Ansuz to Raidho, rune calendar, birth months and hours

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Raidho

Yesterday was the last day of the half month of Ansuz.  I was teaching a course with some lovely runesters at the time and we definitely felt the departure of Ansuz as I forced the window shut during a gust so powerful the that the ceiling tiles above us were rattling!  The group did some really inspired work, with spontaneous poetry and artwork appearing during the course of the day…  I have also had a surprising number of people tell me that they have re-discovered their inner poet, or started a creative project, so all in all Ansuz was doing well on that front.  Interestingly, Mercury was (and continues to be) in retrograde;  Odin is taken to be the equivalent planetary ruler of Mercury in runic astrology, and he also rules Ansuz.  Despite all the creative loveliness, I have never known so many horrendous problems with computers, lost messages and post gone astray!

Until 13th September we are in the half-month of Raidho.  The new academic year is starting so students everywhere are preparing themselves for the next phase of their learning and parents are looking forward to a return to routine.  This should be a great time for taking a quick look around you to check that you are making the most of opportunties, have a good rhythmn of life established for yourself, and are in tune with the world around you.  I have re-organised my diary and have a number of new projects starting which I’m really excited about.

Runic astrology: birth months and hours

Michael Cramer from the Facebook Group Runes for Runesters recently suggested that I look into my rune birth-month and hour as part of the rune calendar experiment.  The half-month of Raidho is a really good time to do this as the rune governs journeys and the cycles of heaven and life.  I have been working with the half-months as given by Nigel Pennick in Runic Astrology: Starcraft and Timekeeping in the Northern Traditionwhich are as follows:

  • Fehu: 29th June – 14th July
  • Uruz: 14th July – 29th July
  • Thurisaz: 29th July – 13th August
  • Ansuz: 13th August – 29th August
  • Raidho: 29th August – 13th September
  • Kenaz: 13th September – 28th September
  • Gebo: 28th September – 13th October
  • Wunjo: 13th October – 28th October
  • Hagalaz: 28th October – 13th November
  • Nauthiz: 13th November – 28th November
  • Isa: 28th November – 13th December
  • Jera: 13th December – 28th December
  • Eihwaz: 28th December – 13th January
  • Perthro: 13th January – 28th January
  • Algiz: 28th January – 13th February
  • Sowilo: 13th February – 27th February
  • Teiwaz: 27th February – 14th March
  • Berkano: 14th March – 30th March
  • Ehwaz: 30th March – 14th April
  • Mannaz: 14th April – 29th April
  • Laguz: 29th April – 14th May
  • Ingwaz – 14th May – 29th May
  • Othala – 29th May – 14th June
  • Dagaz – 14th June – 29th June

Although Pennick doesn’t say (presumably because runes are a Northern tradition), the half months centre around the times of the Solstices; Dagaz reaches full power at the Summer Solistice and Jera at the Winter Solstice – as such, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere the half months will need to be calculated with Dagaz falling on 13th-28th December and the rest falling in sequence after it (e.g. Fehu becomes 28th December to 13th January).

To calculate your birth hour is fairly straight forward as there are 24 runes and 24 hours in the day.  The position of Dagaz is again, important, as it will fall at the highest point of the sun (in ‘mean’ time this would be, 12:00 with the hour of Dagaz therefore being 12:30-13:30).  Note that, for this sytem, Dagaz is the last rune in the 24 rune sequence with Othala being 23.  Pennick then gives each rune a full hour, running in sequence from half-hour to half-hour but does indicate that this is a rule of thumb guide (e.g. Fehu will be 13:30-14:30, Uruz 14:30-15:30 etc).

To get a really accurate reading you should use local time which is slightly different because there are fewer hours of dark and daylight depending on the seasons, so the twelve ‘rune hours’ of night will be longer in the Winter and shorter in the Summer, and the twelve rune hours of day will be longer in Summer and shorter in Winter.   Planetary hours are calculated in this way, which is handy for us because there are planetery hour calculators out there which save you having to divide the day hours and night hours into 12 equal segments yourself.  Put the location of your time and birth in to the calculator to find the plantary hour of your birth.  Each hour is given a numbers from 1-24; note what that is and then see which rune is corresponds to below (don’t get confused with the 1-24 numbers of the standard rune sequence, the numbers below are purely for the calculation):

  1. Ehwaz
  2. Mannaz
  3. Laguz
  4. Ingwaz
  5. Othala
  6. Dagaz (this will be the time that the sun is at its highest)
  7. Fehu
  8. Uruz
  9. Thurisaz
  10. Ansuz
  11. Raidho
  12. Kenaz
  13. Gebo
  14. Wunjo
  15. Hagalaz
  16. Nauthiz
  17. Isa
  18. Jera (this will be the middle of the night when the sun is furthest away)
  19. Eihwaz
  20. Perthro
  21. Algiz
  22. Sowilo
  23. Teiwaz
  24. Berkano

Example

I was born on 4th May at 15:00 so my half month is Laguz.  15:00 falls bang in planetary hour 8, the rune-hour of Uruz, so I don’t need to worry about the local time much, however, if I was born at 15:28 the accuracy of the calculation would be very important as, according to mean time, I would still be in Uruz, but, according to local time, the hour of Uruz was 14:12-15:26 so I would actually be a Thurisaz baby.