Carving a rune? Do this first.
Cleanse your blade with salt, breathe nine times, and say the rune's name on the final stroke. Red in the grooves wakes it up.
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Why spirits won't cross a salt line
Salt preserves, so folklore says it keeps rot and spirits out. Pour clockwise from the north. Open it counterclockwise when you're done.
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How to cast runes in 60 seconds
Shake the bag, hold your question, cast on a cloth. Only read the runes that land face up. Closest to you = the present.
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Odin hung 9 nights for the runes
Pierced by his own spear on Yggdrasil, no food, no water. On the ninth night he saw the runes and took them up, screaming. That's the energy.
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The runestones are still standing
Over 3,000 runestones survive in Scandinavia, most in Sweden. Many were raised for the dead: 'X raised this stone for Y, his son.'
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Coffin nails: the iron that stays put
Iron has warded off spirits for centuries. Coffin nails add finality: what they pin down, stays down. Buy new, never take from graves.
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Is your cat your familiar?
Signs: they sit in your ritual space, stare at 'nothing', and show up when you pull runes. Freyja's chariot was pulled by cats, after all.
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Hel isn't the devil
Half living, half corpse, Hel rules where most of the dead go. Helheim isn't punishment. It's rest. She's who you call for ancestor work.
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Vodou and Hoodoo aren't aesthetics
They're living traditions of Haitian and African American communities. Learn from their practitioners, buy from their shops, and respect a 'no'.
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