runes

Runes for divination a gift from Odin

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Runes for divination a gift from Odin

Runes are another interesting tool you can use to trigger your subconscious. Runes, cards, astrology etc all have 2 basic uses, you can use them to predict the future, i.e. divination and you can use them to access your inner energies for your own spiritual development. Astrology is a long term affair, requires studying and a lot of work interpreting the aspects and planetary strengths and stuff. Cartomancy and runes are more to the point. Cartomancy is more suited for day to day practical questions and Tarot has the ability to decipher the deep as well as the superficial questions but Tarot requires more study.

Now about Runes. I use the Elder Futhark rune set. The ancient Norsemen used bits of bones to draw these runes on but today you can get pretty crystals or wood engraved with the rune symbols online. (Odin is the King of the Norse gods, but I think he is another form of Daityaguru Shukracharya, he too has one eye and had hung up-side down from a tree in deep meditation to achieve Transcendence.) I like Runes.

Runes for divination a gift from Odin

There are just these 24 rune symbols. It is so strange that the entire gamut of human life, society, relations and all can be expressed with a set of just 24 symbols. Some modern sets add a blank stone to the set making it 25, but I have never seen much use for the blank rune. All the questions are completely answered by the set of 24, it depends on how you use them.

runes correct

A list of quick divinatory meanings, the basic keywords on which you can expand as you learn and practice more.

  1. Fehu – Good Fortune
    • “Cattle”
    • Moveable property, power in action, livestock, liquid assets, luck, control over wealth, actions that create more wealth, wisdom to use power to increase assets.
    • “You have earned it, enjoy it now.”
  2. Uruz – Strength
    • “Male Bullock”
    • Vitality, determination, perseverance, rain, healing, personal success, wisdom as a resource.
    • “A period of unpredictable power and a test coming up.”
  3. Thurisaz – Security
    • “Thorn”
    • Protection, warning, barrier, power to defend, power to destroy, power to resist unwanted conflicts.
    • “Learn from the events in your past and present.”
  4. Ansuz – Blessing
    • “Breath”
    • Odin’s personal rune. Words, communication, expression, intellect, sound as power, words of power, spells and mantras.
    • “Help yourself before you help others.”
  5. Raido – Travel
    • “Movement”
    • direction, ritual, rhythm, justice, goals in harmony with the natural order.
    • “Focus and choose your direction of travel.”
  6. Kenaz – Clarity
    • “Torch”
    • Illumination, creation, understanding, learning, teaching, perception, health issues.
    • “There is a beacon of hope guiding you.”
  7. Gebo – Generosity
    • “Gift”
    • Exchange, relationships, uniting, connections, mutual honor, balance of energy and exchange, connection between 2 persons.
    • “Give and receive in fair exchange.”
  8. Wunjo – Gain
    • “Joy”
    • Perfection, shared goals, unified force, wishes, happiness, harmony from achieving goals, fellowship.
    • “You will gain through diligence.”
  9. Haglaz –  Destruction
    • “Hail”
    • general bad luck, enduring and overcoming temporary hardships, transformation caused by destruction, illness.
    • “Events not in your control, be careful.”
  10. Nauthiz – Limitation
    • “Need”
    • Distress, necessary actions, problems created by one’s own self, karma, unnecessarily in tension, limited options.
    • “Give a serious thought to your pending commitments.”
  11. Isa – Barrier
    • “Ice”
    • Contraction, stillness, suspension, introspection, restraint, slowed growth, stop and think.
    • “Coldness will create conflict, so act positively to melt the ice.”
  12. Jera – Success
    • “Harvest”
    • Cycles, seasons, time, completion, gains, growing crops, health.
    • “You will reap what you have sown, be patient.”
  13. Eihwaz – Death
    • “Yew tree”
    • Endings and beginnings, transformations, new opportunities, passages and routes, give something away so that new may come in.
    • “Old ways will pass, so that the new can rise.”
  14. Perthro – Revelation
    • “Dice cup”
    • Solutions, bit of luck, using what destiny has given you, independence.
    • “You are lucky, be happy.”
  15. Algiz – Shelter
    • “Elk”
    • Protection, defence, support, luck, sanctuary, resist temptations and move forward.
    • “You have all the protection you require.”
  16. Sowulo – Energy
    • “Sun”
    • Will, strength, victory, vitality, healing, directing power, clarity
    • “You have the magic, so use it.”
  17. Teiwaz – Bravery
    • “Creator”
    • Justice, responsibility, steadfastness, guided to success, victory, nobility.
    • “You are brave enough to face any adversity.”
  18. Berkana – Start
    • “Birch tree”
    • Trees, growth, mother, new beginnings, intuition, Earth Mother, feminine energy.
    • “You will receive what you need to start something new.”
  19. Ehwaz – Change
    • “Horse”,
    • spiritual journey, faith in God, help from elders and seniors.
    • “Be carefree and trust your destiny.”
  20. Mannaz – Inclusion
    • “Human qualities”
    • common sense, understand the human influence in every situation.
    • “Follow the middle path, take everyone along.”
  21. Laguz – Mystery
    • Intuition
    • “Water”
    • Flowing, emotions, psyche, revealing what is hidden.
    • “Have the courage to trust your sub-conscious.”
  22. Inguz – Prosperity
    • “Fertility”,
    • opportunity, resolving problems, masculine energy.
    • “Everything will reach its full potential”
  23. Dagaz – Yin-Yang
    • “Day”,
    • Satisfactory conclusion, final release, two sides of the same coin, balance between light and dark.
    • “Start your new projects but with due caution.”
  24. Othila – Inheritance
    • “Home”
    • Ancestral land, family power and resources, kinships and friendships as treasure, fundamental spiritual values
    • “Use your resources wisely.”

You can make your own rune set. If you live near a park or a stream or a natural area, pick up 24 small rounded stones/pebbles which feel good in your hands. Wash them with sea salt water, clean them and draw these runes on them with a marker. You have your first rune set, and because you made it yourself it will respond to you beautifully. You can also buy the sets. If you buy a set, wash it first in salt-water, rinse them and tell them with all your intention that they are your tools and request their help. Sleep with them next to your pillow for one night and they are ready for use!

There are several ways of using them. The easiest way to start with is this. Take a small bag made of fabric. Put all the rune stones in it. Think of Odin/the universe/your favourite deity/anything that inspires your faith and request for guidance. Now think of your question and shake the bag in your both hands for a bit. When you feel like it, put your non-dominant hand in the bag and pull out 3 runestones. Lay them in the order you pulled them out, this would be a past-present-future sort of flow of energy. Now use the keywords above to interpret them. The best way to practice is to ask ‘How is my day doing to be?’, note the runes you pull out and tally them with how your day turns out. If you think that interpreting 3 Runes together is too much for a beginner, pull out just one Rune and try to interpret it. Keeping a journal is helpful and you will get better with practice.

These are all exercises; runes, cards, tarot, astrology etc. The real magic is your own sub-conscious. You are training your mind to look at patterns. Your sub-conscious knows everything, so by providing it these divinatory tools you are giving it an outlet. You are disciplining it, providing it an orderly means of communication. When you ask questions from your runes you are basically asking the question to your own self. With time and practice you will communicate with yourself better, thats when your readings will become intuitive and accurate.

Runes for divination a gift from Odin

Keep your Energy work simple!

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I wrote a bit about the commercial energy supplies market in a previous post on Astrology and Reiki.So have continued on the theme in this one, trying to keep Runes, Tarot, Crystals and Gems simple. Our lives, destiny and the future is so complex, that seers from several cultures developed easy to use divination tools for us common persons to use. Divination tools, by definition, are simple to use and understand, these are the distilled wisdom of great minds who lived before us. And these tools have worked perfectly over thousands of years. But now, we have the Internet generation in the past 10-15yrs complicating stuff. And businessmen wanting us to spend money on buying more. With very few genuine teachers left who can actually make us understand. Let’s un-complicate our energy-work now!

Keep your Energy work simple!

Runes

I use Elder Futhark runes sometimes, it gives me pleasure to handle these smooth stones marked with the symbols of ancient Norse shamans. Maybe I was one of them in some past life! And then these are also so accurate. It is a clean and beautiful system. Feels like we children are playing with the energies of the Universe. I have used these quite often to read for me and my clients. Am primarily an astrologer but sometimes the client wants just a focussed answer to a focussed question. So I don’t need to dive into their entire lives and their horoscope charts. In these cases, I use runes or tarot as a tool for divination. Sometimes iChing too, but somehow I think iChing is a bit fiddly, I need a pencil-paper and to refer to the reference book all the time. Runes and Tarot or Cartomancy with the Lenormand somehow appeals to me more. These give to the point precise answers.

But the new spiritual consumerism trend is not willing to let even these simple but powerful rune stones alone. A new blank rune named Wyrd  has been introduced in these past few years which means ‘nothing’! It actually means ‘Nothing can be seen from the runes, it is in the hands of the gods!’. A system of divination, a tool which has worked perfectly for thousands of years rendered useless by some immature person. Divination tools exist because they read the mind of the gods! I cannot tell my client that the reading means ‘nothing or everything’ because the Wyrd came up!

Then again if you want to use runes, collect a few nice feeling rounded stones from a river or forest or some natural place. Draw these symbols on them with a marker or etch them with a knife. They will work so beautifully because you have made them for yourself. They will resonate with your energies completely. But then we have in the market, runes made of exotic crystals, wood, bones and stuff. There is no need to spend money on runes drawn on amethyst, tiger-eyes and bloodstones to being with. Rather spend time practicing with them. Once you have learnt and experienced them, obviously you can buy whichever crystal rune set you like, they are quite beautiful!

So if you read runes, or intend to learn, stick to the basics and learn them thoroughly, leave the Wryd aside. Odin’s philosophy is quite robust and capable of answering everything! Runes are quite powerful, will post next on how I have used them practically.

Tarot

I love my Thoth Tarot deck. It is the only one I have. I tried reading with the Rider-Waite deck but it didn’t resonate, even felt distasteful in my hands. But now there are more decks than genuine Readers in the market! There are even blogs that tell you what your next deck should be, and what are the 50 essential decks that you absolutely must have. They all are very very beautiful, with fabulous artwork but what is the point of just buying them. Tarot is based on something called the ‘Tree of Life’. It is quite a deep philosophy and every one who is really interested in learning Tarot should compulsorily know it.

There are just 3 tarot decks which resonate and facilitate the understanding of the Tree of Life, 1) The Thoth Tarot, by Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris. 2) The Tarot de Marseille by  Jodorovsky and Camoin, A version of the Conver (1760) deck with clean lines and colours, and 3) The Hermatic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson. Excluding these 3, every deck you see in the market is just pretty artwork, good for casual readings. If you want to really understand or use the Tarot for spiritual growth, stick to these 3.

A small note about the Rider-Waite deck, it is a tool for divination and if your objective is just knowing the answers to the questions it is quite good. But this deck in a very strange way shuts down your sub-conscious, limits it to the images drawn on the cards. You cannot use this deck for delving into the esoteric and the esoteric is the real soul of Tarot.

So for the student of Tarot, do not get caught in this loop of endlessly buying decks. Stay away from sheer consumerism. Stick to one of the 3 real decks and delve deep, study them, contemplate them and even meditate with them! Only then will real understanding dawn. After that you can definitely go and buy whichever deck’s artwork you like. But first understand the basics. And practice!thoth-tarot-e1540821081984-minCrystals

Crystals are a very common item in energy-work. They are just like tiny batteries and can be used to store energy in a variety of ways like energy grids. They are very useful and everyone should learn more about them. But here too commercial ventures have taken over and there are hundreds of obscure crystals labelled with tiny meaning being peddled in shops. It is very easy profit you see. A kilo of tumbled clear quartz stones takes maybe Rs 10/- to manufacture, but it is sold at retail at over Rs 500/-. And more obscure the stone, more the price. And frankly it is not needed in your work. You can do everything you want with the clear quartz / ‘Sphatik’. I have found a few more crystals work for me but even that is optional, I could do the same work with clear quartz. So when you start working with crystals, stick to the bare essentials, try out the clear quartz in every which way, then explore more if you feel like it. I have found these five types to be more than enough for my work.

  1. clear quartz – your work-horse, can be used for anything and everything
  2. purple amethyst – helps in clarity stability grounding
  3. rose quartz – pinkish – balances the emotions related stuff
  4. tiger eye – gets rid of unnecessary baggage you are holding on to
  5. citrine – removes negative influences from aura and sub-conscious

Stay away from cancrinite, tugtupite, vorobyevites, trolleites, vayrynenites and other made up names. Stick to the basics. Energy work is basically your mind, focus and intention.

And at the last Gemstones

Gemstones are really expensive crystals, which are used as planetary remedies, Ruby-Sun, Emerald-Mercury, Diamond-Venus, Hessonite- North Node/Rahu, Chrysoberyl-Ketu, Red Coral-Mars, Yellow Sapphire-Jupiter, Blue-Sapphire- Saturn. These are the stones which really work if you can get your hands on them and know how to work with them. But these planetary remedy gemstones are quite expensive, an average person cannot really afford them. So to make even more money, a few greedy astrologers hit upon the idea of ‘upa-ratna’/ substitute gems. There are no ‘substitute gems’ in astrology. Either you wear a Rs 4 lakh blue sapphire or if you cannot afford it, recite the beej mantra of Saturn, you have just these 2 options. And both options work equally well. But now the substitute gems market is flourishing and both the astrologer and the jeweller are minting money. They dont really care what havoc they are causing in the life of their client. They can always prescribe more ‘remedies’.

So if you get caught with an astrologer who prescribes ‘citrine/sunhela’ instead of yellow sapphire as a remedy for Jupiter, please ignore such advise. You would be better off reciting the beej mantra of Jupiter 108 times every Thurdsay.

This was just a quick heads-up for all the students of divination. Always remember it is you the Reader who is reading the tools. The answers come from your sub-conscious, not the tools. To be a good Reader, please learn, study and practice. And always remember that someone, sometime in the future, is going to make a life changing decision because of what you will tell him.

Use your crystals, easy healing grids and more