NaNo! NaNo!
No, I haven’t been conducted by Mork from Ork. I just decided I need to focus on writing rather than blogging this month. The last book I released was Daemonic Shamanism in July 2017, so I better get my act together if I want to publish in the new year.
Unfortunately, my commitment to seminary eats up the deal of the time I could use to produce work for the public. My main goal this month is to complete my portion of the next training program available through the temple of which I am apart. When I have my rough draft done, I can submit it to the other members of the clergy keep a review. I’m not able to discuss it at this stage in great detail— and I probably wouldn’t even if I could!
While some writers find speaking about their work in progress for some on, I have far more reluctant to do so with anyone other than my closest friends and family. Until I have finished a project’s rough draft, I tend to act like a nervous new mother with her first pregnancy. I won’t discuss my child until it passes through that worrisome and often difficult first trimester. Until then, I don’t want to risk any outside influences affecting or—I’ll admit it—jinxing the creation process. If I speak to you about something I’m writing, especially if I ask your advice, it means I trust you deeply indeed and respect your counsel.
And if I ask you to back off…
Well, to be truthful, the creation is messy. Writers may be likened to gods in some ways, forming our individual little worlds and people from the clay of our dreams, but it isn’t as clean as the myths make it it sound. I can’t speak for Ptah, but I get a lot of dirt under my fingernails while trying to scrape a planet together. It feels less like sitting down at the potting wheel at this point and more like slinging shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. I don’t necessarily want anyone else around while I’m flinging my own poo, you know?
Needless to say, I haven’t forgotten about this place. I haven’t backed off from using the Lenormand daily, either, though I’m not creating as many new spreads as I was last month. At the moment, I’m sticking to three-card draws, reading them both as a past/present/future spread and the triplet to form a sentence. As I approached the end of October, I found my daily practice shifting towards spending more time with my ancestors in the death Daemonic the divination. It’s the season, of course—and will continue to be the season for me until approximately the middle of November. The veil that many Pagans speak of thinning or opening at this time of year did not simply snap back shut as soon as Halloween finished. I personally find the optimal time for spirit communication last until approximately Remembrance Day. I’ll take on my altar and began preparing one for the winter season then.
This might seem early to some. After all, they’re only 12 days of Christmas and none of them are in November. Be that as it may, Odin poked his head in during and my meditations on the Death Daemonic, so could be that Jolnir and the holiday named after him is simply on my mind. It is one of his many aspects.
My friend over at Invoking Belial recently spent a month exploring the Elder Futhark, better known as the runes. I asked him if he would might be taking up the torch, and we spoke briefly about the possibility of interacting with the daemonic through the symbols. The truth is, I already have to some extent. I was using the runes as my primary divination system back in 2009 when I first began to work with Lucifer in a focused way. He reached out during my journeys and I read the runes to both make sense of and verify his messages for some time. Later, when I wanted a larger symbol set to communicate with him, I switched back to Tarot and other card-based oracles. I’d already read cards for over 20 years by then, so they were familiar friends. Since then I’ve continued to use the runes, but mainly for magickal work specifically involving the Norse deities.
When the Domagick challenge for December came up, I realized that I can return to my rune studies and engage them on a far deeper level than I ever had before. In preparation, I’ll be rereading my original rune divination texts, an ancient copy of Gundarsson’s Teutonic Magic and Thorrson’s Runecaster’s Handbook. I will then build on this knowledge by working through Futhark in December, also by Thorrson. During that month, I will meditate on each of the runes while singing the sounds associated with them, or galdr. I will attempt to do this will standing in the shape of the rune as well, a technique known as runeyoga or stadhr. If my body doesn’t permit me to hold that position, I will concentrate on the sound instead.
Immediately following the meditation, while I am still full of the rune’s energy, I will paint it on bristol board with red ink to which I’ve added my own blood. From that point forward, I will be the only person able to read and handle with the runes I produced. This is standard practice when creating a set of runes. In Daemonolatry, a ritual tool created this way is considered bound to the maker, and so it is here. If anyone else wanted to consult these runes, they would ask their questions, and I then would shake the bag or cup that the runes are in and consult the fates.
This may seem counter-intuitive to those who are normally asked to shuffle the deck themselves during a card reading, but with runes it is the castor his or herself who connects with the Norns or Fates to see the future clearly. He or she is the one who interacts with these forces, and thus the only person who should touch the runes. Those wishing to call upon these beings and undertake their own readings need to make a personalized set.
Because I wasn’t a Daemonolater when I first use runes, I never reddened any of the sets I purchased thus far with anything other than red ochre. In the past, I fretted using blood. In the years since, I have bloodied many bindrunes for magical purposes to excellent effect. This will be the first full set of the Elder Futhark I have made completely traditionally, I want to see if they work better for me. Back in ancient times, runes tended to be carved most often into wood and stone. Should this method give me better results, I will eventually sacrifice the entire lot to Odin and create a more permanent lot with similarly.
I’m also considering conducting a 9-day ritual for Odin prior to meditating on any of the runes, but that part of my work remains nebulous at this stage. It has yet to come to me in a fully formed way, so I don’t want to commit to anything.
For the same reason, I find myself unwilling to promise blogging here with any regularity during November, except that I’ll make an effort once a week during my month “off.” Good luck to anyone participating in NaNoWriMo and the next Domagick challenge!
