As a Rune Magician I work with the Runes of both the Elder Futhark (or Uthark, see BLOG) and the Frisian Runes (more about that in my upcoming book: North Sea Water In My Veins).
This series is very much a work in progress. I make the paintings as the visions or dreams come. I do not force the process. I do not follow a sequence.
Some of these paintings map the liminal spaces connecting two runes instead.
RUNE UR
The Cauldron of Norn Urdr
RUNE HAGAL
The Hag in a Hailstorm
It is an unorthodox take for sure, but for me this painting very much captures the energy signature of Rune UR. The runes of the aurochs pointing up: the cosmic cauldron of the eldest rune Urdr, where everything (including new worlds) come into being. She stir the primordial soup: the formless energy from which all things derive. This energy is untamed and untamable, it is pure potentiality.
In my work the in-dwelling spirit of the Hagal Rune is The Pregnant Hag. Hagal literally mains hail and it refers to a sudden cataclysmic event that changes our life forever. The Pregnant Hag has a secret: she knows the secret of Rebirth. She knows that Death feeds Life and that Death is always followed by Birth: the birth of something new, a changed person, continuation of consciousness after death or a new world order.
WHERE THE RETURNING SUN AWAKENS THE ICE MAIDEN
IN THE FOREST OF THE PREGNANT HAG
In this painting Run SOL (on the right, representing the Sun) touches Rune IS (the Ice Rune, on the left) and thus the Creation Story from Northern Cosmology is reenacted every year: the meeting of Ice and Fire!
To me the Pregnant Hag as in the in-dwelling spirit of the Hagal Rune. And the world tree, Yggdrasil, is the Ancestor of all trees. Again an unorthodox interpretation but in this painting Rune Hagal (on the left) meets rune EOH (on the right).
WHERE PERTHRA MEETS LAGU
RUNE MADR
I perceive rune PERTHRA as a Cave-Tomb-Womb, the place where new beginnings and new life gestate.
This is the Watery Womb of the Mountain Mother, where we meet Rune LAGU (LAGUZ) as well. A baby floats in amniotic fluid until it is time to be born.
In my vision a snake was present too. The Baltic countries associate serpents with fertility. In Baltic mythology, the grass snake (Lithuanian: žaltys, Latvian: zalktis) is perceived as a sacred animal. It was frequently kept as a pet, living under a married couple's bed or in a special place near the hearth. It was fed milk and treated with respect.
Rune MADR is the rune of Mankind and by extension the rune of the Ancestors. I see it as a portal or gateway (you see its shape above the head of the girl, held by two family trees on either side).
Every person is a meeting and blending of two lineages, two family trees. This (admittedly) quirky painting tried to capture that. (I did not set out to do this, but it is how the painting unfolded over several weeks!)
The girl is on stilts - she enjoys the Gift of Life (and possibly birthing new life) only courtesy of the Ancestors, Those Who Came Before Her.
BJARKA
WHERE BJARKA MEETS LAGU
BJARKA is the Rune of the Birch Tree and (some say) also the Rune of the (Cosmic) Mother. In magical work, especially in Slavic culture, Bjarka/Birch is associated with feminine power. The birch tree and parts thereof were traditionally used in healing ceremonies for women and girls. Also in wedding ceremonies: preparing a young woman for carrying new life (represented by the bear cubs - Bjarka is not a Bear Rune!)
In some places in Fennoscandia the birch tree was perceived as the world tree and she had a male counterpart in the Oak Tree. Both trees exist as runes (rune EOH and Anglo Saxon rune AC).
One interesting titbit is that linguists connect the Russian name for the birch tree to a verb (birch” – beryoza) and that verb means to keep safe!
This painting explores the liminal zone were Rune BJARKA meets the Water Rune LAGU. By some rune magicians, including myself Bjarka is perceived as a portal on the realm of the sacred feminine: sexuality, the matters of yoni and womb, the womb as a seat of spiritual power and "cauldron for creation".
There is a silver birch tree in front of our house in Sweden. It demarcates the point where our land starts. I see this tree from my bedroom window and it is my Dreaming Tree: it sends me many dreams and spiritual insights.
You can see the forest surrounding our house in this art video:
CRYPTIC RUNES
(The Secrets of the Rune Magician)
I cannot remember ever having a dream that involved social media BUT last night I dreamed that it was Rune Magician Day on Twitter (and there even was a hashtag: #crypticrunes, which turns out to exist!)
"Cryptic runes (Norwegian: Lønnruner) are related to cipher runes. The former are not necessarily possible to decipher, nor were they perhaps always intended to be.
In 2002 Mindy MacLeod published her valuable dissertation Bind-Runes: An Investigation of Ligatures in Runic Epigraphy. Some of these ligatured characters are certainly cryptic, and she continued to study the subject in her conference paper Ligatures in Early Runic and Roman Inscriptions."
The cryptic runes, sometimes written back to front or even upside down, are essentially based on a numeric code, where the branches to the left of the stem represent the row of characters concerned, and the branches to the right represent the character in that same row. Knowing that takes you to a specific rune!
The inscription on the famous Rök Runestone in Sweden contains cipher runes.