The Circle is based at The Yogi Tree.  You can receive further information by following StarFire Alchemy on Facebook, joining our newsletter, or simply letting me know you plan to attend by emailing magin@starfirealchemy.co.uk

Friday 13th April 2012: Working with power animals

This class will focus on one of the most important, and well known, aspects of shamanic practice – journeying to find, and then working with, power animals.  This is the last in our first six-month series of Circles and the proceeds of the Circle will be donated to The Shamanic Voice.

Friday 11th May 2012: The Eagle and the Serpent

During 2012 a number of sessions will be devoted to the northern tradition which has a rich heritage of shamanic practice.  At the very heart of the Germanic cosmology is the World Tree Yggdrasil (‘Odin’s Steed’) which contains within it the Nine Worlds of northern tradition.  At the top of the World Tree rests a great Eagle while, at its base the serpent Nidhogg gnaws continuously upon its roots.  In this circle we will be exploring their mysteries and ways in which we can work with them.

Friday 8th June 2012: Power of the Sun

I am delighted to be running a number of circles with special guest teacher Bhavna Mistry from Life Healing Values.  Bhavna is a phenomenally gifted healer and teacher who works at an intense level with heart focused healing and soul path work.  In this first joint circle we will be sharing different approaches from around the world for working with the energies of the Sun.

Friday 13th July 2012: The Soul Tapestry

Within the northern tradition we work with the concept of ‘Wyrd’ which might be considered similar to karma.  Northern practitioners are skilled at weaving and re-weaving Wyrd as a means of bringing about deep soul-level healing.  In this special session we will be working with the Mistresses of Wyrd, the Nornir, to find out what our individual soul tapestries can tell us about our soul paths and healing journeys.

Friday 10th August 2012: Power of the Moon

In this joint circle Bhavna and Magin will be sharing different approaches from around the world for working with the energies of the Moon.

Friday 14th September 2012: Energy of Dragon

The dragon is a revered and often feared creature within many cultures.  Ferocious, terrible, powerful, beautiful, these fabulous creatures hoard wisdom, wealth and great magical skill.  Many cultures identify dragons with the elements, or as the spirits or protectors of the land, sea and sky.  Our work with dragon will be focused on the individual soul paths and healing needs of the group.

Friday 12th October 2012: Power of Star

In this circle we will be looking at the idea of the ‘guiding star’, exploring the idea of our soul path being ‘written in the stars’, and working the energy of star as a transformative and guiding force.

Friday 9th November 2012: Working with your Disir Circle

Within the northern tradition every person is said to have their own personal disir circle; a circle of protective spirits who guide and guard us from birth through to death (and quite possibly beyond).  The traditional disir circle is made up of female ancestral spirits and goddesses, although many find that their circle also includes power animals, male ancestors, and spirit beings.  Getting to know your disir circle is a hugely powerful way of connecting with your spiritual and ancestral heritage and forming a deeper connection with the protective powers who are there to help and guide you in times of difficulty, sorrow or danger.

Friday 14th December 2012: The Heart Seed

The shamanic path is sometimes referred to as ‘seeing with the heart’ and much of our work as shamanic practitioners is focused on removing the obstacles to this true vision.  The heart seed contains the potential of our true selves and, at the darkest time of the year the heart seed burns brightly, yearning to guide us into growth for the new year.

Altar to Hestia, the spirit of the hearth fire

For me spirit guides form part of my spirit family or community.  On Yggdrasil’s Path we work with the concept of ‘soul clan’; the spirits and energies we work with are bonded to us through the workings of Wyrd and the laws of orlog.  Guides, companions and protective spirits don’t just turn up out of the blue, they choose to work with us because they see us as kin, or because our intentions chime with theirs.  Family and community is formed through pre-existing ties of kinship, place and culture and this is the same for spirit family and community.  When we do power retrieval or soul retrieval we are re-connecting not just with that part of ourselves – but often with a whole new raft of spirit family who were connected with us through that lost aspect.  Often when people are preparing for retrieval work they will get dreams and visions that are strange and difficult to understand; it is only in retrospect that we recognise these premonitions as our lost spirit family reaching out to touch us – preparing the way for wholeness to be restored.

Power animals and guides do not just bring companionship, they also bring us wisdom, power and teachings to help us become strong and powerful in our own lives.  It is easy to assume that these beings are ‘higher’ than us in some way and, indeed, they will often have access to wisdom beyond our kenning.  However, my own experience has taught me that spirit guides do not choose people to work with indiscriminately, nor do they work completely altruistically.  Your spirit guides are with you because they want to be – so what sort of person is it that they have chosen to work with?

Your teacher will come when you are ready…

This is a phrase frequently used within shamanic practice, as well as within other magical traditions.  It is easy to assume that our teachers are watching us, waiting for us to reach the ‘level’ required in order to work with them; but perhaps this is a flawed way of viewing the teacher/ pupil relationship.  My most admired teachers have always told me that they learn huge amounts from their work with their students and Kay and I definitely find at StarFire Alchemy that the phrase ‘Your pupil will come to you when you are ready…’  is equally true.

What I have come to realise in my work is that, as I get to know my teachers, I see that they have chosen to work with me not just because I have so much to learn from them – but because we have so much in common.  This can be a very daunting thought when your hand is being guided by your Master Shaman, or when a deity is speaking through you, but I would invite you to consider what qualities your own spirit guides, power animals, deities and companions have in common with you.  My own Master Shaman comes from a very different tradition to my own, he teaches me techniques beyond what I have been taught by my ‘living’ teachers.  He is in all ways awesome and it took me a huge amount of time to recognise that the combination of enormous gentleness and utter ruthlessness in doing what was necessary for healing, was something that he also saw in me.  It is, I believe now, these shared qualities that brought him to work with me – far more than the techniques he identified I was lacking – for he wasn’t the only one who could have come forward to show me these.

Often it is hard to see ourselves in the spirit beings who we work with, indeed, it might feel presumptuous and big headed to assume you have much in common at all – but I promise you those share qualities will be there.

Connection through soul

I work with the concept of the ‘soul tapestry’ and this has been very helpful to me in understanding how connections come about between people and their soul clan.  When I was preparing for the channeling for Shadow Sister on The Shamanic Voice I was having a really hard time understanding how to help the spirit of such a strange, silent and dark being communicate through me.  She seemed totally alien to me and, in many ways, utterly scary.  I wasn’t certain that I would be able to do the channeling at all and sought advice from the northern circle of ancestors (the patron spirits of the show) on how to proceed.  I was shown that the channeling could only take place because their were parts of me that resonated with her essence, threads within my being that could connect with hers – once these were found we were able to connect and her energy flowed into me so that I could speak her message.  Shadow Sister represented an energy that felt very alien to me and, indeed, one that I might not want to draw on too often.  The experience of working with her was one of recognising that the dark mysteries of the death goddess flowed through my blood and cannot be denied.  Despite my trepidation the work with her was very valuable both for the show and, personally, for me.

Most of the time, however, the spirit guides we work with speak to aspects of ourselves which we are keen to embrace.  They make our hearts beat faster, expand our vision of ourselves and the world around us, and show us how to shed limiting beliefs, overcome our fears, and evolve beyond what we thought was possible.  My own healing work, and the work I do with my clients, often involves finding the part of me that is willing and able to connect with the troubling parts of myself I am having difficulty understanding and coping with.  I have learned that my soul clan are able to provide me with the support I need to work with the parts of myself I would rather reject – they know the value of these suppressed bits, even if I have yet to recognise it.  Most people will have times in their lives where they feel misunderstood, isolated and at odds with the world; at these times spirit guides provide the comfort and wisdom unavailable to us from other sources.  The reason we feel safe, accepted and ‘right’ with our guides is because they resonate with us, they ‘speak our language’, share our dreams, and understand our thoughts and emotions without us having to explain ourselves.

Childhood friends

When you start out on the shamanic path the guides and companions who come forward in your earliest journeys will often be those that have been with you from the beginning; their nature is kin to yours and your re-union is more like a recognition of a piece of yourself that you had always known was there.

For me, dreams and visions I had as a child now make perfect sense, the ‘imaginary’ friends I had in childhood have returned to me.  I didn’t recognise this for a long time because the way they present themselves to me as an adult is quite different to what they looked like to me as a child; but once I made the leap I couldn’t beleieve I hadn’t seen it sooner.  Four guides in particular are worth mentioning.  In my adult life they appear as two adult women (who are different to each other but ‘sisters’ in spirit), a dragon, and a dinosaur (who I originally thought was also a dragon until I saw her depicted in perfect detail on a BBC documentary).  As a child my closest imaginary friends were a pair of twin girls and a family of cuddly dinosaurs who looked distinctly like Barney but with polka dots.  It wasn’t until I was reading back over an old diary that I realised that the colouring of my poka-dotted pals was identical to the very beautiful, reptilian skins of my companions today!  At that point I reviewed my colourful collection of spirit guides and realised that many of them had made themselves known to me much earlier than I had originally thought…

Each of these beings has brought me a greater understanding of my own nature.  I would highly recommend journeying with your own spirits and simply asking ‘What can you tell my about myself? and ‘How are we related?’.

Meeting your spirit guides

You don’t have to be a shamanic practitioner to meet and work with your own spirit guides.  There are plenty of books and journeying CDs out there to help you and you can also work with an individual practitioner or in a group to help find these connections.  Those in the London area might like to join the Greenwich shamanic spirit circle and you can also contact me for a one-to-one session.

Runes for work with spirit guides and soul clan

On Saturday we moved into the half-month of Ehwaz, the rune of partnership.  Ehwaz is said to symbolise the horse and rider, its powers are often linked in with that of the shape shifter or journeying spirit who ‘fares forth’ riding upon or within their spirit companion.  The shape of the Ehwaz rune is sometimes likened to that of two horses facing each other and ‘twin’ deities are strongly associated with Ehwaz.  Our spirit companions might be thought of as ‘twin’ spirits to us; a fruitful relationship with spirit guides will be one of closeness, giving, and receiving.  A spirit guide can also act as a mirror for us, showing us what we need to know about ourselves, reflecting back our strengths and helping us recognise and embrace our weaknesses.

The ‘gifting’ rune of Gebo is also an excellent rune to work with for spirit guides.  It is the rune of balanced and fair exchange, it is the kisses at the end of a birthday card and the sign of a promise.  When a spirit guide shows you the Gebo rune you know that a gift or promise is being offered or demanded.  The word ‘sacrifice’ is a useful one to bear in mind here; it can feel like giving something up, but its real meaning is ‘to make sacred’.  When we make offerings to our spirit guides we acknowledge the sacredness of our relationship, when we ignore them, reject them or take them for granted we show them that the relationship is of little value to us.

Othala is the rune of homeland and inheritance.  It can be used to call in our ancestors as well as the spirits of hearth, home and land.  It is an excellent ‘connector’ rune and the image of the great hearth fire that calls the soul clan to assembly resonates with this rune which completes the rune row of the Elder Futhark.  You are the sum of your past, of the connections you have made, experiences you have shared, gifts you have given and blessings you have received.  Othala pays honour to that which has shaped and formed us, and it is testimony to our continued devotion to the land we live on and the spirits we share our lives with.  Sing Othala to bring them home.

As you know, the runic half months form excellent times to harness the energies of that particular rune – this holds particulary true of Ehwaz as it leaps forward, pulling the carriage of the sun high into the sky, bringing on Spring apace (or running away with the Sun if you are in the southern hempisphere).  Hold onto your hat and ask Ehwaz to carry away the things you no longer need in your life or carry you forward towards your goals.

The half-month of Ehwaz is a great time to re-visit your spirit guides and companions, faring forth on its energy to commune with them.  Ask for their assistance in your projects and plans, and don’t forget to ask them how you can help them with their own goals!  On Monday I’ll be publishing an article on spirit companions so watch this space…

The half-month of Ehwaz is, in fact, a great time for journeying of any kind.  It is a journeying rune and can be used in conjunction with Raidho to great effect – create a bind rune of the two of them to help you with journeying (just don’t forget to put it safely away before you go to bed or Ehwaz will run off with you).  The Ehwaz rune is often linked to the ‘night mare’, the dreamer literally being ridden like a horse, perhaps this is a lesson that if you don’t ‘ride’ Ehwaz it will ride you…  Safety precautions nothwithstanding, now is a great time to crack open your journeying CDs, grab your drum, or simply use your voice to carry you into the realms of spirit.

On a practical note, use the Ehwaz rune to speed up any projects that are faltering or delayed.  Things where energy and speed are necessary will benefit from this rune.  Taking some time to give your car/ bicycle (or other form of ‘steed’), some tender-loving-care will greatly please the rune and help ensure it blesses your endeavours.

Enjoy!

The channelled tale ends with some questions for you about the sacred stories you use to define yourself and the episode concludes with a ‘seeing’ song for you to exercise yoru own word weaving and seership skills on.  You don’t need to have done seership work before, just find a quite place to listen and give it a go!  I would love to hear about your experiences.  I have already heard from a group who are thinking of incorporating the sacred story competition into their Yule celebrations this  year!

Below I have given you my own ending bo the tale of Lorien and younger brother, but I would recommend listening to the podcast first so you know how the tale begins…

About my telling

After the channelling I was challenged by the northern shamanic circle to give them my own ending for the tale of Lorien and Young Brother.  As a seer I chose to ride my trance state to find the story inside myself; I then recited it to the ancestral circle before finishing the seership rite. 

You might notice that, in their telling, the ancestors say of the older brother that ’we will call him Lorien’.  This suggests to me that perhaps some seers will be given a different name for the elder of the two brothers.  After offering my tale I researched the name ‘Lorien’ and discovered that its origins are in Tolkein; this supports the idea that the tale is part of the fabric of ‘story’ itself, rather than being an historical account.  Lorien means ‘Master of Visions and Dreams’ which is very appropriate for a bard!  For my telling Lorien’s name remained the same and younger brother was given the name ‘Angar’ which I have subsequently found is a Sanskrit name meaning ‘ember’.  In the tale Angar is bitten by a fire serpent which gifts him his tale, so ’ember’ again seems fitting.  These little bits of research done after seership are helpful affirmations in a world where seers are forced to classify themselves as ‘entertainers’.  In many ways, both Lorien and Angar could be classified as entertainers, so perhaps this isn’t so bad; but don’t be misled into believing that the sacred stories of the past, present and future don’t hold power.

Angar’s Choice (Magin Rose’s ending for ‘The tale of Lorien and Young Brother’)

The telling seemed to last an age but was also a rushing, a burning, as if the story was eager to stamp itself upon the skin and find its place of power within the heart.  Angar’s head was hot and his lips burned as the story forged itself within his mouth.  Part of him existed within the tale, was made of it and re-forged by it, but part of him remained separate and apart, a watcher who saw both himself and his listeners.  He was aware of the barn, and the dark fields beyond, and Lorien in the distance surrounded by his own listeners, and the quietness and vastness of the burgeoning night.  Then it was done and the spellbound children wriggled their fingers and toes and felt the urge to play and run before their parents called them home.  Out they spilled into the night, leaving Angar alone, walking slowly, shutting the barn door with more care and attention than would previously have been the case.

During the telling the sky had grown dark.  Soon the stars would emerge against the black sky but, for now, the moon rested in solitary splendour, a silver-white wheel, perfectly still above the dark tree line.  In the distance Angar could hear parents calling for their children; the wagons would be ready to carry them back to town.  His mother, father, sisters, and the farms hands would be making much of Lorien as they packed away the revelries and gatherered together for one last toast in the farmhouse kitchen.  No would would miss Angar.

Beneath the moon the young man sat and, closing his eyes, he felt the burning teeth of the serpent upon his arm once more.  The bright flame of the story flickered upon his tongue, he could taste its subtle tones and the sharp, sweet quality of its essence.  He saw himself seated in the darkness and, for the first time in his life, the future loomed large and dangerous and uncertain.  A whole world of possibility opened up before him, a strange world where he, Angar, was the special one and Lorien was simply a mortal man.  He saw himself bringing his burning tale to the secret places of the bards; telling it within their mystical groves, allowing its magic to work its way into the fabric of their power.  It would light up their whispering halls and burn through them, re-shaping them, adding its essence to their eternal legacy.  The tale would carry his name into the deep heart of the halls where the past is preserved forever.   His name echoing, always echoing forwards through time.  He imagined the halls of the bards as great, hollow chambers where words and names were carved into stone so they might shape the wind as it flowed from the mouths of the Gods.  His name, written in stone, would form part of that great hollow instrument of the bard’s hoard; the legacy of the dead past, captured forever and held in darkness, and stone, and dust.  This thought sent a sudden chill through him as if the cold wind of eternity had touched him.  Not even the heat of his story-flame could warm him as time stretched out before him and the dark stillness of the bard’s halls engulfed him and held him fast.  He remembered the furrows on Lorien’s brow and the strange, far away, look he always had.  ‘Lorien sees beyond the bright land of the living.’ thought Angar.  ‘He sees into the vastness beyond our simple present; he sees something that is huge, and beautiful and lonely and filled with death.’  Angar looked down at his own strong, body, contrasting it favourably with his brother’s stooping shoulders and thin white limbs.  ’It is a high price to pay for the chance at immortality.  A high price to pay indeed if you have no story to warm yourself.’

Angar opened his eyes and looked once more at the moon above him; she seemed to know his mind without him saying a thing.  ’I would be your disciple Lady,’ he said. ‘Let us enjoy many nights together such as this, here upon the farm where they cycles of life keep us too busyto worry about eternity’.

It was dark indeed when Angar slipped in through the door, creeping from shadow to shadow through the kitchen and up the stairs to the chamber set aside for his elder brother.  Lorien’s volumes were lined up neatly upon the shelf, their leather so worn through handling that they seemed to flow soft silver beneath the moonlight.  The candle was long cold and Lorien looked peaceful, although his hand was still clenched as if he struggled to hold his stylus even in sleep.

Angar knelt down beside his elder brother and closed his eyes.  He reached deep down inside himself to the place where the flame was brightest and drew it forth.  Slowly the tale slid as a burning flame from Angar’s lips, out into the darkness and in through Lorien’s ear; coiling deep down into his brain, spiralling through his blood and entering his heart.  Fuelled by love and compassion he had not even know he possessed for his brother, Angar forged the tale anew.  With his seer’s eyes he watched it burn brighter and brighter as it melded with Lorien; the silver leaves of the ancient texts held in Lorien’s heart and mind grew bright and glowed in shining hues of bronze, gold, orange and flaming red. 

Angar saw the future unfurl as his older brother, filled with light and joy, carried the tale back to the groves of the bards.  He saw the deep fear that had lurked within Lorien that he would never forge his own tale, that his parents’ sacrifice would be for nothing and the stories of the bards would remain forever dry and dead upon his lips.  ‘This is not so brother,’ Angar whispered.  ‘You forged your tale within me and now I give it back to you.’  Now Lorien would be able to carry the tale back to the bards and prove through its telling that he had completed the work of the journeyman.  Lorien would become a master bard, his name would be remembered and his flame would burn brightly within the halls of the bards for eternity.  ‘And I will remain here my brother,’ said Angard with satisfaction.  ‘Here in the land of the living where I belong, with the fields and the sun and the moon, where it is peaceful and I may look forward to restful peace when I die.’  And so it was.

The podcast includes a discussion of the high seat rite which is a specific form of seidr work.  Seidr is a really important aspect of northern tradition work and is often seen as the ‘shamanic’ form of the north.  On the podcast I mention that the form of the rite comes from the work of Katie Gerrard and Diana Paxson, if you are interested I would highly recommend reading Gerrard’s Seidr: The Gate is Open.  If you are interested more generally in oracular work then check out Priestesses Pythonesses Sibyls  which features contributions by Emily Ounstead, Katie Gerrard and the founder of the shamanic voice Kay Gillard.

 The episode is of relevance to anyone interested in Seidr and the High Seat Rite but is primarily dedicated to the Goddess Hela who, as you will hear, has a message for all.

For a modern day spirit worker the problem can often be that there is simply too much choice and variety out there.  So many festivals, so many potential spirit quests and journeys, so many methods to learn, so many places to explore, so much healing needed in the world. I, for one, struggle with even beginning to understand what my path should be.  I feel guilty every time I decide not to take up a new opportunity for learning, and I always feel that I could do more if there was enough time.  I have so many interests that I could easily be performing observances every day, but if I were to do that they would merge into meaninglessness.

If we are to truly embrace our own unique path then we need something to hold on to.  Something to keep us grounded and anchored, as well as something to spur our interest and keep us moving forward.  I have entitled these my ‘anchors’ and ‘inspirations’.  My anchors remind me where I am in time and place and what is important to me, my inspirations are the torches that shine the way and remind me that there is so much that is new and exciting to discover and be thankful for.

I invite you to think about your own anchors and inspirations as you move through the Wheel of the Year and would love to hear back from you about what you find.  In the meantime, here are mine on 17th March 2012:

Anchors

Anchors are like your own personal calendar, some dates are fixed year-on-year while others are special occasions which give meaning to that period of time in your life.  Anchors present points of retrospection where you can look back on what you were and celebrate what you have become, mourning the passing of some things, and rejoicing in the birthing of others.  Keeping a diary is one way of recording your anchors.  For me, the runic wheel, the eight festivals of the Pagan Wheel of the Year, and family holidays (including Christmas and Easter as part of my Christian heritage) are all important to me.

• Half month of Berkano.  This month the rune of women and motherhood has been speaking to me of Sunna, the goddess of the Sun (more of that under inspirations).
• Mother’s Day.  As well as giving me the opportunity to tell my Mum just how great she is, Mother’s Day reminds me to honour my disir circle, spirits of the hearth and the many ‘mothers’ who have helped shape my life.  It may be a modern festival but the sentiment is an old one and it pleases me that it falls bang in the middle of the half month of Berkano.
• Visit from my brother and sister – this happens once in a blue moon and my brother and sister are very tolerant of my pagan ways.  Last weekend they were happy to raise a glass of wine to honour our family and friends.
• High Seat Rite for Hela – last week I recorded a High Seat Rite performed by the wonderful oracular priestess Emily Ounsted.  This will be broadcast in this month’s episode of Shaman of the North on The Shamanic Voice, prepare for awesomeness.
• Holiday!  Ah indeed, myself and Mr Magin are off on holiday after all the lovely healing received ensured that he got the all clear for us to go after his operation two weeks ago.  Thank you everyone who sent healing.  We are going to our new favourite holiday destination in Exeter after a wonderful trip in October last year; much has changed since then and it will be great to see the countryside there awakening to spring.

Inspirations

 Your inspirations are simply that, points of light that lead you on and make you think, feel, imagine and transform.  Often they signify things we haven’t yet begun to understand ourselves, it is only in retrospect that we see where the path was taking us.  Your inspirations are those things that make your spirit soar that little bit higher.

• My garden.  Spring is here people!  It’s a hideous grey day as I type, but my garden is filling up with flowers already, blue bells, grape hyacinths, cherry blossom, black lenten rose. Marvelous.
• Sunna, the goddess of the Sun.  I didn’t expect the rune Berkano to present Sunna as a patroness, but Sunna is a mother (a working mother in fact), who will one day pass her responsibilties on to her daughter.  Sunna has lots to teach us about soul purpose, responsibility and love; I will share some of my work with her later this month.
• Manni, the god of the moon.  Sunna’s brother has also been making himself known to me; I can feel his energy stirring and I know he is going to be important for me in the next half month of Ehwaz.
• Shamanism as a Spiritual Practice for Daily Life by Tom Cowan.  Loving his ‘betwixt and between’ journeying technique and methods for working with the spirits of the land.  Wonderful.  

For me the most important thing that any rune worker can do is to work directly with the individual runes, raising their energy, meditating and journeying with them to find their own personal connections.  Research is, of course, important as a way in to the mysteries of the runes and I think that every student should study the rune poems closely.  The opinions of others, however, are only opinions and the best way forward is to learn as much as you can, but to ultimately trust your own instincts and intuitions.

With this in mind I would like to share my own personal meditations on Jera which have led me to include Summar (Summer) and Vetr (Winter) amongst the spirit correspondences for Jera.  The Old Norse recognised two seasons: Summar and Vetr.  Summar was the son of the God Svasud ‘Mild-One’, and Vetr was the son of Vindaul ‘Wind-Cool’ and grandson of Vasud, the freezing ice wind.  Summar and Vetr were considered to be enemies, and we can see them circling about each other within the shape of the Jera rune.  The Prose Edda gives a number of kennings for Summar and Vetr: both are kennings for ‘time’; Summar is known as ‘Growth of Men’ and ‘Comfort of Serpents’; and Vetr as ‘Destruction of Serpents’ and ‘Tempest-Season’ (Teutonic Magic: A Guide to Germanic Divination, Lore and Magic).

Much of the lore relating to Jera speaks of the Summer half of the year and the harvest time when the land is lush and giving.  The cycle represented by Summar and Vetr reminds us that, however unpleasant, the winter months are also important to the harvest.  Winter is a time of rest and sleep, energy is gathered in and conservered, that which is weak and diseased dies away ready for strong new growth in the spring.  Another common interpretation of Jera is as a rune that brings success; in this respect its cycle can be seen as the cycles of planning, work, tending, harvest, celebration, reflection and rest needed for any successful endevour.

The idea of work and rest is also reflected in ‘The Song of Grotti’ in The Poetic Edda.  In this tale two giant women are captured by the King Frodi and are set to work at a magic mill to grind out unsurpassed wealth for him.  Frodi is a hard task master and refuses to allow the women to rest; eventually they turn upon him and grind with all their might, grinding out his doom through defeat in battle.  They grind so hard that the magic mill-stone cracks in two.  It is not clear whether their efforts actually create the army that defeats him, or whether they are grinding out magic or Wyrd that brings the battle to pass – but whatever the case this story shows that what was originally good fortune can turn to bad if you do not allow the proper balance of work and rest.

The tale also links Jera in with Gebo, the rune of gift giving and fair exchange.  If you look at the two runes you can see that they are the same revolving shape, Gebo embodies the rules that must be followed if success is to be attained – Jera embodies the manifestation of that success.  Summar and Vetr are not the only figures in Norse myth charged with maintaining a natural cycle; Sunna (Sun) and Manni (Moon), Nott (night) and Daeg (day) are also charged with sacred tasks that keep the balance of light and dark, warmth and cold as they need to be for the harvests of the worlds to be successful.

Jera reminds us that you get out what you put in; even good luck can dissipate if we demand too much without giving in return.  If Frodi had shown simple kindness and consideration to the mill-workers perhaps he would still be reaping the plentiful rewards of the mill today.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a sucker for a well-referenced text and a thorough, academic approach.  As is often the case when we embrace a spirit-led path, I have been challenged over and over again to step out of my comfort zone and walk within the dream world where the known and the unknown are much more difficult to pin down.  When I undertook my first shamanic journey to see what spirit wanted from my ‘northern tradition’ show, I was greeted not by Odin or a similarly ‘Germanic’ patron, but by a shadowy group of decidedly human-looking ancestors who informed me that my request for nothern tradition teaching had been heard and they would be bringing their stories via direct channeling.

I have now been doing the show for over six months.  I have channeled a woman whose bones contained magic; a teller of sacred tales who had betrayed his calling; one of the last of the old druids; a priestess of the shadow world; a hearth mistress; and the World Tree (I know, the tree snuck in claiming to be the oldest ancestor of all…).  I have also done an episode dedicated to ancestral work and am sure there will be similarly themed episodes in the future.  I have found the work strange, fascinating and terrifying, those of you who do channelings and oracle work yourselves will know who weird it is to hear a recording of your channeling – let alone broadcasting it for everyone and anyone to hear!  

The more I do this work the more I am convinced that these ancestors and spirit beings have something really important to say.  Some of them were highly respected in their own lifetimes, some were loved, some feared, some derided; but all have a story to tell.  The simple act of making bread becomes sacred when we know how to honour its spirit; soul wounding is recognised by those who know the depths of heartbreak; the simple passing on of blessing from one generation to the next carries deep power and magic.

The show comes out on 19th month and I do hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoy making them.  There are some wonderful presenters on The Shamanic Voice covering a broad range of practices so do check out the site!  You can find old shows in the archive and the newest shows on the podcasts  page.  This is a free service and, currently, we are looking for the resourcing to expand our archive space – if you find a show missing please do get in touch and we can send it directly to you.  

My full list of my shows so far is as follows:

Episode 1 – Written in the Bones (July 2011)
Episode 2 – Flight of the Ravens (August 2011)
Episode 3 – Druid’s Walk (September 2011)
Episode 4 – Honouring the Ancestors (October 2011)
Episode 5 – Shadow Sister (November 2011)
Episode 6 – The Hearth Mistress (December 2011)
Episode 7 – Yggdrasil’s Song (January 2012)

The idea of ‘brain training’ has become popularised through the latest generation of techno-gadgets which, helpfully, remind us that buying more computer games is actually educational and therefore good for you… I have to admit that jumping about with the Wii and playing Trivial Pursuit with the family on New Year’s Eve was actually quite fun – but in moderation!  Brain training works on the assumption that the brain is like any other organ in the body: it can be damaged through abuse and strengthened through a good work out. All of us who are seeking to develop and transform our lives and our environments for the better know that physical addictions damage the brain and moderation is key to a balanced and healthy mind and body. On the ‘mental’ level the theory goes that the more we challenge our brains to use different types of thought process, the stronger and smarter our brains become.

When I was at university I was a member of the ‘Thinking Society’ and we used to do tests looking at our individual strengths and weaknesses in lateral thinking, analytical thinking, creative thinking etc. There were about five of us and the tests we were doing were largely photocopied out of old Psychology manuals. Today ‘brain training’ is big business with any number of self-help guides, on-line tests, brain training gurus and games; there is huge competition in the technology industry for the brain training pound.

The way we think about the brain has changed massively over the last ten to fifteen years and today it is recognised that physical, emotional and spiritual activity are just as important to brain training as performing great intellectual and analytical feats. A quick search on brain training brought me to My super-charged life which identifies meditation, sex, nutrition, singing from memory, and walking around blind-folded as just some of the ’20 ways to train your brain’.  In our super adult, super charged, super fast world we are being reminded that play is the single most effective method of keeping ourselves smart, effective and happy.  Apart from the sex of course, the adventures of the Secret Seven, Famous Five and the Swallows and Amazons are perhaps the nearest I could get to ‘brain training camp’.  Get some good tuck, run about a lot, play games, use your keen observational skills, do a bit of problem solving, help each other out of scrapes, have a good old group bonding session and then home for a well earned rest.  The problem is that, to most of us, the activities of the Secret Seven would leave us knackered for days: we simply don’t have the resources to solve crime before supper.  The Western world seems designed specifically to drain us of our mental and physical resources; we no longer recognise our overall being as a self sustaining organism that is meant to be in balance.  For me ‘brain training’ does not go far enough, we need to recognise that we are more than a brain, indeed, we are more than just a body. 

As adults we tend to see play as something which is usurped by responsibility.  Anything that is worthwhile will require seriousness, effort, self-discipline, hard work, time, and probably money (all the stuff that drains our physical and mental resources).  Play is relegated to the luxury of ‘leisure time’ which, at most, gets a couple of hours a week lip-service if we’re lucky.  Of course, our brains and bodies still crave play, which is why alcohol, television, watching other people playing sport, and web-surfing all eat away at our lives: they are sanctioned, sterile and largely inactive past times which con our brains into thinking they are training when really they are being filled with crap.

From a shamanic perspective the brain is simply one part of our consciousness, indeed, the entire body is really one part of our overall ‘self’.  For me there is really no limit to the self.  We are not self contained little beings wandering round with a body and perhaps some form of spirit or energy body attached to it like a balloon.  We are part of a web of being which includes the physical world that manifests us, the mental world that stimulates us to growth, and the spiritual/ imaginative/ dream world that is us.  All of these different bits of us consume and produce ’energy’ which I’ll describe for now as ‘movement that effects change’.  Energy changes form all the time:  food turns into fuel that turns into physical movement or mental process.  Anyone who works with energy healing or magic will also tell you that, after a session they are famished; after all, they’ve been working hard channelling energy.  A person who has received an energy healing may feel full of energy, or perhaps lighter if stagnant energy has been shifted to allow new energy to flow once more.

Shamanic practice is about working with energy.  All shamanic practitioners work on themselves and some will also work on others.  The most commonly recognised shamanic practice is called ‘journeying’ where the consciousness of the practitioner is either said to leave their body and travel elsewhere or to expand outwards so that they are able to access other realms; in any case, the purpose of journeying is to seek wisdom and to retrieve power, soul essence, or energy that has been lost.  In a world that drains us this is obviously a key skill to learn and develop and, luckily, the majority of us now seem to be born with an innate ability to journey once we are shown how.  Perhaps this gift comes from the universe seeking to restore balance, or perhaps the sheer power we now have to change our world is opening our eyes and minds to the consequences.

Some people are just naturally able to journey, but most of us need some guidance to get us started.  However, just because you can journey doesn’t mean you have the clarity to see truth when it’s in front of you, or the wisdom to act on that truth.  I doubt that any shamanic practitioner out there can say with hand on heart that they have always immediately understood messages from spirit and acted upon them.  This is where brain training comes in: learn to still your mind and find clarity; learn to support your process through self care; learn to differentiate between ‘I should’ and ‘I am’; learn that obstacles are largely illusions; learn that play is work and work is play.

Sadly, a spiritual experience, even the most intense, is seldom enough to do more than give us the initial impotus for change.  Our ability to then bring change into our lives is determined by the overall state of our consciousness.  How much energy is available to you?  What perspective do you have on your ability to make change?  What support networks have you created for yourself?  Does the thought of changing your life make you feel knackered already or are you bursting to grab some tuck, track down the baddies, save the day and be home in time for supper?  If the answer is ‘knackered’ then perhaps some brain training is in order before you start to tackle any serious life change and so deplete your already exhausted resources.

You can book a mentoring session with me in-person or via Skype to develop a personalised programme using techniques that promote clarity, boost your energy levels, identify blockages and get you on track.  Mindfullness, meditation, stress management techniques and journeying form some of the methods we can work on together and your journey can also be supported by in-person or distance energy and shamanic healing.

After all the struggles and stresses of Hagalaz and Nauthiz, the half-month of Isa can feel like a blessed release.  Isa brings stillness, silence and rest; it is the rune that beckons us to hibernation, but it is also the bringer of death for those who have not prepared their winter nests well.  I certainly found myself falling into the traps of Isa this half month as I struggled to keep going with the resolutions I had made for change in the coming year.  Isa is the rune of the ego which always resists change and tries to fall back on the easy, destructive ways when the going gets tough.  Isa whispers to us that it is simply too hard to make change and it is better just to lie down and give up.  All of those good resolutions we made and  all of those tough life lessons we passed through can seem far away and quite irrelevant as the cold sets in and we long to snuggle up where it is warm and safe.

Working with inertia and resistance

To all of you who have struggled on through the difficulty I raise my hat, but to those who (like me) have found the last few weeks as tough as old boots, Isa is not all doom and gloom.  The rune of ice is also the rune that helps us know ourselves the best.  Yes, I found myself staying in bed too long, eating things that were bad for me and watching trashy tv instead of going for the nice refreshing walk that I promised myself.  However, this provided me with the cold hard slap in the face I needed, affirming that I have indeed identified my ego’s patterns of resistance effectively.  Isa is the rune of reflection and at this time we find moments that truly reflect the person we have become during the previous year.  My half-month included some moments of real clarity, healing and break-through, but there were also moments of sheer self-pity when the last thing on my mind was transformation and growth.  It is often when we are on the very edge of change that our old ways come back to bite us the hardest; don’t forget that you are a strong person, so your old habits and behaviours will be strong too.

On the StarFire Alchemy Introduction to RuneCraft (launching as a correspondence course in 2012 for those of you who can’t get to London) we work with the stadgaldr for Isa.  This rune posture includes voice work and the expansion of the self out to contact the full energy spectrum within Midgard.  Although the Isa pose is the simplest stadgaldr, it is hugely important for further work with the rune postures as it works with the very basic concept ‘I am’.  Isa is often referred to as the ‘ego’ rune; it ensures that we are stable and strong within ourselves so that we don’t become one big mess of competing desires and aspirations.

When we hit a point in our lives where we just don’t seem to be able to break through our bad habits, feelings of hopelessness, and lack of motivation, then we know that we have hit against the hard ice of Isa.  Often we try to tackle these feelings by getting angry, effectively taking a sledge-hammer to the ice in an attempt to break through it.  Problem is, that ice is you, so every time you yell at yourself or cry miserably into your pillow you are simply attacking your own being.  The ice is either going to crack (leaving you in a worse state than you were before), or simply defend itself by becoming thicker and stronger. 

Remember all those tales about winter?  No one ever beats winter by getting mad, it is always acts of love, kindness and warmth that soften the Ice Queen’s cold heart and loosen her grip.  The ego is like the Ice Queen, it wants to be in charge and to feel safe – much like a small child.  When the ego feels threatened it responds with fear, resistance and stubborn tenacity.  If we want to work effectively with our egos then attack is not going to work.

This month’s meditation focuses not on the concept ‘I am’ (for this is best used once we have made peace with our egos), but rather on ‘I accept myself’.  This is the first step towards change.  Let your ego feel safe and loved, then it will accept the gentle warmth of your desire for transformation ‘I accept myself and I am not afraid to become more than I am right now’.

Don’t forget that you can also take my longer journey with Isa or book a healing with me working with rune energies, personalised journeys and rituals.