Welcome to the latest Tarot Blog Hop, wrangled by Louise Underhill who set the following topic:
The Pagan New Year / Festival of the Dead is highly popular & at this time of the year, we think about those that have passed. We’ve interviewed our ghosts, even had a few of them over for tea! This time, we seek their advice on what we need to work on in the year to come. You’re free to design a spread, a sigal, or anything else with the cards that connects advice from your ancestors to the year that is coming. How can they help you when the world is on your shoulders and they’re the other side of the astral veil? When you’re drained and weary, what advice do they give?
Before focusing on the year to come, I feel inclined to take a couple or so steps backwards…
Probably around this time last year, I stumbled across an advert for the Asgardian Festival and on a bit of a whim, I decided to sign up to go… So in August I found myself standing in a circle of an opening blot and calling upon the ancestors and spirits of the land… And to be honest, this type of gathering is not my usual cup of chai but hey… when in Rome… I was not feeling particularly inspired by the ceremony itself… it seemed lengthy, laborious and overly contrived and gave me the same sense of wondering when/how I could make a discreet exit, that I’d last felt at what I thought was an extremely elaborate Roman Catholic wedding but which I was later informed was the short version…
Anyway… I spotted my chance to slip away and made a break for it into some open space and turned around to see the sun setting into a sky of burning red in one direction and across the other way… a rainbow spanned the heavens… There were some there who would claim that the Old Gods were present and would marvel at the Bifrost bridge… Explain it how you will… personally, when nature reveals her palette, I feel little need for words and am glad to imagine that time has fleetingly paused to allow me to take in this splendour…
The night that followed was strange to be sure… There was a bit of a fiasco as the new tent that I had bought, had not been opened and checked and unfurled it transpired that the alleged two man tent was only going to sleep two men if they happened to be the same size as an average hamster… So… necessity is the mother of invention, or so they say… I’d say annoyance, outbursts of chuntered profanities, bloody-mindedness, improvisation, twine, scissors and random items found in the back of a Virgo’s people carrier can be weaved together to fashion a humble abode just about strong enough to withstand the unseasonal gale force winds that blew that night… Howling winds that brought strange dreams of being lost at sea on a life raft followed by what at first seemed to be a dream but what in fact turned out to be a memory. A, until then, forgotten childhood memory, which in turn lead me to discover via the Google Oracle a sizeable chunk of my family tree… But maybe that’s a story for another day…
Back to the task at hand… for my spread to look at advice from my ancestors for the year ahead, I decided to throw in some rune work…
I decided to write a question for each of the runes of the 2nd Aett and answer it with The Wild Unknown. For a couple of reasons, firstly because this Aett deals with emotional and psychological matters present within the individual, but also mainly because the word sigil resonated as being the Anglo-Saxon word for the Germanic word Sowulo…
Anyway… I’m not going to share my answers with you as, like a good cup of tea, they still need a little more time to brew… However, I will share the questions that I asked my ancestors:
What disruptive elements will I need to withstand?
How can I best serve my needs?
Where may I find an impasse?
What is the best way to reap rewards?
How can I connect with my sense of purpose?
What creativity lies deep within the unconscious waiting to be born?
What will give me faith?
The pure and blessed way 
What a great idea for a spread! And I love the look of the cards you drew, I can see lots of connections there 🙂 As for the story of the Asgardian Festival, as ever a combination of chuckles and delight, with the beauty of nature and the terror of tents 😀
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Thanks 🙂 yes definitely some interesting connections being weaved… Lol the terror of tents! These things always seem like such a good idea at the time… 😀
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I have a set of Rune Cards as well but they are far more ‘classical’ in a mythic deck before its re-release kind of way and these just remind me of the vertigo tarot. As Chloe said above, so many connections and directions there not to mention a couple of cautions too, but then they wouldn’t be an oracle without those!
Brilliant read 🙂 thank you x
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Thanks 🙂 I’d not come across the Vertigo before; I’ve just had a quick look and I see what you mean 🙂 Ah, yes the cautions… note to self – pay attention!! They are usually the most helpful information but also the most easily forgot… 😀
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Ooh, we are rich in interesting spread on this Hop. I used to use Runes before I discovered Tarot but now I can barely remember a thing about them. Perhaps I need to break them out again 🙂
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Yes! Break them out 😀 I find it too easy to get lazy with tarot when I read for myself… the runes prod my brain in a slightly different slant… plus I love the tactile nature of them 🙂
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Wow, that sky is extraordinary and must have left many people in awe. I do find that rainbows have a curiously nice habit of signing off on important life transitions 🙂 And the runes/cards – I love this approach! Interestingly (and I know this is a bit off-topic, but it is relevant to me today as I read this) my morning rune draw with Perthro. I ended up taking my car to the shop to find the source of a light that popped on suddenly and unexpectedly. They found the source almost immediately (it was a computer glitch!). Ace of Swords is perfect 😉
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Yes it was a great sky and some people were in awe but I think there were a few who completely missed it as they were facing a different direction… Oh… mystery lights on cars! Glad you got that sorted quickly 🙂 and off-topic is good… it’s mostly where I live… 😀
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I like these questions for your ancestors. I hope you brew up some useful advice and information for yourself. I’ve never used runes before, but I like the idea of learning them in combination with tarot.
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It’s taken me a long time to warm to runes. I’ve had many sets going back over nearly 30 years but only in the last couple of years have they spoken to me… When I got my first set, I was always put off by worrying about whether or not I was pronouncing the names properly… now I guess I’ve just got to that age where I’m not distracted by that kind of detail… 😀
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Good questions – I’ll have to try this out. I haven’t looked at runes for a long time either, but took up the offer of a free (practice) rune reading not long ago. Perhaps it’s time to dig them out again…
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Yes, dig them ouit 🙂 Let’s start a runic revival 😀
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