Four autumn images, seven positions and the runes — for what you invested, for what remains and for the space opening up before you.
The bag split right in front of the entrance. The apples scattered across the pavement, and one rolled under a parked car. At that very moment, the phone rang in your pocket. You bent down to gather up the shopping, clamped the folder under your arm and reached for the nearest apple. The folder fell open and a few sheets of paper dropped into the puddle. For a moment you stood where you were, keys between your fingers, wondering whether to laugh or to say something the neighbours’ children would gladly repeat at home.
A passer-by bent down, picked up two apples and handed them to you. “Let me help,” he offered. “Thanks, I’ll manage,” you replied, while trying to prop the front door open with your elbow. The man looked at the wet sheets and asked, “Can I at least help you with the folder?” You handed it to him, and straight away everything became easier. You put the documents away, gathered up the shopping and managed to unlock the door. Sometimes all it takes is one free hand and a little help that we accept in time.
Do you know that “I’ll manage” you say before you have even stopped to think whether you have the strength? You take on one more task, agree to help, find time for other people’s plans. Then you get home and sit down for a while, only to find you don’t even feel like talking. The day has gone by on the move, and almost everything is done. Only the thing you wanted to do for yourself is left for tomorrow once again.
As you gather up the shopping, the wind brings a few yellow leaves. One sticks to the wet folder. You peel it off and look at the tree by the entrance. Through its thinning crown you can already see the windows of the building opposite. On one balcony someone is taking in the washing; from another comes the sound of a radio. For a moment your attention breaks away from the rush, and you notice how much has changed around you over the past few weeks.
And what has changed in you? Perhaps something that used to bring you joy now weighs on you. You keep putting effort into relationships in which you feel good less and less often. You set aside time for a pastime you lost interest in long ago. Or you are still hoping for a conversation that keeps being postponed. It is hard to admit a change like this, especially when we have invested a great deal. We easily start counting how many years have gone by and forget to ask ourselves how we want to spend the ones ahead.
Sometimes we discover what we need in a perfectly ordinary way. A meeting is cancelled and we feel relief. Someone takes over a task and at last we can catch our breath. We spend a pleasant afternoon and only in the evening notice that the whole time we forgot to check the phone. These moments are worth paying attention to. They show us how we really feel, even when, out of habit, we keep saying that everything is fine.
The spread “The Falling of the Leaves” is an invitation to explore one such story from your own life. The seven positions will guide you through what you have invested, what remains, the period that is coming to an end and the possibilities before you. The rune combinations offer a symbolic reading that you can connect with your own experiences.
Before you are four autumn images. Look at them unhurriedly before you read the interpretations. Which one draws your attention? Imagine you are in that place — among the falling leaves, on the damp path, high above the clouds or with a warm cup by the window. Where would you like to stay for a while? Choose its number and continue to the matching variant.
As you read, think of one specific situation that has been on your mind a lot lately. It might be a relationship, a job, a decision or a promise that is getting harder and harder to keep. Give yourself time to see what in it is still dear to you and what you want to change. To begin with, it is enough to be honest with yourself.
If today you could put one of your worries to one side, what would you use the time it frees up for?
Tap the image your eyes keep returning to. The variant will open right below your choice, and the other three will stay closed.
During an autumn clear-out, a suitcase emerges from the wardrobe, bought for a trip that never actually happened. Inside there is still a printed booking and a list of places to visit. The person you were meant to travel with has long since made other plans, yet the suitcase stubbornly holds on to the ones you made together. You look at it and remember how long you spent choosing the hotel. Then you take out the old sheets of paper and check the wheels. They work perfectly. Apparently the only thing still waiting for permission to set off is you.
Do you know this feeling? Something has ended, yet part of your life is still reserved for it. Time, attention, the wish for closeness, an idea of the future. Sometimes you even forget how many possibilities you have put on hold while hoping the old arrangement might become possible again. What would you do with them today if you allowed yourself to change direction?
“The Falling of the Leaves” explores this transition through seven positions. In each one, five runes light up a different side of what you have lived through — what you invested, what remained and what you now want to part with. As you read, choose one specific story. Recall the people, the conversations and your own decisions. That way the rune images will have somewhere to meet your actual experience.
RunesFehu, Gebo, Sowilo, Tiwaz, Wunjo.
Before you work out what you got back, remember the desire you started with. Fehu points to the time, means and energy you invested, while Gebo raises the question of exchange. Sowilo brings the image of enthusiasm — the readiness to take part, to support, to breathe life into a shared idea. Tiwaz adds faithfulness to a promise, and Wunjo the longing for joy and mutual understanding. You probably wanted something entirely human: closeness, a shared achievement, a sense that your efforts together had meaning.
How do you feel today about that sincerity of yours? Do you acknowledge it, or do you immediately start reproaching yourself for not having foreseen everything? Back then you had different information and were looking towards a different future. Give yourself the chance to look at your decisions with that understanding. Then ask yourself, “At what point did I start giving in the hope that a little more effort would change the way I was treated?” There you may discover why something that once brought you pleasure gradually began to wear you out.
RunesBerkana, Raido, Laguz, Jera, Othala.
After an ending, it is usually the absence that catches your attention first. Here, look also at what continues on with you. Berkana holds the theme of care and growth, Raido points to the path and the freedom to choose, Laguz to feelings and personal intuition. Jera is a reminder of what has gradually built up, while Othala raises the question of home and belonging. Which people remain close? What are you able to do today? Where can you simply be yourself, at ease?
Name something specific that this period has added to your life. It might be professional experience, a friendship, a better understanding of your own needs. It might also be the freedom to have your evenings to yourself again, even if you are still getting used to it. “What in my life keeps growing while my attention is taken up with what has ended?” If the theme of belonging stands out, you can continue in “The Lineage” room on FatedWays with the question, “Where do I find support, and what do I want to keep from the way I learned to create closeness?”
RunesHagalaz, Eihwaz, Nauthiz, Thurisaz, Isa.
This group gathers together the tension of a difficult period. Hagalaz brings in sudden upheaval, Eihwaz a prolonged transition, Nauthiz pressing need and limitations. Thurisaz points to clashes and defensive reactions, and Isa to freezing and waiting. Do you recognise a familiar sequence: tension, an attempt to put things right, a brief improvement and then the same conversation all over again? Sometimes circumstances have already changed, yet the body and the mind keep preparing for the next difficult moment.
Look at where you have the chance to change your own part in it. To ask for a clear agreement, to end a conversation full of repeated accusations, to stop explaining a decision you have already announced. “Which of my reactions feeds a story I want to step out of?” The new response may feel awkward at first. The old one has probably had years of rehearsals and knows perfectly well when to walk on stage.
RunesKenaz, Ansuz, Dagaz, Perthro, Mannaz.
Kenaz illuminates what you have noticed, Ansuz gives words their place, Dagaz offers a shift in perspective. Perthro leaves room for the unknown, while Mannaz points to relationships and your own part in them. How has what you went through changed your judgement? Which question would you now ask much sooner? Which gap between words and actions would you now take seriously?
You may also have discovered an ability of your own that you previously had no reason to find out about — making difficult decisions, seeking support, starting over. Give it a name and connect it to a real moment. “What do I now know about myself, and how will it influence my next choice?” In the “Gifts” room on FatedWays you can continue with the question, “Which of my qualities showed itself during this period, and where do I want to use it from now on?”
RunesNauthiz, Uruz, Hagalaz, Othala, Eihwaz.
Sometimes the hardest thing to part with is the picture of how everything should have turned out. Reality has already gone elsewhere, while inside us the old plan lives on, complete with carefully chosen details. Nauthiz and Hagalaz point to the tension surrounding the change, Uruz to the strength you put into not letting go. Othala raises the question of what you feel attached to, and Eihwaz of how you move through parting with the familiar.
What are you feeding through your own actions? You might be checking for a message, keeping free time open for someone’s possible return or comparing every opportunity with something in the past. Choose the habit you recognise most clearly. “What am I hoping to save while I put off my decision?” You can continue in the “Letting Go” room on FatedWays with the question, “What does not letting go give me, and what price am I paying for it today?” Look for one change that depends on you and fits into your real day.
RunesAlgiz, Isa, Berkana, Fehu, Sowilo.
After a disappointment it is easy to start considering serious restrictions: less trust, less openness, fewer expectations. At first this may bring relief. Then, sometimes, we sense just how much we miss our own desire to take part. Algiz raises the theme of protection and personal boundaries, Isa that of a necessary pause, Berkana that of care. Fehu is a reminder of resources, and Sowilo of vitality and pleasure.
Which of your qualities do you want to carry forward? Generosity, curiosity, a sense of humour, the ability to create closeness? Think about the conditions under which it can be present without draining your strength. “How can I protect the precious part of me that until now I have sometimes given away without measure?” If you feel the tiredness mostly in your body, you can visit “The Body” room on FatedWays with the question, “How do I recognise that my strength is running low, and how do I respond to that need?” The answer may begin with a perfectly ordinary change in your rhythm.
RunesDagaz, Ingwaz, Gebo, Wunjo, Perthro.
Here your gaze gradually turns towards what lies ahead. Dagaz opens up the possibility of a different point of view, Ingwaz points to what is still being prepared. Gebo brings back the theme of sharing, Wunjo that of joy, and Perthro allows for a future you have yet to get to know. What would you like to be present in it? Start with what is close at hand — the next free afternoon, a pleasant meeting, the idea that has long been stirring your curiosity.
Sometimes change shows itself in a small moment. You had a good time without comparing. You made a decision without consulting, in your head, someone who is no longer there. You feel like making plans again. “Which possibility do I want to give a real chance now?” If several directions lie before you, you can continue in “The Crossroads” room on FatedWays with the question, “Which next step matches my wishes and my possibilities today?”
After the seven positions, return to the story you started with. Where did you linger longest? On what you invested, on the waiting, on what you want to keep? Write down one sentence that feels especially true to you, and think about what action follows from it. Give it a place in the coming days, while you still remember why it matters to you.
Autumn makes change visible. Along the path you can see what has fallen, and on the branches what has remained. In our own lives, telling the two apart sometimes takes longer. Meanwhile, we can meet people, learn, rest and enjoy the nice things we have been saving for a special occasion.
If you would like to look more closely at the question that has emerged, you can continue with a written Tarot reading on FatedWays. Take with you the specific situation and that sentence you keep coming back to.
And now look again at the suitcase from the beginning. What experience of your own would you pack it for today? The wheels work, there is room inside, and you can now replace the old list with one of your own.
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 room for what I want now?”
Walk the transformation with this question
If you are already playing with a question of your own, it stays. You can enter this one whenever you decide to change your question.
The power went out just as the laptop, two documents and a phone with an almost flat battery lay open on the table. The first reaction was to press the light switch a few more times, as if electricity could be won over by persistence. From the neighbouring balcony came the call: “Yours too?” — a question that rarely fixes the situation, yet instantly brings people closer. A candle was found, the chair was pulled up to the window, and after the initial irritation the rain began to be heard. It had been raining for at least an hour. Until then, nobody had simply paid it any attention.
Sometimes this is also how we discover what is happening inside us. The usual rhythm breaks off and at last we feel the tiredness we have been carrying around all week. Or the disappointment for which we always manage to find a reasonable explanation. Something may also surface that we find hard to say out loud: relief after a break-up, anger at someone we love, envy of somebody else’s freedom. We look at these feelings with a certain awkwardness, as if they had turned up as uninvited guests and now we must quickly send them on their way before anyone sees them.
“The Passage Through the Shadows” leaves us time to get to know them. The seven positions look at what we have long kept hidden, left unsaid, or explained in a way that makes it sound acceptable. As you read, stay close to one story of your own. Remember how you showed yourself to other people and what you went through once you got back home. It is precisely the distance between the two that may hint at where this reading begins.
RunesEihwaz, Thurisaz, Kenaz, Tiwaz, Algiz.
You probably know the moment when everyone turns to look at you and you say: “All right, we’ll think of something.” Then you really do think of something. You find a solution, you hold the difficult conversation, you take on what the others cannot bear for the time being. In the combination of Eihwaz and Thurisaz this steadiness gradually takes on a protective sharpness as well — you grit your teeth, keep an eye on what lies ahead, stand ready to react. Kenaz helps you to see a possible way out, while Tiwaz and Algiz link the effort to a promise, to responsibility and to the wish to protect what matters to you.
From the outside it may look as though you cope with ease. The person who arranges everything is rarely asked whether they themselves need anything. Sometimes you make this oversight easier too: you answer “I’m fine” while you are still gathering your strength for the next phone call. You have given a great deal of your capacity to endure. Now it is worth noticing what stays hidden behind it — the fear, the sleepless night, the wish that, just once, someone else would say they will take care of things. Who in your life also knows the effort behind your strength?
RunesIsa, Nauthiz, Perthro, Laguz, Ansuz.
After a long stretch of tension, your own wishes sometimes speak up very quietly. Someone asks where you would like to go, and out of habit you reply: “I don’t mind either way.” Later you realise that, in fact, you had felt like staying at home. Here Isa and Nauthiz turn the attention to the pause and to the need that can at last be heard. In the space of Perthro the answer is still taking shape, Laguz brings it closer through feeling, and Ansuz gives it words.
What remains is your sense of your own state, even though for a while you have drowned it out with whatever the day required. You may recognise it by the relief when a meeting is cancelled, or by your reluctance to sit through yet another conversation after which you feel drained. At first these reactions may surprise you. You had already agreed, you had been polite, everything had seemed fine. Then the quiet lets you notice how you had been feeling all along. What do you begin to admit to yourself when you let the first polite answer pass?
RunesHagalaz, Nauthiz, Eihwaz, Thurisaz, Isa.
Hagalaz, Nauthiz and Eihwaz gather together the experience of being shaken, of being under pressure and of passing through difficulty for a long time. Over time Thurisaz and Isa can turn into familiar reactions: you meet words ready for an argument, or you pull back before the conversation has become too personal. Someone says “We need to talk” and your stomach is already tightening. You start preparing explanations, even though the person may simply want to agree on the holiday in August.
The body sometimes recognises an old experience from a few similar details and reacts before you have managed to weigh up the present one. This is where the closing of that habit can begin — with the brief moment you give yourself to hear what is actually being said. Gradually you can tell apart when you need to protect yourself and when the tension comes from expecting a familiar hurt. What in the present conversation belongs to the person in front of you, and what are you bringing with you from an earlier one? If a specific incident comes to the surface, you can rewrite it in “The Scene” room on FatedWays with the question: “What did I expect to happen back then, and how does that attitude affect my reactions today?”
RunesDagaz, Kenaz, Mannaz, Jera, Berkana.
One of the hardest encounters with yourself is the moment when you feel relief about something you believe you ought only to grieve over. The relationship has ended and you are sad, yet that same evening you fall asleep more peacefully. Caring for someone close has brought you nearer to them, and yet at times you have wanted to run away for two days without anyone knowing where you were. You are glad about a friend’s success, and then it starts to hurt on behalf of your own postponed wish. In moments like these we easily begin to judge our feelings and hastily edit them for internal use.
In this position Dagaz and Kenaz open up the possibility of seeing more than one truth at the same time. Mannaz allows for human contradictions, Jera gives them time to be understood, and Berkana adds the care with which you can treat yourself. Relief can show how much tension there has been. Envy can point you towards a life you long for. Anger can help you name something you have long accepted in silence. Living through these feelings still leaves the choice of what you do in your own hands. Which feeling would tell you something important if you allowed it to finish its sentence?
RunesOthala, Isa, Raido, Hagalaz, Nauthiz.
Part of the inner heaviness comes from rules we learnt so early that we now take them for the natural order of things. Whatever has been started must be finished at any cost, family difficulties stay hidden, help is asked for only once the situation has become utterly unbearable. Othala and Isa preserve the image of what has been inherited and has long remained motionless. Raido introduces the possibility of another direction, while Hagalaz and Nauthiz show the strain when the old rule begins to press on the life you are living now.
Perhaps this rule once brought a sense of security to the people you learnt it from. Today your circumstances are different. You have the right to check whether it still applies, instead of automatically obeying it. Responsibility, for example, can include an honest refusal when your strength is already spent. Closeness can withstand a conversation about a painful family subject. Which of your own “that’s how it has to be” rules do you now want to reconsider? In “The Lineage” room on FatedWays you can continue with the question: “Which family belief am I repeating, and how would I like to act in similar situations now?”
RunesSowilo, Ehwaz, Algiz, Perthro, Ingwaz.
During a hard period we are often held up by very particular things: the person we can call without a prepared explanation, the walk after work, the music that wakes us up to the day once more. In the combination of Sowilo and Ehwaz, vitality gradually finds movement and company. Algiz points towards the conditions in which you feel protected, Perthro leaves room for the unknown, and Ingwaz guards the time for gathering your strength.
Keep your connection with whatever makes it easier for you to be present. It might be a friendship in which the conversation moves easily from the difficult to the funny. It might be an activity during which you find yourself curious once again. Supports like these easily get left until last, because they seem less urgent than everything else. Then we wonder why the day is full and yet pleasure is always missing from it. Which small, living thing do you want to keep in your week, even while you are still going through a difficulty?
RunesDagaz, Fehu, Gebo, Wunjo, Ansuz.
After a long time of looking inwards, a wish to share again gradually emerges. Dagaz shifts your view towards what is possible, Fehu brings your attention back to the strength and resources you have available, and Gebo brings them into an exchange. With Wunjo and Ansuz come the joy of connecting with others and the words you can now say more freely. You might accept an invitation because you genuinely feel like going, or share an idea you have until now kept only to yourself.
This change is often noticed only after a delay. You come home after a pleasant evening and realise that you were really there the whole time — you listened, you laughed, you took part. For a little while the old worry has lost its place at the centre of your attention. You can now see beyond your own difficulty and make room for someone else’s story, a new experience, an ordinary pleasure. What do you feel like responding to now, when you can hear your own wish more clearly?
The Passage Through the Shadows may remain almost unnoticeable to the people around you. You go on working, shopping and replying to messages. Meanwhile you begin to say more precisely how you are. You let someone close into your difficulty before it becomes too much to bear. You notice your irritation and look for its cause, instead of immediately blaming yourself. Sometimes you manage it, at other times you slip back into what is familiar. Little by little, the new way is given more room.
When you look at the seven positions together, notice where you felt the strongest resistance. Which paragraph did you feel like skipping? Perhaps that is exactly where there is an experience still searching for words. If you would like to explore it through an individual symbolic reading, you can continue with a written Tarot reading on FatedWays. Take the specific situation and whatever you find hard to admit about it.
And when the power comes back, the lamp will probably light up, the phone will ask for its charger and your tasks will draw your attention once again. Before you go back to them, see whether you still want to spend the evening according to the original plan. You might leave the documents closed a little longer and stay by the window. The rain goes on. What else in your life is waiting for you to hear it, while you keep pressing that same switch again?
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:
“Which feeling is waiting for me to hear it, and how can I take care of it?”
Walk the transformation with this question
If you are already playing with a question of your own, it stays. You can enter this one whenever you decide to change your question.
One autumn morning you are humming as you make breakfast, and you only notice it when you forget the next verse. The floor is cold, sunlight is spilling across the roof opposite, and from the yard comes the sound of a broom on wet leaves. You freeze with the slice of bread in your hand and try to remember the lyrics. Then it strikes you as funny. After so many evenings spent picking apart one and the same conversation, today the most insistent question in your head is how a song goes that you don’t even particularly like. Meanwhile, the coffee boils over. So the morning, too, has found its own way to ask for your attention.
You glance at your phone — it’s almost nine, and you still haven’t checked for that message. Only then do you notice how calmly the day has begun. The story still exists, and so do the memories, but this morning your attention reaches the sunlight, the song and the wish to go out earlier as well. A brief hesitation may appear about whether you are already allowed to feel good. Do you know that almost guilty surprise when pleasure returns before all the questions have received their answers?
“The Light After the Storm” is a spread for this very moment. The seven positions look at how what you have lived through finds its place among the rest of your life, while the present gradually receives more and more of your attention. Here you can recognise your steady supports, the habits you want to keep, and your ability to let the good things come close to you again.
RunesGebo, Sowilo, Fehu, Mannaz, Kenaz.
Remember a time when your presence truly helped. You stayed to listen to someone, invested time in a shared idea, passed on what you knew or made a hard day more bearable with just the right joke. Gebo, Sowilo and Fehu gather these expressions of generosity — the exchange, the energy and the very concrete resources you gave. With Mannaz and Kenaz, human understanding joins them: the ability to notice what the other person needs and to help them see a possibility.
From the distance of time, you can look more calmly at your own intentions as well. Some of your efforts met with a response, while others went almost unnoticed. Which of your gestures still brings you a quiet satisfaction? Let it remain a good memory, even if the relationship itself has ended. You can respect the sincerity with which you took part and, at the same time, know where you would act differently today. In this way the past is gradually released from the obligation to end, every single time, with a tally of who received how much.
RunesBerkana, Ingwaz, Jera, Ehwaz, Othala.
After a long period of change, we sometimes discover our supports on a perfectly ordinary day. You know whom you can call. You have a skill that earns you a living. You know a place where you always feel lighter. Berkana, Ingwaz and Jera gather the image of what has been built up gradually — something has received care, has grown and now has stability. Ehwaz adds the bonds in which you can rely on one another, and Othala brings closer the feeling of home and belonging.
Look over your life with attention to these quiet constants. Who stayed close to you during the difficult period? What can you still rely on within yourself? You may notice that while one part of your life was shaking, another part kept holding you up. Your friend kept calling, work gave you a rhythm, and your own resourcefulness kept finding solutions. Which support do you take for granted, even though it deserves more care from you?
RunesThurisaz, Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Eihwaz.
Here the change can be recognised by one small incident: you hear a familiar name and carry on with the conversation calmly. Or you find an old object, look it over and then return to whatever you had started. Before, a detail like this could have taken up your whole afternoon. In the combination of Thurisaz, Hagalaz and Nauthiz lives the memory of the clash, the upheaval and the strain. Isa and Eihwaz add the long wait and the gradual passage through it.
Now you may notice how much less often you go back in your mind to finish the old argument. Even when it hurts, you already know another state too, and you know that the day can go on. When did you last feel this? Perhaps the memory passed through you while you were walking down the street, and a little later your attention turned to something else. Sometimes this is exactly how we realise that a period is closing — what happened keeps its significance, yet now it also leaves room for the rest of our life.
RunesDagaz, Ansuz, Mannaz, Kenaz, Laguz.
At the start of a new acquaintance, you say what you are looking for. When an arrangement is unclear, you ask a question. When something pleases you, you allow yourself to show it. Actions like these may seem completely natural until you remember how long you used to put off exactly these words. Dagaz, Ansuz and Kenaz link the shift in perspective with clear expression. Mannaz leaves room for the person opposite, and Laguz keeps the conversation close to what you actually feel.
Now you can notice earlier whether a connection brings you ease, whether there is mutual curiosity and whether agreements are kept. You also sense when you yourself begin to leave the important things unsaid, hoping that everything will sort itself out. What do you say in good time today, instead of expecting the other person to guess? If this change touches your close relationships, you can continue in the “Love” room on FatedWays with the question: “What kind of closeness do I want to create, and how can I clearly show my needs?”
RunesRaido, Ehwaz, Gebo, Wunjo, Nauthiz.
After a difficult period, we sometimes draw up an impressive programme for happiness. A trip, a new pastime, more get-togethers, sport and at least one photo showing how well everything is going. Very soon, free time starts to resemble a second job, only with nicer shoes. Raido and Ehwaz raise the question of pace and direction here. Gebo and Wunjo hold the wish for company and pleasure, and Nauthiz shows how easily we turn them into yet another demand on ourselves.
Give yourself the chance to try out what suits you now. You will accept one invitation and decline another. You might go to a class and find that the activity doesn’t appeal to you at all. The best part of the weekend might turn out to be the long breakfast. What would you choose for the coming days if the need to prove how well you are moving on fell away? The answer will probably be more personal and more achievable than any ambitious programme.
RunesAlgiz, Sowilo, Fehu, Ingwaz, Dagaz.
When our strength returns, it is easy to start promising it away in advance again. We take on more work, agree to yet another meeting, and a month later wonder where our calm has gone. Algiz, Sowilo and Fehu turn the attention to the conditions under which your energy is preserved. Ingwaz is a reminder of the time that what has been started needs in order to develop, and Dagaz allows for the possibility of organising your daily life differently.
Keep the practical knowledge you already have about yourself: how much sleep you need, what leaves you exhausted, how many commitments actually fit into your week. You may have discovered that it helps you to leave an evening free or to wait before promising to take part. These habits deserve a place even when everything is going well. Which change in your rhythm do you want to stay, because you can feel its benefit? In “The Body” room on FatedWays, you can continue with the question: “How do I recognise that I am living at a rhythm that suits me, and which signals do I usually ignore?”
RunesDagaz, Wunjo, Gebo, Berkana, Sowilo.
Someone pays you a compliment and you immediately explain that the outfit is old. They offer help, and before you have even accepted it, you are already looking for a way to repay them. They invite you to dinner and you reach for the bill almost by reflex. Sometimes giving is so familiar to us that receiving leaves us slightly flustered. In this position, Dagaz and Sowilo light up the possibility of enjoying closeness again, while Wunjo, Gebo and Berkana develop it through pleasure, reciprocity and care.
Can you let the kind gesture reach you? Can you say “Thank you” and stay for a moment with the feeling that someone has thought of you? Receiving creates closeness too. It allows the other person to take part, to show attention and to feel the joy of their own gesture. What would you accept more easily today — help, tenderness, recognition or someone’s sincere company? Perhaps this is exactly where the ending opens up the most unexpected space: you now have the desire to let the good in from this side as well.
When you look at the seven positions together, see what in your present stands out more clearly. A person you want to get in touch with. A habit that helps you. A pleasure you can feel again. The autumn sun stays in the room for a shorter time now, but you already notice where it falls. You might pull your chair over there and stay for ten minutes, instead of immediately using the light to see what else needs cleaning.
If you want to explore in more detail a question that has come up in this reading, you can continue with a written Tarot reading on FatedWays. Take the specific situation and the wish you can hear most clearly right now. Give room, too, to the possibility that your answer will develop as you try.
And tomorrow morning, if you catch yourself humming again, let the song go on, even if you get the words wrong. Look out of the window while the coffee is still under control, and think about what you feel like doing with this day. There may already be something that makes you want to go outside.
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:
“How can I let in the good that is coming to me now?”
Walk the transformation with this question
If you are already playing with a question of your own, it stays. You can enter this one whenever you decide to change your question.
On Sunday afternoon it started raining just as you were due to leave for a visit. You looked at the shoes by the door, then at the rain, then at the shoes again. The phone rang: the meeting was cancelled. You heard yourself saying “What a shame, next week then” while you were already pulling off one sock. Ten minutes later you were sitting by the window with a warm cup in your hands and in a suspiciously good mood. Outside, the leaves were sticking to the wet paving stones, indoors it was cosy, and the free hours looked like a present that someone had finally chosen to suit your taste.
Afterwards you wondered why you were so pleased. You like the people you were going to see. The evening would probably have been a pleasant one. It’s just that lately you accept invitations according to the free space in your calendar, and you check your own wish only once you are standing at the door. It turns out that your wish sometimes has entirely different plans for the afternoon.
The fourth variant of “The Falling of the Leaves” looks at exactly this mismatch. At some point you sincerely chose a particular rhythm, activity or way of taking part in your relationships. In the meantime you have gathered experience, your interests have changed, and some things now cost you more effort. The seven positions leave room for you to check what still suits you. You can read them with one specific situation in mind — something that is still present in your life, even though you are more and more often glad when it falls away.
RunesJera, Tiwaz, Gebo, Fehu, Ehwaz.
You gave constancy. You turned up whenever there was an arrangement, finished your part, and found the time for the shared undertaking to carry on. In this position Jera and Tiwaz lend weight to sustained effort and to loyalty towards what you took on. Through Gebo, Fehu and Ehwaz it turns into a shared life — resources invested, cooperation, consideration for another person, and care that something important keeps happening tomorrow as well.
Perhaps part of the result already seems so natural that you rarely notice your own contribution. The group gets together because someone looks after the connection. The work moves forward because certain tasks are done regularly. The relationship has a history because you set aside time for it. Allow yourself to see the value of this constancy before you decide what comes next. Which sustained effort would you like to acknowledge to yourself, without immediately adding what else you could have done?
RunesOthala, Mannaz, Laguz, Kenaz, Isa.
When the day frees up for a while, your personal preferences begin to show themselves in small details. You choose music you rarely put on in company. You make yourself something simple that you love. You stay by the window because you enjoy the light there. With Othala and Mannaz the question of belonging draws closer to your own everyday life. Laguz and Kenaz help you recognise pleasure, and Isa gives it enough time to become noticeable.
What remains with you is your sense of what appeals to you. You may have spent a long time adjusting it to the common taste, and now you may need a little time to hear it clearly. What do you choose when you have a few hours just for yourself? The answer may be quite ordinary. Your personal taste has its place even without an impressive explanation. A favourite bench, an old song or a walk along a familiar route can also make your day a good one.
RunesRaido, Nauthiz, Ehwaz, Thurisaz, Hagalaz.
Here the movement begins to outpace your own tempo. Raido and Ehwaz show how easily we fall into other people’s rhythm, and with Nauthiz that rhythm gradually takes on a sense of necessity. Someone makes decisions quickly and expects an answer straight away. Someone else loves full weekends. A third person thinks every free evening is a wonderful opportunity to meet up. You find a way to fit in, while Thurisaz and Hagalaz remind you of the tension that builds up from constantly trying to catch up.
Perhaps your own tempo needs more time for reflection or fewer events one after another. This is useful information about the way you make arrangements. If you say in advance when you can reply and how much time you want to set aside, others will have the chance to take it into account. Where are you hurrying because someone else has already set off? Sometimes the greatest relief comes from a calm “I’ll let you know tomorrow”, after which you really do give yourself a set time to think it over.
RunesAnsuz, Kenaz, Mannaz, Dagaz, Jera.
Over time you begin to recognise your own consent more precisely. You can like a certain activity and still prefer to do it less often. You can love a person’s company and need more time of your own. Ansuz and Kenaz give words to these details, and through Mannaz they enter your relationships. Dagaz and Jera show how your point of view gradually shifts towards what you used to accept without any clarification.
This clarity lets the people close to you get to know you in the present as well. If you always say “Whatever you decide”, they will find it hard to understand that you now prefer something else. Sometimes we hope people will notice the change on their own, while we diligently go on acting in the old way. Which of your preferences could you express more clearly the next time you make an arrangement? It may turn out that the conversation is much lighter than the lengthy preparation for it in your head.
RunesOthala, Tiwaz, Isa, Nauthiz, Perthro.
Once you strongly wanted a particular job, activity or way of life. You chose it willingly, put effort into it and made it part of your picture of yourself. Then your interest gradually changed, but the decision stayed where it was. Othala, Tiwaz and Isa gather this attachment to what is established and to your own consistency. Nauthiz shows where it is now pressing on you, and Perthro allows for a future you have yet to get to know.
Sometimes it is hard to admit that you have outgrown a choice of your own. It seems to you that by changing you will devalue the years you invested or disappoint the person you were back then. Yet perhaps it was precisely during those years that you learned enough to wish for something else. Experience keeps its value even when your next decision is a different one. What would you choose today if you were encountering this possibility for the first time? If concrete alternatives take shape, you can continue in “The Crossroads” room on FatedWays with the question: “Which option matches my present wishes, and which one am I keeping up because of an earlier decision?”
RunesAlgiz, Berkana, Uruz, Fehu, Ingwaz.
Keep paying attention to the conditions in which you spend your day. Algiz, Berkana and Uruz link care with the physical sense of comfort and strength, while Fehu and Ingwaz raise the question of how you use the resources you have and what you keep putting off improving. This is about entirely tangible things: the chair you work on, the shoes you walk in, the lighting that makes you squint over your book every evening.
We easily get used to small discomforts. You’ll adjust the cushion, nudge the lamp, put up with it a little longer. Only this “little” repeats itself every single day. What can you change to make your everyday life more pleasant? In “The Body” room on FatedWays you can continue with the question: “What discomfort have I grown used to, and what practical care can I give myself?” Choose something you will actually feel — a place where it is comfortable for you to sit, or an object that finally does its job without daily negotiations.
RunesWunjo, Gebo, Othala, Sowilo, Dagaz.
One day you accept an invitation because you genuinely feel like going. You get ready calmly, meet the people with pleasure, and the conversation draws you in. Then you sense that it’s time for you to leave, you say so, and you go home with a good feeling. The next morning you still have energy for your own day as well. In the combination of Wunjo and Gebo joy becomes mutual, Othala adds the sense of a place among others, and Sowilo and Dagaz light up the possibility of taking part in a way that suits you.
This is the gift of a more precise choice: you are present with more desire and less inner bargaining. Spending time with others becomes more pleasant because your agreement is genuine. Gradually the people around you also learn when it suits you, what you like and how you prefer to spend your time together. The rain can now busy itself solely with watering the gardens, instead of regularly rescuing your social calendar.
When you have looked at the seven positions, choose one arrangement you would like to reconsider. It may be with another person, or it may be a promise to yourself from years ago. See what in it is still dear to you and what needs to change. One honest conversation or a small trial of a different option may give you more clarity than a long postponement.
If you want to look at your specific situation in more detail, you can continue with a written Tarot reading on FatedWays. Take with you the question that stood out most strongly, and the options you are choosing between right now.
Outside, the rain may already have stopped. The cup is still warm, the leaves are glistening on the paving stones, and the free afternoon goes on. You can go out or stay by the window. Look at the shoes and this time check whether you really feel like going. The answer has every right to be different from last Sunday’s.
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 do I truly want when I leave room for my own wish?”
Walk the transformation with this question
If you are already playing with a question of your own, it stays. You can enter this one whenever you decide to change your question.
The spread is part of the autumn walk that begins with the article:
Autumn Alchemy: When the Old Makes Room for You
If you would like to step into the autumn house as well, 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 the story that came to mind while you were reading.
Everything you do from the heart — a word, an action, a donation — comes back. Not tomorrow, not next week, but at the moment when enough has gathered. If these words have reached you, if something in them has recognised something in you — it is no coincidence. And if you feel like returning a little of this energy, any amount is received with gratitude and turns into new content, new spreads, new words that will reach someone who needs them exactly in time. That is how the cycle continues.
Written by
tarot reader and palmist, creator of FatedWays
Tarot Spread “The Dance of the Five Witches” with RunesFive witches by the fire, Tarot cards and runes. Choose yours and see what lies ahead in love, work, money and your personal life.
Autumn Alchemy: When the Old Makes Room for YouAutumn lets its leaves go without negotiation. What you keep out of habit, what drains you, and how Perthro, Hagalaz and Isa make room for you.
Test: The Autumn House — What Is It Time to Let Go Of?Seven rooms in an autumn house. Choose the one you enter and the one you walk past, and see what it is time to let go of: a worry, a wait or other eyes.
Tarot spread “The Mists of Scotland” — a past lifeFour images and seven positions with Tarot cards and runes. Choose one and follow a past life in ancient Scotland — an oath, a love and a gift.