Runes 303 - Rune Art - The Wand

That's right.  I made a wand.  Last year, ebbed and flowed...and swirled...and cascaded over cliffs.  Good moments and bad.  And, I wanted to end the year on an upswing, so...yeah, I made a wand.  It's also why my post is coming in January instead f December, but it was worth the one day delay.

(As with all my artistic endeavors, I acknowledge that I am not a visual artist, but I do like to be creative.)

The wand is made from a piece of lilac bush wood that I cut last spring, just before the bush bloomed.  Lilacs are my favorite flowers and, while I'd love a set of Runes from lilac wood, I've never been able to get a satisfactory-sized piece from which to cut them.  I'm happy with the wand, and it does have six (actually seven) Runes carved into it, which I will get to shortly.

It was pretty easy to make the wand.  I cut it to size and smoothed the ends, then shaved all but the handle.  Next, I burned my first Rune into the handle end - Jera.  Jera, as many of you know, is my guiding Rune, so I wanted it to be at the wand's foundation.  I suppose you could think of it as the wand's core.  The wand shaft was pretty smooth after I removed the bark, so I didn't sand it at all.

With an exacto blade, I carved the simple design into the shaft.  This made the carving/burning easier.  (None of this work was visible int he pictures I took, so I didn't include any.)  The lines on the shaft are to move the energy through the wand and out the tip.  I made four lines following the natural curves of the wand, so they are not perfectly straight.  Using a few different wood-burning tips, I burned the lines.

All that was left was the Runes.  I thought about each one and its placement for quite a while even though I had been mulling over which Runes to carve since I cut the wood from the bush.  I want this wand to help guide me through 2019 and likely a lot farther than that.

I chose Sowilo, the sun, a beacon leading to safe harbor.  I placed it closest to the tip.  Ansuz was next on the same side as Sowilo.  For me it represents my writing, beyond the Rune's instinctive wisdom.  Turing the Rune one quarter, I added Tiwaz, Tyr's Rune.  I have a strong affinity for Tyr and appreciate the three aspects that I feel through his Rune - sacrifice, strategy, and perseverance. Another quarter turn and I burned in Eihwaz to remind me of and call on my inner strength, and Ingwaz for Freyr.  Ingwaz doesn't simply hold fertility, it's the way it feels comfortable to know that you are ready to take the next step in any endeavor.  It tells you that you're ready.  The last Rune was the toughest, but once I chose Kenaz, it felt right.  Kenaz represents the torch, human-made fire and, by extension, human ingenuity and creativity.  Kenaz has come up for me a lot in recent readings, so I felt compelled to see where my own creativity could lead in the coming months.

Runic details on the wand shaft

Once the Runes were carved, I darkened the handle a little bit by rolling the side of a hot wood-burning tip up and down it as I turned it to make the coloring even.  To complete it, I protected the wand with a nontoxic sealant.  And, now it has a place in my sacred space with other my other special items.

I want to note, that while I wrote about the Runes on the wand and why I chose them, for now at least, I will not be using this wand for anything other than ornamentation of my sacred space and a visual reminder of what I want to have guiding me through the coming year and beyond.

Runes 401 - Rune Rituals - A Rune for 2018

Welcome to 2018!  This is my third year selecting a Rune for the year.  Two years ago, I chose Thurisaz to reconnect me to the power within me that I had had let slip away through the daily routines of life.  Last year, I countered the masculine energy of Thurisaz with Sowilo.  It was a nice balance.

My 2018 Rune began calling to me in December...in no uncertain terms.  It is Ansuz.  Ansuz represents many things for me, but the main thrust of this Rune is as it relates to language, wisdom, and communication.  Ansuz came to me in December, because I had hoped to finish the draft of the sequel to my novel, The Son of Nine Sisters, by the end of 2017.  Due to year-end family commitments, it became apparent in mid-November that that was not going to happen, so I gave myself until the end of January, another deadline that will be missed, though only just.  I believe Ansuz came forward to remind me not to lose focus even though my two soft deadlines would pass unmet, and to remind me to stay focused on completing the sequel draft, regardless of missed self-imposed deadlines, and to continue to the next writing project after that.

Even though I have known for more than a month that Ansuz would be my 2018 Rune, I still wanted to perform a ritual to recognize it.  Last year, I sat with my Runes, holding each one individually in my hands, narrowing it down to Sowilo. When I considered this year's ritual, I saw myself painting Runes.  The result is the image above and the process clearly was not about quality painting so much as it was about the process of connecting to my Rune for the year.  It's a spatial thing, but it was also a flowing trance-like process.  I had a vision in my head that looked very similar to the painting, though I could not see the entire painting in my head; I could see only where individual Runes belonged on it.  The ritual was about placing the each Rune in its space as I drew it from the bag.  Sitting in my Bay window on this snowy January morning, I drew the Runes, one at a time.  (The image below shows the order in which I pulled them.)  And, as I drew them, I chose a color that represented that Rune's energy to me and painted the Rune where it was in my image.  There was almost no pause during the entire ritual.  The resulting visual will serve as my reminder for me this year to not lose focus on the commitment I made to my writing.  I will be curious to see how the placement of the other Runes around Ansuz will impact its role as my Rune for the year.

Runes 403 - Rune Interpretations - Family, Friends, and Life

It's been a whirlwind summer for me and I don't expect to have much a weekly routine until early September.  However, until then (and over the past week), my life is going to be filled with family and old friends.  My family and friends are spread out all over the country (and some even around the world), so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of family and friends and the life they bring to my life.  I asked the Runes how they would summarize this important aspect of our lives.

Their response gave me pause, but answered my inquiry perfectly.  In fact, each Rune seemed to align with a different part the question.

Ehwaz in the first position represents many great aspects of family.  Although we saw Ehwaz just a couple of months ago at the solstice, Ehwaz has four main meanings, each of which relates easily to family - loyalty, relationships, journeys, and the ways in which we make those journeys.  Perhaps these speak to me especially now as I just spent the weekend at a family reunion, but if we think about these words, we can see how easily family fits into these characteristics.  Family is there for you; that's the loyalty.  It's also a comfort I carry with me, knowing that, no matter what happens, my family will always be there for me.  That ties directly into the idea of relationships; for better or worse, family creates the first relationships we have and, most likely, the longest and last.  They travel life's journey with us (whether we want them to or not sometimes) and, I think they are the ones we are most willing to travel for, especially in times of emergencies and celebrations.

I liked drawing Jera to represent friends.  Not only is it the Rune I consider to be mine - my guiding Rune - but it represents cycles, symbolizing the changes that can happen within the span of a year.  In other words, we know that, with friends (just as with family sometimes), our relationships depend on the cycle of our lives.  Sometimes we are so involved in things that are happening in our own lives, we "forget" about our friends for a while.  Other times, it's the reverse and we don't hear from our friends, because they get busy with their own lives.  But the magic of true friendship is that, no matter how much time we spend away from each other, when we cycle back together, that time of separation dissolves and it is as if we have been together continuously.

Sowilo symbolizing life... well, I am not sure I need to explain this one.  Sowilo is the sun Rune, light and life, and the feminine energies of caring for others, creativity, and compassion.  This Rune is energy in all its forms.  Not only is it the basic necessity for life, but through the feminine aspect, it brings those things which make us human, the attributes that give us the capacity to care and create, to life.

If we consider all three Runes together, it paints a picture of hope and reminds us not only of the importance of the relationships we form with family and friends, but of the energy that we bring to them and they bring to us.

Runes 201 - Individual Runes - Berkana

This week, I entered into a business adventure with a very good friend of mine.  I chose to say "adventure" rather than simply "venture", because she and I have worked together before and we did amazing things.  It was a great adventure and I am certain this time will be too.  To acknowledge this partnership, I wanted to look at Berkana, the Rune of birth and the birch tree.  This Rune symbolizes beginnings and beauty and is linked to fertility, creativity, and, of course, goddesses.  My question for the Runes this week is how she and I can make the most of this beginning.

Tiwaz provides the overview for our adventure and, for me, this is a reassuring draw.  I am strongly aligned with Tiwaz, Týr's Rune.  Not only is Týr the left-handed god (I am left-handed too), but he is the warrior god.  To me, Týr's left-handedness, represents bravery, because Týr lost his hand, because he was the only one among the gods with enough courage to put his hand in Fenrir's mouth while the other gods bound the wolf.  This signifies the necessity of bravery and self-sacrifice in this undertaking.  We must be brave and unafraid to take some risks.  Coupled with this is the warrior, who is someone who does just that - takes risk and is unafraid.  As warriors, we are not afraid to work hard or fight for what we want to accomplish.

As my friend and I live 4,500 kilometers apart, Raido symbolizes what is, perhaps, our greatest challenge in this endeavor - travel or progress.  It is the Rune of riding or a carriage, and reminds us that we must move, literally and figuratively, to advance and achieve our goals.  This means not only can we not allow the physical distance between us to hinder our progress, but we must find a way to use it to our advantage.  Interestingly, travel is a component that she and I have discussed to some degree already and we see it as an important factor to addressing our aspirations and being successful in this endeavor.

 Finally, I was quite pleased to see Sowilo as our action for this question.  Sowilo stands for the sun and symbolizes good fortune.  For me, the sun, in in rawest form, is energy and that is what we need to make our adventure together successful - sheer energy.  One other key aspect to point out about this Rune is that in Germanic traditions, the sun is feminine.  For two women to draw the sun as their action for a working relationship reinforces the notion of the warrior's strength.  Together, we will be a strong force of positive, creative energy.  Look out world!

While this week's draw is more personal for me than my usual posts, I hope that you have gained some insight into either dealing with a new situation in your life, making the most of a beginning, or understanding how the Runes offer guidance.  I am always available to offer you personal readings or to answer questions you have about the Runes.  Just leave a comment on this post or email me.  Have a great week!