Rune Set

[The Dreamer]

Haindl rune cards have rune meanings, and a naturalistic depiction. Never tried them, though.

I've made runes out of clay, I've made runes out of wood, I've made runes out of cardboard.
The thing is, I never got much intuitive resonance or plain old understanding with the traditional meanings, or by looking at the runes themselves. (Well, plain old understanding, I guess, but not complex. How much can you really get out of Isa and Gebo? So simple.) Therefore, I never use them.
The runes were indeed originally an alphabet. Also associated with the norse gods. "Your guides"?
Umbrae's idea of going off the book for divination is an interesting one- but to take that to an extreme, we may as well not use any tool of divination at all other than straight intuition.
My intuition seems not to be good enough to do that- so far it seems that different divination tools actually do provide information I could not get without them.
Runes haven't been my tool of choice.
They're rich in meaning, but not rich enough. May as well use a smilies oracle or a stick figure oracle. Or just make up a new alphabet and use those as runes.
Chess pieces can make a decent oracle.

That's my little rant.
I always wanted runes to be better than they were.

Thinking about the runes made me want to use them again. Maybe I'll make some rune cards.

 

[Amber Z]

Ceramic Runes?

I'm thinking of making some ceramic runes but I've heard others say they've had problems with ceramic runes breaking. Is it just because of the type...that they're thin and flat? If they are made thicker, like 1/4" thick and rounded...kind of like a riverstone...I'd imagine they would be pretty sturdy.
Do most ceramic runes that you buy in a store come glazed or unglazed?

Also...if someone were to give you ceramic runes as a gift, would you prefer glazed or unglazed? Unglazed I guess would have more of a primitive, natural look and feel. Glazed would be more "finished." Any opinions?

-Amber

 

[Runester]

my first set was found in blum`s book of runes.and i`ve yet to have one break. they were indeed ceramic, i just recently bought some pewter ones from mystic-caravan that looked real nice. theres also a set i had my eye on at oldeways that are the most original set i`ve ever seen. and have started making myself a wood set.any and all options are available to you.do what the higher self suggests.thats my suggestion.

run on sentence provided by runester..in order to better chase children about

 

[Webwitch]

Dreamer

Do you read "The Poetic Edda" to derive meaning from your runes, or did you rely on modern books?

Cheers,
Webwitch

 

[The Dreamer]

I have not read "The Poetic Edda".
I do not recall the books which I did read- it was several years ago. They were geared more toward divinatory meanings for the runes.
I'm not terribly interested in the Norse mythology, although I know a bit about it from other sources. I do not believe in the norse gods, or any other gods.
Maybe one has to believe in the norse gods, or find the mythology personally resonant, at least, for the runes to be useful. In that case I probably shouldn't be using runes.

Have you gotten a lot out of "The Poetic Edda"?

 

[Skysteel]

The thing is, I never got much intuitive resonance or plain old understanding with the traditional meanings, or by looking at the runes themselves. (Well, plain old understanding, I guess, but not complex. How much can you really get out of Isa and Gebo? So simple.) Therefore, I never use them.

You get out what you put in, of course.
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I suppose one way of looking at it is that the Runes roughly correspond to the Major Arcana - they are powerful, universal forces, but somewhat impersonal and less subtle. Therefore, it is harder to achieve meaningful readings with the Runes. Have you tried using two Runes at a time? Or is that what you meant, when you said 'Isa and Gebo'?

 

[The Dreamer]

I tended to use 1 to 5 runes at a time.

What I meant by Isa and Gebo is basically what you said- they seem to me to be impersonal and less subtle than tarot and other means I've tried of divination. I did not get false answers from them, but I didn't find the meanings to be something that was very useful for most of the kinds of questions which I ask.

In my last post I mentioned the norse gods and the question of whether one needed to believe in them or at least like the idea of them.
I've used the Kuan Yin oracle (Chinese fortune sticks) to great effect, and do not believe in the goddess Kuan Yin- although I do like the idea of her more than that of the Norse gods.

I think I just like more personal forms of meaning to draw from when I do divination. To each his own. But the fact that I handmade all these runes made me a bit annoyed when found that the meaning seemed so unuseful to me. Divination is all about the meaning, of course.

My runes remain inert and frozen in their bag like Isa.

 

[Skysteel]

I tended to use 1 to 5 runes at a time.

In any specific spread, or just 'picked out the bag'?

In my last post I mentioned the norse gods and the question of whether one needed to believe in them or at least like the idea of them.
I've used the Kuan Yin oracle (Chinese fortune sticks) to great effect, and do not believe in the goddess Kuan Yin- although I do like the idea of her more than that of the Norse gods.

I suppose a certain appreciation of what specific Runes meant to the original casters (i.e. the ancient Norse peoples) is required. For instance, Fehu means cattle, but to the ancient Norse peoples cattle represented wealth, prosperity and status. Therefore, Fehu represents wealth, prosperity and status. It then follows that for some runes (Ansuz, Tyr, Ingwaz) perhaps knowledge of the Norse Gods is useful - personally, I don't think it matters, probably because I think of the Runes as universal, eternal forces, independent of culture.

What I meant by Isa and Gebo is basically what you said- they seem to me to be impersonal and less subtle than tarot and other means I've tried of divination. I did not get false answers from them, but I didn't find the meanings to be something that was very useful for most of the kinds of questions which I ask.

I think I just like more personal forms of meaning to draw from when I do divination. To each his own. But the fact that I handmade all these runes made me a bit annoyed when found that the meaning seemed so unuseful to me. Divination is all about the meaning, of course.

You and me differ greatly!
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I like the Runes precisely because they are impersonal, universal and archetypal.

My runes remain inert and frozen in their bag like Isa.

How sad...
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[The Dreamer]

I probably did a few past- present- future spreads, and some where each rune was for a specific question, then a couple more to clarify.

I'm not sure what I think of archetypal forces. I'm all for universal, but not definitely not for impersonal. It's where the impersonal and the personal meet, and the universal and the particular, which is what I'm looking for. It's the personal which makes everything interesting. Abstraction is useful, and clean, but cold. I often wonder if archetypal forces actually exist, or if they are just generalizations and abstractions which came from people thinking about particularities.

Hey, if anyone wants my lonely runes, I'll mail them right over. My best ones are made of wood with the bark still on the outside with the symbols burned on with a woodburning pen.

 

[Skysteel]

I'm not sure what I think of archetypal forces. I'm all for universal, but not definitely not for impersonal. It's where the impersonal and the personal meet, and the universal and the particular, which is what I'm looking for. It's the personal which makes everything interesting. Abstraction is useful, and clean, but cold. I often wonder if archetypal forces actually exist, or if they are just generalizations and abstractions which came from people thinking about particularities.

What if the personal is merely a subset of the universal? I'm of the view that some forces transcend culture, situation and location - everything is merely the application, interaction and manifestation of said forces.

Hey, if anyone wants my lonely runes, I'll mail them right over. My best ones are made of wood with the bark still on the outside with the symbols burned on with a woodburning pen.

Sound nice...I'm in the process of scribing Rune Cards. So far I have three Fehus.
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