Belysning

Blood carries one history; breath carries another. Many of us come from mixed lines, torn archives, or stories spoken in whispers. When the papers fail, the land and the virtues still speak. Your ancestors are those whose love and labor made your being possible—and also those whose ways you choose to continue with integrity.

Begin with the known names, however few. Light a candle and speak them aloud. If there are gaps, say, “For those I do not know, I honor you.” Place a bowl of water and a small piece of bread or fruit; these are common languages across many traditions. Offer a single sentence of gratitude for the gift of life that reached you through imperfect hands.

Now listen for lineage through qualities, not only surnames. Who taught courage in your line? Who carried the work quietly, mended what was torn, fed the children first? Write three virtues you wish to inherit—truth-telling, hospitality, steadfastness—and make them your chosen ancestry. When you practice a virtue on purpose, you join the river of those who lived it before you.

For mixed heritage, hold the strands without forcing them to blend. You are not required to flatten difference to belong. Learn enough of each line to be respectful: how they prayed, how they greeted the day, how they marked grief and joy. Ask living elders for stories, not proofs. A true story is a map; a proof is a fence.

Where harm exists in your line, do not carry it forward. Name it. Choose repair where repair is possible and boundary where it is not. Light another candle and say, “What began in pain ends in my hands.” Then act: apologize, donate, volunteer, or change a habit that repeats the wound. This is lineage work also.

At the end, take your bowl of water to the threshold. Pour a little outside with thanks to the old ones and a little inside with thanks to the living. Stand between and feel the currents meet within you. You are not a broken branch; you are a graft that can bear good fruit.

Be well my friends,

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Jera, the harvest rune, turns like two sickles chasing each other across the year. In autumn it teaches the weary heart what our hurried age forgets: growth ripens by seasons, not by panic. This episode gathers those who feel behind—burned out, scrolling through other people’s milestones, measuring worth by speed. Jera offers a steadier calendar.

Begin by naming your field. What are you cultivating—sobriety, trust, a skill, a home? Write it at the top of a page. Beneath it, draw the Jera rune: two hooked crescents revolving. Mark four quarters around it—sow, tend, reap, rest. Place your current life in its rightful quarter. If it is sowing time, stop demanding harvest. If it is resting time, stop calling yourself lazy. Rhythm is medicine.

Next, choose one sowing act (fifteen minutes), one tending act (maintenance you avoid), and one resting act (recovery that isn’t a screen). Stack them like a small braid each day for two weeks. Jera works by humble repetition. Burnout eases when effort is braided with rest.

Go outside and collect three autumn things: a leaf, a seed, a remnant stalk. Name them “what I’m releasing,” “what I’m planting,” and “what still sustains me.” Set them where you’ll see them. Let the room keep time with the land.

When envy rises—an old thief—touch the rune and say, “Their field is not my weather.” We do not harvest at the same hour or under the same sky. Jera is justice by seasons: each gets a turn.

Finally, close the day with the harvest breath: inhale for count of five, exhale for five, nine cycles, while listing what was sown, tended, reaped, and how you rested. You will notice: even quiet days offer grain if you look for it.

The autumn rune does not hurry you; it dignifies you. You are not late. You are ripening. Trust the wheel, and let the season teach you when to place your hands on the plow and when to set it down.

Be well my friends,

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In the old north, Hel is not a villain but a keeper of thresholds—the quiet hand that steadies us when we meet what cannot be changed. Tonight we walk her road to face a modern affliction: the dread of endings—breakups, lost work, illness, the slow wintering of a dream. Anxiety urges flight from the dark. Hel teaches us to sit with it until our eyes adjust.

First, name what is ending. Speak it without embroidery or apology. The ancients knew an unnamed thing becomes a noisy ghost. Say it plainly: this chapter is closed; this person is gone; this version of me is finished. Feel how the breath loosens as truth lands.

Second, practice the Hel-breath: in through the nose for four heartbeats, out through the mouth for six, as if fogging winter air. On the long exhale, picture frost clarifying a windowpane. The extended out-breath signals safety; the body learns the ground will hold.

Third, light a small candle and ask three questions Hel loves:

1) What is truly dead and deserves burial?

2) What is only sleeping and needs time?

3) What is trying to be born from this ending?

Write the answers without judgment. Grief and growth are siblings; both sit at Hel’s table.

Fourth, take a threshold walk. Find a doorway, a bridge, the line where stone meets water. Step across and back three times, naming what you leave and what you carry. Ritual gives the nervous system markers; the body believes what the feet rehearse.

When memory rises like cold fog, place one hand on chest and one on belly—the Hel-rope that anchors breath to heartbeat. Whisper, “I can be with this.” Shame loses power when met with companionship. You are not alone; ancestors who survived harsher winters keep pace beside you.

Finally, make a covenant: for nine nights, tend one small living thing—water a plant, clear a drawer, write a letter you do not send. Hel honors those who feed life while grieving the dead. Anxiety starves when life is nourished in steady, faithful portions.

The secret of Hel is not morbid but merciful. Endings are doors. Sit in the dim long enough, and you’ll notice: the dark is fertile, and your eyes remember how to see.

Be Well my Friends,

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Here in the North, the first frost carries a lesson. Today’s show, “The Path of Ullr,” steps onto that crisp snow—where sound travels farther, tracks speak louder, and every breath counts. Ullr, silent archer and master of winter travel, is not a god of spectacle; he is a guide of discipline, focus, and purposeful movement. Walk with him and you waste nothing: not an arrow, not a word, not a step.

Ullr’s gifts are practical and demanding. He teaches us to read a land that looks uniform and unforgiving—how to choose a safe line across ice, listen for hollow snow, and move lightly so we don’t invite the mountain to test us. He is the still point from which accurate action emerges. Stance, breath, and gaze aren’t ornaments; they are ethics. You don’t take a shot because you can—you take it because it is clean, necessary, and aligned with duty to place and kin.

We’ll travel three layers of this path. First, skill: bow, breath, body. Practice until the body remembers what the mind forgets under stress. Second, awareness: tracking the seen and unseen. Trails, wind, light, and the language of birds become a moving scripture. Third, oath: wearing “Ullr’s ring” as honest vow—keeping faith with community, game animals, and the winters that still sustain us.

There is healing here. Precision is an antidote to chaos. When life scatters our attention, Ullr returns us to a single arrow—the next right action. He is a patron of thresholds: the first step onto new snow, the breath before truth is spoken, the moment we learn to do hard things without hardening our hearts. This path is not about becoming colder; it is about becoming clearer.

Begin with a small practice: sit tall, plant your feet, soften your jaw. Inhale for four, pause two, exhale six. Feel the ribs draw in like an unstrung bow. This is winter stance—calm, honest, ready. From here we’ll explore tools and boundaries: when to move or wait, speak or keep counsel, and how to cross conflict like a snowfield—testing carefully, committing fully, and leaving the lightest track.

Be Well my Friends,

Links:

https://akulfhednar.org” – Main Website

https://akulfhednar.org/newsletter – Newsletter

https://akulfhednar.org/coaching -Coaching

https://akulfhednar.org/foreninger – Socials

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Under Yggdrasil (World Tree)’s canopy, “The Gift of Idunn” turns myth into something you can hold in your hands. We begin with a nine-breath ritual mapped to the World Tree: three root breaths to claim belonging, three trunk breaths to steady posture and voice, and three crown breaths to offer calm outward. Use the 4–2–6 cadence—inhale four, hold two, exhale six—so your nervous system reads safety and lets choice return. Then we follow the path of World-Tree axis, Bifröst (Bridge of light) crossing and make it practical. When mind-noise rises, greet Huginn and Muninn—Thought and Memory—and practice cognitive defusion: name the raven, note its message, and return to one long exhale. For sudden spikes or intrusive bite, use Name–Frame–Tame: name what’s happening, frame it as a nervous-system surge (not a verdict), and tame it by lengthening the out-breath. Runes become pocket practices: Eihwaz and Laguz lead tonight. Try 4–2–6 breath, then pair it with Name–Frame–Tame. Keep each move small and repeatable so your body can trust you. We stitch ritual into daily life: nine breaths at first light, three trunk breaths before hard conversations, and a short note to Mímir (Mimir) each night—“What did my breath teach me today?” This is not about exiling pain; it’s about growing capacity—steadier mood, clearer thinking, kinder self-talk. If you’re in active distress, pair these practices with professional care; myth is a lantern, not a diagnosis. Let this episode be a calm harbor where you can practice and re-enter the waters with more skill and a gentler voice. Choose a daily cue—boiling water, opening a door, sitting in the car—and tether one slow breath to it. When it helps, notice that it helped; when it doesn’t, notice that you noticed and try again without blame. Consistency builds capacity, and capacity makes courage possible in ordinary hours. Return to the nine-breath ritual and the 4–2–6 cadence; keep it tiny, repeatable, and kind. Tie one breath to a daily cue—boiling water, opening a door, sitting in the car—and notice what changes without judgment. Practice builds capacity; capacity makes courage possible in ordinary hours.

Be Well my Friends,

Links:

https://akulfhednar.org” – Main Website

https://akulfhednar.org/newsletter – Newsletter

https://akulfhednar.org/coaching -Coaching

https://akulfhednar.org/foreninger – Socials

Tags:

#akoutlaw, #akulfhednar, #shaman, #alaska, #whispers, #oldways, #modernlife, #dailyritual, #valuesinaction, #consistency

Under Yggdrasil (World Tree)’s canopy, “The Weaving of the Norns” turns myth into something you can hold in your hands. We begin with a nine-breath ritual mapped to the World Tree: three root breaths to claim belonging, three trunk breaths to steady posture and voice, and three crown breaths to offer calm outward. Use the 4–2–6 cadence—inhale four, hold two, exhale six—so your nervous system reads safety and lets choice return. Then we follow the path of World-Tree axis, Bifröst (Bridge of light) crossing and make it practical. When mind-noise rises, greet Huginn and Muninn—Thought and Memory—and practice cognitive defusion: name the raven, note its message, and return to one long exhale. For sudden spikes or intrusive bite, use Name–Frame–Tame: name what’s happening, frame it as a nervous-system surge (not a verdict), and tame it by lengthening the out-breath. Runes become pocket practices: Eihwaz and Laguz lead tonight. Try 4–2–6 breath, then pair it with Name–Frame–Tame. Keep each move small and repeatable so your body can trust you. We stitch ritual into daily life: nine breaths at first light, three trunk breaths before hard conversations, and a short note to Mímir (Mimir) each night—“What did my breath teach me today?” This is not about exiling pain; it’s about growing capacity—steadier mood, clearer thinking, kinder self-talk. If you’re in active distress, pair these practices with professional care; myth is a lantern, not a diagnosis. Let this episode be a calm harbor where you can practice and re-enter the waters with more skill and a gentler voice. Choose a daily cue—boiling water, opening a door, sitting in the car—and tether one slow breath to it. When it helps, notice that it helped; when it doesn’t, notice that you noticed and try again without blame. Consistency builds capacity, and capacity makes courage possible in ordinary hours. Return to the nine-breath ritual and the 4–2–6 cadence; keep it tiny, repeatable, and kind. Tie one breath to a daily cue—boiling water, opening a door, sitting in the car—and notice what changes without judgment. Practice builds capacity; capacity makes courage possible in ordinary hours.

Be Well my Friends,

Links:

https://akulfhednar.org – Main Website

https://akulfhednar.org/newsletter/ – Newsletter

https://akulfhednar.org/coaching – Coaching

https://akulfhednar.org/foreninger – Socials

Tags:

#akoutlaw, #akulfhednar, #shaman, #alaska, #belysning, #norsewisdom, #breathwork, #resilience, #mindfulness, #runes, #anxietyrelief, #mindfulness

There is a rhythm beneath the noise of this age. It is older than traffic and time cards, older than screens and the hum of wires. When you ask if you can live the old ways now, you are really asking if the drum is still beating. It is. The work is learning to hear it where you stand. Begin by making a small fire you can keep: not with wood perhaps, but with attention. Choose one daily act to hold as sacred—pouring water, opening the door, greeting first light. Name it a rite and keep it. In doing so you stitch old time to modern hours. Next, remember you are not a colonist on the land you live upon; you are a guest. Step outside, breathe until your breath matches the breeze. Offer a quiet thanks to the beings who are already at home: the soil, the spruce, the crow, the unseen that we address with respect. Old ways are not costumes; they are relationships.

Build a small altar that changes with the week: a leaf, a stone, a photo of a grandparent, a rune you are studying. Keep it simple. When you pass, pause your rush for one full breath. That is prayer enough to begin. Eat one meal each day without a screen, and let your first bite be a blessing spoken aloud. The ancestors recognize the voice that blesses.

Finally, do not try to live yesterday’s village alone. Find or form a tiny circle: two or three who agree to check in, share a story, make a plan for kindness. The modern world is not an enemy to defeat but a river to cross with good companions. The old ways walk well on new bridges when you travel with humility, consent, and reciprocity. Keep one promise, keep it small, keep it every day. The drum will meet you there.

How can I honor Celtic-Norse and Indigenous ways while living in a modern city and job?” — Maya, OR

“Be Well my Friends,

Links:

https://akulfhednar.org – Main Website

https://akulfhednar.org/newsletter – Newsletter

https://akulfhednar.org/coaching – Coaching

https://akulfhednar.org/foreninger – Socials

Tags:

#akoutlaw, #akulfhednar, #shaman, #alaska, #whispers, #oldways, #modernlife, #dailyritual, #valuesinaction, #consistency

S2E190 – The Hunt of Skadi.

Skadi, goddess of the hunt and of winter, walks the snow-clad mountains with bow in hand. She is fierce independence and the chill breath of survival. To the Norse, she embodies the harsh beauty of the wild North. Indigenous traditions too honor the hunter — not as conqueror, but as one who takes life in balance, offering gratitude in return.

Skadi calls us to walk with strength, to honor the wild, and to survive with dignity. Her hunt is not cruelty, but the sacred exchange of life. When we walk her path, we remember that the cold teaches endurance and the hunt teaches respect.

Tonight, may Skadi’s hunt remind you of your own strength and your bond with the wild world.

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