Where to Begin? ...not at the beginning, but somewhere nearby...

Where to begin? On such an immensely Spirit orchestrated trip, I can only begin with relevant pockets in this newsletter; pockets that will be emptied slowly onto this & the next few newsletters, admiring each treasure that emerges with the powerful grace that led the way.

Many of you who receive this newsletter are on the Beginners Runes Course with me, so the feeling I have is that I will start here, with the brilliant guide, Sussi, who ushered Stephen & I about on a fantastic, whole day of discovery & connection with the Ancestors.

We began the day with Sussi picking us up from our hotel & as Stephen remarked about the little celebration dance that Sussi & I did when seeing each other, we knew that the souls meeting today have been the best of friends throughout the Cosmos’ Time & Space.

Sussi drove us to Gamla Uppsala, Old Uppsala, where we picnicked on delicious coffee & pastries that she shared with us (so grateful!). At Gamla Uppsala there are long barrows, odd growing trees & a barrow that at the centre contains a woman’s remains that includes her clothes made of silk from China, finely woven wool & linen, bronze ornaments, silver, glass beads, an Arabian coin hung as an amulet depicting a female deity. Three men & their horses had been buried with her, each in a separate boat beside the woman. As fallen warriors, the men, could look forward to going to Freya in Folkvang or Odin in Valhalla. Along with them in the grave were dogs & one cat - the cat being sacred to Freya. One man had been laid on a bearskin, a Berserker. At one end of a boat there hangs an iron ring with an amulet of Mjolnir, Thor’s Dwarf forged hammer (the rune Thurisaz). The woman is thought to have been from the 900s, the beginning of the Viking Era.

From there, Sussi drove us around on a runestone hunt! Stephen saw the first one along a busy roadside, so we pulled over & walked along a path to have a look. The runestones are placed along roadsides & we don’t know if they were purposely placed there by the people who had them carved, perhaps along ancient paths, or if people later on in history moved them to where they reside now. The runestones tell family stories. One of the pictures I include in this newsletter told of a family hunting trip where the hunting party wore skis & one of the family was killed. See the photo of the skier with a bow & arrow. Each runestone is also signed by the carver: This saga brought to you by Erik the Etcher! Snakes & crosses are a popular theme as well. Around the area are many eagles & I include a photo of a part of a runestone with what is believed to be one, look closely, as they’re quite faint. The funny thing is, my expectation was that the runestones would depict glorious sagas of events, but I suppose in our own lives, we have mini sagas that ripple out into the story of time & the Akashic Records, so what feels small, is truly not. The power of family story has always affected people & their 7 generations forward, so I hail these mini sagas that fill the ancient landscape with their song.

Our adventure next took us to ancient rock paintings that are around 3000 years old. The ocean, being a very important means of travelling, is a prominent theme with the paintings, with many boats & people depicted. Red dots that are painted into divets in the stone are thought to be offering receptacles & in a few places are what look like footprints, which I felt had a strong connection with ensuring that the water goers would safely return to the land, but the official word is that they are footprints of the gods walking with the people. One depiction is thought to be a girdle of sorts, but for me, it feels like an enormous sail. The rock paintings stretch out over a vast area, kilometres, so perhaps the paintings were in ceremony for specific voyages for certain times of year where there would be certain shoals of fish or a planned adventure to a new land…our imaginations can range from the most simple to the grandest voyage.

Sussi was a most generous guide & then took us on to a place where not only ancestral power resides with barrows, but also rings of stones where oaths, judgements & settling of disputes took place. The meetings from those days are called a Thing (Ting in Swedish), a gathering of the free people that occurred every so often. Stephen, Sussi & I sat upon a huge barrow to get the vibe of the place & looked down at the figure of 8 - 2 stone circles that had a centre stone in each,. After some refreshment, we walked down to the circle closest to the barrow & even today, the energy was profound, dense & still filled with vitality, perhaps expectation. Standing at the centre stone of this circle, the energy moved vibrantly toward the tall stone that was closest to the barrow, so it felt like this was the main circle that oaths & judgements were made & that the person standing at the centre stone was the one petitioning toward the person standing at the stone closest to the barrow.

From there, we walked into the circle that completes the figure of 8 & the energy there was totally different; light & free, so it felt as though this one was where the people gathered to settle up whatever trades or disputes were settled.

Spirit wove between us as we met & spent time together, sharing the exceptional space of the ancestors, creating a connection that was felt to be one of celebration of meeting soul family & I am grateful & feeling the immense blessings of such a meeting, our very own cosmic Thing on Pachamama. Unlike the old days, we traveled to our friends & ancestral home with the Aesir, the sky gods, instead of with Njord, the lord of the oceans, but I have always been an ocean baby, so whichever the means of travel, it was brilliant to be able to touch them both & walk among the Vanir, our material gods. Hail to our soul friends, the gods & ancestors for the powerful connections, may we meet again in the Mead Hall of celebration!