Oracle Readings Received: Rune Reading (January 2012)

First I calmed my breathing down and shuffled the cards, while thinking of my query. As usual, it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to say. Eventually I settled on "what do I need to know to improve upon my current situation with my lover's family?"

In position A, representing the Past, I have drawn Mannaz. In Position B, representing the Present, I have drawn Fehu. In position C, representing the Future becoming, I have drawn Berkana.

My initial reaction to this was basically feeling like I got hit by a clue-by-four that my question wasn't quite The Question the Runes heard. I usually don't get really angry about this even though I sometimes am hesitant to read when I get these kinds of readings, mostly because I tend to at least be open to thinking about what they really mean (this tendency might overemphasize my personal insecurities with my own self-knowledge, I think, but I find it's also one of the things that also prevents me from making immediate judgment calls).

Mannaz gives me a sense of potential, and I think it underlines the fact I am often overly concerned with things that reflect my own self-worth in relationships with other people, and my tenuous relationship with my self-convictions.

Fehu for me is a symbol of inner conviction and inner value. Here it kind of gave me a sort of odd sense that I'm not All Here. In spite of being read in an upright position, I get the inner feeling that Fehu was giving me a gentle scolding of "Go back to Beginners' Mind. Stop looking for your Wants right now, see that you're thinking blind and all you Need is already there".

Berkana gives me a sense of rebirth in the sense of flexibility... I like to think of Berkana as the way I see a young birch tree -- they're tall and leafy and often sprout early, but they're also very flexible waif-like trees. To me Birch kind of represents a sort of childish honesty in rebirth. For me, Berkana underlines a potential for self-growth in understanding how to beflexible without allowing ourselves to bend too far.

In the end of the reading, the overall reaction I decided on was that basically, the runes want me to trust myself more and take some time to actually look around at what I do have right now and I'll figure out a way to open up myself to something new and more filling than what I'm trying to aim for in my relationships.

If you do not like the runes that came up, you should not cast again immediately using the same query because it usually means some inner consciousness is in denial about the runes that did come up. A recast will likely both frustrate the reader and the communication with the Self the runes are interpreting and the Runes will probably either continue to tell you things you don't want to hear or dissolve into Rune-gibberish because they don't want to deal with an ignorant fool who doesn't want to hear what's really on his or her mind.

Rune Journal (October 2011)

At HOL, a Virtual Hogwarts simulation, I took Ancient Runes for one of my courses in the Fall Term.
This was a summary of a month long exercise to journal intuitive reactions to each rune stave. So this is from around October 2011.

(a) Did you notice any particular 'feeling' in connection with any one rune?
(b) ...with more than one rune?
(c) Were your 'feeling' responses consistently the same each time you were 'with' the runes?
(d) Were your 'feeling' responses very subtle? ...very powerful?...pleasant? ...unpleasant?
(e) Do you feel more comfortable with your runes now than before you did Exercise #2?
(f) Does one particular rune now stand out as 'your personal rune' or favorite?
(g) Can you imagine any benefit in continuing this Exercise throughout this course?

Most of my feeling responses are very subtle. I do notice specifically that Thurisaz and Ansuz make me feel uncomfortable for some reason, almost antsy, and that Wunjo and Laguz are a little more pleasant feeling. Particularly Wunjo makes me smile. Others I'm not too sure of the response because I'm still trying to figure out what some of the runes feel like to me, since I often have trouble identifying feelings... I'm often detached from my emotions because I used to have a tendency to get overwhelmed by them. I'm not really sure if I feel more comfortable with the set yet, since most of my efforts in this exercise occured in probably a shorter time-frame than I probably should have done this in, which didn't give me as much time to shift perception enough for me to really grasp or alter what I'm feeling. I also think I still have a bit of rational judgment leaking in when I'm trying to only tap into my feeling states with the runes and I'm still working on trying not to let those judgments get in the way of Gnowing them. I haven't yet figured out if I have a "personal" or "favorite" rune. None of them really stand out right now. I imagine that as I grow more accustomed to the runes, continuing this exercise will shed some light on why certain runes trigger discomfort for me, and perhaps if I work on those areas or get more accustomed to being "with" them, I will see my subconscious reaction to those runes become less resistant.