These tiny little crocus bulbs are sending up shoots of color in tune with the vibrations of spring.  They're aware that something's happening even if most of us don't stop to pay attention.
February 2 marks the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.  You can be sure that our indigenous, Northern European ancestors paid attention.  Their lives depended on it.
Did they have enough food and fuel to last until the weather got warm enough for them to go outdoors and begin gathering greens and wild bird's eggs?
Would they be able to make it if winter lasted well into April or May?

In the documentary Rivers and Tides, artist Andy Goldsworthy, creates an outdoor piece of art that gives visible evidence to the fact that even the stalks of plants that died the winter before are affected by the quickening.  I highly recommend setting aside the time to watch this documentary.  It will change your perspective of and relationship with nature.  Rivers and Tides.
For any of you who live in the greater Portland, Oregon area, you are welcome to attend a ritual I'm leading Monday evening February 2, 2015, honoring Brigid, the Quickening, and the taking stock of whether or not we will make it to Spring.  Contact me personally for information.
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom
Awaken Your Hunger
I'm available to do private Rune readings and spiritual counseling either in person or by phone/Skype/Facetime.

Perhaps you think of the sun as being male, as the Greeks and Roman did.  For those of us whose ancestors came from the North, the land of the midnight sun, the land of twilight winters, the sun is female, Sunna, the great mother of warmth and light and growth and I suspect that if we go back far enough we will find that she and the earth and the moon are all sisters.
This morning as I was walking in the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery in Portland, Oregon I was momentarily blinded by the sun as she rose up out of the earth and appeared between the trunks of several winter-bare trees.
I paused in awe, remembering back to a time when my ancestors rose to greet the sun each morning, humble in their relationship, never assuming at night that she would automatically return.  
Here is the poem I wrote for Sunna which can be found in my rune book (un) familiar:


I rise at dawn
to greet you Sunna
singing your song
Sowelo
you grant sight
you blind the arrogant
wolf chased
horse drawn
you disappear
again
I rise at dawn 
to greet you

When was the last time you rose a dawn to greet the sun?

There are only 3 copies left of the original 33 handmade, limited edition rune books which contain my 33 original poems. Are you called to be a guardian of one of them?
I am available for personal readings and spiritual direction either in person or by phone/FaceTime/Skype.  Contact me for more information.
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom

Our Northern European ancestors lived in a harsh, unforgiving world where it was dark and cold almost half the year.  They revered the gods and spirits of the land.  They honored and respected fire because it was essential for survival.  And in fact it still is, even if we in modern times have forgotten that.  We are arrogantly disconnected from it, perhaps even forgetting about the necessity of its presence.  
When was the last time you honored the spirits of fire when you flipped on the light switch, adjusted your heater's thermostat or enjoyed a bowl of steaming soup?
Fire is never still.  It creates through destruction and in that destruction smoke is released.  The earth breaks things down slowly through rot and decay.  Fire breaks things down rapidly to the smallest of particles.  
Some ancient cultures have stories about how humans stole fire from the gods.  Not so for us of the Northern Traditions.  Fire was always a part of our world.  In fact it is part of our creation story. 
Fire is alive; we can never master or contain it.  And just like the ocean, we must never turn our back on fire nor take it for granted.
Two runes that are intimately connected with fire are Nauthiz and Cweorth.
Here are the poems I wrote for them.  They are part of the collection of my 33 original rune poems found in my book the (un) familiar.

'summoned by need
gaunt from starvation
I emerge
slowly
from the cave
Nauthiz
you are a hungry rune
fueled by bitter necessity
fierce with determination
your friction
sparks ancestral memory
ancient fires ignite'

'Cweorth
it is you
fire of Surt
eldest ancestor
who consumes the gods
in the end
your concern is
what must be
at Ragnarok
burn my flesh away
from bone
leaving only ash'

A great resource of information about Spirit Work In The Norse Tradition is the book Neolithic Shamanism by Raven Kaldera and Galina Krasskova.  Chapter 7 The Red World is about the spirits of Fire.