Dear Reader,
I am recovering from a migraine yesterday and dealing with intense pain due to arthritis right now. I'm hoping that the pain medicine will kick in soon and I'll have an easier time focusing. Until then, I must apologize for the lack of witchy content right now. I'm in a fair amount of pain and my brain isn't quite at peak performance right now. Please check back in a few hours or so. I may have something interesting up by then. In other news, arthritis can die in a fire.
Dear Reader,
There's a plethora of books about how to time every thing from planting your garden to cutting your hair with the phase of the moon. There's so much stuff about it, it even makes it in to the Old Farmer's Almanac (which is quite literally the last place I'd look for anything witchcraft related). Generally, the time frame from the new to full moon is good for things to increase. The time frame from the full to the new moon is good for things to decrease. This is a form of sympathetic magic that relies upon the apparent increase and decrease in the visible moon to affect the increase or decrease effects of your spell.
I don't use astrology except to idly note where the moon is located at a given time in the sky during the month. There are practitioners who time things by when the moon is located in specific signs oriented with different astrological houses. Again, as I am by no way an expert or experienced in astrology (too much math for me), I can't point you to good resources to help you with this form of timing.
I use lunar timing based off of moon phase because it is where I have gotten the most effective results. During the dark of the moon, that approximately three day period around the new moon, I find is most effective for shadow work and revealing things that are hidden. During the approximate three day period around the full moon, I find is most effective for general magical practice of any sort.
Dear Reader,
I am not the most proficient or strictly by the book reader of runes. At the same time, I have an intuitive method that seems to work pretty well (as long as I am not struck by performance anxiety). Runes are the basis of a number of alphabetical systems. They are the precursor of the Icelandic, Norwegian, Scandinavian, Finnish, and other Nordic written languages. They are also the precursor of the English language. There were runes that were still in use in the English language up until early Modern English, such as the rune Thorn as a short hand for the dipthong 'th'. If we look at early English and Anglo-Saxon we will find a combination of the Latin alphabet and the Younger Futhark used in manuscripts. This period has inconclusive evidence that they were used as a divination system.
Indeed, the only historical mention of runes as a divination system is mudded by the fact that Tacitus doesn't say what exactly is inscribed upon the slips of wood that the Germanic peoples he was interacting with were using to perform their divination. He doesn't give a very good description of the divination practice. This is part of the reason why there are historical questions if runes were used as divination tools. There are some indications with the Rune Poems that were preserved in the historical documents of the post-Christianization era of the Nordic and Germanic regions that this is a distinct possibility. But the evidence is very difficult to discern.
Ralph Blum wrote The Book of Runes in the late 1980s and published in the mid-1990s. With this book's popularity, the use of runes as a divination tool exploded. Suddenly, there was a great many people who were claiming that Blum was accurate and others claiming that Blum was inaccurate in his portrayal of the Runes. More books about the runes and runic magic came out during the late 1990s and early 2000s. They muddied the waters further because they were not academic texts but tried to pass themselves off as having the authority of such. It was not a good period for the research into runic magic and runic studies. Some authors, like Ann Moura in her Green Witchcraft series presented the runes as a magical short hand script for accomplishing things. Other authors, like Diana Paxton in her various works, did their best to provide a more nuanced method of using runes.
While there were authors in the pagan community throwing out just about anything that would stick to the proverbial wall, there was some serious academic research going on into runic magic and the practices of the Sami peoples (the last indigenous practitioners of native religion in that part of the world). That research was largely ignored outside of the academic circles because it didn't immediately clarify the use of runes. As a result, multiple systems of runic magic and divination have arisen completely divorced from all but the barest historical basis. (Now, this does not mean that these systems don't work. It just means that they're not the same as what the ancestors used. And that's ok because we live in a world that is very different from the ancestors and have different needs. I think that the gods answer our needs and do their best to meet us where we are rather than expect us to recreate lost practices whole cloth.)
I will be providing, in this series of posts, my interpretation of the Elder Futhark runes. These are, as far as I can tell, the ones used by the Germanic and Teutonic tribes that Tacitus interacted with. I suspect that they were used in divination cut into fruit bearing tree slips. I do not know if they were stained with blood as some 'traditionalists' insist or some dye like ocher. I don't have access to a rune set that is cut into slips of wood from a fruit bearing tree. I have the tile set from Ralph Blum's book set that I had bought ages ago when it first came out. It's rather worn and one of them is cracked. I also have a set that I made using pebbles and a set that is a bit larger that I made using glow in the dark 'pebbles'. In the case of all three sets, I've gotten the same results. This leads me to believe that the materials that your rune set are made from does not impact their effectiveness. At some point in time, because I'm half magpie and I collect things, I will probably acquire or make a set of runes from slips of a fruit bearing tree. If I do this, I will report back any finding as to how this impacts their effectiveness.
Dear Reader,
Life has thrown a bunch of curve balls over the last few weeks. One of my boys injured his eye (thankfully it was a minor injury and he's fully recovered), the school had a major meeting regarding my other son, and there's been a ton of issues popping up over the last few weeks like my shower attempting to come apart as we were using it. I've been trying to stay on top of the cleaning I had planned but it's a mess all over again because I have boys and I am in a depressive episode. Beloved's doing his best to help but the whole situation is like shoveling snow in a blizzard.
I get to where I have time to write and the words just go 'poof' and I'm left feeling exhausted and kinda dead inside because of the depression. I want to write, but it's really hard. I am trying to keep pushing forward but it's exhausting. I apologize for the fact that I wasn't able to provide you with regular content over the course of the last month or so. Time kinda blurs together and it's a bit hard for me to remember what day it is.
Being disabled is awful and I don't wish it on anyone. Having an invisible disability like mental illness or a chronic medical condition that make is hard for you to keep up with daily tasks is awful. On your good days, you might forget for a moment that you've got to conserve your proverbial spoons so you have the energy to stay on top of things later. The problem with being disabled in the fashion that I am is your energy levels fluctuate on a daily basis and what you were able to accomplish the day before may leave you exhausted the next day on top of the spoon deficit you may wake up with because you didn't sleep well/stress/anxiety/ect.
I'm trying to keep moving forward but I am very tired and downhearted. I haven't forgotten you all. I keep my readership in my prayers for your well being and my expressions of gratitude for your companionship. I just ask that you bear with me a little bit longer. I'm sure this depressive episode will lift eventually and I'll be able to get back to posting daily again. Right now, this is the best I can manage. Please forgive me if it is dissatisfactory or not enough. I'm trying my hardest to do my best.
I posted briefly on Tumblr something about my approach to heathenry. In some ways, I grew up with heathen values. Not the "Nine Noble Virtues" but things like be honorable in word and deed, always be hospitable to guests, treat strangers with courtesy, strength with out wisdom is wasted, and family is everything. Things did not turn out as I had thought they would as a child and my parents did not prove to have the values that I grew up on. I am so dynamically different from my parents and siblings that I have regularly been asked if I was adopted. (We're estranged now for various reasons, but to say the least, I did not mesh well into their family dynamic on the basis of my personality and sense of honor.)
I have some customs that sort of come from my parents and come from what I could extrapolate from the different pagan lore that I studied over the years. I always make enough food for a possible surprise visitor. My family make a point of being hospitable to any guest that arrives at our door, regardless of how we might feel about them personally. At the same time, we are very protective of our boundaries and do not allow folks that could be harmful past the threshold. We are polite but firm about this. Instead of words, we express gratitude with actions. It's like the old concept 'a gift demands a gift in return.' I also take the approach, that it is always better to give too much than be thought stingy when giving gifts. I have the habit of giving peace-gifts to maintain the bonds of good will between us and people who are important in our lives.
I am careful not to swear an oath that I can not keep. I am doubly so when it comes to teaching my children not to swear in such a manner. There are those who would take them at their word and treat them ill if they were unable to keep the oath. I make a point of giving offerings to my family's ancestors. We have a small ancestor shrine in the living room near the altar. Every morning, I give an offering to the gods and ancestors, asking their good will and blessings over all of our household. I do my best to maintain my plethora of houseplants in good care as an offering to Freyr, the spirits of the plants, and the landwights. I dedicate my efforts to maintain the household to the housewight. (Fortunately, they are understanding of my difficulties and tend to be bemused with the kids efforts to help that make more messes than they clean up.)
I do not engage racists, except to mock them or get into a verbal fight with them. I am firmly of the mind that the gods call who they call regardless of skin color or background. The gatekeepers be damned. I am annoyed with the conflation of the Marvel version of prominent figures from the lore (i.e. Thor and Loki) with the actual lore. I try to present evidence that the Norse pantheon is not the same as Marvel's version. At the same time, I recognize that popculture paganism is a thing. So, I try to be understanding. Loki likes to throw me curveballs from time to time in referencing Marvel's version of him just to make sure that I'm paying attention. Marvel!Mythology is different from the lore but in the eyes of popculture pagans, it is the same weight. I try to be sensitive to that.
I have a particularly strong loathing for trans-exclusionary radical feminists. Having been a target of their harassment by virtue of the fact that my vocal range is lower than most other women and my thyroid is a bit on the large side, I have no qualms about getting in their faces. I have in the past, literally had to fight people to make them stop harassing me over these things. I would do so again in a heartbeat if it were necessary. I defend the rights, safety, and honor of transgender people with all the same passion that I do the rights, safety, and honor of all non-heterosexual people. Part of this position is because I have people I love who are in these communities and I feel honor bound to protect them. Part of this position is because I am a Loki's woman and I believe I would be a hypocrite if I did not defend or stand up for the people who fall outside of the cis-het dynamic. It doesn't hurt that I happen to be bisexual and part of the LGBTQ+ community. If anything, that makes me a bit more aggressive about it.
I am something of an animist. I believe that just about everything has a spirit. I try to maintain a good accord with the spirits about me. The jury is still out if the computer has a singular spirit or if it is a community of spirits forced to work together. Electronics in general is a fuzzy area that I am still trying to parse out how they fit into this world view. But all living things have a spirit. Elemental forces are spirits. Deities exist in the realm of spirits as well as elsewhere. I do my best to keep the spirits on my side. That means caring for a garden and leaving out offerings when I can.
I am not a 'normal' heathen. And I'm ok with that.
Dear Reader,
We're now in the final week of Moura, the fifth season and thirteenth month of the liturgical calendar of Filianism and Déanism. Despite my best efforts to have all of the major cleaning done by now, my home is a mess again. I've been struggling with depression over the last two weeks. As much as I hope that with the coming of Eastre/Ostara, I will feel better, I suspect that my brain chemistry will remain malfunctioning at that time. A persistent sense of anxiety that I am not doing enough to be worthy of my family's love and that I am, ultimately, a failure.
I read the holy texts and contemplate them daily. Intellectually, I know that there is still hope. I feel, however, deep despair and grief. I know this is my neural-chemistry being awry and that it shall pass. It does not change the trouble in my heart and the pain that it brings me. I struggle with the fact that I am disabled. I remember life before bipolar happened and having the energy to get through a light day of activity with out needing a few days to recover. I am grief-sick over it. I grieve not my youth but my health. I have come to a place where I am safe and appreciated for who and what I am. I am profoundly thankful for this. It is an entirely different life for me than what I had in my youth. But, I grieve the fact that I haven't the health that I did before.
Dear Reader,
It's been a hard couple of weeks over here. There's the fact that I've been eyeballs deep in cleaning that has been keeping me away from posting. There was the drama of Lulu's shenanigans and my having to take everything down from there and republish it at Kindle Direct Publishing (an Amazon subsidiary). There has also been multiple doctor's appointments, one of my kids scaring the living daylights out of us (He's going to be fine, fortunately), and drama with the school for various reasons that I'm still trying to sort out.
I am desperately trying to get back to daily blogging. It's proving exceedingly difficult right now. I am exhausted from all the stress of this malarky. I am also exhausted because I haven't slept well in about two months (which everyone in my life agrees it is stress from all of this insanity). Trying to find time to write is at a premium. If I'm lucky, I may find a few minutes in the morning to type of a few prayers on Tumblr to share with everyone. It's been rough, y'all. Please bear with me a little bit longer.
Moura is proving to be a month of challenges and vexation. Hopefully everything will turn around over the next two weeks and improve. In the mean time, I have to go get ready for another eye doctor appointment. The visual field test needs to be re-done because their machine had a glitch and data is missing. Fortunately, there will be no co-pay, but it's going to take more time out of my day before I have to be 'on duty' as Mom when the kids get home from school. Then my afternoon is booked with housework and trying to figure out dinner stuff that will be reasonably ok for everybody.
Please don't give up on looking for future posts. I'm just having a really rough patch right now.
