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Runes: making and using a set.

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Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:44 / 26.11.05

Ingwaz: If Fehu is flowing wealth, the harvest to be sold, then Ingwaz is the seed-grain, that which is kept back to be planted again next Spring.

Ingwaz is generally seen as being Frey's rune, but is also associated with Freyja; in my mind it represents both, a sort of Gemini type deal. It's therefore associated with fertility: one form of the rune is a simple diamond-shape, but another, and to me more resonant, form looks like two X-shapes one on top ot the other with the lower points touching. Looks like nothing so much as a stylised section of the ol' double helix: DNA.

Frey and Frejya, the Divine Twins, riding out on their golden boars. They deal in the interface between humans and nature--farming; the realm of growing crops, meat and dairy herds. However, they're not just about the fertility. They also have battle as part of their mysteries. As well as the notorious Berserks who fought as bears, there are references in lore to other classes of similar animal-warriors, who fought as wolves--and as boars.

17:08 / 28.11.05

Inguz (Ingwaz?) also kind of looks like a wheat-head to me, with the the spray of bristles coming out the top and bottom.

And it looks like othila, the home-rune.

I'm wondering now if runes have a place for visual puns/etymology. Like, dagaz looks like it's related to mannaz, uruz to hagalaz, fehu to ansuz, etc. Is there any esoteric umm path of contact or linkage between the visually similar runes? Or is that just up to the reader to use or not?

13:00 / 29.11.05

grant, I think there's definitely some interaction there - it's the sort of thing that starts to come out when you study the runes. You start wondering why this particular shape means what it does, and what the interrelations are between similar-looking symbols. The shapes themselves are fascinating. I love that gebo is two equal lines crossing; it perfectly evokes the idea of exchange (X-change?) - a gift for a gift; it also reminds me of that ancient version of the handshake where you cross forearms. Isa and sowilu are also very evocative and elegant. And I can't begin to think how long I've spent puzzling over ehwaz and mannaz. Why do they look so similar, and what is the significance of that small difference?

I guess this would be the appropriate place to re-affirm my intention to carve a runeset during Yuletide... Provided, of course, that I finish all my assigned homework before then, which is going to really cut into my Christmas shopping. Ah, the sacrifices we make...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:14 / 29.11.05

grant: Yeah, I definately think there's something to that. Definately. I don't quite know what yet, but it's there. I had a link to this PDF thing that examined the runes using an energy-flow model, which was interesting... I'll have to see if I can find it again.

21:06 / 29.11.05

I`m shocked... been a year (or more) lost in deep hsit (:P ), i return to this "(/forum/nodus)" and the first thread i look is about Runes!!!! i was trying and trying with tarot cards and i read them, but they don`t talk to me the way the runes do in a few weeks of test. Their also are more practical to made (/sigils/sutres/rings/amulets) and by this way extend the singularity echoes, or area of aplication... thanks for this "welcome back sincronicity"

ÑAH!

19:31 / 22.09.07

I'm applying Ye Olde Necromantick Artes to this thread 'cause I miss my runes. I had a handmade set, made from wood I found on a meditative walk, and they sang to me, and on the occasion where they really wanted my attention they would get in my head and steal my attention, mercilessly.
Then I moved 2000km south and left them packed with all my stuff, which was due to be hauled down by my stepdad. He put it all in storage and has made one trip to bring down mostly his stuff, and I've been bereft of my runes all summer. If I'm really lucky he'll bring it all down very soon, since he won't give me a key so I can go get it myself.
I kept my Thoth deck in my bag; Wish I'd had the foresight to bring my runes too.
I've debated on buying a set, but it just feels wrong. And lately they've been turning up in my dreams a little.

On that note, any good rune resources I can use to get back into the groove? I have Freya Aswynn's book, Northern Mysteries and Magick, and Edred Thorson's book Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, both of which are superb, but their both with the aforementioned runes.

17:05 / 23.09.07

I'd hunt down various translations of the Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Old Icelandic rune poems -- when I got smacked on the head to start studying the runes, I went back to the primary sources. I like R.I. Page's translation of the Old Icelandic poem, for what it's worth, but there's plenty of translations out there on the internets for free.

As far as more recent books go, I like Aswynn alright but her bias is pretty clear and I periodically find her abrasive. I also like Sweyn Plowright's "The Rune Primer".

09:47 / 24.09.07

Aside from the poems themselves, and direct experience, I learned the most from Diana Paxson's Taking Up the Runes. This, of course, is because I was taking the last class she taught right before it was published, so we actually went through all the study rituals in the second half of the book as a group.

--Ember--

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