Runes and ancient northern magic

January 23, 2022 Rich Lister

Runes and ancient northern magic

· Runes and ancient northern magic
· Making your own rune set
· Casting your runes:
· Runes as words:
· Runes in life:

The runes are 24 ancient and powerful symbols that have been used by oracles and have evolved over the millenniums of human experience. Symbols that vibrate with the very cosmic essence of the energies of the people of old. The goddess and gods who walked the land, the women and men who wove their fate through acts and oaths, used the runes to craft words and intentions of power and magic. Runic vibrations linger and have influence beyond the ice and snow bound fjords and forests of Scandinavia.

These runes are that of ancient language, thought and magic. And here I shall tell you how to craft them, work with them and use them.

Making your own rune set

MATERIALS
Runes, carved into sticks, usually of fruit wood or bone or stone, allowed the Oracle or reader to see what runic energies are present in the Wyrd right now.

What material the runes are made of would usually depend on what was available and nearby at the time, I like to use natural materials like wood or stone, others like resin or glass or crystals.
Do what feels good to you. I live near the beach, a pebbly one, and I have spent many trips over the period of a year, collecting 24 pebbles that are flat-ish, and round-ish for my water-infused rune set. If you are taking something from nature, its energetically good to also serve nature. If like me, you take pebbles from the beach, spend a couple of hours picking up trash to repay the energy. If you are in the woods, do the same thing — ask permission to take from nature and offer your services to nature in return.
Choose what works for you. You might want to sharpie your runes onto lolly sticks as you start to learn and work with them, but what you choose to carve your runes into, can help support your intention for how you wish to use them.

Wood — each tree holds its own magical and spiritual properties, so if you’re called to make your runes from wood, look up the qualities of the tree that you’re going to be working with. I use bog oak to make wearable rune pendants for my clients as it’s brilliant for pulling out and sucking up negative energy and locking it away. If you choose to work with the Yew tree, it stores energy, so if you make your rune set with yew wood, as you make them, mindfully store your energy in each rune making your set specifically for personal readings.

Stone — Picking pebbles from a beach is a simple and effective way to create a rune set infused with both the magic and medicine of earth and the sea.

Crystals — You can pick a crystal that holds meaning to you, let’s take rose quartz — the crystal of love and self-acceptance — and buy 24 small tumble stones and add your runes to them with a sharpie (all tools are sacred if you decide they are!) — this particular set of runes will then be imbued with the gentle and heart soothing nature of the rose quartz.
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Clay — making your rune set from clay is like shaping your runes from mother earth herself. You can shape them in any way you’d like and make them as small or as large as you like.

Resin — cheap, easy and looks pretty — most mass-manufactured rune sets are made from this material.

MAKING YOUR MARK
To make your first set of runes, please remember that while reading the runes is a sacred act, so is washing up, cuddling the baby, and doing the school run. As you work with them, the runes will take on your energy. So, while it would be nice to create ritual and cast your runes with candles burning and with Wardruna playing in the background, know that it’s not necessary.

If you do want to make your set in ritual, light a candle and set a very clear intention for what you want the rune set to support you with. Perhaps it’s to help you see more clearly, or to trust your own intuitive nature.

You can burn, carve, draw, paint your runes onto your chosen material — pick your chosen material and marking tool, hold them in your hands and ask that they support you to weave your energy work to empower your runes.

For each rune in turn, you’ll need 24, select the specific stone or piece of wood and mark it with the rune. As you do so, bring to your mind’s eye, the image, sound, feeling or vibration you associate with the rune.

THE WYRD
As you create your runes set, crafting and feeling the energy of each rune run through you as you do, you will activate your access to the Wyrd. This is the web of energy that surrounds us all, that pulls us, weaves us, and allows us, in turn, to manifest and attract different energy states.

The wyrd could be pictured like a shirt made up of millions of threads. Each thread subtly influenced by those around it. Look at a knitted jumper and look at the threads that are woven together to make that garment. This is a micro representation of the wyrd, each thread representing fate, energy, destiny, will. When you pull one thread, all the others are subtly influenced, the closer ones more so. Like if you heat up fish pie in the office microwave, everyone knows about it, but those closest to the break room are more influenced. This is what happens when you work with the runes, their energy and resonance begin to affect you.

For example, working with the rune Fehu will bring the resources you need into your sphere of influence; it’s then up to take the action required to obtain them. The runes are like big energy magnets that pull the frequency of the marked rune near to them. Putting the rune Ansuz on your presentation notes will help provide you with inspiration. The runes and your actions work together to weave your wryd.

CONSCRATE YOUR RUNES
Back in the day, they may have used a pinprick of their own blood to make their rune set their own, but nowadays, I’m much more inclined to invite you to evoke the elements. You can seal in their magic with the smoke of burning herbs. Again, the herbs you choose can help imbue them with the magic of that particular herb. Take them to a running stream, a spring or to the sea, leave them out under a full moon or leave them to solar bathe in the mid-day sun.

Once you’ve consecrated your runes, you can now begin to cast them. Your magic as the reader is to see, feel, hear and understand the vibration that pulses through each runes and feel how it applies to the context of your reading.

Casting your runes:

I like to draw runes to answer a direct question, and I will draw one rune to answer it.
I use this when I pull my morning rune of the day for Instagram.

I start with my bag of runes, and I ask the question: ‘what do we need to know for the day ahead?’ three times. I say it out loud three times, but you can also write it down 3 times.

I pull a rune. This rune provides the main answer to the question. So this rune becomes the focus.

Now, if I’m reading for clients, I will ask their specific question and I will pull one rune. That will be the ‘answer’ rune. For further insight and clarity, I then draw a second or third rune to expand on the first.

Remember to interpret the reading through the lens of the first rune. For example: First rune: Wunjo, bliss and happiness, 2nd rune Ingwaz Potential, heroic action, 3rd rune Algiz, protection, boundaries.

This could bring the idea that Bliss will come in a way that challenges me and forces me to step into my heroic nature, while making sure I don’t stretch myself too thin, burning out or by pushing too hard.

Get the idea? Practice, remember to really feel the vibration of the rune. Don’t be afraid to hold it, roll it around in your hand, say the sounds of the rune out loud and feel how it vibrates in your body. You’ll start to feel how your runes attune to sensations in your body and what those sensations mean and represent.

Runes as words:

Runes are sounds, more than they are letters, and this makes them a fun and an experience in unconformity to make words from sounds. Translating English to runes kind of works, but there are more letters in English than there are in runes. This means we have to get creative.

Cat

Kennaz Annuz Tiwaz.

Sarah

Solilio, Annuz, Radiao, Annuz, Hagalaz.

Ready to get confused?

What about writing words as their meanings? This is where things get even more complex, and fun!

Names tend to have meanings, and words can be broken down into meanings too. For example.

Richard = Ric — Hard meaning Noble and Strong (good name, right?).

The runes I could associate with those ideas are Noble Ingwaz and Strong Uruz.

Lisa means ‘God is my Oath’ from Hebrew. God could be Ansuz, and Oath could be Tiwaz.

Emily means Hard Working. Hard could be Determined, Eihwaz and Working could be Ehwaz.

Using this tool, you build up a Cenning an understanding of what the word means and can build yourself a runically magical energetic resonance for your or your friends and loved one’s names. And the cat.

Runes in life:

Runes are a powerful tool that can be used in life, to focus the mind, heal or harm in however you decide to use them. Have fun crating and using your runes, learn their feelings and energy. That learning and sensation will help you build energetic allies in these ancient Viking tools. Use your rune set to feel into the wyrd and experience the resonance of the runic energies around you.

Don’t rush it, learning the runes is effectively learning a new language. Unlike the Tarot or astrology, the runes have not evolved much in the last 1000 years, and their concepts are based in an ancient mindset, one that your body remembers as you delve into to this oracle of the frozen north.

Useful Resources:

Runes Made Easy, by me, out now.

Wardruna, www.wardruna.com awesome runic magic.

Seidr Blot, https://www.facebook.com/seidrblot more Viking music