: Ż've come across with a lot of interesting things when Ż
: was reading 13th.Warrior, the eaters of the dead.
: a)Wyrd is a nordic goddess who controls the fate. She
: controls three kinds of angels including Valkries,
: Norns and Fates who creates and finishes the lives of
: Viking Warriors.
This is copied from a website on Mythology... I forget what it was called.
"What, then, is Wyrd? It is everything, in one sense, both material and non-material. It is also the pattern of life, or destiny, but not in a fatalistic sense. Wyrd is a web, linking everything together. It is a weaving, in which we participate. The warp is already in place long before we are born, and the weft is begun for us. Other people weave more of the weft for us, but we are responsible for the rest. We can't throw away the weaving and start again (at least not in this life), but we can make quite radical changes if we know what the possibilities are. Magic is about understanding the web of Wyrd and knowing which threads to weave in (or remove) and when. The greatest magicians are, then, the Wyrd Sisters: Urd (or Wyrd), Verdandi and Skuld. Urd spins the thread of life; Verdandi weaves it into the pattern; and Skuld takes that pattern apart at the end of things. However, they can also be seen as what is, what is becoming, and what will result. Urd is foundation, Verdandi is becoming, and Skuld is destiny.
This picture of the Wyrd Sisters suggests a useful divinatory spread (or layout). Taking three runes in turn from the shaken bag (or three cards from the shuffled Tarot deck, or whatever), lay them in a row. The first represents the origin or nature of the problem. The second represents what is happening now, current trends, or alternatively a proposed action. The third represents the likely outcome of those trends or of that action.
In order to understand more about a situation, one can use an elemental spread. Either lay the runes out as they come, with the first placed centrally as the significator and four more at East, South, West and North, or use the relevant rune from the 'Asking the Wyrd Sisters' spread as the significator. An elemental reading can be done for each part of the three-rune reading, i.e. nature, current trends / proposed action, and outcome.
The significator represents the spirit of the problem (ęther, the fifth element). The other four represent:
East: Air - the intellectual aspects of the matter; ideas, inspiration, rationality, communication, travel, unexpected change;
South: Fire - the active aspects of the matter; drive, energy, action, projects, enthusiasm, power;
West: Water - the emotional aspects of the matter; feelings, inner strength, intuition, subtle change, flows, growth and evolution;
North: Earth - the physical aspects of the matter; body and soil, hearth and home, work and play, foundations and structure.
These are just my two favoured spreads, there are many more that people use and that can be found in books. You can also make up your own, with aspects meaningful to you, as long as you use them consistently. Remember that any divination technique aids the diviner's understanding of the patterns of life, of Wyrd. It does not tell you what to do. That decision can only ever be yours. Indeed, readings often tell you what you already know, but may not wish to acknowledge! It is also easy subconsciously to fail to understand a reading about yourself, simply because the subconscious mind does not want you to recognise something. It can be worth getting an experienced practitioner to do a reading for you.
Part of the pattern of life is that of the tides. As well as the tides of the sea, there are tides of the lunar month (due to the Moon, seen in her phases), tides of the day and year (due to the Sun's apparent movement), and even tides of the week (due to our continued use of that division of time). These go beyond the associations with the zodiac, runes (see Pennick's book listed above for more on runic time associations) or Planetary Powers, forming a cyclic, flowing pattern.
The tides of the year are fourfold, changing over roughly at the Solstices and Equinoxes. Thus we have:
The Growing Tide - between the Vernal Equinox and Midsummer;
The Harvesting Tide - between Midsummer and the Autumn Equinox;
The Resting Tide - between the Autumn Equinox and Midwinter;
The Cleansing Tide - between Midwinter and the Vernal Equinox.
So, the growing tide is when the tension of nature encourages growth and new projects, expansion and challenge. The harvesting tide is when we reap the rewards, good or bad, of our efforts in the growing tide. The resting tide is when we slow down and contemplate the year that has been. And the cleansing tide is when we should get rid of all that is outworn or no longer needed or useful, a clearing-out of debris to allow growth in the next tide. (For more on this, see Marian Green (1991) A Witch Alone Aquarian; Thorsons 1995 1-85538-112-5.)
The tides of the week are quite interesting. They can be seen as extensions of the subtle associations of each day, those of the Planets. The following is as yet experimental."
: b)The norns who control the past are named
: "Urth" and the ones who control the future
: are named "Nyx".
This is copied from a website:
"Norns: Sometimes compared to the greek fates, three supernatural women who tend the Yggdrasil and determine fate. Their names are: Urd [fate], Skuld [necessity], and Verdandi [being]. There are more than three Norns. It is believed that a norn is present at a persons birth to determine his/her fate. "
This is copied from another website:
"Nyx is Night, a powerful goddess whose dark light falls from the stars and who dictates not only to men but also to gods. Even Zeus does not wish to upset Night:
It happened that Hera bribed Hypnos in order to make Zeus fall asleep, so that she could have it her way during the Trojan War. Hypnos obeyed the goddess in spite of his fears; for once he had performed a similar task and when Zeus woke up in anger, he sought him everywhere, and would have hurled him from heaven into the deep, had Nyx not saved him. For Zeus stopped and thought twice before doing something that could displease Nyx.
Some seem to think that Nyx appears because light is gone as if anything could be and yet do not exist on its own right. But when counting the days, not seldom the nights are mentioned first as when it is said:"...a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth." [Hesiod, Theogony 725]"
: c) According to Nordic legends, Odin had two crows at
: each of his shoulders. The crows are named
: "Truan".
The ravens - Odin's two birds were ravens - had separate names of their own - Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), whom he sent out to gather knowledge about the world.
: d)There was a small clan at the south of Norway almost a
: thousand years ago,it's name is Skrael.(The name is
: similar to Skagerrak, which is a small sea at the
: north of Scandinavia.
And YES!! I know this is long. Good findings, Ed.
doom
