Kenaz Meditation

The Torch. Discovery - The Hard Way. Understanding of life & it's meaning.

Walking in darkness down a path, you come to a dead end. This thicket is too thick. There is no way through.

Reluctantly, you turn back.

You choose a different path, only to achieve the same end; but this time when you turn back, you see a side path, and take that. Again, another dead end.

You try again, and again, until you no longer remember how you got here.

Eventually, you find a path with many thorns at the end, but beyond it you see fire. The air is beginning to chill, and you desperately want the warmth and safety of that fire...

Without thinking, without hesitation, you grasp at the thorns, only to find your fingers scratched. This won't do! You'll never break through that way! After a moment of cautious consideration, you think you have a solution.

So, you pull your sleeves over your hands to form makeshift gloves, the thorns dig into the sleeves, but not as much, and don't quite sting like before. You worry, briefly, about your shirt or sweater,

but you aren't exactly sure what plant this is, and just hope it isn't stinging nettle.

You eventually break through, and add some wood from a nearby pile to the fire. The warmth is soothing, and you know the flames will keep critters at bay. The fire pit is well made, and there is a source of water nearby. Eventually, you drift off into an exhausted sleep.

In the morning, you wake a bit sore, but more clear headed, and better able to see in the thin early light. You go to examine the thorns you broke through, and discover, with relief and a laugh, that they were not the dreaded stinging nettles, but blackberries. There aren't many left in the early autumn chill, but you pick some of what's left, and begin your journey home.

~*~*~*~*~*~

This is the sort of situation in which the fires of Kenaz light our way. Kenaz isn't so much about being inspired by the possibilities like Ansuz,so much as clawing one's way to discovery because one must. Some of what we make, like art, or fine cuisine, we do for its own sake, but other times it's do or die: Learn to make fire or freeze. Learn to preserve food or starve,. Learn how to treat the illness, or watch the village population drop. Learn to work sustainably with the environment, or watch the streets flood and the lakes go dry.

Sometimes we don't learn because we *want* to, but because we *have* to – and we pray it isn't too late. (But then, even if it is, if anyone survives, that hard won knowledge, too, is part of what Kenaz speaks of.) A real Fact in life is true, whether or not one wants it to be so. Accepting this allows one to prepare for potential danger instead of denying it, and, with others, become a sort of “herd immunity” of knowledge – whether literally, in the case of the recent ridiculousness over vaccines, or metaphorically, in the case of those who, from one “side” or the “other,” deny one finding of science or another for political gain.

To move from mere survival to thriving, one must find a way to solve problems at the first sign, and this is often a process of trial and error. No one human can do this for everything within their lifetime, and so it benefits us to find people we trust to know what they're talking about – whether or not we like them personally – and learn from and benefit from one another's findings. A dozen flames burn brighter than one. Perhaps, in giving away some of what you know, the return will be someone else making a discovery you could not have, but which would likewise not have been possible without you.

Like proverbial enlightenment or gnosis, the trick is, there is no final destination, only the journey. The moment you believe you have “arrived” is merely the moment you set your things down and refused to budge – but others around you will still be walking, whether or not you do. Needing rest is one thing, stubbornness another.

Such is the nature of discovery and evolution alike.

Raidho Meditation

Journey, Experience, Facing the World

Like it or not, many of us are hobbits. We love stories, but deep down, we'd rather read about an adventure than go on one ourselves. Adventure means struggles and challenges - and what's worse, it means setting foot outside our front door.

Many of us build fortresses, with or without realizing it. We expect adversity to find us, so who in their right mind would go and seek it? Our comfort zones, our indulgences - even our procrastinations and addictions - were created for good reason, with the best of intentions, right? To numb some pain, or avoid feeling too overwhelmed, in and of itself, is sometimes a good thing. When taken too far or clutched for too long, however, it can also lead to stagnation, or even do us worse harm than whatever we were retreating from.

Sometimes we need to gather our courage to take that fateful step over the threshold. It may be that we were terrified over something, only to discover that we turn out to be more powerful than whatever we were afraid of. Other times, the problem or task at hand is as big as we imagined, but we can "level up" and grow in our ability to tackle it. Sometimes this occurs little by little, by breaking it down into smaller parts.

We can only be one place at a time, taking one step at a time. The important part is to take one step after another, and to keep going. Maybe the distance covered, or how long it takes, or what gets accomplished, will feel like either too much or not enough. Still, you will go further by being on the road than staying in your comfort zone.

And yes, the journey can change a person - in fact, it usually will. Just as Bilbo returned stronger, braver, and more powerful, with new friendships and tales of inner strength, your journeys can change you as well. Knowing that, when challenge knocks, you can meet it and defeat it, is well worth the effort. (And yes - you can go home to some sort of comfort zone again, changes and all. We all need rest from the road.) The hands on experience gained will teach you things about yourself which all the stories and books in the world cannot.

So often we are jealous of the adventures in books. In reality, this jealousy comes because we could be having adventures of our own, but have come to believe that we cannot, or that we would fail. Our unbeatable challenges seem so much more difficult than those in books - but if we were living the stories, unable to see how things would turn out, we would be just as overwhelmed. It is far easier to read of hobbits searching for the last crumbs of lembas bread, than to stretch only a few dollars into food for far too many days. It is far easier to read of a battle of riddles than to go on a job interview. Yet these are our stories, which we are living, and by banding together and forming a fellowship and claiming agency over our lives we can indeed make changes.