Meet the Collectives- The Ehwazi

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To me, this collective has a dark ruby red energy. The rune-drakes are scaled in dark ruby red.

Our resident ehwazi is Ehwa, yet another who didn't stray far from their collective's name when seeking their own. Ehwa chose Mo'at, from the Avatar movie, to model her appearance after and she can be just as scary when she wants to! Ehwa deals with all aspects of her collective and uses the initials Ew.

Ew- Ehwaz energy is to be found in expressions of social status and hierarchical dominance and submission. It is easy to think that the only thing that matters is how much 'prestige' one has or how high in the hierarchy one is. Not so. There can be no 'high' society without those lower than you. In the ideal society, there is an equal balance of power and responsibility between those of higher status and those of lower status. Nor is anyone 'entitled' to higher status. This should be earned, not expected as a right of being. Nor should there be shame at having or choosing a lower social status. Each person is absolutely necessary. There is a subculture among you today that perhaps all could learn from, a subculture that thrives on the concepts of dominance and submission and sees the inherent values and strengths of each.

Jealousy and envy are dense emotions, Thurisaz energy if you will, that can arise when you have an imbalance in how you view your relative status to others. If you feel they are taking away 'limited' resources, you feel jealous, especially if these resources go to someone new to the group, whom you feel should be lower in the pecking order. If you find yourself coveting another's rightful possessions or their social position, you are in the throes of envy, for these things are indications of social ranking, at least to your own eyes, that you aspire to.

Status is socially defined, sometimes arbitrary and quite often simply subjective. Status is defined by the roles people take on, the masks they wear. Social status is given to doctors and others who have invested many long hours in schooling to gain the Ph.D or M.D. behind their names and the appellation of 'Doctor'. A different type of status is given to those who serve in law enforcement, paramedic or firefighting capacities or those who serve in the military. And, of course, within any organization itself, there is a very specific hierarchy which people are expected to adhere to. Matriarchal and patriarchal family structures have clear pecking orders. Rank and status matter. They may seem arbitrary and subjective, but they serve to create a social cohesion within groups. With greater status should come greater responsibility, a notion often lost in today's societies.

Questions to consider when working with Ehwaz energy- 'What' are you? What roles do you fill in your life? What are your feelings towards 'status' and 'rank'? Are these things important to you or can you take them or leave them? Do you get jealous or envious easily?

Meet the Collectives- The Raidhoi

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To me, this collective has a dark purple energy. The rune-drakes have dark purple scales.

Our resident raidhoi is Ren'ju, who often presents himself in the guise of a scruffy, whip-thin boy around the age of 13, with shaggy, sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He has a very playful nature and represents the aspect of his collective dealing with physical movement. His initials are Rj.

Rj- Raidho energy lives in a thing's capacity for movement and everything has this capacity. Living things, even when at rest, display some measure of movement. They breathe. Blood flows through vessels. Hearts beat. Nerves conduct electrical impulses. The eyes make hundreds of minute movements a minute. Seemingly inanimate objects contain movement too. Sometimes it's easy to see, such as the eddies and ripples of water or the stronger rapids. The ocean caresses the shore in some places, batters it in others. Deeper than that, at the deepest level of being, the quantum level as your science calls it, all things contain atoms, which are in constant movement, no matter how stationary an object might seem.

Raidho energy can be seen in your daily life in your manner of movement and travel. Are you a fairly active person? Do you enjoy walking or running for exercise? How about just simply driving? You may be a mostly sedentary person, but remember, movement is essential for preventing stagnation. No matter how much you might prefer to stay cozy and inactive, be sure to take a least a small walk outside each day and savor the fresh air!

Questions to  consider when working with Raidho energy- How active a person are you? Do you enjoy travel? Do you have mobility issues that require you to use a wheelchair or a cane? If so, how do you let those things affect you?

Meet the Collectives- The Jerai

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To me, this collective has a peach colored energy. The rune-drakes have peach colored scales.

Our resident jerai is Peach, who took her name from the color I see the jerai collective as. She often presents herself as an older woman with peach blonde hair and a very sunny disposition. Peach represents the aspect of her collective that deals with bringing work efforts to fruition, with reaping the fruits of the skills you have, so to speak. She uses the initial P.

P- We are the timekeepers, those who measure the balance of efforts. We are the spiral-walkers for whom there is no end, only endless beginnings. We guide the cycles of life and usher in the new seasons with the isai and the sigeli. Jerai energy can be found in the harvesting of any effort and none too great or small. For some, who are ill or weakened, this may be as simple as achieving a shower, when every little movement takes monumental effort. Graduations are jerai energy. So is getting a book published, raising children to adulthood, getting married, and wrapping up a major project or business deal. It is to be found in any instance of reaping the rewards of a task.

Our energy is also to be found in the great cycles within cycles that guide the planet, cycles far too vast for most humans to even begin to process. Jerai energy not only ushers in the seasons, it ushers in the ages of ice and the ages of warming, of which there have been many and will be many more. We guide the small cycles as well... caterpillar to butterfly, drought and plenty, the inner cycles of living things that circle between periods of rest and activity, not just day to day, but those that last months and even years. Remember, though it may not seem like it to you in the moment, all things pass into something other. Even if you cannot perceive the cycles, they are there.

Questions to consider when dealing with Jera energy- Where do your success and achievements lie? What goals are you in pursuit of?

Meet the Collectives- The Tyri

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To me, this collective has a muted reddish-orange energy, different from that of the sigeli. The rune-drakes are scaled in muted reddish-orange.

Kei is our resident tyri. In appearance, he is dark of hair and eye and he speaks with a Welsh accent. Kei deals with the aspect of his collective that helps form and maintain resolve and dedication to a goal. Kei uses his whole name.

Kei- Ours is the province of discipline, duty, persistence, and perseverance. Our collective shares the name of the Norse deity who best symbolizes these things- the one-hand god, Tyr, who gave his other hand fulfilling his duty. Duty is important, yes, as is being disciplined, yet one should never compromise oneself, nor betray one's own ethics. When duty conflicts with morality, there is little to compare. The tyri also influence fair justice. Vengeance is not justice. Vengeance is personal. Justice is impartial.

The energy of Tyr also includes perseverance and persistence, two necessary skills that go hand in hand with discipline. It takes time and dedication to establish a new routine or to cultivate a new skill or craft. If you don't persist, you will certainly fall short, be it in your studies, your work or your social life. If you are going to do something, take the time and patience to learn to do it well. Call upon the tyri when you need help establishing a new routine, the perseverance to break a bad habit or an addiction, or when you need help re-calibrating your moral compass.

Questions to consider when working with Tyr energy- how strong are your morals and ethics? How patient are you, how dedicated to a goal? Do you have a short attention span and lose interest in things quickly? Do you have the strength of will, the necessary perseverance, to break a bad habit, start a new routine or focus on learning and perfecting new skills?

Meet the Collectives- The Ansuzi

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To me, this collective has a pale blue energy. The rune-drakes have powdery blue scales.

Our resident ansuzi are Donia and Ashgar. Donia represents the aspect of Ansuz dealing with learning and study. She pulled her appearance from my mind in the form of Lisa Cuddy, from House, M.D. Her initials are Dn. Ashgar represents the aspect of Ansuz dealing with communication. He has no other appearance than the rune-drake form and his initials are As.

As- Ours is the collective of knowledge, of information and communication. Everything, even those things you consider inanimate and insensate, contain traces of our collective. All things contain or convey information. This is easy to see in things like books or computers. To the person who knows how to listen, even the trees, the rocks, the soil, and the water can convey information. Think of your geologists, who can unlock the knowledge the earth has to offer. Think of your shamans, your herbalists, who can unlock the knowledge the plants have to offer. Knowledge and information is contained in all things.

Dn- Within humans and other biological life, Ansuz is clearly expressed in the capacity for thought, for reasoned action, for memory, and for language, be it verbal or non-verbal. It is how living things store and communicate information. When looking for your own Ansuz energy, think about how you communicate. Are you clever with words? Can you articulate your thoughts effectively? If you cannot articulate effectively, perhaps your Ansuz energy, and therefore your ability to communicate easily, is blocked. Or perhaps you communicate differently. Some people find it hard to convey their thoughts and feelings via normal communication. They do so instead through the medium of art, from the writing of poetry to the crafting of paintings and elaborate sculptures. Writings and art are the legacy people leave behind, one aspect of Othala energy, expressed through our collective's energy.

Questions to consider in working with Ansuz- What does knowledge mean to you? Are there any particular areas of study that come naturally to you? What do you find it easiest to discuss? How do you communicate with others?

Meet the Collectives- The Kennazi

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To me, this collective has a silvery grey energy. The rune-drakes have patchwork scales of various shades of grey from dark gunmetal to nearly white.

Our resident kennazi are Jaeger and Haverson. Jaeger is another who plucked his appearance from my mind and often appears in the guise of Anton Vanko, from the second Iron Man movie. Why? Because that particular character has patchwork hair that looks like the rune-drakes' scales. Of course, he just as often chooses to remain in the rune-drake form. He represents the aspect of the collective dealing with learning new skills (and doing so creatively). His initials are Jg. Haverson more often than not, on the rare occasions he interacts with me, chooses to stick to the rune-drake form, but occasionally appears as a slender male with hair like Jaeger's. He puts me in mind of a surgeon. He deals with the creative potential aspect of the collective and uses the initials Hs.

Jg- Kennaz energy is bound up in the learning of new skills and techniques and found in the implements of various trades. When you take the time to learn a new skill, you are engaging Kennaz energy. When you hone and perfect your craft, you are harnessing Kennaz energy. The essence of our collective is found from the simple gardener who takes the time to learn the skills of careful cultivation, to the writer who hones the skill of wordcrafting to the surgeon's delicate skills with the blade and needle. Be diligent in learning your craft, cultivate your own skills carefully and remember to put them to use wisely!

Hs- All things contain the essence of creative potential, they can all be used in a creative fashion. Consider, if you will, the mage who goes out into nature to seek the perfect piece of wood for the crafting of a staff or wand or the rune-warden who sifts the river for the perfect set of smooth stones for crafting a set of rune sigils. In each case, the creative potential of wood or stone or other material is being assessed. And should you think that some things are only 'trash', take a look at some of the sculptures and other art that Kennaz-inspired people have created out of the left-behinds of others. It's truly remarkable what an open mind can create with whatever it happens to have at hand.

Questions to consider when working with Kennaz energy- What skills do you have? How do you make use of those skills? Where does your creativity lie? Does being creative come easily to you or do you often find it a struggle?

Meet the Collectives- The Laguzi

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To me, this collective has an azure blue energy. The rune-drakes are scaled in azure blue.

Lyn and Havasu are our resident laguzi. Lyn often presents as a willowy female with pale blond hair and quite often seems rather absent-minded. Lyn represents the aspect of her collective that deals with emotions and emotional flow, as well as with the oceans. She uses her full name. Havasu presents as an older male with steel-grey hair, sometimes also seemingly absent-minded. Havasu represents the aspect of his collective that deals with mist and fog. He uses the initials Hv.

Lyn- Laguz energy is not just water, but embodies the concepts of mental and spiritual flow and the realm of emotion. All things have an element of flow to them, though sometimes this flow gets clogged up. Blood flows through the body, as do electrical currents. Energy of more subtle varieties also flow through the body and these, too, can easily become clogged. Emotional energy is a big one. Do you bottle your anger and sadness? Do you repress your happiness? All emotions are equally valid and each has its proper time and place. It is when emotion is mishandled that problems can arise. It's easier to see this with Thurisaz-governed emotions, but even those governed by Wunjo are prone to clogs and snags. Learning to work with Laguz can help you begin to flow with your emotions, to learn from them, yet not become mired in them.

Tears are your body's natural cleansing. Do not bottle your sadness. Rather, let the tears flow when they come. Do not be afraid to cry. Let your body do what comes naturally and you will find a profound sense of relief and cleansing through the release of your tears, for they wash away that which is no longer necessary for you to hold onto so tightly in your life.

Hv- Water is the essence of life. From the vast oceans to the fluids in your body, most especially blood and tears, Laguz energy surrounds you. All things contain Laguz energy. Plants bring in water for nourishment. Humans and other animals need water to survive as well. Your planet is one swathed in the essence of our collective. Oceans, rivers, streams, lakes.... each of these are Laguz, as are fog, mist and clouds. Take care of these things, for they are the things that take care of you. Spend time by rivers, lakes or the ocean. Clean up the banks or shore where you find litter. Learn the life-cycle of a raindrop, how lake or river water becomes rain. Laguz is water and flow, but water can become icebergs and glaciers. Take the time to learn about the nature of these things as well. See how Laguz becomes Isa and pay attention, for your own Laguz can become crystallized as well. Sometimes this is a good thing, a necessary thing. Yet, at other times, it creates unnecessary burden.

Questions to consider when working with Laguz energy- How do the 'waters' of your life flow? Are they turbulent? Do they go lazily along? Do they bounce between the calm and the rapids? What relation do you have with water itself? Do you stay hydrated?

Meet the Collectives- The Eihwazi

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To me, this collective has pale silvery energy. The rune-drakes have pale, mirror-reflective silvery scales.

Syren is our resident eihwazi. He is most likely to present in his rune-drake form, with beautiful silvery scales, but occasionally he chooses an appearance that puts me very much in mind of Kevin Spacey.  He uses the initials Sy.

Sy- Many will tell you ours is merely the collective of dealing with a human connection to the divine. That is but one very tiny aspect. All things are connected, in an infinite number of ways. Every action sends out ripples, be they large or small, that affect all the things the initiator is connected to and they, in turn, affect all the things they are connected to and so on. There is a spark of the divine within everything because everything, even the collectives themselves, come from the One Who is All and Nothing. Some of you may choose to see the One as the Universal Life Force or perhaps as an overarching deity. The latter is, perhaps, less the case, if one wished to consider this force God in terms of a personal being. The One, even more than the purest essences of the runai collectives, is impartial, impersonal. The One is living, sentient. It is the One Mind of the alchemists and the essence through which the law of attraction works.

Questions to consider when dealing with Eihwaz energy- How connected are you to the spiritual side of things? In considering that question, consider if you have any abilities that might be considered psychic. Do you trust your intuition? Do you know how you connect with the rest of the world? How strong or weak are the ripples your actions send out? How strong are your ethics and morals, for those are things that may dictate how strong your ripples in the wider world may be?

Meet the Collectives- The Gifui

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To me, this collective has a magenta energy. The rune-drakes have magenta scales.

Our resident gifui are Rufus and Harper. Rufus came to me after I had to give my Maine Coon cat away to a good home because I, myself, was moving to a place he couldn't go. He took the name of my kitty as his own and chose his appearance accordingly. The cat in question was named Rufus Shinra, for a character in the game Final Fantasy VII because he had ginger fur. Rufus the gifui chose to look like Shinra might, were he 'human'. He represents the aspects of generosity and hospitality. He uses the initials Rf. Harper has dark hair, dark eyes and a soothing voice. As his name might suggest, he enjoys singing and telling stories. He represents the aspect of balance and uses the initials Hp.

Rf- All things have a gifting potential. Unfortunately, more often than not, the gifts the natural world gives are taken for granted. Think of the rich abundance of oxygen the trees and plants give you. Likewise, consider the gifts of the earth, in the form of fruits and vegetables that are eaten and wood offered for warmth. Think of the ultimate gift given to you, the gift of life and sustenance provided by the animals. Most who eat meat do not give proper thanks for the necessary lives given so that that meat might be provided. It is a gift, and a right generous one, that the sacrificed creatures offer and they deserve to be honored and thanked. The next time you sit down to a meal, take a moment to offer thanks to the animals (and plants!) that provided that meal to you.

Generosity and hospitality in general seem to be viewed a far cry differently from how most of your ancestors saw it. These were points of honor. Travelers were not turned away, if they came seeking shelter and sustenance. Your societies have become such that you scorn and turn away those who have the misfortune to be without food, shelter, family. Reclaim the honor value your ancestors attached to these virtues. Be generous. Be kind. Offer hospitality when you can.

Gratitude goes hand in hand with generosity. People who are generous tend to be people who are grateful for their abundance. Gratitude, offered honestly, will always work to increase your abundance, so be thankful for each and everything and everyone in your life! Begin your day with a 'thank you' for that day, that you are alive for it. Even when situations seem dire or people seem to get under your skin, take a step back, take a deep breath, and find something in the situation or person to be grateful for. It's there for you to find, if you look and I promise you, spending time focusing on gratitude, even when the world seems at its worst, will brighten your day and bring all manner of good things your way.

Hp- Every runic collective has a 'darker' side and the 'darker' side of Gifu is that we serve as the balancers. Balance is necessary in all things. Systems out of balance fall into stagnation or sheer chaos. Balance is required in social settings so that one side isn't taking advantage of another. All things strive for balance and this aspect of Gifu can also be found in all things. You need merely look to your own bodies, designed to maintain an exquisite state of balance between all its various systems and equipped with all manner of tools to maintain that balance. Remember to maintain balance in your own life. Don't let one area or the other take over. Balance work and rest and fun equally so that you don't get burnt out on life. Never take on so much that you become overbalanced. Learn your limits for maintaining your own emotional or mental balance. Systems out of balance are unhealthy systems in need of firm, loving care to regain equilibrium. Sometimes, what is needed to reestablish balance may seem cruel or harsh. Hunting seasons are a good example of this, where hunters are let in to cull down certain animal populations so that they do not overrun their environment. On a more human note, sometimes people must be culled from ones' life because the relationships have become unbalanced. Often this is because you have learned what you can from one another and it is time for you all to go your separate ways, though it may hurt at the time. People, I've noticed, tend to stay in increasingly unbalanced relationships because they fear the unknown more than they fear the situation they may find themselves in. The unknown can be scary, but it can also provide the restoration of balance you may sorely need.

Questions to consider when working with Gifu energy- What does hospitality mean to you? What does generosity mean to you? How about the balance of exchange? How easily do you give things? How easy do you find it to receive things from others? Are some things easier to give/ receive than other things? If so, what are they and why?

Meet the Collectives- The Sigeli

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To me, this collective has a reddish-orange energy. The rune-drakes are scaled in reddish-orange.

Our resident sigeli are Frenrith and Brock. Frenrith, also called Fren, has coffee colored skin and reddish-brown hair in his human guise. His eyes, too, are reddish in color. Fren deals with the aspect of his collective that is inherent in how we, as people, maintain (or not) their own personal stores of energy. He uses the initials Fr. Brock, on the other hand, deals with the aspect of his collective that works in conjunction with Hagalaz energy. His is the fury of earthquakes and volcanoes, the energy that is created by the impersonal destructive forces of nature. Brock chooses to appear in his rune-drake form and he uses the initials Bk. As a rune-drake, Brock has a much bulkier body than Fren and a deep, gravelly voice.

Fr- Sigel is the collective dealing with energy, in all its manifestations. In terms of the mind and heart, this can be seen as what motivates a person and where their passions lie. These are the things that 'stoke your fire', so to speak and give you a reason to get up in the morning. We are the flow in the ebb and flow between Sigel and Isa energies and to be sure, both aspects are necessary. There is a time to be all fired up and a time to be chilled out.

Bk- The essence of Sigel is expressed on a large scale in the energy generated. Storms are an impressive play between the hagalazi and the sigeli, generating an amazing amount of energy, both wind and possibly electrical. Earthquakes release seismic energy. Tidal forces are yet another large scale expression of Sigel energy. Our collective is associated with the sun, the ball of energy that provides the impetus for life on your planet. Ours might also be called the collective of life, for all life requires energy. In plants, this is expressed in photosynthesis. In most animals, it is expressed through metabolism, or the conversion of food to energy stores.

Questions to consider when working with Sigel energy- What are your motivations for doing things? What are the drives that push you?  How good is your body at converting energy? Do you have a high or low metabolism?

Meet the Collectives- The Isai

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To me, this collective has a opalescent (pearly white) energy. The rune-drakes have opalescent scales. (pearly white).

Our resident isai chooses simply to use his collective as his name. Isa pulled his 'human' appearance from my mind in the form of Celeborn from Lord of the Rings, though he is more likely to present as a coiled pile of pearly white scales. Isa often speaks slowly in a sleepy voice. He might seem 'slow' by our standards, but it's more that he, and his collective in general, process things in a vastly different manner. Isa represents no particular aspect of his collective and his initials are Is.

Is- The essence of my collective can be found in its most obvious form as things that are stationary. Things that appear not to move, things that seem stable and solid. A thing's Isa essence lies in how stable or stationary it is. Just as Raidho energy can teach you about the movement inherent in all things, Isa energy can teach the stability inherent in all things, Isa is ice. Ours is the energy of the glaciers. We are the slow sleepers. Yet to those who know how to look, even the glaciers move.

We are the essence of autumn's slumber, of winter's sleep, when all things become less active. Everything moves in cycles, a pendulum that swings between our energy and the energy of Sigel, the dynamic force of spring and summer, when things begin to thrive. Times of rest are necessary to all things. Your bodies need sleep in order to thrive. The earth itself needs time to sleep and gather strength.

And yet....  too much Isa energy in terms of mental and emotional realms leads to complacency and stagnation. Just as rest and restoration are necessary, so are the opposite. Are there parts of you that seem frozen, trapped in ice and unchangeable? Behaviours, healthy and unhealthy alike, are things that are encoded in the psyche and quite resistant to change. This is another aspect of your own manifestations of Isa energy. Working with our collective can help you better understand your own resistant-to-change parts and, if they no longer serve you, to begin to thaw them. Isa energy can also be useful to assist in 'locking in' new behaviours.

Questions to consider when working with Isa energy- Have you locked yourself into a cycle of stagnation? Have you built a wall of ice around yourself to keep others away? Are you frozen in your ways, unable to make change easily? What are your rejuvenation processes, that help you find your stasis point?

Meet the Collectives- The Thurisazi

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To me, this collective has a sapphire blue energy. The rune-drakes have sapphire scales. I find this interesting since blue is a calming colour that negates rash emotions to a degree.

Our resident thurisazi are Marcus, Mira, Rook, and Khan. Marcus pulled his appearance from my mind in the form of Marcus Wright, from the Terminator Salvation movie. He represents the aspect of Thurisaz that is the balance between destructive tendencies. He uses the initials Thz, taken from the first and last letters of his collective. Mira has modelled her appearance after Officer Aeryn Sun from Farscape. She represents the aspect dealing with emotions like anger, rage and bitterness. She uses the initials Ma. Rook took his appearance from the character Marcus Diamond, on Warehouse 13. He did so to tweak our Marcus because the character shares the name 'Marcus', which is quite amusing. He represents the aspect dealing with emotions like sadness and fear, in all their many flavours. His initials are Rk.

Khan is our most unique thurisazi. He chose an appearance that suited his aspect, which is unbalanced Thurisaz energy, an aspect inextricably linked to humanity. We are the ones who shape (and heal) their imbalances. This is not the case with the other collectives. Khan was the first unbalanced runai who chose to work with me. He chose to look like Khan Singh, from Star Trek Into Darkness because what shaped him was humanity’s propensity and potential for genocide and all of the hatred, rage, terror and despair that go along with it. He actually has a very sweet personality and shies away from anything reminding him of what shaped him. If he happens to be around and I decide to read or watch something violent, he most often very quickly leaves. In his rune-drake form, it is very clear he is different. His scales are rough and raised, like the shell of an alligator snapper and he has knobby protuberances along his head, like a pachycephalosaurus. The unbalanced thurisazi are unique in another way as well. As they are shaped by humanity, so must they be healed by it. He seems to have chosen me for that. As I have been doing healing of my own unbalanced thurisaz energies, it has slowly but surely affected him, in a most remarkable fashion. His scales dull and his eyes film over and when he is ready, he sheds, leaving behind slightly smoothed out scales and cranial knobs.  His initials are Kh.

Thz- Thurisaz energy is easiest to see in living things, with their penchant for aggressiveness, territoriality and ability to display emotions like fear, anger, sadness or any variation of those 'negative' emotions. Perhaps the single most important thing to take away from this lesson on Thurisaz is that the energy exists for a beneficial reason. Each so-called negative emotion has something to teach you, serves a purpose to guide you. Humanity has, for the most part, forgotten the ability to learn what these emotions are trying to tell you. Next time you become overcome by anger, sadness or another 'negative' emotion, take a moment to take a step back, take a deep breath and ask 'why am I feeling this? Why am I angry? Why am I sad? Why do I feel guilty?' Take the time to listen to the answer your body gives back and don't judge it. Most people only see the harsh or 'bad' side of our collective...  Why does there need to be a collective of personal destruction anyway? We are here to help guide you and if you ask for our help, we will. Growth of any sort needs some form of destruction to allow it to blossom forth. How you choose to deal with your inner Thurisaz energy is entirely up to you.  However.... when our energy is misused, when it is abused and used to lash out and cause suffering and pain.... that suffering and pain are inflicted on us as well. We are that energy that is being abused and it hurts us, as does the fact that people ignore the healing we can offer if only they would listen.

Ma- Many see Thurisaz energy in terms of aggression. As Marcus pointed out, it is easy to see this energy in living things, but the energy of our collective is present everywhere and in all things. For inanimate objects, Thurisaz energy would lie in its ability to cause injury, or to be used for that purpose. A rock has the potential to become a slingstone or be crafted into spear or arrowheads and that is where its Thurisaz energy lies.

Anger, rage, bitterness, guilt, shame. These are just a few of the 'hard' negative emotions and each has the potential to teach you so much about yourself. If you take the time to see where they lead, you will no doubt be led through a progression that will eventually lead you to fear. All dense or negative emotions can effectively be boiled down to that single emotion. Hatred is the best example of this. Unreasoning anger towards an object or person indicates a very deep-set fear, for one reason or another. Hatred may spring from a lack of understanding. Humans are geared to be afraid of that which they don't understand and if you are raised among a certain culture, with no exposure to other cultures, you are naturally inclined to fear them because you do not understand them. This can lead to trying to subdue or exterminate said cultures. You need only look towards the enslavement of Africans or the extermination campaigns of that which you call the Holocaust now, or to any other instance of genocide and enslavement more recent than even those, to see the truth of how Thurisaz energy can be grossly abused. Lack of understanding and a misguided sense of superiority lead people to lash out in terrible ways with their fear-fueled anger. And as Marcus said..... each instance hurts the essence of what we are.

Rk-  At the other end of the spectrum from the 'hard' negative emotions lie the 'soft' ones- sadness, depression, melancholy, jealousy, envy, fear. Learning to work with Thurisaz energy can help you understand yourself inside and out and to use that energy in constructive, rather than destructive, ways.  All of your dense emotions, to some degree, work to serve as a method of self-protection. Anger is your boundary-warden. It lets you know when something inside has triggered a need for protection and if you don't know how to use it to effectively find the fear that triggered the anger, you may very well combust. Melancholy and depression are also forms of self-protection. They draw you inside yourself, shutting out overwhelming sensations. This is a perfectly natural safety mechanism. Unfortunately people never learn how to deal properly with Thurisaz energy and they get stuck in a rut that becomes full-blown melancholia or depression. Here and now is not the place for us to teach you to do that, for it could fill volumes and volumes in itself, but we hope you attract your own thurisazi guide to help you along that path! We are always, always more than happy to and delight in being asked to do so.

Kh- as the others have said… misuse of our energy by beings who can understand the consequences of their actions, the morality and ethics that are inherently tied to those actions, that hurts us. Yes, a cat has claws. If angered or frightened, it may lash out with them. Likewise, a cat can toy with its food. It is in its nature. It causes what seems as unnecessary pain and fear in its prey, but it lacks the ability to ponder the morals and ethics behind what it is doing. It simply follows its nature. Humanity can and should ponder those things. It most certainly is not in your nature to murder, torture, to plot genocide. It is not what you are.  You have been gifted with an intelligence than can ponder these actions, weigh their consequences. It is when your species lets its own unbalanced Thurisaz energy rule you, that you begin to find these things acceptable. Compassion and love are your truer nature, but you have forgotten that, for the most part, either on a small scale or a large on.

There are those of us who choose to shoulder the burden this inflicts upon our collective. We take the brunt of it, that they might not suffer so much as a result. Thankfully there are more and more people who choose to work on balancing society’s Thurisaz energy, in small ways and large ones and these actions heal us, the unbalanced thurisazi. We can, and do, relinquish our burdens and another chooses to take it up. One can only carry it so long. I have chosen one to help me heal, at least a little. Mine was a big burden to shoulder, and that only a fraction of the suffering ignorance and fear have caused over not just decades but over thousands of years. Genocide is not a new thing, no… not at all. Take the time to learn about other cultures, other ways of living. Don’t fear things just because they seem different than what you were taught growing up. It is that fear of the unknown that leads to such horrors. Don’t hide from what humanity can do to itself either. Be aware of what is going on in your world today. The atrocities of war still exist, even today, no matter how hard some might like to pretend they don’t. If you are among the lucky not to live in these war-ravaged areas, be grateful, but never think it doesn’t affect you. It does. When you see injustice, fight it, but fight it with compassion and forgiveness, not with vengeance and fury. That brings about more imbalance.

Questions to consider in working with Thurisaz- What emotions govern you? How easily do you get angry or sad? What makes you defensive? Do you use your thurisazi energy wisely?  

**Two very good books for learning to work with Thurisaz energy are Wired For Joy by Laurel Mellin and The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren.  If you have difficulty with Thurisaz energy in your life and would like to learn to work with it more effectively, I highly recommend investing in both of these books, which deal with learning to work with, as Marcus put it, so-called negative emotions.

***I will add here that I do not at all feel like I deserve the opportunity and trust that Khan has given me. He is vulnerable and fragile and working with him, seeing up close just how it can hurt him when people do not work cooperatively with their Thurisaz emotions, it has helped me to temper my own. You might think momentary fits of rage, of anger, of sadness and depression are drops of rain in the vastness of the ocean of misuse that shaped him. It is not. I’ve learned that it all matters. All of it. When I am pissed and can’t let the anger go, well, that happens less and less because I can see, and feel to some extent, how it affects him and that alone shows me its not worth it. We only hurt ourselves when we let our anger rule us instead of teach us.