November Portents

Welcome welcome once again to my realm of agony and misery. Sorry, I mean destiny and mystery! Join me yet again as we plummet off the cliffs of the known and plunge deep into the vast uncertain depths of the future! For those of you just joining me, this is Portents where every month or so I grab whatever form of Divination strikes my fancy and give you lot a reading on what to expect in the coming month or however long. 

I’d suggest anyone out there who doubts my prowess in the realm of Divs check my last article. Image of a figure searching for a needle in some haystack or other and the sky being all dark? Bit spot on these days, innit? Then the person got really angry when they couldn’t find what they were searching for, which reckon the lot of us are getting a taste of now, yeah? Bloody frustrating when you can’t find what you’re looking for, innit? And not to brag or nothing but I seem to recall my article dropping a few days before we got slam-dunked into perpetual night.

Right, that’s enough about the past then. Here at Portents we only care about the future… mostly. So what should we do today then, hmm? I’d considered going on with the seasonal theme and doing some haruspex using pumpkin guts like last year or whenever but just wasn’t feeling it today so our pumpkin friends get to live a little longer. What should we do instead, then? Perhaps something else that’s super spooky and creepy and pertinent to the season? Maybe throwing some bones, divining spiderwebs, or sacrificing some animal or other?

Nah, I’m just gonna do runes. Sometimes you just gotta go with what your heart’s telling you and since my cards are still on the bloody fritz my heart’s decided runes.

What are runes, you ask?

This is the part I’d normally describe it and give you some factoid or two but I don’t bloody feel like it so go read a book or ask your professors or whatever. That’s my homework assignment to you.

Right, so those of you familiar with Tarot will probably be familiar with the simple spread I’ll be going with tonight. I’ll pull three runes, the first of which will go on the left and represent something about the past that still affects us today. The second rune will go in the middle and represent something going on right now we should be thinking about. Then the last rune will go on the right and represents the future, either as our outcome or maybe some warning of what to be watchful for.

Last month we asked for some guidance for the whole bloody year and seems we got an answer pertaining to something fairly immediate. Since the universe is so bloody inclined to tell us about the nearer future we’ll keep on with that and ask for a bit of insight on the coming month. Will the darkness prevail forever or will it subside and give us sunlight once more? Will fixing our mystery clock fix everything or is it merely some dastardly trap we, ourselves, are charging straight into? Will the real hell only be unleashed once that final piece is restored neatly into place?

I’m currently sitting alone in the courtyard surrounded by all those turnip lantern things and the moon looms down on me from above. Least it would be if we could bloody see the moon. The snowy wind is whistling through the archways around me and the world seems positively alive. Far too alive for my liking, honest.

I sit in the roots of that big tree and reach into my leather satchel of runes, searching for ‘the one’. Much like the gut feeling that led me to runes in the first place, I fumble about until my heart tells me to stop. And there it is, my fingers brush against one rune in particular and I just know, without any doubt, that this is my first rune. I pluck it out of the bag and place it just slightly to the left. The past…

ᚦ

Thurisaz, the rune that represents Thor’s hammer itself. Can be pointing to some major changes or some big nasty destructive force though could be representing something defensive as well. My bet’s on the ‘destructive’ and if you’ve read a bloody newspaper or opened your eyes lately you’ll probably agree. 

But that’s the past, let’s see what we should be paying attention to in the here or now…

ᛏ

Tiwaz, which represents the arrowhead or spear of the god Tyr. Seems we’re getting a lot of weaponry today which, again, makes bloody sense if you’re paying attention. This one’s all about leadership and authority and bravery but might also be about victory or strength. So we’re either being pointed to some authority figure who can lead us to victory or being encouraged to find the power within and take charge ourselves. Either way it seems there’s some need for strength right here and now.

And now our last rune. The future. Like I said before, this might be a glimpse of things to come, a warning for what to avoid, or some guidance on what we need for the best possible outcome. I pull out the third rune and place it down…

ᛒ

Berkano, the Birch Goddess. So no more weapons but we get an extra god/goddess in the mix. Fascinating. Anyway, Berkano is the rune of creation and fertility and rebirth and so on. Doesn’t have to be literal birth and fertility and junk, just that whole springtime new beginnings sort of thing. Think here it might be telling us to prepare for changes. 

Alright, time to throw this all together. Seems in our past we’ve got a great show of force and violence and junk that we need to be aware of. This could be any number of things from the fighting in Scandinavia and greater Europe everyone round here is so good at burying their heads in the sand over or the chaos in the castle last year or that mess over the summer even. Bit hard to tell right now and the other runes don’t clear it up much. Anyway, whatever the violence was, Tiwaz seems to encourage us to find that strength and courage either within ourselves or somewhere else. Could mean strengthening our bonds with one another or could be some external force to give us hope or could just be literally telling us to get stronger. Lastly, Berkan’s warning us that the future will be bloody new and maybe completely unrecognisable compared to now but hard to tell if that’s in a good way or bad way. After all, rebirth and junk is typically a good thing but not always. Reckon loads of dark wixen had a ‘rebirth’ that led them going bad, we just call it a ‘fall’ or whatever when it’s something we don’t agree with.

Well there you have it. Though what ‘it’ is is real bloody hard to say. Guess the moral of the story is to find strength to ready ourselves for whatever’s coming so go pump some iron, practise your spells, and keep your guard up. Bloody hell I give that advice a lot in here but it’s never NOT true, is it?

That’s all for this time. Keep your head fastened on and your wits about you and you just might live long enough to see the future!

Riven Redwhisper

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