Othala: Home is Where the Heart Is

Othala: the Homestead

Meaning: Ancestors, Estate, Inheritance, Home or Household, Prosperity Affirmation: My home is prosperous. Associations: Ancestral Inheritance or Karma, Heaven or Mecca

Meeting Othala is like walking into a warm, welcoming threshold. All the faces within, and there are many, turn to greet you with smiles, and each knows your name. Comforting smells, laughter, music, and gentle light pour through the space Othala provides, the energy of the rune itself an expansive home in which there is room for your whole spiritual family to gather comfortably. It is from this space that our ancestral karma flows, and it is to this place that we will return when our life is over, hopefully having mended some of the harmful energy our lineage is responsible for perpetuating.

Othala is the rune of the Homeland. Like a lot of the runes, this symbol can have two different meanings. One is more mundane, and relates to our physical homes and estates. This energy is usually delegated to Fehu, however, which rules over our physical assets, while Othala tends to be a more overarching energy, presiding over its second half: our spiritual home, the fifth dimension, heaven, our ancestral energy, collective karma... Whatever your spirit calls home, is Othala.

The energy of Family and Home is not a simple one, and so, it's not really surprising to discover that Othala is made up of so many other runes. Starting with the always present Isa, Othala also contains Ingwaz, Kenaz, Sowilo, Laguz, and Naudhiz - at least that I can see!

Isa is the channel through which karma travels from our ancestors to us. Some of what we experience in this life is the result of Isa carrying the energy of the past forward into our lives, hopefully to create resolution and balance. Isa also creates stability in our Home itself, by providing sure, steady characteristics that make that Home, well, homey.

Ingwaz asserts our role as an individual in the whole. While some of what Othala presents to us is not within our control, much of our life is. It is up to use to mend and bring to a conclusion the residual energies of the past, but also our task to make sure that we do not generate additional imbalance in the process. We play an integral role in the overall whole, and so we should act accordingly! Not everything in our life was handed to us by our ancestors, after all. A lot of it is our own doing.

Working with Ingwaz, Kenaz is facing towards the earth in the figure of Othala, which I think indicates the ways Othala gives us the ability to, through personal insight and growth, adjust the overall foundations of our ancestral energy. This not only improves our overall life in this lifetime, but resolves the karmic energy, so that it is not passed on to the next generation. Using the light of Kenaz, we can illuminate the energy that is necessary to transmute, and also see clearly enough to transmute.

Sowilo and Laguz are both reflected in the energy of Othala. Sowilo indicates that our actions, as well as the actions of the past, have created this moment in the now. What our Home is presented as in life is largely indicative of the energies and forces that have powered it up until this point, and those energies can be both positive and negative in nature.

Laguz is indicative of the necessary reflection on everyone in the Home, especially in relation to their feelings or hidden motives. As is often the case with Ancestral Karma, the source of the imbalance is often much deeper than the surface is revealing. Learning to do the deep dive, through our own feelings, and those of others, can help us find balance and harmony in our Home communities. It can also very much resolve ancestral trauma, mostly by allowing the trauma a space to flow and heal.

Naudhiz, the last rune I'm noting in Othala, asks us what all parties need in order to maintain balance and cohesion. Sometimes what the whole needs is not what we want. Sometimes what we need is not what the whole wants. Learning to find the proper balance is an important task to finding and maintaining a home life that is prosperous and wonderful!

The following spread is called "Calling Home," and is from my upcoming book, Runic Wisdom, that features lots of divination spreads based on the energies of the Elder Futhark. It asks our ancestors if they have any advice or words of encouragement to help us at this time. If you use this spread, I'd love to see! Please tag #RunicWisdom or #RunicWisdomOthala to make sure I get a gander.