Today's Rune is Raidho
I can't guarantee I'll write about each rune that I pull every day that I pull it, but this weekend I have the time to write.
(Riding) is in the hall
to every warrior
easy, but very hard
for the one who sits up
on a powerful horse
over miles of road.
This rune is active and dynamic. The energy of Raidho is like a spiral, it keeps turning and moving outward, pushing everything forward. Spirals have perfect proportion and spacing. They are slow, ordered growth. Plants grow in spirals. I actually published a bunch of posts this month about spirals and plants over at Patreon. "Hmmm," says the pattern hunter.
This type of growth is long and requires a hell of a lot of effort. I usually reference the Old English rune poems but the Old Norse and Old Icelandic rune poems both talk about how hard the horses work on the journey. This is the journey of becoming and stepping out into the world and it means putting yourself in a position to intentionally experience discomfort. Your "horses" (your muscle memory, your instincts, and all of your survival patterns, good and bad) are definitely put through their paces unlearning and being (re)trained. Hard work over miles of road.
It is also the unfolding of a perfect Fibonacci Spiral, each leaf and petal angled to take in the light. As the spiral grows, more growth becomes visible, and more light is able to be taken in. More energy is converted, and that process of becoming picks up speed. Early on in the journey everything is in darkness and the plant struggles to break free of the soil, establish its roots, and grow the leaves and petals which will continue to draw in the energy of light to feed it.
Raidho can come on the heels of crisis or reckoning. Sometimes it is simply the result of setting goals and showing up daily to do the work, no matter how boring or difficult it is. In my experience as a working witch, though, most of my clients seem to be motivated to action by crisis.
The Old English rune poem says that it is taxing for the rider. Indeed, like The Chariot of the Tarot, controlling the horses, our base desires and reactions to the world, can be extremely difficult, "....but very hard for one who sits on a powerful horse...." If we have powerfully ingrained patterns of behaviour it is extremely difficult to change them but it can be done through the process of Raidho.
And that's all I've got for now. It's time to put the coffee mug in the sink and go do all the things.