LIR SW June 2015 (for the Spirit Wise Newsletter)

NaihwazR & EihwazR

Things are changing fast. It seems we make a decision and then a whole new set of possibilities opens up.  Whether it's technology or food or fashion (or gas prices), there are no ceilings.

So perhaps, say NaihwazR & EihwazR, it's a good month to practice adaptability, flexibiity. Playability?

NaihwazR says we don't need to stick with just what we have - we can explore a little, splurge a little, try a little, play a little.  EihwazR says we don't have to do things strictly for the long term, or even to expand our dreams. We don't have to balance practical and desirable. We can play a little.

Between them, we get a picture of taking each day as it comes. Trying new things. Doing something that brings happiness in the moment irrelevant to long term goals.  Letting the feelings of the day, the weather, the schedule, the truths, and the curiosities choose how you will practice, how you will grow your dreams. Loosen the reigns, relax the plans, and explore. Play.

Naturally, you want to follow your truth of the moment. The runes aren't advising us to throw our dreams out the window and run amuck. No. But in June, even the flow of society changes because of vacations & reruns & closed schools. Staying indoors, staying "on task" might be difficult. And it is entirely possible that allowing the play, the flexibility, the possibilities into our work will spark new ideas for growth, for dreams. Because, if you're like me, you're always working on your dream, connecting with your goal, even when you relax or look away.

So let's not be stodgy and tied down by the "needful" and the careful balancing of worlds. Let's be nice to ourselves. Let the sunshine in. Use a purple crayon. Do a little dance. Release the kraken! Throw off the shackles & run naked…

Ahem. I mean, Let's Play!

I hope you have a great (and responsibly playful) month.

-Lila

LIR 51315 Weekly - Kunos, EihwazR, UrazR

This week EihwazR holds a different meaning for us. It still talks about how worlds can be separate, without bridges, without an overall view, but now it's more personal. Let's start at the beginning.

Kunos is left, EihwazR lower right, UrazR upper right.
 Link To Video of Reading  

Kunos denotes choices. Possibilities. Light shining into any corner you wish to explore. This week, Kunos tells us that it's time to narrow our choices a little. Time to solidify our plans.  Pick a color scheme, choose a team, decide on which seminars you wish to attend. Make a decision.

Now, we don't have to limit our choices - we can choose a myriad of things - the colors, the team, and the seminars. In fact, EihwazR tells us, the things we choose don't even have to be related to each other. So, I can love purple and gold, but root for the Dallas Cowboys (who are Blue and White. Or silver. I'm not sure.) I, for one, have a variety of interests, and each time I think I'm going to discard all but one, the others come knocking again. So, in this situation this week, I don't have to even apply the skills of just one trade, or the scheme of just one color, to my decisions.

UrazR tells us, however, that if we choose multiple focuses, we will have to be prepared for some shaky ground.

If you stick to one dream, one scheme, you can build it's tool box pretty quickly - heck, you probably already have the color scheme in mind. And the foundation will be solid, and you'll work steadily at building your truth.

If you have different dreams and desires, ones which have little to do with each other, that requires different toolboxes; or perhaps a larger toolbox; or maybe a toolbox, a soapbox, and a bookcase. Different dreams. Different tools. Different skill sets. Maybe even different places.

Steady foundation, or multiple dreams. Either choice can be right - it is your truth which tells you.

And remember, this is just for the choices that come up this week. Who knows what's going to happen next!

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Another adventure for me, this week. Beltania starts tomorrow - it is a 4 day festival celebrating spring, and the marriage of the Goddess and the God. It will be the first time I have attended a camping pagan festival (there are a few during the "sunny" months.)

I have all of my equipment and have even practiced setting up my tent in my raincoat. What I don't have is a real clue as to what classes / events / rituals I want to attend. So different from the Threshold gathering. Which could be the meaning of EihwazR for me, right there. That Threshold Gathering is its own world, and Beltania is its own world. Don't expect the same kind of focus and feeling. They are two different subjects, literally the beginning and the ending of life.

I know I wish to see SJ Tucker in concert. (Yay!). And there's a drumming group that will be giving workshops. But there's also the appeal of the daily services for the sun. So, though I do like to have a plan, I don't actually know what is going to appeal. So I'm going to go with the ungrounded, disconnected, floating version of the weekend. At least for this moment of truth.

I hope you have a great week!

-Lila

LIR Weekly 5615 - EihwazR, EhwazR, JeraR, Perthro

I forgot to take a picture when I did the reading, so I'm hoping to link to the video. 

Runes are read from bottom to top

From the position of the runes (EihwazR being below the chain,) it appears this is a continuation of last week's work with projects or divisible worlds - worlds which need bridges, connections. Last week we decided if they needed bridges, or if it was better to let them - each world, each part of the project, each section of the choir - work alone.

This week is a good time to look at those disparate worlds and see what it is that keeps them from flowing together. Is every part operating under the same goals, the same culture, the same language? Is everyone singing the same song? Comparison and judgment can be good tools.

And, again, do you (do we, do I) want it to be in flow? Is the discordant effect wrong, or right for the truth we're seeking?

This week will probably not produce anything, for all the work and effort we're putting into this project; perhaps it's not time for it to produce anything yet. (so, don't sing the song for the public, don't present the report). There may be another question to ask. Is all this work worth the expected harvest?

It is a good time to get some outside opinions, however. A dress rehearsal, beta testing, or even taking a perception of the project(s) from the overview, instead of from the inside. Recording, practicing, seeing the piece as a whole can help wiggle out where some tuning might be helpful.

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Of course, my own insecurities do pop up immediately - OH NO! What am I doing wrong? Why won't it fit together? Why doesn't anything go the way I want it to?

Then my inner coach gives me my pillow pet and reminds me, there are no mistakes. This is all practice. Big and small, stage show and outfit, final test for college and new business launch. You can only do what you can do. I cannot do your best. You cannot do my best. WE can each only do our best. So how much do I want to give to this project, regardless of its production value? How much time, energy, love, passion, do I want to exert?

And when I put it that way, I can think of a few situations which might fall into this reading very nicely. I'll have to think about the outside influence though. That's something which will require practice… well, I guess it depends on which situation I'm in.

Hmm. I wonder if I can apply the accepting attitude of a place where I request outside information (like voice lessons) to the places I don't want it so much (like when I'm talking about writing and everyone wants to tell me how to get things published.)

Thank you, and I hope you have a Great week!

-Lila

LIR 42815 Weekly

    Hagalaz                                                             

Eihwaz R

EihwazR is about connections, bridges, the middleman standing between two (or more) worlds.

   This week, Eihwaz asks us to contemplate the connections in the situation.

   Does there need to be a bridge or a mediator? Could the situation be helped with an extra step, a translation, a primary overseer?

   Does the situation have a bridge that is not needed? Would the various groups in the project do better to work on their own piece before trying it as a whole?  Can the training wheels come off?

   And the final question: Are you being asked to be the bridge? Do you want to do it?

Hagalaz is the storm, the change, the traumatic change.

   It being spring, Hagalaz could symbolize an actual storm or natural event which causes change - even a small storm can blow away an unneeded piece of paper. Though we may have thought we really needed that paper!

   It could be an emotional or spiritual or situational storm - because something as simple as a haircut can be a traumatic change. Which is redundant. Change is Traumatic, even when we're prepared.

   Perhaps Hagalaz is a question. What could stand to be shaken up? What change in routine, diet, clothes, place, could help release something we no longer need?

EihwazR and Hagalaz could be connected - the decision about the connections or bridges will effect a change.

Whatever the situation, the question, or the answer, remember your truth. It may be different from everyone else's, but it is just as right, for you. And that, standing for yourself, can be the biggest, most traumatic, most simple act of them all.

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Welcome to the transitional post!

Though I suppose the next one will be the actual transitional one.

This month at least, I am finding it difficult to analyze the week previous. I'm very busy looking ahead. So I have changed the style of the post for the next coming week, and I am putting my observation and thoughts about the reading in when I write it.

It's interesting how things transition, isn't it? And is this just for this post, this month? Or for moving forward?

I can tell you, quickly, before I move on, that there were storms in nature last week, as well as a huge shift in myself. I went to the Threshold Choir International Gathering, and in reviewing my actions, it rather feels like I crammed all my years of growth and change into 3 days.

It felt like an Up With People gathering, so on day 1, my automatic defenses rose to people pleasing, bright and shiny Lila. By day 2 (with some deep breathing and permission to remember it is only practice) I had brought myself to vocational Lila - still a little unsure how to present herself directly to people, but much more comfortable exploring her options and space. And then, glorious day 3, (despite the misread as described in the last post), ah, day 3 was the first formal appearance of Lila Unic Allen, Happiness Coach, Story Teller, & World Creator. When I spoke, I spoke from my truth. When I listened, it was without judgment. It felt pretty awesome. She stayed for day 4.

As for the worlds to straddle, or the bridges to burn - I'm not sure. There are so many aspects it could apply to. So, I'll just keep moving forward. 

I hope you have a great week!

-Lila

LIR 4815 Isa & EihwazR

Isa - What is the truth of the situation, the problem, the project, the feeling? Without attaching past experiences or future possibilities, what is the NOW?

EihwazR - And what can be melded easily without needing a bridge, a middleman, a conductor? Is there some extra work involved that's unnecessary?

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I became fixated yesterday on the middle man part - trying to cut out extra work and all those fiddly moments of worry that add so much burden to otherwise simple tasks. (like phone calls. Or answering emails.) Unfortunately, I feel I cut out parts which would have been helpful - like looking over my notes before filming a video class. Ah well.

As for Isa, for me it was more a day of grateful isolation. I accomplished so much, and most of it was easy. 

However, "What is the Now," is a very tricky question. In that it's so simple I want to make it more difficult. It's so tempting to add stories to it. To bring in the past, to compare now to what I want in the future.

Moments change. Truths change. Heck, in my A Capella group, some of my notes were changed because I couldn't reach them consistently. From moment to moment.

It just feels difficult sometimes, when the answers aren't evident, when the truth is something I didn't expect or, worse, goes against my reality.

Blah. Whatever. Seriously. That was then. Now is different. Somehow I made it past the tears I didn't understand, and stopped the video tape of scenarios in my head. Practice pays off. I am glad I allowed the tears of the moment, gave them their space, and then moved on. No repression, no embarrassment. Just acceptance and release.

And then pudding. So that was good.

I hope you had a great day!
-Lila

111513 - EihwazR

Today, #EihwazR is off the cloth.  (ps, this means it physically rolled to a place off of the reading cloth - specifically, upper left).  
You may be dealing with the fear that fulfilling today's needs will deprive others, perhaps your future self.  Is it really concern, or is it guilt?  Choose based on what you can live with, not someone else's opinion.

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As is often the case, when I'm in a tearing hurry and hoping for a quick read, something really complicated arrives instead.  The universe loves me.  (Well, it does.)

Eihwaz is a complex rune in and of itself, being as it balances between two worlds, chooses between now and then.  And being off the cloth meant it wasn't a definite force or situation, so much as a fear.  Or a hope.  An intangible reality.

In the contrary way of the universe, in my perception these intangibles are much more helpful than the tangibles.

We have been doing a lot of practice with choosing -- what makes us happy for the moment?  What feels like our truth?  First we explored what we really desired; then we worked on maintaining those desires regardless of outside approval or disdain; then we worked on showing others, or helping others.  (and yes, if I go back over the daily progression, it probably wasn't as clear cut as that, but that's how it feels to me.)  We learn, we practice, we teach.

So now.  Now we are looking at the next layer.  The why.  
  Sitting in a picture window smelling incense makes you happy.  Why?
  The energy of screaming children is preferable to classical music.  Why?
The intangibles can help us see this, the hidden or underlying fears and hopes.

Today, that intangible was the wrestling between now and then, or us and them.  The haves and the have nots.

And sometimes choice is enough to freeze your decision making.  It's not just, "if I buy a coat today, will I have enough for shoes tomorrow?" 
 It's not even just, "If I buy a coat today, I'll have to buy something for my friend, and then I won't have enough for shoes tomorrow."
  It's also the "How can I buy a coat today, if my friend can't afford the same kind of coat I want to buy?"

There's also the opposite effect.  "Ooh.  I must buy this coat today.  And those shoes.  And buy something for my friend.  Coats for everyone!  Because we may not have it tomorrow!"

Both are extreme examples, but the real and only question is, what makes you happy?  Even if it is guilt that drives you?  Or fear.  Or extreme selfishness.  Or exuberance.  What makes you happy?

Today, I had the opportunity to pay off a debt or two.  And I wanted to pay off as many as I could.  That made me happy.  Exuberant.  Release from the subtle (or not so subtle, in some cases) pressure of "Owing" someone.  And yes, I was aware that part of me thought, "I need to do this today, because I might not want to do it tomorrow.  Tomorrow I might want the coat!"

Shrug.  I did what I could.  And I was happy.  I choice, fully conscious of the motives underneath the manic actions.  Tomorrow's coat, well, that's for tomorrow.

I hope you have a great day.

-Lila