I’m always interested to see a first reading from a new deck or set because it seems to set the tone for how I’m going to work with that deck going forward. The Cosmic Whisper Deck is a lovely birthday present so it has that first flush of something really cool (like a paper deck that has so many layers of individual pieces of paper that it sounds and feels like wood) along with the warm feelings that a gift from a friend brings. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from the first reading. I’ve been reading runes for a long time, so not a new system, but I don’t actually own many decks because I’m a big proponent of casting runes. But there is definitely something magical about shuffling what feels like large wood tiles and then grabbing out three runes. I knew as soon as I saw Othila that the runes had zeroed in on things quite well. This is the rune for home, for place, for things that are inherited, very much connected with ancestors and ancestral energy. I’ve been doing a lot of sitting with ancestors, not just those of blood but also those of the land that we stand on and those powerful connections. My ancestral inheritance, says Othila, is a gift and even a bond, an exchange, a sacrifice made (Gebo) that serves to push my journey forward and create a movement that comes when a partnership is harmonious (Ehwaz).
I find a few things about this rune statement to be powerful. One that it taps directly into energy I have been working with for sometime but especially deeply of late. Two it reiterates what I know to be true, that my inheritance from my ancestors is a gift for me that my ancestors sacrificed of themselves for me to be who I am today. Third that it is that connection and foundation that allows my movement to flow forward from the energy of their movement behind me. But most interesting is that there is the connotation with Ehwaz to a give and take, a rhythm BETWEEN two bodies. When a horse and a rider are in balance and in flow with each other they there is a strong interrelationship where each are reacting to each other in a fluid way. How beautiful is that, if we are people who work with ancestral energy, and I am—the true gift, according to this reading, is that it wasn’t an ancestral deposit made, say, 100 years ago that I dust off and pick up, but a fluid connection that is alive and reacting and fluid. That is a very powerful understanding of ancestry and one that I have always believed but maybe not thought about specifically and that is truly a gift to ruminate on.