Thanks Nordstar for permitting me to continue this.
There is a lot of interest in the community in Runic divination and magick. Sure, there are plenty of books and blogs and commentaries by proclaimed experts in this field, but what is in writing about them in our history from the Eddas? Might we come together as a community and share a bit of knowledge here? What do the Eddas say about how to use these runes? What does it say about making them, consecrating them and utilizing them for our purposes? There are a lot of us using runes here. Are we using them historically accurately or are we just inventing something?
Verses 142, 143 and 144 of Havamal tell us that the runes are carved. It says nothing about them being written or painted. Should we feel comfortable with assuming that since Odin was hanging from a tree that the runes he speaks of were carved in wood? If so, what kind? Is the tree an ash, an elm or maybe a apple tree? The verses also say the runes are used for magick and divination. It says they are stained and blooded. Do we infer from that as the means of consecrating them? The verses also mention that we send or cast them. Is this our way of using them for magick and divination? The verses also mention that we sacrifice them. Does that mean we cast them into fire when we have completed our magick or is it how we stop the energy from continuing?
I do believe the runes should be made of wood. As Odin acquired his while hanging from Yggdrasil, I would choose Ash wood. Yes we should bloody the runes to consecrate them.
As for casting them, traditionally one would toss them on to a cloth used for reading the runes. I use a piece of fur.
The sun and moon in various paths or faiths are considered dieties. Their gender varies. Some consider the Sun to be male and the Moon female. Did our Norse ancestors worship them? The Poetic Edda Vafthruthnismal stanzas 22 through 25 give an account of the creation of Sol and Mani, sun and moon respectively but does not give a gender notation. It shows that the sun and moon were there to mark time. In The Prose Edda Gylfaginning, I believe paragraph 20 or chapter 11 translates that during the early part of creation that “ the sun knew not where she belonged and the moon knew not his might.” Are we to construe from this that the sun is feminine and the moon masculine? Are there more references in the Eddas that clarify this?
I do not have the Eddas on me but from personal research. I understand the Sun to be referred as the Sun Goddess, Sunna. GalinaKrasskova has some information on Mani and Sunna.
As to the sun and the moon, verse 5 of the Voluspa tells of us their genders.
5. The sun, the sister | of the moon, from the south
Her right hand cast | over heaven's rim;
No knowledge she had | where her home should be,
The moon knew not | what might was his,
The stars knew not | where their stations were
There is another part which tells us how they came to hold there positions.
(sorry for the late reply)
On Ragnarok: Trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing; groans that aged tree, and the jötun is loosed. Loud bays Garm before the Gnupa-cave, his bonds he rends asunder; and the wolf runs.
- Stanza 48
Does this refer to the loosing of the Fenris Wolf? Where does an explanation of the entity “Garm” also appear?
