WATER RUNES

By Lady Vala Runesinger

(adapted from an article published in Circle Magazine, 1998)

            Runes are an excellent oracle to include in a Moon Boon or ceremonies that include divination or spell casting. However, some people experience discomfort while handling them or have difficulty choosing. One way to make them more accessible is to place a set of runes in a bowl of water. The set should be made of fired clay or stone. Wooden or painted glyph sets cannot be used. The ceramic set included with the Ralph Blum book works well (retails around $30).

            Glass or ceramic bowls are preferable to metal. A potter or glass blower can create a bowl exclusively for this purpose, or use a beautiful china bowl found at a garage sale. Clean and rinse the bowl with cleansing salts before using it for your runes.

            When the bowl is clean, mix cleansing salts in warm water in the bowl, put the runes in the bowl and swirl them around. Drain the water from the bowl, and refill it with fresh warm water – putting your hands in cold water can be unpleasant! Add a few drops of divination oil or an essential oil blend to the water to increase the psychic vibrations. Appropriate oil blends can include lotus, dittany of Crete, lavender, frankincense/myrrh, sandalwood, or amber oils. During the verdant seasons, sprinkle a few fresh rose petals, yarrow leaves, or rosemary on the surface of the water. In addition to oil, fresh petals or herbs, various small stones can be added to the bowl: quartz crystal, rose quartz, bloodstone, carnelian, malachite, florite, obsidian, etc. It is significant when a stone accompanies the drawn runes. The reading is amplified and modified by a stone's particular energy.

            The seeker should prepare mentally for the reading by taking a few deep breaths and relaxing. It is important to try to eliminate random mental “noise” before working with runes. Runes don’t always obey laws of gravity, time, and space, and sometimes they’re more like Mexican jumping beans. Although the seeker can concentrate on a single question, best results seem to come when the seeker approaches the runes in a state of questioning emptiness. So before drawing the runes, visualize a sunset over a lake or ocean. This corresponds with the element of water, and helps to calm the mind and cultivate the necessary openness to rune energies.

            Water is the element of the unconscious mind, and reaching into a bowl filled with water is like reaching into the mind’s subconscious. The rune symbols hidden in the depths of the bowl are like thoughts or knowledge hidden deep within the mind.

Working with the Rune Oracle

            Once the seeker has prepared for the reading, he or she places the left hand in the bowl to gently swirl through the runes. An easy reading consists of three runes pulled from the water - past, present, future. A second method is to swish the mix of runes and stones, grab about five, and cast them like dice onto a padded surface. Take note of the runes that fall right side up, and the runes that fall face down. Read the upright runes first, and then turn over the others. The face-down runes indicate influences or events that are unknown to the seeker at the moment of the reading. The orientation of the runes’ glyphs and stone energies will blend into an interesting picture. Runes that are cast tell more than runes that are carefully placed in a spread. The more random the cast, the better.

            For a more detailed inquiry, turn all of the runes face down in the bowl. With eyes closed, swirl the hand in a circular motion through the bowl, and study whatever has been turned up within the circle as a whole. Orient to the compass, and determine which quarters the glyphs occupy. Runes are energy patterns, and are drawn to certain directions in a liquid medium. A very thorough view of the big picture is possible using this method. Again, the actual placement of the rune's direction is important - up, down, or side-ways. If it is side-ways, does it point to the left or right? Also note if a sideways rune is one of the few rune symbols that doesn’t have an upright position. The right side is conscious and solar; the left subconscious and lunar. Runes at the top of the bowl (the furthest away from the seeker) are exterior forces; at the bottom interior forces.

            Runes should be bathed at each Full Moon with cleansing salts. This is particularly critical if the runes are used often, as salt cleansings effectively remove the “aura cooties” from them! Be ready - freshly washed runes are more vivacious, and working with runes in water allows them more scope for their gravitational law-breaking. A leaping rune represents a critical force at work. To dramatically charge and empower a set of runes, or to bless a new set, place a crystal ball in the rune bowl and allow them to absorb the light of a Full Moon.

            Because water rune techniques require a cast, it’s important to make sure that they will land on a safe surface. It’s fairly easy to create a nice quilted rune pad ornamented with a little embroidery or finished with a fringed edge, and using velvet or other luscious fabrics increases the tactile experience. When finishing the reading, let the runes dry on a towel before returning them to their pouch.

            Water is a perfect medium for the transmission of visions and messages from the subconscious. Nostradamus used a bowl of water with oil on the surface to magnify his astrologically-based predictions in "Centuries." Runes are incredibly ancient, emerging from lands molded by rain, fog, snow and ice. The bowl creates a form for the water and oil to inhabit. Watery runic messages invoke a more pure understanding of the form and structure of life, for this particular technique is a deliberate act of reaching through the water directly into the mind’s depths. The symbolic joining of these forces is a powerful blending of all the elements: bowl & herbs - earth; scented oils - air; runes - fire; and water uniting them all. Water intensifies the sense of touch that is an integral part of the runic oracle, and it changes the way earthly forces, like gravity and magnetic vibrations, affect the voices within the stones. The properties of reflection and refraction inherent in water enhance the volume and tone.

            So Mote It Be - Blessed Be.