A is for Ansuz (PBP 2014)

Greeting and salutations, my darlings.

So for the past two years I have tried (admittedly it's been somewhat half-hearted) to do the Pagan Blog Project. And I usually end up falling off somewhere shortly after it gets started because I get behind due to the insanity of my life and never manage to catch up. Hopefully 2014 will be different, because I do really want to do it.

One of the things that happened in 2013 is that I became a leadership team member of my local CUUPS (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) group that I have been attending for many years now. I have a lot of love for that group, and I had a lot of concerns about where I saw it headed and a willingness to invest my time and energy in helping promote its growth in a positive direction, and I guess those things combined together resulted in me being asked to serve as a LT member. BTW, we have a Facebook page, so please "Like" us, and if you're in the Pittsburgh area, come and check us out! We have some awesome things planned for 2014!

On a whole other note, I have been exploring and learning about the Northern Traditions for probably about 5 years now, after ol' One Eye made it abundantly clear to me that I belonged with Him and His and that it was not optional. I've now worked with His son for awhile and will continue to do so, because, well...Thor is awesome, and He's extremely easy to talk to and interact with, at least in my experience. His father, on the other hand, kind of gives me 'fraidy pants, probably because when He communicates with me, either directly or indirectly, I can sense that the Big Ol' Changes are a'coming, and being very much an earthy Taurus...Idunlikethat. Anyhow, to make a long story short, one of the things the Allfather communicated to me in 2013 was that I really needed to get off my ass and start seriously studying the runes, specifically learning galdr. This, however, posed a problem: it wasn't really something I wanted to do alone, as I've done a lot (to be read: most) of my learning over the years. Fortunately, there were a couple other fabulous pagan lady friends of mine who had close encounters with some of the Northern Folks (one with Odin, and one with Hel) who were also interested in studying the runes, so we joined forces and started a group. We are using Diana Paxson's book Taking Up The Runes, but also utilizing other resources as well.

Which brings us to this blog (sorry it took awhile, when I decide to talk sometimes that happens): I am going to explore the runes through my blog posts for PBP 2014, as it will hopefully serve me in actually doing PBP 2014 in its entirety, and help my study of, connection with, and personal understanding of the runes.

So, without further ado...A is for Ansuz

Ansuz (pronounced AHN-sooz, meaning: A God, or Mouth) is the fourth rune of the first aett (set of 8) of the Elder Futhark. Ansuz represents communication, wisdom, knowledge, consciousness, intelligence, reason, and air/breath. I think Ansuz is also about creating order, about analyzing and making sense of things, of putting our observations and feelings into words and the understanding of that stuff. For me personally it also speaks of listening, as this is a huge part of communication, particularly listening to myself. My feeling of this rune is very much Odin. Reading about Ansuz, one of the things I saw was that it represents "passing the breath along the ancestral line," which really resonates with me also. Communication with people I have lost in my life is a very important part of my spirituality. I lost my dad very young, as well as both of my maternal grandparents whom I was very close with later (particularly my grandfather), and I do communicate with them, though that communication is so VERY different than the other ways people communicate. Ansuz represents the vital breath of life that fuels all things and is the beginning of sound and language, and that is Odin's gift to us.

From the Voluspa, stanza 19:

Breath they had not, nor blood, nor senses
Nor language possessed, nor life-hue:
Odin gave them breath, Hoenir senses,
Blood and life-hue Lothur gave.