S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 64

What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Myopia) Reality

A weekly dose of dauntlessly dealt reality from the What It Is Wednesday Blog Carnival…

By the time I was eight years old, my vision was significantly myopic and I needed glasses. I wore corrective lenses through my mid-thirties, at which point my vision couldn’t be refracted to 20/20, anymore. As I was a great candidate for corrective surgery, I spent thirty minutes smelling my eyeballs burn, twenty-four hours healing, then saw the clearest I ever had in my life.

At some point in there, I became aware of the adjective, myopic, and that it isn’t referring to near-sightedness, and is in no way flattering. It refers to when someone is being mono-focused or narrow-minded about something. I, too, thought of it as something I didn’t want to be and didn’t desire in my life.

I’ve always been on-the-go. I don’t sit still long, I’m rarely if ever bored, and I like exploring possibilities. I keep my thoughts and heart open. Myopia bad. Mosaic good.

When I was pregnant with twins seven-eight years ago, my vision began to creep, again. I hoped that it was just hormones, which can create visual disturbances during pregnancy. I wanted it to go away after the kids were born, though no such luck. I’d reached the forties migration to freak vision that as far as I’m concerned defies classification. Floaters galore, switching between foreground and background creates vertigo, squinting at the fine print.  I started wearing reading glasses when I was on the computer and reading.

In the last year my vision has crept further, and just last week I got driving glasses. My doctor said they were optional, though I went with it.

Last night as I was thinking about how much my life has changed in the last ten years. I considered how I prefer life slower now. I want to focus on one thing at a time–even if my children demand otherwise. Even when I creatively wasn’t to burn it at both ends, I just can’t approach life that way anymore.

My mind and heart haven’t become closed, though my focus certainly has. I enjoy the benefits of myopia, metaphorically speaking. I like fixing on something, start to finish. I appreciate big life events coming one-at-a-time. I endeavor to create a pace within and without that supports staying focused, present, and in my lane.

What about you–how has your approach to life changed as you’ve matured? What’s been the biggest surprise in the way you greet each day?

If You Want to Be Real on your blog, visit the inaugural page —http://www.soulintentarts.com/what-it-is-wednesday/  and follow the instructions there to share your reality!

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The Weekly Rune – Mannaz Reversed

For the week of  24 July 2016

Change the mind, change the life.

Uruz is the half-month rune through 29 July.  Mannaz reversed is the intuitive stave, and Eihwaz is the stave indicating the planet’s needs. Read right to left is Uruz, Mannaz reversed, followed by Eihwaz.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave 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 indicates the state of the planet.

Following is a summary of The Weekly Rune. Read the full runecast for more details on how these runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists.

For two weeks, Mannaz has presented, emphasizing the mind. Along with it, Uruz sustains emphasis on the body, still supporting our personal cosmology. Related to the Jötun, Auðhumla (Auðhumbla), the feminine divine in the guise of the auroch, associations with body, wellbeing, and wild potential are the focus.

To learn more about Uruz, read the full runecast. Have it delivered to you first, four times a month, for as little as $5!

Uruz reminds us this is a natural time to expect and find physical support. It’s a time that the body’s ability to self-heal is exalted, and any changes we implement toward that goal will be fortified by the elements.

Perhaps because the body is so well supported, the mind has some reorganization to do, which is the role of Mannaz. In five years, this stave has only presented reversed in our cast once, which was last December. It may be helpful to examine what we were focused on then, for clues about how to resolve now.

Mannaz reversed as the descriptor of life force most available to us now indicates not only a cut off from external social support, but a need to generate a change in how we think. No calvary is riding in to clear up cluttered thoughts and assert functional re-organization. We are called upon to be both demolitioner and architect. Only we, ourselves, can change our minds.

That’s where the planet’s need and advice comes in. Eihwaz is called the death rune. It’s the corner that must be turned. Nature doesn’t fight itself, and this is the key teaching of this week. What’s lovely about Eihwaz is its assured improved outcome, without knowing where it leads.

The planet doesn’t fear change, it just bears the work of changing. So must be.

Use the body’s strength and support to let the mind go free. Delve into its needs by opting to step out of the current dynamic. To remain in it will only generate more conflict.

Realizing the need for change and allowing it are the key steps to surrendering to what comes next. It may come instantly and with clarity. It may slink in quietly and without drama. How it comes isn’t as important as being open to allowing the change.

Read the full runecast.

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

The post The Weekly Rune – Mannaz Reversed 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 support of friends and family is a new super secret venture! I’ll divulge soon, I promise!

I’m grateful for a great weekend, even if it didn’t at all go as planned.

I’m grateful for Rob, my fabulous other, with whom I get to share an awesome life!

I’m thrilled that my new book–Life Betwixt – Essays on Animism in the Everyday and Shamanism Among, is doing well in its categories. Thank you!

I’m happy to welcome newcomers to the really real blog carnival– What It Is Wednesday.

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.

What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Music) Reality

A weekly dose of dauntlessly dealt reality from the What It Is Wednesday Blog Carnival…

It’s no dramatization to say that I think I would have died years ago were it not for music. Growing up I often said that writing was a coping skill, that it helped me make things make sense. It was, and it did, though it became something more, after a lifetime devoted to doing it professionally. Music, though, I hid. I kept it pure and untouched by discipline.

I started piano lessons at age eight, and by twelve could play anything put in front of me. I sang in youth choir at church, then began chorus in junior high. Shortly into chorus, the instructor asked me to play for our rehearsals and concerts. I played the piano for Sunday School by age fourteen, and progressed to sing and play in the adult choir. For college I made the hard decision to pursue writing over music. I left home and my piano, and relegated my sonic expression to concert choir. After that, it was all radio blaring with the windows down.

I miss the performance component of music, the synergy of blending harmony with others. I made the right choice of study and career, though, because while my writing refined and carried me, music breathed life into me. It helped me feel sadnesses that I couldn’t name. It enabled me to feel vicarious joy when I stumbled to identify it in my own life.  I found release, ecstasy, closure, perfect words, perfect melodies in music, when those things were not forthcoming in my life dynamics.

I’m not carrying the sorrows now that I did in my youth. Still, music moves my life as a sonic ally, a presence, a healer. Through it I found my soul love, met countless friends, rubbed against fame, and crossed barriers of gender, ethnicity, time, geography… As often as I can, I incorporate it into the healing work that I facilitate in myself and others.

I love music. It has given me so much of myself, and opened me to so much in life I would have otherwise never known. One of my greatest joys has been sharing music with my children, and watching them light when they hear certain songs.

What songs light you? What does music bring to your life?

If You Want to Be Real on your blog, visit the inaugural page —http://www.soulintentarts.com/what-it-is-wednesday/  and follow the instructions there to share your reality!

The post What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Music) Reality appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune – Sowilu

For the week of  10 July 2016

Supported body, mind, soul–the prescription for wellbeing.

Uruz is the half-month rune through 29 July.  Sowilu/Sowilo is the intuitive stave, and Mannaz is the stave indicating the planet’s needs. Read right to left is Uruz, Sowilu, followed by Mannaz.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave 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 indicates the state of the planet.

Following is a summary of The Weekly Rune. Read the full runecast for more details on how these runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists.

For the last few weeks, Fehu assured us of a time of prosperity. This week, Uruz summons the same, from our depths. Related to the Jötun, Auðhumla (Auðhumbla), the feminine divine in the guise of the auroch, associations with body, wellbeing, and wild potential are the focus.

To learn more about Uruz, read the full runecast. Have it delivered to you first, four times a month, for as little as $5!

 

 

Use this week to find power that is otherwise ignored or not realized for what it really is. Put it into motion, and if moved, bring Auðhumla into ceremony that blesses it. Uruz is a strong catalyst for self-originated and directed change. It’s magick at its rawest.

Sowilu (Sowilo) has been with us in various positions for the last three weeks. Meaning ‘sun,’ it brings cheerfulness and light. As the rune indicating what energy is available to humans this week, Sowilu’s synergy with Uruz makes potential even more potent. In this cast we have the foundation to transcend who we think we are, to realizing and celebrating all that we are. Through Sowilu, our unconscious can merge more fully with our early awareness, giving us a taste of our greatest power.

The body emphasis of Uruz, along with seeing the divinity of the self in Sowilu gives us a rare vantage point to see ourselves in perfect cosmic alignment. The planet’s view this week takes that analogy all the way home. Where Uruz is the body and Sowilu is the soul, Mannaz is the mind. This alignment has never happened before, with The Weekly Rune. In this personal cosmology we have perfect support for who we are, at our deepest levels, now.

Mannaz is the mental layer of our being, concerned with exposure to new groups, ideas, and perspectives. A philosophy, culture, truth, or state of being that we think we should be further along in understanding or have misgivings about–go there, now. Put it all out on the table. Ask the hard questions of self, do the work to complete the social and interpersonal learning that’s need at this time. What the Earth needs of us now requires that each of us do this work, implying that it serves not just ourselves to do it. We all benefit from each of us knowing ourselves and purpose, better.

This week we have all that we are in the spotlight, to grow and shine in the knowledge that All Things supports this work.

Read the full runecast.

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

The post The Weekly Rune – Sowilu 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 great finds for artistic endeavors at the thrift store.

I’m grateful for a painless (read: bloodless) start to a new art project, and solid direction on another.

I’m thrilled that my new book–Life Betwixt – Essays on Animism in the Everyday and Shamanism Among, is doing well in its categories. Thank you!

I’m grateful for great friends.

I’m happy to welcome newcomers to the really real blog carnival– What It Is Wednesday.

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.

What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Conflict) Reality

A weekly dose of dauntlessly dealt reality from the What It Is Wednesday Blog Carnival…

The other day, I journeyed with Freya to learn how to better ground in the day-to-day. I’ve had a lot of personal upheaval over the last year, and felt the collective discombobulation. “Path, or pass” is working very well for me, yet I still want some underlying, overarching sense of peace to carry with me and I’m just not finding it.

As I stepped into a frozen creek bed framed between icy peaks, Jötun (giant) Ymir stomped there, yawping and growling. For those not familiar with Old Norse cosmology, Ymir is the masculine aspect of the divine, created by the feminine aspect, Audhumla (I have a different theory on this; ask me). When the Aesir fell into conflict with the Jötnar, Odin and his brothers disembodied Ymir and from his scattered body parts created Earth, it’s atmosphere, and attributes.

Ymir’s name is translated as meaning ‘big sound’–(big bang) go figure. This symbolism not lost on me, I stood quietly for a few minutes, watching the bellowing Jötun stare at me. Then I yawped, too, and through its vibration into the frozen world around me realized the peace in seconds, milliseconds.

We will not always have the luxury of sustaining, readily felt peace. This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to feel in the fine details, in short bursts, which on occasion we may need to create, ourselves. Once we know that, it’s our job to remember to make our own peace, as needed. We can’t sit back and wait for it to arrive, externally. Self-created peace won’t always be neat, tidy, and secure as what we recall from the past. In fact, creating personal peace looks a lot like a giant in the wild yelling his brains out.

We call that process faith, and it’s hard to sustain for a reason.

From Ymir came also the message that sacrifice has its place in creating peace. We don’t have to go sacrifice ourselves to make a new planet (or are we doing that, already?), though we do have to be willing to tear down what isn’t working to make way for what comes next. We may not even get the luxury of knowing what comes next, yet we must clear the way. It’s our job.

Before we can do that, though, we have to get past the idea of trying to fix what isn’t working.  We fool ourselves into thinking that the thing not working is what’s creating the conflict. If we could just fix that thing, there’d be no need for sacrifice, we’d find peace, what comes next could roll up.

Whatever isn’t working, realize it’s time to work as intended in this world is over. It’s brokenness isn’t the conflict. Trying to force it to keep working is. Trying to jump start it repeatedly is wasted effort.

We’re groomed from day one to stick with everything until the wheels come off, and when they do, fix them. That credo is the problem. It’s what’s interfering with peace. Our best intentions create conflict. Our ability to let them go gives us peace.

How do you create peace in your life? How do you step out of conflict?

If You Want to Be Real on your blog, visit the inaugural page —http://www.soulintentarts.com/what-it-is-wednesday/  and follow the instructions there to share your reality!

The post What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Conflict) Reality appeared first on Soul Intent Arts - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism.

The Weekly Rune – Sowilu

For the week of  10 July 2016

Wealth and divinity, without martyrdom.

Fehu is the half-month rune through 14 July.  Sowilu/Sowilo is the intuitive stave, and Tiwaz reversed is the stave indicating the planet’s needs. Read right to left is Fehu, Sowilu, followed by Tiwaz reversed.

The half-month rune is set by the runic calendar, and governs for a tad over two weeks. The intuitive stave 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 indicates the state of the planet.

Following is a summary of The Weekly Rune. Read the full runecast for more details on how these runes impact human life force over the next week, and how to best manage the curves and twists.

For the last couple of weeks-ish, Fehu has assured us this is a time of prosperity. That which we tend and nurture is in its growing season, literally and figuratively. Again, this is the time of building, action, and earthy engagement.

To learn more about Fehu, read the full runecast. Have it delivered to you first, four times a month, for as little as $5!

Sowilu visits again, though as the rune indicating the life force available to us. It’s repetition suggests that we have been consciously living through our connection with All Things, which was the request of the planet, last week. What’s significant about the relationship between Fehu and Sowilu in this cast is the strong emphasis on duty, which, oddly, was the topic of the What It Is Wednesday post last week.

The optimism of Sowilu nods to duty with very generous blessing. It reminds us of our divinity, which in this case means we must remember our part, in the creation and sustaining of our livelihood. We have a tendency to work hard, then when it pays off, blissed out,  we forget just how hard it was. We forget that even in times of gain, we’re still obligated to stay with the process. The sun doesn’t stop shining just because it birthed a spectacular sunrise, yesterday. Neither do we turn from duty, just because we hit pay dirt, once.

In the place representing the planet’s need is Tiwaz reversed. In the reversed position, it indicates being stuck in a martyr narrative. 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. 

The planet cautions us about exhausting resources for an outcome that isn’t possible. At a personal level, at a global level, know the limits of what’s feasible. Let the dead be dead. Where movement presents, dance on. Nature never wastes, and Her caution to us is that we be expedient and resourceful in how we expend our energy. We are of no use to Her, ourselves, or anyone if we can’t exercise economy. To fully benefit from Fehu and Sowilu, we have to find boundaries in duty, and let our work provide.

Read the full runecast.

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

The post The Weekly Rune – Sowilu 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 most fabulous birthday, ever!

I’m grateful for a crazy fun time with my family.

I’m thrilled that my new book is out–Life Betwixt – Essays on Animism in the Everyday and Shamanism Among, and the release went well, despite the hoops I jumped to time its release.

 

I’m grateful for a very optimistic partner, who happens to also be an excellent cheerleader.

I’m happy to welcome newcomers to the really real blog carnival– What It Is Wednesday.

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.

What It Is Wednesday — Dauntlessly Dealt (Duty) Reality

A weekly dose of dauntlessly dealt reality from the What It Is Wednesday Blog Carnival…

I will be the first to say that I haven’t always had a good relationship to duty. I’ve always thought that duty is something the people on top foisted upon the people on the bottom. It’s grunt work. Chop wood, carry water.

I’m no stranger to that concept. Years ago, my mentor told me that the most profound spiritual work conveys through chop wood, carry water–the daily tasks that must be done. “Why else,” she asked, “do you think monasteries focus their lives around daily work? It’s not all about prayer and ritual.”

The only reason I assumed she was correct was because I admired and respecter her, her wisdom. But after a not-so-unblemished life, I thought I’d done my time with tedium. I thought I’d paid my dues, and was at the point that I deserved a break through.

Who doesn’t think that at some point, or points, along the way?

What I didn’t know at that time was the role of duty. A couple of months ago, a friend who works as a consultant for other professionals such as himself shared with me that often his clients think they deserve exemption for being good people, for having made the right choice, done the work. They think they are entitled a certain reward or response for their efforts. His response to his clients is, “That’s not enough.”

I understood what he meant–that none of us are special snowflakes, that none of us deserve anything. We are not entitled, period. Though his insight, along with my mentor’s left me wondering what is enough.

That’s the thing about duty. There’s no such concept as “enough.” Duty doesn’t reach a point that it’s finished. It’s ongoing. There may be tasks within one’s duties that complete; however, the overall role of duty goes on.

What is duty, exactly? It’s a determined system within a construct in which every part of it performs specific tasks. It does sound hierarchical, and maybe it is. That possibility doesn’t change the fact that work has to be done. If it isn’t done, bad things happen to every part of the construct. It is within that last bit that duty is deeply spiritual.

Ultimately our spirituality knows one fact: everything is connected. Whether we’re talking about All Things, or my family, or our community, the planet, everything is connected. And whether we’re talking about every special snowflake soul brings something unique to the cosmos or we each play a specific role in our families, we all have a duty–likely many duties.

Duty requires a system in which everyone involved has a responsibility, an obligation to carry out, not just to save or secure an outcome for self, but to ensure all. Ensure all.  No one is exempt. No action on our part renders us good enough or the right kind of person not to carry duty, ongoing.

What role does duty play in your life? How do you carry out duty and keep a peaceful heart?

If You Want to Be Real on your blog, visit the inaugural page —http://www.soulintentarts.com/what-it-is-wednesday/  and follow the instructions there to share your reality!

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