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Thank You

I’d just like to take a minute and thank those who have emailed me lately. I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback about the site and the information. I only wish I had the time to update this site and finally get some new information online for everyone. However, I just don’t have the time. Hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to finally launch the online rune casts.

News: 2011-01-19 Banned!

I’ve been getting a lot of ‘comments’ on pages/posts that are obviously spam so I’ve been starting to ban IP addresses. Hopefully, this won’t stop anyone with a real interest in this site from visiting.

News: 2010-12-22 Casting Record Sheets

I just noticed that for the Grid of Nine casting record sheet I had listed the Microsoft Word file and not the PDF. Sorry about that. I’ve made the change now so you can grab the PDF and not the Word file.

News: 2010-10-19 Socializing

I’ve added a few methods to help get this site noticed. On single article pages you should now see a way to “Like” the article on Facebook as well as a method for sharing the articles on various sites. In the footer of the site I’ve put the RSS Feed icon as well as a quick link to add the site feed to Google Reader. Enjoy.

News: 2010-10-07 All done!

I’m happy to report that all of the articles from the old website is now online at The Rune Site! While there’s still a few things to polish up on the old articles it’s nice to have that workload off my shoulders so I can concentrate on new material.

Improve Your Casts Through Meditation – Page 4

Improving Mental Visualization

A great way to improve your mental visualization is to use a nice relaxing nature setting to picture. Make sure this is something that will be relaxing to you. If you enjoy trees and grassy fields try to imagine your favorite park or place in the woods. If you enjoy water or snow try to focus and think about being on or near a lake or even walking across a snow-covered field. Nature is a good place to start with when mentally picturing a place during meditation because it can deal with all your senses. The sun warming your skin, the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, the smell of the grass and flowers, and the taste of cool water as you drink from a stream, all the time you visualize everything around you.

This can be a difficult task however since the details out in nature are so great. You want to start out with something “simple” like maybe just being in a grassy field with no trees, water, or clouds in the sky. As you get better at the small details start adding more to your mental picture and soon you’ll feel like you were really outside.

How Meditation Can Help in Readings

Once you’re able to project yourself into this mental realm you’ll find that even when you’re not meditating you’re senses become more aware. By opening up your physical senses in the “everyday world” you’re really exercising and training your mind to see things in a different way. You become more in tune with the surrounding world allowing you to pick up on smaller details that can and will help you to read the runes better. When you sit down with someone to do a rune reading you’ll notice that you’ll be able to “read” them better and can tell what areas in their life may be affecting other areas which is turn will come to play in their future.

For example let’s say that you have a friend who’s a job interview in a few days. Now you’ve known this person all your life and you’re quite aware that they are not the most comfortable person in the world in an interview (then again who is, right?). The job they are up for is one in management and you know they’d be perfect for it. However, management means dealing with people so in the interview your friend is going to need to show that s/he can deal with people well. In a bad interview, one where the person is nervous and has trouble talking comfortably, this could cost your friend the job. So they’ve come to you for a rune reading to see what might be in store for them. Let’s say that you’ve done a reading where Uruz is the most important rune showing and the rest of the runes only strengthen it. Uruz is a rune of power but a power that we cannot control. In a reading it also can mean success is near. Normally you would be able to simply tell your friend that success is near but it may come with a power that you will not be able to control. You wouldn’t be sure if the power s/he can’t control comes before or after the success. Through meditation you would be able to get a sense of your friend’s attitude about the job s/he is up for. If they feel like they are in control then it’s most likely that the power without control will come with the job and not the loss of power control during the interview.

Conclusion

Like getting started with simple rune reading all this takes practice and time. Once you get the hang of meditation and how to use it with your readings you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. If at first you’re not getting the hang of it, don’t give up or get frustrated. I’ve been doing it for a few years now and I’m still seeing myself get better each time I do it. The important thing to remember is that it’s not a life or death situation, you don’t need to become perfect overnight. If you did, that would be great, but you wouldn’t have went through the process and been able to tell just how far you’ve come.

This article spans multiple pages. Use links below to read more.

Improve Your Casts Through Meditation – Page 3

Concentration and Thought

Now it’s time to start meditating. You’ve found your comfortable position, you’ve decided if you’ll use music, water, other sounds, or no sound at all. What’s the next step? Concentration and thought. This is the part where you attempt to clear your mind of all your stressful thoughts and worries and start to relax. The first thing that you’ll need to do is pick something that you’ll want to think about. If you don’t have an active imagination or aren’t good at mentally picturing things you may want to start out with something simple like a small red ball. Try to see the ball in your mind floating in the blackness. You don’t need to start off seeing the whole orb right away, if you need to start by trying to picture a small flat red disc, and then as you get better at that try to turn that disc into an orb. See the shading around the side of the ball, imagine it as if it were something physically there so real you could almost reach out and touch it.

Once you’ve mastered seeing the small red ball move onto something a little more complex and try that. Maybe try to imagine a six-sided dice cube with all the numbers (well little dots anyway) on it. Once you can do that, try to rotate that in your mind making it as real as possible. If you get good enough at this you’ll soon see that creating various objects in your mind isn’t difficult and you may be ready to move on.

You’ve mastered seeing an object in your mind and you’re ready for the next step, scent. Picture an apple pie, or freshly baked bread floating there in your mind. Since you’re nearly an expert at visualizing images make it as realistic as possible. Now try to imagine what that item smells like. It may be helpful at this stage to use scented candles that are suppose to smell like the object you are trying to picture. If you do use candles for this make sure that each time you do this you move the candle further and further away from you. Then after a while attempt it without the candle. By moving the candle away you’re picking up less and less of the scent and allowing your mind to “fill in the scent” more and more.

All right you’ve mastered sight and scent, now it’s time to try taste, touch and feeling. You can keep using the image of the pie or the bread for this because they both have texture as well as taste. Also if you imagined them coming right out of the over you can play around with the sensation of temperature. The technique is pretty much the same as always, get the mental image in your mind, attempt to smell the object’s scent and when you have that done, try to imagine what that object feels like and tastes. Is it warm or cold, are the edges soft or a bit rough, bitter or sweet? Pretend that the only way for you ever to be able to taste or feel this object again is with your mind. Or even better, yet a little more difficult, pretend that you have to describe this object to someone lacking any senses. Obviously you’re not saying the details out loud but thinking them. The greater and more in-depth the detail the easier you’ll be able to “taste” and “feel” the object.

The last sense you need to work on for meditation is hearing and it’s not as difficult as you might think. If you have any pets, especially noisy ones – obviously fish would not work here – you can use them for your mental image. It’s nice because you can probably already picture your pet in your mind without too much work. So get your mind going and picture your pet or if you don’t have a pet then just pick your favorite “noisy” animal. Imagine this animal with all the techniques mentioned above and then concentrate on what they sound like. Hear them calling out to you, purring, howling, grunting, and making calls to other animals out in the wild. If you’ve concentrated and used the previous mentioned techniques you should be able to “hear” them without much difficulty.

This article spans multiple pages. Use links below to read more.

Improve Your Casts Through Meditation – Page 2

Now you know how meditation can help you to become a better rune reader but you may still be wondering about some meditation techniques that can help. While I can’t tell you exactly what will work best for you I can only give you guides on what has worked for me. There are two hints that I can give you and those are to practice meditating as much as possible and to be patient. It will take some time and you will have keep at it, but once you become better at it you’ll notice it in the ease and clarity of your rune readings.

How to Begin with Meditation

Obviously the best place to start would be to at a bookstore. And I don’t mean taking a blanket with you to a store and meditating there. I mean to read through a few books on meditation techniques and methods. This way you’ll get some ideas on what’s involved in meditation and get help from people who are a lot more experienced in this area than I am. There are countless numbers of titles out there on this subject and that can be confusing, but to this day I still have not read a book that hasn’t helped me learn something new.

All right so you don’t have time to read a book that’s 150 pages long and you still want to start meditating. I understand, I’ve been there and what will follow is how I began teaching myself meditation. I should note here that my ways of doing things may be different from what you will find in a book, so if later you do decide to buy and read a book you may notice a great difference in techniques.

Music or No Music

I’m a person who is very easily distracted. When I first began, the slightest sound would cause my mind to wander and would break my concentration. It was because of that simple fact that I do not use music to meditate with. Some people I know find that the music helps them to relax and focus better. However when I started I noticed that my mind would still wander a little and that I did need something to concentrate on to get my mind “in the mood” (for the lack of a better term). I purchased a tabletop water fountain, complete with pump, for about $20 (US) at a store and gave that a try. To my amazement it worked perfectly. I love the sound of falling water and I found that it helped me to focus my mind; with the water it was easy for be to imagine in my mind that I was out in the woods near a small river with a waterfall.

Getting Comfortable

This step is one that cannot be overlooked. I can’t stress enough how important this step was in helping me to meditate better. When I first tried meditation I assumed, what I like to call, the “Buddha position.” You know the one where you sit on the floor, your legs crossed in a slightly awkward manner while your hands rest on your knees, palms facing upwards. I was so uncomfortable sitting in that position that I wasn’t able to concentrate for more than a few seconds before my back hurt, my legs hurt or I felt that I needed to move around a little. My first thought was that after time I would be able to sit in the “Buddha position” for hours if I only gave it enough time and practice. Four months later with me attempting to hold that position longer than the previous day I gave up. It just wasn’t working and I wasn’t able to meditate for longer than 5 minutes at most. I figured that I’d try laying flat on my back, arms at the side, legs slightly apart. I came to that conclusion after doing the “Buddha position” for a while and I just needed to rest my muscles. Within a few seconds I found that I was able to concentrate easier, I was a LOT more comfortable and that I had now found my meditation position.

The moral of that story? Don’t think that because you read in a book that you should meditate in a certain position that it’s the only right position. Try them out, see what’s comfortable for you and go with it. You’ll find that the position isn’t important in meditating it’s only important in getting you started.

This article spans multiple pages. Use links below to read more.

Improve Your Casts Through Meditation

If you’re a beginner to rune casting or even if you’ve had years of practice you may have at one time or another tried various techniques to improve your rune reading abilities. Some of those techniques may have worked and others, while you may have learned something new, may not have helped you in anyway. So what techniques can help you learn to read the runes better? What can you do, as a rune master, to get a more clear reading each time you sit down with your runes? One method, which works wonders for myself, is meditation.

Why does meditation work? Well there are various reasons. First off when you meditate you calm yourself, you become relaxed to a state where your mind is clear of other thoughts and worries allowing you to concentrate and focus on your reading. Secondly you place yourself into a state of mind that may be on a higher level, or as some would say you reach an altered state of mind. This does mean that you’re in a state of mind like some intoxicated jackass, but rather you’re in tune with a higher mental state, which can allow you to see things more clearly. Last but not least, meditation gives you discipline and control over not only your body but your thoughts as well. If you can control your mind and body you can learn to focus your thoughts without letting physical distractions bother you.

Now let’s focus a bit more closely on each of those reasons and see why they can make a difference.

A Calm You and a Relaxed State of Mind

As I said above the calm and relaxed state of mind allows you to clear your thought and can even minimize stress. The reason that this is important in rune reading is that you are trying to see things in a focused and direct way. You’re suppose to look at the runes, make sense out of them and then try to look to what will come. All this is not easy in itself, now add a mind full of worries and stress to that and you can understand how things can become clouded. Think about it. You come home from a long day at work or school and you have a million things on your mind. You sit down with your runes but the only thing on your mind is that history exam next week or how you need to get a report to your boss by 7:00 AM the next morning. You’re mind isn’t focused on the runes and you could end up readings things into the runes that are not there, all because of stress and a busy life.

Higher Level of Thought

First off all what is a higher level of thought? Very simply put it can be considered to be a level of concentration where you are completely focused on your task. There are various levels of consciousness, it is said, which you mind can reach. This higher the level of consciousness you obtain the more aware your mind becomes. You begin to become more sensitive of the happenings around you, even about the other events you may not be aware of on a lower level of consciousness. This can be a huge help to the rune master because it again not only focuses the mind but also allows you to “see” things you may not have been able to see before.

Control and Discipline Over Body and Thought

I’ve always tried to find a perfectly quiet spot to do my rune readings, and I’m sure you have too. I also assume that you, like myself, have never found a place that’s completely quite or even free of distractions, even physical ones. I remember a time a while back when I had just finished creating a new rune set and I was anxious to try it outside. I gathered everything I needed and headed out under a full moon. The only problem was that a light rain decided to join me that night and I found it very difficult to concentrate on the runes while the rain was slowly dripping down my face, arms and legs. This allowed my mind to drift and wander every time I could feel a drop of rain rolling over my body. However, since then, with the practice of meditation I’ve learned to control my thoughts in situations such as that and have also even been able to reach a state of mind where I don’t even feel physical distractions such as rain.

This article spans multiple pages. Use links below to read more.

Younger Futhork – Rune Meanings

The Younger Futhork consists of 16 runes and is a result of Scandinavian runic scholars shortening the Elder Futhark by 8 staves. This happened around the 7th and 8th centuries when others were expanding the Futhark to consist of 33 total runes.

When reducing the Elder Futhark to make the new Younger Futhork, only the less complex runes were kept and the more complex ones, like Dagaz and Gebo, were dropped. However, from this two somewhat different rune-rows were created, the Swedish-Norse and the Danish rune-rows. Since the two were so similar they are both classified as the Younger Futhork. It also should be noted that the order of runes had changed a little. We now see the order of the first eight runes to spell f-u-th-o-r-k and it is because of this that you will sometime see this rune set called the Younger Futhork (as I refer to it on this site).

Fé

Fé

Sound: “f”
Stands for: Cattle (or Money specifically gold)
Casting meaning: Like other similar runes of different sets, F̩ represents cattle and money Рa wealth. However it is slightly different because in this wealth we take into account actually monetary pieces such as gold. F̩ is not all good, however, for it warns us how unbalanced wealth can cause problems even between family members.


Ur

Ur

Sound: “u”, “o”, “y”, “w”
Stands for: Drizzle (or Slurry)
Casting meaning: This rune represents how some things can develop from nothingness. Like the fertile soil that can be created from volcanic ash which in turn with a slight amount of water and sunlight can spawn growth.


Thurs

Thurs

Sound: “th”, “dh”
Stands for: Giant
Casting meaning: Like the giant, Thurs contains a lot of power and strength. It was often used in bindrunes or magic staves to bring extra power to the staves or bindrune.


Óss

Óss

Sound: “o” as in “oh”
Stands for: God and also Mouth
Casting meaning: This rune represents the power of communication, oral bonds, and the commanding force of word and song.


Raeidh

Raeidh

Sound: “r”
Stands for: Riding (as well as the means – Horse, Cart, etc.)
Casting meaning: Since this rune stands for the act of riding its symbolic meaning is one of a journey. A trip or adventure that we must undertake in order to further ourselves down a path we have set out on.


Kaun

Kaun

Sound: “k”, “g”
Stands for: Wound (or Sore or Ulcer)
Casting meaning: Although this rune stands for a wound we must understand that it is through the suffering of such a wound that we gain new insight. This rune represents just that, the new insight that we gain from an illness or wound.


Hagall

Hagall

Sound: “h”
Stands for: Hail
Casting meaning: Just like hail will eventually transform into water we need to see that situations in our lives will do just the same. They will make a transformation from something restricting to something that flows more readily for us. This is what Hagall represents, a transformation of a situation into something more simple.


Naudhr

Naudhr

Sound: “n”
Stands for: Need (or Distress)
Casting meaning: The rune Naudhr represents not only need but the bondage we may fall into if we let the need of something overtake our lives.


Is

Is

Sound: “i”, “e”, “j” as in the “y” in “year”
Stands for: Ice
Casting meaning: Ice is unchanging and restricting and like ice this rune embodies the resistant power that tries to prevent change.


Ar

Ar

Sound: “a” as in “ah”
Stands for: A good year
Casting meaning: Ar is a rune of good results that come from the application of using our skills and knowledge at the proper time. Like the lush crops of a fall harvest resulting from the fertile soil and well timed planting season.


Sól

Sól

Sound: “s”
Stands for: Sól – the Goddess of the Sun
Casting meaning: This rune stands for the Sun Goddess called Sól in Scandinavia and Barbet in Germany and the Netherlands. It is a rune that signifies directed action under spiritual control.


Tyr

Tyr

Sound: “t”, “d”, “nt”, “nd”
Stands for: Tyr – A Scandinavian God
Casting meaning: In the world of the cosmos this rune represents orderliness. In the physical world this rune signifies law and order.


Bjarkan

Bjarkan

Sound: “b”, “p”, “v”, “mb”, “mp”
Stands for: Birch Twig
Casting meaning: The birch twig represents rebirth and purification as does the rune Bjarkan. It is also a woman’s rune symbolizing gestation and birth.


Madhr

Madhr

Sound: “m”
Stands for: Man (as in human, not gender)
Casting meaning: This rune stands not only for humankind but also represents the mythical “first man,” Mannus (or Mannaz). Since it represents humankind it symbolizes the continuity of the family and clan.


Logr

Logr

Sound: “l”
Stands for: Power of water
Casting meaning: Unlike other “water runes” this rune concentrates on the power of water – waterfalls, ocean wave, flowing rivers. It is a purification or washing away of unwanted or unneeded thing, a way to cleanse oneself.


Yr

Yr

Sound: “z”, “r”
Stands for: Bow made from a Yew Tree
Casting meaning: This rune has the same meaning as the Anglo-Saxon rune Yr. It is the entrance to the underworld and in this form is a death rune.