I wanted to write a little about Runes because they have become significant in my own shamanic practice.
We have been told that Odin hung upside down on the world tree Yggdrasil and after nine days and nights he was given the runes in exchange for one eye.
Odin has many roles in mythology, including those of poet and shaman. It is in those that I meet with him.
Lately I have been consulting the Elder Futhark Runes for inspiration in my writing. I see them as letters from the otherworld . Letters which shine a light on what is hidden in the darkness of the unconscious.
The rune is the headline or signpost to that which lies beneath the surface; a note on the doorway which can open up to insight and understanding .
Once the threshold is crossed there is a vast landscape to explore and the revelation behind the rune can take a while to discover.
A runestone can be the spark to inspire, a direction to move or a place to sit and examine over time. They can be an aid to waiting and a motivation to action.They echo the suspension between worlds which Odin experienced hanging upside down on the Tree.
The runes may be etched into stone, carved on wood, made of clay . Whichever way they come to us,they are a gift from the Otherworld .
P.S.
There is a post script to this because I have come across another point of view as to how the runes came to Odin.
Reading a book by Barbara G Walker,"The Crone woman of age, wisdom and power" (p.100). She writes that Odin managed to drink the Wise Blood from three cauldrons in the womb of Earth by tricking the "giantess" who tended them and taking the sacred substance into himself when she wasn't looking. He therefore aquired the knowledge of reading and writing the runes, mastery of magic,shape-shifting ability,and understanding of cosmic matters which were formerly the Goddess's exclusive property.
Of course no one really knows which story, if either is the true one,simply that the myth is truly a mystery. However reading this alternative tale has expanded an awareness in me of how so much unconscious influence there is of the masculine and feminine and the relationship between and within these elements of myself, individuals, society and culture . How much we are products of a history of which we are largely unaware. There is much more to explore and discover about the miracle of a human birth.