Wane Wyrds

As a Vanatruar, I have an interesting relationship with the Runes. I do not use them regularly in practice, but there are certain Runes I do use in other ways. These are Runes I feel are more suitable to the Vanic ways. One of these Runes is Jera, of the Elder Futhark. Jera (pronounced YEHR-AH) translates literally as "year", in Old Norse languages. Symbolically, this stands for the cycle of the seasons, and specifically the harvest. It is invoked for a "good season" or "good year." Jera is a Rune of bounty, abundance, and the manifestation of energy into the physical. In short, the work that we do grows and expands into substance, material, and reward. The interaction of the two seperate v shaped symbols most likely represent the two halves of the Northern year, winter and summer. In the far north, spring and fall are nearly nonexistant climatically. In essence Jera is similar to the ying yang in that it symbolizes the union of extreme forces. In th...

Modern etching of Havamal 143: Freetha on deviantart In Norse Paganism, as well as many other ancient pagan religions, blood played an important role in the spiritual process. I wanted to take a moment to talk about a couple of the spiritual rituals of heathenry that involve blood, as well as blood as a symbol. To the Norse, the blood is a sacred. Sacred in that it possesses the vital energies which constitute life. And this possession of life extended not only on a personal level, but a cosmological one as well. One's blood was not only a personal power source. One's blood contained both ancestral as well as divine powers. The Norse believed that their people were the actual flesh and blood descendants of the Gods. The God Heimdall was believed to have fathered the races of man, and many royal houses claimed that they were the children of specific Aesir and Vanir Gods. This was not a symbolic belief, but an absolute truth for the Norse. One's blood was a blending of...