From: chewy@shell.portal.com (Paul F. Snively) Newsgroups: alt.divination Subject: Re: Elder Futhark & Runecasting Date: 23 Aug 1994 03:40:49 GMT sunnyway@aol.com (Sunnyway) writes: > I'm about to embark upon making my first set of runes. Any > suggestions as to material, techniques, etc.? Not being a stonecutter, I bought a beautiful set inscribed in hematite. Generally speaking, you may wish to have a dialogue with folks who are wise with respect to the use of semiprecious stones/gems/crystals in meditative work. Before making my purchase, I got feedback from two such people about the qualities of hematite, and greatly appreciated it, and do find the feedback accurate. > I'm anxious to hear from those who runecast, to share their > experiences. Any help and suggestions for a beginner are > appreciated. At the risk of offering platitudes, the secret to runemal, again in my experience, is practice, practice, practice! Think of your intuition, your ability to know without thought, as a muscle like any other muscle. It needs exercise and strengthens as you use it. > The viking genes run true in me so the Elder Futhark seems > appropriate. I also feel a strong connection to the Norse tradition, although, due to my being adopted, the evidence for a lineal connection is strictly circumstantial. My first set of runes was the one available with `The Book of Runes, by Ralph Blum, made of clay, and consists of the Elder Futhark plus the blank rune, the Rune of the Unknowable, which I personally find a highly valuable addition (so much so that I have chosen not to purchase an otherwise lovely runeset inscribed on rose quartz simply because it lacked the blank rune. Yes, I could buy an appropriately-sized piece of rose quartz and add it to the set... but somehow that would feel wrong to me, not having been done by the person who inscribed the set. This is, of course, just IMHO). > Any suggestions as to reference books? I'm working from Tony Willis' > _Discover Runes_. I would add Blum's `The Book of Runes' to that. Blum and Willis are my favorite sources, perhaps because they seem the least vested in achieving some sort of magical power. However, I also occassionally refer to Edred Thorsson's `Futhark' or `Runelore' for additional interpretational material, while choosing to ignore the Nordic religious aspects of Thorsson's writing. Hopefully this is of some help. Please feel free to write with comments, questions, and the like. I've posted here about runework a few times, and seen some others, but I would enjoy and appreciate being able to sustain a regular dialogue with other runeworkers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul F. Snively "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean chewy@shell.portal.com that there's no one out to get you."