Offering my services over email and Skype, my rune readings and Grimm readings are unique. The emphasis is on finding connections and becoming whole: helping you to remember and manifest the inner resources and wisdom you already possess.

Here are some testimonials from my customers…and some reflections on how it all works.

HB Says: “Henry mapped out the landscape of my heart with precision and clarity…”

LD Says: “Thank you so much for the amazing reading. You were very accurate in your interpretations…”

MA Says: “Your reading is so unbelievably accurate and revealing.”

BL Says: “I found you to be above all honest and deeply understanding in what you perceived and conveyed…”

KF Says: “As a professional reader myself, Henry is the one I have gone to for my own readings.”

AC Says: “I was actually moved to tears by the insight it brought forth.”

GT Says: “Not only was Henry’s Grimm reading the most insightful reading I have ever received, it was so lovely I carry it with me every day, in my heart, on my lips, and in my pocket.”

I invite you to visit www.findrune.com and read further…and, indeed, order a reading!

Meaning and Healing

Quoted from http://www.findrune.com/articles/meaning-and-healing/

I see readings as an opportunity to explore meaning as a vehicle to find healing.

Human beings experience the world (and themselves) as a warp and weft of meaning. All our actions, reactions, everything we do is shaped, guided, and informed by the significances we project onto the world around us. Meaning is the daily bedrock of our lives.

Yet it is easy to lose perspective on the meanings that we live out. Perhaps things have always been a certain way, so that we do not even realise there could be other attitudes or ways of living that might serve us better. Perhaps we have just been in a certain groove for so long that it seems non-negotiable, self-evident.

When these sorts of blindness trap us in unpleasant patterns it is easy to forget that change is possible, or that the way we are living is just one of many possibilities. We are forced to shut down our curiosity, our imagination, in order to endure. In this respect we lose our wholeness – it is no longer our entire being which guides our life, but only the parts that can subsist in the limited horizons that we find closing around us.

Sometimes external circumstances might change, yet, dulled by habit, we are unable to perceive this and so continue to react to our own expectations of reality as though they were true. Actually, everyone does this to one degree or another, and while to a point it is simply necessary to get through this complex world, it can also seriously impede our ability to live joyously and completely.

In my experience as a therapist (and for that matter as a therapy client) I lived a truth that Carl Jung emphasised again and again in his writings: the importance of being able to distinguish our projections from the world itself. Jung says that even if our projections – our expectations, our stories, our habitual assumptions – are correct, we still need to be able to recognise that they are distinct from world around us as such.

The moment we lose sight of this, we find ourselves reacting to our own habits and expectations and not to reality. We can become addicted to experiencing life in certain “stuck” ways. We lose sight of the horizon of mystery that shimmers on the rim of our lives; we become so focussed on the tree trunks that we cannot understand that we are in a forest. And when challenges or change come, we no longer possess the flexibility needed to survive and thrive.

Not only that, but often the narrow projected meanings that we adopt are hurtful, or at least unpleasant. Self-criticism, expecting the worst, not noticing one’s strengths and values in the face of hardship: all of these can grind us down, deadening our wisdom, our passion, our ability to live creatively.

Yet Jung also explored methods for using our tendency to project meaning against itself, and in working with the runes (among other things) I have discovered that they are a powerful means for just this purpose. Hence my passion for offering readings as a tool for healing.

Because the runes are a set of richly evocative symbols, we attach significance, project meaning, onto them very readily. Yet at the same time we can hold them at an arm’s length: these are semi-abstract symbols, after all, conjured from times past.

This enables us to take some space from the usual ruts and cycles of living. This enables us to find connections, piecing together the patterns of our life with insight, recognising the limits of narrow thinking, seeing how those limits might be overturned. In drawing a richer understanding of our circumstances we enable ourselves to become whole (or at least more whole) once more.

So as a set of symbols, runes allow us to detach from the meaning-drenched cycles of daily life a little, so that we can regrasp the maps of meaning which guide our choices, actions, and experiences. By consciously projecting onto these symbols we give ourselves breathing room. “Rune” means “mystery,” and by taking a little time to explore our life through these symbols we recover an awareness of the horizon of mystery in which all our lives unfold.

Naturally, a similar logic drives my use of Grimms’ Fairy Tale readings as a tool for insight and healing: we are able to withdraw for a little while from the usual habits of belief and expectation and attach ourselves to these mysterious stories, so loaded with potent imagery. In a way, each of these stories is a rune, too.

There’s something incredibly liberating about using projection as a tool to undo the very knots that our projective nature creates. Rather than trying to escape reality, my philosophy encourages each client to work with what they already have, to move with the natural tides of their own character. As a reader I’m hesitant to presume to tell people what their future holds; I’d rather help them to surprise themselves!

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed yesterday on PQRN’s Occultist Radio show.

We talked about the impending release of my band Ironwood’s new album Storm Over Sea and the spiritual influences that have shaped our music.

We also talked about Elhaz Ablaze!

Tune in to the pod cast:

http://occultistradio.podomatic.com/entry/2010-10-23T02_00_16-07_00

H

2010 has been a rough one. Personally, professionally and spiritually, 2010 has tested me.  I’m proud to say I’m ending the year stronger than I began it; clean, fit, sober and back in the martial arts where I belong.

This is a real time of new beginnings for me. My son is turning one this month, I’m finally walking away from a job that had been grinding me down and starting a business that has spent more than five years in the planning daydreaming phase.

The question of how best to relate to the spiritual weighs heavily this year. Public perception is important, a family man has responsibilities and, for much of the year, it seems there is little time for the contemplation of anything but the most practical of matters. As October approaches and deepens, however, I find myself more and more the subject of meaningful glances from crows.

It seems that finally, for me, the practical has become the spiritual and the spiritual has become the practical.  My way of worship is my way of life, a path of dedication to healthy living, the pursuit of excellence and the study of vital combat.

Odin seems, more than ever, an appropriate symbol for these goals.

As an important part of my business and my spiritual advancement, I’ve made a commitment to begin writing more regularly for at least the next year. Six days per week I will be posting my thoughts on fitness, nutrition and martial arts at my new personal/professional blog Confessions of a Would Be Superman. Once per week I will be posting here on topics more directly relevant to Heathenism, magick and spirituality.

Be forewarned that my new personal site is still fairly primitive. I’ve managed to post fairly regularly for almost a month and some of the content is almost up to a standard I would consider “good” but as far as customization of the basic WordPress format goes…I still have a very long way to go.

This is a time for new beginnings, though. Perfection be damned, this is a time for action.

If you’re interested in health and fitness, martial arts or just want to watch a computer illiterate personal trainer struggle to covert himself into an international cyber-guru, come on over to Confessions of a Would Be Superman and check me out. For everybody else, see you here next week.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Sweyn has been contributing some fantastic writings to Elhaz Ablaze for a while now as a guest author.

We decided it was time to invite him to be a member of the Elhaz crew and he has graciously accepted.

We’re honoured to have him on board!

Feel free to check out his bio on the bio page.

Prost!

Henry for the Elhaz Fellowship

As you may be aware, in 2009 Ironwood released our debut album :Fire:Water:Ash: to rave reviews. Our potent weave of dark folk, progressive rock, and black metal has been acclaimed as “an outstanding piece of mythological storytelling that defies heavy metal convention” (Metal Review.Com), and “too beautiful for this world” (Metal District).

Recently, we were both surprised and pleased to discover that :Fire:Water:Ash: has been nominated in the category of Best Debut Album on major European music webzine Metal Storm.

This is where you come in. We invite you to offer your vote for our album: this is an opportunity to lend your support to evocative, creative, and adventurous music, music that combines animistic reverence and deep-felt emotion. If you haven’t heard the album in it’s entirely you may listen to some quite representative tracks on our Myspace page, from where details on how to buy a copy (physical or digital) are also available: http://www.myspace.com/ironwoodband

To vote for Ironwood and :Fire:Water:Ash: in the Metal Storm awards you will need to register with the Metal Awards site, a very simple exercise which you can do here: http://www.metalstorm.ee/users/register.php

Once you have registered and logged in, just go to this page to vote:
http://www.metalstorm.ee/awards/categories.php?cat_id=22

Ironwood would deeply appreciate the support of the Heathen community, not least because of the strongly Heathen spirit that informs our work. We invite you to cast a vote for us… and if you could also invite others to cast their vote as well…that would be even more amazing.

In the meantime, we will continue to work on post-production for our follow-up album: Storm Over Sea, due out later in 2010.

With respect and thanks,

Henry

Well, we’ve made it. Here it is: Elhaz Ablaze 2.0. Not bad for only the second full website I’ve ever designed, with Donovan providing that amazing Chaos Elhaz Bindrune symbol. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to use my services, incidentally, I’d like to build up a portfolio so I’ll work for cheap or even free!

We’re still transferring our articles but that shouldn’t take too much longer.

We have lots of exciting plans for this little chunk of webspace, so stay tuned!

Oh, and how good is this: I Googled “seidh” today and we (only just) came up on the first page. We’re on the second page if you Google “Heathenism” or “Chaos Magic”. Not a bad effort at all.

So stick around folks, because we’re only just getting started…

Henry

I am also learning that sometimes you have to say no to your patron deity; I am learning that Fearless Honesty doesn’t mean that one should be tactless or unguarded.

Ever more humbled by life, ever more confronted by my limitations (but unbowed by fear), I proceed therefore. In case you are wondering what I’ve been doing instead of writing my blog… finishing my university course (including a minor thesis), working through the demanding role of being an editor of Hex Magazine (issue 5, the first with me on the editorial team, is out now and selling like hot cakes so get one quick).

Oh – and this is really exciting – building a new website for Elhaz Ablaze! Yes, soon (I hope) we’ll have a much more functional, pretty, and easy to use (for us) website. We’ve got lots of plans for adding extra bits, and even tossing around some top secret shared project ideas!

Also, since last you heard from me my band Ironwood recorded our second album, due for release some time in the early strains of 2010.

That’s all I have to say for now, but there is plenty more to come… so stay tuned!

Finally our empty talk reached critical mass and, with my discovery of the crappy but easy-to-use Weebly blog system, Elhaz Ablaze was born. It was (and is) an ugly site to look at, but we hoped that we could fill it with enough worthwhile content that readers would not mind.

Of course, we had absolutely no idea who would be interested in what we had to say. As far as we knew, the notions that we have come to refer to under the rubric of Chaos Heathenism would fall on dead (as opposed to deaf) ears.

Actually I have to admit that I hoped to provoke hate mail for the controversial opinions we and our guests have presented. But to date we have gone unscathed (much to my Loko chagrin).

Instead we have discovered that people actually seem to like our stuff – and moreover we seem to have some kind of readership, at least guessing from the Google Analytics thingy I set up in early January.

Since January 4, 2009 we’ve had some 1,238 unique visitors, 2,763 visits and 8,693 page views. Not bad for what must be one of the weirdest Heathen/magic/martial arts sites on the ‘Net! I have no idea what the patronage was like prior to that unfortunately.

I don’t know whether we are preaching to the converted (perverted?) or whether we are actually opening folk to new perspectives – I’d like to hope for a bit of both.

Certainly we felt terribly unrepresented by the bulk of Heathen writings out there and we hoped that we weren’t the only ones. Consequently, one of the joys of Elhaz Ablaze is that it has put us in touch with folk on similar wavelengths to ourselves. It’s a relief to know that we’re not alone.

I’m also pleased that we could invite Matt Anon to join our group. I’ve known Matt electronically for years and we are like cosmic siblings (despite having never met), so to have his ideas presented alongside mine is a deep privilege.

One of the fundamental principles of Elhaz Ablaze is our commitment to the notion that there is only OPINION in Heathenism: there is no orthodoxy and anyone who claims a monopoly on truth in such a sketchy cultural manifestation as ours is a fraud.

Hence, I love that we contradict ourselves and disagree with one another. Nietzsche says that the more permissive a culture is, the stronger it is; the more restrictive it is, the more brittle and weak it is. We want Heathenism to be strong, and therefore it must be pluralistic. I’m proud that Elhaz Ablaze has become a model for this ideal.

That extends also to our guest writers, who do a great job of both agreeing with and contradicting both us and each other! I might not entirely agree with, say, Sweyn’s views about modernity (see his articles in the guest section), but I’m proud to offer them a home, to defy the widespread anti-modernity Heathen attitude that I myself tend to adopt.

For myself, I settled into a regular writing discipline from day one of the site and maintaining my journal has really assisted my spiritual development. Keeping a public diary, writing short monographs on magical subjects, etc, has enabled me to objectify the sometimes all-too-ephemeral unfolding of my spiritual experience.

This in turn has helped me to integrate the various facets of my existence to a much better degree than I have ever achieved – Elhaz Ablaze for me has been a powerful alchemical vessel. Although, of course, there is a great deal more work to come, and many a loose end yet to be brought to roost in Wyrd’s weave.

When I am lost to myself I can turn to my writings on this site and they anchor and reintegrate me into Mimir’s gift of memory, so essential to the nourishment of my personal microcosmic Yggdrasil.

Indeed, writing my journal has been like mapping out a vast and unknowable continent. Every entry I write feels utterly essential to my being once it is done. Some time soon I will read over everything I’ve done – it will be fascinating to retrace my steps over the last year (and the earlier essays I posted in particular).

This journal has been a profound anchor and way-station for my evolution (and in the last year I can barely start to express how much my life has changed, mostly for the better, though certainly not without great struggle and suffering).

Given it is our first birthday I feel it is high time to explain the name Elhaz Ablaze.

Elhaz is a rune of polarities – consider the Old English Rune Poem (this translation by the inestimable Sweyn Plowright):

Elk-sedge is native most often to the fen,
It grows in water; it wounds grimly,
Burning with blood any warrior
Who, in any way, grabs at it.

The fen, the marsh, the swamp, is a liminal place between land and sea. We know these were holy places to the arch-Heathens – the bog offerings archaeologists have found alone confirm this. Yet for all of its liminal openness, the marsh is warded by the elk-sedge – sharp grass, the points of the elk’s antlers, the reach of a deadly blade.

Elhaz represents, therefore, all the beauty and magic of vulnerability and mystery; but also the strength and integrity of the wild beast that dwells within the wetlands. It represents our desire to deal only with those on the ‘level’. This isn’t a question of elitism or anything silly like that, more a question of taste and time management.

Why Elhaz Ablaze? The fire to me represents the overflowing flames of inspiration, magic, possession, enlightenment, purification, celebration, Life itself. The two words in combination to me suggest the meeting of frost and flame, fire and water: in Elhaz Ablaze all oppositions are subsumed into a greater and dynamic whole.

In a sense, then, Elhaz Ablaze is the necessary conceptual twin to Chaos Heathenism. Chaos Heathenism is a philosophy built on the notion of Elhaz Ablaze – the Chaos offers us liminality and magic, the Heathenism offers structure and integrity. In combination they create a synergistic conflagration.

Where to from here? Speaking for myself – I am about to go travelling for six weeks and this journal will likely be fallow in that time. However I will soon post up my voluminous (circa 13,000 word) essay in response to Alain de Benoist’s book On Being a Pagan.

This essay was written originally for Heathen Harvest, where it will also soon appear, but they have graciously let me present it here on Elhaz Ablaze too. I figure it should offer plenty of mind-meat in my absence for those that care to read it!

A word on the creative process of this essay. I took extensive notes on the book as I read it, until my brain was super-saturated. Because the book provoked me emotionally as well as intellectually it put me into an intense fervour over the fortnight or so that I read it.

Then, the day before my current university course started, I sat down with all my notes and wrote the whole thing out in one sitting. Since then I’ve been tweaking a little bit and getting a little bit of feedback from a few trusted readers (Volksfreund deserves particular praise in this regard).

In short, the writing of the essay was itself an act of applied seidh. I utilised extended altered states of consciousness, full activation of my deep mind, variegated forms of trance and seething, runic incantations and the riding of my Wode – my personal River of Fire – into the arms of inspired creation.

I could not have written it with cold blood, but thankfully I did not have to. So when you read it, please see it for what it is – an exercise in poetry as much as philosophical discussion.

Now – what next? I really cannot predict what I’ll do once I get back from my adventures (or what I hope amount to adventures), and I’ll be very busy with my studies as soon as I get back. But I’m sure that wherever the creative impulse leads me, you’ll read about it right here.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, Ironwood’s debut album has received amazing press. We still have copies available – see below for some reviewer responses. If you like beautiful, emotionally intense folk music with some heavy excursions – or intense, provocative metal with dreamy acoustic explorations – plus magical lyrics and consciousness-altering atmospheres – well, check it out!

In other news, the chapter I wrote for the chaos magic masterpiece Liber Malorum has been released into the wilds of the WWW by LM editor/weaver Sean Scullion. You can read this tale of sacred groves, land spirits and religious intolerance here. If you like the story then please buy a copy (or ten) of Liber Malorum (available here) cause the whole damn book is a masterpiece.

And for the observant – yes, I’ve been asked to become an editor of Hex Magazine. I don’t exactly hide my love for this marvellous publication and I’m very excited to become involved to such an in depth level. But remember folks, it’s a grass-roots labour of love and they/we need all the subscribers, advertisers and the rest that we can get to keep this beast fed and pumping!

Just released is an awesome but very limited run of all four print issues of Hex to date (including the ones that are out of print but for which a handful of copies have been redone on a one off basis), available in a unique and just amazing leather-bound book format (pictured right). Well worth your checking out, you can get more info on that here (and this has to be about the classiest way you could support Hex ever…)

I feel it only right to mention that while Elhaz Ablaze tends to be more radical than Hex, folk who like Hex just the way it is can be reassured that I like it just the way it is, too. As the flagship magazine of Heathenism in all of its marvellous manifestations – so long as they have heart. So I won’t be rocking the boat, and in any case at this point I’m more of what you’d call an auxiliary editor ;-)