Wicca (24 page)

Protection

This complex sign can be marked on the home, your car, or on any objects you wish safeguarded. Sewn or embroidered on clothing or robes, it offers personal protection. Can also be made into an amulet and worn or carried. In times of danger when you have no access to such amulets, visualize this rune strongly.

Protection

Another like the last.

A Man

Use in conjunction with other runes to represent the subject of the spell. For example, if I wake up and can’t seem to get my thoughts together, I might draw this rune with power on a piece of paper in yellow ink to represent myself. Then I’d draw the orderliness rune directly on top of the man rune, while visualizing myself attaining this state.

A Woman

Another like the last. Use in conjunction with other runes for spells.

A Friendship

The man and woman runes can be drawn together for a variety of purposes; experiment.

Runic Spells

A Money Rune Spell

With clove or cinnamon oil, trace the money rune on the largest denomination bill you have. Put this in your wallet or purse and resist spending it for as long as possible. Every time you look at the bill, visualize the rune to reinforce its power. This will draw money to you.

A Rune Love Spell

On an orris root or a piece of apple wood, carve the rune for love. As you do so, visualize the type of person you wish to meet. Carry the rune with you for three days, placing it in your bed at night. On the evening of the third day, toss the root or wood into a river, stream, lake, spring, or ocean.

A Rune Petition

At your altar, take a piece of clean, white paper. Draw the rune appropriate to your need in the center of the paper. If you wish, add a pinch of herbs symbolic of your desire, or anoint the paper with an appropriate magical oil. Fold up the paper and hold it tightly while visualizing your need. Now take it to a fire and throw it on the flames. Or, light a red candle and hold the edge of the petition in the flame, then throw it into the cauldron or other heat-proof container to burn. If the paper isn’t completely consumed by the flames, relight it and repeat the spell another day.

To Destroy Negativity or a Baneful Situation

Draw a rune representative of the negativity (disordered thoughts, war, poison—see below) on a piece of paper with black ink. Gaze at it, visualizing the baneful influence, habit, or situation. Then, all at once, blot the rune completely from sight with a jar of white ink or paint, completely destroying the rune. While the ink or paint dries, visualize a good fortune, orderliness, or comfort rune over the paper and blot out all thoughts of the problem.

Casting the Runes

As mentioned above, runes can be used to glimpse possible future events or unknown circumstances. Perhaps the oldest method entails marking each of the twelve runes below on flat wooden sticks or small branches of a tree (gathered, of course, with the collection formula in “An Herbal Grimoire,” page 167). The rune sticks are held, the question or situation clearly visualized, and the sticks are cast to the ground.

Read the runes that are clearly visible. Or,with your eyes closed, pick out one rune stick at random.Divine its interpretation according to the above information, and then draw two more sticks at random, reading each as you take it from the pile on the floor.

Alternately, go to a riverbed, the beach, or a rock shop and collect twelve flat-sided stones. Draw or paint the runes on one side only of the stones. Visualize the question and cast the rune stones onto the floor. Interpret the runes on the stones that have landed faceup, reading them in a general order from right to left.

For example, the money rune next to “man” could signify that wealth will somehow come into your life connected with a man, or that money problems stem from a male influence. Interpretation of the stones relies heavily on your own intuitive and psychic powers, and the situation at hand.

Rune stones seem to have some built-in limitations. Most future readings cover a two-week period. Remember that as with all divinatory work, the runes show future
trends
only. If the picture they unfold for you is unappealing or dangerous, change your course to avoid such a future outcome.

The more you use rune stones, the more comfortable you will become with them. When not in use they can be placed in a basket, box, or cloth bag.

Here are twelve runes often used for divinatory purposes. You can also design your own runes and use them.