Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello and welcome to the workshop! Here we are discussing the Runes - specifically the Elder Futhark - of the Germanic peoples. If you would like to talk about the workshop itself, or would like to join in, you can do so here.

Schedule (current week is bolded) - some runes may not take as long as others. There's currently a default of two weeks but I've left out the end of the schedule as things may change as we go along.


Week 1: Orientation
Week 2: Fehu
Week 3 & 4: Uruz
Week 5 & 6: Thurisaz
Week 7 & 8: Ansuz
Week 9 & 10: Raidho
Week 11 & 12: Kenaz
Week 13 & 14: Gebo
Week 15 & 16: Wunjo
Week 17 & 18: Hagalaz
Week 19 & 20: Naudhiz
Week 21 & 22: Isaz
Week 23 & 24: Jera
Week: Eihwaz
Week: Pertho
Week: Algiz
Week: Sowulo
Week: Teiwaz
Week: Berkana
Week: Ehwaz
Week: Mannaz
Week: Laguz
Week: Inguz
Week: Dagaz
Week: Othila

Participants:

KOEGAEK;OGGEJ;GN

WEEK ONE: Orientation

This week we'll spend just making sure everyone is ready and on the same page. If you need to get a bit of a grounding first in Norse mythology and religion, the links to the Eddas and Sagas further up the page will help you out. I recommend the Poetic Edda.

In short: the runes are cultural concepts, Mysteries and energies that can be used for magic, divination or simply writing. To use them well, one "takes them up" (as Oðinn did when hanging from Yggdrasil) and understand them as wholes, as ideas. While much magic involves raising your own energy and directing it, runes are outside energies that one calls and channels, and as such can be dangerous. But aside from that, even if one has no interest in magic or divination, they are interesting concepts and lessons that give us insight into Germanic culture and religion.

That's your crib notes wink So I thought this week we could all (if you haven't yet) familiarise ourselves with the concept, ask questions about runes themselves and Germanic religion and culture in general, iron out misunderstandings, discuss the sources we have to hand, etc.

I'm also wondering whether this week people would feel comfortable reaching out to Oðinn in some way. For me this is important, but I don't know how other people might feel about this. Generally I thought it would be kind of cool if everyone made their own sort of overtures but I'm not aware of what sort of bonds and oaths you have with other gods or whatever, so we'll leave it there as an option for discussion.

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and similar would fall under the "Germanic" umbrella. Other than that there is a lot of misappropriation that has occurred in relation to the Runes. Though it's not so much that other paths can't use them, it's just that they tend to use the WAY out of context, or without proper knowledge of what exactly it is that they are working with. There are also other things that are often referred to as Runes, which are in essence something else entirely.

Right in the first post. The Elder Futhark are not the only iteration of the runes in Germanic culture, but they are the original, and the best place to start.

Thanks biggrin