Autumn Alchemy — When the Old Makes Room for You

Autumn comes in without much ceremony. It opens the windows, stirs the curtains and looks into that corner where for years you have been piling up everything “for later”. You know it, don’t you? There lie the conversation you keep putting off, the decision for which you are waiting for the right moment, and a few expired hopes you still keep because of their pretty wrapping.

And just when you tell yourself that for now everything can stay as it is, something starts to shake. The plan changes, someone leaves, your own patience hands in its notice. You look at what is happening and ask: “Oh, come on, right now?” And when would be convenient? Between two tasks on a Tuesday, with advance warning and a free hour set aside for feeling it?

Of course, we prefer our changes to be well-mannered. To knock, explain their intentions and, if possible, leave everything in order behind them. Life, however, has a peculiar handwriting. Sometimes we understand what has happened only once the dust settles and we see how much space has been freed.

The leaves we still keep

Look at the trees. All summer they have rustled, given shade and sheltered birds, and now they let their leaves go. Can you imagine one of them running after a fallen leaf and crying: “Wait, I’ve invested so much time in you!” We are capable of exactly that kind of conversation. Especially when it is about a person, a job or an idea of how our life was supposed to turn out.

How many times have you kept something only because you had given it years? A little more patience, one more explanation, one more attempt to adapt. And somewhere among all these efforts your own comfort has been left for later. It is understanding, it will wait.

The home where other people’s expectations live

Yet your inner world also has a limited floor space. Think of it as a home with rooms. In one of them someone else’s opinion, voiced ten years ago, still lives. In another you keep all the replies that occurred to you after the conversation was over. The brightest room you have given to someone’s expectations, while your own dream has huddled up by the window and tries not to be in the way.

Then you wonder why you are tired. Well, try running a household like that.

Autumn seems to invite us to walk through the rooms and look around. How do you feel here? Is what you keep still dear to you? Do you use it, does it make you happy, or do you just carefully dust it? We usually know the answers. The harder part is allowing ourselves to hear them without immediately starting negotiations with ourselves.

Perthro — when life writes its own script

Through Perthro, Hagalaz and Isa this inner autumn can be read as a path through the unknown, the shaking and the stillness. Three rune images in which you will easily recognise experiences of your own.

Perthro begins the moment when life steps outside the planned programme. You have already decided how it will happen, when it will happen and who will say what, and reality arrives with a script of its own. It has happened to you, I suppose. It is especially amusing when you were absolutely sure.

What do you do then? You tighten your grip even more, you check, you foresee, you try to arrange other people’s decisions too. Being responsible for the whole Universe is an exhausting job. And the holidays are doubtful at best.

For me, Perthro carries the invitation to leave room for the unknown. You take your step, you say what you want, you choose according to what you know today. Then you let life take part as well. Along the way you may discover a wish you have neglected until now, or an opportunity for which the old plan simply had no column.

Hagalaz — when something starts to shake

With Hagalaz the shaking becomes more tangible. Something you relied on cracks, and your first thought is to prop it up. A familiar reaction, isn’t it? Before you have even taken a breath, you are already thinking about what you can do to put everything back in its place.

Before you roll up your sleeves, look at what you are propping up. Are the others taking part too? Do you receive care, understanding, a wish for a shared solution? Or have you long been bracing the whole structure with your shoulder, even apologising when your arm goes numb?

This question sometimes changes a great deal.

Of course, parting with the familiar can hurt. Along with it go plans, habits and ideas of the future. Allow yourself to be sad. Even when you yourself have chosen to close a door, you may still pause in front of it. On the other side is something you loved or hoped would happen.

Gradually, though, you start to notice something else. You sleep a little better. The phone is silent, and you calmly finish your coffee. A free afternoon lies ahead of you, and for the first time in a long while you can decide what you feel like doing.

Isa — the calm we get used to gradually

Here comes Isa with her stillness. After so much tension, calm at first looks suspicious. “Is it really going to be this quiet? Am I missing something?” If you are used to constantly fixing problems, silence takes some getting to know. You may even be tempted to create some work for yourself, just to feel in your element.

Wait a little. Leave the freed room empty. See how the light comes in when the window is free. Sit there for a while before you invite the next person in or carry in yet another obligation. What would you like to have in this part of your life? More rest? Something to learn? Love in which you receive too? The answer may come quite ordinarily, while you are out for a walk or making dinner.

Your autumn alchemy

This very lightness is what I like about autumn. It lets us lighten our luggage and feel what we really want to continue with. Sometimes we will mend what is precious. At other times we will admit that we have done enough. And some things we will simply put away as a memory, without inviting them to run our present any longer.

And if something in your life is shaking right now, give yourself time to look at it. What is worth your effort? Where do you already feel cramped? What are you putting off for the sake of everyone else?

Perhaps your autumn alchemy begins with exactly these questions. As you answer them, you open a window, free up space and bring back some forgotten habit that makes you happy. One day you look around and feel that it is good to be at home again, in your own life.

And this time you have chosen the brightest room for yourself.

The questions you can continue with

Each of the questions in this autumn walk has its own room in the Game of the Soul. Choose the one that touched you most:

• “Letting Go” — “Which of the things I have kept for years is it time to let go of with gratitude?”
• “The Lineage” — “Whose expectations do I keep as my own, and where do they come from?”
• “The Body” — “What is my body telling me about everything I take on?”
• “Signs” — “What is this unexpected turn of events showing me?”
• “The Crossroads” — “What is my next step if I leave room for the unknown as well?”
• “My People” — “Which relationships am I propping up on my own, and who truly takes part in them?”
• “Love” — “What is changing between us, and what do I want?”
• “Gifts” — “What do I want to bring into my life now that there is room?”

The transformation in the Game of the Soul You can also walk the whole path of transformation with one question. The Game has 64 fields on seven levels, connected with the seven chakras. Every day you choose a number, move forward and each field brings you a message meant exactly for your question. If you wish, set off with this one:

“What is it time to let go of so that there is more room for me?”

Walk the transformation with this question

If you are already playing with a question of your own, it stays. You can enter this one yourself whenever you decide to change your question.

See where you are in this autumn — take the test:

Test: The Autumn House — What Is It Time to Let Go Of?

Would you like a personal reading on this theme? Write to me. We will do a spread just for you and for what is shaking in your life right now.

A written reading from the Empress