Why runes?

Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows

For nine long nights,

Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odin,

Offered, myself to myself

I scarcely believed the words left my lips.  I was meditating.  I was at a coven gathering, where we were experimenting with different kinds of recorded music and meditation or trance.  At the time, I wasn't very good at that, but through this exercise I discovered that simple music (a single Asian flute) works best, and I found myself on Yggdrasil.  I decided, in my meditative mind, to head towards Alfheim, having been told in a seidhr that I should sit with Freyr for a while.  On my way, there was a man hanging, upside down.  As I approached, he begged me for some water.  There was a bucket with a silver ladle nearby, and I reached down to get some water, I stopped.

Me:  You aren't supposed to have this.

Himself:  Please....

It was then that I quoted the above back to him and then continued.  (Special note: In real life I cannot quote the Havamal from memory...yet.)

The wisest know not from whence spring

The roots of that ancient rood.

They gave me no bread,

They gave me no mead,

I told him he could have it after nine days, and continued towards Alfheim, when the music ended and we were called back to this world.  Later, people would be stunned. "You told him, NO?"  It seemed the most natural thing in the world.  The Havamal says no food nor drink, so no.

Thus began, or maybe continued, a period of signs and symbols of Odin* appearing here and there.  I've gotten the order of things a bit jumbled in my brain at this point. They may have been there before, and I don't remember or didn't notice.  There were the two crows who blocked my path as I left a pagan festival.  There was the appearance of a grey haired dude with one eye, when I was expecting Manannan mac Lir, who has two as far as I know.  There was a dream or vision my spouse had wherein he was asked "Why won't your wife talk to me?"

Odin likes 'em stubborn, it appears.

Anyway, I found some cool runes for sale at Sirius Rising.  They were beautiful, made of oak.  I bought them, recalling an earlier disastrous attempt at rune making with blanks and a wood burner.  Supporting pagan artisans is as important.  But I didn't really do much with them at first.  Then I got a copy of Diana Paxson's Taking Up The Runes, got inspired to start a rune study with the the grove.  (We keep starting and stopping...).

It wasn't until another festival where, after I had done a workshop with discussion, one of the participants asked if I would do a reading for him.  Inside I was surprised.  Me?  Little ol' me?  Outside, I was like "Sure!"  I did a reading for him, and it did give him some insight.  But for me, something seemed to click.  I as at another seidhr later that week, and I asked the seer if there was one with wisdom for me.  She responded that Odin was there, and would like to speak to me directly

I looked down;

With a loud cry

I took up runes;

From that tree I fell.

Swallowing a bit, I said, "Sure....."  In a familiar voice, I heard unfamiliar tone as there was much he would tell me.  He asked if I was working with the runes, to which I said yes.  He asked if I could do the following:'

Know how to cut them,

know how to read them,

Know how to stain them,

know how to prove them,

Know how to evoke them,

know how to score them,

Know how to send them,

know how to send them.

I answered honestly that no, not yet, I did not.  He told me, essentially, to work on that.  Then he said there was much more but that was enough for now.

And there you have it.

My foray into neo-Paganism has always had a Celtic-focus.  I hesitate to use the word "patronage" (a subject for another post), and had tried off and on to learn ogham.  I gave up Tarot as being too much (mostly over court cards).  But I went to Trothmoot, an Asatru festival, and got tapped on the shoulder by the Aesir.  I incorporated Germanic (not quite Norse) practices in with my own.  And I picked up the runes, delving through stacks of books, until Paxson's was published, and felt a connection and an understanding that I did not have with Tarot.

Since then, I've turned back to ogham and Tarot a bit, and found that they now come much easier.  Runes led the way.  Every time I think I know one, I encounter someone or something that brings new depths of wisdom.  Most recently, an I Ching practitioner organized my runes according to how they looked.  His insight was fascinating, and I intend to meditate upon that and, of course, post about it.

Runes you will find, and readable staves,

Very strong staves,

Very stout staves,

Staves that Bolthor stained,

Made by mighty powers,

Graven by the prophetic God.

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*I should say, I tend toward the Germanic or Anglo-Saxon deity concepts, so I feel I work more with Woden, than Odin.  However, Odin is the more common-knowledge term, so I tend to use it, even though in my brain, it's Woden.

(Havamal Translations by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor )