• What does ‘kenning’ mean?
• Watch this space...

Kenning   verb, chiefly Scottish

1. to know, have knowledge of or about, or be acquainted with (a person or thing).
2. to understand or perceive (an idea or situation).
3. to see; descry; recognize.

Kenning is a term indigenous to Scotland that comes from the Old Norse word ‘kenna‘ (to know, to recognize, to feel or perceive; to call, to name) and which is still in use today as “to ken” in Scots. It also came to mean a metaphorical way of naming something (e.g., “the heart of the water“ to mean an island) in Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry.

I use it to describe a different way of being in the world, blending modern and more traditional approaches. Kenning is a threefold path: a synthesis of knowledge, experience and inspiration.

• Knowing is about having information, being aware of the wide-ranging understanding offered to us by scientists, experts, and other thinkers. It’s based on shared agreements of how to understand world – lots of puzzle pieces fitting together to make a coherent picture.
• Experiencing is about your subjective sense of what happens to you. It’s about how it feels to do something, what it’s like to be you. All those bits of wisdom you have gathered from practising your skills and talents. It’s the source of intuition, that recognition of a pattern embedded within whatever you are doing.
• Inspiration is that spark of vision, a sense of guidance or insight from elsewhere. All those moments when the way forward suddenly becomes clear.

Taken on their own, each of these approaches is incomplete, with advantages and disadvantages in their use. Information without the corresponding experience is often incomplete, dry and prone to mistakes. Intuition without understanding can often lead you astray. But when used together – shifting your perspective by viewing an event or situation through each different filter – the three become something more: a deeper way of perceiving our shared world, each approach offering a valuable aspect of the whole.

Courses and practices are currently being developed, so please check back from time to time to see what appears. If the above has found a resonance in you, please do get in contact about possible 1:1 sessions.