Raidho – travel – Finally, some movement! For the last few casts, The Weekly Rune has brought messages of exploring shadow, and sitting with it. This week’s advent of Raidho says we can finally take all of that intel and do something with it.

Raidho draws on my passions: words, travel, and animism. In short, this stave indicates how we tell our story. In a very literal context, it tells of a journey between two points. It emphasizes the mode of transportation involved, movement across space and time, and everything that occurs between origin and destination. In other words, it’s all about plot and conflict (as in what a character must overcome).

The best way to understand Raidho comes from examining it within the context of the first aett. The journey of the Runes in the first aett is about inspiration becoming form for the first time; thus, it emphasizes the realization of self-empowerment through connection with All Things. The stave before Raidho is Ansuz, often interpreted as “mouth,” or “breath.” Breath, itself, is empowering as life force, though with the breath our power to manifest begins. With Ansuz we begin ascribing words to concepts. We begin the murky examination of the thing versus the name we give it. Likewise, we become aware that as we build the language of our formed experience, someone is listening.

Following Raidho is Kenaz, torch, presenting the complex experience of sudden awareness, the spark that ignites, the Aha! moment. It is the moment that meaning has been derived from our experience.

With that fuller understanding in mind, let’s revisit Raidho.

Inspiration + Storytelling = Meaning Ansuz + Raidho = Kenaz

This is a bit oversimplified, but it conveys well. Raidho clarifies the importance of holding focus over duration, over life’s journey, associating a starting point and result with every choice, decision, thought, and deed committed along the way.

Taking the last few weeks’ emphasis of shadow into consideration with this formula, what does it tell us about how we define ‘shadow?’ When we learn the language of shadow and interpret how it shapes our lives, how do we see ourselves? How does our view of shadow, itself, change?

We’re told all the time how life isn’t about the outcome, but the journey.

I’m pretty sure Raidho says it’s about a delicate balance of both.