Origin: Germanic Dated: 2nd – 8th century Type: Oracle Number of Runes: 24 Traditional Format: Wooden disks or tiles Traditional Size: ~ 3 mm diameter
The Elder Futhark is a set of 24 Germanic alphabet discovered in Gotland (1903) on the Kylver Stone that dates back to 400 AD. They represent one of the earliest writing scripts. It is postulated that they were inspired by the natural surroundings and life histories of the people during that time. The exact script usage and meaning of each letter has been lost to time.
The Old English Rune Poem is of Anglo-Saxon origin, dating (8th – 9th century) well after the Elder Futhark and is used as a proxy for the rune meanings. Therefore, clear linkage of the Elder Futhark to the Rune Poem is lacking and there is much scholarly debate as to the translation of both the script and the poem. The Elder Futhark was recorded throughout history by hand, usually carved with a knife, hence the linear and angular properties of the script. The first edition of the Rune Poem was contained in a historical manuscript, the Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus by George Hickes during 1703. The original manuscript (MS Cotton Otho B. X) perished in the Cottonian library fire of 1731, thus George Hickes’ edition became the only copy of the Rune Poem. Similarities of the Thesaurus to the MS Cotton Domitian A. IX sparked scholarly debate as to whether the Rune Poem was recorded in the original manuscript. Additional oddities arose due to hand-copying, translation efforts and comparisons of the Elder Futhark with the reduced Younger Futhark (9th century, Scandinavian origin, 16 runes) and expanded Futhorc (5th century, Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Frisian origin, 33 runes). Therefore, it is postulated that both copying error and translation errors could have crept into the (re)documented versions of the Rune Poem. As such the both the translations and interpretation of the Rune Poem is very subjective.
As such, I believe it is best for anyone interested in learning this system to acquire a translated version of the Rune Poem, which resonates with you and to interpret its exact meaning for yourself. You can use the ‘traditional’ interpretations as a rough guide (such as those in Ref 2 below are a good starting point), but you will find that some of your own interpretations start to deviate from the widely used norm. This is a natural progression and personally links you to your runes. Here are my sets:
DIY Seed Runes:
Cost: R 0
Traditionally, one should make a set of runes for yourself. I have made myself a set using palm seeds, which symbolises fertility and new beginnings. I painted the runes on them, traditionally they would be carved or pyrographed – but I opted for painting so that I do not damage the seeds. These cost me near to nothing as I found the seeds, already had the paint and painting equipment. They are a great set to cast with, but their transportability is limited and also nobody would want you to fly around with them lest they carry a plant disease. Thus, I wanted for finding a card set as well.
Elder Futhark DIY Seed Runes
Elder Futhark Travel Rune Cards:
Cost: R 42
Size: 4.5 cm x3.5 cm – fits into a matchbox even after lamination
Creator: TheCatHatter
These are a set of 24 printable cards available as both a PDF and JPEG file from TheCatHatter (@ US$ 1.5) or from my Online Store (@ R 25 ~ US$ 2.5). Therefore, the cost breakdown is: 1x R 25 for the digital files, 1x R 10 for printing on A4 300 mg card stock, 1x R 7 lamination of A4 page = R42. To preserve historical authenticity the set contains Proto-Norse writing, with Proto-Germanic names and English transliterations. I will also summarise the card set review with a few considerations, which can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on personal opinion.
TheCatHatter Elder Futhark Travel Rune Cards Set of 24 all printed, laminated, cut and gilded.
Considerations:
Inexpensive (@ R 42 for South Africans, likely less than US$ 5-15 all in)
Easily transported
Spreads take up a small amount of space
Caters for reversals
No guidebook
No artwork on card back
Manual printing, lamination, cutting and optional gilding of cards (in South Africa at least, overseas POD companies are available to produce the cards for you, for example: MakePlayingCards).
Travel Rune Cards with multi-coloured gilding
The runes are my go-to system, since they can be used as both a divinatory (passive) and magickal (active) tool. I personally use them for the latter, where I actively participate in setting the intention that I seek. I use the runes extensively for my shadow work, creative problem solving and spiritual rituals. Hence they have become a spiritual tool which I use to explore the depths of soul and to introduce some light and magick into my everyday hum-drum life.
A photo a member of the Orchidaceae (Orhid) flowers. I take photos of the animals in their natural environments and hence I do not disturb them, they are found, photographed and left as I found them.
The art print is available as various customisable products on !
Example of framed photo print
You can print to any size and frame the way you want! You can print as many copies as you like, under a personal and non-commercial licence. All intellectual and commercial rights belong to All Natural Spirit. More photos to come!
Alternatively, both art and photo prints can be purchased as digital files through my HelloPretty Online Store. The JPEG will be emailed to the buyer within 10 days after purchase in made. The JPEG file will not contain the logo or text as seen in the sample pictures.
Tips on Interpreting Spirit Animal Messages & Meanings:
My third free spirit animal lore oracle card! Frogs are strange and wonderful animals. Their most valuable evolutionary trick is that of metamorphosis. I have here a printable (customise to any size you like) information sheet regarding the slippery amphibian known as the Frog. The information sheet contains its taxonomic classification, habitat and diet as well as their metaphysical superpower of bringing rain! I explain what the message of the frog spirit animal (or totem) is and how they guide you through your life.
Tip: Frogs are associated with water and their statues can be used in rituals asking for rain.
I have free downloadable files here for personal and non-commercial use (click links below). Print out & enjoy! They can be used as information cards or flash cards. There are more spirit animal flash cards to come!
Today is the spring equinox – it is the day of the year where the hours of darkness and daylight are equal for both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Countries in the south are experiencing a quickening as we witness the coming of spring with renewal and rebirth from the earth.
The spring equinox is aligned with Earth, a solid and comforting mass beneath our feet. The soil harbours the most abundant life on earth (the microbes!) and through working in harmony it provides nutrition that sustains all life. If we start to cultivate our souls as we cultivate the soil we will be able to renew our perspectives and live according to our most authentic selves. We are gifted with choice, which comes at a price. When our own earth becomes unmovable, shutting out parts of our psyche; it can bring spiritual dis-ease (shadow aspect). When we cultivate acceptance of every facet of our being we grow and unlock truth, happiness and harmony for ourselves and ultimately for others (light aspect). Thus, this leads to the main theme of today’s article.
Yin and Yang: To the dualistic mind, this seems to be a representation of opposition, but to the mind free from dualistic thinking it symbolises harmony – one side is a function of the other and working in tandem they create peace.
From the moment we are able to process information in an intelligible way, we become conditioned with dualistic thinking: Good vs. Bad, Happy vs. Sad, Black vs. White, Wrong vs. Right, Past vs. Future, Negative vs. Positive, Matter vs. Spirit, Psyche vs. Physical, Mind vs. Body, Wave vs. Particle, and the list goes on. Yet what we do not realise is that there is a lot of falsehood in this way of thinking and that it not only restricts our opinions, tolerances and ideas – but it causes spiritual dis-ease, which manifests as physical illness and aberrant behaviours. For instance, many of us are conditioned either by society, our parents, and the community at large or even religion that the expression of emotion equals weakness (especially by men) and that crying is only reserved for hysterical women. This leads to us locking up the flow of our emotions (originating from the sacral chakra) within an unmovable cage. They become swallowed within our most basic element, the earth (at the root chakra). This is unnatural and blocks the flow of energy within the body (and ultimately to the spirit). In the dark, cold earth our emotions start to fester, they become a septic wound – much like the symbolic imagery of the Moon card from the RWS tarot. As the emotions twist and churn within this place they build up pressure and then finally one day we ‘lose it’ in either a fury of rage, falling into a depressive state of shame or become petrified with fear. This ‘break down’ further reinforces our belief that emotions are bad and must be controlled with an iron fist. So the cycle of dis-ease continues, likely leading to more physical problems such as the additions to drugs, alcohol or even food.
Another example would be the belief that everything must be categorised – a view-point that comes from our materialistic or physical world, since labelling thinks makes it easier to comprehend our world. But this leads to other problems, when we start to place labels upon things that are not wholly physical (such as living beings, including humans). This leads to an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality where groups deny each other basic rights and privileges based on trivial things such as financial status (poor vs. rich), religious affiliation, intelligence or ethnic background. It breeds judgemental, intolerant and non-compassionate behaviour towards ourselves, other people and even other living things, such as plant and animals. It cultivates hate within the soil of our soul’s foundation and the results is that your heart (chakra) turns to stone. Unable to realise our own hate for another being by looking at the world through dualistic lenses, we become deluded as the third eye becomes turbid with self-generated and synthetic falsehoods. We no more see a problem in discriminating against one another; our society becomes ill as our spirits fall into dis-ease. It manifests itself in society as crime, road rage, bureaucratic tick boxes based on age, gender and race. We begin to allow or deny each other benefits (or even manners and decency) based on this restrictive thinking. This only serves to cultivate more hatred and ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality. An escalating spiral of violence in all its forms, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual against ourselves and each other.
Breaking this cycle is not easy, there is much resistance, because it suits some people to stay in this place. Others find it comfortable, because it is a conditioned and familiar environment (even if it doesn’t serve them). Therefore, many people may never see past the illusions that we create for ourselves or see the problem with the boxes that we create around our ideas and emotions. The bad is locked up in an attempt to only experience the good, when in actual fact nothing is neither good nor bad it is only our judgement that deems it so. It is also because we do not allow ourselves to live in the present enough, to fully embrace the moment and life as it is now, regardless of where we are on our journey. We are always guilty because of past behaviour or angry about past transgressions inflicted upon us directly or indirectly. We worry about the future, trying to control every stone we find upon our life’s path. I suggest this: instead of focusing all our energy and wasting our lives on these distractions, merely noise that only serves to prevent us all from reaching our potential, we must start to cultivate acceptance and mindfulness in our soul’s earthly foundation.
Therefore, lifting the lenses of dualistic thinking is greatly advantageous to us as a society. We should also learn that emotions are neither good nor bad, it is clinging to them that enslaves us, but momentary expressions are part of simply being present, being human and experiencing life in all its aspects. Also, when we stop thinking about one another as different and opposing teams, genders, ages, skin colour or even countries – we will experience a true sense of freedom and start to achieve miraculous things that we would not have deemed possible before. We simply are not in opposition with one another, because we are all of the same spirit. Similar to my left and right hand not being in opposition with one another, since they both are an unique extension of me and when they work together in harmony, I am able to achieve, create and grow as a person – just as life requires both day and night as a function of light in order to prosper. We must learn to view each other as equal physical extensions of the same spirit, each unique and independent. Obviously working together will have some challenges, but we are creative and intelligent beings – I am sure we can figure it out, much like we figured out how to cultivate the earth in order to sow and harvest food even when unpredictable factors influence the process (such as mother nature’s whim). Cultivation of the soul I believe is the true purpose of human life on earth. By being present within your own life (not comparing it to others, the past or future) we learn to accept ourselves in all our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual identities as well as accepting where we are on our journey. This leads to harmony of the spirit and true lasting happiness of the soul.
“This quantum view of a holistic reality is in perfect agreement with one of Jung’s most important seminal ideas; that is, the archetypal idea of Unus Mundus, which Jung [27] and Marie-Louise von Franz [28] derived from characteristic medieval views of the world. In Jung’s words:
“Undoubtedly the idea of the Unus Mundus is founded on the assumption that the multiplicity of the empirical world rests on an underlying unity, and that not two or more fundamentally different worlds exist side by side or are mingled with one another. Rather, everything divided and different belongs to one and the same world, which is not the world of sense.” ([27], para. 767).
Ontologically, this archetype means that there is a reality that must be united, “apparently” divided, opposed, but beyond the illusion of matter, it is One. The reader will note the agreement of Jung’s views with the quantum view of the world…”
– Ponte, D. V. and Schäfer L. 2013
Rejection of the authentic self leads to falsehoods of the soul, as we are locked in an illusionary life. Cultivation of acceptance and letting go of old conditioning takes great effort and dedication, but establishing new and balanced perceptions leads to personal growth. We find peace, because we start to view reality as it truly is and not as we deem it to be.
“Abstract: We describe similarities in the ontology of quantum physics and of Carl Gustav Jung’s psychology. In spite of the fact that physics and psychology are usually considered as unrelated, in the last century, both of these disciplines have led at the same time to revolutionary changes in the Western understanding of the cosmic order, discovering a non-empirical realm of the universe that doesn’t consist of material things but of forms. These forms are real, even though they are invisible, because they have the potential to appear in the empirical world and act in it. We present arguments that force us to believe, that the empirical world is an emanation out of a cosmic realm of potentiality, whose forms can appear as physical structures in the external world and as archetypal concepts in our mind. Accordingly, the evolution of life now appears no longer as a process of the adaptation of species to their environment, but as the adaptation of minds to increasingly complex forms that exist in the cosmic potentiality. The cosmic connection means that the human mind is a mystical mind.”
“A design on metatron’s cube and a compass (rose of the sea). Metatron’s cube is a sacred geometric symbol that represents the molecular arrangement of all life (atoms self-arrange in this pattern). Thus, collectively the design translates to a universal life compass that assists with all your journeys.” – TheCatHatter
The art print is available as various customisable products on !
Example of the framed picture
You can print to any size and frame the way you want! You can print as many copies as you like, under a personal and non-commercial licence. All intellectual and commercial rights belong to All Natural Spirit. More photos to come!
Alternatively, both art and photo prints can be purchased as digital files through my HelloPretty Online Store. The JPEG will be emailed to the buyer within 10 days after purchase in made. The JPEG file will not contain the logo or text as seen in the sample pictures.
