Musings on runes, tools, and the acquisition of bling

I was never a great fan of collecting miscellaneous tools just for the sake of having them. I was trained to believe that a good magician can work effective magic naked in an empty room at two am. Still, eventually there comes a time where one must acquire a couple of useful items. It seems to be inevitable. That point came for me when I was learning to read and work with the runes.

For those who may not be familiar with them, the runes are a family of spirits common to Norse cosmology. They are alive, sentient, and very powerful. In order to develop an alliance with the runes and win their allegiance, the God Odin sacrificed Himself by hanging for nine days and nights of agony on the World Tree, bleeding, starving, in pain, an alone. No one knows where these spirits come from, but they are tremendous allies if one can build a working relationship with them.

Now most people work with the runes simply as a system of divination and there’s nothing wrong with that. Even when approached as a mere symbol system, they seem to have direct conduits right into the fabric of wyrd itself. Of course, in order to divine, it’s usually necessary (or at least really, really helpful) to have a physical representation of the divination tool in question, be it tarot or runes, I ching, or an astrological chart. This is helpful in learning how to divine, it gives the reader a focus, and it’s helpful for the client to have something concrete with which to engage. I’ve found that if I do a reading without any tool, some clients become frightened at the thought that a person (rather than a seemingly inanimate object like tarot or runes) might have such power. Most like the comfort of seeing the reader using something! Added to this, the runes also have a penchant for offerings and the rune tiles or stones make a convenient conduit to the spirit itself, and hence a useful means of feeding them. So eventually, I acquired a rune set…then a second one, and then at third.  Once I was certain that I could function without any tools at all, it seems I began to indulge myself and acquired quite a collection!

We are physical creatures after all, and we learn through the aegis of the sensorium: sight, hearing, speech, taste, touch, movement, smell. Working with the proper tools was enjoyable. I loved the way the runes felt. I took pride in carefully selecting the best tools possible (according to my budget) and keeping them in good working order. I had always maintained altars to the Gods and ancestors that incorporated the best that I could afford; within reason, I now began to branch out magically.

I still believe that there is absolutely no reason to break the bank. The tools really are a luxury. Devotion is a matter of a mindful heart. Magic is a matter of trained and focused will. I’m human enough to admit that it’s nice though, to be able to work with pretty things, or to give the Gods a luxurious offering.  I’ve also been doing this long enough to know that there’s nothing wrong with that so long as one doesn’t mistake the bling as a substitute for skill, practice, and experienced technique.

All of these musings began because my sister and I were discussing rune sets recently (both of us having just acquired new sets) and she commented that the sheer number of sets that I had would make an interesting article. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be interested in reading about what my runes are made of, but I’ll indulge a brief digression.

Not counting the set that I just purchased (which hasn’t yet actually arrived), my primary rune set is made out of rounds of maple with the runes burned into them. They were made for me by one of my teachers, though I assisted with sanding the rounds. This is the set I use when I want to feed the runes and it’s also my favorite set for reading.

My personal set, the ones that I only use to read for myself and keep on my altar to Odin is made of various stones with the runes carved into them. Each rune has its own special stone, for instance, Fehu is adventurine, dagaz is carnelian, etc.

I have two travel sets. These are small enough to fit into my pocket if need be. One is polymer with the runes carved in them and painted. The other is made of small squares of wolf bone with the rune painted in black on them. Each rune is about the size of the fingernail of my little finger.

Then I have a set made of 9mm shell casings melted down and cast into rectangular tiles. The firing pad of the shells are visible on the back of the rune, and the rune itself it etched deeply into the front. Since I walk the warrior’s path, this set has powerful associations for me. It is very, very heavy, however, and so is not a set I commonly travel with.

Finally, I have my recently deceased mom’s set, bloodstone with the rune carved into them. That remains on her part of my ancestral shrine and I use it only to gain clarification when communicating with her as part of my ancestor work. I treasure this set because it was my mom’s.

Each set has a different weight and texture. One of the reasons that I keep so many, is that if I use a set repeatedly for a long time, I get to the point where I can tell what rune I am holding by shape and weight, by the way it feels in my fingers. This is not a good thing.

I take pains to make sure that I am completely objective in a reading and while I don’t mind if the rune whispers to me before I actually draw its symbol from my rune bag, or if my own intuition tells me the rune I am about to pull, I do worry when I can automatically tell what rune I’m holding just by the physical characteristics of the stone or round or tile. I worry it might bias the reading (if I am holding hagalaz, for instance, which can be a challenging rune, I might be tempted to let it slip from my fingers instead of pulling it and that cannot be). So theoretically I can justify multiple sets. I don’t go out of my way to shop for them, but sometimes a nice one all but falls in my lap.

When it comes to bling, I generally counsel that less is better. I would rather have a few things of good quality than a great deal of, to put it bluntly, crap. The Gods don’t care how big that pentacle is. They don’t’ care how many runes we own, or who has the better drinking horn. These things are for us. What the Gods care about is the time and devotion with which we practice and the continuity and integrity with which we honor Them.

With the practice of magic, if the will isn’t honed, if one lacks the gift for sensing and tapping into energy, if one isn’t owning one’s issues, if one is unbalanced, or doesn’t practice well, all the bling in the world won’t help.