If you've read the post below about runes - you'll know that Mannaz is the rune I drew when I asked the question "What is this about" after I got my cancer diagnosis ... it's not that I think the runes "tell" me things, but I do think that they offer me ways of looking at my life at any given point, and the Mannaz rune makes an interesting choice ...
Liz says "I think you read this experience of coping with cancer in this light - as a trial that is calling out very deep and profound spiritual qualities in you" and I think that she has found a good way of expressing it, it is a kind of test or trial, and how I deal with it will bring out my best qualities.
I also TOTALLY agree with another comment that she made in a recent email: "I don't like the idea of casually writing off suffering as somehow 'good for us' but I do think that in every life there are some dramatic moments when we are given a chance to grow bigger or smaller, and it all comes down to our own choices/willingness to grow.".
I think I can grow spiritually now because I'd started on it long before this cancer diagnosis, and the strength I've got from being on a spiritual journey will not only help me to deal with this illness, but help me to grow bigger too.
Mannaz
I am just choosing a few bits from my rune interpretations book that pertain to the Mannaz rune.
The starting point is the self. Its essence is water, only clarity, willingness to change, is effective now. A correct relationship to yourself is primary, for from it flow all possible right relationships with others and with the Divine.
Strive to live the ordinary life in a non-ordinary way. Remember at all times what is coming to be and passing away and focus on that which abides.
This is a time of major growth and and rectification and as a rule rectification must come before progress. The field must be tilled before the seed is planted, the garden is weeded before the flower blooms and the self must know stillness before ir can discover its true song.
No matter what area of your life is in disarray, stop and consider. You will recognise the outer enemy as but a reflection of what you have not, until now, been able or willing to recognise as coming from within.
Above all do not give yourself airs. Breaking the momentum of past habits is the challenge here, in the life of the Spirit, you are always at the beginning.
2 comments:
I love seeing the runes up here, and so pleased that what I did and wrote has been helpful. It is always a bit of risk to share something deep and spiritual, but so important to try to do it! For that reason I am v pleased you are keeping this blog!
BTW I am a heathen not a pagan. Picky picky I know, but I dont follow wicca, which mainly involves wearing purple velour mock medieval clothes and drawing pentagrams on everything. As a heathen I follow the Northern European shamanic tradition, the main sources for which are the Icelandic sagas, Anglo Saxon poetry and the runes...... I feel like a right anorak now, but believe me there really is a difference!
Oh dear Liz -- I am so sorry for accusing you of being a purple velour person -- Please Forgive Me... I should have known a woman with your dress sense would need something more fur and feather than that!
I like doing this blog -- on the one hand it exposes my ideas rather, and also where they are inchoherent and maybe even inconsistent to some ppl --
but then I'm not bothered what "some ppl" might think, and I dont pretend to have reached any great "overview" or even to attach myself to any single tradition or faith ... but this space allows me to gather and share the eclectic points that make sense to me, and help me too
I love the runes - the colour doesnt come across so well in this picture, but that is a SCAN not a photo!
xx suze
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