Witchy Ways

Just sayin.

“What gods are here, and what are their messages for me?”

Thurisaz: Uruz

Ingwaz: Isa

Berkano: Algiz

Kenaz: Othala

Thurisaz I interpret as Thor, with a message of strength, growth, and change in fundamental ways.

Ingwaz is Fro Ing, Freyr. His message is one of introspection and quiet gestation, perhaps patience as well.

Berkano is Perchta, a figure similar to Frau Holle. She is a spinner, a witch, and protector of children, leader of the Wild Hunt. Her message is one of protection, and need for studying her arts. 

Kenaz is Loki’s response to my “are you there?” Othala, I’m honestly unsure about, but I am taking it to mean that I am coming into my inheritance, so to speak. 

All of these things point me to continue and deepen my studies, and begin practicing what I preach. We shall see how that goes this summer.

Feel free to add commentary if you have more experience reading the Elder Futhark. 

meiilan:

Something about the “Futhark”, Loki again and wonderful childhood memories

Futhark is the name of the old rune alphabeth. The name consists of the first 6 runes. The internet is full of information about the runes and its meanings. I don’t want to talk about that. I just remembered something, I learned from a blacksmith a long time ago. When I was about ten years old, my mother had finally accepted the fact, that my interest in the norse mythology won’t fade away so soon. So, she enrolled me for a holiday camp that focused on the lifestile of the Middle Ages. It was really awesome! We were living in tents and the camp had its own archery teacher, herbal witch and a real black smith. That guy was really well, unusal, at least for a black smith. When you think of black smith’ you think of big, bulky man with more brawn than brain. But he was, well tall, but slender and he was very intelligent and had a lot of stories to tell, especially about the norse gods and the runes and its meaning. In short, he was my hero. I used to sit for hours in his smithy and listen to his stories, while he was hammering away on some sword, or iron pendant. It was awesome. He could tell the old legends about the norse gods so vividly, I really believed they used to be real men. Although retrospective it might not have been the best idea to tell a ten year old little girl stories about gods, who wehre bound to rocks with the guts of their sons and the like.
He was never wearing any jewelry except for one strange pendant. It was formed like an ox’s head and engraved in it was a rune. When I once asked him, what that pendant meant, he said something like: “This is the sign of my pledge. The pledge of the black smith’.” Of course I asked him about that pledge and he told me, that in old times in scandinavia a young black smith at the end of his education had to vow that he will never stultify the great god Loki. That he will never see him below the other gods. For Loki is the god of fire and the god of black smith’. Of course, if you are a black smith and work on an open fire most of the day, you don’t want to get on the fire god’s bad side. As sign for that pledge, the first thing the young black smith forges is dedicated to Loki. A sword with the ox sign and Loki’s rune, or well a pendant. I never really tried to confirm that story. But I like it and it’s as likely as any other story. I tried really hard to remember the rune of Loki, but unfortunately I never took a good look to it.
So I decided to use my own imagination. Which runes would fit Loki. Here is my choice:

Kenaz

translation: torch
meaning: torch, opening, fire, mirror, perception, sacrificial fire, skill to achieve something, enthusiasm, lust, volition, creativity, life-sustaining warmth, flame, passion
my reason for this rune: Well, Loki WAS originally the god of fire. And going by the stories about him, he had quite a fullfilled love life. So most of the meanings fit right away. About “mirror” and “perception”, well although Loki is nowadays known as the god of lies, he also has a way of showing everyone, how they really are, though in a very cruel light. There is this one story where Loki intruded on a great banquet of the Asgardians. He was not very welcomed there, so he decided to spoil their fun by badmouth each and everyone of them. He insulted every god and were talking about all the parts of the others of which they were embaressed.

(via lokeans)

sinnsreachdheathen:

It’s true, a lot of Heathens today misunderstand what Wyrd is. Calling it analogous to karma or fate is in error, I believe as they really are very different concepts. While it is not wholly wrong, it is not wholly right either. There is no overarching karmic bank that keeps tabs on your good or bad behaviour, and neither is it an inexorable sentencing. It does weave in with your Orlog and doom but these are not one side of a coin so to speak. Being that it is such a fundamental concept in Germanic Heathenry, it might be prudent to truly get a grasp of the concept before claiming it a direct analogy of karma or fate.

Strictly speaking Wyrd is an Old English word meaning to turn or to become from the Saxon weorthan(to become), and Indo-European root *Uert(to turn). It’s Ásatrú cognate would be Urdr.  Understanding Wyrd as a concept requires more than finding a contemporary dictionary definition to compare it to. It requires an understanding of the Pre-Christian worldview and the history of Germanic Heathenry and peoples.

 

Wyrd literally means ‘that which has turned’ or ‘that which has become’. It carries the idea of “turned into” in both the sense of becoming something new and the sense of turning back to an original starting point. In a metaphysical terms, wyrd embodies the concept that everything is turning into something else while both being drawn in toward and moving out from its own origins. Thus, we can think of wyrd as a process that continually works the patterns of the past into the patterns of the present.

While it is true, that it is connecting to an over-all destiny, or life path, and it is “that which has turned” it also possesses an active quality. One has the ability to affect their Wyrd, and as well, their ancestors in turn have the ability to keep affecting one’s Wyrd long past their expiration date. In the lore, it is often compared to weaving and spinning. One such example of an active Wyrd is taken directly from Beowulf:

Wyrd saves oft the man undoomed, if he undaunted be

from the Michael Alexander translation.


It is the possession of this active form that makes it decidedly distinct from both karma and fate. As per weaving, one can imagine a spindle spinning a thread, creating the “thread” of one’s life. The spindle is constantly spinning your yarn as it were. In the Riming Poem, one line says “Wyrd bewove this for me”. Likewise one can conceptualise Wyrd by imagining a pond and yourself standing at the shore. In your hand you have a handful of different pebbles. You throw one in and watch each oscillation created by the pebble rippling out, getting bigger. It is affected by surrounding water, the landscape under the water. One may then choose a different rock to throw in, and the ripples of that rock will ultimately affect the ripples of the previous rock. Each rock is a choice you’ve made in your life. Each ripple is the consequence of the choice you’ve made. Overall it effectively makes up your Wyrd. I use this analogy because it is like the well of Wyrd, Urdabrunnr, from Norse mythology.
From Octavia.net:

Even when a man was doomed by wyrd, there were always consolations, even if it was simply accepting an unpleasant fate with courage. The last line of the poem known as Resignation, a meditation on the Day of Judgment, sums this up well: It is still the best thing, since a man may not himself avert his destiny, that he should therefore suffer it well. (translated by S.A.J. Bradley in Anglo-Saxon Poetry, David Campbell Publishers, 1982) This is from The Exeter Book, written c 950 to 1000 CE, and though strongly Christian in nature reflects the importance of Fate in human striving.

So the idea of suffering your destiny well is key to the concept of Wyrd. The predetermined factors that affect Wyrd would be your Orlog, your personal heritage, history and ancestry. The past that cannot be changed, the future events such as death which cannot be altered as all must die, but Wyrd gives you some wiggle room to suffer your destiny well, live a good life, be remembered, become a hero. It is not the same inexorable fate of the Greeks, nor is it the accumulative points system of karma which either keeps you in a state of dissatisfaction or brings you to enlightenment. These are very different cultural mindsets and to make them analogous is to do so in poor discretion. I will not go further into it here, but to fully understand Wyrd one must immerse themselves in the law and lore, society and culture of the ancestors that gave you the term, where the distaff and spindle are important spiritual and mundane artefacts of society.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Runic_letter_othalan.svg/150px-Runic_letter_othalan.svg.png

Literal meaning: Ancestral Property

The term ‘odal’ refers to inherited property, one’s legal or family right to something, the homestead, etc. This rune also refers to literal ancestry, and as such has been used by Nazi and Neo-Nazi groups to support their claims of “Aryan” heritage and “white supremacy”. There are two forms of this rune, one with bent legs and one with straight legs. I’m not sure if the bent form is more popular with Neo-Nazi groups, but it was used more historically and seems to be the common form for modern fascist, racist assholes. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Odal_rune.svg/220px-Odal_rune.svg.png

As a rune of Odin, Othala represents the containment and separation of the village unit from the chaos outside of society’s defended walls. (Outsider pagans may or may not see this as a positive thing.) It is the order among chaos, safety among violent Nature, law and land and family. It refers to ancestral lands, family in general, the spirit of a group or disir of a family or home. It is the literal home, the chosen-family, kinfolk, knowledge, enclosure, and reclaiming. It is NOT racial in these meanings; one can choose their own folk, regardless of ethnicity or background, if they have the proper mindset and understanding. 

In shape, it is like Gebo and Ingwaz combined: the gift of the germinated seed. I also think of it as a walled city, with doors or passageways to let in those who are allowed, unlike Ing, whose walls must be broken by sun or water. Othala might also be a good rune to represent the Hedge, or at least that which the Hedge contains. 

In readings, Othala can indicate harvest, stability, security, healthy home life, family, kinship, and inherited wisdom. It can be used as a bindrune in conjunction with Elhaz to protect the house, or with Mannaz to encourage community, with Fehu or Jera to encourage prosperity, or with Ansuz, Dagaz, etc to help understand ancient lore and ancestral knowledge. 

http://www.jelldragon.com/images/specials/sg_odal_rune_s71.jpg

A variant of this rune called a Troll Cross is also used for protection against trolls and other wights or spirits who would encroach upon the order of human society. Made of iron, it is a two-fold representation of human society, in form and in material. Be cautious where you wear it, though, for if you are seeking to communicate with ‘outsider’ or ‘unfriendly’ spirits, wearing iron or crosses is like bringing a weapon into someone’s house for tea. Rude, scary, and will probably get you kicked out. 

Well, that’s all folks! That’s the last of the rune posts, though I do hope to post more in the future about rune magic and bindrunes. Find all of my other posts at witchyways.tumblr.com/tagged/runes! I would love to hear your feedback or anything if you use these posts for study. Remember, peeps, I got most of my info from Diana Paxson’s Taking Up the Runes. It is an AWESOME book, full of citations, bibliography, and just enough personal interpretation to keep it interesting!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Runic_letter_dagaz.png

Literal meaning: “day”. 

This will be a short post because this rune is quite straightforward and literal.

This rune has a lot in common with Sowilo, but instead of being directly about the sun itself, it is more about the phenomenon of day/night/twilight. In the old school perspective, day began at sunset and had two parts: the stuff after sunset and before sunrise, and the stuff after sunrise and before sunset. Dagaz is both a sunny, bright, revealing rune, and a liminal rune. It reminds me of the Tarot cards the Sun and the Star. 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73390943/dagaz-aceo

While Sowilo can be scorching and is associated with Sol’s chariot, Dagaz is more calm, referring to dawns and dusks and the passage of time on a daily/weekly scale, as opposed to Sowilo’s yearly scale. Figures associated with Dagaz are Dagr, son of Nott (literally Day, son of Night) who rides the bright horse Skinfaxi (shining-mane). Just as sunset begins the day, Dagr is born of Nott. 

This rune is useful as a rune of bringing about or of gently ending. Related to Kenaz, Gebo, and Jera, it tempers the energy of Kenaz with two Isa staves at its ends, being a complete, balanced, symmetrical shape. Dagaz is enlightenment, wholeness, awareness, transformation, etc. It can be associated with fire, change, time, seasons, daily rituals, or the rhythm of human life through day and night.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Dagr_by_Arbo.jpg

In readings it can represent a time of positive things, the happy ending to a hopeless situation, something coming to fruition or gaining energy. 

As a rune of twilight or liminal times, it is also useful for meditation or journeying, and can be drawn on the forehead or made by crossing one’s arms across the chest.