Recently, I did a conjuration of Bune, using the method laid out in Strategic Sorcery by Jason Miller. As part of a deal made in that conjuration, I am broadcasting the name of the Bune far and wide, and just how awesome he was. He fulfilled my desires with no problems, and brought me the finances I requested. If you are looking to conjure a spirit and need help with monetary issues, you should go and conjure up Bune.
The element of air is not very apparent in the natal cosmology that the runes sprang from. It is just kind of there, and everything that inhabits it comes about later. For that reason, there is very little clear relation to the element of air in the runes, although using some investigation it is possible to make connections between some of them.
In various books about runes, you will find some of the following runes listed as connected to the element of air. They are:
Os/Ansuz, Raidho, Gebo, Eohlx/Algiz/Elhaz, Tiewaz, Mannaz and Yr
Some of these are related esoteric symbolism (like Eohlx which quite a few relate to Valkyries, which fly about in the air, or Mannaz which has connections to the mind and thus the mind/intellect/air connection). Others are directly related like Os/Ansuz which is about the mouth, and thus the movement of breath through the human body. Tiewaz could also fall in this category as it’s rune poem reference both mists of night but also the means to be guided through them, IE the stars in the heaven.
For myself, I have a slight longer list of runes, based on a greater perception of what makes up interaction and relationship with air and both it’s physical and esoteric qualities.
Here is my own list.
Thurisaz, Os, Raidho, Wunjo, Nauthiz, Jera, Iehwaz, Eohlx Tiewaz, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Dagaz, Aesc
I attribute Thurisaz because of the associations it has with violence and misfortune, but also with power. It is a fickle rune, and so Air is a fickle element. It is not always the gentle breeze, but sometimes the terrible storm and hurricane. It can be the breath of life, or the poisonous gas that takes life away.
Os is given because it is the mouth, and the words that come from it, bringing wisdom or folly. It also connects to breath, and to song.
Raidho is given because it is the traveling and wandering nature, always moving, always restless. In most forms of travel is is always good to have the wind at your back.
Wunjo mainly because of the sound of the name. It just sounds windy and airy. I can also see an symbolism in the comforts, the joy, the deep breath of calm and relaxation in prosperity and ease.
Nauthiz I give for reasons similar to Thurisaz. The challenges and obstacles of need are often symbolized by the power of air and it’s challenges, but also the method of resolving them lies in the preparation by planning and mindfulness, which can help to overcome them
Jera I establish because of the rune poem mentions the King of Heaven. While it could be a reference to Christianity. The idea of harvest, season and summer and the warm air and light that fills it as blessings from Heaven and thus being communicated through the air. This also just adds to the complexity of this rune.
Iehwaz, the yew tree, is another one of those mysterious and complex runes. While I don’t give all the trees mentioned in the runes to Air, there is a connection I feel that comes from the high reaching branches of trees to reach up. Yew also being identified as one of the trees of Yggdrasil, which reaches from the underworlds up into the heavenly realms.
Eohlx I also give as an air rune because of it’s potentially violent power, as the rune poem mentions the elk grass as being able to cut people who handle it roughly. Air also lends itself to protective magic that is more aligned with the watchful guarding nature of Eohlx
Tiewaz I give for the reasons already given above. Stars, mists, and the wisdom and guidance that Tiewaz imparts
Ehwaz is the other side of the moving runes. Instead of the wandering nature of Raidho, Ehwaz is the fast paced speed of movement. It is more direct and blunt then Raidho, because it channels everything into the direction it is moving to get there quickly. It also has symbolism to loyalty and trust, what I see as the ideals of air.
Mannaz as the rune of the mind, and also of friendship and connection based upon the rune poem. It also has the tragic element of the absolute end of all connections, death, which I see as the ability of the mind to contemplate all things and thus be prepared to deal with all events.
Dagaz as the rune of Day, while it is strongly a rune of light, it is also the medium which light passes through, namely air and the bright airs of daytime which serves to inspire hope and happiness.
Aesc the ash tree, another world tree, but this one I associate with the upper worlds. The ash grows high, and the particular powers of this rune seem to be about inspiration and enthusiasm, the descending powers of the gods as they flow into us, bringing prophecy, insight and perhaps madness. It is a rune that connects to the Divine Mind, the Nous or Wod, and be filled with divine possession.
As I indicated before, Air is one of those invisible elements in the northern cosmology. It is always present and yet never really talked about or focused on. Only in it’s particular manifestations as winds or breath, mists or odors does it make itself known. Finding runes of air is a challenge, as it requires interpreting symbolism and meaning and application in many ways of what air can symbolize, how it flows and acts, and it’s deeper esoteric possibilities.
An interesting little tidbit shared with me from a friend
Fire elemental power can be seen in different ways, which include and exclude various runes depending upon the way it is perceived. In some of the earlier works about runes, the following runes were given the qualities of fire:
Feoh (primal fire), thurisaz (destructive fire), kenaz (helpful and illuminating fire), nauthiz (needfire), sowelo (sun), dagaz(daylight)
Another method of looking for the qualities of fire is by referencing the various rune poems, for example, in the Anglo-Saxon rune poems the following runes mention fire or flame or flame producing items
Kenaz, (the torch) Eihwaz (a guardian of flame) and qweorth (the fire twirl)
These two are the most common methods by most people of connecting with fire through the runes. After spending some time in contemplationg on this, I came to a third conclusion. The runes of fire by quality. In this case, it has to do with the qualities of fire. Things like radiance, heat, light, will, passion, destruction, are all qualities of fire, qualities which are also reflected in a multitude of runes. Some of these qualities might be more relevant to specific acts of magic, seeking the illuminating quality of fire instead the heating expression might be more useful in a spell to reveal things.
Kenaz – the fire of illumination, passion, inspiration, knowledge
Hagalaz – destructive fire
Sowelo – Fire of radiance, light, warmth, success, victory
Eihwaz – protective fire
Ehwaz – speed, action, impulse
Dagaz – renewing transforming fire
Tiewaz – starlight, heavenly fire, guiding light
Qweorth – sacred fire, holy fire, essential fire
You could also create a bindrune that combines these elements into one sigil of elemental fire that could serve as a key and gateway to connect with the power of fire through the runes, and maybe also be the sigil that is an elemental fire ally that could help you to channel, connect and work with the power of fire.
The 4 (+1) elements play a very significant role in most of Western esoteric traditions and their magical experiments. Tools, directions, colors, values, correspondences are almost ubiquitous for all the elements and the numerous lists of that which goes with this, and this aligns with that. It seems almost de rigueur that people would try to make elements correspond with the runes. Much like any other system, there are also an equal number of lists which gives what elemental value to what rune (or aettir, or grouping etc…) and you could probably exhaust yourself trying to fit them all together or make them all align. Some authors have even created their own elements using the creation myths of the Norse, so you get elements like ice, venom and salt. In the end, it doesn’t seem like any of them really fit the bill for how the classic elements of earth, water, air, fire, and aether/spirit/azoth/ond really fit together with the runes. I just don’t see it being as simple as lagu equals water and kenaz equals fire and then you are left to ponder what wunjo might be or hagalaz or aethel because they don’t have a clear elemental association.
My answer to this dilemma is that the runes are not elemental in nature. They arise from that strict division. Some of them do embrace an elemental resonance, but their true nature is above that. If they are strongly aligned with any element, it would be aether/ond; the clear light of being that is beyond duality but in all dualities. That being indicated, I think all the runes can have an expression in each element. You can have the fire of kenaz, but there is also the air of kenaz, the water of kenaz and the earth of kenaz. It also applies to other runes as well. The earth of feoh, the water of sowelo, the fire of tiewaz are all areas that can be played in, played with and worked with to bring about results.
It is interesting to look at what elements get mentioned in the rune poems and to explore those runes with the strong elemental associations though. It can help to make an idea clear or how to best perform a working using those runes and what other symbolic elements need to be included.
I am going to spend the next couple entries contemplating elements and runes. Looking at the clear runic-elemental correspondences, but also exploring the not so clear ones where perhaps some runes might overlap in certain elemental affinity.
http://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0?t=22s
Maybe viewers in the USA maybe familiar with this video. It was commonly shown in many science classes in various high schools, probably across the country. I know I have seen it more then a few times. The purpose of this video is to help give a conceptual sense of how microscopic and how macrocosmic the physical universe is. At either end of those two extremes is a void.
However, the main purpose of this video is more the concepts of scale, and applying that to ones magical and spiritual work. It seems kind of mind-blowing, but so far I have found it to be incredibly effective and also very sublime.
It is mostly a visualization, but one that can be included in any ritual or spell or technique. The main areas that I have experimented directly with is healing. Visualzing a healing symbol imprinting itself onto the very atoms of a being, then the molecules, then the DNA chains, then the cells, the tissues, up to the level of regular experience. Each symbol is sending healing energy, with each level there being trillions, billions, millions of symbols repeated again and again on each level until there is the one symbol existing at every day existence. I found at least that it seemed to help speed recovery.
From the opposite end, you can continue to send energy, concept, a vibration until it fills all the space around you, your home, your block, your neighborhood, your city, county, metro area, region, country, continent, hemisphere, world, solar system, galaxy until all space is filled with light, or love, or peace, etc… You could just as easily focus on more challenging concepts like entropy or death, and perhaps tie that into dark matter and black holes, but touching on galactic concepts can be a major mind trip and a brush with enlightenment.
You could pair the concepts with the Underworld, perhaps a sacred quantum chthonic realm, or a holy galactic celestial world, and bring their energies down into. The roots of the Tree and it’s branches can far out reach the physical touch of men, but the conceptual can move to it’s very tips. Bringing both down into the mid-realm, the world of form and substance can bring on a heady rush of enlightment, but also give energies that can be effectively channeled for any number of purposes.
I am sorry if this seems a little vague or unclear, but it’s a concept I am playing with in my personal work and contemplation.
Ok ok, I get it. I haven’t posted in a while. At first I was severely lacking for inspiration, then I was sick, and now I am just being lazy and creatively blocked since I just don’t know where to begin. I have been posting occasionally over at Hoodoo Crossroads, on topics related to the practice and application of Conjure, but things here have been, well, quiet. This heat wave hitting the Greater Los Angeles area just isn’t helping right now either, as it makes it too hot for me to think, or at least I feel that way.
Then there is also the work side of it. Having something to write about, because I am doing something, and I have been, it is just the process of coming to a better understanding to where I can express it clearly in words. No, it’s not a deep mystical experience but, as with all kinds of spiritual work, walking it and talking it isn’t always easy.
Definition of psychic
1: of or relating to the psyche
2: lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge : immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3: sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences : marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding
Definition of psyche
[Greek psychē]
a : soul, personality
b : mind 2
Origin of psyche
Latin, from Greek psychē soul
-From Merriam-Webster
For a long time, I have avoided the word psychic. It was a word that I felt never applied to me, mainly because I don’t see dead people, I don’t read minds, and I don’t know the whole of a person before I even talk to them. But I do have gifts, gifts that do make me sensitive to extraordinary or spiritual forces. It is from those gifts that I sought out to magic and to study all its forms, and I am on the spiritual and magical path that I am on.
Lately, I have been pondering what it means to be psychic. This is a term that I see often, usually in relation to being a reader, ie “a psychic reader”. The popular connotation seems to be one where people have great expectations of someone who claims to be psychic. Readings a persons mind, knowing almost everything about them, and vivid exacting predictions of the future are the most well known examples of what people expect from a psychic, at least if they have never been to one. Of course, all of this is suppose to happen the instant the client walks into the room and sits down to the table where the psychic reader is plying their craft. As many ads for readers indicate, there is a slight promotion of these traits, at least to attract clients, from regular ones to one-timer who come out of curiosity or desperation.
Looking at the definitions of psychic, and the words it is derived from, the potential of being psychic is a completely different thing. At least by one meaning, psychic and magic could almost be exchangeable words, as they both are nouns relating to phenomena that lies outside the sphere of physical science and knowledge. As an adjective, psychic can take many forms. Sensitivity to nonphysical or supernatural influence, or an extraordinary sensitivity can relate to many things. It isn’t always about being able to read minds, see the future, or knowing information without physical access. Sometimes it can just be an innate sense to danger, or a sense of what action to take, either to insure success or just have a fortunate day. That same sensitivity could relate to the root word of psychic, the word psyche. As psyche means soul, personality, or mind, a psychic person could just as well be someone whose soul, personality or mind is perhaps one of their stronger qualities. That greater talent in psyche might cause one to seem to be the other kind of psychic. As the strength of your soul, mind, or personality, gives one the ability to perceive with extraordinary sensitivity, or to originate things from a non-physical source.
At least by that meaning, almost everyone is “psychic” as many people seem to tap into moments where they are aware of, or connected to influences that come from a nonphysical source. It is those who are gifted with connections above and beyond the infrequent and mild sensitivity that some people feel that are more renowned, and sometimes more haunted by their gifts. I have met a few people who have told me of childhoods lived in fear, from going out in public where the thought of every person they encounter is made clear to them, from happy people, to scary thoughts of neighbors. Another who has difficulty sleeping throught the night because it seems every ghost (and I mean by that a spirit of a deceased human) comes visiting them, drawing attention to itself for some unknown reason. Many of these people just want a normal life, and so they never develop those gifts, but their gifts never decrease either, except through numbing the senses, often through alcohol, drugs, or other additive and destructive behaviors.
Of course, forever every one person haunted by psychic gifts, it often seems that there are more with very slight gifts who are trying to develop and improve them. I can’t say I have ever met someone who managed to work their slight gift into great gift, but I have seen plenty of people make the best of their slight gift, and turn into something useful and practical, which served them well, and helped make their lives better. I think, that is of course, one of the great keys to being a really great psychic, as within any talent, gift or interest. It can only improve with practice and application. Much in the same way that Einstein wasn’t a genius, but yet he revolutionized the science of physics, and how people understand the world through physics, so can a person with average gifts, become a great and recognized psychic, reader or spiritual worker.
Hail Rune Wights of the Nine Worlds, Hail to the Hidden Runes, Interpreted signs, the many symbols of Might and Power, by great singer painted, by the high powers fashioned, graved by the utterer of Gods, Hail cosmic runes, bright runes, Holy runes, Hail Luck staves, Wyrd staves, Spell staves, Hail Mind runes, Hail Dream staves, Hail Speech runes and Song runes, Hail Joy Runes and Victory Runes, Hail Wealth Runes, Hail Thief Staves, Hail Birth runes, Blood runes, and limb runes, Hail Health staves, Hail Sea runes, Earth Runes, Fire Runes, Sky Runes, Hail Wind staves, Water staves, Rock staves, Flame staves, Hail Death Runes, Black runes, Hel Runes, and Conflict Runes, Hail Murk staves, Deception staves, and Evil staves, Great Rune Wights, Your weal I win, your boon I obey, your good I happily gain, Hail to the speaker, the knower, the listener, Use what you have learned
copyright Br. Christopher 2010
RUNEWORKER 