S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 55

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 16 April 2017
New support, old blood, old shadows.

Mannaz is the half-month stave through 29 April. Othala reversed is the intuitive stave, and Thurisaz reversed indicates Nature's message to us. Read right to left is Mannaz, Othala reversed, then Thurisaz reversed.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you'd like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

Moving from Ehwaz to Mannaz shifts our focus from that deep, animistic observance of our latest initiation to a communal expression of what we took from it. Mannaz enters at a point that we've gained a new perspective, and in order to fully develop it, we must engage others--specifically others with whom we don't already have established interaction.

That can be quite an uncomfortable dynamic. What if people don't get it? What if they say it's wrong? What if they encourage us to try yoga? (just kidding) What if they don't care?

In order to know what we know, we must take that awareness into new places, among new people. As long as we keep it to ourselves, it can only aspire to be escapist Precious.

Othala reversed signals that something in the family camp isn't right. Maybe there's no support from the family in the new way. Maybe they don't get the new perspective, maybe they have a radically different perspective. Whatever the individual manifestation, the collective understanding is not being able to count on the birth tribe or clan for support in the new frontier.

This calls to mind a discussion on elderhood that The Spirited Path initiates have been having for the last week. Western culture has a distinct lack of elders, defined as those with integrity, wisdom, and respect, who have been recognized by community as befitting qualities of power and knowledge. As we have saturated into a culture fixated on youth and ageless presence, we have laid down wisdom and natural courses of ascension into ancestorhood.

Of course, therein lies the rub--or prick? Thurisaz, meaning "thorn," has only featured in the weekly runecast once, and that was January of 2016. Anytime an infrequent stave pops up I pay close attention to its timing and position. In this case, the voice of Nature is telling us to honor what bubbles up as we bring our new shiny into new territory. Conflict comes not only from only clan, but also from within.

Thurisaz speaks of deeply seated unconscious urges--id, ego, superego, and all those reptilian brain motivations that likely saved our asses a time or two. They are that imperative and important. They cannot, and I assert should not, be driven out (if that's even possible). However, they have to be known. They have to become part of awareness, so that when a wonderful awareness emerges from initiation, we know how to healthily and sustainably root it into how we live.

Ultimately, new influences will help ease all of the above. Stay open to them, and they'll impart new life in dealing with the old.

Thank you for staying the course of your personal initiations. We need you. We need what you bring, what you know. 

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Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

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

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m grateful for a fun board gaming weekend with friends.

I’m thankful for having really great support for my health challenges. Good people make all the difference.

I’m thankful that this week was relatively quiet.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks? Who is grateful for you? I am!

This post is part of Lexa Cain’s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things, along with her  co-hostesses L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Participate by emailing laura.6eg(at)gmail.com to request to hop on, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever! Thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment and collective awareness.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 9 April 2017

Getting there with boundaries.

Ehwaz is the half-month stave through 14 April. Algiz is the intuitive stave, and Nauthiz indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Ehwaz, Algiz, then Nauthiz.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you’d like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

Ehwaz still accompanies us on this journey deeper into our processing experience. Whatever the larger arc that’s playing out, its focus is on making sure we go all the way. I frequently discuss in the Life Betwixt series that incomplete initiation = PTSD, or soul loss, in shamanic vernacular. Initiation truly can’t be done half-way, and that’s what big life dynamics like the one that’s been playing out over the last quarter is.

Now’s the time to have the wind at our backs in this closure process. Take it. Call in whatever forces are needed to learn what’s needed for closure. Call in the spirit of closure, itself. Learn what’s needed to put this to bed, and get the nightlight ready.

Algiz encourages us to have boundaries as we do so. Speaking as the rune for how we make the best use of the half-month stave, Algiz comes as a word of caution. No threat is on the horizon, just a gentle reminder of personal power and the need to evoke it. Most of us agree that we have personal power; however, we don’t actually engage it. In order for it to meet us where we are, when we need it, we have to have cultivated a relationship with it, prior, which really means over time and with discipline. A mouthful, I know, but it has to be said.

If that wasn’t enough of a convincer, Nature, through the voice of Nauthiz, orders us to stand on our boundaries this week. Sometimes we confuse having boundaries with hesitation and avoidance. Remember that Nature neither hesitates nor avoids. It expends or it gathers, based on what’s needed. This week, that’s for us to decide, though either way, we have to take a stand on it.

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.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m grateful that Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism is getting a reboot by the publisher. Stay tuned for details!

I’m thankful for a break in high level pain, which came for no particular reason. Good things!

I’m thankful that my technology all is working properly, this week. It really is the little things.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks? Who is grateful for you? I am!

This post is part of Lexa Cain’s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things, along with her  co-hostesses L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Participate by emailing laura.6eg(at)gmail.com to request to hop on, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever! Thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment and collective awareness.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 2 April 2017

Greet the martyr and let it grow.

Ehwaz is the half-month stave through 14 April. Tiwaz reversed is the intuitive stave, and Uruz reversed indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Ehwaz, Tiwaz reversed, then Uruz reversed.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you’d like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

There have been lots of new subscribers over the last month, and it occurs to me that I haven’t done a proper introduction of myself in a long time. And frankly, I’ve probably changed a good bit since my last one, anyway. I’m Kelley, a modern shaman, author, mom, interfaith minister, and a bunch of other things that make it seem like I have a lot more time than I do. I am a North Carolina native, and my gig is teaching others to find inspiration where they stand and to realize that’s where modern shamanism starts, too. I’ve read the runes since I was 19, which was a long damn time ago, and hope to have a new book on the runes under contract, soon. I do runecasts for others, among other intuitive services. I manage curious health conditions (MTHFR and H-EDS, foremost among them), and can often be found playing board games. I talk about food a lot, and yes, I’m one of those who posts pictures of it.

Over the last week, Ehwaz introduced us to the depths we’re required to access for wisdom of what we do next. Whether that’s direction born of the changes Tiwaz brought in back in February, a specific dynamic that’s cropped up, or a more general need for scope, we now know what we’re up against to be able to go further with it.

Tiwaz reversed brings in a martyr narrative that’s not serving us well, and may slow the otherwise positive traction of Ehwaz. Assuming we realize Plan A isn’t going to work, some part of the process to let go and allow Plan B must happen. Resist the rut of over-sacrificing for a fate that can’t come, at least at this time.

In short, be sure self isn’t the hold up on Plan B being enacted.

Uruz reversed may make Tiwaz reversed more difficult to identify or manage. This merkstave sigil is an omen of lacking steam, that extra oomph to get things going. Generally an indicator of the drive to self-start, to self-motivate, Uruz reversed brings a different dynamic. It can indicate a molasses rolling downhill sort of lethargy, or it may point to a place in which energy is being misdirected.

Keep in mind Uruz is about the creative force, and not what is created from it.

This week, despite the digging deep force of Ehwaz in its native seasonal position, we’re not quite ready to deliver our personal truth, and we need to be impeccably aware of that fact. We can know it and come more deeply into its nuances, though bringing it to the world will come later. Ultimately, Uruz reversed is a cul-de-sac of creative force. It isn’t gone or lacking; rather, it’s not flowing in the spiral it would like. Heal the sore places Tiwaz reversed reveals about how we’re coping, and let the wisdom of Ehwaz triumph.

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.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m grateful for the ongoing support I receive from my doctors, and their vision for options in my healthcare and wellbeing.

I’m thankful for a relatively low-key week.

I’m not happy with my wake-up call, though I’m grateful for it.

I’m thankful that The Spirited Path is doing well, and reaching lives.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks? Who is grateful for you? I am!

This post is part of Lexa Cain’s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things, along with her  co-hostesses L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Participate by emailing laura.6eg(at)gmail.com to request to hop on, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever! Thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment and collective awareness.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 26 March 2017

Challenges to creating the best self.

Berkana is the half-month stave through 30 March, at which point Ehwaz moves forward. Perthro reversed is the intuitive stave, and Algiz reversed indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Berkana above, Ehwaz below, Perthro reversed, then Algiz reversed.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you’d like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

Berkana has shown us the importance of using downtime to process the closure of life, emotional, and spiritual initiation. As we move into the time of Ehwaz later in the week, we’re given the greenlight to take that experience deeper.

The rune of shamanic journey, Ehwaz is about going into the deepest animistic expression available. It may require literal ecstatic travel, or it may just request that we be aware of the deeper presences and engagement available to us.

The caution to us from the ethers is in the form of Perthro reversed, which speaks of the factors that have added up to now. Interpreted as luck in the modern vernacular, it really points to everything that has added up to Now. To the Old Norse it was more complicated. MANY factors create our reality. We create how we respond to them.

This is the memo of Perthro reversed. Something in that combination is amiss, and likely not aligned with what we think we want. Maybe what we think we want is unclear. Wade through layers of self, to the same end. If it doesn’t add up, learn how to be effective in that process. Contact me, if I can help with that.

Algiz reversed, as the insight of the planet, underscores the need to circle the wagons on what’s wanted. Some component of our wyrd equation isn’t just not adding up to our desire, it’s actively conspiring against us fulfilling it. Somewhere on the horizon threat has been identified, and it needs to be dealt with. It won’t just go away.

Revisit, tweak, revise, and move on. This is the way of Nature. No set course is permanent.

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 – Berkana

For the week of 19 March 2017

Embrace respite at all costs.

Berkana (Berkano) is the half-month stave through March 30. Laguz reversed is the intuitive stave, and Hagalaz indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Berkana, Laguz reversed, then Hagalaz.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you’d like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 full subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

Last week, Berkana introduced us to a time of rest. Its overwhelming message is that to truly embody the changes brought by preceding Tiwaz, we have to slow down, take the downtime to heal the rough edges, and breathe through the teaching we were left with.

Tiwaz demonstrates a certain emergency on all ends of the dynamic. Some treasured thing isn’t working out as desired, so we had to change course mid-stream. That alone challenges sensitivities. Grieving the loss of the heart’s desire is another gut punch that we managed. Opening to the potential of what will work and moving on to initiate that was yet another gear shift and radical update of the ego.

One would think that reprieve after all those hurdles would be readily embraced. Most of us, however struggle with stillness–even the healing kind. Our consciousness is wired for Go! It doesn’t know digest, as you’re ready, or give me a second. Couple that with our culture imperative to rarely slow down and we have a well-honed tendency to dart from epiphany to epiphany without taking the time to recover from them.

Enlightenment junkies, I call them. I know, because I was one for a long time. Tripping through ecstasy makes it easy to chase the buzz of higher awareness. It’s addictive, and it happens without even realizing. Who doesn’t want to know self and the multiverse better? What’s so wrong with that? Isn’t that what the New Age has taught us to do?

Stringing those trips together long enough creates a seamless path of avoidance of real life, and real life demands that we be able to ground that ecstasy into some tactile, sustaining life skill. If I’m totally honest, ecstasy demands it, too. Either end of the extreme is useless, except for where they meet in the middle. The middle is us. We are the point of action. Action can’t happen if we’re dazed by the stars. And taking the wisdom of the stars into our every chop-wood-carry-water action doesn’t in any way diminish their brightness.

By embodying the wisdom of our enlightenment through everything we do, we come into direct relationship with the whole experience, even more. We embody it, at which point we have processed it all. We complete the initiation.

Last week we had favorable supporting runes in the cast to support that completion of initiation, to even make it gentle. This week, favorable is in the eye of the beholder.

While we may be fixed on creating that outcome for ourselves, elements around us, not so much. Laguz reversed indicates being out of sync with the natural flow of things. The textbook teaching of it is to assume the natural flow is right, and the way we’re going about things is taking us out of that. Maybe. Consider the possibility.

However, I posit that through this Tiwaz-Berkana transition, we are changing the flow, and our surroundings aren’t crazy about it. In fact, often when we experience the greatest enlightenment of our lives, life around us resists it. The caution we’re being given through Laguz reversed is to make sure. Double check that the soul, body, mind, and feelings are aligned for the change that’s come. With that secured, see if there are places where gentle introduction can be made to help life around you get on board. Maybe a ritual is in store–clearing living space, releasing old aspects of self, welcoming some new component of self, bringing all of the aforementioned into  balance, simply announcing, “This is who I am now. How can we work together!” to the Home Spirits. With that inquiry satisfied, ask the Home Spirits, guides, Land Elders, or Ancestors how you can forge new alliances, what they need, and/or how to go forward together.

Put effort into synergy this week. It won’t just be there, no matter how proud of we are of our personal upgrade. Also, realize what’s not worth the effort. What can’t get on board may have to go. It’s truly a judgement call, and that’s okay.

Hagalaz as the planet’s message to us offers support that making such cuts is okay. Nature does what it has to do, and so should we. In fact, being the external catalyst to create change in our own life is okay. Don’t go out of the way to make it hard on others, yet do what must be done to stay true to the trajectory of change and seating it into habit and intention.

Hagalaz is about radical change that reveals new life, or clear potential for it. It’s generally considered a wake-up call from external cataclysmic forces. That history is something to keep in mind. However, realize that we don’t have to wait for such intrusive catalyst for change. We can be that force, and in defense of what we’re creating in our lives right now, this week we may have to call on it.

Defend solitude, period.

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Originally published on Soul Intent Arts.

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

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m grateful for multiple nights of decent sleep. It makes all the difference.

I’m thankful for time with my family, and the ability to actual enjoy it more.

My first Intro to Deathwalking  class went so well that I’m offering it again in June!

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks? Who is grateful for you? I am!

This post is part of Lexa Cain’s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things, along with her  co-hostesses L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Participate by emailing laura.6eg(at)gmail.com to request to hop on, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever! Thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment and collective awareness.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune

For the week of 12 March 2017

A beautiful realization of self.

Tiwaz is the half-month stave through March 14, at which point Berkano (Berkana) moves forward. Sowilo (Sowilu) is the intuitive stave, and Ehwaz indicates the planet’s message to us. Read right to left is Berkana, Sowilo, then Ehwaz.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, which brings the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus for the present week. It suggests how we can handle these energies. The planetary stave (also a blind draw) indicates the state and needs of the planet.

Below is a summary of The Weekly Rune. If you’d like to receive the full runecast, subscribe  for as little as $5 a month. The full runecast provides more details 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 subscription, you also receive it on Sunday instead of Monday!

Over the last couple of weeks, Tiwaz showed us what needed revamping  in our lives and gave us gritty insights into how to accomplish just that.

Luckily, Berkano follows. Berkano is traditionally correlated to feminine nurturing, and refers to an evergreen tree (which often come up in runic lore). The idea of weathering intense conditions (such as Tiwaz) and still being able to bloom in the subsequent warm season very much typifies the energy of Berkano. It’s a very careful sort of nurture, though. Where after such traumatic events we may be inclined to duck and hide, to wallow in our emotions, this stave offers no such stagnation.

If we can’t ground the wisdom of what we learned from battle by permitting time to fully process it, we can’t hold onto the wisdom.

Sowilo assures that we will stay grounded in that course of action. Meaning “sun,” it reflects the power behind the sun that shines through us all–divinity. However defined, that quality of life-bringing exhiliration underlies everything we do this week. It may be easier to find and connect with our own divinity, so that we can heal and integrate the wisdom Tiwaz brought.

Ehwaz, the voice of the planet, reminds us that it’s our natural state to take this learning deeper. As it symbolizes the shamanic journey of greeting the world in an animistic light, so we can use this perspective to help us integrate more challenging aspects of this new learning. If it just won’t digest at a conscious level, address the unconscious by calling it in as a spirit being. Converse with it. Ask it what it needs. Tell it what you need. Learn how you can coexist.

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.