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jprussellThis offering is now closed for new questions, but if you have something pressing before I offer another, reach out by DM here on dreamwidth or through my email (linked at my webstead: https://jpowellrussell.com). Those of you who have already asked and not yet gotten an answer, I'm on it and will have those shared in the next couple of days. Otherwise, see you next time!
It's been a while since I've done this, so I figured I'd offer to do a divination reading on whatever questions you think I might be able to help with from now (Sunday, December 22nd) through the end of the year. Just post your question here or send me a dreamwidth message or an email if it's private. Just one question per person, please, but follow-ups should be fine, unless I get way more folks asking than I expect.
A few things on how I tend to approach this, though we can make adjustments on a case-by-case basis, if needed:
1) The two divination systems I'm comfortable with are the Runes and the Ogham. If you have a preference, let me know, but generally speaking, I prefer the Ogham for more magical/spiritual/psychological questions (unless they're specifically Heathen), and the Runes for most practical stuff or anything directly involving the Germanic Gods and Their worship. Not that they can't both answer a full range of questions, I just tend to find them easier to interpret that way in those situations.
2) For most questions, I find some variation of a three card/stave spread in the shape of (roughly) "Past/Present/Future" or "Situation/Action/Outcome" to be most helpful. Sometimes specific questions might call for something a bit different, but when in doubt, that's what I'll go with.
3) As a slight addition to the above, when cards or Runestaves draw attention to themselves in ways I didn't intend (popping out of the deck while shuffling, two cards drawn when I meant to get one, one of the lots bouncing out of the tray I drop them in, that kind of thing), I tend to interpret that as "you need this extra information, pay attention."
4) I'll do my best to convey both the specific cards/staves I got in what positions, and what their "generic" meanings are (at least to me), but then also to synthesize everything into a whole picture. This last bit is largely intuitive, and often is more precise at the risk of being less accurate (example of what I mean: "it will rain tomorrow" is less precise than "it will rain between noon and 1:00 pm tomorrow," but if it rains at 5:00 pm, the former was more accurate because it was less precise), which is why I give the choppier/less synthesized pieces as well as how I think they fit together.
5) I'll be doing family stuff for the holidays, including a bit of travel, so please allow at least 24 hours for me to respond with an estimate on when I'll answer your question. I anticipate being able to do the reading for most within 24-48 hours of posting, but again, if way more folks take me up on this than I expect, that might change.
At any rate, ask away, and a blessed (late) Solstice, merry (early) Christmas, and happy (early) New Year!
Jeff
It's been a while since I've done this, so I figured I'd offer to do a divination reading on whatever questions you think I might be able to help with from now (Sunday, December 22nd) through the end of the year. Just post your question here or send me a dreamwidth message or an email if it's private. Just one question per person, please, but follow-ups should be fine, unless I get way more folks asking than I expect.
A few things on how I tend to approach this, though we can make adjustments on a case-by-case basis, if needed:
1) The two divination systems I'm comfortable with are the Runes and the Ogham. If you have a preference, let me know, but generally speaking, I prefer the Ogham for more magical/spiritual/psychological questions (unless they're specifically Heathen), and the Runes for most practical stuff or anything directly involving the Germanic Gods and Their worship. Not that they can't both answer a full range of questions, I just tend to find them easier to interpret that way in those situations.
2) For most questions, I find some variation of a three card/stave spread in the shape of (roughly) "Past/Present/Future" or "Situation/Action/Outcome" to be most helpful. Sometimes specific questions might call for something a bit different, but when in doubt, that's what I'll go with.
3) As a slight addition to the above, when cards or Runestaves draw attention to themselves in ways I didn't intend (popping out of the deck while shuffling, two cards drawn when I meant to get one, one of the lots bouncing out of the tray I drop them in, that kind of thing), I tend to interpret that as "you need this extra information, pay attention."
4) I'll do my best to convey both the specific cards/staves I got in what positions, and what their "generic" meanings are (at least to me), but then also to synthesize everything into a whole picture. This last bit is largely intuitive, and often is more precise at the risk of being less accurate (example of what I mean: "it will rain tomorrow" is less precise than "it will rain between noon and 1:00 pm tomorrow," but if it rains at 5:00 pm, the former was more accurate because it was less precise), which is why I give the choppier/less synthesized pieces as well as how I think they fit together.
5) I'll be doing family stuff for the holidays, including a bit of travel, so please allow at least 24 hours for me to respond with an estimate on when I'll answer your question. I anticipate being able to do the reading for most within 24-48 hours of posting, but again, if way more folks take me up on this than I expect, that might change.
At any rate, ask away, and a blessed (late) Solstice, merry (early) Christmas, and happy (early) New Year!
Jeff
no subject
Date: 2024-12-26 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-03 04:42 am (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 08:50 pm (UTC)Thanks a million for what you did here. Your reading is incredibly on point! I've come to acknowledge that my mental state was due in its majority to going back to work after the holidays. I work with young addicts and have yet to find my place and presence in front of them. It makes me question who I am at this stage of my life, not to mention all the trauma coming back from when I was their age. So far for the "shadow work" part. This got better in the last weeks, as I realised that I need not be so afraid of them. I'm planning to do a clowning workshop, described by a friend as "a mix of embodiment and shadow workl"
I also made an effort recently to try and say what I would need from management to make the difficult parts of my work more bearable. This would involve oractical changes that they're not yet willing to make. It cost me a sleepless night after the meeting, but I did stand up for myself. I hope this is good for the Tinne part. It will certainly take patience as well.
At the time of asking, I was seeing the same pattern in my relationship situation - not being in the kind of relationship I would like to have, and feeling abandoned by friends lately. This has improved since, and new impulses have come to effect.
I wanted to ask if you assign any special meaning to Straif being reverted? In JMGs books, it just seems to be "more suffering, more unnecessary", than if the card was upright. What do you think?
Sending lots of blessings your way for this!
Anna
no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 09:18 pm (UTC)As for Straif (Reveresed), I do assign a different meaning when reversed, but it tends to be fairly contextual, and it's maybe not as dramatic as with some Fews, since upright Straif is already pretty harsh to begin with. In either case, I tend to read it as "this has to happen/this is the consequence of something else" in a cause-and-effect kind of sense, rather than judgment or the like.
So, for getting it reversed, I tend to see it as some combination of "this will be not only necessary, but unpleasant/unwanted," "you're missing what positive could be taken from this," and/or "you're in denial about this being inevitable or necessary." In this reading, it being reversed is part of what suggested "the Shadow," whereas upright in the same stead might have implied something more like "your mental state is the effect of some other causes" or "you're focused on what has to be" or something. Also, paired with Tinne for deeds, it suggested to me that an avoidance of conflict might mean you weren't dealing with something that's not really escapable, or at least, has to be dealt with to get "unstuck."
Anyhow, hope that helps, and let me know any other questions or follow-ups you have, and again, very much appreciate the feedback!
Jeff