Romancing the Runes

I'll be starting another cycle of runes soon. I'm going to take a break and get back to my research on women's mysteries and the goddesses of old Europe. I have some busy work to get done over the next month but it will be glasswork and spiritual work after that. This next cycle will look at the runes with women in mind specifically.  Currently reading: Sacred Gifts: Reciprocity and the Gods by Kirk S Thomas Freya: The Great Goddess of the North by Britt-Mari Nasstrom The Maiden with the Mead by Maria Kvilhaug Trying to piece together archaeology and lore based practices or beliefs involving women's roles in religion and society.  I'm not looking to recreate or do any kind of SCA type of thing.  But I do intend to try to ground what I am doing in facts.  I do want some connection between the rituals that I'm going to write and create, and what my female ancestors may have actually done. I'm feeling a bit sluggish lately. I don't know if it

I pulled this rune before Berkano on the last two runes to be worked on in this cycle of the Blog.  I'm in NH at the moment and I can hear drumming. Don't know if that's the start of the masked ball next door or just my imagination. I would have loved to have gone but I am exhausted after peopl-ing all day.   Yeah, it's drums. Dagaz was one of the first runes I sold in glass today. One of my first sales for the day in the first hour.  Witches don't believe in coincidences. I've been hit with some inspiration that I am going to try very hard to live up to. The next cycle of runes will be with Freya Aswynn's work on runes and Northern traditions.  I want to go over each rune and interpret them exclusively from a woman's perspective. I will look at the esoteric meaning of the rune to see how it connects to women's daily lives and a woman's lived experience.  Instead of looking at the runes as having a neutral meaning, or focusing on warriors and

Berkano was actually the last rune I pulled. I published the entries out of order. Given my cyclical path with the runes it makes sense to end on a rue that is also associated with birth and rites of passage. It seems to point to the work I will be doing in developing a deeper ritual practice.  I'm specifically working on women's rituals, a focus on the divine feminine and an attempt to recover this specific slice of women's history.  There's not much to go on but I will do what I can. There are a lot of great scholars and researchers out there who are already doing the kinds of research I can review and put into practice.  ********************************************************* Translation : Germanic:       Berkano Old Eng:         Beorc Mod Eng:       Birch Phonetic:        B                                                                            ( Handbook , 53) Physical :        (3:2)                                                        

Perthro was the next rune I pulled a few days ago. Around that time I had a dream. It is still kind of fuzzy but I ended up in a counseling office.  He told me to sit on his side of the desk and he sat on the patient's side of the desk. We were talking about something superficial but it led to my past and my messed up family history. The counselor was a middle aged man in a blue shirt with white/silver wavy hair.  Very benevolent aura.  I got the impression later in meditations that I need to connect Perthro with this dream I had. I think I might need to investigate how this messed up childhood effects my layers of orlog and my wyrd. I've gone over my rage and resentment, how it effects my behavior now on a psychological level but I've never done pathworking with this information. Especially in a way that I could use to manipulate or heal my wyrd. I remember a workshop I took two summers ago about ancestral karma and healing a family line's karma.  I think this ph

Seasonal Effective Disorder is definitely a problem for me.   The sun is staying up later and I can feel a return of positivism, energy, and getting work done. It also points to my need to get back on the wagon as far as my spiritual practice is concerned. Between the illnesses and the depressive swings my weekly meditations have become a few times a month when I can literally breathe without hacking again. I am very concerned about this since sticking longterm to a schedule has never been a strong point with me. I fall off the wagon at least once every six months and many times don't get back on for years. This is a huge problem given the current position I occupy and the responsibilities that I have. Not just to mention how much I want to keep doing what I'm doing. This passed year I have felt an intense connection to the land, the spirits, and specific gods.  I don't recall having a connection like this even in college when I was at my most active and open.  It'

I'm not going to do two separate posts for this one. The rune I pulled this time didn't seem to have any special timing or significance at this point. I have four more runes left to do in this series before I begin again with a different set of books. If I were to stretch a bit to pull some meaning out of this it might be a reference to dealing with mundane things, the task of being human. For the past four months I have been dealing with rolling illnesses. From October to just two weeks ago I was sick every few weeks.  It really sucked and I couldn't get anything done. My kid got sick too. She missed the entire last week of school before break. We are all fine now. I'm still a bit slow and tired but I think my immune system might be recovering enough that I might be okay from here on out. I certainly hope so since I have New Hampshire coming up in 4 weeks. Maybe I should take a closer look at Mannaz's murkstave properties. Perhaps that is what is at work here