If you are new to working with bindrunes, I suggest you read the introductory bindrune post here, then return to this post to read about this specific bindrune. Remember that working with bindrunes, as with working with any kind of magic, does not carry guaranteed results, and may produce results quite different from what you expect.

In the United States, we have a fierce cult of the individual. (This is not a new phenomenon; Alexis de Tocqueville wrote extensively about it in his books Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840.) This creates many positive effects, such as encouragement to be one’s authentic self and to pursue one’s own idea of happiness, yet it also can create feelings of isolation from community, and trick us into thinking that we must do everything by our own powers and with only our own resources. While many of us have learned to be part of a community and to create our own family of choice to compensate for less-than-stellar childhood experiences, we do not draw upon the positive gifts of family due to emotional trauma or other difficulties.

This bindrune helps you connect with your family of origin and the positive inheritance that is yours by right of direct family connection, whether by blood and birth, as well as through fosterage or adoption.

Bindrune of Othala, Mannaz, Stan

Othala (green in bindrune): Othala represents your inheritance, both material and intangible. All that your ancestors have passed to you—your genes, your body, your traits and strengths, your hamingja—all these are contained in Othala, and are the foundation of your life.

Mannaz (blue in bindrune): Mannaz is the rune of the Self. This is you, your best, truest, most completely authentic Self, anchored in the strength of Othala.

Stan (grey in bindrune): Stan represents the keystone, the crowning achievement of your efforts, and emanates from you as Mannaz.

You could put a drop of rosemary oil to help focus your mental energies, or a drop of your favorite oil on it to reinforce the energy with your personal scent. You can also use a magical oil, such as a hoodoo oil or other type of specially prepared oil.

We all have family stuff to deal with, even if we grew up in healthy, happy homes. There’s always some shadow or unresolved issues to deal with. But even the most dysfunctional family carries some positive energies, and this bindrune can help you cut through what is harmful so that you can connect with, and draw upon, the positive inheritance that is yours.

Use this bindrune—and all bindrunes—entirely at your own risk.

Early Darkness

~ D. Patrick Miller

Think of it as ink:

an indigo dye descending

between the leaves of the trees

and down to the grasses.

There is no dying of the light–

just the washing of a bowl,

and overturning it for night.

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for February 15, 2017
Active Influence: Hrimthurs/Three Coins
Rune: Yr/Focus
Hidden Influence: Fjolvar/Seven of Coins

Today is about work, and focus, and actually doing the work. You may be focused and getting your work done, but others around you are distracted, preoccupied, or just plain absent. This is likely going to create problems for you, so use the creative energies of Yr and Fjolvar to find new approaches to the problems so you can go home on time.

Fjolvar is the brothel-keeper of Algron (the All Green Island), whose employees have, shall we say, unique talents. Anyone can agree to trade sexual activity for money, but it takes a truly creative person to distract the client so much with their Dance of the Seven Fire Veils that the client forgets why they are at the brothel, and suddenly time is up, and the client leaves a significant tip on their dazzled way out the door. So you, too, have unique talents (although probably not in quite the same setting), which can bring you unexpected success in difficult circumstances. You may have to sing for your supper, but you can choose the song.

I See Thee Better in the Dark
~ Emily Dickinson

I see thee better in the dark,
I do not need a light.
The love of thee a prism be
Excelling violet.

I see thee better for the years
That hunch themselves between,
The miner’s lamp sufficient be
To nullify the mine.

And in the grave I see thee best—
Its little panels be
A-glow, all ruddy with the light
I held so high for thee!

What need of day to those whose dark
Hath so surpassing sun,
It seem it be continually
At the meridian?

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for February 14, 2017
Active Influence: Hyndla/The Hermit
Rune: Laguz/Flow (reversed)
Hidden Influence: Loki & Thor/Seven of Swords

Stay home, don’t answer the phone, ignore your email, and clean the house. No, really.

Hyndla encourages solitude, meditation, and contemplation. Laguz reversed indicates a flurry of low-level frustrations and delays which, individually, are not an issue, but which accumulate to create disproportionate stress and aggravation. More hassle than it’s worth for the effort required to put on shoes and go outside.

And then there’s Loki and Thor, dressing as Freya and one of her handmaidens to trick Thrym long enough so Thor can get Mjolnir back from the wily Joutn who stole it. If you’re thinking of a clever scheme to get around someone today, this is not the day to do it. Just don’t. See the interpretation for the reversed Laguz, and consider whether that’s the energy you want to deal with when trying to be sneaky. (Answer: it’s not.)

If you are dealing with others, be sure of their motives and of the actual (not stated) outcomes of any plans—Thrym was expecting to marry Freya, and instead He got Thor in a dress, and got whacked upside the head with Mjolnir. Stay to the path of right action and make sure you aren’t in line for a smack upside the head from a colleague or friend—or the Universe.