ad-free the current runes’ impact on human life force insights on how to best manage the curves and twists thereinintrospective prompts to nuance and tend self-workgaldr of the runecast, with sound files and instruction on how to use each soundlive video sessionsrunic insights,  book excerpts, release news, free classesoptional services with mediscounts on soul tending services 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 are usually 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

As the Dark Time and hunkering down sets in in the north, the south moves into light and vibrant activity. The polarities are a good reminder that it takes all kinds, at once, or flow to sustain healthily.

And that is the overall memo for this week. We are greeted with runes that present challenge and solutions, all in one.

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?

Hagalaz is the rune of externally motivated abrupt change. The personal implications of such is, of course, how we choose to respond to it. The factors we recognize and take into consideration for that response are tantamount in how we wyrdweave. So while Hagalaz isn’t a rune generally associated with wyrd, it is a checkpoint to evaluate how we’re cognisant of it and to adjust and respond as needed. It’s human nature not to pay much attention to how we manifest when things are going well. It’s really only when challenged that we even remember to hold wyrd in our awareness and to observe how we’re doing in its process. For that reason, Hagalaz and its framing runes give us a gentle nudge to stay active in that dynamic this week.  Read more…

If you've benefited from my work and the free content on my site,please support it (me)

by buying my books, joining Patreon, or making a one-time donation. Thank you!

For suggestions on how to weather the season gracefully, subscribe to my private runes community on Patreon.

#beyourcommunity

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts. S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

 Kelley is an author, animist, and deathwalker in North Carolina. She teaches rune work, ancestral healing, and deathwalking, as well as mentors and leads the soul tending intensive training, The Spirited Path. As an interfaith minister, she has served her local community and an international client base since 2000 through Soul Intent Arts, and advocates embodied soul tending and sacred activism through Nature. #beyourcommunity

@kelleysoularts

Intersectional Deathwalking

Intersectional Deathwalking

Systemic oppression is a significant factor in how we become stuck in life and death.

Just as we internalize its impact in life as terror, its influence in how we tend our dead instills powerlessness.  Systemic oppression becomes unconscious, unseen shadow wreaking havoc in death as much as life, leaving the systems that are in play around the circumstances of our unquiet dead needing reconciliation as much as the dead, themselves.In life or death soul tech exists to help us make such reconciliation, regardless of circumstance. It is a basic right to die well.The Dark Time is the season that our thoughts are most tuned to our dead, to what needs to be deathwalked in our lives.We can begin it now. @kelleysoularts

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S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

 Kelley is an author, animist, and deathwalker in North Carolina. She teaches rune work, ancestral healing, and deathwalking, as well as mentors and leads the soul tending intensive training, The Spirited Path. As an interfaith minister, she has served her local community and an international client base since 2000 through Soul Intent Arts, and advocates embodied soul tending and sacred activism through Nature. #beyourcommunity

@kelleysoularts

We don't heal In isolation, but in community

The Dead Time Roundup

Since the inception of Intentional Insights in 2004, I’ve shared personal spirit encounters as a lead-in to the Dark Time. I do it not to fan trendy paranormal flames, but to ground the experience of modern deathwalking and soul tending into reality. We really don’t talk about that much in soul healing forums. It’s all about the light and wellness and success. But sometimes it’s dark. Sometimes it’s shadowy, and I fuck it upI. We fuck it up. It’s human. Sometimes it’s very sweet and I come away with new allies. Every time it’s humbling and I’m reminded of how short each life is, and how big our awareness can be.

This post is the roundup of all of my writings on The Dark Time.  Thank you for all the messy spirit interactions you have. Thank you for fucking it up, because that means at least you’re doing something. And however you do the season, bless you, bless all in what you do, and thanks you for doing it.

#beyourcommunity

The Personal Encounters Series

If you like these stories, find more in Real Wyrd.

Hotel Phillips and Murderous InsomniaWhen Creepy Gets Creepier (Hotel Phillips, again)An Afternoon with Max the Crystal SkullA Sprite and a Bullseye (Yes, I mean Target)Charitable NeighborAngel Download (this one took place at Wal-mart. Another reason I dislike shopping.)An Unearthly WarningFaeries in the GardenAll in a Day’s Work (an old hospital in Raleigh, NC)House on Summit Drive (the house I grew up in)#1 Rule of House SellingSaturn’s Gift (Astrologers always say Saturn leaves a gift. Mine was ancestral healing.)Raleigh’s Heck-Andrews HouseWilmington’s Old North InnHaunted BiltmoreWorking with the DeadDeathwalkingYesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Paranormal Day is HereWorking with Ancestor AlliesConductor of Souls (Psychopomp)You Don’t Call, You Don’t Write… The Quiet Dead6 Things the Dead Want Us to Know about LifeSeasonal ObservationsHonoring the Dead TimeSamhain – Nature’s Holy Day for Managing Seasonal Affective DisorderThe Thinning Veil and AnimismLocal HistoryWitches of North Carolina

Haunted Biltmore

There are lots of stories about the Biltmore House, the largest privately-owned home in the United States, located in Asheville, NC. The mansion was built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and boasts an enormous 178,926 square feet, featuring 250 rooms.

Now owned and operated as a tourist attraction by Vanderbilt’s grandson, William A.V. Cecil, Sr., the home remains a landmark ushering in about 1 million visitors per year.

With so many souls passing through, it makes sense that some of them would stick around.

After having a creepy experience there when I was about fifteen years old, I set out to learn what history might support the fright I had there. At that time, there wasn’t a peep to be found about spooky shenanigans at Biltmore. I learned quickly that if there were supernatural occurrences, no one talked about them, and that the staff remained tight-lipped about such, even when directly asked.

Given time and technology, the silence changed. Some years ago, I revisited my research online, and found a wealth of eerie stories noted by visitors of the estate. Given the commodity of paranormal entertainment, even the staff had been permitted to share their stories. A couple of them mirrored my own chilly moments.

When I went, it was during the holiday season (which I don’t recommend, if you want to actually see and feel the house.), and the actual tour was a bit frenzied. I recall feeling a presence as we went up the tower stairs. The space was busy with so many holiday guests tramping up the staircase, though I distinctly felt someone brush against me as if going down the stairs. The force pushed against me, as if someone lost footing and sagged into me for a second, then continued down. I shrugged off the sensation, and thought nothing else of it. Some time later I learned that many people have had a similar experience on the North Tower stairs.

I distinctly felt someone brush against me as if going down the stairs.

I also recall in the Oak Sitting Room, seeing a man in a striped suit sitting at one of the tables that stretched alongside towering Yule trees. His back was to the room. I remember seeing him and rejoicing at the thought of sitting in one of the ornate chairs. The line moved terribly slowly, and I was eager to relax a bit. As I waited, I noticed the velvet ropes that separated the throng of people on the carpet runner from the furnished hard woods, and I wondered how the man had gotten through them. I glanced back to the chair, and it was empty. I have no idea who I saw, though there are many documented sightings of Vanderbilt, himself, in that room, and the Library.

The Halloween Room inspired a dreary feeling, though I sensed nothing there. Its ghoulish murals were haunting on their own.

The most disturbing experience I had was in the recreation area. Coming through the bowling alley, I began feeling uneasy, which crescendoed in the swimming pool to a near panic attack.

The tour led along a narrow passage to the side of the pool, which though empty, was incredibly deep. As we passed by, I saw the black figure of a woman glide under the water and rise from the pool, on the side where we stood. There wasn’t a ladder there, though she ascended the side of the pool as if there was. Around her was a shadowy grey blur, and she was very upset, crying, and trembling. I felt that she died there, and she stopped at the end of the line of guests, and spoke to me. Her mouth moved, though I couldn’t hear her. Keep in mind, I was fifteen years old. I was so frightened that I closed my eyes until the group moved on.

Others have noted similar experiences in the pool, including feeling overwhelmed by the spirit of someone who drowned there, hearing voices, and empathic past life recall.

Stories persist of phantoms in the pool, accompanied by splashing water and voices… all the while the pool remains empty.

I couldn’t get out of that place fast enough.

Today, stories–particularly those told by staff–of paranormal activity at the Biltmore have become legend. The headless orange cat that roams the grounds, cigar smoke that lingers on the non-smoking premises, laughter and splashing that echoes in the empty pool, disembodied voices that carry through vacated rooms.

The estate is certainly worth visiting, regardless of whether any spirits reveal themselves. Given the range of stories that come out of Biltmore these days, chances are, they will.

This article enjoyed 1.3k shares in its original publication on Candid Slice.

Witches In North Carolina: Deep Roots In Magick

It’s that time of year again, when the air chills, the sun sets early, and things go bump in the night. It’s also the time that we get bombarded with images of wrinkly crones and black cats.

I love anything to do with cats, though it’s the former that bears deeper discussion. Between its rich Native American heritage, its role in slave trade as one of the original thirteen colonies, and the diverse cultures of people who settled here, I’ve always been fascinated with North Carolina’s curious history in witchcraft.

Most tarheels don’t even think of our state as having a historical connection to witchcraft. According to Tom Peete Cross, who wrote Witchcraft in North Carolina, in 1919, “Witchcraft is as old as history itself,” [1] a statement as true in our state as anywhere. 

A famous passage that describes our state’s early attitudes toward witches is found in John Lawson’s History of Carolina, which was first printed in 1709. Lawson makes harsh commentary regarding Native American beliefs around “Hobgoblins and Bugbears,” as well about the female influences of childhood from midwives, nannies, and servants. He contends that they fill children with “foolery, who by their idle Tales of Fairies and Witches, make impressions on our tender Years.”

Clearly, we’re not without bias in the formation of our views on native spiritual traditions, women, or magick as they pertain particularly to Halloween, or Samhain, for those of western European persuasion. Samhain, which falls specifically at the midpoint of Scorpio between the Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice (Cross Quarter at 15 degrees of Scorpio, for the star geeks), is typically celebrated on the Christian holiday of All Hallow’s Eve, 31 October. Likewise northern European cultures celebrated Alfablot this time of year. What originated as seasonal honorings of the dead, the Ancestors, and closing harvest celebrations evolved into a demonized observation of ghouls, ghosts, and you guessed it–witches.

So what exactly is the connection between witches and Halloween? Well, history dictates that as Christianity spread across western Europe, so it altered the persona of those whose spirituality was nature-based–animists. Diverse and rich spiritual cultures were reduced to the iconic witch, a threatening elderly woman in black–usually with her stereotypical black cat familiar. In the grip of the new religion, these wise women became the pin-up girls to tar Samhain into a malevolent occasion, and a new church holiday was established. Of course the PR shift didn’t stop there, and resulted in en masse witch hunts, which caused the deaths of thousands women, from the 15th-18th centuries. 

While there are no clear indications of witch trial convictions in North Carolina, many stories about witches color our history. Cross writes about an account just after the Civil War, in which people believed that along the low country in Edgecombe County, Henrietta Creek was infested by witches. He shares documented accounts of a reputed witch known as “Granny” Weiss, who lived on the French Broad River and lifted (or cast) curses that got eerily accurate results. He also shares the story of a witch man from Lincoln County who shapeshifted into a turkey. In Guilford County, a man insisted that three witches nightly stole molasses from his cellar. Apparently eyewitnesses told of a Chowan conjurer who could fly.

Our modern path into witchcraft has been more grounded. Contemporary tarheel witches tend more toward practical ritual and ceremony, social activism, environmental conservation, and human and animal rights awareness.

With the reclaiming of nature-based spiritual paths, The Church and School of Wicca (derived from the Old English term for witch, ‘wicce.’) was founded by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost in 1968. Headquartered in New Bern for over twenty years, the Church is now based in West Virginia. It was the first federally recognized Church of the religion known as Wicca in the United States. As a result, New Bern remains one of the largest centers of the national Wiccan community.

The Triangle Area hosts Beth Owl’s Daughter, an elder in the worldwide pagan community, tarot visionary, witch of various traditions, and a former Board Member for Cherry Hill Seminary for Pagan ministry.

David Salisbury, NC native now residing in DC, is Wiccan clergy within the Firefly Tradition, and is High Priest of Coven of the Spiral Moon. David is the author of Teen Spirit Wicca, and a contributor in the anthology Witch Every Day: 365 Tips and Tricks for Magickal Living.

Reclaiming Traditions are strong here, as well as flavors of Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, Feri Tradition, Stregheria, Hedgecraft, Kitchenwitchery, Appalachian Folk Magick, Modern Soul Tending, Seidr, and other paths of witchcraft. Well-known groups include Coven Oldenwilde in Asheville, Dragon’s Cauldron based in central NC, and Raleigh Fruitcakes, a queer-identified Pagans and allies group.

We shouldn’t leave the cats out of the discussion completely, though. In my search for the history of witches in North Carolina, one theory associating black cats and witches insisted the crones shapeshifted into ebony felines in order to slip into the shadows.

Something to keep in mind, next time one crosses your path.

[1] Full text of “Witchcraft in North Carolina”

This article enjoyed 4.7k shares in its original publication on Candid Slice.