rune raker – reviving lost runes

Here is the post that accompanies my Rune Raker videos on YouTube, you’ll find them below. It’s all about how together with Cindy, from Awakening to Spirit, Reem from Miss Reemie Healings and my Nordic mate Rob from Rob’s Tarot we are trying to channel the meanings of not just the Elder Futhark Runes but reviving the lost missing runes that are begging to be remembered.

I’m working very hard at the moment to create two new decks. One, a massive 104 card Norse mythology Tarot, Oracle and Rune deck already has 104 named gods, goddesses, giants, elves, dwarfs and realms all listed but I want to assign runes to these cards too as well as magical objects, beasts and astrology. Phew that’s a big ask but I adore complicated puzzles. Before I continue with that deck I need to look at the runes as they are very limited in their scope. I’ve been delving eyeball deep into this subject and have uncovered a whole series of missing Runes.

What are the runes? Well Odin went to see Mimir, the Norn who is the guardian of the Well of Wisdom. He asked Mimir if he might drink from the well. Mimir was silent. Odin said he would pay any price for a drink, to which Mimir answered the price was an eye and handed Odin a knife. Odin accepted and gutted his eyeball and threw it in the well. He drank and then was hung upside down from the Yggdrasil tree for nine days and nine nights. To cut a long story short here this is where the twelfth card of the major arcana, the Hanged Man derives its origins. Finally after nine painful days of silence Odin received the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark alphabet. Thankful for his new magical wisdom Odin returned to Asgard now able to see further with his one eye than he ever could with two.

The problem for Odin was that he did not have the complete set of runes but he had enough for the structure twelve frequency magic he wished to practice. The remaining runes were scattered among the rivers and springs in the other realms. Runes began to spread as the alphabet from Germany to Frisia and Scandinavia to Iceland. Each place adapted them to suit their language often refining their numbers. There were Gothic runes too that spread south and there were connections in some to Rome and Asia. Then the Frisian runes were brought to Britain and new vowel shapes require new runes from the ancient realms of the cosmic fractals that exist in all things. The runes totalled up to 33 and they were used to inscribe stones with names of tribes and stories, Swords were etched with the symbols as talismans and magical intentions. In many places rune poems were written to describe the power of each symbol but these vary depending on the places the runes were in use.

Early Christian cultures used the runes to tell bible stories and teachings and slowly the runes were reduced down to just sixteen known as the Younger Futhark. By pooling all the symbols together I have managed to trace 78 different but connected runes. Some have been assigned letter or sounds for the ever fluid languages where they are in use.

What to do to assign their truths back into the symbols? Well this is where the real skill begins. Much cross referencing of letters, phonetics and languages has to be explored but also hand drawing them and looking at their formation also opens the lost frequencies. I start each day by selecting a few runes and working with them.

I begin by casting a series of cards to establish their energies and then channel the meanings trying to fine tune each card. Then I begin to search for words that match the sounds they represent but these words must come from Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Frisian, German, Icelandic or Dutch origins and should contain a journey through Middle English to find a modern translation that fits the meaning. Some runes are similar to others and so this echo also needs to be considered.

Runes are what I call fractal symbols. this means they are naturally forming patterns that repeat themselves throughout the natural world. They appear in rocks in the layers of strata or their edged formations. In branches or leaves. Veins in the bodies of living creatures. They appear as echos both large and small in all things that form and grow. The day after I sat and drew up the cards I was drinking a coffee and looked up to see one of these fractals in the tree and so I grabbed the rune card and settled in to explore it.

Casting a series of oracle and rune cards I was made aware that this was the rune Needle. Then I had to go into early sources of the ancient languages and settled up the old English term Nædl which has its roots in a proto West German tongue. Perfect I thought with a deeply satisfying grin but this was not quite how the runes work. The symbol is the sound of the letter they are trying to represent. We know this as many runes are attested by rune poems in various languages explaining their sounds and meanings. So all ‘they’ offer on this rune is that it is the phonetic sound ‘q’ or in older languages ‘cw’. So I begin digging around for a better word to describe it. In my head I can hear spirit repeating that it is ‘Nædl’. I refuse to listen. Maybe the scholar who assigned the phonetic sound made a mistake? However I settled on an old English word ‘Queem’ (Anglo-Saxon gecwéme or Swedish qvama where presumably ) which means to please or fit snuggly. To fit snuggly into the eye of the needle shouts spirit. It is a personal portal of change. We must shed old thoughts and frequencies to be threaded into the eye of the needle. So I chose the phrase ‘fit the needle’ for now but I need to get the Anglo-Saxon grammar right first. Anyone out there who can help me?

Völva is about magic and Bjarken and Bilröst is to birth something a new after a fire and bring it to Earth. The small portcullis by the rainbow bridge is about a tiny opening that can flow and grow. Nidavellir (Needle-vellir) is the world of the dwarves at the base of the Yggdrasil tree and at their door are tiny clothes. The energy was about shrinking and reducing size. The Sword became so tiny it became a pin. Dress making, stitching, needle! Grounding your intimate light was saying this is a personal moment. The Emperor is about pruning a garden or our ego and this requires a journey to the depths of the ocean to face emotions. Standing at the crossroads trying to make a decision. Adjustments are required to fit the new place or portal door. Blue moon, a rare magical double full moon in the same month. Belief in the impossible. Ace of Cups is love shining through the sun. Nourished and alive with life force. Camels are nourished and the sun card shows the arched portal now large. To fit the camel through the eye of the needle. Bingo.

If we look at the old standard rune Logr, in old German it means lake or lagoon. In Norse it is waterfall and in Anglo-Saxon, sea or water. In all languages it is about water but the geography of place defines it differently. In early Germany most bodies of water are inland lakes. In Norway there are many waterfalls and so the rune adapts its symbol meaning. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, the land is surrounded entirely by the sea and ocean as it is a island nation, so each place infers a different meaning to the runic symbol. In most rune interpretations it has come to mean embryo or womb. To be wrapped in the comfort of water and to return to source. To go inside your emotions but also to have a journey ahead through the waters that flow across the lands and around the globe.

This missing rune is very similar but has an additional stroke halfway down in the opposite direction to the top of Logr. What would this mean? This is where casting tarot cards would assist in fine tuning the frequencies.

Again we have Völva but this time her arm and staff are an echo of the rune. The crow has turned to face her and is saying go within. Exploration and purification are the themes. An inner cleansing and yet I was hearing bleed the emotions to completion. Death is there talking about grief and this transforms us all. Ring has the mirrored magpie that is separated. Loss of loved one. The person that once filled the ring. A lost lover or family. Separation and sadness. The Seven of Pentacles, the unfulfilled harvest. That which has failed must be changed, Two of Pentacles. Letter was like the peace that comes after writing an epic three volume novel cycle. The Libra full moon speaks of eventual balance being won and restored. Four of Wands to complete the cycle is the only way to fix the cycle. An vast uncontrollable emotional bleed that lead me to Leech. The blood suckers that draw out blood and sickness. Loss and grief is indeed a sickness. Powerful stuff.

So onto today’s reading where we looked at the cards that came out to describe the circle with a line through it. What is the meaning of this rune? What does it represent in message and in sound? How do we hone in on the lost meanings. Here’s the video.

So the cards that came to capture the rune give an overview but they still need to percolate and form into a full and precise meaning and frequency.

If you’re not sure how to read Lenormand Cards here’s my simple guide to their meanings . This will help you to look at and understand what the messages might be inside the cards that have amassed around this runic symbol. I was going to give you my full solution now but spirit wants you all to think and comment below about what this rune is saying to you all. It’s more fun this way. I will of course update this page with my solution but you can stick with yours. Here’s also the extra rune that I posed at the end for you all to experiment with solving.

After 3 days of working for 12 hours each day I have cracked into these two symbols and added a third that connects to them. I must apologise for setting you the ‘fun’ task with possibly the hardest two runes I could have picked. Whoops. Why were they so difficult? Unbeknownst to me they were Time Runes!

Time Runes

You what? I know. So in the Gothic Rune revival in Sweden in the 16th Century the Younger Futhark was created and it had reduced the runes to just sixteen in number. This was all well and good apart from when it came to creating runic calendars as they are based on the Metonic moon cycle series that looks at patterns of 19 years. With only 16 runes the Golden Runes were needed to express years 17, 18 & 19. Here’s where this got a little mind bending. Rune 18 was 12 frequency! I was getting stressed between the research and the channelling. Yes these three golden runes were added to display time, yet true time is fluid. 12 frequency is a concept of rigidity and static, fixed energies. I dug and delved deeper until some clarity began to emerge. They are more than simply time runes they are time tunnels of undetermined length that is fluid to the pathway of the individual who is inside their energies. I will let the video explain the layers and the frequencies.

So we have Twelve – Static, Flewsa – Flow and Cnafa – Knave. They cover not just the differing cycles of years of twelve or thirteen moons but also the Rites of Passage from child to adult and along with Golden Rune 17, Læće – Leech or Emotional Bleed they also speak of blood letting in the historic sense of Sacrifice and menstrual cycles. Very deep, old and important markers of time in a person’s life cycle over a thousand years ago.

So here’s a new rune for you all to dig into. Gut instincts are an excellent place to start but the messages will be much deeper and more layered so spend time with the symbol and research the feelings and energies that arise.

I need to point out that Sigel – Sol 16 is an established Rune of the Elder Futhark. Næht is one of the missing runes I have dug up but I do not know that this is the true meaning yet of the card is was just an instant gut feeling that might turn out to be wrong. The middle rune is the one I want you all to work with. Please take your time. I promise not to channel or investigate this one for the time being to allow you all time to explore these as a set of three. I do have an instinct but I’m certain that its not going to be the case as in Old English every night had a different name all of its own so even Næht may be way off the mark. Fun people.

Decks

Sacred Spirit Reading Cards & Sacred Power Cards (combined as one deck) By Anna Stark & illustrated by Louis Dyer

Moonology Oracle Cards by Jasmine Boland 

Mystical Lenormand by Regula Elizabeth Fiechter

Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley & Freida Harris

Odin & the Nine Realms Oracle by Sonja Grace