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I like the way that you have decided to go about the carving, Mordant. I think that like the Tarot you have to approach runes the way you feel most comfortable.
I started with them just after I moved to San Francisco thirteen years ago(though I had bought them a good five before that). It was a Blum set with the Blum book attached. I used that set everyday for about 7 years. It was before I was aware of the "blank" rune controversy. I ended up putting them away because they, along with bit of kitchen "love" magic blew up in my face literally and figuratively (Thanks Venus!), and I decided that before I did anymore magick, maybe I should do some reading and some practical work before I start to attempt to manipulate the world around me willy-nilly.
I still have the set, but have decided to make my own rather than use the old one. When I started to work with the clay set, I would sleep with them under my pillow, and then focus on one particular rune per week, memorizing what Blum had written about it. Despite Blum's new agey-ness, the runes worked very well for me, I have to say I really felt synched up with them.
I read Fries' book, and it has inspired me to start my own rune set and start working with them again. Currently, I am using my meditation time each day to meditate on a rune, changing each week to a new rune. I am half way thru Heimdall's Aett. The problem is living in SF, I have little or no access to wilderness. All of the trees in this city seem a little "tropical" or they are soft wood (although a nice redwood set of lacquered runes would be terrific, maybe I will head out to Golden Gate Park). I am contemplating purchasing a bunch of blank wood chips off the internet, but am holding out for a branch to fall into my lap...
Mordant, if you don't mind, I would like to hear more about how you prepared the knife that you are going to use for the carving. Also, did you actively/consciously choose elder yourself or did the branch just come to you?
Grant, I know that my Gram used to use Catholic Mass as a way to "talk" to her immediate ancestors/relations (not only to pray for them, but to actively ask for their intercession, it was very much a two way process). She was a stereotypical Irish/American Catholic going to 8 am Mass everyday of her life. As a kid, I can remember the nuns telling us that we should pray to the saints & the Virgin to intercede for us, but my Gram would tell my sisters and I that we should also request intercession on our behalf from the Crowleys and Donnellys that had crossed over before us (I doubt that it crossed her mind that the horsethieves and hooligans that populate my family tree might not have made it into heaven!). I doubt that my siblings or cousins pray that way now, if they go to Mass at all. Although, thanks to GL's inspiration, I pour a cup of tea for my ancestors, when I make myself one every afternoon. I mean to erect a shrine, but at the rate that I procrasinate, it is months away from being put together. |
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