S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 51

Podcast: Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole, This Evening

Join me this evening to talk runes and shamanism...

live on the Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole podcast with Jason Colwell and James Stovall!  Focused on deepening our experience of reality, these gentlemen have created a show that urges guests and listeners to take it all a little further. Who knows where we'll go? Better yet, where will we end up? (Should I be scared?)

Hope you can tune in!

As always, thanks for what you bring to the planet, and for showing up, every day!

The post Podcast: Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole, This Evening appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 12 November 2017

In which need is  meaning.


Nauthiz is the half-month stave through 28 November. Dagaz is the intuitive stave, and Othala indicates the Ancestor's message to us. Read right to left is Nauthiz, Dagaz, then Othala.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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.

Our time with Hagalaz was characterized by a need to reconnect with our humanity. A rune of change and making peace with the continuous nature of transition, its big build up is Nauthiz, the point at which we must understand our needs. Recall that Nauthiz is the middle of the winter trio of runes. Literally, it is the crossroads where we pause and can't go forward until a need is met. The caveat of this stave is that we're the hold up. There's no invisible force--or overtly obvious one--that's slowing things down. The hold up lies in our ability to identify why we feel constrained, which at heart is about a need not being met.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BTWiOv1l1...

The hardest part of the state of Nauthiz is to remember that's what longing is. Longing is our internal messaging system telling us that a need isn't being met. Most of the time, once we can make that realization, our consciousness can take it forward a bit more gently, our spirit allies can become active in putting us in the places to meet that need. I find that paradox of mindfulness similar to the turning point aspect of Tiwaz. When we can step through the emotional reaction to a mindful awareness, we find options. As with all the winter runes, Nauthiz isn't reversible, which means we will cross the roads. We will have the revelatory moment and take the action needed to meet the need.

Dagaz, as the way we can best deal with Nauthiz, has a bit to say on that. All about what makes a day meaningful, Dagaz encourages us to intentionally creating process around sustaining that evaluation through life. We can't expect our needs to be met if we're unwilling to investigate how we actually live--who we're with, where we go, what we do, how we think. Dagaz asks us to carry this inquisition behind every day.

As for the higher insight in how to meet this week, the stave in third position came from a new voice. As I drew the last rune for the cast, I was very clearly told that it wasn't coming from the usual voice of Nature or the planet, but from the Ancestors. This came, of course, before I saw the rune, itself, which was curiously Othala. Meaning 'inheritance,' this is the Ancestor rune. It's also the stave of tribe and all things within the tribal territory.



Many of us court guides and/or Nature Spirits in times of need. However, it's the Ancestors who really thread the needle of personal success in the mundane. Why? Because they've done it.

Ultimately, it's why they volunteered for the job as Ancestors, and we need all the help we can get. Take some time this week specifically to invite Ancestor(s) who best know how to navigate identifying and meeting needs.  Ask for their insight on the exact tension felt, and how they handled it in their lives.

Then get across that road.
Half-month Considerations

How does Nauthiz show up in your life?
How do you recognize your own needs?
How do you connect with your Ancestors?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 5 November 2017

Undeniable humaning.


Hagalaz is the half-month stave through 13 November. Jera is the intuitive stave, and Algiz indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Hagalaz, Jera, then Algiz.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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.

As we touched on last week, Hagalaz often gets a tough break, for being hardcore. Representing blunt, external change, this stave receives cringes and moans when it comes up in a cast. What's important to remember about Hagalaz is that it can't be reversed, which means it can't be avoided. And anything that can't be avoided simply must be made peace with. It's not a matter of "maybe," or "sort of," or even "if I have to. "  It's part of being human, and Hagalaz isn't a harbinger of harshness in its native timing. It's merely a reminder of that cycle. The stave of this trek into the Dark Time comes every year at this time. We can count on the natural rhythm of becoming acquainted, re-acquainted with the cyclic aspect of our humanity, over and over.

Jera as the best way to cope with Hagalaz emphasizes precisely this fact. The rune of resourcefulness, it hints at culling through our resources, habits, thoughts, routines, and beliefs, to weed out what doesn't support ease with the death part of the cycle, and to bring in what will support it. This gentle reminder to come back to very basic, practical self-management serves to take the emotional sting out of the transition of cycles, as well as out of their shadows.



The Cosmos speaks to our ability to do that through Algiz. Meaning "elk sedge," it portends protection. As with all things runic and Norther Path, that protection isn't just free. We have to engage it, We have to show up for it and in it, in order for it to work when we need it.

Considered the shamanistic stave, it speaks of the ability to take on the characteristics and spirits of the home space, so much so that we can shapeshift into them at will. When we master being able to walk that animistic path, home is everywhere. It's every thing, and every one. What greater protection is there?

This week, stay tuned to the tenderness of the cycles in life. Allow to play out what must, yet approach it with resources, tribe, and the delicate understanding that shit happens. And as often, it doesn't.
Half-month Considerations

What does Hagalaz mean to you? Shadow?
How do you manage the cycles of your life?
What resources do you call in to manage transitions?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 29 October 2017

Trickster in The Dark Time.


Hagalaz is the half-month stave through 13 November. Isa is the intuitive stave, and Perthro indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Hagalaz, Isa, then Perthro.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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.

Our time with Wunjo has been characterized by becoming comfortable with joy. As is the way of the runes, and life in general, we know that one era gives way to another, which surely will hold uncertainty, no matter how well we've come thus far.

Hagalaz begins the second aett, and it also marks the time of Samhain in the north. In the Northern Tradition, it heralds winter nights (wintersnacht), which was the dark time of the year. I've talked quite a lot in my blog about the impact of the Dark Time (Dead Time), as it constitutes the frozen era that all of life eventually requires.  As with all things, how we cope with it tells the tale, and that process begins with this sabbat.

Hagalaz means "hail," though it brings to mind a state of transition. Inclusive of the destructive change that hail brings, it also carries the underlying realization that change is unavoidable, how it manifests is unpredictable, and some nourishment will come from it. We know this because it is the cycle of All Things. At its core is Nature, and Nature always finds a way.



Perthro as the Cosmos' memo to us underscores this ability, completely. This stave isn't overtly associated with trickster, though it is about being so in sync with wyrd that we're ready for what comes--even when we can't know what that is or what impact it will have. It's the state of being so on our skills (collective from lineage and personal), that we land on our feet.

The ability to do so is the true skill of the trickster. It's not in blowing it all up and creating a scene, or in giving into the chaos by becoming it. Rather, the power of trickster, thus Perthro, lies in greeting it with the best we have and doing the best we can with it. By bringing our wisdom and ability to laugh, we stand in twilight. We stand in the nuanced range of all outcomes and options available to us. When we can hold that informed openness, we stand in our greatest power.
Half-month Considerations

What does Hagalaz mean to you? Shadow?
How do you identify twilight in your life?
How do you allow it?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 22 October 2017

Joy under pressure.


Wunjo is the half-month stave through 28 October. Ingwaz is the intuitive stave, and Fehu reversed indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Wunjo, Ingwaz, then Fehu Reversed.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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 Instagram videos I do explaining the intention behind The Weekly Rune, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.

Our time with Wunjo has been characterized by becoming comfortable with joy. This week we're challenged to know joy under mixed circumstances. Meaning, we can feel joy and still be aware that everything isn't quite right.



 

Last week's runes provided an opportunity to level up our joy-allowing skills. This week the focus is slightly more nuances. Given that Isa was in the mix last week, we can progress to the blossoming part with Ingwaz. It encourages us to be more social, get new blood into things. New consciousness through finding a new social group is the focus. Existing folks in our lives may be able to appreciate our metamorphosis, though not likely. Overcome the obstacles keeping self from opening up to new people, and make that happen.

Fehu reversed as Nature's message to us suggests we're working from a place of lack, maybe not valuing resources we have. Along with Ingwaz's suggestion to get new peeps on the task, Fehu reversed hints that we may not be using present resources to the best of their--or our--ability.

Fehu represents assets that must be tended. They don't just do what they do on their own. We have to show up for them and make sure they're truly flowing to us, and that they're healthy. Nature advises we spend some time doing a resource inventory, this week.

Yes, we're still in the throes of joyous Wunjo, though it's framed with runes that remind us we can feel joy, be joyous in one life area, while still needing to be attentive to areas not so in sync. We are a more emotional range than a teaspoon, and that fact doesn't have to mean things are amock.

We are soon coming upon the Samhain and the onset of the Dead Time. Join the Seidrkin level of my Patreon runework to receive the Samhain sabbat runecast, giving insight into the half-month and hourly staves of the day, and how to work with them for the season. If you have questions about how it works, feel free to contact me. Thanks for your support of The Weekly Rune!
Half-month Considerations

What does Wunjo mean to you?
How do you identify joy?
How do you allow it in your life?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 15 October 2017

The necessary waiting period of joy.


Wunjo is the half-month stave through 28 October. Nauthiz is the intuitive stave, and Isa indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Wunjo, Nauthiz, then Isa.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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 Instagram videos I do explaining the intention behind The Weekly Rune, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.

The last few months have been a flurry of coming into creating what we want in life, with everything from how that process works, how successful it is, to staying light on our toes to update the parts that just aren't working.

Wunjo, meaning "joy," is the epitome of that capability. What's lovely about this season is we will always have joy functioning as the natural elemental state at this time. The challenge, of course, is that we realize it. Also, Wunjo is the last stave in the first aett of the Elder Futhark. That means we've come to the end of a cycle, which by default implies we've worked our asses off. We didn't just fall into bliss. Its position as a closing rune also means we get a bit of a break before we go back into the grind.

For this week, this means enjoy. The efforts of hard work have paid off and the ability to see the results of it is at hand. Of course, this all rests on our ability to allow joy, which is an entirely different challenge of this stave. We can't realize success if we can't see it in our own lives. If we can't realize it, we can't roll its momentum into the process to fulfill our next goals, dreams, and needs.

Of course this is where Nauthiz gives us a hand. It's the crossroads stave, at which point we can't choose a direction and move forward until we can readily identify what need doing so will fill.  We can't fill a need we can't name. If we can't name it, we can't make choices to fill it.



As we come into awareness of joy in our lives, consider what needs are prodded. Is joy comfortable? Why, or why not? What needs are revealed with that question, and how do they relate to our ability to allow joy? Moreover, how do we get those needs filled, so that we can internalize that process and get better at it?

Isa as Nature's memo to us for the week sheds insight.  Meaning, "ice," it refers to that frozen sacred seed state within all things. Every thing carries within it a coded script of what it brings to the planet. "Coded," not as in we don't have choice around it, as in unique to us. The mystery of how it evolves is through Isa we get this frozen wintry space, isolated from all interruption and discord, so that we can figure out what that is. Every seed gets the chance to take the elements that make it grow, and decide how it's going to grow. It gets to choose how to make use of that base blueprint.

That time for us is now, with joy. We get to sit with Wunjo in a deepened, maybe super slowmo manner, so that when we emerge in to it, we can fully be there.

We are soon coming upon the Samhain and the onset of the Dead Time. Join the Seidrkin level of my Patreon runework to receive the Samhain sabbat runecast, giving insight into the half-month and hourly staves of the day, and how to work with them for the season. If you have questions about how it works, feel free to contact me. Thanks for your support of The Weekly Rune!
Half-month Considerations

What does Wunjo mean to you?
How do you identify joy?
How do you allow it in your life?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

More Book News!

iPagan is released, and Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism is re-released!



When I announced that  Runic Book of Days had gone under contract, I mentioned that  Teen Spirit would also be getting a new imprint. Moon Books has finally re-released it, and it's now available!

Originally published under the Soul Rocks imprint, it just wasn't well-placed for its content. I'm told that through Moon Books it will have better visibility and feel more comfortable among its peers. I'm told the changes include an actual table of contents (who knew that wasn't standard??), and a general bump in placement for the imprint.

If you didn't catch it before, check out it's new life force. And many thanks to those of you who have reviewed it on Amazon and other outlets. Reviews drive a book's placement and visibility, so it all helps the book's lifespan. Most of all, it helps you and I to connect, which is always fabulous. Thanks, always, for your support and work.

Speaking of, 40 Moon Books authors contributed to an anthology called  iPagan , which includes chapters from leading shamanic, druidic, and earth-honoring voices. Following is an excerpt from my essay, "Life Beyond Ecstasy." It's available for 99¢ on Amazon.

"Foremost among those [unraveled truths] was the idea that shamanism is a healing modality. It isn’t. It isn’t a tool to be pulled out on occasion. It isn’t a technique to be applied in a time of need. Shamanism is engaging one’s spirit allies throughout the everyday in such a way that healing can’t help but occur. In that light, healing is a byproduct. It’s a default of embodying in the mundane the relationships created in the ecstatic. Shamanism is a way of being all the time, not just when in despair or while soul traveling. In that truth, ‘shaman’ isn’t what someone does. It’s what someone is-- a spiritually appointed and chosen role."

I hope you'll check them out and let me know what you think!

The post More Book News! appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

Life Betwixt – Borne Again, En Masse

When olde tyme religioun becomes crisis, and n3w AgE spirituality can't alleviate.



In the last Betwixt post, I talked about the lack of center being the current way of the adaptable animist. I mentioned how through changing times we grow and mature, so our center changes, as do our methods for accessing it. As well, eventually even our concept of what center is must be at least investigated, let alone updated.

For those of you new to the Betwixt Series, my focus remains giving as full a context as possible of what it's like to live as an animist in the everyday, specifically as modern shaman. Given that setting and the frightening trajectory of current events, we need to talk.

I will never be the academic sage who reads modern signs against an ancient lexicon. Likewise, I'll never be the New Ager interpreting crystals and solar flares as gospel. I also flounder at best with, though adore scientific segues into our experience of form. I can offer but one perspective on what's happening on  the planet, and it's absolutely flavored by my path as an animist and shaman, through the missives of my guides and UPG. Mileage may vary, and that's the whole point: it should.

From a planetary standpoint, we've been forced to step into the truth that how we've lived (in the west) has created an epidemic lack of natural resources, and damaged Nature in ways that it won't recover quickly enough to sustain current world populations. Culturally, we've identified that people have a general distrust of government, politics, systems put in place to serve communities, and they are running from organized religions.

I want to talk about what all of this means spiritually, specifically now it impacts the place of humans in our concept of divinity. Most of the time when we--any of us, regardless of denomination/path--feel spiritual disjoint, we assume it means we need to change rituals. We need more community. We need the right community. When that feeling becomes discordant despite making change, we internalize it as a need to re-route path, completely. We change religions.

As most people come to paganism as a result of discord with an organized religion, we know what that feels like to make such a huge change. We are well-acquainted with the discomfort of spiritual needs not being met, and we recognize the sign posts pointing us to a spiritual detour.

Likewise, we're used to feeling that discontent alone. We're used to it being only us, having to cope with that grief and loss in a vacuum. As religion is deeply ingrained in our ancestry, seasonal rituals, and community resources, the transition away from the accepted faith can be traumatic. Sometimes we are isolated not because we need solitude to re-orient to a new way, but because we were cut off, because we had the audacity to change. We've come to see isolation as part of such transitions.

What's happening on the planet now is we're all going through spiritual detour at the same time.

The chaos, grief, and change we're all feeling is what that looks like--across religions, belief systems, ideologies.

But where do we all go? What spiritual path is waiting with open arms for us this time? Tripping one spiritual path to another isn't working. It won't dent the mass crisis of folks of all walks seeking enlightenment, peace, hope, and faith. It won't neatly satisfy the need to feel connected to Other. Why? Because that we're all in spiritual crisis at once isn't the only emergency happening right now.

I've gotten pretty confident in saying some pretty wild hair things over the last couple of years, and that's partly because I've said them in my blog and so many readers responded with similar observations. Foremost, thank you for that because it's why I can say:

Other Has Changed.

One more time, Other Has Changed. There is no spiritual path that's going to be more comfortable than the present one. We've not been abandoned by the Divine (or greater system)--however we each define that to be. We're not doing anything wrong; we didn't break anything. (?) Whatever the events playing out now--on the world stage, in each of our understandings of Beyond, the rending of the fabric that holds the Unseen and the Seen together--have nothing to do with what spiritual path we're on right now.

Then what does it have to do with?

Before we get to that, we need to deeply realize the core of the crisis and learn to respond differently. We're not experiencing a spiritual crisis in isolation. Understanding that fact means developing the maturity to realize other people are going through it as well, and to shift our responses to that crisis from ego-driven efforts to quickly soothe ourselves to ones that include helping other people, as well. At this pinnacle of the crisis, it's our responsibility to reach out, to be inclusive of the experience of others, of all. The exact demand is to realize that the resolutions we find for ourselves must also bless others. They can't be separate; it must be both, at once. What we ask for ourselves, we must request that it be given to all who want it, as well. And that also means blowing out the incense, dropping the prayer beads, heaving off the altar,  and being boots on the ground in our communities. We must pay it forward and help others through this shift. Inclusivity isn't only our personal way through it, but the way through for us all. We aren't experiencing it in isolation, we can't achieve success with it in isolation.

Prayer and soul-searching are awesome. So are conversations with Odin, Jesus, and Thoth. However, it's time, also, to show up.

Second, We're a planet We're a reality--Seen and Unseen, all together--experiencing radical change.  It's not just the neighbors going through a deep spiritual rebirth, it's also the beings who watch over us, over the galaxy, the beings we trod upon to get to the mail, the ones we breathe. We're not used to living animism. It's uncomfortable and brings a level of accountability for everything we eat, drink, breathe, carve, think, shoot, paint, sex, hear... Yet, without that level of understanding of our impact upon the Others who live right among us, we've totally forgotten our impact on those dwelling Above and Below us--and I mean that literally and figuratively.

In our quest for tech and power, humans have changed reality at all levels. We may be the biggest influencers on the planet right in this reality, right now. We hold power over the water, vegetation, animals, air, space, and land, without the wisdom to hold it well. We need to take responsibility for that role, and we do it by coming into direct relationship with everything around us. The Nature Spirits of our yard, our region, and the spiritual Other worlds.

If the gods are in distress too, who do we pray to? Perhaps the deeper concern is our definition of God, gods, goddesses. Maybe prayer isn't about making a request of a higher being. Maybe it's making a request or offering a blessing, then taking every action to bring that request into being, to make sure that blessing gets delivered. Aren't we always saying it's not the destination, but the journey? Maybe prayer isn't about the recipient or response, but the act of engaging? Directly engaging. Maybe we need to have more faith in ourselves as Divine beings, and start seeing our guides as beings in need of support. Faith in ourselves is the most untried.

The hardest of all of these demands is we must come into direct relationship with the people in our lives, those across town, and the ones we can't comprehend. This is where we're effective. This is how we get through it. Not by praying to a being who's also under duress, then turning off the light. Not by giving love and light, and logging out.

The reality is right now our only tenet of path is to witness, and that happens only in the Middle World, Midgard, right in front of our faces. The Way just isn't solid, staid, or freaking still enough for us to do anything else, and that's the biggest blasphemy any of us have ever experienced. We're used to our spiritual paths being there--with road blocks, crossroads, and occasional fender benders, but there.

What we're being asked to do now is stick to the path, without knowing what territory it's leading us through, or where we will end up.

Is that what we were always being asked to do?

Instead of having the luxury--ne privilege--of honing our spiritual paths and relationships to Divinity and expecting Divinity to take up any slack in that gesture, we're being asked to tend this world. Plain and simple. Be here. Show up. Help. Support. This doesn't mean we can't still work our prayer beads and wave our sage. It just means that can't be all we do.

Maybe we aren't to blame for the entire upheaval of Seen and Unseen. Maybe it was coming, regardless, though like climate change, we sped it up. Maybe Other hasn't changed. Maybe it was always elusive and our construct of religions and crystals to access it merely provided a term-limited connection. What is certain is the fabric of reality--the fabric our spiritual paths are built on--as we've struggled to know it, suffered to contain it, is changing. It's not done, and there's nowhere to land. This is why people are leaving churches in mad droves, why polytheists and animists are screaming at each other like Methodists and Southern Baptists.

Years ago, one of my more New Agey mentors told me that we were shifting from 4th to 5th dimensional reality, and that it was all or nothing. Either we all shift, or none of us do--the whole planet. I thought that was a very limiting perspective, and an incredibly unfair one. The people doing the work, walking the walk should get to shift. Those who aren't, oh well. Think about that for a minute.

And 5th what?

It really tripped me up, her all or nothing prophecy--a fatalistic perspective hard for this 8th house Cancer to swallow. I just couldn't accept it, which left me raw with this idea that I had to save the world. I didn't want to be left behind because I hadn't done my part. I may as well do everyone else's to make sure, right?

That mentor died last year. In the events that have unfolded since her death, I think I see what she meant in that binary roll of dice. It isn't that we all fry in a fiery galactic convergence as the result of our own asshattery. It's that if we don't shift the attitude to inclusivity, we may as well.

Thank you for what you do. Keep doing what you do, and where you can, do more. We need you.

#beyourcommunity #beyourplanet

The post Life Betwixt – Borne Again, En Masse appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 8 October 2017

The timely gift.


Gebo is the half-month stave through 13 October. Isa is the intuitive stave, and Mannaz indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Gebo, Isa, then Mannaz.

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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 Instagram videos I do explaining the intention behind The Weekly Rune, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.

The last few months have been a flurry of coming into creating what we want in life, with everything from how that process works, how successful it is, to staying light on our toes to update the parts that just aren't working. In short, it's been a challenge, and Gebo brings the point that we can enjoy some rewards of it. Meaning, "gift," it embodies the concept of partnership--the joining of forces that in itself is a treasure, which also brings beneficial outcomes. There's an oft forgotten aspect of sacrifice associated with Gebo, in which the challenge in this understanding of Gebo is learning to see that all things are connected.

In fact, the placement of Isa as the rune detailing how we can best work with Gebo suggests we not be in a big hurry to experience the totality of this stave. Don't be in a rush to throw self on the pyre of sacrifice. Don't be in a rush to expect something in return. Don't just throw give something for the sake of giving--put some thought and feeling into it. Each of these acts source from desperation, not the true spirit of Gebo.



Mannaz as the voice of Nature urges us to work in good company. We can only foster our work on our own for so long. Nature knows when to draw on helpful resources. Again, this is a message to sit back on whatever exchange is before us, and get a little more feedback on it before pressing further. Timing is everything. So is a fresh take.

We are soon coming upon the Samhain and the onset of the Dead Time. Join the Seidrkin level of my Patreon runework to receive the Samhain sabbat runecast, giving insight into the half-month and hourly staves of the day, and how to work with them for the season. If you have questions about how it works, feel free to contact me. Thanks for your support of The Weekly Rune!

Half-month considerations:

What does Gebo mean to you?
How do you identify it in your life?
How do you embody it in your interactions?

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 2 October 2017

The uneasy gift.


Gebo is the half-month stave through 13 October. Hagalaz is the intuitive stave, and Perthro indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Gebo, Hagalaz, then Perthro

Receive the ad-free, full weekly runecast by subscribing through Patreon.  There, find more detail on how the current runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists therein. With a paid subscription, also receive TWR on Sunday instead of Monday, for as little as $1 a week, or for more engagement with me, such as regular Soul Readings, Sabbat Runecasts, and personal runecasts, choose one of the higher subscription levels.

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 Instagram videos I do explaining the intention behind The Weekly Rune, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.

Having come through the magickal manifestation formula of the last couple of months, we arrive at the opportunity of a gift. It would seem that natural memo indicates significant potential for that formula to have worked in our favor. If we learned anything from this transition into fall, it's that every year we have the chance to work and rework how we achieve, how we think about meeting our needs, and the ability to internalize healthy processes for all of the above.

Gebo is the 'gift for a gift' rune, as well as the 'gift freely given' reminder. It can't be reversed, thus the gift is certainly coming. As we associate a gift with being something wanted, cherished, and beneficial, Gebo is a wanted rune, thus, this is an inherently beneficial time to reap. We are, after all, coming upon the final harvest season. It's a time to enjoy the plenty of our yield, and celebrate the people and Nature that have helped bring it to us.

Usually when we reach this stave, I talk about how those two phrases seem to conflict with each other. This time, what seems  important is the reminder that there are still processes to tend on either side of "gift." There is the act of giving, as well as the ability to receive. Hagalaz as the rune expressing how we can facilitate Gebo hints that we need to push through something. There's something around gift-giving or receiving that we're going to need to be the active principle on. It won't just happen by virtue of the elements of the season. There will be a shove, and if it can come from ourselves, we will be better for it.

 



Perthro brings an air of mystery to facing this gift-challenge (See what I did there? A quasi-kenning? Kenaz?). The memo from Nature here is that some things we just don't know, and some things we do. What we know, we must sit firmly in, while we equally hold space for what we just don't and can't know. A caveat there is that we always have the potential to know more than we do, alongside the reality of what simply isn't knowable.

In this way, for this cast, Perthro hints at finding compassion for gifts that have nothing to do with us, and inversely realizing that we are still part of the process. All Things are connected.

We are soon coming upon the Samhain and the onset of the Dead Time. Join the Seidrkin level of my Patreon runework to receive the Samhain sabbat runecast, giving insight into the half-month and hourly staves of the day, and how to work with them for the season. If you have questions about how it works, feel free to contact me. Thanks for your support of The Weekly Rune!

 

#beyourcommunity

#beyourplanet

Subscribe to the full runecast.

Learn more about the Reclaiming the Runes Intensive and preview course.

Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

The post The Weekly Rune appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.