Opportunities in the New Year

With the new year beginning, I know it seems cliché to ask what this new year holds for us, but I couldn't resist.  So many of us see January 1 as a new beginning, a time to wipe slates clean, start fresh.  It incites optimism in a daily life that tends toward the opposite end of the hopeful spectrum.  Maybe the start of a new year even strikes an encouraging cord within us.  Therefore, for all of us sappy souls, today I asked the Runes - What opportunities might the new year hold?

Sadly, the Runes have given their usual realistic answer - it's going to be a tough year.  The overview of the year is Algiz, the Rune of self-defense and protection.  Tiwaz/Teiwaz, the Rune of the god Týr, the god representing self-sacrifice, gives us the challenge.  Thankfully, the action is something we know we all possess, strength in the form of Uruz, the Rune of the wild ox.

Do not despair, despite this initial interpretation, because this is our preparation for a tough year; it doesn't mean we won't succeed.  It means simply that our successes will be worth the trials we go through to attain them.

Algiz tells us to be careful, to make our actions in a timely manner, not too soon, not too late.  Although Algiz assures us we have what we need to defend ourselves, it does not tell us that we must do that.  Instead, we protect ourselves by making good choices and thinking things through, not by jumping feet first into icy or muddy water.  If we play our cards right, our opponents will create their own downfall.

That doesn't mean that 2012 will be a walk in the park though.  There will surely be battles and injustice.  That is why Tiwaz, the Rune of the god Týr is our challenge.  As you may recall, last month I drew this Rune and explained how Týr (Tiw) was the only one among all the gods that was brave enough to put his hand in the mouth of the wolf, Fenrir, when the wolf was being bound by the other gods.  Týr sacrificed his right hand to ensure the beast, Fenrir, could not harm the gods. Surely this is a sign that we will be making sacrifices this year.  There are two bright sides to this though.  The first one may not make you feel any better about making sacrifices, but it is important to remember that, through sacrifices, we grow on many levels.  The second is the action Rune we drew with Týr's challenge - Uruz.

Our action calls for courage and determination and, with Uruz, the Rune of the wild ox and strength, to accompany the protective measures of Algiz and the fearlessness of Týr, we have a good draw here.  Uruz is the final piece of this puzzle, assuring us that we possess the strength we need to accomplish our goals in 2012.  We need be only convinced of our own strength and to remember that strength comes in many forms, not just from within us, but from the love and support of our friends and family.

Here's wishing you a happy and prosperous year!  Feel free to let me know how things are going, to ask for guidance or simply enjoy my weekly posts.

What is the message?

Today, I had hoped to write the fourth installment of Runes in History from the Runes 101 series.  However, I need to do a little more research on the initial story I found before I share it with you.  Until then, I hope you will enjoy today's draw.

Though not a random draw like the last draw I did where I asked the Runes what they wanted to show me; for this draw, I did ask a similar question, "What is the message?"  This was in reference to my own writing.  As many of you know, I am revising my first novel and have started my second.  I wish I could spend all my time writing; I love doing it so much.  However, reality tells me otherwise and insists, out of necessity if nothing else, that I balance my passion with my basic needs.  If you have a passion and need to balance it with other aspects of your life, maybe this reading will help you too.

My draw was Dagaz, Nauthiz, and Uruz.

Simply put, Day exemplifies the overview of this situation.  Dagaz is the Rune of Day, clarity.  When light is shed on something, what it is becomes clearer.  Silhouettes take solid form and scary shapes become everyday objects.  This implies that my view of my current circumstance is becoming clearer.  With this understanding, finding a balance between spending every waking hour writing and researching that about which I want to write and doing things that are required (like working in a more traditional setting to bring in money) should become easier or more acceptable.  I should see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I must still focus on what is at hand and try not to race directly to the light.  If I do, I will miss something that needs to be done along the way and the light will either move further away or disappear, because I have created more obstacles for myself.  By moving toward the light and addressing the things that arise along the path to the light, I will move closer to the light and accomplish my ultimate goal.  For me, that goal is writing.  What is it for you?

On every path, there is a challenge and my challenge in this situation comes, appropriately enough, in the form of Nauthiz, the Rune of Need and Necessity.  New age interpretations of this Rune take the basics of need a step further and discuss it from the aspect of restraint or constraint.  For while I want to race toward the light, I must show restraint and focus on the needs my family and I have.  An ,given by Ralph Blum, is that when fishermen can't go fishing, they repair their nets.  Similarly, although I can't spend all my time writing... yet... I can work on my writing skills in other ways and that is what I am doing.  The work I am doing requires writing, lots of it.  Even though it's not the style of writing I'd prefer to be doing, it is writing nonetheless, and I am grateful that I get to write in some form.  If you aren't able to use some form of your passion in your job, I hope you can set aside time  to do it when you aren't working.  It is so important for your piece of mind.

Uruz, the Rune of Strength, exemplified by the Wild Ox provides this week's action.  Where day gives us clarity and and our basic needs challenge us when all we want to do is pursue our passion, the wild ox reminds us that we must be strong to accomplish our ultimate passion all the time.  In fact, traditionally, this Rune is thought to be useful for gaining strength.  I sure need it to continue to move forward toward the light, which is where I will get to pursue my passion for a living.  I find the burning desire I have inside of me to write provides me with more strength than I thought I possessed though.  At the same time, that desire fuels the challenge I have not to run directly to the light.  I hope your passion is a bit more even tempered under the same circumstance.  Now, I have to find a way to balance the strength that comes from my passion to write.  How are you doing at finding your balance in your strength?

Runes 101 – Runes in Mythology 6

Last week, one of the runes I drew was Ingwaz – the Rune of the god Freyr and I mentioned that Freyr surrendered his sword to his friend and servant Skínir so that Skínir would get the giantess Gerðr and bring her to Freyr to be his wife.  What I didn’t tell you was how exactly Skínir accomplished that ask.  He used Runes.  Today, in the sixth installment of my Runes in Mythology series, I will, because it shows how Rune magic was perceived in the mythology.

You see, one day, although he wasn’t supposed to, Freyr sat in Hlidskjálf, Odin’s high seat in his hall Valaskjálf.  From this seat, Odin can see everything in the nine worlds.  As Freyr sat in Odin’s seat, he looked to the north and spotted a great hall in Jotunheim, a hall which belonged to Gymir.  Coming out of the hall was a beautiful maiden – Gerðr.  Immediately, he was love struck and Skínir, at the request of Freyr’s father Njörd and step-mother Skadi (also a giantess) got Freyr to confess the reason for his mood.

Freyr told him about spying Gerðr and then asked Skínir to go to her and convince her to meet with him.  He agreed to give Skínir his sword and the horse that that would carry him through the darkness and over magical, flickering flames.  With these items in hand, Skínir set off on his journey.

When he arrived at Gerðr’s hall, two hounds stood guard at the gates.  Skínir asked a local herdsman how to get past the dogs, but the man was unwilling to help him.  Determined and realizing his fate was set long ago, he rode to the hall, set his horse to graze and Gerðr, hearing all the noise of the barking dogs and the yelling between Skínir, told her servant to invite him in.

Once inside, he presented her with eleven apples of gold and told her of Fryer’s desire for her.  She refused the apples and assured him she would never settle down with Freyr.

Next, Skínir gave her Daupnir, the magical arm ring.  Eight rings, just like it, dropped from it every ninth night.  Again she refused Skínir’s offering.

When gifts didn’t work, he resorted to coercion.  Brandishing the sword from Freyr, he threatened to slit her throat with it if she didn’t agree to meet Freyr.  She didn’t cave to his threat of force against her.

Skínir set down Freyr’s sword, grabbed his own magical staff and began to cast Rune spells on her.  He told her he would tame her, she would go to a high tower where no man will ever see her again and just sit there looking through bars out over the world.  All food would seem vile to her.  Unbearable desire, rage, and longing would torture her.  No matter what she did, she wouldn’t be able to escape her fate.  Spiteful spirits would pick at her.  Then, she would creep through the halls of the frost giants without choice, her body would shake as she cried and she would be very sad.  She would spend her life with a three-headed giant and never sleep with a man.  She would be driven crazy by her unfulfilled lust and sadness and then cast away like a thistle at the end of the harvest.

Skínir told her how he traveled into the forest to get a potent branch to fashion a wand and showed it to her as he proclaimed that Odin and Thor were mad at her and Freyr would hate her; she had unleashed the gods’ fury.  He began to chant to the frost giants and forbid them from pleasuring Gerðr.  Hrimgrimnir was the giant who would have her near the gates of Hel and she would have only goat urine to drink.  Then, he carved three Runes on her – unbearable desire, loathing and raving.  Once the Runes were carved, Skínir told her he could erase them if she gave him a valid reason for doing so.

By this point, Gerðr was trembling with fear and conceded.  She offered Skínir mead and assured him that she would meet Freyr at the forest called Barri in nine nights and give herself to him then.