Specific Applications of Runes
I’ve created a small collection of rune applications that are inspired by ancient mythological applications of the runes, many of which are still applicable today. Read through the examples and try them out using the rune rules we just learned. When you see rune magic in action, you will believe in the power of your runes. You can also use the examples as a template to perform your own related spiritual exercises in order to tailor your results to the desires in your own heart.
To Protect and Give Strength
to a Traveler for a Safe Journey
In olden times, travelers often carried a walking staff in order to blaze trails through the wilderness, to climb hills and mountains, and to use as a weapon against unsavory characters or vicious animals found along their paths. Making a runestaff is popular because runes are tied to staffs in several ways. The word “stave” means “staff” and is also the word we use for the rune symbols that we carve. You know that several of the runes are associated with tree woods such as yew (eihwaz) and birch (berkanan). Trees are more than just a crafting material. A runestaff represents a branch of the mythological world tree that is the universe. Your runestaff can act as a magic wand, directing spiritual energy out into the world to create what you desire.
Choose a runestaff based on the type of wood you have available. I’ve made runestaffs out of many types of wood collected as fallen wood or mindfully cut from trees, but I also made one out of a pine dowel purchased from a lumber store that worked just fine. Traditional runestaffs matched the height of the user or were sometimes even taller than a person, but I’ve also made smaller ones. My favorite traveling staff is the size of a short cane, so I can easily bring it on an airplane as a carry-on item.
Luckily for us, it is easy to fit positive traveling wishes into a single rune. Beginners may find single rune exercises much easier than carving a huge line of runes. Recall that brevity is actually an asset that advanced runemasters seek to attain. I recommend jera from the Elder Futhark for a travel staff if you’re looking for a positive journey. You might wish to substitute or add raido, if speed is important to your travels, or ansuz, if you feel that your mode of travel or destination might be very dangerous.
You can carve your rune stave proudly near the top of your runestaff and face it forward when you walk so that its power clears your path. If you feel the need to be discreet with your use of runes, you can carve the rune on the bottom of your staff. You can leave your staff with a wooden base because it looks neat to make rune prints when walking on the beach or in mud. If you want to protect your runestaff from damage, you can carve the rune on the bottom and then cover it with a rubber base that you can purchase from the hardware store.
To Calm Sea Waves
Traveling over calm waters was of great concern to ancient seafaring people. Even today, drowning and boating accidents are ever-present dangers for those who venture out on open water. Waves are also metaphors for emotions. Even if you never so much as go near a swimming pool, you may have use for calming the inner tides of your emotions. This is another single-rune exercise, but take your time choosing the right place and time to charge the rune. As experienced as I am with the runes and with meditation, the feeling of peacefulness is one of the most difficult emotions to conjure up at will for me. Don’t perform this exercise when you’re feeling stressed out, rushed, angry, or any other kind of emotional turmoil. The exercise to calm metaphorical and literal sea waves is necessarily performed outdoors, so you’ll also need to choose a time when the winds are still.
Procure a blue ribbon with length equal to the circumference of your head to symbolically contain the emotions you’ll be calming, and find a red pen. The color blue is to represent peace, and the red of the pen is merely traditional to activation of the runes. For practical reasons, cutting runes into a ribbon is not necessary. Wait until a time when the winds and your own inner feelings are at peace. Go to a peaceful outdoor location, perhaps by a calm lake or in a garden. Seat yourself comfortably, close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply. Let go of any lingering worries about your day and allow thoughts of the external world at large to drift away. Notice when your breathing naturally slows and your muscles begin to relax.
When you feel ready, write laguz nine times on one side of the ribbon, spacing the staves apart equally. Nine is a number of success and completion, peace and joy. Keep the ribbon in a bag or pocket to touch, or tie it anywhere you like for when you need calming energy.
Hex-Breaking Rune Wheel
If you believe that a curse has been placed upon you, go to a three-way crossroads and draw this design with a handful of graveyard dirt. Walk away without looking back. You will leave the curse at that crossroads to harmlessly recede into the earth. This particular hex-breaking rune wheel is made up of ken, thurisaz, and uruz, which together give the imagery of the transformative power of lightning and a rainstorm running its course, saying, “Light blasts away evil. This force is overpowered.”
To Control the Weather
Here’s how to make a cloud-busting magic wand or a wand that will otherwise help you control the weather. Note that controlling the weather, though an old practice, is not without its ethical conundrums. If you change the weather, many other people might be affected, and even local weather changes might possibly affect global weather systems. Some believe that temperamental entities whose domain is weather might become mischievous or malevolent toward those who work weather magic. If you choose to attempt to control the weather, I advise that you do so only with great care and consideration as well as prayers that it not bring harm to anyone or anything. That said, the information on how to make a weather wand is below for educational purposes.
Making a rune wand is very much like making a runestaff, so refer to the earlier exercise for information on choosing wood. In my religious tradition, a wand is typically the same as the length between one’s elbow and fingertips. Some curious local weather lore in my region claims that a whistle made from horsetail will call the winds. You can use a horsetail whistle as a wand or choose a type of wood that is sacred and practical to you. Carefully carve the rune wheel around the wand (it should wrap around much like a circular sticker), but remember to carve the runes in order.
Weather Magic Rune Wheel
This spiritual exercise makes use of a rune wheel of ansuz, uruz, hagalaz, and sowilo, carved in that order. The knowing for this rune wheel and the weather wand created by it is this: “Advisor of rain, hail, and sunshine blessings.” Observe that every instance of the rainy energy of uruz and destructive weather power of hagalaz is counterbalanced by touching both the divine guidance of ansuz and the sunshine of sowilo. Remember to read the staves in order, from the center of the rune wheel outward, whenever you look upon the wheel. Notice, also, that isa can be seen throughout the wheel. Of course, it’s easy to see a straight line anywhere, but it is particularly meaningful that the rune representing ice should be here to stop the natural weather in the path of what it was doing to follow your own advisement.
To Ward Off Evil Influences
Here’s a simple exercise that makes use of a bindrune to ward off specific evil influences. I encourage you to invent your own bindrune using ansuz and a rune that is specific to any danger that you fear. As an example, I’ve combined ansuz with thurisaz. Ansuz offers stable and friendly protection while thurisaz, just as the thorn protects the rose, offers protective influence as well as represents the danger from which you should be protected.
Bindrune to Ward Off Evil
For this spiritual exercise, I’ll ask that you depart from the ordinary rune rules by not cutting this bindrune, since the suggested use is for placement on the back of your hand. Even if you’re game for cutting yourself, it would likely ruin the energy of this particular spiritual work because of the pain and harm inflicted. The back-of-the-hand placement is visible, if you want it to be, and represents a protective slap to your enemies. Instead, I suggest that you write this bindrune in red or black ink on the back of your hand. If you’re not shy about displaying staves, write the bindrune in permanent ink. If you want to keep your protective magic hidden, write the bindrune in washable marker and then wash it off after your prayers and offerings. Washing off ink is a secrecy technique used by witches that works quite well for me.
For Invisibility
This bindrune doesn’t actually make somebody invisible, but rather it coats whatever bears this sign with the energy that tells surrounding viewers “this is somebody else’s problem.” I have used this rune on private diaries so that should somebody happen across them, they wouldn’t bother to pick them up and read them. You can certainly wear this bindrune as an emblem if you want to go unnoticed. For example, you might use it if you want to be left alone at your workplace to get your work done instead of being constantly bothered by well-meaning coworkers. However, always be mindful if you choose to carry this bindrune on your person, lest you be ignored in an emergency. Never carry this bindrune in a car. Sure, a police officer may not notice you speeding, but you might be hit by a car whose driver did not notice you either.
The bindrune for invisibity, or “somebody else’s problem,” is a combination of mannaz, neid, pertho, and tiwaz. The runes allow for the element of chance to cause the bindrune to be passed by for more important things. Write the rune with a pen on any object you’d like to keep private. It’s okay to omit the carving of this bindrune, but please make sure to charge the runes so that you are directing this powerful energy away from yourself and onto the symbol.
Invisibility Bindrune
Remember that in some cases you may think you need invisibility, but what you actually need is protection. When I was in high school, I tried to make myself invisible because I wanted to avoid the eyes of bullies who happened to be teachers. Certainly my magic worked. I was safely ignored by the teachers who had previously seemed out to get me. However, I also wasn’t getting the help that I needed in the subjects with which I was struggling. I also had an impossible time making friends in high school and couldn’t even spend time with my friends while at school. I felt isolated and spent my high school years playing catch-up with friends outside of school. What I could have used more than invisibility was some protection and empowerment. What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t use powers of invisibility to avoid problems that can be solved by communication.
To Blunt Swords or Otherwise Calm
Confrontations in Your Favor
Runes are known for having the power to dull the blades of enemy weapons. I’ve never been in a sword fight, so I haven’t had the opportunity to test this. However, blunting swords can also be a metaphor for tipping the odds of the outcome of a confrontation in your favor while not directly influencing the will of another person. For many modern practitioners who use runes to create spiritual change, it feels ethically wrong to directly change the mind or emotions of another person. Some believe that this forced removal of control can easily backfire or otherwise cause the person who is doing the coercion to experience similar negative effects in his or her own life as a reflection of what has been projected into the universe. A magical law of attraction states that spiritual energy attracts more of its same character as you work with it, so using controlling energy will draw more controlling people and situational factors into your own life. Undertake such spiritual work with caution and deliberate over it in prayer.
Blunting Bindrune
The ethical gray area of gently inclining your opponent to change his or her mind or tactics by affecting the environment or situation is addressed in this exercise. A suggested bindrune for the knowing “Blunt my opponent’s sword” is to cross two tiwaz staves, representing conflict, and top them with the peaceful, protective energy of laguz to bring love and emotional reconsideration into play. Note that unless you actually carve these runes into a weapon of your enemy, using and empowering these runes will also cause you to be more peaceful in the conflict. I hope that this exercise will help you consider that when you use runes, you are changing your inner self just as much as your external world.
To Draw Love
Writing down what you want is a wonderful way to clarify your needs, regardless of whether you use runes to do the writing. My mother told me about how she wrote down the aspects of a husband that she wanted, and like magic that man appeared in her life. She believed that she may have inadvertently caused a spiritual miracle to happen by the simple act of writing down what she wanted. Her husband fit each and every characteristic on her list for a perfect mate. She certainly didn’t conjure him into existence, nor did she force him to love her with a magic spell. Instead, by focusing her energy on her needs, she painted a big cosmic target on herself to draw people who had those characteristics into her life or perhaps to help her notice where they were in the world all around her.
Just as it is thought by many spiritual practitioners to be improper to force your enemies to lay down their weapons directly, it is also ethically tricky to perform love magic in any form. Forcing somebody to love you takes away their willpower and the chance for that person to discover how to love someone all on his or her own. Love magic can also backfire easily into obsessions or even hatred. As a fortune- teller, I understand that many of my clients desire the love of a certain unobtainable person. Often it’s an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, but generally an ex is an ex for good reason. As a teenager, I was also desperate for crushes to return my affections. Luckily for me at the time, a friend suggested the idea of generally drawing love into my life rather than targeting a specific person. The spiritual benefits of drawing love not only allow a person to achieve the goal of being in a loving relationship, but this can also have good side effects of making a person more lovable and generally creating love and harmony in families and friendships that surround the person.
This application makes use of the runic practice of writing on objects in something other than straight lines from left to right. People who used the runes as a script often wrote up and down or layered lines first going in one direction, say left to right, and then the other, from right to left. Runes sometimes march around gravestones or other monuments to form pretty designs. In the case of this exercise you will be writing the runes in the design of a spiral that first winds from the center outward and then turns and winds inward like a labyrinth.
The act of writing a repeated mantra or knowing is something that is practiced in many religious traditions. In this exercise we’ll depart again from the tradition of cutting the runes because, for a beginner, this volume of rune work is best done with pen and paper. You’ll need a circular piece of white paper and a red pen. It’s okay to cut a regular piece of printer paper into a circle, but the bigger the piece of paper, the more valuable this meditative act becomes because it will take more of your time.
To Draw Love
Beginning at the very center of the piece of paper, begin writing this sequence of runes: mannaz, neid, laguz. The knowing for this is “I need love.” Technically, it means “Humankind needs love,” but in this case mannaz represents you. If you have a personal rune, bindrune, or other sigil, you may use it instead if you prefer. Write the rune sequence over and over again and without spaces or punctuation. As you write, curve your line and turn the paper so that the sequence winds in an increasing spiral counterclockwise on the page. Leave a large gap between the arm and the outer ring so that you can fit the row back in when you reach the edge of the page. When you do reach the edge of the page, change your stave order to laguz, neid, mannaz as you spiral back inward. The knowing has changed to “Love needs me.” Place the completed piece of paper under a pillow inside its pillowcase. When you begin to see the results of love being drawn into your life, burn the paper as an offering and know that the effects will then be intensified by the transformative power of the flames.
To Talk with Birds
When I was a child, my mother told me the bit of folklore that if you sprinkle salt on a bird’s tail, it will be yours. I’m sure the idea behind it is that birds might be easier to catch if their tails, used as rudders for flight, were somehow disabled with heaps of salt. But in my child mind, the saltshaker became a magic tool that would make the bird love me forever. I spent hours sneaking up on birds to sprinkle salt on their tails, coming so close to them that I could have easily just caught one with one of my butterfly nets. I never did capture a bird using salt alone, and salt did not hamper their flight in the slightest nor make them want to be my friends despite my having salted many confused and unsuspecting birds quite thoroughly.
Runes, too, are legendary bird-taming tools. If you view this myth as yet another metaphor, the bird itself is a symbolic messenger. The spiritual exercise To Talk with Birds is a knowing for being able to communicate clearly and effectively even across long distances. Putting clear intention into runes in order to communicate your message is a wonderful way to galvanize yourself toward presenting your message in the best possible way. You can use this exercise when you are going to apply for jobs, if you’re hoping to get a call on the telephone from a long-lost love or estranged family member, or if you’re writing a book.
To Talk with Birds
For this exercise, you’ll need to procure a feather from a bird, preferably the tail feather. You can use a feather from a pet bird, a found feather from a wild one, or even a feather from a craft store if necessary. You’ll also need a palmful of salt. Go outside to a place with bare dirt, sand, or dust. Carve the bindrune of ken for communication and eihwaz to represent the flight of birds (or your messages that you want communicated) as arrows from a yew bow; note that the bindrune looks like a bird. Carve the bindrune in the dirt with the pinky finger of your dominant hand.
Next, read the bindrune and lay the feather vertically across the bindrune in the dirt. Seal the feather into the bindrune by lightly sprinkling salt to paint the lines of your rune with it. As you work with this bindrune, clearly visualize your message getting through to the right people in the right place and at the right time, allowing yourself to feel the emotions you would feel if you were to successfully communicate your message. You’ll be leaving your bindrune where you carved it, so for this reason it’s important not to use so much salt that you’ll make the dirt inhospitable to plant or animal life that might take hold there.
You can use this bindrune, or others you create yourself, for communication in other ways as well. I have many friends who hide runes on their websites in order to enhance the message of the website. One way to do this is to open up an art program to create an image the size of one of the pictures on your website. Draw the stave with the program’s pen tool and then paste the ordinary site picture on top of the charged bindrune. Save the image as the latest version, and you now have an empowered image file with a hidden rune that you can display on your website to enhance its effectiveness.
To Soothe Sorrows
When grief or sorrow hits me, I turn to spirituality to keep me levelheaded. Runes can be a great comfort, consoling one with a sense of empowerment and something to do spiritually in situations when one might be otherwise helpless. When my dad died, I’d turn to my husband and tell him that I needed to go pray. I’d spend hours in prayer, devastated that all of the healing magical work I had done for him had ultimately failed. It was only when I turned to combat my own sorrows instead of beating myself up that I was able to think clearly about the role rune magic can play in the spirituality of life and death transitions.
I now believe that runes can help keep somebody alive just like a respirator in a hospital can help somebody cling to life, but those interventions are not always the best nor what the person chooses through his or her own force of will. Sometimes, all you can offer loved ones who are going through a problem is your own love and positive energy, leaving the rest to them and the universe. A favorite spiritual poet of mine named Gwen Thompson wrote a mysterious knowing for sorrow that helped me conceptualize this spiritual exercise: “When misfortune is enow, wear the blue star on thy brow.”
To Soothe Sorrows
If you want to carve the runes, you can make yourself a metal headband out of a length of bendable metal, scratch the runes on the headband, and paint the runes with blue paint. A simpler way to perform this exercise is to use makeup to draw the lines on your forehead temporarily and then wipe them off after you decide you’re done wearing the bindrune. You can leave it on for the day or an evening or wipe it off as soon as you’re done creating it, while remembering the mark in your mind’s eye whenever you look in the mirror until your sorrows abate. The bindrune I suggest is a combination of two wunjo staves upside down and facing one another but with their tails together, a berkanan stave with points down, and a ken stave topping off the star. From bottom to top they represent divine joy coming from sorrow through nurturing love and rising up like a fire from within. When read from the top down, they can represent the fires of divine love nurturing joy through you here on earth. The star that they form works as another sigil, meaning protection from misfortune, to add power to the runes. As you draw the bindrune, concentrate on your own divine source of spiritual inner strength.
To Heal
Runes can be used for healing in so very many ways, and many combinations of runes can be used to heal as well. I advise you to experiment with your own bindrunes and runic alphabets that you associate with healing and to try different techniques of applying runes to objects for the person in need of healing. Runes can be carved on the stems of flowers brought to someone in the hospital, drawn in the air over medications with a fingertip, or even knitted into a blanket. Again, there are many rune combinations that can be used and I encourage you to discover your own. I like to make a little rune wheel from fehu and dagaz because it reminds me of a little healing chant in Spanish that my daughter taught me that, roughly translated, says, “Heal, heal. If you are not better today, you will be tomorrow.”
I like to use rune wheels for healing, imagining that I’m painting a target for healing. Some people believe that healing is an energy that can be bestowed upon a person from the divine, and some people believe that healing comes from within. The visual inward and outward design of a rune wheel can evoke thoughts of both or either of these processes depending on what works for you. This rune wheel has four radiating spokes.
Healing Helm of Awe
I have two suggested applications for this helm of awe. If you are asking for healing, go to a tree, preferably a birch tree (representing the nurturing force of berkanan), and carve the helm of awe on the bark on the south side of the tree, which receives the most of the sun’s healing rays. When you pray, consider asking the tree to act as the world tree and deliver the healing that is in the universe to its rightful place. The connection between Mother Earth and Father Sky here will aid in natural healing for whomever needs it.
For those who are healthcare providers or those who want to be healers, I have yet another application of these runes. Scratch a simpler healing bindrune on the fingernail of your ring finger, and then paint over it with fingernail polish. I suggest using a tool that is not too sharp to do the scratching, such as a bent paperclip. You don’t want to injure yourself; just scratch the nail surface a tiny bit. If you want to use the runes as a decorative nail design, it’s okay to paint the bindrune on all of your nails. Conversely, if you want to hide the rune, you may use washable ink instead of nail polish, wash it off, and then brush the etched rune with clear or any color nail polish or cuticle oil to hide its presence.
Healing Bindrune
To Still the Senses
As the mother to two preschoolers, I have my work cut out for me when it comes to keeping calm in a chaotic environment. My house is loud and messy, and sometimes a child’s tantrum leads me to have an immature tantrum of my own. It takes all of my willpower to reign in my anger or disappointment in order to attempt to teach my children to be civilized people. Sometimes, I just plain lose my cool.
A vital skill for anyone who works with runes is the ability to clear one’s mind and inner emotional landscape in order to allow the feelings and energy of each rune to channel through. I definitely understand that sitting even for a few long seconds in quiet meditation is a challenge for the beginner. I struggled to master meditation all throughout my teenage years with little success. Even though I was convinced that meditating for only five minutes was a pitiful attempt, it was the most that I could do on a good day. In hindsight, I realize now that five minutes of meditation can be an achievement for anyone. Using runes to help you calm and center yourself can help you become a better meditator and can increase the effectiveness of all spiritual exercises you perform with the runes.
For this spiritual exercise, you’ll need some dry, powdered turmeric, which is an herb associated with healing, mental peace, and spirituality. You can find turmeric in the spice or bulk section of your grocery store. Mix the turmeric with skin-safe red powder such as kumkum powder, usually available in an Indian grocery store, or red powdered rouge or eye shadow. You’ll be making a batch of magic powder that you can use on many occasions. For your first batch, you can make a small batch using only a quarter cup of each if you like. When you wish to still your senses and become more peaceful, mix a tiny bit of the powder with olive oil and apply it to your forehead between the eyes.
To Enhance Memory, Speech, and Mental Acuity
I’m a scatterbrained, distractible person. When I was a child and later as an adult, medical professionals diagnosed my awesome multitasking skill as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but I like to think of my flighty Gemini brain as a strength. Thinking quickly and connecting many related thoughts makes me a better teacher because I can’t possibly ramble on about one subject long enough for my students to become bored. Using the power of the runes to enhance concentration, however, can aid my writing and my vocation as a mother considerably. I can’t tell you how many minutes of my life I spend standing in front of the pantry, wondering what ingredient or food I was about to choose.
I like a useful spiritual exercise with runes to produce an equally practical runic object. Here are some simple instructions for making a runic talisman. You can make talismans for any purpose you like, but I think that having one handy to wear as a pendant whenever I need extra brain help is wonderful. I have a number of runic talismans for various purposes hanging in my closet. Whenever I need the help of runes for a specific challenge coming up that day, I can grab a talisman before I head out the door in the morning.
I believe for several reasons that the best runic talismans are those made from wood. First, you can perform all the runic procedures necessary, including carving. Second, the associations of runes with wood and with the world tree increase the power of the spiritual exercise. Third, a carefully sanded rune talisman feels good against the skin when worn as a pendant. It’s comforting to handle my talisman until it is well oiled with my own skin oils. Finally, the technique for making a wooden talisman is identical to the one in chapter six for making runes. You can just add a drilled hole or a fastener to suspend it from a strap or chain. In fact, when making runes, you can save the end pieces off the branch you’re using to cut the runes for future talismans. My suggested runes for memory, speech, and enhancing your mental strengths are mannaz, ansuz, and sowilo. Note that ingwaz forms in the center between the two mannaz symbols, initiating the energy whenever you look at the image.
To Enhance Memory, Speech, and Mental Acuity
Luck and Winning at Games
I believe the runes are lucky, and I love to make them into good luck charms for specific purposes. For luck with money I can slip a piece of paper with a rune upon it in my wallet. For good luck while driving to keep me clear of heavy traffic and accidents, I can quickly trace a rune on my dashboard. The rune pertho speaks specifically to games of chance, since some runeologists believe its stave represents a dice cup. For this spiritual exercise, I’m going to combine the runes with common folklore regarding luck. Using runes may not help you win the lottery, but everyone could use a little more luck in this game of chance we call life.
For this spiritual exercise, you’ll need a coin. This activity is best performed on a Sunday, since Sunday is generally associated with success. You will cut or scratch pertho onto the coin. If you are going to be playing a game of chance with dice, rub the coin on the dice before throwing. Instead of painting the rune on the coin alone, paint it also onto the bottoms of your feet, so that luck may walk with you wherever you go. Take the coin outside and throw it to the ground, stepping upon it until it is compressed into the dirt. If practical, use your bare feet to stomp on the coin so that the runes painted on your foot will contact the coin. Without looking, reach down to pick the coin back up, put it in your pocket, and walk away without looking back. Carry the coin with you as a charm. If you do win money with your lucky charm, donate a portion of your winnings to the poor as an offering of thanks.
To Protect a Home from Bad Luck or Intruders
It’s possible that the angular construction and exterior decoration of some Germanic peoples’ homes may have hidden runes in plain sight. It is an old practice in many cultures to curse potential home invaders with a protective charm before any break-in occurs. Recall that some spiritual teachers believe that any negative energy can reflect back on you if you use it. However, since the practice of using negativity to ward away negativity is a tried and true one in many cultures, I will show an example here. If you’d like to avoid using negativity, you can substitute algiz for the following bindrune.
Home Defense Bindrune
The bindrune indicated here is a combination of sowilo, hagalaz, and tiwaz. Combined they are a powerful sigil for the knowing “Power given to the justice that destroys enemies.” Place this rune on a material of your choice and then apply it to the hearth of your home. You can place it on a fireplace mantle or hang it above the fireplace like a holiday stocking. If you don’t have a hearth, place the rune in your kitchen. Before central heating and electric stoves, the hearth was the heart and life of a home and was where all heating and cooking took place. Another potential placement for this rune is carved on the doorframe or threshold.
To Commemorate the Dead
We have plenty of archeological evidence that runes have been historically written on grave markers. Runes are a wonderful way to connect with spirits or memories of those who have passed on because they represent the stories, ideas, and experiences we’ve shared in this lifetime. Of course, you may not have the liberty or ability to painstakingly chisel runes on the grave markers of your ancestors or friends. To commemorate the dead, I often turn to the simple cross-cultural act of raising a toast to a deceased loved one.
Ancestor-Honoring Bindrune
To commemorate a deceased loved one with a toast, you’ll need a cup and a beverage of your choice. You can use a wooden cup in order to permanently carve the runes, or just trace them with a finger in the condensation on a glass that you’ve stored in the freezer for this purpose. Inside the cup along the rim, write out the name of the deceased person in runes. Use the beverage to exactly trace the letters that you already wrote so that you’re writing each rune twice to imitate the actions of both carving and then painting the runes. Remember that you’ll be spelling his or her name phonetically and without using any spaces. If you don’t have a specific person in mind or don’t know the name of the deceased, I suggest you use a phrase such as “To my ancestors, known and unknown.” The named and unnamed dead can be represented by othila and dagaz. My bindrune design is meant to evoke the mythology of birth, love, death, and rebirth while still being simple enough to carve or trace on a cup.
How to Sneak Success Runes
into the Workplace and Other Useful Tricks
Being able to choose your own workplace decor is a freedom that I encourage you to express. You can bring runes and other meaningful symbols into play in your work. When I was a kid, my parents owned their own business. I made a fehu sigil for my mom, and she placed it by her computer to encourage the financial success of the business. Since fortune-telling is what I do, I can be overt about placing runes and other symbols all over my working space if I like. Runes don’t have to be outwardly occult looking, though, in order to be effective.
You can certainly sneak fehu under your keyboard or secret it away in your purse or day planner. Since the runes are such aesthetically pleasing angular designs, you can also hide them in plain sight. Notice how the rune fehu repeated can become a border for a picture frame or for stationary. As you’ve seen from the examples of bindrunes in this book, there are many ways to combine runes to further obscure their meanings for others while simultaneously enhancing their meanings for yourself. If curious coworkers searched for images of runes on the Internet, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to spot a bindrune. Unless, of course, they were already very familiar with the runes and thus sympathetic to their use.
Fehu Border Example