Time, Time, Time, See What’s Become of Me…

I blame* the Norns for having me think about time lately.

The time I have wasted.

The time I have forgotten.

The time I thought I had in place, that I had plans for, but then not.

Or it could be the pandemic that’s over and not.

It could be the class I’m co-facilitating with a friend, inspired by the Norns.

Or it could be that it’s existential crisis time. (AGAIN.)

Or the book contract that’s tapping its foot at me.

No matter what, if the Norns have been thinking about you or you of them or of this strange weave of life, let’s dive into time.

Not that we could resist it anyway.

Notes

Before I begin, let’s start off with my typical message: my personal gnosis and experience may not fit with yours. That’s cool. The Norns are big enough for all of us to have varied experiences and interpretations.

Also, some sources talk about how there were never ‘just’ three Norns. There were Norns at birth, personal Nornir during life, etc. Maybe this whole idea of three is something born out of conflation with the Muses or the Fates. *shrugs* But three is neat and tidy and likely easier for human brains to understand and follow. So, for now, we look at the most talked-about three.

Then and Just a Moment Ago with Urd

In the class I’m co-facilitating right now, we create sacred space, go into trance, and then write about what we find there. It’s deceptively simple. And even though I’d co-taught this for a few years now, I am surprised by what I find in the landscape of between.

Urd. The most common reference is ‘What Was.’ Or the past.

All of the things that are no longer present, like the you you were when you started reading.

The you when you were born until just before now. And now.

It’s slippery to me, this place of Urd. And no wonder that they (I think of them as ‘they’ vs. the ‘she’ that is typically used) have a well associated with them. Slippery. Cooling. Calming. The past that rests and is rippled when we look back on it. But also ruffled when we remember that time stretches out and folds in on itself and the healing we do ‘backwards’ is just as valuable as the work of forward and beyond.

Right Now and Now and Now with Verdandi

I don’t have a ‘favorite’ Norn — and it’s Verdandi.

The present moment is the place of discomfort for me. Less so than it used to offer, but still.

It’s the place of ‘what the heck do I do and am I ready for it?’

It’s the place of mystery because so often this present moment might (and can) give me something I haven’t experienced before. Will I know what to do? Will I be able to meet it well?

How can I just be in this moment, which I envision as a bead or a pearl on a strand? Stringing along each of these moments until it creates something that makes sense, I can only hope I am making the best possible choice.

And let’s not even begin what that means if all of my life is fated to happen. Do these moments matter?

For what it’s worth, I think so. At least, in this moment.

Already and On Its Way with Skuld

If the future is already out there and waiting for me to arrive when it expects me, Skuld is not so much about death, as about stepping into what I am here for. What I am meant to do.

I personally hold that I am traveling to a place that I can not imagine and that I can meet with curiosity or resistance (and many other emotions, depending on the day).

I want to show up knowing I have created a future filled with being present and authentic in each moment. Or many of them. Most of them?

In this last round of classes with the Norns, I looked up Skuld and learned the name also translated to ‘the debt.’ What debt do I owe to the future? To the fate of the world? To the fate of little old me?

How can I set up future me to have what she needs? To know she has done all she can. To know she has met the becoming with grace, integrity, and humility?

That I’m still figuring out.

Day by day.

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*Of course, I don’t. And even if I did, the Norns would already know, wouldn’t they?