Shay's Rune

Hail and a warm, hearty welcome to you who has found this page! Many a moon has passed since last I shared words of meaning here. Since then much has transpired.....although I am reading at the same location coming on six years now, two and a half years ago, (November of 2019), the shop went through a change of ownership and subsequently a new name. I am now part of the "Just Witchy's" family.  With the retirement of "Witchy Wearables' " owners, the name retired as well. My thanks to Kate and Morn for bringing me on in 2016, and my continued gratitude to Rose and Lydia for keeping me on.  But as Spring moves to new growth, so does Just Witchy's! In addition to a very well stock shop, an online store, and a great family of readers and healers, we are also expanding soon to a new location to better serve our amazing clients and shoppers. A welcome Fehu/Berkana period, seeing the hard work of Just Witchy's manifest growth and expansion Stay tuned for fu

Any of you that have been checking in on this blog from time to time have no doubt wondered where the heck I disappeared to I'm sure. After all, it's been what, like eight months, right? You probably thought I'd completely given up. In all honesty, I didn't, there were plenty of times I'd tell myself I needed to get on here and write something. To lay it out, I went through a few "dark" periods where my motivation lagged. But so many wonderful things have happened, renewing me, that I need to share them with you! One of the most important happenings has been becoming part an amazing LOCAL Heathen community and being given the honor of sharing the wisdom of the runes at gatherings, as well as actually lead one of our rituals. Most recently, becoming one of just a few in our group to undertake the honor of seidr, spā, and, in my case as a female, the craft of the völva. This is no small task, and I have much, much work to do, and believe me when I say I

Geez, where have I been for the last 5 months?!? It's Summer already, granted, still early Summer, but we're already seeing things come to fruition. The Summer flowers are in full bloom, some fruits have made their appearance and the bees are pollinating every little thing they can find.  Ahhh, fresh honey, that golden elixir that never goes bad, or expires and makes my favorite beverage.....mead! But I digress, the summer solstice has already past, and believe it or not, the days area starting to get shorter. Of course most won't notice because, well, they're busy doing summer activities, going to the beach, cooking out, vacations, etc. The sun is all important, it is a life source we can not live without and is critical for our mental health as well as our physical. When we bask in its glow, it makes us feel we can overcome anything and everything. Yes, I am talking about the sun wheel rune, Sowilo. Sowilo gives counsel that having dealt with the challenges that

For the most part, our Winter here in this Eastern part of the Midwest has been fairly mild. Of course it's not over yet.....the crocuses and daffodils have not peeked their heads up yet. Nevertheless, despite the groundhog predicting 6 more weeks of winter, I have already seen the first harbinger of the coming Spring......the robin! We are, at this point, ready to shed our coats, or at least go to lighter weight ones, and to pack away boots and gloves. Unfortunately we still have some time to go and probably a surprise or two from Mother Nature (I will not mention the precipitation words....lol). What I want to focus on though is this time of transition. And a good rune for that is Eiwhaz, the yew rune.  It seems almost contradictory because the yew has associations with death because of the fact that the whole tree is toxic. It can neither be ingested, or its wood burned as an incense. But think on this, the yew tree is part of the evergreen family, and, there are components

Summer is in full swing now, and the weather shows it. Hot, occasionally sticky, maybe a microburst dropping down some much needed rain to cool things off. I'm going to talk about two runes for this writing, because they are inexorably intertwined for harvest. First, the rune Sowilo represents the sun wheel, and the sun at its strongest, which is summer. Although now with Litha behind us and the sun making its journey back South, which means the daylight is gradually decreasing, we still enjoy sunset well past 8pm. Sowilo is vitality, for when we feel healthy, we feel we can overcome anything, be successful at everything. It is the sun's light that kisses the crops and helps them grow full and abundant during the Spring and Summer, and has now brought them to fruition and ripeness, so it is now time to reap them. Now we turn to Jera, the harvest rune. The time of first harvest celebrates the blessings of the sun's life giving light to the crops we need to sustain u

So the warmer temperatures and growing light are definitely more noticeable now, and I have dared to pull out a pair or two of capris (I am not even THINKING of regular shorts yet) to wear on the occasional warm days that sneak in between the cold weather. The robins have come back en-mass, but I think the poor things are confused at best with the fluctuations in temperature and conditions. Nevertheless, we approach a time of new beginnings, a time to clear out the old and stale, a time to throw open the windows and take a huge deep breath of "Ahhhhhh", and bask in the warmth of the sunny days. We look to Berkana, the rune of growth and nurturing. Right now the focus needs to be on the seeds that we planted previously, like the tulip bulbs that were planted in autumn. During the winter, those bulbs have not been idle, they have been gestating, transforming, and growing, but now they are inching their way up to the surface, the crocuses and daffodils coming first, represen