Wyrd. Understanding isn't always acceptance

worm’s eye | Victoria Palacios

"Lighting Sky Lanterns" by Nakisha VanderHoeven

I wanted to paint something to honor Odin today, and I decided on Yggdrasil in a heart. It didn't come out exactly as I'd hoped — I planned on using darker colors, like the night and blood, to represent his sacrifice — but I wanted to get right to it, so instead, I sufficed with these softer, brighter hues.

I'm also not a painter, but I digress. 😅

When I finished, I felt something was missing. So I asked Odin via pendulum if he wanted to help me decide on a rune to paint on its trunk. Again, I anticipated something... not this, something to represent strength, or ancestry, or perhaps protection.

It’s time for our Weekly Rune!

KENAZ (KAY-NAHS)

Kenaz is the rune of light and flame.

I’m always reminded of the way the Scottish say “ken” to mean “know” when I see this rune. D'ya ken? It’s a great cultural example of this runes meaning.

Kenaz speaks about knowledge, insight and inspiration. That “ah ha!” moment that proceeds discovery or creation, a spurs it on to completion. Passionate and inspiring.

In divination, Kenaz can mean the unveiling of a truth - always look to the Runes around it to determine the context. This could be a secret, or this could be the simple pursuit of information and study.

There is an element of recklessness to this rune. Fire can be unpredictable after all. It’s both the controlled flame of the forge, and the wildfire that consumes everything in its path. If unchecked, it will destroy.

Self knowledge is also found here. Fire is transformative, and enlightening. Consider the phoenix sheding its previous life in flames and rising again from its ashes. Or even more simple, the campfire that changes the state of food as it cooks.

Rune a Day Project - Day 14 - November 14, 2021 - Kenaz

Day 14 of my rune a day project. Today I drew Kenaz, meaning "torch" or "beacon" according to the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, but "ulcer" or "boil" in the old Norwegian rune poem. As "torch", it represents inspiration, creativity, fire, warms, disclosure, passion, enlightenment, knowledge (esp. ancestral revelation), discovery, artistry and craftsmanship, technical aspects of magic, vitality, quest for truth.

Another rune that makes big changes from runeset to runeset. It can look like these, too: ᚳ ᚴ

There's some debate over the meaning of this rune. Most esoteric guides say it means "torch", and has the representations I listed above. However, the meaning "ulcer" and "boil" have to be considered as well.

This got me to thinking about the names/meanings of runes, and what, if any, effect modern definitions of names and meanings will have over time. It's like the words we have in Modern English that used to mean something very different; look at the source and history of the words "cheat", "cute", "flirt", "artificial", "weird" (of course, we pagan/heathen types that one we know well) and "meat".

By the way, I've been learning Norwegian as a side project this year, and the word for all solid food is "mat", which is what the word "meat" (or "mete") used to mean in English!

I'm also a big fan of the podcast "The History of English", by Kevin Stroud (https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/). It's a fantastic introduction to the topic for us regular people, and I've been listening to it for years.

Perhaps, just as languages have changed over time - and our alphabets have changed over time - so could the runes change, based on we moderns *assigning* them meaning. Just because our ancestors assigned this or that meaning, it doesn't mean we can't reinterpret them for modern times and modern revived pagan faiths (which are themselves, by necessity, chock full of reinterpretations, borrowings from various sources, and a health dose of modern UPG).

Rune a Day Project - Day 17 - November 17, 2021 - Hagalaz

Day 17 of my rune a day project. Today I drew Hagalaz, meaning the "hail": (as in the icy chunks you get with thunderstorms sometimes). It represents completion, destruction, chaos, procrastination, misfortune, transformation, frustration, events out of your control, sudden and monumental change, fury, natural disasters, catastrophe, disruption, negative weather events, a "wake up call", death, the cycle of creation and destruction, setbacks, and loss.

Same rune can be found in different forms: ᚻ ᚼ

Most esoteric interpretations of this rune are negative, some more so than others. One source that suggested that this rune represents the need to learn from our mistakes and hardships, and I like that idea.

I live in a part of the world that gets hail - sometimes very destructive hail - several times a year (this is tornado country, and hail is often associated with tornadoes). I am very familiar with the danger - and the wonder and awe - of huge chunks of ice raining out of the sky when the temps are warm. And the impulse to run out, get a big hailstone, and take pictures of it next to everyday objects (to measure the size - "It's the size of a dime!" "It's the size of a quarter!" "It's the size of a golf ball!") and gawk at the image.

I was inspired to look closer into hail as a weather phenomenon, and discovered that hail does NOT form in winter (in winter, you can get freezing rain, snow, sleet, or graupel, aka "snow pellets" or "corn snow" or "soft hail", which I thought was an interesting term I hadn't heard before). I suspect, to our ancestors, graupel and hail were the same basic thing. However, graupel isn't typically destructive like hail is, because hail is harder and bigger, and hail tends to come in spring (when new crops are fragile) and fall (when crops are ready to harvest) in the northern hemisphere, and can be an outright disaster to crops.

One thing you learn if you live where you get a lot of hail - you can't stop it, but you can be prepared for it. I think this speaks to the need to always have a backup plan and always be prepared for an unexpected negative event. What that means, and how, is highly dependent upon your personal circumstances, but the warning remains.

Rune a Day Project - Day 23 - November 23, 2021 - Nauthiz

Day 23 of my rune a day project. Today I drew Nauthiz. Literally, it means "need" or "trouble". It represents need of duty, restraint, necessity, life lessons, patience, testing, hardship, wants vs. needs, pragmatism, scarcity, longing, yearning, the void, magnetism, fate (in a sense of NEEDING to do something), actively seeking a solution, consequences, prioritization to what is most important, the fire of will, survival, suffering, bondage.

Kinda like I did back on day 4 with Isa, until this project, I viewed Nauthiz as a fundamentally negative rune.

Now... not so much.

In fact, the project itself is represented by this rune very well. I started it because I'd come to a point where I absolutely NEEDED to do this. Nobody's making me. It's not for any purpose other than my own education. I have spent every morning for the month of November on this project, because something is telling me I have to do it.

Other things that occurred to me in reading & research:

The concept that unlimited abundance can be a detriment to creativity, innovation, and growth.

Hey, creative types... ever have a situation when you get to do whatever you want to do, without any suggestions or boundaries at all, and you come up... blank? Or maybe it's a work you're not really proud of? Conversely, maybe you've participated in a challenge or project or commission where the work has to meet certain requirements, and you've turned out something super kick-ass?

I can absolutely relate to this phenomenon as a martial artist and as a blogger.

That's one situation I think Nauthiz points to, and that situation is NOT negative, not at all.

The old saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention" came to mind.

Look, few of us *want* to be constrained or bound to rules, some of which we don't like. Most of us don't like having limited resources (money, time, materials, space, whatever that means for you). However, those limitations are what drive us: to work at jobs we don't like until we get one we do, to figure out a solution to a nagging problem, to innovate and discover, to BE and DO.

Nauthiz is the recognition of this, sometimes framed in the most desperate version of resource constraints.

Another saying that came to mind: "No pain, no gain." We sometimes have to sacrifice to get to a goal or state of being. That's what this rune refers to.

I also really like the idea of boiling down things to the essentials, the things that are most important. Discovering what matters, and what doesn't, is just a really great reset to your mindset and taking control of your life.

What do you NEED in your life, vs. what you WANT in your life? Meet the needs first.

Rune a Day Project - Day 20 - November 20, 2021 - Mannaz

Day 20 of my rune a day project. Today I drew Mannaz. Literally, it means "human" or "humankind". It represents identity, self-realization, the soul, the self, our role in our community, kinship, mutual support, helping others, others helping you, intelligence, rationality, the meld of reason & intuition, the mind, cooperation for the common good, shared human experience, individuality, self development, memory, the human condition.

An older word often used for what this rune means is "Mankind". So of course, I immediately thought of what I'm sure all of you thought of, which is, of course, WWE SuperStar Mick Foley, and one of his three characters, Mankind (the other two being Cactus Jack and Dude Love).

You're thinking that's me just making a little joke, but guess what? This rune is usually associated with the god Heimdall, and some scholars suggest that as Odin gave his eye for the wisdom in Mimir's well, so Heimdall also made a sacrifice... of his ear.

MICK FOLEY LOST AN EAR IN A WRESTLING MATCH. And then the dude wrote a book.

I'm not saying Mick Foley is a modern human manifestation of Heimdall, but I am saying we can't 100% rule that out.

On a slightly more serious note, this rune got me thinking about the supposed conflict between individualism and community. Many of us pit these against each other, as if to support one must mean sacrificing the other. That's absolutely not true, and IMO, a product of the binary thinking our culture has fallen into (us/them, good/bad, up/down, right/wrong, and so many others).

Pursuing individual pursuits without regard to community is ultimately self-destructive. Humans are social creatures, and we need community. Most of us, to varying degrees, understand this, and act accordingly.

However, building community without regard to individual well being and uniqueness is also a fool's game. No community that requires individuals to give up their inner selves for some "greater good" (what that is is ALWAYS subjective and most of the time is defined by an elite of one kind or another) will remain a community very long. There will always be individuals who will rebel in one way or another, until the group can't function any more.

The community needs individuals who are true to themselves to be stable and rewarding for its members, and individuals need community literally to survive.

In my experience, human beings in groups of more than a few people almost always organize themselves into a hierarchy (there's Heimdall coming up again, with the story of his dividing humanity into three groups). It is not unusual for the elite in that hierarchy to abuse their power in some way, no matter the size of the group or however well-intentioned the elite.

Rune a Day Project - Day 21 - November 21, 2021 - Ansuz

Day 21 of my rune a day project. Today I drew Ansuz. This is another of those complicated runes that takes on different flavors depending on which rune set you're considering. Most of the sources I'm referencing interpret the meaning to be "god", but it also has the meaning of "mouth" and "estuary" attested in the Anglo-Saxon and Old Norwegian rune poems respectively. Old English takes this single rune and breaks it up into three: ᚩ ("Os", which was possibly re-assigned the meaning "mouth" from Latin vs. the original meaning "god"), ᚩ ("ac", meaning "oak") and ᚫ ("æsc", meaning "ash"). Old English had developed more variety in the sound represented by Ansuz, thus, the split into three runes.

Ansuz means god, knowledge, wisdom, inspiration, thought, speech, charm (as in the meaning of a song or spell or token), connection of the material and spiritual world, words, communication, intellectual pursuits, study, chanting and singing, names and labels, the breath of life, wit, writing.

Ansuz is a really interesting rune. Given its associations with Odin and associations with words and knowledge, it is another rune that seems very connected to this Rune a Day project I've been doing for the last 21 days. Another rune that is making me feel a little closer to Odin, when I hadn't really before. It's also associated to Loki, which makes a lot of sense, as I've always perceived Loki to be the wittiest of the gods.

I also got to thinking about the use of words and labels.

The ability to speak, to learn, and to communicate is a big differentiator between us and other animals on earth (yes, other animals can do this but not to the extent we can). One could argue that this ability is what really makes us more like the gods than other creatures we share this planet with. Speaking, singing, writing is what makes us the children of the gods, not our genetics.

Labels... one thing many of us coming converting to this path struggle with is what to label ourselves. While many of us insist labeling isn't necessary because the ancients didn't have a name for our faith, I must disagree.

Labels are a short-hand way to summarize information and make it faster for people to get to know each other AND develop bonds between us. I call myself "Northern Path Eclectic" because we (my spouse and myself) have an affinity with Germanic *and* Celtic (Irish/Welsh/Gallic) pre-Christian revival (and to make clear I am NOT a reconstructionist, but I'm informed by it). BUT... I also call myself "heathen" or "Norse Pagan" sometimes, because it's the majority of what I do in my practice day to day, especially to identify myself as a member of that wider community.

So, choosing a label for what we believe has a big impact in finding others like us, and to represent who we are to the world.

Labels are also an especially difficult issue for us because the racist contingent uses the same symbols and labels we inclusive people do. Symbols get slimed, sometimes irreversibly, because some asshat racist scumbag puts it on a flag when marching around. I still get pissed that I have to think twice about ever using the Othala rune in any context (which has NOT come up in the project yet), wings or no wings.

I'm also kind of still chewing on this video I watched the other day, from a Heathen YT creator I respect a lot (Eric Word-Weaver Sierven: https://youtu.be/9P8gyZdc4tQ ). At 13:48 in to the video, he talks about the term "norse germanic" or "norse" pagan, and what he thinks that means. His opinion isn't sitting right with me at all, and it's been bugging me for days.

Fugue, 1914, Wassily Kandinsky