Kari's Rune Blog

merging blogs

2009-04-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

runakari is now merged with karitauring blog

All posts have been transferred and this page will be deleted soon.
Cheers,
Kari

uff da mei

2009-04-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

A lovely weave before me
started long ago
some ends are frayed and winding
and I don't know where they go

Follow soft, not pulling
fingers always combing
seeing where they're going

singing as they're showing
winding like a fiddle
back into the middle

Strong ends now am I braiding, tying off and staying, straight and tight and holding
my weave so fine

Rune of the Month

2009-02-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

February. Cold but melting. Fire begins to stir...time to prune.
Thorn again...Gjalp's calling.
I'd better get outside!

Back on the Blog

2008-11-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

After a needed hiatus, I have been requested to continue my blogging. So here I am, back again!
New programs for 2009 and a new look to my website karitauring.com, a new cd and a book took some time to create!

So here is a rune pull for my blogging in 2009 - Dag and Thurs - interesting.
Thurs is the giant race, I have a patron from that race - Gjalp.
Dag is the day, it starts at sunset with dream time and ends with rest.

My blogging will be powerful and infrequent I predict.

Yours,
Kari

Runes at the Shanties

2008-02-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

Art Shanty Project
I came to the village on the frozen lake. The home of misfit toys hosted me. A good place to start blessings. Community blessing, Norse Shamanic style, it starts with kulning, cow calls and bells. Stavs struck on ice and cross sticks needed to balance and make our way. We dance svict and pols around a circle and sing to Austri, Vestri, Sudri, Nordri. We ask for blessings from the lost soul beneath the ice. We all cheer "skol paa fisken" hail to the fish.

Then from one home to the next I carried my runes. Each householder drawing for their home, their art shanty.

And then, I come across a plane crash. These guys are trying to find Nifelheim. I gave guidance where I could. Hela, be kind to them if they come your way.

Bless em. Bless em all!

May Poles and all that

2007-05-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone was able to direct their wonderful sap rising energy this Spring. We are headed to Summer Solstice, Sunstead, when the sun goes home.

It's a time for us to travel, meet new people, exchange ideas, seeds, crafts and goods we created over the long winter.

My troupe will be going to Eagle Cave, Wisconsin for a big gatherin' of the clans. If you wish to join us, see the details on my web site!

karitauring.com

New Site

2007-04-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

As we finish the tiny edits on the Rune book and hand over the design of the site to a Huldre this May, I find myself in a constant state of herding.

Cow calling is a tradition in my mother's family. Usually it's just "yooo hooo" like that. Starting on A for the yooo to F# for the hooo.

You will hear me doing this at Powderhorn Park on May 6th. Someone may record it!

I will also be moving my blog to my site using wordpress. Lovely!

Until later,

Kari

More on the book!

2007-04-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, just a few more weeks and our book, "The Runes; A Human Journey" will be released for public consumption. I couldn't be more proud!

My mother's sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends have all seen the editor's copy and have given me the most amazing thumbs up! Thank you all.

Of course, I am constantly creating and a second book begins to manifest out of my Staving work.

Right now it's a potential performance art piece surrounding the Brissengammen. That's all I'm saying for now...

I hope your Vernal Equinox saw you to your balance. If you need more help, join my staving session at the Eye of Horus on Saturday April 7th, or the next First Saturday of the Month!

Yours,
Kari

Karl Jones Winter Solstice Runecast

2006-12-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

It is Winter Solstice 2006. I am working on my main two projects right now. "The Runes, a human journey" by Kari Tauring, ed. David de Young. We are close to publishing it on line, details to follow. The other major project is a Website Overhaul. Time to get a fresh perspective for the next decade of work. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Karl Jones, I may have the new site completed by 12th night.
As part of the re-design we are making the rune pages more accessible, more informative and easy to use. We have decided to use this set of runes I created for this purpose.

Now, Karl is a shaman, like most of my friends. So he wouldn't think to just scan the runes in order. He cast them ritually onto the face of his scanner...a most incredible connexion of the deep past and far future. The one that kept jumping out of his hand is Sigel, the one you see on the top. Obvious to Karl, this rune, what ever it's name, should be the "guiding star", as he put it. Well, Karl, it's Sigel - the sun rune you have there. Happy begining to a great Solstice!

The process of reading a full 24 rune layout is arduous. I will start from the North and move down then left, down, then right. I will also read the relationships between runes that touch, cluster, and stand far alone. Reversals are not negative in my readings though they ask us to look more than once at the meanings (serve as a double take) and may be reminders or warnings of potential areas of neglect.

This reading was cast for the world wide web and will be interpreted in a very general way for the entire community.

However, I find that reading without individuation (in unity), you will likely find that individuation reveals itself to you!

Keep checking in as I post the reading! Kari and Karl

Rune book

2006-11-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

An update:
we are working on getting it published on the web for you by Yule!

Join my email list at karitauring.com to get the news right away.

I am performing a lot throughout December, check my calendar on my site. I have written a new rockin' rune chant called "Runes of Winterfinding" which we will play, yes, in the Mall of America.

Everyone should be able to feel this shift!

Your random rune for December is Gifu.

Gifu is the X
The gift of humans in relationship, the relationship in gifting. In Norwegian the word for marriage is the same as the word for gift.
Why?
Gifting entails relationship, a giver and a receiver.
It creates ritual.
It creates community - the very essence of survival as humans.

So when you are gifting this year, make it intentional, ritual, meaningful, and void of attachments and expectations.

The Wiccan saying "what ever you put out comes back to you three fold" has been proven true in my life. So giving/gifting without attachment has meant so many blessings that have come my way unexpectedly.

Love is the best gift of all!

Yours,
RunaKari

Rune Readings at the Market

2006-09-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 23, 2006 9 am

It was cool but not raining, overcast but not dark as I set up my Ingebretsen's Nordic Roots Education table at the Midtown Public Market off Lake Street and Hiawatha.

A couple was making lefse and the smell was warm and comforting. People were drawn to it throughout the day and at least one full jar of Lingonberry Jam was polished off. The ladies behind me were knitting away and beside me was the "bird man." He carves and paints the most lovely birds out of fairy light wood.

I set up to answer questions about Nordic myth and history. On display were my Bronze Age Scandinavian String Skirt, Rune Necklaces and sets, and lots of maps and books. I also provided opportunities for customers to experience a Nordic "Rune Reading".

Huldre Lokk was heard (cow calling and bell ringing) and a series of talented musicians played.

My group, Huldre, warmed up the Swedish Girls Choir!
What a great day.
And what interest in readings and Indo-European History there was!

Kari

Mannaz

2006-08-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Shape of Mannaz is:
Gift , the x, bracketed by the specific bounds of ice, straight lines like stilts holding gifu high. Ice holds gifting within the boundaries of a specific community or tribe. This free will economy and the rituals of gifting is what creates specific community relationships. This is Mannheim.

The products of this system of gifting economy in my family are: Recipies passed from parents to children and cousins to one another. My mother's rice pudding, my fathers Spekkugen, the Lefse making are examples of Manneheim in action. Bowls, the footed bowl that the rice pudding is traditionally served in, the jelly roll pans that bake the Spekkugen best, the griddle my grandmother left behind, these are also products of Manneheim in action.

Seed Savers is a Farm and Institution in Decorah, Iowa whose mission is to save and reproduce heirloom seeds. This sanctuary is a huge example of Manneheim. People from around the world find seed varieties and freely send them to Decorah where they are grown, multiplied, and sent to others to grow. Here humans are gifting one another and supporting an economy for many in the community.

The most important thing about Mannaz as a rune is to ask yourself: How do I fit into my community? What is my gift and how can I best apply it to the total economy of my tribe where it will surely come back around in support of me?

I like this rune a lot.

Othelo - Homeland

2006-08-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Lughnasaad, the first day of Autumn and the begining of the harvest cycle. I am heading to a wedding near Chicago this weekend, a gal I knew in High School. I'm meeting a friend I first got to really know in the sixth grade. And the rune Othelo came bounding out of a pile of papers at me.

It landed on the floor. It must be a stray from a set I was working on. So, the homeland and the roots are the thing. Yes, I can see this.

These two friends of mine were instrumental in many of the experiences that make me who I am today.

In Nordic Tradition, a person who has died will want to visit every place they had been on Earth during their lifetime. They want to visit all those who created that life with them and take the lessons of this life into the next world with them.

I turned fourty in July. It seems I am on a bit of a walk about this summer. I have visited my Grandmother's Farm, our ancestoral lands. I have talked to my people on both my side and my partner's side, the father of my children, his ancestors. I have gone to the ancient grounds, the sacred grounds of Decorah where as a child I pretended to be a Norwegian girl, where I became friends with some real Norwegians, where I grew so much and to the place I can call an Alma Mater.

Now I head to meet up with childhood friends.

What are my questions, observations, and lessons.

As I prepare for my death, the little death we all take at the Fall Equinox, I am grateful to have been connected to those people and places that so influenced who I am today.

Othelo, is the rune for me right now.

Kari

To the Lake we go

2006-07-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

In July I have been doing a lot of writing and reading by the lake shores of my ancestoral lands. It's amazing to watch children play in the lake. The games they invent are so clever. And the way the lake changes from the morning cricket sounds to the hot quiet of the day to the evenings croaking of frogs.

Laguz, the rune, is a shifting and changing thing. It wants me to be quietly observant as a mother watching her children. Cautious that they neither get too far out nor too rough and court danger, I decide to join them. I feel the heat on my head and the cool of the water to the core of my body as we pretend to be snakes and fish and frogs.

The dog by the lake caught a frog. My nieces and I gave it a good viking funeral. We built it a raft and provided it with bugs to eat on the journey and little "swords" in case she meets her foe on the other side...she died with her eyes wide open, staring the black retriever in the face, staring death down. She will surely know her enemy's face on the other side. Oh yes.
Our frog will be fine.

The lake has her now.

Summer Solstice

2006-06-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think it appropriate here to talk about how confusing it can be, thinking of June 20 -21 as the begining of Summer. The weather reporters are making such a big deal out of it being the begining of Summer all the time and it's really not.

In Scandinavia they celebrate Medsommersdag...mid summers day. It is the Middle of Summer. The pagan calender considered May Day, the mid point between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice as the begining of Summer. As an agricultural concept (most pagan traditions are based on agricultural timing), May Eve was the burning off of the fields. Things should be growing and in full swing by the Summer Solstice. It is time to celebrate the hard work we have done for 1/4 of the growing season now.

We light bonfires, pull runes, stay up all night and dance...

We travel. The allthing happens in June. We can take a break from the work and go to the public meeting of all the clans, create new partnerships and do some trading.

Then, it's back on task by mid July so that the first harvest celebration, August 2nd which starts the Autumn season, is successful.

Fall runs from August 2 to October 31...then, you guessed it, October 31 is the first day of Winter. That is why old songs refer to Winter Solstice as Mid-Winter's day.

It's hard to live in this "modern" culture...so off the cycle. I guess it irritates me more this year than others for some reason.

I pull a rune for midSommersdag...UR!!
Ah, the fire of creation.
Ur is the wild ox, crazy passionate, artistic and sexual. That's why I am irritated by the ignorance of the accepted and unquestioned paradigms being promoted by this culture. I know better, sure, but I FEEL it more.

Ur is a great way to apex my Summer's work which is mostly Huldre related!

Also, the rune book is in its final edits. Wow! Yeay!!

Have a great rest of the Summer...I will write again in July.

RunaKari

Perdh - Random Rune For May!

2006-05-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Perd- Perth - Pherdro
Look at the shape of it. It's a vessel, a cup or a cave. This rune is hotly debated as to it's meaning in the world of runes. Some say it has linguistic corrolations to fruit tree.

Fruit trees are all blossoming in May. This is the ideal time to nourish the roots of your fruit trees. Give yourself what you need to grow too. Afterall, you are your own tree with a spine trunk and feet that dip into the wells of the worlds. Nourishment is a key issue in May.

Fruit trees are a sacred source of nourishment to us as well as magic. I learned my first "spell" from my grandmother while peeling apples.
Try to get the whole peel in one long spiral. If you are successful, throw the peel over your left shoulder and ask your question (as girls it was always just, "What are the initials of the man I will marry?" ) but this works for other questions as well.

Some think this rune means "Dice Cup". The symbol of gaming, luck, fun, and risk taking. This is also a May sort of thing. Here we are at the very begining of our growing season and it is time to commit to our crops. What will we plant? Take a risk, plant something unusual for yourself. May is a month of magic, new loves, new hopes, and a lot of fun and risk taking goes on. This is the perfect rune to assist you in your new path!

Some think this rune relates to the womb, the cave of life. Here again we have the concept of nurturing the beginings of a new life, a new project or a new relationship. The ultimate center of creation, the womb, relates to fruit trees and the strange combination of luck and risk taking when it comes to generating fertility.

Ultimately, this rune says, it's May. We are at the begining of a new path for the growing season. Take the one you have always dreamed of, the road less travelled, the one that's not so safe because it causes new growth, transition, change. Be prepared for a very magical May!

RunaKari

Laguz the Broken Reed

2006-04-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Laguz the broken reed
a warning to us all

Women's work goes on here.

Be quiet, walk carefully, or go out to the field and run around.

This is the Field of Water, the well of women's work.

This is the Laguz lake of my ancestors.

Gitchigumi in my State, for me. Medicine Lake of my child hood.
Sommers lake and the Peterson's lake out there in Hopkins.

These are the days we sit Siva by our moon time blood and washing.
These are the days we walk on the water with our Friends.

These are the days of the broken reed, laguz days, so be careful.

Laguz.

Kari Tauring

Scandinavian Bronze Age String Skirt

2006-03-16T12:25:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that I have recieved a most beautiful String Skirt from Terri Allen. Modelled after the Egtved Girl's garment (see link below).

I have finished hanging the weights of bone, shell, rock, seed, wood and resin on the hem. An updated photo will appear here soon.

The Bronze Age in Scandinavia was roughly 1400 BCE. On the coast of Jutland/Denmark, there were settlements and up into the Norwegian coastline as far as present day Oslo, as far as we know.

Anyhow, the weather was milder then. Citrus grew on the coastlines. The line of Lilith, which was the migration out of Phonecia that took the Matriarchy of Babylos on the move. The runes, the SunGoddess, Herding and fine textiles, water craft, and smithwork followed these Mothers into Crete, Etruruia (Modern Day Northern Italy), Hungary, North West to Scandinavia and North East to Siberia.

This would have been the begining of the Vanir mythology, the MotherGoddess and the Twin God/Goddess pair. Lilith, the first woman God sent to Adam in the Garden of Eden, did not hang around very long. She got fed up with Adam pretty quickly and moved on. Her children by him and by many other kinds of beings, like the ones she met coming North, became the Huldre, Tomte, Nissen, Side, Yetti, ...all sorts of creatures who humans are all part kin to through Adam. (Adam's second wife, Eve, was the mother of the patriarchal migration to follow).

The String Skirt used by young women in athletic ritual are depicted in many variant forms from Crete to the Balkans.

The Runic Alphabet, mythologies and fashions combine to make a compellingly lovely picture of this migration. The philosophies of this culture can only be described propperly by women as the culture itself was propelled and sustained by the Mother's teachings in work, song, and life process.

Here is some great reading:
http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/stringskirt2.html

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/EgtvedGirl.shtml

http://www.shanmonster.com/belly/gallery/strippers/belly387.html

This last one I think is especially important to read from the perspective of the Amazonian Belly Dancers and Warrior tribes of Sheba and Troy. Women celebrated their skills as warriors, athletes, and in virility of all natures. Sexual conduct was considered a natural human and divine connection and treated as holy with rituals and institutions overseen by various dieties and patron energies.

While sexuality and femininity were later seen viewed as evil and worthy of slaughtering out of our human condition, today we understand the importance of our sexuality and our female side. Both men and women are encouraged to find balance with their yin and yang or female and male selves.

Happy Equinox
Kari

The Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil

2006-02-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

To understand the runes more fully, a full working knowlege of Norse mythology is essential. At the heart of the mythology is Yggdrasil, the world tree. The world tree is the pillar of what holds our cosmos together. There are nine worlds which hang on the roots and branches of this tree.

Think of the stav, the staff of our spines, how all our bodies (physical, astral, auric, etherial, emotional, mental etc.) hang on our spines. Think how we are like the microcosm of the cosmic model.

Odin hung on the world tree in a sacrifice of pain, a vision quest of suffering, for nine days. One day for each world he hung and at the end he grasped 18 runes. Two runes for each world. Think how these symbols, sounds, meanings, became for him the intersections of the grid work that holds the cosmos together. Yggdrasil has been called "the terrible one's horse." Odin is now able to ride the tree, the hobby horse, from one world to the other collecting knowlege and power objects to further strengthen his being as the Allfather.

We can find these points of intersection within ourselves, what holds us together. The nine worlds become metaphores for our own psyche's being...and then more than that. Through the unification of our own gridwork, our own cosmological being, we gain the strength to move ourselves through the rest of the cosmology.

So knowing the nine worlds is first knowing ourselves, all of our parts and beings. Rejecting nothing of our total being we integrate. And in integration and unity we gain strength to move through the cosmos, healing, helping, and gaining the knowlege we need for smooth transitions from life to death and back again.

Jesus hung on the cross and endured. Through his pain he gained the ability to move through all the worlds of the cosmos, Sheol or Hel's domain, he visited first. Helping, healing, and saving where he could. Heaven, Earth, and all the worlds are blessed by his presence.

So what does it mean for us? Knowing and learning and going...sacrificing and gaining are all parts of the rune work we can do.

Staving

2006-02-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

The rune is often referred to as a stave. A staff or a stick.

Staving is an old artform too. Learn about it here.

One thing is certain for me, they are all connected to my spine. If I don't get up and move my stick around, I get stuck and can't seem to function.

Here I go...I reccomend it to you. Move....

A symbol, a sound, a word

2006-01-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

The power of our words is so vast like the ocean.

My words speak power from a Godzilla movie.

My words they speak truth from a lab coat and glasses.

My words they speak worlds from the molecules that make me.

My words they speak spirit, wordlessly, in my breath.

Breathe in(om) ...Breathe out (mmmm)000

Breathe in 23,456, 2,3,4,5,6

Breathe out - Tsheuwwwwwwwwseee

HeeeeBreeetheimmmm......

Tap your feet in time with your breath.

This is how we begin staving.

Kari

An Ansuz sort of day

2006-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

Ansuz is the mouth of the river defined. The mouth of the river visual looks like this.

Today I am getting ready to host the parent volunteers for the Art Adventure Program. I am preparing what I will say and what the visuals to help teach will look like. It is creative time but I am also aware that this is information that will flow to at least 6 others. An artist from Brazil, a mother dentist from the Philipines, a mother artist from Mexico, a father artist from Guatemala, our PTO co-chair mom, and an active volunteer and community builder mom..I am going to archive this process so I want to be prepared to speak with wisdom and allow the other estuaries of knowlege contribute to the mouth we are creating in the sea of children who we serve.

Ansuz and isa,
Ice. A fast freeze and a cold snap are doom to speeders.

Kari

Ah, this part of the book is done!

2006-01-26T08:07:00.000-08:00

24 runes in 24 days, random rune pull and journal writing by Kari Tauring began after the Western New Year in 2006 and was finished by Imbolc, 2006.

Hmmm....what next? As my editor works with this portion of the great book (as opposed to the Little Rune Book, 2003) I have decided to go outside.

The unseasonably warm weather has Katie, our chicken, almost ready to lay. I told her not yet. I've been telling all the plants not yet and heaping chips on them where I can.

Budding out too soon is a danger
Frost comes in the Spring
What dies in the cold
Births the next thing

So, Beorc reversed I would say.

What I shall do now is commence my blogging with you.
I spent 24 and some solid days writing about what comes to me from the rune symbols I draw at random. So now I will ask:

What rune symbols are drawn to me out of what I am doing in the world?

Huggin and Muggin flew overhead. This is Saturnalian, lesson learning. They are thought and memory. What is in my thoughts? How is my memory holding?

Time to take in more Lecithin (a nutrient essential to propper brain function). Nied, I would say.

Kari

Forthcoming book

2006-01-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I have not been publishing random rune pulls for you. I've been trying to write a rune book for David (who commented on the previous entry) for many years. I finally know what he wants and it has to do with random rune pulls. So I have been engaged in pulling a new rune each day and writing about it. This book should be completed and ready for publication before the end of 2006. But the bulk of my writing will be done within the next two weeks (before Imbolc).

So, until then, I will not be able to blog much for you but look forward to our continuing relationship as spring forces it's way to the surface of my world.

Until then, remember: Runes are all about relationships.

RunaKari

Nordic Roots Class Schedule

About my hand made runes (with pictures!)

Runes to Mark the Way

2005-12-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

In my excitement, seeing the Brisingamen Bridge today, I thought of ways to mark the place of this manifestation.

Yggdrasil is the name of the cosmological world tree in Norse Mythology. There are 9 worlds of humans, gods, elves, dwarves and giants and it has been understood by some that the runes (originally 18 were given to Odin) were markers of these worlds. Knowing them would allow the user to pass interdimentionally through the worlds, unlock the bridges that connect them like branches and roots.

Seeing all the worlds together is to become enlightened, all knowing, like the Allfather Odin.

If I had to give the rainbow I saw today a rune duo designation it would be Urz and Sigel.

The creative fire of the world ox and the sun, combining Earth and Sun. Freya and Freyr as a unified being. More later!
Kari

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

2005-12-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

Nied, Nauthiz, Need...the need fire.
This rune is shaped like a cross. The pillar is striaght up and down, like isa! So it tells us to Stop where we are and have a look.

The cross piece has been written at a slant, high on the left as you look at it, slanting down to the right. If it were placed on the Lakota Medicine Wheel, it would be North (the Creator and ideas) to South (the Warrior and protector of the central fire of the community, called the children's fire and the grandparents who sit on either side of it) and Northwest (tribal chief who is responsible for the whole tribe) to Southeast (tradition, why we do things the way we do them).

Why do I add this information from a different culture?

Because it relates to the same tribal concept that all cultures follow. We must take care of our children who are our future and our elders who are our past, and the fire which is our central tool of survival. To do this we will draw a circle around them and set up protection around them. It is a physical, social, and spiritual duty to do this.

As recently as my mother's generation, the hearth fire was essential to survival. If you let the woodstove die, so might you. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. In the 1950's they were starting to get more modern. Still, the fire taking care of the needs of all the people in the household and taking in the elderly and children (even those who may have been institutionalized for their health issues), was not only in place as a concept but a daily practice. The old rune Nied was secure in the system as the center of the culture and the center of the individual's drive to improve the conditions of the cultural system (which, as a true system, considered all the parts as integral).

What is significant about the idea of Need - the need fire - in today's society?

At a gig inMinneapolis this Saturday I witnessed a most disturbing thing. I am a story teller and musician, I have been working with children for over a decade. The children are usually engaged and participatory in my work and full of fire in their bellies. The need fire that makes them feel secure also feeds their desire to know, question, laugh.

There was no fire in the bellies of the children sitting before me this weekend. It was sad, eerie, and disturbing. There were no parents with them, they clung to the liters of soda pop they had been winning at the carnival games as though someone might steal this precious substance. They would not engage or look me in the eye. They would not accept the gift of free evergreen sprigs wrapped in ribbons from my son whose role was to hand them out. They would not take their hands away from these liter bottles of pop. They cradled the pop and it will be poured into their bellies - and may even be the only thing in their bellies. It will douse their fires more and more and more. They will grow up with no concept of the Need Fire and they will fill the jails our government has focussed funding to build more of.

Strange thing is, though, these children were not wholly limp and lifeless. They were full of a different kind of fire I can only describe as an "Entitlement Energy." When pushed to point at my piggy bank globe of where our state Minnesota is (a common and effective teaching tool filled with coins from around the world which I have been using for years) they not only could not point to our state but their aspects shifted to lip licking greed as they discovered there might be money in the globe. They quickly lost all fire when told that the globe contained money from other countries, unusable here in Minnesota...where ever that is.

In contrast, there were three children who had fire in their bellies. They want to see the money from other cultures because it's so interesting, so cool! All three were accompanied by caring adults, mothers, grandmothers. All three were well fed and nurtured in every Need Fire way!

There is a sickness I am finding all over the place, in men and women, children and the elderly. It's just that usually there is a "buffer" of regular citizens that keeps this "element" in check. Not so this weekend. It is a sickness that was once the downfall of a pampered people, like gout. A sickness that comes from a combination of spoiled entitlement and a lack of true needs being met. A lack of understanding about what our needs really are, how they are being met, and the gratitude that comes from this understanding are pervasive in the America of 2005.

How many of us feel gratitude every time we have hot, clean bathwater pumped right into our house?

I know I do. Not many others around the globe get this luxury.

What has created this?

1. We have stopped putting all effort into protecting and preserving children and the elderly.
2. We have not defined the hearth fire of our culture...is it oil, is it an industry? is it sustainable?
3. We have allowed television and subsequent media to define who we are, what we "need" and what our goals in life should be. Media has become the need fire for so many, it is addictive, passive, and ultimately oppressive.

Why don't people see this?

Even the least monied has all kinds of "stuff" to make it seem as though they have no needs except what they are told they need by television etc. Our motto is "more for me" and recently in the Fox adds for the Simpsons, "my life is oppressed and dysfunctional but I have The Simpsons to medicate this for me.

Our "entertainment" is cheap and mindless and we are a people whose Need Fire is being doused every day in every way. We are no longer the creators and sustainers of our lives, our culture, the tribe. The need fire is going out. It shows up in the bad nutrition of food, thought, and spirit. Refined sugar and nutra sweet have become our rotting, death dealing agents. Dumb, numb, ignorant, and wasted are so many of our tribe. This is accross all cultural, socio-economic, and racial lines.

So, what is the remedy for the Need Fire?

The rune teaches us to:
1. Make a list of needs and wants...define what is essential and we will get at the essence.
2. Look at our daily lives and see how much we have and be grateful.
3. Seek out the children and the elderly who live within walking distance of our homes and make sure their true needs are being met. Not just a "meals on wheels" kind of thing. Are they being respected, are they lonely, are they being educated, are they being ignored.

When we ignore anything it dies. The children, the elders, the fire, it all dies and so do we.

4. We are all driven to a false sense of "survival mode" by those who would control us and douse our needfires. Stop, like isa said. And start creating your own lives, dip into the fire of creation and get into your bellies. Find out that the true human needs are not being met! Let that feed the fire and be the mother of your inventions...You!

That is the essence of the Rune Nied. Wake up and get aware!

Jack's Pull

2005-11-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Jack reached inside the bag and pulled the one that felt the warmest. Funny, it turns out to be isa, the ice rune.

Now, we had that one last time so you are familiar with it. One line from top to bottom. Ice.

We continue to go slowly, move slowly, quietly so as to hear the subtlest crack. We are expecting an ice storm tonight here in Minneapolis. As the rain turns to snow we will all have intimate experiences with going slowly in the morning.

What does it mean to Jack? At age 8 with all the energy of an Aries/Leo it could be about waiting for things to be ready before moving ahead. Wait for the cookies to cool, wait until your chores are done before playing, wait for mom to be ready to tuck you in. He's not the best waiting around guy in many ways. So I will help him be still and quiet, to do without doing!

Kari

Beaver Moon - November's Winter Moon

2005-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

Rune pulls. Having just written the muses of the muse blog, I got out my little travel set and two runes came out.

Daeg was facing me and one was facing my hand. The day...a good rune for a very cold November day. Lap up the sun because as sure as it will return, it will be gone. Seek the day light hours. Work hard...a day's work. The rest that follows real work is complete.

Its an x with a line on each end forming a bow tie shape. X is called gifu, the gift. It is a true gift to be able to greet another day. Many creatures die in the cold we are having today and I have sun coming strong and low through my south window, barely able to skirt my neighbor's roof. I have a wood fire to heat my cider on and a lap top to warm my legs here and there. What is in a day?

What is in a day's work? For this day here it is:

7am get fire going again. Make oatmeal and coffee. Feed the cat. Katie the chicken is up early. Go feed her and bring freeable water to her and the other creatures in our gardens.

8:30 walk child to school and pick up gear for editing video on the way

9:30 Realize I don't have the right chords to edit the video so move to other work

10:30 Sit down to update blogs

Flip over other rune in my hand

Fehu - the cow, the rune looks like an F but with the lower line longer than the top line and both lines facin up to the sky like expectant baby birds reaching for the nourishment they just know will be coming.

Faith in that our needs are met, domesticated in this way we are all cows. We are all herders too. We are the careful husbands of our flocks, herds, resources...

What is in a day? A good day's work and the rewards of faith in the work we do to nourish and flourish our lives and our children's lives.

Faith in the day!

Kari pa haugen

Again Today

2005-11-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

When I found my travel set I pulled Jera...it's shape is that of greater than and less than signs eating one another...it's name is said to mean Harvest.

So, ice...go slow and be careful

of the seeds you plant out there.

Jera you reap what you sew.

Next I found my hearth bag of maple. Sitting before the banked birch embers with the winter sun full in my face I closed my eyes/
I was so warm.
A rune slipped up and out of the bag as I began to open it. It pirched lightly on my arm.

Sun full in my face I smiled and thought, how fortunate am I. I ground and center with no legs. I am still whole within myself and connected to the sun.

"All the saints and angels!" I smiled and saw, printed on the back of my eyelids, a map of Casseopia!!

I got a great idea about communicating with the hard of sight and tactile crowd.

Then I looked at the rune in my hand.

It was Thurisaz - Thorn - it's shape is that of Oddins legs as he hung upside down from Yggdrasil the World Tree. A line like isa and second leg like a stork creating the right angle.

I just learned a pose like this at the Women's Retreat in Villa Maria last weekend. Gina, a yoga goddess, shared the poses and sanskrit names with us. This one was called the tree pose and was done standing...but I'll bet they do it on their heads too.

Anyhoo...
It's a rune that supports my going really slowly and carefully just now. Concentrate on the seed in your hand. Until it has been let go of, nothing new should come in just now. Create a boundary with your thorns, your hammer of Thor, your balance.

This is my reading for today! (so far anyway)

Karitauring.com

Runepull for Today

2005-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I was going to do one then couldn't locate a set so I went outside and fed Katie the Chicken Lady and the crows and gave water to White Ears and Ratatosk's nephew. I thought I would clean the porch up a bit...see if anyone is unwisely harboring a lair of Halloween candy. Nothing.
Not even a mistreated wrapper.

Anyhoo so I was putting Oskar's golf clubs away when I spied some stavs that didn't sell in the last year. They are all going to be firewood if they don't sell. I have told them this. They don't seem to mind either way, being comfortable in their beings.

So that brought me back to my runepull for today.

I will just say, most stavs are isa shaped...ice...one long straight line going from earth to heaven.

There are bowed stavs in nature but forever there is a perpendicular line.

There may be juttings out of the top or bottom...forming such runes as fehu, eohl, laguz etc.

But like the cosmos itself, things start with a point in space, wanting to know itself, the point reaches out to another point. This relationship is called a line.

Add a third point and boom...you have a plane!

Anyhoo...ice tells us to be careful. Go slowly and listen carefully. You may not be able to trust your eyes.

How many of you readers have crossed a lake of ice?

It's pretty cool!

Isa
Kari

Dia de los Muertos Rune Pull

2005-11-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

In this time of ancestor passings I like to pull a rune for general lessons I may be needing to learn before the ghosts are gone.

I sat down at the wood stove and shook my bag of maple runes. I noticed a lot of dust come from it. I kept patting and shaking it and the dust billowed into the rays of mid morning sun. I snorted out my nose and mouth to clear a place for me to breathe. Wow. I wonder when the last time I used this set was!?

When I opened the bag, the first rune I saw was Othel, the last rune of the 24 letter FUTHARK alphabet. It means roots, homeland, family and tribal karma, returning your bones to the land of your birth.

But the rune that came out in my hand was Beorc, Birch.

Birch is the bond that binds me to this place in Minnesota. It is the bark that binds me to my ancestors in Norway. The Lur calls to me, the oil ignites with the slightest spark.
It is the birth of me and the death of me. As birch is used to carry coals in the wintertime, so is it used to pre-sage the spring. The sugar maples and the birch and the oak and the willow are such a part of my heritage in this life and through my ancestory.

Perhaps I will be buried afloat a flaming canoe of birch...my goddess rocks surrounding me...in a summer mini skirt like the Iron Age Danes who were my ancestors when they lived in the Baltic Region.

My eldest son knows how to bury me. He discussed it with me after saying bed time prayers one night. He guessed at what I would want. And he was right! Boy I raised a good son.

Anyhow. That's my personal rune pull for this, the Day of the Dead!

Tak fer alt,
RunaKari

PS If you want me to pull a rune for you for this day, email me at karitauring@yahoo.com
or go to my website karitauring.com and get my phone number and office hours.

Working with Wood

2005-10-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today I cut down the plum tree. It was into the neighbors garage foundation. The branches rubbed on the roof tiles and it didn't make too many plums. The city (Minneapolis) asked us to keep the branches out of the alley...well, it was quite a big tree. A couple of years ago I started three of it's babies to growing. So to make room for grandpa's fishing boat I took the plum down. I will make runes of some of it, stavs of some of it. Some of it will go to our neighbor boy for his smoker...he's a saucier extraordinaire at age 15. The main part I saved for myself was the fehu that the young branches made off the main stem. I will make a Yule candle holder out of that part and honor the life of that poor tree. I counted about 18 rings.

The twin plums that I left will have lots of sunlight now. We took out the outside chicken pen. Katie never hangs out in there anyhow. So we moved our firewood storage, chopping, and sawing opperation to the otherside of the shed.

The squirrels chatted and scolded me about that tree for around two hours.

Ratatosk the world tree squirrel will spread the news that another tree is down but the ones under it's canopy are being well cared for. And that Grandpa Cliff's boat will have a good home. He is sailing accross the veils now. We will miss him.

In this way, I work runes all day long, every day.

Why a RuneBlog?

2005-10-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you have requested that I concentrate some comments on the runes. So this is a great format for this concept.

Let's start by drawing at random a rune from one of my sets (www.karitauring.com)

R
Rad
Wheel

The journey is long and arduous but the horse is swift and sure. The horse is the process and relationship by which you are able to move these great streaches of world. Take care of the process. That is your task.

The journeyman's rune. So you wrote your songs, learned your instrument and are ready to go out and share your work. That is the image of this rune for me (Kari). It signals a chance to perform. I see the arduous task...perhaps a better translation would be, it will take diligence to get there with all the lessons learned so you must take your time and enjoy the journey because it is a life's work!

Wheels in sanskrit are chakras. From our common indo-european roots, the wheels of chakras and energy centers would have been understood by the Nordic peoples of 2 - 8 thousand years ago. It is evidenced in their artwork.

At any rate, the wheels of the chakras must turn at a certain rate and in certain relationships to one another based on the work the physical body is doing. This rune indicates a time when attention must be paid to the intention of the physical body and the variant speeds and relationships of the chakras must stay in allignment with that.

There is a journey. Think if the charriot wheels are out of allignment and the goal for the moment is a watering hole and your horse takes off at full gallop...yikes!