Explaining kenning

[Faye]

Hi all :)

 

I’ve just joined, and in my posts I’ve mentioned my kenning, but haven’t gone into much detail. A few people have expressed interest, so I thought I’d explain it in a different thread, as it’s hard to explain and may take a few words. If you know about this, but call it something different, or have something similar, I’d love to know! And if you have any questions, please ask (I might not have an answer but we’ll muddle through it I’m sure :))

 

So: what is kenning? First (this is relevant I promise) a quick intro of the word ken for those of you not used to chatting to Irish relatives (plus is studied Middle and Old English and this stuff is everywhere!!) :) To ‘ken’ something is to ‘know’ something in Irish & Scottish speak (it’s a Celtic adoption of the Middle English ‘cennan’/Germanic ‘kennen’). It also can mean to ‘see’, although that’s used less often. ‘Kenning’ in normal use is like ‘knowledge’ or ‘understanding’, so the phrase “beyond one’s kenning’ is meant as ‘beyond understanding’, with the undertones of it’s spiritual/supernatural. There is also kenning, which is a form of Old English/Nordic expression, kind of like double speak, where two (sometimes oppositional) words are used to describe something. So for example, a cup of tea would be ‘molten-hug’ or ‘liquid-hell’, depending on if you like tea ;)

 

Kenning is a bit of all of the above - it’s knowing things, without explainination. It’s understanding things you shouldn’t or couldn’t. Sometimes it’s seeing things that aren’t there, like actually seeing nothing there, so you know something is there. Sometimes it’s trying to figure out two completely unrelated things, only to realise they were related all along. BUT it’s not... how do I put this... spiritual. I doesn’t feel like I’m getting news from the great beyond/above/below/inside/whatever. It’s just knowledge. It’s just there. But acting on it does create energy which always comes with consequences, good or bad.

 

The most frequent part is like remembering a fact when the topic comes up in conversation, but no-one has ever told you the fact. It’s not *new*, it’s old information you already knew. I’ll be having a conversation with someone, and they’ll say, “hey, did I tell you what happened last week?”, and without thinking I’ll respond “oh ya, you bumped into so and so, right?” But they hadn’t told me, and no-one else had, and then I have to pretend that someone told me but I can’t remember who, and sometimes it gets me in trouble  :o For example, a friend of mine mentioned her childhood friend, just a name, said she was seeing him on the weekend. Without thinking I said “Jake, he’s the one with ash blond hair, green eyes, pale skinny dude, you guys met when you were 7 right?” And she was like “OMG yes, how do you know him?” And then I had to pretend I knew this random dude, which made it REALLY awkward when a few weeks later she invited me to his house party (I did not know it was his until I arrived) and she was like “oh but you two know each other” and the guy looks at me like I’m a psycho. He was probably thinking “who tf is this nutty stalker chick going around telling people we know each other??” LOL  :biggrin:

 

Often it’s just useless bits of information coming through, like listening to a radio as it scans frequencies - just a word or a sound or a smell or something, and you’re not really listening so you don’t actually hear it, but you know you heard it. Most of the time it’s unrelated stuff or unimportant, and sometimes I get no warning for important stuff.

 

But other times it’s important stuff and I have the good sense to act on it. The first time I took this more seriously was when I was 13, and a friend fell off her horse and landed awkwardly. I had a little first aid training, was kind of bossing ppl around (I was a bossy kid haha), and she said she was super thirsty and wanted some water. Now standard procedure is not to give water to injured people in case surgery is needed, but all the adults thought it was probably just a sprain, pop on a cast and it’s all good. I got into a HUGE fight with her mom (and mine), because I refused to let her drink a glass of water (wetting someone’s lips is often enough, btw), was practically swatting it out of her hands when she got too close haha, and I refused for the boot to be taken off. I KNEW she needed surgery, and I KNEW if she drank water or her boot was removed shit would go down. It’s the only time in my childhood history I’ve been yelling at 3 adults at once and legit not backing down. Anyways, ambulance shows up, long story short, kid needed intense surgery with multiple plates and pins, and a bone had pierced a whole bunch of really important blood vessels, but the boot was keeping it stable. Her mom told me later if she had had the water she wouldn’t have been able to go into surgery so quickly, and if the boot had been taken off she would have died in under 10 mins.

 

The seeing bit... is complicated, and almost always definitely NOT GOOD. Sometimes I feel compelled to turn around and look for danger somewhere, but nothing is there, but it’s a suspicious sort of nothing and it creeps me the hell out. It’s like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, but you didn’t see it, you felt it, but you double check for movement anyways (like a little gazelle looking for the leopard, and staring right at it, but not seeing it there). I thought that was just my paranoia, until one of my frequent “double check for the leopard” spots turned out to be the area where a stabbing had occurred a week before I moved to the area. A few months later, in a house just in front of the same spot, a double homocide happened. On a (totally unrelated) note, I moved away the next month. So when I “don’t see” something I now tend to avoid it.

 

I also kenned my dad had cancer, spent 2 years trying to convince him he needed better tests/ scans, but nothing was coming up in his blood work and he felt fine. Last year they found a tumour on his kidney that had been there for approx 2 years. He’s fine now though :)

 

I also sometimes ken complete psychos, like when my friend had this sort of mentor/mentee relationship with a co-teacher. On paper he was the honest-to-gods nicest person you’d ever meet, and was nothing but lovely and friendly to everyone. I tried to warn her never to invite him over, and not to get too friendly with him, but she thought I was being meddlesome and balmy, and stopped speaking to me. A year later she got back in touch to apologise, bc the dude stalked her so badly she had to report him to the police a bunch of times for trespassing, stalking, threatening her and her husband, getting his family to break into her apartment, trying to get her child taken away by social services, the works! But this might just be a normal cray-dar, you know, when women can clock absolute psychos bc it’s self-preservation instincts? BUT sometimes if someone acts out of character I’ll just know why, but a lot of the time it’s super personal so I try not to say anything. I almost always know when domestic abuse is happening.

 

The day to day stuff is just jumbled, like paying extra attention to something for no reason, or thinking about a word for no reason, or knowing it’ll be sunny somewhere utterly unrelated to anything I’m doing.  So with this stuff, I thought I might start using Tarot cards to sort through the jumble, and if something is bugging me more than the other stuff, I’ll try use the cards to clarify, and so far it’s been really helping.

 

When I was younger I tried to tell me mom about this and she was like “mmmhmmm, sure, imaginative kid”, but when I told my gran a little later, she said “Oh, you got kenning!” She told me the women in my family on her side (Irish) sometimes get it, and it coincides with bad eyesight (I wonder if I get corrective eye surgery, will this go away?  :biggrin: ;) ) My great gran had it, before she went nuttier that squirrel poo. I’m not sure that’s a huge comfort..... :o The one thing she was adamant about is that is wasn’t psychic, or clairvoyant, or anything like that, and I kind of have to agree - doesn’t feel like that at all, it’s just remembering things you didn’t know before. Less spiritual, but still... connected? Finding the right word is a struggle. I just keep on thinking of dirt, it’s earthy haha.

 

Oh there are also 2 rules, super NB and not to be messed with. 1) Never use kenning to hurt anyone (like it seems like an obvious rule, but when you’re in a major argument and you just know the worst thing to say to a person which will devastate them, something they haven’t told anyone? I did that when I was an immature kid, and I really hurt some people. And got a bunch of nasty consequences). 2) Don’t use it for money - so I have zero future reading cards for people if they pay me, but I’m hoping I’ll get good enough at it to do it properly, for free.

 

Sorry for the extra long post, that’s about as much as I know about it. I hope that answers most of your questions on kenning, but feel free to ask more if you want! And if you experience something similar, maybe you have a lil Irish in you?

[joy]

Thank you very much Faye[/member] for explaining Kenning in such depth. How interesting is this.

Do you 'channel' on demand or is this just happening and you take it as it comes?

[Raggydoll]

This is basically what we call känning in Swedish  :)

[Faye]

Thank you very much Faye[/member] for explaining Kenning in such depth. How interesting is this.

Do you 'channel' on demand or is this just happening and you take it as it comes?

 

You’re welcome! It just kind of happens, but I have no idea how to make it happen (or not happen, sometimes it’s very inconvenient, like only being able to focus on the idea of an ice-cream truck in the middle of an exam - true story lol :biggrin:)

[Faye]

This is basically what we call känning in Swedish  :)

 

That is so interesting!!!! I’m sure the word has the same root from way back when, which makes it even doubly cool - the same experience, same word, centuries and countries apart  :biggrin:

 

In Sweden is it kind of an accepted thing, like you know, some people just have green eyes, and some people just have känning? That’s my gran’s approach to it...

[joy]

This sounds like 'channeling' and I am sure if you have training you can channel on demand. Maybe someone in this forum will guide you to some books/websites.

[Raggydoll]

This is basically what we call känning in Swedish  :)

 

That is so interesting!!!! I’m sure the word has the same root from way back when, which makes it even doubly cool - the same experience, same word, centuries and countries apart  :biggrin:

 

In Sweden is it kind of an accepted thing, like you know, some people just have green eyes, and some people just have känning? That’s my gran’s approach to it...

 

Känning is a fairly common word that can mean a couple of different things. (It can also be expressed as "känn") But it is often seen as a sort of premonition or where you can sense that something is going to happen. It's usually regarding something bad but it doesn't have to be. It is not believed that some have it and some don't, but it would certainly be more common amongst the intuitive/psychic ones. You could say that I was born having this as a fairly big part of me. I feel strongly connected to crow/raven energy because of it, as they are also traditionally seen as harbinger of misfortune.

[Faye]

This sounds like 'channeling' and I am sure if you have training you can channel on demand. Maybe someone in this forum will guide you to some books/websites.

 

Thanks Joy, that sounds interesting - I’ll definitely look into it! I’m sure it would be useful to have a modicum off control  ;)

[Faye]

Känning is a fairly common word that can mean a couple of different things. (It can also be expressed as "känn") But it is often seen as a sort of premonition or where you can sense that something is going to happen. It's usually regarding something bad but it doesn't have to be. It is not believed that some have it and some don't, but it would certainly be more common amongst the intuitive/psychic ones. You could say that I was born having this as a fairly big part of me. I feel strongly connected to crow/raven energy because of it, as they are also traditionally seen as harbinger of misfortune.

 

That’s fascinating! It sounds like there’s almost a sense of anticipation with känning? I like that everyone has the potential for it, though some (like yourself) experience it more and more strongly than others. And crows/ravens are also extremely intelligent, which I guess is the other side of knowing when things will happen?

 

Irish kenning is usually more 50/50, evenly good and bad, a lot like our folklore (e.g. stories of leprechauns usually involve tricking people, but they also reward them, often with no reason to either happening).

[Raggydoll]

Känning is a fairly common word that can mean a couple of different things. (It can also be expressed as "känn") But it is often seen as a sort of premonition or where you can sense that something is going to happen. It's usually regarding something bad but it doesn't have to be. It is not believed that some have it and some don't, but it would certainly be more common amongst the intuitive/psychic ones. You could say that I was born having this as a fairly big part of me. I feel strongly connected to crow/raven energy because of it, as they are also traditionally seen as harbinger of misfortune.

 

That’s fascinating! It sounds like there’s almost a sense of anticipation with känning? I like that everyone has the potential for it, though some (like yourself) experience it more and more strongly than others. And crows/ravens are also extremely intelligent, which I guess is the other side of knowing when things will happen?

 

Irish kenning is usually more 50/50, evenly good and bad, a lot like our folklore (e.g. stories of leprechauns usually involve tricking people, but they also reward them, often with no reason to either happening).

 

Yeah. My gift has mostly felt like a heavy burden because of the things I have sensed or foreseen. But I feel that when I read cards I am able to 'control' it in a way so that it has more of a constructive and empowering feel to me. And it's much less scary when I'm being able to lean on my cards. But if I'm being honest then I could probably do readings without any tool whatsoever. I often know the really important bits even before I've looked at my cards, but it feels nice to have my cards confirm everything still. And they allow my head to relax a bit. So sometimes a do pure technical readings with barely any intuition involved and it is like letting my emotions take a vacation!

[Faye]

Yeah. My gift has mostly felt like a heavy burden because of the things I have sensed or foreseen. But I feel that when I read cards I am able to 'control' it in a way so that it has more of a constructive and empowering feel to me. And it's much less scary when I'm being able to lean on my cards. But if I'm being honest then I could probably do readings without any tool whatsoever. I often know the really important bits even before I've looked at my cards, but it feels nice to have my cards confirm everything still. And they allow my head to relax a bit. So sometimes a do pure technical readings with barely any intuition involved and it is like letting my emotions take a vacation!

 

I’m sorry it’s been difficult for you, it can be stressful knowing the bad stuff (with my dad, I didn’t sleep much knowing it was bad and nothing happening with it) :( having that all the time must be very draining!

 

I’m glad about the cards though, I can definitely relate - the confirmation of things, and just being able to relax without doing all the heavy lifting, is something I’ve found to be very comforting with them! I like how you put it, your emotions taking a vacation, very true!!  :)

[Raggydoll]

I can relate to your story about your dad. My story did not end so well. I have told it before and you can read it if you want to: https://www.thetarotforum.com/talking-tarot/are-modern-tarot-meanings-watered-down/msg54488/#msg54488

[Faye]

I can relate to your story about your dad. My story did not end so well. I have told it before and you can read it if you want to: https://www.thetarotforum.com/talking-tarot/are-modern-tarot-meanings-watered-down/msg54488/#msg54488

 

I am so sorry, it must be so difficult to process, and with känning especially (I know I blame myself for stuff, even when there’s no way I could have prevented anything). Thank you for sharing  ((

[Raggydoll]

Thank you  (( The self-blame seems almost inevitable, but I’ve found that it gets easier over time. Has it been like that for you or do you blame yourself just as much nowadays?

[Faye]

Thank you  (( The self-blame seems almost inevitable, but I’ve found that it gets easier over time. Has it been like that for you or do you blame yourself just as much nowadays?

 

I definitely play a strong blame game (guilt comes with the Irish Catholic territory haha), but it does get less for me too. When I feel I could have done more, even if it’s irrational because I did try to act on it, it keeps me up at night. There have been a handful of things that, even 10 years on, I still think about and feel guilty as hell about. But it comes and goes :)