Elder Futhark — Runes: Week of Monday, October 26

Kenaz has two medieval readings that never agree. The Norse poems call it an ulcer, the curse of children; the Old English poem calls it a torch, pale and bright where people rest indoors. Both traditions reach for the word pale, and both describe something that burns by consuming whatever it burns in. Something you are putting heat into this week, a project or a grievance, is likely to show its colour before the week is out. If it is giving light to a room people actually sit in, keep feeding it at a rate you can sustain. If it is only spreading, and nobody is warmer for it, it is closer to the sore than the torch. Treat it while it is still small, and let the remaining days cool.