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What a magical thing a book is. Someone spends years slowly composing their thoughts, writing and rewriting every word over and over until it's their best work. Someone else polishes it, and someone else makes art to sandwich all the words together, and finally you open it and behold! There are markings, and they speak into your mind, and the words flow to you and you hear the thoughts of the author. Over time, over space, sometimes translated into new languages, or even beyond death, you hear another's thoughts and words.

To write, to read, to even just pick up a book and look at it is to honor the god of writing, Odin. Odin, who won the Runes on the Tree, in his act of shamanic self-sacrifice. Odin, who spoke his own words to human writers and poets to be written in the Havamal, the Sayings of the High One: "I know that I hung on the windy tree, nine long nights, without food or drink, I looked down, I took up the runes, screaming I took them, I fell back from there."

About a week after my housemate wished for her own cat, this cat appeared. When I first saw him he was on the front walkway, and I snapped this photo thinking he would probably walk away after that. Nope. He walked right into the house and made himself at home. 

This is amazing because my cat Happy usually runs off any other cats that enter his territory. He usually hides from strange people and dogs, too. Anything rat-sized is dinner, of course. But Happy tolerated this new cat. He only got hissy when the new cat jumped up on the bed where Happy and I were sleeping. Otherwise he was remarkably laid-back about the whole other cat thing. It's like magic. It IS magic. Freya magic.

In Part 3, I talk about the story of the Wall Street Bull and its blocking and unblocking. How did I see a news story that was no longer there when I looked again? Perhaps the universe supplied it so I would be inspired to honor the Bull. 

The story of the Wall Street Bull and its blocking by an opposing statue goes like this, according search engine research. The Bull was sculpted after an 80s era stock market crash, to encourage the economy to recover. It was always intended as a symbol of prosperity, and specifically of recovery after a period of less prosperity. 

Part 2 of this 3 part series deals with the Bear symbol in the Bull and Bear pair which are the patron spirits of Wall Street and by extension the national and global economy. 

Bears are still important in Asatru and other Heathen religions and in my personal practice. The ancient art of Bersarkrgangr is named after the Bear spirit, as it was the most common fylgia, or spirit skin, of historical Bersarkrs. My personal Bear spirit is a guardian spirit as well as a being that I can embody through the art of Bersarkrgangr. I honor my Bear ang gift him with honey. I see him in my mind’s eye as both inhabiting his own realm which is a bear paradise with trees full of wild honey hives and a river full of salmon and a soft place to rest, and also continuously within and around me as my fylgia and guardian against bad entities.

Recently a news story crossed my social media feed saying New York just removed a blockage against the prosperity of the nation and the world. The economy has been bad since the blockage appeared, but hopefully the bull will charge ahead now and everything will be better for everyone.

When I searched for the story later I could not find any recent news confirming this. The story turned out to be a little more complicated, but more on that later. First, let’s talk about the Bull and Bear symbols.

Like tides, lives have high and low times. Sometimes you're riding on top of the wave, sometimes you're impossibly riding inside the tube of the wave and it is so cool and amazing, but sometimes you're in the trough. You can stand up and yell "Make wave!" or just wait it out and it's coming around the same either way.

If you're feeling low, and feeling like you aren't doing enough with your religious and magical practice, this advice is for you.