Making Norse Runes

A few years before my brain injury, I explored several methods of divination. For a Rune class that I was taking, I had to make a Rune set, that consisted of the Elder Futhark (the original Norse Runes). In the class, I learned that the World Tree of the Norse (Yggdrasill), the Tree that Odin hung on to receive the Runes, was an Ash. Therefore, I chose ash as the wood for my Rune tiles.

Since the tiles I chose were precut, I only needed to sand and then carve the Rune letters into them. After practicing writing each Rune, I wrote each letter on a tile. Some of the more complex Runes – Perthro and Mannaz for example – took more care and time. I regarded my practice of writing the Runes as learning a new alphabet.

My instructor told us to stain the tiles with red stain and blood. He said that the blood would make the Runes come alive for us. I carefully pricked my finger and dripped the blood into the stain. I used all of the stain-blood mixture on the Runes.

Later, I found out that what I did was blood magick, since the blood bound this set of the Runes to me. The only way, I could break the bond was to burn the Rune set. Next time anyone suggests using blood, I would ask more questions. I learned later that I could have done a ritual of prayers to consecrate the Runes, and have them become living entities.