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Impregnated By Thor's Hammer - Thurisaz

8/30/2015

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Ifing the river is called 
I will cross over 
the bridge 
impregnated 
by your hammer 
expectant 
in the storm 
you torment and fester 
until chaos 
births fertility 
Thurisaz 
my firstborn 
belongs to you

The Thurisaz poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  These poems were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.
Picture
Thurisaz in the chaos
(un) familiar Rune cards

There’s a river that separates the realm of the gods from the land of the giants.  Ifing the river is called.  Ifing, the River of Doubt.  It runs so swiftly that ice never forms on it.  It runs so swiftly it’s difficult to cross.
Why does there need to be a separation between the gods and the giants?  Why would this separation be called Doubt?  And how is it that Thor crosses over so easily?  He’s most definitely giant through his mother’s line.  She is Jord, giantess of earth and soil, land and crops, and the daughter of Nott, the giantess of Night.
Thor most often gets placed in the Aesir pantheon along side Odin but rarely does anyone remember that he is more than half giant.  So is Odin for that matter.  And they both cross over the river into other realms. 
Thor is a storm god much loved and honored by the people.  He is roaring thunder and flashes of lightning that strike the earth and fertilize the soil. His hammer is used in the blessing rituals of new brides, imparting fertility.  His hammer is hung on the plow as it turns the soil in spring thus assuring abundant crops for the coming year.  
When Thor arrives in the storm, in his chariot drawn by goats, does he use his hammer to impregnate his mother?  Is this yet another story of the mother who gives birth to a son who becomes her lover?
The frost giants are called Thurs so perhaps Thurisaz is the rune of these giants.  If so, they appeared at the very beginning out of the chaos of fire and ice.  Does Thurisaz carry with it some of the chaos that exists at the moment of emerging?  When it shows itself randomly in your life or in a reading it might do well to ponder.
What is my river of doubt?  Which side of the river am I on?  Where am I the most comfortable?  How easy is it for me to cross over?  What impregnates me and when I give birth, who claims my firstborn?  Do I deny or ignore the parts of me that carry the lineage of the giants of chaos?  Do I favor instead only the parts that the high gods approve?
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You Don't Need Light To See - The Wisdom of Kenaz

8/29/2015

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There’s a difference between knowing things we’ve studied or learned and knowing things because we were born knowing them.  This knowing is more than intuition.  It’s the wisdom of the ancestors that lives inside each and every one of us, in our blood and in our bones and in our cells.  If we’re willing and allow it, Kenaz will split us open so we can see and understand things we did not learn and remember the wisdom we were born with.  Kenaz shows us how to see in the dark without using our literal eyes and how to see in the dark without the need of light. There are some who say the rune is attached to the concept of light and illumination and refer to it as the pine torch but the use of the words light and illumination might limit our thinking.  Light is only needed to see when we’re using our literal eyes.  Kenaz opens things up we can see without eyes and see without light.  When you form a relationship with Kenaz you will begin to have a sense that you’re remembering things that you knew long ago.  This is the power of the rune.
Kenaz activates the inborn, hereditary knowledge that comes to us from our ancestors.  So whenever the rune appears I know that the ancestors are using it to open us up so we can connect with them.  But we have to be willing.  It can be like an initiation into a sacred place.  Kenaz initiates you so you can access the wisdom that you carry inside yourself.
The shape of the rune is a wedge.  Using a wedge makes it easier to split things open.  It magnifies the force of the axe.  You can use Kenaz to split things open so you can more quickly and easily understand.  It can open up the way for you to go into the dark, hidden, and unseen places and see without needing light.
Are you caught somehow in the belief that you always need light to see or know something?  Have you forgotten how to use Kenaz to see in the dark? 
There are two ancient rune poems that connect Kenaz to ulcers and rotting flesh.  If I sense that the rune’s appearance has something to do with health then I ask the question, does this illness come from being disconnected from your inner knowing or your inner wisdom?

remembering 
more than blood 
my ancestors 
were etched inside 
Kenaz 
split me open 
I penetrated the darkness 
I saw what was destroyed 
spun and woven 
frayed and worn 
the strands of Wyrd 
retied

The Kenaz poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  These poems were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.
Picture
Kenaz
(un) familiar Rune Cards 
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Do You Resist Resistance?

8/29/2015

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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


The Nauthiz poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  These poems were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.
 


Picture
Nauthiz
(un) familiar Rune cards
Do you resist resistance?
If you’re trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together or using what's called a bow drill, then you can’t oil the sticks.  Not everything in life is about flow and ease and the law of attraction.  Sometimes there has to be friction, resistance and persistent, determined effort.
This is the story I often tell when Nauthiz appears.
It’s cold, damp, dark and you’re hungry. You need to build a fire and all you have is the bow drill, a primitive wooden tool used to create the spark that’s needed to start the fire.
You have a need. You have an intention. You have a tool.  You are determined to persist.  But what you also need is friction and resistance.  Without them the wood will never heat up enough to create the spark.  This is not the time to oil the wood.  You would oil the hub of a wagon wheel to keep it from catching on fire but never the wood of a bow drill. This is not the time for frictionless movement or ease. Rather, it’s a  situation that calls for effort and resistance. If you resist the resistance or stop too soon your need will not be satisfied. 
There’s something else you must remember.  Once the fire starts, you don’t need to keep using the tool. 

Fire is alive and each individual fire that comes into being is an offspring of Surt, the great Fire Jotun of Muspelheim. In your efforts to make fire of any sort do you ever think to call upon the gods or do you just take for things for granted and assume fire will always be there for you? 
Many of us in this so-called modern world have lost our connection with the sacredness of fire. All we need to do is strike a match, flick a lighter or flip a switch, turn a knob or press a button. 
Your very life depends upon fire and imagine that the only way to start one is to know how to do it yourself.  How different would your relationship with fire be if that was the case?  Would you call upon the great fire giants to support you?  Would you take for granted that you could do it alone, without their help?  Would you show appreciation?  The Nauthiz rune holds all of these questions.

Nauthiz is a hungry rune.  It can only be satisfied when the need is met and the solution exists in the need.  
It’s a sexual rune.  The desire, the friction, the passion, the necessity to reproduce.  Sex is part of the hunger for life.  
It’s a creative rune.  The urge, the longing, the effort, the potential.  Creativity is the need to make something new.
Nauthiz binds us to our ancestors and their need to have fire in order to live.  It binds us to giants of fire, to Muspelheim and hence to creation.  It reminds us that our spirituality cannot be only in the mind.  We cannot transcend the physical or material but rather we use our bodies to participate in the necessity of life.

 


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Can You Ride Your Future Into The Past?

8/28/2015

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Raido
the adventurer
is on the move
drum and hoof
Odin mounted
moving between worlds
all things change
remain the same
I ride my future
into the past
someone
comes to meet me

The Raido poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  These poems were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.
Picture
Raido
(un) familiar rune cards
The beat of a drum.
The pounding of horse hooves.
Rhythmic movement and sound.
Are you riding or are you being ridden?
Raido is a rune that thunders in loaded with questions.
Can you call upon Raido when you desire movement or change to occur?
Is it possible to be in motion without actually being in motion?  
Can change occur without things actually changing? 
Can you channel the power of movement according to your will to produce the results you desire?
How does being at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing carry the power of the rune?  
Is it possible to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and be doing the right thing?  
What do you believe about the concept of right and wrong?
Is the rune about controlled and orderly movement such as the sun and moon through the sky?  
Is there an order and control to movement even if it doesn’t appear to be?
If you carry the runes with you when you travel then is the rune of travel is traveling?
How does travel affect you? 
Have you ever considered that all travel might be a spiritual experience?  
What really happens as you move through time and space, through geography, climates, cultures, languages? 
It’s easy to see Raido's energy in objects being moved or moving but what about the movement that takes place on the inside of a person, creature, or thing?  The movement of fluids within the body or the movement of the actual energies of the cells. 
When you see a branch moving do you just assume it's being moved by the wind or is it possible that the branch is moving itself?
Odin is said to have ridden his eight-legged horse between the worlds. 
Did he ride to gather knowledge and can we do the same using the energy of Raido? 
The horse was sacred to many of the Norse/Germanic tribes.  Horse-worshiping cults practiced rituals such as sacrificing horses, partaking of their flesh, or even mummifying body parts such the penis and using them in ritualistic ceremonies. 
In his book The Spell Of The Sensuous, David Abram speaks about the horizon and how it joins the perceivable landscape to the places that exist but are not explicity present.  He asks the questions:  "is it possible that the realms we are looking for, the place of the past and that of the future, are precisely beyond the horizon?"  
Using this question we can explore the idea that we literally walk our way into the future that is just beyond the horizon and we can just as easily turn around and walk our way back into our past.  And when you do that you meet yourself.
For me this is the mystery and the power that is held in Raido.  We can ride its energy into the future as well as into the past.
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Fully Aroused By Her Mound

8/28/2015

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fully aroused by her mound
the honored doorway
the sacred
mystery of stored seed
bursts forth
blessing the mother
brother sister lover
with gifts
ancestor to kings
Ingwaz
engorged
I follow your wagon

The Ingwaz poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  These poems were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.


Picture
Ingwaz
(un) familiar Rune Deck
I have a particular fondness for this rune because of its connection to my name Ingrid which means the beauty or loveliness of Ing.  My name was given to me by my mother Sigrid so it connects me to my Swedish heritage as well as to the rune Ingwaz and the god Ing.  He's one of the many gods of my pre-Christian, European ancestors. 
When Ing rides into your life on his chariot pulled by wild boars he’s quite impressive.  He can arouse and awaken feelings virility and potency, fecundity and fertility, male and female sexual and creative energies.  
He's the fully erect phallus aroused by the fully engorged female.  
He'll look around and demand to know where in your home and in your life you've made a place for him,  a place of honor, a sacred space, an altar.
At the homes of so many people of European ancestry he is met by Tibetan prayer flags, statues of Buddha, pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus and images of Shiva and Shakti, two Hindu gods.  But rarely, if ever, does he find a place where he's honored or represented. 
What's happened to us that we've lost connection with the gods and goddesses of our own European ancestry?
Ingvi Freyr is the mystery of stored seed that bursts forth blessing the mother.
He and his twin sister Freya are the lovers whose union keeps alive the unbroken bloodlines of the ancestors. 
The Ingwaz rune carries the sacred gifts of the household gods.
It insures the blessings of the home, the health and fertility of the family and livestock, as well as peace.
We all suffer from the absence and dishonoring of Ingwaz.
The god Ing and the rune Ingwaz both carry the energies of creative fire, full arousal, and sexual passion.   In times past they kept in a special nook or alcove near the hearth.  This may well be the origin of the word Inglenook.  They were often represented by the bones or mummified remains of the family’s ancestors.  The family carried these sacred objects with them when they moved, not unlike the Romans who carried their household gods, the Lares and Penantes or the Semetic people who traveled with their teraphim.
The god, the rune and the sacred objects held a special place of honor because they blessed the crops, the livestock and the family.
Where in your home and life do you honor this ancestral god? 

When working with this rune I have also been shown that there are times when the Ingwaz can be twisted together and pulled so tight. the center, container shape is closed down.  This actually prevents the energy from being used for fertility, orgasm, birth and other related things.  If that happens you need to work with it to untwist it.  This is similar to untangling separate balls of yarn that twist together into knots.
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Beware The Devouring Mother

8/23/2015

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To watch the coming of spring after a long, cold winter is to know the magic of Berkana.
To watch a mother dog push a runt from the litter and refuse to feed it is to know the wisdom of Berkana.
So often emphasis is placed only on the nurturing, protective, care-giving aspects of the Berkana rune.  We must never forget that the balance to all of this is the mother’s wisdom which is also expressed in knowing when to kill, destroy, cull or push things away that are defective, weak, sickly, unable to thrive or inappropriate to nurture. 
This does not need to be considered as negative or the reversal or merkstave of Berkana but rather part of the whole.  It’s not negative that some things in life need to be destroyed or allowed to die.
Yes, the mother births, nourishes and protects but considering these things as the only expressions of feminine energy creates a dangerous imbalance.
Don’t be misled and caught up in worrying about whether a rune is upright, reversed or inverted.  The runes are multi-dimensional, part of the great Web which has no top or bottom, and when you stop looking at them as being flat and begin to experience them as crystal-like shapes you will come to understand that when they appear for you in a reading or a casting or even as a shape seen in nature, they carry all of their wisdom, all of the time.  And none of it is good or bad.  It just is.
The law of life is that just as the mother births and nurtures, she also devours and destroys.
She knows she must care for herself first in order to care for others. 
She knows that if she is fed poison she gives back poison in return.
Where in your life do you care for others at your own expense? 
Even the most loving mother will have her milk dry up if she doesn’t take care of her own needs as a priority over those of her nursing baby.
What in your life needs to be discarded, pushed away or left on its own?
Who feeds off you when it's not appropriate?
Where in your life are you still breastfeeding teenagers or suckling adults?
These can be hard questions to think about.
Answering them can help you align with the wisdom of Berkana.

As I’m writing this, the skies over most of Oregon, California and Washington are filled with the thick smoke of forest fires.  It’s the summer of 2015.
I am reminded of the Norwegian Rune Poem for Berkana.
Birch has the greenest leaves of any shrub;
Loki was fortunate in his deceit.
At first it might seem a bit strange that Loki is mentioned in the poem.  Loki is a trickster figure in Norse myth with prolific reproduction being one of his primary characteristics.  He was born from the giantess Laufey after she was struck by the fiery arrows of the giant Farbauti.  Laufey’s name means Tree Island.  The Berkana rune carries a theme of rebirth and return of life to the woodlands and forests after the devastation of fire.  And even though Loki’s actions are dangerous to the gods and to humans as well, they are nonetheless necessary for new growth to occur.  
Thank you Loki for the necessary but difficult devastation of fire.
I am warned
the devouring mother
discards as well as nurtures
she who births
also destroys
when I poison you
Berkana
you feed me
death in return
beware
this is the mystery
life

The Berkana poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  They were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.

Picture
Berkana
(un) familiar Rune Card Deck
Picture
Birch trees

What wisdom do the runes hold for you?
Runes connect us to the ancestors.
Runes show us the way back to the wisdom and beauty of the earth.
Runes were part of the religious, cultural and social life of Northern European people prior to and during the overwhelm of Christianity.
Schedule a reading with Ingrid, the Rune Woman.

Rune Reading
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The Crushing Weight Of Ages, You Float - Ice

8/21/2015

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The first time I realized that Isa was truly home to all the runes, I was drumming.  I saw her lying on her side, a single horizontal line and when I looked closer I realized she wasn’t a single line, she was layers of lines, one on top of the other like the layers of ice that form in a glacier year after year after year.  And I could read what was layered there by lifting off the single lines and reassembling them back into rune shapes.
When I was shown this I was also told that as the ice is melting, runes are being released and revealed.  We’ve been limited in our understanding of and relationship with the runes by only focusing on small groups of them like the 24 that make up the Elder Futhark or the Anglo Northumbrian.  The runes are the signatures of powerful, energetic beings who are guardians of universal truths and there are myriads of them.
One of the many creation stories of the northern European tribes tells us that in the beginning fire and ice came together in the great void.  And out of that chaos, life emerged.  What grand dance of creation is taking place right now on earth amidst the destruction that’s happening as the fire is melting the ice?
Ice is a great preserver and it also destroys.  We put things such as meat and vegetables into the freezer as a way to preserve them but if we leave them in there too long, they ultimately become ruined.
Freezing is a way to slow down the movement of water but there is still movement.  The nature of water is to move.  What can you learn from Isa about the movement that exists in stillness?
Where have you frozen something to preserve it and has it reached the point where it’s been frozen too long?  Could you use the wisdom of Isa to determine that?
Isa holds within herself the wisdom of changing form as well as the deception that is possible within appearances.  When water freezes it becomes solid thus creating a bridge, a way to cross over.  It can appear to be solid but not be strong enough to carry any weight.  Dazzling in the sunlight, it can be treacherous and slippery.  And one of the fascinating aspects of ice is that it’s solid but rather than being heavy, it floats.

Isa
realm of ice
home to all the runes
the crushing weight of ages
you float
hissing
groaning
there is movement
in your stillness
preservation in destruction
enthralled or released
I serve you


The Isa poem is one of the 33 original rune poems created by Ingrid Kincaid, the Rune Woman.  They were first published in her limited edition, completely hand made book (un) familiar.
Picture
Isa
(un) familiar Rune Cards
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The Double Edge Of Dagaz

8/20/2015

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There are some rune books that refer to the Dagaz rune as the rune of daybreak.  
I say, look at its shape.  Dagaz is a rune of wholeness.  It holds the energy of extremes.  It is daybreak and nightfall.  To name it daybreak is to speak of only half of it.  
It’s a balanced rune.  It’s even, and there’s a place in the middle, the still point, where the two extremes come together and at that point neither of them exists; they are both nothing.
Dagaz contains both sunrise and sunset, the power of night and day, dark and light as well as the point of intersection, the still point, the threshold, the liminal space.
It's interesting that in the English language the word day is used to include both day and night.  Have you ever thought about that?  We're all familiar with using the expression ‘an entire day’ to describe a 24-hour period.  Why don’t we say instead, ‘an entire night’?  Is it because we fear the dark?
If Dagaz holds both light and dark, we could easily call it the rune of nightfall and be just as correct as calling it the rune of daybreak, but such singular descriptions misrepresent the actual rune.  What if we refer to it instead as the rune of Equinox, a word that means equal night? 
I read an explanation once about the Dagaz rune where the person said, ‘darkness isn’t darkness.  It’s a quality of the light.’
I find that statement extremely strange.  And stranger still when attempting to apply it to the ancient wisdom of Dagaz.
Dark isn’t a quality of light any more than light is a quality of dark.  Darkness isn’t the absence of light any more than light is the absence of darkness. 
Many times when Dagaz appears in a reading it comes as an invitation to examine your relationship with and beliefs around darkness.
Dagaz will also show itself in times of transformation.  Often I use the example of the
metamorphosis of the caterpillar.  For a certain period of time, all the caterpillar does is eat.  Then at some moment it stops and begins to create from its own body a container that will enclose it and during the time of confinement it will go through a complete change in form.  The body of the caterpillar liquefies and when it reaches that place it's not unlike the single point of the Dagaz rune. It’s not one thing or the other.  It's nothing and it's no thing.  It’s the still point before the turning.
Everything that was needed to become something new was contained within the old and all that is needed to become again the old is contained within the new. 
Once transformed, the butterfly must emerge from the container and to do so requires struggle and persistence.  And once it emerges it must trust that its newly formed wings will allow it to fly.
Powerful, transformative things happen in the dark.  It takes stored energy to transform and it takes stored energy to emerge.  There are times during the transformation process that require silliness and waiting.  There are times during the process when it's necessary to wiggle and struggle to come forth.
Do you allow yourself to be still in order to transform?  Do you know how to effort in order to emerge?  What can you learn from Dagaz? 
Dagaz holds the energy of birth because it’s the transition from one space into another through a narrow passage and it holds the energy of death because it's a transition from one space to another through a narrow passage.
Does the light emerge from the darkness or does the darkness emerge from the light?  Or do both things happen?  How do you answer?


 

arms folded
I cross myself
the still point
constantly moving
leaving
returning
emerging
from light darkness
where they meet
am I willing
to be nothing
Dagaz the double edge
brings death and birth


This original rune poem by Ingrid Kincaid was first published in her limited edition, handmade rune book (un) familiar.
Picture
Dagaz
(un) familiar rune cards
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Sunrise or sunset?
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Gifts With A Hook - Gebo

8/20/2015

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It’s not true that there’s more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.
One can’t exist without the other and because of that, they are equal. To accept is as significant and as valuable as to receive.
Whenever you hear someone mouth the above phrase, (it’s from the Bible actually) it might be valuable to stop and ask the question, ‘who’s benefiting from such a belief?’
The Gebo rune holds within itself the energy of equal exchange, both the giving and the receiving.  For the ancient people of the runes, the act of giving was considered to be noble, highly meaningful.  Hospitality often meant the difference between life and death for the traveler or the wanderer.  Not only did hospitality need to be extended, it needed to be accepted as well.  The acceptance was as binding as the giving.  Both acted as a pledge.
The essence of Gebo also offers us a great reminder that not everything that is offered in the form of a gift is actually a gift.  Take a look around your own life and see how this might show up. 
Have you ever been given a gift that was something you really didn’t like, didn’t want, didn’t need and would never use?  But you still have it.  Why?  Because you’re being held hostage by the hook that was embedded in the gift.  
“I can’t get rid of it.  My mother-in-law gave it to me and she’d be devastated.”  
“My brother would really have his feelings hurt if I didn’t keep this.”  
“My best friend carried this all the way from (fill in the blank) in her suitcase and I would never dare tell her I hate the color.”
Such examples might seem trivial but they’re simple examples of instances where the energy of Gebo is out of balance.  If you feel obligated to keep something then it wasn’t a gift.
And what about the times you’re the giver?
I worked with a woman once where the presence of Gebo in the reading had to do with her caretaking of her brother who had cancer.  She had actually moved in with him in order to provide care but she was really angry.  When we got down to the root of the matter, she was angry because he wasn’t willing to do things around his health and possible recovery in the way she thought was best.  
What Gebo helped to reveal was that her gift of caretaking was conditional.  It wasn’t being given freely because there was an expectation of how he was supposed to behave.  It was really hard for her to admit this but she had to become clear about it herself in order to know how to do things differently.  
Using the energy of the Teiwaz rune which was also present in the reading, I asked her to speak the truth, first to herself.  Would she only take care of him if he behaved a certain way or would she take care of him no matter what his choices were?  Telling the truth to herself allowed her to remove the hook from the gift.
Gain is not possible without loss.  Every decision requires that you release one thing simultaneously as you accept something new.  This is the power that exists in giving and receiving. 
Are you bound by it?
Are you obligated by it?
The giving of a gift can also be in the form of a challenge.  Hierarchy, status and pride can be bound up in the giving of a gift.
As stated by the rune worker Galina Krasskova:  “Gebo is that which demands a price, the energy involved in paying that price, and receiving in exchange.  It is the acknowledgement that a gift is indeed a dangerous thing."
What are your thoughts on this?
Gebo will speak to you when you decide to work with the runes.  What sacrifice are you willing to make in exchange for the wisdom you seek from them?
Picture
Gebp
(un) familiar Rune cards
Gebo
all gifts and obligations
carry your presence
the runes
the gods
demand of me
a sacrifice
what I pledge
binds me
releases me
all gain requires loss
all life is equal exchange


This original rune poem by Ingrid Kincaid was first published in her limited edition, handmade rune book (un) familiar.
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Yr, A Thing Of Mysterious And Sacred Significance

8/19/2015

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When I look at the rune Yr I think of the dynamic force that's present in the tension of the pulled back bow, a force that's barely able to be contained.  I think of the stillness of aim and focus necessary to realize the intended result, hitting the target.  And I'm reminded that the arrow has to be pulled back before being released.  Otherwise it couldn’t go forward.  I honor as well the truth that the bow cannot be pulled back indefitinely.  At some point, the tension must be released.
I see the primal force of the Uruz rune holding within itself the stillness of Isa. 
Yr holds the double message:  the bow can be used skillfully to take life and the bow can be used skillfully to sustain life.  Similar opposites are found in the hunter/hunted aspects of Algiz.
Killing is a necessary part of life on earth.  Death of something must always occur in order for life to continue.  One question the Yr rune might ask you to consider is, what do you need to take aim at and kill in order for you to live?  Another question might be, what is your bow and are you the skilled artisan who made it or has it been crafted by someone else?   Is your relationship with a tool you’ve made yourself different from the relationship you have with a tool crafted by another?
Skadi, the mountain giantess who loves to dwell in places where the snow never melts, embodies this rune.  She can show you the way with her true flying arrow.  She is a huntress and her sacrement of blood on white snow is a thing of mysterious and sacred significance.
She can be cold as ice for she stands for the laws of life that are often considered brutal or unfair by humans but are necessary and vital in order for life to continue on earth.
How might you choose to honor this patroness of winter subsistence activities?  Yr isn’t about hunting as a sport but rather hunting to survive and the sacredness of death.  There are no places on earth where survival is not dependent upon the death of something.  
What can we learn from the Yr rune as it harmonizes with people who kill to live? 
How might working with the life and death energies of Skadi help you find your way?


Picture
Yr
(un) familiar Rune Cards
Yr 
remind me
to hold focus
with silent aim
your taut bow
Skadi
releases a true flying arrow
you sustain life by taking life
the taste and smell
of blood
are your sacraments


This original rune poem by Ingrid Kincaid was first published in her limited edition, handmade rune book (un) familiar.

Picture
Skadi's longing for the Mountains (1908) by W. G. Collingwood
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    title Photo by Amaury Gutierrez on Unsplash

    Ingrid

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Ingrid lives in the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of two rivers, and in sight of two volcanoes.
Photos used under Creative Commons from kajsahartig, x1klima
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