Ravens Wind

Hello Hive community,

Today I spent the afternoon creating this bind rune carving, more specifically the bind rune of our clan (Ravens Wind). The design has existed for a while, this is just my first time carving it.

Bind runes are symbols made up of two or more runes from the runic alphabet. I stick to the Elder Futhark but some people use the Younger Futhark as well. You can read more about the Elder Futhark here.

Each rune has a sacred meaning, possesses power, and may even give insight into the future or into the past. Each rune also has a positive and negative aspect to them like all things/events in our natural world, it is up to a person and how they perceive or interpret it.

I will go through each rune I used and describe what it means (to our clan).

Creation

The first rune is Tyr, which is the main rune in this bind rune. It connects all it the other runes and signifies our respect of the God Tyr and the honor conveyed through him and our people. We wish to restore honor to our native traditions and that is the significance of this rune.

So I messed up and forgot to take a picture of the Wunjo Rune (p shape) alone, so here you see Wunjo, Kenaz (K shape), and Raidho (R shape). Wunjo stands for joy and our quest to live joyful lives, Kenaz stands for light to see the way of our ancestors and not to be hindered by modern distractions, then Raidho which signifies the oxen (and his cart) also reminding us to stand firm in our beliefs but not to get stuck or be too stubborn.

To finish off the bind rune the leg is added for the rune Ansuz (the backward f shape). Ansuz is the rune of the God Odin. Odin is the God who gifted the runes to our ancestors and his rune stands for knowledge, knowledge to be passed down.

If you notice the top part of the rune there would be a diamond shape, but a line is missing. Having that line there would form the rune Othala, or ancestral property. We purposely left that out as a reminder that most off us have strayed from the path of our ancestors by worshiping foreign gods for many generations, but we are working to return to the traditional and natural ways.

Activation

Above is the unfinished bind rune and my toolkit and I say unfinished because a bind rune is powerless without activation. To activate a bindrune a ritual is performed (alone), a sacrifice is made (you promise to give up something, you make a meal for the dead, burn some hive tokens, etc.) then you make a mixture of red paint and fill in the carving.

You paint the bind rune in such a way that you paint each rune separately. While you paint the rune you speak it out loud and think about its meaning; therefore, activating it. Some people will give their bind rune a name to say at the end to finish off the ritual, but I do not.

I will not share any more details or photos of the activation ritual here, it is a scared and personal process.

This is a practice that has been handed down through generations in storytelling and literature such as the Eddas and Havamal.

Final Thoughts

I hope this gives you some insight into Native European traditions. Please know that our traditions are alive and well and even if many were lost by the forced conversion of our people, we are making new ones aligned with our beliefs of ancestral and nature worship.

We are people of the earth and are not concerned with what happens after this life. If we do well in this life the next life will work itself out on it's own.

We are proud of victory and bringing glory to our family, this is celebrated. We wish to honor our ancestors and their sacrifices by living honorable lives. We do not feel guilty for being human and strive to live without fear and regret.

Now is a good time to think about our native ways and returning to them to bring a balance to our world and our people.

Thanks for stopping by!

Auf alten Pfaden,

-@balticbadger