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Freetha β€” The Rune Cloth

Published: 2008-10-29 15:51:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 2914; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 0
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Description Finally finished this rune cloth measures justabout 75cm in either direction. The design is mine, based off of the way I read the rune cards displayed on the right (They are made by Lyng in Iceland [link] and they've been my favorite oracle for the past couple of years I've had them.), and I've hand painted each detail on the cloth as well as ran it through the sewing machine to clean and seal the ends.

It's pretty straightforward and each one of the 24 runes of the elder futhark features once on the cloth (4 in the runestave in the center) organized in a manner that fits my personal style of reading the cards and wishes for the influences from the runes to me and those I choose to read for.

The cloth folds up neatly and fits perfectly around my deck, even better than I hoped it would.
Later on, there will be made a set of cloths in 50x50cm fabric cut (a little smaller) which I plan to sell with a set of runes for "casting" (throwing). Each of those cloths will come with a small pamphlet explaining each of the runes and "how to cast the runes in accordance with the oldest ways of reading them" sort of thing.

The paint I've used is laundry-safe up to 60Β°C but I suggest a 30-40Β°C wash for the sake of the fabric instead.
The cloth is blue with silver and black paint, but I can be talked into other colours if people are willing to put down a few extra bucks for it.

THERE WILL BE NO BLANK RUNE as that is an invention by a man named Ralph Blum who got a set of 24 runes along with one blank disk in the mail. The blank disk was meant as a "joker" sort of a disk, one that can be used to replace a rune if you loose one, or to paint a rune or runestave on for carrying around as an amulet. This is a modern invention and if you get a set of runes that carries that blank rune, not only should you remove that from your set, but you should also throw out the leaflet/book of meanings you've gotten with the set as mr. Blum also re-wrote the meanings of the runes, re-organized the runes, and generally changed the whole system about and his work is largely pulled out of his ass and should not be used by anyone with half a brain.

I Can make some of these by order but the price of each will be somewhere between 35 and 50 per cloth at least.

I do expect each cloth with runes to be about 45-60 dollars total as each cloth will be hand cut, adjusted, and painted and it'll take at minimum 6 hours each. This one took me about 12 hours as I was still "learning" meathods and means of getting it the way I want it.
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Comments: 29

PiercedXWolfie [2009-01-09 14:51:04 +0000 UTC]

What an interesting way to read. I've never thought of using Rune cards. I love the reading blanket as well. My poor runes are chipped thanks to years and years of reading. Perhaps a set of cards would last longer. Do you find them easier to draw?

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Freetha In reply to PiercedXWolfie [2009-01-11 01:41:25 +0000 UTC]

My cards are two years old and just starting to show proper signs of wear and tear. I do find the cards easier to draw as I only "cast" (kasta = throw) the little wooden runes I have.

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PiercedXWolfie In reply to Freetha [2009-01-11 16:12:32 +0000 UTC]

What kind of wood do you use? I've been trying to find a nice piece of ash to make myself a nice set, but can't find any.

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Freetha In reply to PiercedXWolfie [2009-01-11 16:20:03 +0000 UTC]

I found a fallen branch of swedish oak that I used form my old set (buried 'em in sweden when I moved back home to Iceland), I've used birch for my current set and hope to make a new set out of bone/horn soon.

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PiercedXWolfie In reply to Freetha [2009-01-11 16:22:37 +0000 UTC]

You live in Iceland? Oh, I envy you so much. A bone/ horn set would be lovely. I love the way bone feels in your hand when it starts to smooth down. I plan on making 2 more sets. I think I'm going to use some type of white clay and make square shaped ones and then I want to make the ash set. I'm officially going to add you to my watch now

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Freetha In reply to PiercedXWolfie [2009-01-11 23:14:31 +0000 UTC]

^^Β Thank you for the watch


The problem with bone/horn is that it reeks when you do all the cutting and I just don't have the space (i.e. a studeo away from the living area!) to work with that atm.

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Rune-Druid [2008-11-24 08:16:11 +0000 UTC]

Love it!

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Freetha In reply to Rune-Druid [2008-11-24 14:55:03 +0000 UTC]

*bows* Thank you.

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Lin16 [2008-11-05 22:14:52 +0000 UTC]

Fancy!

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Freetha In reply to Lin16 [2008-11-06 11:18:26 +0000 UTC]

^^ Thanks

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AJDrake [2008-10-30 15:18:29 +0000 UTC]

It's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but the color combination of blue with silver and black paint sounds rather pretty o_o

I still need to find my notebook I wrote the runes and their meanings down it. I been looking for it, but thus far it has eluded me. I didn't know they made cards for them that you could get meanings from o_o

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Freetha In reply to AJDrake [2008-10-30 18:21:40 +0000 UTC]

It's an icelandic production, so there's not too many ppl in the "whole wide world" that know about them.

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AJDrake In reply to Freetha [2008-10-31 15:50:59 +0000 UTC]

I know about runes, and that each rune has some sorta meaning. I didn't know the runes had names, though. And I didn't know you could use them for uhm... dunno the right word... fortune-telling?

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Freetha In reply to AJDrake [2008-10-31 19:22:12 +0000 UTC]

*snickers* (fortune-telling works... or Divination)
Well, now you know.

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Jacarath [2008-10-30 00:49:36 +0000 UTC]

This looks beautiful!

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Freetha In reply to Jacarath [2008-10-30 10:26:24 +0000 UTC]

Thank you.
I'm really quite happy with it.. it suits me perfectly.

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dentalfloos [2008-10-29 21:40:52 +0000 UTC]

Heh, another anti-Blum person. Join the club, we have cookies (that 'haku hasn't taken at least). Though I've seen the blank "rune" used successfully a couple of times, so to each their own I guess.

This is a nice layout, a new design to me at least. I always like looking at how people interpret the layouts for runes.

Though what does the stave in the middle mean? I see kenaz, raidho, tir, and ing...am I right?

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Freetha In reply to dentalfloos [2008-10-29 22:08:37 +0000 UTC]

I will be using the cloth to do "professional" readings at a new-age shop (the only one) in Akureyri. So I decided to take Kenaz (for insight/wisdom) Raidho (in the sense of the journey of life) Ing (to keep productive/active) all under TΓ½rsrΓΊn for keeping just, fair, and to protect myself a little. It's a reminder to be just and fair, while asking my insight and activity into the lives of others to be treated just and fairly as well.

The three rune reading never gave me "enough", so I expanded it into 3x3 is all. It just made sense to me. It's worked wonders for my insight and it works brilliantly with my "Wisdom of Avalon" (Call me an elf for it and die!) cards.

And Blum's a twat!
The blank rune was never used by the norse/teutonic people. The word "Wyrd" is anglosaxon in origin and was never used by the norse/teutonic people. For all intents and purposes the word "RΓΊn" (rune) means mystery/magic in a similar sense as his "wyrd" is translated to, so if you have the runes you got that meaning in the lot of 'em anyway, so the need for wyrd is lost there too.

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dentalfloos In reply to Freetha [2008-10-29 23:10:47 +0000 UTC]

Sweet, I got them right! I find it interesting you use Ing for activity, since I usually see it as success and relief, a positive "end" rune of sorts (in general). Course that's not bad either for readings.

"Call me an elf for it and die!"
I wasn't going to I swear!

And I understand what you're saying about the runes. It's just that a few I've met who enjoyed runes as a divination device weren't too serious and concerned with getting the accurate history/lore on the runes. For them "wyrd" worked out.

But I don't think there's a need for wyrd as well. Perdro and Nied already cover all the aspects associated with "wyrd", and having a double of the same meanings in one reading would throw it off.

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Freetha In reply to dentalfloos [2008-10-30 00:07:14 +0000 UTC]

exactly..

Ing is not used for "ends" in any of the runic meanings I work with and what I work with is as close to the "original" meanings as I can get. Ingwaz is used for productivity and diligence..
PerΓΎro is destiny itself..
But Nauthiz (Nied) is the proverbial bump in the road. It's the hardships and suffering we must all overcome in life. It's the "Need" that teaches us to find a way.

It makes me wonder where you've been studying by the by.. just out of curiocity.

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dentalfloos In reply to Freetha [2008-11-01 05:18:28 +0000 UTC]

Sorry, I'll elaborate. What I meant by Ing as being an "end" rune is this: while I've seen it linked to starting points a lot, in my personal experiance it has often signified a positive, or successful, ending point that in turn becomes a positive starting point for the next event, however it pertains to the original question asked.

Basically, the "death" of one thing becomes the "birth" of another. Even if that's not the true meaning of Ing, it seems to be working out for me and those I cast for just fine.

And what you said about Perthro and Nied/Nauthiz is basically how I've seen wyrd interpreted.

Which is basically how I interpret the runes, some basic keywords and concepts that put my own experiences and results on top of them. It's half personal and half books, in other words. No official studies here I'm afraid, and since I cannot speak anything close to the original languages connected to runes, I'm stuck with using English writings. But so far it's worked out nicely so I'm not complaining.

I respect the history and lore surrounding the runes, but I only use this system for personal reasons (and to those that ask me for readings as a favor). I don't claim to be a runemaster or rune mage or whatever the hell people say, and I certainly don't claim to know all about the runes. They're just something that I've successfully connected with internally for the past 5 years, more strongly than with tarot or oracle cards. Runes were my first divination method after all.

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Freetha In reply to dentalfloos [2008-11-01 12:28:41 +0000 UTC]

Tarot were my first divination meathod. Got a fresh deck of Rider Waite tarot cards when I was ten but haven't been using it much at all in the last four or five years since I dreamt I was laying a different deck, one I "know" I should have. It's still not "finished", the woman that's painting them has been painting them since I first dreamt of laying them. Cats' Eye Tarot, they're worth a look.

No one knows "everything" about the runes, it's impossible to, but 16 out of 24 runes come with little icelandic rune-poems which do explain their meaning in greater detail than you could ask for from other sources, that combined with the old norse rune poems is the basis behind the meaning as given on these cards, which is why I love them with all my divination-oriented-heart. It's as close to "original meaning" as one could hope to get.

I've ofcourse been studying the runes and their history more than using them for divinatory purposes. Knowledge first and all that. It wasn't 'til about 6 years ago that I started seeing the runes around me, in the way things around me were organized, in the patterns written by the falling snow and so forth, and then I figured I might as well listen.
Got the cards two years ago and haven't pegged them wrong yet..

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dentalfloos In reply to Freetha [2008-11-02 21:32:52 +0000 UTC]

Oh I hate the RWS deck, it's so ugly and plain. My first deck was Animals Divine, thankfully, so I never had to use the RWS one.

"that I started seeing the runes around me, in the way things around me were organized, in the patterns written by the falling snow and so forth, and then I figured I might as well listen."

They do seem to have a life of their own don't they...I've noticed that too. Both around me and in the stones themselves (I don't use cards, I just have regular, plain stones). Part of the reason why I feel so attached to them.

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Freetha In reply to dentalfloos [2008-11-03 14:03:08 +0000 UTC]

The RWS is what all other tarot cards are based off of, so I figured I'd start at the beginning. It's kinda my approach to most things. Study it from the "start".
It's simple and plain yeah, but it isn't ugly, it's just in a different art-type than people are used to today.
I've sometimes considered doing a tarot deck based on the norse/teutonic heathen-path, but I couldn't do all the artwork for it myself, I'd rather just "design" the thing and work with another artist to get the images to look the way I want them to. My style doesn't fit what I'd want to do.

The runes are a living thing yeah, sometimes uncomfortably so, heh.

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dentalfloos In reply to Freetha [2008-11-04 01:43:04 +0000 UTC]

There's actually several Norse/Heathen themed decks out there already: [link]

But I haven't bought any yet, so I can't tell you if they're good/accurate/etc., or not. On a glance though nothing stands out to me as being unique.

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Freetha In reply to dentalfloos [2008-11-04 20:15:20 +0000 UTC]

On a glance, they look a little poor...
the 25-rune-cards alone make me want to throw things.
*grumbles about mr. Blum again.. *

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dentalfloos In reply to Freetha [2008-11-04 23:57:35 +0000 UTC]

Which is why I never recommend them to anyone XD

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MummyMetaller [2008-10-29 16:31:24 +0000 UTC]

This is actually really lovely! Fantastic work

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Freetha In reply to MummyMetaller [2008-10-29 18:37:58 +0000 UTC]

^^ Thanks hun.
And thanks for ing it too.

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