Elhaz Ablaze

It seemed inevitable that I would put up a post here on doing rune readings. It’s such a stock piece of Heathen subject matter, but I feel that my approach is sufficiently odd to be worth documenting.

The way I do rune readings is significantly influenced by the work of a good friend and professional reader, Kerstin Fehn – even though our styles are actually very different.

Incidentally, Kerstin does “remote” readings as well as in-person, so wherever in the world you are you can take advantage of her services and I strongly recommend that you do.

I can heartily say that she is the absolute master of this stuff, and certainly is far beyond anything I can do as a reader. Her vision and insight is deeply inspiring – and deeply scary at times because she gets right to the heart of things.

Ok, having said that, what is so particular about my approach to rune readings? Well the answer is simple: unlike Kerstin, I am about as psychic as a brick. That makes doing rune readings rather tricky and I’ve had to evolve my own method of doing them because insights and intuitions seem to love avoiding me.

As such my approach might be useful for those of you who, like me, don’t get any message at all from staring at a few arcane characters scratched onto bone or wood.

There are two basic elements to my approach as a rune reader: 1) I work in a client-centred way; and 2) I rely heavily on the rune poems and other lore.

What do I mean by client-centred? In psychotherapy the client-centred approach assumes that human beings are filled with potential and creativity; therefore the therapist’s job is to assist them in accessing their own powers to solve their problems.

This philosophy stands in contrast to the unfortunately still-prevalent model of being the “all-knowing expert” telling the client what to do (and in the process stripping them of their own creativity, initiative and agency, as well not efficiently drawing on the resources the client already has at their disposal).

In my work as a psychotherapist I have learned again and again that this philosophy is true, although sometimes it takes a bit of proactivity on the therapist’s part to help create a fertile environment for the client’s resources to manifest themselves.

Therefore when I do a reading I am trying to use the runes to help my client access their own channel to wisdom. I keep my ideas and interpretations in check and try very hard to fit in with the client’s own ways of understanding things. I want to keep out of the way so that they can have as direct an experience of the runes as possible.

When I do a reading I first give the client my runes in the bag. I invite them to let their thoughts and feelings flow into the runes while we discuss the topic of the reading. I will spend up to 15 minutes just talking about the topic, teasing out important themes and trying to get a sense of what the client’s concerns are.

Some readers can just psychically pick all that up, but I can’t, so I have to talk it out. Luckily talking it out can really help the client refine their question(s), and help them clarify what they think they know, what they need to know, and what they actually need to find out.

My approach to this discussion is to ask many questions, be as curious as possible, and occasionally pause to reflect or sum up what has been said so that we can keep a clear sense of the themes at stake.

I make no bones that my training as a therapist influences this part of the reading, although I was doing this sort of thing before I became a therapist, so there you go!

The other reason behind starting things this way is that it emphasises the collaborative nature of the reading. I want my client to take an active role in the reading, rather than be passive and disempowered as I, the runic pundit, tell them how it is.

By starting with a conversation like this I can establish for the client an experience of how they can get the most from their reading. Hopefully the experience will also help them become more confident with magic and runes (if they aren’t already) so that they can develop their own magical and spiritual practices further.

Once we have established very strongly what the reading is to be about, I invite the client to throw the runes – all of them. I don’t use preset lay outs or other such innovations, I prefer to let total chaos (or wyrd) reign. So down go the runes, scattered wildly on the table or ground.

Some of the runes will land face up and some face down. Sometimes I only read the ones face up; sometimes I read the face up ones first, then flip the face down runes and flesh out the story; sometimes I flip them all face up and go from there.

I’ve never tried this, but you could also flip the face up ones down and vice versa and do the reading that way!

For me there are two main considerations in reading the whole lot of runes at once. Firstly, you need to look at how they are positioned relative to one another because that gives you an idea of how the themes intersect. I don’t really bother with the whole bright/murk rune dichotomy, I find it gets in the way, and the historical basis for it is pretty sketchy anyway.

Secondly you need to look for nodal points – or the lack thereof. Sometimes the runes will fall in one or more clumps and you can pick out a “key note” rune, with your knowledge of the question informing that judgment too. Or else it might be there is no focal point, everything is scattered, and this is useful information too.

I pay careful attention to my client’s initial comments at this point because where they feel drawn is probably where the reading needs to go. They might be especially curious about one or other stave, or if they are conversant with the runes then they might be drawn to a rune that they already have an affinity for.

I also try to draw in a sense of the whole pattern, the shape of how the runes have fallen. It’s hard to explain how I do this – it’s as close to “psychic” as I get, although there’s no secret or magic to it.

In a way it is just assigning arbitrary significance to the way the runes fall – keeping in mind that I might have to revise my initial impression as more information, and the client’s feedback, comes to light. You just have to be willing to get it wrong and take a punt – often I find that it works out anyway.

We are also both guided by a sense of the themes that emerged from our initial conversation about the reading.  Sometimes a rune will jump out straight away as obvious.

If a person’s central concern were creative expression or performance, for example, then I might find myself naturally attending to a conspicuously placed Ansuz rune as “the chieftain of all speech”.

Once we have a sense of where in the shape of the runes to start, I will usually draw on my knowledge of the rune  poems. Those little poems are very ambiguous. They touch lots of psychological connection points with their symbolism, and the metaphor can be opened up in any number of different ways.

So once I have a sense of where to start I will usually tell a short story about the rune in question, often inspired by a relevant rune poem; and I will tell it with a slant or emphasis that hopefully binds it to the subject of the reading in some way. I won’t necessarily even say “this rune means X”. Indirect methods are just fine.

Then I shut the hell up.

By this point most clients are gagging at the bit to start talking. This is partly because metaphor is a great tool. The reason is that metaphor is ambiguous, so people find whatever it was they needed to find within it.

Sometimes I might tell a story or anecdote not directly related to the rune poem but thematically linked. It might even be abridged from or inspired by myth, or it might be some other proverb or helpful saying I’ve picked up along the way.

I can’t know what this person before me needs to hear, but their unconscious does and it can find it in the metaphor the runes inspire. You don’t even have to believe there is anything more than random chance in how the runes fall for this to work – my method of rune reading works equally well in materialist and mystical worldviews.

Once we are off and running I don’t need to say much. The client will usually draw their own connections and significances – and because we’ve already discussed the question at the start of the reading the field has already been turned, as it were, and is ready for seeds.

I am free to toss in additional reflections about how other runes in the spread relate to the issue, particularly if we hit an impasse or if the initial metaphor misses the mark. There might be a bit of experimentation to find the right starting point, and sometimes several rune stories are needed in combination to get the right starting place.

People often make all kinds of connections as we work through the reading. It can have that feeling of seeing things suddenly as though they were obvious, even though before the reading they might have been very opaque or obscured.

I try to let the client’s unconscious and conscious minds lead the way and play the role of support crew rather than mystic authority figure. I will give my opinion if asked or if it seems very relevant of course – but generally I find that with runic inspiration most clients come up with better ideas than I would have anyway.

An incidental bonus of this way of doing rune readings is that it builds the rune poems into the practice. This is important because it binds a historical root to the practice. I believe that this way of working serves to demonstrate the power of grounding oneself in the historical lore – when set to work, those poems really open up new horizons.

We therefore don’t have to be stuck in worlds of academic abstraction in order to incorporate the lore into our work. Nor do we need to be locked in a “you can’t do that” mentality as some “lore hogs” are.

I don’t know how the rune poems were originally used (I don’t think anyone does), but the way I use them works very nicely, and serves well as a fusion of ancient and modern.

This way of drawing on the rune poems also serves to undermine the ‘anything-goes’ mentality of rune authors like Blum and his ilk, who just make it up as they go.

I believe that my method, which builds respect for historical lore into its foundation, produces deeper and more helpful readings than the wild speculation that Blum’s approach (and others like him) seems to encourage.

Coming out of the reading I work hard to ensure that the client has a feel for what sorts of future action might be called for. Often readings of whatever persuasion don’t do this – if anything they can sap our sense of personal agency and initiative because we start to look at the patterns as inevitable and out of our hands.

But I prefer to use them as tools for empowering the client – if, of course, that is appropriate to the topic of the reading and their own agenda of what counts as helpful.

My readings don’t elucidate much about the future, but they do help elucidate new connections and understandings about the past and present, and to me that is possibly even more valuable. They can also help give ideas for what future action or concerns might be in the wings of wyrd’s stage.

So there you have it! Minimal psychic ability is required to do competent readings if you 1) respect the powers of your client; 2) know your runic and historical lore.

I recently read an article from the National Geographic website about research into the intelligence of crows. I highly recommend you read it before reading this journal update.

Ok – so now that you’ve read it you know that crows are shockingly smart – smarter than some primate species which we humans are only a few genetic clicks away from. Anyone that didn’t have mucho respect for these beasts before better start cultivating some right away!

I must admit, the crows I see always seem to have a kind of knowing self-possession, like they are in on a joke that I cannot fathom. Perhaps it is just that they are scavengers who live by their wits. Perhaps it is because as scavengers crows have probably eaten a lot more humans than humans have crows.

Seeing as I am a bit of a Woden-lover I tend to also love crows. They’re beautiful as well as smart.

I particularly love Australian crows’ song – which is quite different to Northern Hemisphere crows’ song. Sounding like they’ve been abusing beer and cigarettes for decades, their ragged cries of “MAAAAAAAATE” seems infinitely more Australian than any Aussie yobbo could ever be.

I’ve also been told that crows actually evolved in Australia before spreading out over the world, though the source wasn’t too reputable so I cannot be sure if this is true or not.

Anyway, I have this love of crows, and they often pop up at meaningful moments – omens or portents if you like.

As Woden-inspired crow lover I have a particular love of Huginn and Muninn – Thought and Memory, Odin’s spies, who soar across the worlds to bring him the divine version of a breakfast news show (hopefully with less bias and oversimplification, though).

A few years ago I devised and regularly practiced a little magical ritual to deepen my connection to Thought and Memory. I haven’t performed it for a while but the National Geographic article reminded me of it and I felt it high time to update and share this little practice in a broader forum (it original appeared on the Rune Net email list some years ago).

Huginn & Muninn I

Much of what I have to say below comes from my own personal experience and/or extrapolation from what little mythological evidence there is on Thought and Memory. So don’t go around thinking that it is some kind of matter of fact.

The two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory, seem to be related to conscious[H]/unconscious[M], ‘enlightenment'[H]/ psychological awareness-integration[M]. Thought is to surface awareness and active construction of reality; Memory is to depth awareness and active
integration of reality.

I began to ponder the character of these themes out of a broader sense that, just for a lark, you can divide mystical practice into two general goals or projects.

The first relates to what I call ‘being-capable’ – being able to surf the force of wyrd or causal patterns; being
conscious of oneself and the world; being able to act on that consciousness. It has an ‘active’ aspect, but is interlinked with ‘being-whole’ so that it also acquires a ‘receptive’ aspect. I tie Huginn to this aspect.

The second I refer to as ‘being-whole’, which relates to psychological integration with oneself and one’s world. It has a more receptive aspect in that it involves being open to oneself, one’s unconscious, and the world around (including other people).

However, this opening up enables much more conscious action and informs its shape with wisdom. As such it is never truly independent of ‘being-capable’. I tie Muninn to this aspect.

Odin says in the Grimnismal that he dreads that Huginn will fall in flight, but fears more for Muninn. In other words, as terrible as a loss of consciousness is, a loss of psychological health and balanced organic systems is much worse.

There are deeper secrets about memory here too, which Bil Linzie has explored in his wonderful free ebook Drinking At The Well of Mimir, which you can get from his website.

The two ravens are interdependent, and each contains a part of the other (there is some receptivity in Thought and some activity in Memory). Fire and Ice are similar in this respect – so too are the Aesir and Vanir. As such, these dichotomies are not definite, the lines blur.

The point is to focus on the general shape of the trend – insistence on rigidity in these things is likely to lead one astray.

I think some paths of ‘initiation’ (used in an extremely broad sense) are imbalanced towards the being-capable/conscious end of the spectrum.

I also think that some people, too afraid to face their demons and achieve a healthier relationship to themselves and the world, try to compensate by attaining an insane amount of ‘being-capable’.

But the imbalance never goes away, and ultimately they risk trapping themselves in what amounts to a mentality present in some Thursar – reactive, unconscious, anxious, and angry. This also might relate to the difference between Adler’s psychology of inferiority/superiority and Jung’s psychology of submission/transformation.

Huginn and Muninn II

There are three sections to this part of this update. The first is a list of crude dichotomies, either directly from or tied to the Northern Traditions. They are neither absolute nor unambiguous. They seem relevant to the theme of Huginn and Muninn, but there is a lot of meditation and research hidden here.

Then I have listed the ‘features’ of the two modes Thought and Memory. You will find that the bleed-over from one to the other is subtle but important. This is because they are interlinked into a perfect whole when all is as it should be.

Each can be understood on its own terms, but ultimately has meaning only in context of its place with the other.

Finally I include the very simple Huginn-Muninn working I mentioned in the introduction to this post. This working certainly made me more intuitive and I seemed to become a crow magnet for a while.

Indeed, in regard to the latter: during the first period that I was practicing this ritual regularly I used to have a friend who lived near my home who was quite psychically tuned in.

I would often drop by her place unannounced. She told me one day that she never felt intruded because flocks of crows would invariably descend on her front yard in advance of my arrival, regardless of the weather or time of day. I have lots of other similar stories to this, some more dramatic too.

Since I’ve slacked off on the ritual, however, crows don’t give me as much attention.

Crude Dichotomies.

The two columns below are organised in terms of affinities. For example, Fire, Aesir, and Being-Capable could arguably be placed in the same category (I re-emphasise that all this is arbitrary and of use only insofar as it helps us expand our potential for numinous
experience).

Please note also that I am not implying that the items grouped together under a particular column are the ‘same thing’ – they simply seem to echo certain parallels. I also believe each extreme contains its opposite, so the neat dividing lines that the table implies are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Fire Ice
Being-Capable Being-Whole
Aesir Vanir
Huginn Muninn
Masculinity (as a cultural stereotype) Femininity (as a cultural stereotype)
Proactive Receptive
Dynamic Paradigmatic

Aspects of Huginn and Muninn.

As with the crude dichotomies these characteristics are not absolutes.

Huginn: Thought.

* conscious or at least cognitive;
* logical/mathematical;
* structured. At the extreme, ‘a priori’ or formal (in the sense of formal logic or mathematics);
* tends towards analysis and particularity;
* Imposes order upon (or at least reshapes) the world – able to transmute the course of wyrd. As such, tends towards Being-Capable;
* Powerless, or at least open to disaster, without emotions as a ground (can act as the guardian of
Memory);
* when perverted, leads to repression, denial, psychological dysfunction, totalitarianism and paranoia. Also leads to entrenched patterns of destruction.

Muninn: Memory.

* unconscious or at least non-discursive(not in language);
* more related to art than to science;
* poetic and metaphorical;
* intuitive, potentially ‘chaotic’ and unclarified;
* tends towards synthesis and universality;
* Responsive to organic patterns, able to anticipate the course of wyrd; as such, tends towards being-whole;
* keyed to emotion – thought is helpless or risks disaster without thought.
* when weak or perverted, can lose self because of a lack of distance and perspective – confusing image
for substance;
* when weak or perverted, can lead to madness – especially if repressed or taken too literally.

Each of these themes deserves a lot more reflection and exploration, but I am sure you can do a much better job of that than I – so I won’t spoil your fun!

Huginn and Muninn Working.

This working is best done in the morning, prior to your having ‘begun the day’. This is just a matter of
expedience, since it seems to work until one’s day ends, so doing it before you go to bed may be a little pointless (but in the world of dreams? Who knows?)…

It involves two runes, Dagaz and Mannaz, with Ehwaz as a (according to some views) ‘marriage’ rune to bind them. You could of course devise your own runic combinations for the ritual; it isn’t exactly carved in stone.

Dagaz is (in my arbitrary but somewhat evidence-based opinion) the rune of synthesis, the ‘clearing of Being’, the moment where equilibrium is reached. It is the point where dichotomies are gathered together and raised into a new expression. As such, this rune is invoked to draw the forces of Huginn and Muninn into a comfortable harmony within the self.

Mannaz is (in my arbitrary but somewhat evidence-based opinion) the rune of the fully integrated self, a being that has equilibrium. It is connected to itself and the world (Being-Whole, Muninn), but is able to distance itself, get perspective, and transform the self and the world (Being-Capable, Huginn).

Now to the ritual itself:

1) Stand still, with legs together and arms flat to your sides (or up in the air like wings, or whatever takes your fancy. Maybe you might quiver, shake, hop or dance). Your direction of facing is purely a matter of personal preference, mine being north (all others are equal).

Relax your muscles. In particular, tense and relax your shoulders a few times. You might be moved to let your mind settle. For atmosphere-setting purposes you might like to put on The Raven Song which will feature on our forthcoming Ironwood album :Fire:Water:Ash:. Yes, that is a shameless plug. Get over it.

2) Imagine that perched on each shoulder is a raven. On your left shoulder stands Huginn; on your right, Muninn. Imagine that each raven radiates a quiet knowledge, as well as a sense of mirth which you aren’t quite sure that you are in on.

3) Sing/vibrate “Huginn”, feeling and visualising the raven’s energies flowing into your body, awakening within your body.

4) Sing/vibrate “Muninn”, feeling and visualising the raven’s energies flowing into your body, awakening within your body.

5) Holding this image, intone the following:

Huginn and Muninn
Thought and Memory
Fly with me!
Soar in tandem!
Help me be capable!
Help me be whole!
Help me become what I am!

You’ll probably want to customise this to your own liking. You might additionally consider memorising the stanza from Grimnismal that mentions Huginn and Muninn flying over the earth and speaking this before or after the above statement of intent.

6) Visualise the Dagaz rune through your head, so that the centre point is focused on the energy centre in your forehead and the bottom corners are at your shoulders (so that the ravens stand on them). I imagine the rune as being blue. Then sing/vibrate “Dagaz”, feeling and visualising the rune’s energies flowing into your body, awakening within your body.

7) Visualise the Ehwaz rune. To do this, hold the ravens and Dagaz rune in place, then imagine the two staves that support the Ehwaz rune-shape extending from the bottom of the Dagaz rune. Then sing/vibrate “Ehwaz”, feeling and visualising the rune’s energies flowing into your body, awakening within your body.

8) Visualise the Mannaz rune. To do this, hold the ravens and Dagaz rune in place, then imagine the Mannaz rune superimposed over the Dagaz and Ehwaz (these two runes make a Mannaz shape when superimposed anyway). Sing/vibrate “Mannaz”, feeling and visualising the rune’s energies flowing into your body, awakening within your body.

9) Take a few deep breathes, and feel happy!

Ok, so that is about it really. I’d love to hear from anyone game to get into this as a regular practice. It doesn’t take long, though you could expand it exponentially by repeating the chanting/singing bits as much as you like. Enjoy!