Jeff Russell

Ogham
Asking - "What does Anna most need to understand about her mental state?"
Draw
Setting: Huath
Mind: Straif (Reversed)
Deeds: Tinne

My Take on It

Alrighty, to do this reading, I opened a sacred space, called upon the Wyrds (Norns) and concentrated on your question while shuffling the Ogham Cards. I then drew three cards, using the spread "Setting (context), Mind (your own patterns of thought and feeling), and Deeds (anything concrete contributing to your mental state/to be done about it). I then said a prayer to the Gods who help me with divination, before looking at the cards. If I drew the card right side up, it is "upright," and if I drew it upside-down it is "reversed." For interpretation, I use my own intuition based on the Upright and Reversed meanings given by JMG in his Druidry Handbook.

For the reading, for "Setting," what's going on around you relevant to this question, we got Huath, which means "Terrible," and stands for patience, waiting, and not yet having what you want/need. For "Mind," what patterns in your thoughts and feelings you should pay attention to, Straif (Reversed) came up, which means "Sulphur" and stands for necessity and inevitable change. For "Deeds," what might be contributing or what might be done about it, we have Tinne, which means "Iron," and stands for courage, conflict, or opposition.

Putting all this together implies a difficult, but not at all hopeless, situation. It seems that you are in a time of "not having" what it is you want, and that it's not in your power to change that, at least right now. It might simply be a matter of patience, or maybe about growing, developing, or getting the tools you need to get it. This is leading you to feel pain and suffering, and very likely like you are trapped. You might in some sense believe you deserve this suffering, which may or may not be accurate. The way out of this is some kind of bold, decisive action, very likely with an element of conflict or in opposition to someone else's will. Putting Straif (Reversed) for your mental state and Tinne for deeds together implies to me that your desire to avoid this conflict/doing something scary is precisely what's "trapping" you in your unwanted position. All of that said, one aspect of Huath is patience, which implies that it might not be best to go do something drastic as soon as you finish reading this - there may be a certain amount of preparation or waiting for the right time to act, but no amount of that will remove the need for courage in doing something likely to be unpleasant, possibly with the direct opposition of someone or many someones who don't want you to do it.

As a last, more speculative note that I felt compelled to share given Straif's placement as "Mind" and coming up reversed. Through my own spiritual work, I've come to associate Straif with the Jungian Shadow - those parts of your psyche that you reject as "not really me" or refuse to engage with/acknowledge. This implies to me that part of what might be making you feel "stuck" or "trapped" is a lack of integration of some parts of yourself. Most folks who talk about the Shadow tend to focus on the kinds of things that seem obviously "bad" to most of us - aggression, hatred, inappropriate lust, and so forth. And it's possible that one or more of those are at play here! Very often, writers on the Shadow equate it with "evil," which can be helpful and useful, especially for those who have not much wrestled with their own tendencies towards evil (we all have at least some!). On the other hand, I have found some of the hardest, and seemingly most worthwhile, "Shadow work" to be around things that are less obvious - the kinds of things that you wouldn't fault someone else for, but for whatever reason, you can't face in yourself. For me "helplessness" has been one of those things that I've had to dig up and confront, and I'm still working on that one (it turns out, I really don't want to accept I'm ever truly helpless). So, if any of this about the Shadow resonates with you, consider not only the "obvious" things you might be hiding about yourself from yourself, but maybe some of the more subtle ones.

Please let me know if you have any follow up questions, and if you're willing, I'd very much appreciate hearing whether this struck a chord or felt off, and if so, in what ways.

Cheers,
Jeff