The Runetastic 120 days! (a call to glory!)

[Orismen]

Thank you,

Off to get the supplies

And as far as Odin. I have had the same experiences with him. I didn’t try to evoke him, I just offered him some whisky, water and food and called out to him.

I treated him with the utmost respect because I am the one that needs his help, not the other way around. He is an old soul, but very down to Earth and MAN is he wise. I felt comfortable talking to him.

He told me that he was considered an ancestor to the Germanic Tribes and even though he is not human, he was revered as a Divine Ancestor. He spoke of the need to connect with ones ancestry and ancestral spirituality as there is power in our roots. As I have heard before about my people “We were Heathens long before we were Christians”

Now I want to point something out. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Asatru and Odinism. Some think that it is a “White Man’s System” Honestly after talking to Odin I think those people are full of shit.

Odin stressed that we look to our ancestors and their spirituality. But he also never once made it appear that he only wants to work with those of Northern European blood. As my first go around with the runes when spirits were present I felt as though I was around an old and noble race of spirit that valued Honor, Strength, Ambition, Courage, Industry, and Right Living over race or place of birth.

After all the lore is rife with stories of Odin and Co meeting spirits of other races and befriending and trading with them (To be fair there are a lot of war stories too).

So to recap, Odin =/= racist

[Claidheam]

You’re absolutely right on that; the other thing to keep in mind is to take with a grain of salt the ignorant or malicious people who try to ‘defang’ these old traditions to make them ‘safe’ or ‘just another religion’. Whether they’re Wiccans trying to bastardize Celtic heritage and “traditional” (highly fishy, that) witchcraft, or Asatruars trying to white-light the Germanic/Nordic gods, for crying out loud! These deities encompassed some dangerous and threatening aspects of life (including sometimes death), that our particular ancestors affirmed rather than repressed (like a certain other group of religions).

So yeah, the racialist people are full of shit. But at the risk of not being politically correct enough (though -that- shouldn’t be a problem on this forum!), so are the white-lighters who try to cover-up and re-write history and tradition, rather than just make up their own. Like Victorian archaeologists defacing nude Greek statues that didn’t fit in with what what -they- thought the ancient Greeks should have been.

I think the important thing with Odin in particular is that he -lives- the concept of personal freedom - who allies and makes war with whoever the hell he pleases, and their race or whatever is incidental unless that -other- indivividual or group uses their race or loyalty to choose sides regarding Odin from the get-go. But Odin learns for himself in the stories, whether travelling amongst other races or even to better know (from experience!) his own people. He doesn’t just perch on Hlidskjalf watching the world and hearing tales from his ravens - more often than not, he will -personally- investigate. A good example for anyone who wants to work with the man, right?

[Orismen]

True, the roots run deep. I definitely sense an ancient power that the old Germanic people had, and the runes seem to be one way to unlock it.

It is dark, but not altogether evil. It simply is, an exists outside our own morals. If it helps me I see it as good, if it hurts me I see it as bad. However that is just m opinion, power is power…it is dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing., and sometimes it is dangerous even if you DO know what you are doing.

I can’t wait.

[Claidheam]

I hope I didn’t sound inappropriately critical of any actual person here rather than an idea that’s been encountered; by the time that was posted I was already on my way to work and though I sometimes check my phone for interesting threads on the odd interval of spare time, I can’t imagine the urgent occasion offhand when I would type up a post on my phone and have autocorrect fuck us all.

Anyway, Odin is doing a great job guiding me towards better communication with spirits, as I asked of him. Discounting the apparition or whatever outside my window I’ve mentioned in other threads, the other time during my childhood when I encountered a nonhuman spritual entity resulted in actual communication - and I was so freaked out and steeped in Christian upbringing that I ended up erecting some serious barriers between myself and spirits afterwards. Honestly, it’s a wonder the things that got through to me at all after that.

So now I’m being guided through communicating -intentionally-, and they’re little baby steps right now but I’m -quickly- becoming more confident of the things that come into my mind’s awareness that are from Odin and the other spirit I’m working with right now, the Healing Angel Rantka (who knows what he is doing, I might add!).

For example, I haven’t yet offered any of that mead to Odin, because it was important to me to make a batch -especially- for him, with extra thought and intention behind it - so right now I’m waiting on the fermentation to complete. That said, I was enjoying some nice Islay scotch (Ardbeg Corryvreckan) last night and Odin lost no time telling me that he knew a fine drink when he saw and a glass would be much appreciated. So the glass I was drinking (my favourite tasting glass) immediately got topped off and placed prominently in the center of the altar space I had cleared out to set up for him, and I got another glass for myself afterward.

By now that altar is slowly being perfected. The glass of scotch is still there with my Othala rune resting against it to act as a symbol and ‘gather energy’ until my rune work culminates with that one and I use it as a symbol for a full on evocation. To illustrate learning to tell the difference between my thought’s and another’s in communication, it was my instinct to also place on the altar the sawn-off brainpan of the first deer I killed when I was a boy, resting open side up on the tips of the antlers. I did not know -why-, I just knew that it was right. Once this was in place, Odin told me what I needed to do, and that was to grab my military dogtags and hang them from the antlers. That is the sort of thing that would never occur to me, and it came from the same ‘inflection’ of ‘voice’ (this is really hard to describe) that I’ve come to associate with Odin, so it’s really reinforced everything I’ve experienced since first calling on him. I can’t hazard exactly what he’s up to with this setup, but I think I’m pretty sure, I just don’t want to say.

I plan on hanging my sabre on the wall over the altar as an act of trusting my fortune to him in any future battle and dedicating the weapon to him, and I also will add to the altar some illustrations, like of Odin riding Sleipnir and wielding Gungnir and such, imitating the style of some of the actual Scandinavian runestone illustrations.

And just to clear something up that an earlier comment of yours brought to mind, I haven’t evoked him either; I just called out, and it turns out he’s been in my life long before I knew to do the calling. I plan on an evocation once I’ve worked through the runes and finished with Othala, but I don’t want you to have the impression that “I’ve already done that” and “I’m so far ahead of you” because “I’m such a badass” and all that. I’m taking my baby steps, and I’m moving forward, that’s all. But I’ll be there soon!

[Orismen]

No you made a great point. Odin, as well as this whole system, is very dangerous and is to be respected.

I hope I didn’t come across as trying to make it seem as though the Northern Mysteries are all love and light. I was just perplexed at some of the wild claims of Odin’s racism or homophobia as I have found to be very much not that. Though I will admit I have not been working with him for a long time. But he seems to be very down to earth and cares more about one striving for greatness and the sacrifices they make, than what genes they have or who they fuck.

[Claidheam]

No you’re good, we’re both strong enough to weather a challenge to or even play devil’s advocate against our own beliefs as a hazardous game. I just wanted to make sure nothing came across as an intentional insult, because that would be a whole other matter and understandably so.

Oh and one more thing I forgot to mention until it happened again just now: Odin is inspiring the fuck out of me in random bouts of poetry! I made the odd verse here and there before, but this literal inspiration is recognizeably from that same source outside my individual identity, and it’s getting easier and easier to see the differences between ‘I’ and ‘Odin’ all the time. Maybe my intent to offer him some of my mead has incited him to do the same? All my fascination with this deity all these years, and it never occured to me that I might taste the mead of poetry!

[NariusV]

A poem I wrote some years ago that seems to relate to this topic.

War ken

A distanced voice calls out a name,
for a war torn nation buried in flame,
be it never forgotten in our heat,
might that our blood could play its part!

Singing the valiant victors name.
Calling the name loud under their shields.
Singing a song of swords and pain,
before the death brands on the field they wield.

Screaming defiance in the face of death,
while the Valkyries score with steel,
expelling at Armageddon the last breath,
crushing the giants under our heel.

Their brands with Tyr engrav-ed twice,
their helms mark with Aegish-jalmur true,
I vitki-skald sing over the field,
and the bear-shirts rage anew.

Onward into the bloody fray,
our need fire burns hot these days,
all out blows are striking fey,
whilst on the war-ken my mind stays.

Those few clan of us who falter now,
will rise up strong and fast,
when Hel’s ice-winds blow below,
and I wake the war-horns blast.

On the morrow we pack up gear,
and head out for the home,
through ice, river, rock, and fear,
On, no matter where we roam.

And then we rest a while,
and bind out bleds with gut,
swallow a swill of honeyed mead,
and with a sweet lass rut.

A vitki skald, runa-galdor born,
who sang of a deed though he drank no horn,
By keeping the honey flowing in,
these words are joined from the past again.

[system]

btw here is the notes from the uruz period.

Ur day 1
fucking chaos, lots of anger, combative patients, lack of leadership, got a write up. It’s like this rune is the force of chaos itself, I noticed a correlation between the chaos and will, as the one with the strongest will prevailed. imagine if you will two bulls fighting, or the dog eat dog world of bacteria, that’s the kind of battle of wills we are talking about.

Ur day 2 and 3
I drew the Ur rune on my chest and channeled it’s energy, I’ve been really focused and concerned with getting shit done, Shit’s still chaotic externally, but for every 2 steps back I’m taking 3 steps forward. to take a metaphor straight from the rune I’m learning to tame the Ox.

Here’s the list of shit that’s either went wrong or just off schedule in the past two days

admins were supposed to show up so everyone was putting on the dog and pony show at work, then they never showed.

I haven’t recorded my dreams since starting the rune, I know they have been intense, and chaotic, but for one reason or another, I am either interrupted, immediately get busy, or something just doesn’t seem right.

something weird happened when I woke up this morning, I watched my mom walk into the kitchen right after I woke up, and her movements seemed sticklike and swift, like she was moving too fast and too rigid, but it stopped after a moment.

I got up headed over two the house off less breakfast than normal(was running low on supplies) and waited on the gas company, it literally took them all day to get their then it turns out a gas leak was in the house so we had to reschedule, though I’ve got most of my shit where I want it, and I’m getting everything organized though I may need to take everything out and put it back in because I may need to bug bomb the place(as a precautionary measure).

I just want to go, go, go. I’m calm, focused, clear headed, and I just go from one task to the next which is a much different from my normal mind frame. it’s actually amazingly beneficial. though this may be from meditating as much as I do in combination with all the work I have been doing with the rune.

the theme of form being made from formlessness/chaos via will is a constant one, if you don’t focus on forming your vision out of the shifting mass of possibility, this rune will work against you. this rune is great as both a training tool, and a way to cultivate inner will.

Slow day today, very little progress, I think because I had the day off and very little planned that I wound up not doing shit.

I did a reading to see how I can further delve into the secret of the runes, here’s what I got.

Do it your way, just don’t throw your life out of balance in order to do it, make fast progress, unrestrain it’s energy, just do not pursue it to the point of ruin. this will lead to a union between me and the rune.

Last day
Story of Uruz
In the beginning there was chaos, absolute formlessness, until something decided that it wanted to be, and formed itself in an act of will. Chaos did not go away, but became everything but that individual will, seeking to become one with it once more.

This is the law of nature, survival, domination, a contest of wills. An ox is a powerful beast, on it’s own it just wants to eat, fuck, and shit, but man wants to tame it, and make use of it’s flesh for warmth and meat for sustenance, here lies conflict. This rune permeates all existence, because in reality, all is chaos, you want to live and enact your will, and the so does the rest of the universe, but with finite resources someone has to lose. it is our primal beginning and it is our eventual end.

it is the thoughtless light that wants everything to go back to the way things were, unformed, unmanifest, and all potential. it is that original spark of life, that brought everything into existence. It’s the singularity, and it’s the fucking big bang. it is the end.

chakra meditation with Uruz
I got a pulsating feeling that radiated both down from my crown and to/around the chakra I was focusing on, the pulsations went in line with the Uruz chanting I was doing. It was pleasant but wasn’t very focused, it could be described as wavelike rather than the normal definition of the chakra(which is more sphere/particle like).

END OF URUZ WEEK

[Claidheam]

@Icarus

the theme of form being made from formlessness/chaos via will is a constant one

Uruz is also connected to Ymir, just like Fehu is connected to Audhumbla.

[Orismen]

The Ass kicker, Thurisaz

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[Claidheam]

That is exactly spot on, and ‘the Ass-kicker’ might as well be the translation of Thurisaz lol. The really cool thing about this project is that while we all are getting the “same” basic impression from the runes, we are experiencing these lessons in different ways that are more of how each of these runes affects us as individuals. So in some ways the others’ stories corroborate mine, and in others I’m left thinking, wow, what an appropriate perspective from someone else’s life!

For me Thurisaz was where ‘shit got real’. I mentioned before the vizualization of Fehu and Uruz emitting a sort of radiant golden light when invoking their essence into my life? Well when I began meditating on Thurisaz I saw the rune glow a sort of dark, bloody colour somewhere on the red side of purple. Fehu and Uruz’ light had beamed out into me and suffused my environment with emitted rays, but Thurisaz’ ‘colour’ ‘stayed put’ - there was motion, but just within the runestone and kind of seeping into the immediate area around it, like it was ‘waiting’. “Nebulous” is the word that comes to mind in describing the appearance of this light, or also like moving water in a pool. Also, and this was a very vivid impression, for the first meditation with Thurisaz the fingertips I was holding the runestone by felt distinctly pricked with a sharp, then aching pain. Absolutely no reason for it, but this was the time in my rune work by which I was definitely coming around to the idea of their influencing things more obviously than I had expected.

Dealing with Thurisaz was kind of like breaking horses (a former occupation of mine - how happy were those days!) - as long as you replace swift, powerful, but ultimately mortal horse with inexhaustible natural negating force of “counter-current” rising up in opposition to whatever encounters it in the wrong way.

I’m a tough, relatively stoic guy. But by day two, I was hanging on for dear life and suddenly fully believing that these runes would be impacting my life for the next several months in very powerful ways. Again and again during the first two days as these obstacles and resistances would arise, I would feel like I was confronted with the question: Is this what you want? Is your answer to the universe ‘Yes’? In working through all of the runes you will encounter and become intimate with the totality of the natural world? Is that what you are prepared to Affirm? Can you accept this? Or will you turn away and Deny?

I was stubbornly set to commit myself to amor fati and Nietzsche’s idealistc eternal recurrence exercise and ‘ride it out’, but I knew it would probably be an avalanche that would bear me under through weight alone. Somewhere during the third day though the knowledge kind of seeped its way into my understanding, though: I was to harness the power of Thurisaz and just go with the apparent chaos, floating above the top of it and riding along (to revisit the horse-breaking analogy oddly enough! Hm…) instead of fighting it, trying to stand firm like a rock in the stream and find myself annihilated.

I realized, sure, it was necessary for me to experience the ‘bite’ of this rune before I could truly understand how to use it (kind of like in the martial arts where you can’t really be responsible and effective until you’ve had your ass put through the same techniques you’re trying to learn, even if it’s not at full strength). But by taking those experiences into me and hardening myself, I found those very same thorns sprouting around me, to use this limitless font of negative (not -bad-, but negative!) energy to deflect the worst from myself. I can’t go into detail about the -exact- experiences in my life at the time, but that is the best recollection I can give of the actual impressions of the rune itself.

Hope it’s worth the read, and skål guys!

[Lady_Eva]

Love this thread, I just had to butt in to say serious thanks for sharing, and please keep 'em coming!

[Orismen]

The rune of the Allfather, Ansuz.

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[Claidheam]

After feeling like I just barely managed to get my shit together and learn what I needed from Thurisaz without getting swept under its current, I have to say I was ready for things to kick up a few notches more in intensity when I moved on to Ansuz. Ansuz -was- intense, but definitely not in the same way as Thurisaz. Ansuz’ intensity was more like a powerful beam of sunlight that is warm and gentle yet pierces through to your very soul and leaves you the most important message you need to hear.

By the time I had reached Ansuz the influx of negative and combative energy from Thurisaz had been brought under control due to lessons learned. It was like I had learned to navigate the thorns that might lie on my path, and now rounding the bend to Ansuz I was finally free to look up to the sky.

At this point it was no longer necessary to worry about my defences from the runic current, so I found myself much more relaxed and open to the lessons that would come my way. I found myself seeing more and more of the occurences and events in my day-to-day surroundings as significant signs in a greater pattern, and my dreams and thoughts during these days carried much more the sense of bearing knowledge ‘from above’. I felt like this rune in particular brought one closer to the Norse gods, in particular the old light and tree spirits, and my time outdoors consisted of a lot more just being quiet and -looking- and -listening- to the realizations that are constantly all around us even when we don’t pay attention to them.

Most of the realizations and ‘messages’ I encountered were quite gentle, seeping into the consciousness like sunlight, but at one point on the fourth day I had a dramatic experience (I can’t quite call it a “vision” because I did not “see” these things, but they were “feelings” that here I can best describe by comparing to visual imagery that would provoke those feelings) that just like Thurisaz demanded my answer to the question whether I would continue to learn on this path, to take in not just knowledge but experience of all the runes. This experience made me feel as if all of these spiritual things I had had minor experiences of, or intuitions of, or reason to suspect there being more to - if these things for the sake of my comparison image could be said in a sense to reside “above” our earth and the clouds even, this experience was like being yanked abruptly up there into a higher region where all of these things were. Again, this was not an astral travel, or a clairvoyant vision, but -feelings- and -realizations- from -outside- myself that invite describing in this way. My realization was that yes, all of these spiritual things were constantly permeating our entire existence, but if I wanted to continue this path and continue to learn, I would have to get -involved-! There is a certain point where you can observe and learn that way, and then there’s a threshold that can only be crossed by -action-, by -involving- yourself in the current. These Norse spirits noticed my progress down this path, and now I needed to commit to the path and to them in order to go further, because my world partook of theirs, and they knew their world in a way that I could not except with their insight and communication.

When this realization came the rune suddenly took the appearance of a kind of Stone Age flint fishing spear, and truly I felt from that experience like a fish whose sole environment had been underwater, who had seen glimmers and distorted reflections of the light above the surface and knew there must be a source to it, but had never -experienced- it. When suddenly, following the signs that led me closer to shore, what I was studying noticed me right back, and speared and pulled me out of the water to become suddenly overwhelmingly aware of just how much more to existence there was!

So after my catch-and-release enlightenment experience, I was returned to the waters of my day-to-day with quite a lot to mull over (and I hope that was even slightly intelligible guys), but ultimately a sense of euphoria and real contact with entities that for once I didn’t think were trying to screw with me! I know this one’s a little hard for me to describe in words, so bear with me if y’all can manage, the next one has no such intangible states of experience.

[Orismen]

I love this. I love reading both the similarities and differences in our experiences. I too felt a need to commit to the runes on a very deep level, and swore an oath to take them up eternal.

I love reading about your experience with them. Keep up the great work.

[Claidheam]

I’ve almost moved on from Dagaz to Othala, and the runes haven’t annihilated me yet! But yes, they are seriously powerful, and some of us have to learn harder than others.

Many thanks, I also enjoy reading your experiences, and everyone else’s!

[Orismen]

I took a page out of Jason Miller’s book and decided that I would eat with Odin. I prepared some food and mead for him and a glass of mead for myself. I opened the ceremony and cleansed the offerings as Mr. Miller instructs. After trance states were achieved and the Allfather was present I made a toast to him and drank mead with a God.

Let me just say, if you are working with spirits that you want to establish a long term relationship with, have a drink with them.

[Claidheam]

Very cool! I, too have taken drink with the Allfather and it certainly makes you feel like a greater bond is established.

On day two of Othala right now. Everything is coming together in a ceaseless wave of realizations, and it is changing me in huge ways. Some of them have been really fucking hard. But I set this in motion. And I have my pride.

Odin absolutely has the power to make the changes you ask for. And the power to shake your life to its foundations to make those changes happen, and challenge you to stand back up on your feet like a man anyway. But for all the massive ways he brings about these changes in your life if that’s what you’ve asked him to, he -will- teach you that the power involved is really yours to claim, and if you want to be earn respect in his eyes you need to take responsibility for it. He’ll show you how it’s done, and then expect you to learn the lesson and do it yourself. In my experience, anyway.

It’s gotten incredibly turbulent (which is wholly my responsibility), but I don’t regret this.

[Orismen]

That is great (and a little scary to hear)

Based on our conversation today I can totally see him shaking my life up very hard in order to drive home a point he made.

Well,l bring it on! Even if the mortal coil fails (I hope not) I will still be fine.

[Orismen]

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