book of spells

Making your own runes

2. Set aside a sacred space in whatever way you feel comfortable; ideally in the workshop area of your harrow (altar). It is highly appropriate to do the Hammarsettning, or Hammer Ritual in the cardinal four directions as well as Above, Below and Center.

3. Invite into your space the Gods and Goddesses of the runes: Odin, Balder, Freya and Freyr, the Norns, etcetera. If you have a particular affinity for any one God/dess, invite that Deity also to witness and lend their energies to the proceedings. Invite also your lineal ancestors, especially those who worked magick in their own lives, your power animal allies, local land spirits or any other wights you may wish to have present. Pour a tot of milk, apple juice or wine in offering to the Gods and ask them to guide your hands and lend you their powers in the work you are to do.

4. Place your cut disks or tablets on the workbench or other safe space, with the Fehu disk in a clamp. Lay a white cloth napkin or other clean white cloth in front of your workspace to place the finished runes on.

5. Draw the sign of the hammer over the disk to sain it and placing your lips close enough to vibrate the wood, "galdor " the rune (intone the rune sound) strongly into the disk while holding a strong visualization of the one thing that means "Fehu" to you. This could be one of the traditional meanings, such as "money" or "cattle" or something that is extremely intimate and personal only to you. Whatever it is, hold the visualization strongly and begin to carve, Dremel or burn the rune into the wood.

6. When you are finished with the first rune, take it out of the clamp, put it on the white cloth in front of your workspace and clamp the second rune in. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have all twenty-four Runes done. Ideally, you should try to do this all in one session. If this is impossible, do three separate workings, each encompassing one of the three ttir (rows of eight Runes) until you are done.

7. When you have all of the Runes done, assemble them in order on the white cloth. Fix your gaze intently upon each one in turn, again galdoring intensely the vibration of each Rune into the wooden disks. When you have galdored the last rune, galdor the Ansuz-Laguz-Uruz formula "Ahhhluuu!" (meaning "It is sealed"/"So mote it be") over the rune set.

8. Ground the sacred space (and yourself), thank the Gods, and dismiss any minor wights you might have called.

This is a ritual which takes place in two parts. In the first part, you are erecting sacred space for blooding or painting the rune staves. After a period of time waiting for them to dry, you will come into sacred space again to seal and do the final consecration of the runes.

1. Again, set aside sacred space in whatever way you feel comfortable using the Hammarsettning to stain and seal the space.

2. Invite into your space the Gods and Goddesses of the Runes, your lineal ancestors and any other wights you may wish to have present. Dedicate the space and the time to the consecration of your rune set. Lay your runes on a cloth that you don't mind getting soiled with your own blood or ink. (This cloth will later be ritually burned) Pour a tot of milk, apple juice or wine in offering to the Gods and ask them to lend you their powers of purification for the consecration to follow.

3. Wash your runes lightly in clean, consecrated water. The Icelandic spring water or Glacier water that is currently on the market is perfect for this application. The purer, the better. Don't soak them as you want them to absorb the pain or blood later in the process. Light a recel or smudging blend made of purifying herbs like oakmoss, cedar, Thor's beard (house leek), vervain, clary sage and perhaps a smidgen of amber perfume resin. (Refer to the "Nine Worts Galdor" in the Lacnunga for ritually appropriate herbs.) Dedicate the recel to the Purifying forces and pass each rune through the smoke, saying a formula like "By Oak and Sage, by Fire, Water, Air and Earth, in the name of Odin, purified be this Rune, clear be its purpose and great be its Power. Ahhhluuu! " Then intone the name of each Rune and blow the vibrations into the disk. Repeat with all twenty-four runes and return them to the cloth.