The Leaves ov the :FUTHARK:

The Guild tradition ov mapping the year in Runes is a custom that is always a great medicine when end of an old cycle comes and the crossing over of the new commences. Nearing the solstice, I start to stash it all together, taking stock of the past 13 moonths and from the magical ash where the Runic teachings were sung forth for the first time. Offerings of self to the spirit in transit are laid down as feast for the Gods. A Blot made from the well waters of Urdr and Verdandi assembles within the Lik:Taufr, the Talismanic body of each being in Midgard, and informs the Hug:Mind where the branches must be pruned or given space to grow, and those supporting life. How the Runes move through us and condensate meaning is the nature of the Great Mystery, how they change our lives of us and our kindred are the Grails, the boons of the original twenty four staves of the :FUTHARK: seep into the web of wyrd, like some colorful dye in the weave of the Norns. Each color bringing the picture of their great textile to life.

The textures on the leaves of my inner Yggdrasil are as follows:

FEHU: Treasure. Used my metaphorical gold to buy a homestead and one acre of land outright and invest in solar energy system, deepwater well, firewood, and a drakkar (my cruiser). Finished the payment plan on my Mongolian Altai yurt. Tracked cashflow out for homestead upgrades, and shared wealth through gift culture and hospitality. Donations of rupees to people and charities in India. Made my savings last while in a foreign country. Stored away valuable assets to save money in leaner times and reserved spending to essential services and items of comfort. Purchases made with reciprocation in mind.

URUZ: Endured harsh weather conditions, climbing injuries, illness and extreme endurance for road trip through India. Created strong enough boundaries to generate respect without inducing fear. Worked from a place of primal energy to garner strength for physical labors. Carried others burdens and knowing when to set them down. Approached setbacks with will to power, and confronted domesticity with wilderness conditioning.

THURISAZ: Maintained integrity against the Giant forces of government control laws. Built resilient health in response to world pandemic. Increased personal power to protect against abuse of external enforcement. Refined my inborn will for use of good and productive action vs. reaction.

ANSUZ: Told story of India saga in word and voice as a medium for relationships to form and last. Learned sparse words of Tamil and Hindu language. Earned a reputation in a foreign land. Found common ground to stand on, through deep communication with international travelers. Started a homestead journal, spoke poetry for Sunwait rituals, and Wassailing at yule tide.

RAIDO: Went a’Viking in India, for a ten thousand km. journey from the Indian ocean to the Himalayas, and the Arabian sea to the Bay of Bengal by motorcycle. Saw the palaces of Mysore and the beaches of Goa. Traveled to the international town of Auroville, and rowed on the Ganges river. Traveled by boat in Kerala, and on foot in the jungles of Tamil Nadu. Settlement in New Brunswick after seven years of nomadic travel. Road wending travels to Ontario and back again. Took my drakkar throughout the province to explore new territory, and adventured equally by foot into the Appalachian foothills.

KENAZ: Secured enough cordwood for the coldest parts of winter. Burned torch within the hall to welcome guest and wanderer. Live entirely by candle flame and oil light for two month of night. Installed a solar system to fuel my cabin with direct current electricity. Arranged a stone circle to make a Rune wheel fire pit. Keeness of knowledge gleaned of foreign cultures from the Asiatic continent, and those closer to home.

GIFU: Managed trade economy while in Auroville, and learned to barter in the marketplaces of India. Gift exchange in yule times with neighbors of my village. Learning the deeper dynamics of reciprocity and its fruition in small communities. Learned the story of Windigo spirit.

WUNJO: The pleasure pursuits of a Viking in a new land. Love of Women from around the world. The deep peace and frith of homelife, and beheld in a lovers arms. Bonds with brothers, sisters and family ties. Embraces of joy from source, the small things that matter everyday. Profound feelings of contentment in place based existence.

HAGAL: The conjuction of my nomadic existence with the settlement stage of my existence. Crossroads of synchronicities found in the seedforms of potentials made manifest.

NAUTHIZ: Witnessed the great need of others, and came to know on a more fundamental level how Need is kindled, and maintained by the autonomous choices made throughout life. Ate a lot of my own karma to experience transformation through friction. Experienced more directly what one needs to start a home of their own, and what is important to have in life for each transition of the seasons. Valued the things that matter most, minding excess in the superficial wants of the ego.

ISA: Sought out the quiet places to find sacred solitude, and the straightening principles of my own unique trajectory through life. Strengthened the central axis of the Self, to be more in line with the higher spiritual drives and virtue traditions. Felt more subtle connections with my own company during shelter in place protocols. Made comfort with my new reality of living alone in the woods. Experienced an important oneness and union with new kin around the world. Preserved my personality while in contact with the novel and foreign customs of other cultures, while branding my identity with recognition of honest refinements over a period of long maturation.

JERA: Experienced the tropical monsoon, and the dry summer of India. The autumn shift in the interior of New Brunswick, and the drought that dried the village wells. Gleaned skills on plowing terraces with two bullocks using a Yoke and blade. Sowed many indigenous Indian crops on terrace gardens, and Canadian crops on land designed with permaculture principles. Learned about how to efficiently harvest sunlight in different windows of the calendar year, where the prevailing winds come from on my acre of land, when to procure wood to season in time for winter, and an understanding of the botanical, and tree populations within the locality of my cabin. Witnessed a full solar eclipse on the summer solstice, and the yule star on winter solstice, during the conjuction of saturn and jupiter. Saw the constellations of our planet from several different lattitudes of degree both in the west and the east.

EIHWAZ: Set down much stronger roots in place based existence, and sown many new seeds for preparation of growing new branches. Held close my ancestral traditions and allowed for flexibility to incorporate new ones. Merged into a communal based lifestyle and extended the concept of my own journey to be inclusive of many. Gleaned a more subtle innerstanding of village dynamics with their offshoots of inputs and outputs.

PERTHRO: When nothing was known and the future uncertain, I learned how to bolster the mysteries with a more integrated level of trust. Making room for change without harm, and generating luck through magic and intention. Taking everything one day at a time, holding the possibility that all can alter. Allowed for the hidden signs of meaning, and nuanced information to steer me in the appropriate direction in fluctuating life seas.

ALGIZ: Survived one vehicle collision, a motorcycle crash, and a fall from a Himalayan cliff, grateful to still be here in Midgard. In the midst of a pandemic, fortified my immunity with healing herbs, and plant interventions against viruses and illness. Felt a tremendous capacity for protection of my loved kin and allies. Called to state boundaries when stepped over, lower walls when too formidable, and decide which doors to open and close to the flow of experience of a very full life. Stood guard against intrusion into privacy, material possession and personal space, while marking and upholding the gentleman couched in the savage.

SOWILO: Established a solar system to enable my modest home with four season electricity, and power security. Tracked the movements of the sun from the vantage point of my cabin and one acre land, noticing its exposure and patterns through half a year. Maintained a grip on virtue through temptation, and brightness over murkiness. Mediated some darker karma and personal traumas in spaces of healing, and experiences of renewal. Sought out the light of others through their own occult of shadows.

TIWAZ: Investigated deeper theories behind law, and authority systems to bolster myself with stronger personal will and intelligence for right action. Gleaned understandings and more integral coherence of the world schemes, and sought to dismantle any illusions about conspiracies and false news. Instigated personal order when the chaos of the world felt so close at hand, and made sacrifices for the continuance of that order.

BERKANO: Shakti, Freya, and Frigga coming in the form of friends, lovers and healers. A deep reformation of my relationship with women, those who run with the wolves, and those simply walk at home in the garden. The pull for the potential of forming family, and consciousness of the sacred feminine, womb, pregnancy, child bearing. Union with woman of different culture, sharing same spirit. Meeting the Sisters of my tribe.

EHWAZ: She-Bear ally, and potent Bear medicine. Moose traveler on roads to Home. Kingfisher in the Himalayan foothills. Elephant connection in the jungle of India. Year of the presence of the primate. The burning dead on the Varanasi ghats. Marijuana presence in all its forms, though with a more aloof relationship. The plant teachers of St. Johns Wort, Chaga, Banyan, and Bamboo.

MANNAZ: Saw and bonded with my Brothers for Yule, and Samhain, and found new male kin ties in the lands beyond the seas, those from ancestry and those of other lines of heritage. Redefined my sense of what it takes to be a Man, and being good at being a Man. Stepped into a more robust state of Manliness, and the onset of the Kingdom stage of Manhood.

LAGUZ: Explored the falls of the Himalayan footlands, and bathed in the sacred River Ganges, while her waters kept me clean from illness. Consumed the water of my own land, from deep in the earth, unfiltered, raw, and cold. Learned where the water flows and pools on my own acre parcel. Experienced how to shelter against rain in an organic homestead with elemental problems, and experienced how much water can fall in one place during the Indian monsoon season, bringing fertility for a whole yar.

INGWAZ: Cultivated terraced garden beds on contour in the Himalayans using oxen to cut furroughs. Planted chia, bottle gourds, melons, corn, beans, pumpkins, and cucumbers in hand tilled plots. Worked dry evergreen forest in Tamil country to grow salad greens, pineapples, and chikoo trees, and harvested several species of custard fruit, bamboo, papaya, banana, mangoo and indigenous wild food. Ate from the land when possible, and moved to a primarily local and Paleo ketogenic diet for most thriving health.

DAGAZ: Became highly efficient with my work days, and learned to balance industrious productive time and creative pursuits with passive, rest laden days where not much happens. Started work in a maple sugar bush, partaking in a renewed traditon of wildcrafting nourishment from the forest. Kept a journal and cabin log of the days, noticing weather, siginificant events, emotions, feelings, and encounters.

OTHALA: Found my forever Home. Stoked a deep well attachment to place based living. Upheld some of the old world traditions, both from heritage and foreign. Named a new land, and made ready for future clan.