The casting of runes upon the cloth is a more advanced technique, requiring experienced interpretive skills. It can provide a deeper, but much more complex meaning. For a start, some runes will fall outside of the established fields of meaning; they should be discarded from the reading. Also, some fields may be empty if no runes fall in those places. Those areas will thus have no impact upon the reading (although it may be interesting to consider if these missing influences could be introduced into a situation they are currently absent from: is a situation bad because it is lacking in fehu, for instance, or does the lack of any activity in Ljossalfheim signify why the questioner is indecisive?) In such readings, different fields will contain different numbers of runes and their concentrations need to be explained and their combined influences calculated. Bear in mind that some runes may cross from one field to the next, falling across the line. Some may fall and lie in parallel, reinforcing each other. Still others may fall across one another, blocking or diverting each others' influence. All of these patterns will need to be interpreted and read according to your runic knowledge and your own inspired intuition. Let the runes speak to your deep mind, do not simply recite accepted meanings by rote.
The information provided is sufficient for a good student to use the runes for divinatory purposes. Much more detail on this subject, with examples and additional layout methods and ritual guidelines can be found in Edred Thorsson's book At the Well of Wyrd, which is the last word on the subject.
Reading the Runes in the World and in Others
The seith method of divination is to enter a trance state and seek to intuit the currents and patterns of the rune streams flowing through the world by direct psychic apprehension, instead of establishing a resonance with physical runestaves to read them in. The Initiate seeks to focus his mind on the question to the degree that it triggers a mental state that allows him to see the Wyrd spread out before him, enabling him to prophesy, speaking what he sees.
It is possible to practice this trance state by deliberately taking time to consider what runes are present in a given situation in everyday life. In this way, you will train your mind to look for the roots of things as a matter of course. Every half hour or so, remind yourself to have a look at everything that is occurring about you and analyse it runically. For instance, if a monetary transaction is taking place, fehu will be involved; if cars are driving by, think raidho. Initially, your insights will be of this simplistic nature, but as your runic knowledge grows and your analysis of people and circumstances starts to deepen, you will begin to jump to some startling insights as your subconscious senses and responds to your desire to look deeper into the causes of things. You will find yourself perceiving exactly how a situation will unfold before it actually happens. This skill can then be transferred from your practice into a more formal divination session when you really wish to know something important to you.
There are both pros and cons to this more intuitive approach as compared with the techniques of laying out physical runestaves for a reading. On the plus side, the patterns and currents you perceive arising from your deep mind have already been weighted and interpreted before they bubble through into your consciousness. All you need do is speak what you 'see' and relate what 'comes through'. Also, you are more likely to pick up one specific details which may be uncannily accurate, things that may never occur to those who rely on a more rigid interpretive matrix. But on the minus side, you are more prone to error and have no real checks and balances against which to check your perceptions. If you are at all off colour or obsessed or troubled by some other issue at the time of the divination, it is far more likely to colour your results and introduce error.
Initiates should strive to master both methods of divination, of course.
Riding the Eight-Legged Steed: Rune Journeys
Now that you are training your mind to perceive the rune streams in the world around you, it is time to reach out with your consciousness to explore the worlds beyond this one. Midgard is the centre of all the worlds, the realm of manifestation, but it is important to grow to understand where these runic streams are ultimately flowing from. Note that the previous sentence should be interpreted very carefully; your first interpretation of it may not be your final interpretation of it, but this may become clearer as we progress.
The process of stepping out of Midgard and perceiving the other worlds is one which requires a specific combination of Will and imagination. The imagination is the tool which gives shape and perception to realms beyond the physical. A firm Will is required to keep the vision on track and not fall into the trap of daydreaming.
These journeys, which are such an important part of the seith part of our Work, raise all manner of stumbling blocks for those not already familiar with them. Some people will find it difficult to distinguish whether they are actually on a clairvoyant journey at all and will not be able to grasp the reality of what they are doing. Others will protest, “But it's only imagination!” Let's take a little time to put these difficulties and misunderstandings to rest.
Probably the most common difficulty faced by inexperienced but eager Initiates is the failure to recognise when they are experiencing such a mental journey (or 'astral journey' as most occult sources label it). Go back and reread what is said about trance states, then remind yourself that the imagination is the tool used to undertake such journeys. It is possible to expect too much, but this technique – as with all others – can only reach its greatest strength through practice. People tend to expect to feel a sense of separation from their bodies. This will probably not happen, at least not at first. The body is still there, with all of its sensual apparatus active, and it is only the well-experienced mind that can sink itself so deeply into its visionary experience that all awareness of the body is temporarily lost. In fact, some of us make deliberate use of the fact by shifting awareness back and forth to make notes as we go (this is probably not advisable for beginners, as the continual shifting of consciousness may break the connection to the experience).
It may help, therefore, to assume that what you are doing – at least initially, until experience teaches you otherwise – is simply a kind of daydreaming combined with meditation. Just use your imagination to shape your journey, visualising the sights and sounds of the world around you as you go. When you have gained some familiarity with the proces, you will learn to distinguish between this willed process and mere daydreaming, especially when startling insights and communications start to come through. But for now, daydreaming describes the kind of perception you should reasonably expect.
As for the protest that this is only imagination: there is no 'only' about imagination! Everything that mankind has ever produced has been birthed in the imagination. The great cathedrals, the pyramids, every work of art, the internal combustion engine, all of these things were only made real because they were first conjured into existence in someone's imagination. What is more, the imagination is the mind's image-making faculty, it is the lens which interprets and presents the information gathered by the senses. So literally everything you ever perceive – even those you deem to be objectively real – are reshaped and prepared in your imagination before presentation to your conscious mind. So this silly objection can be discarded altogether.
It should be borne in mind that although the physical body is bound to the physical world of Midgard, the consciousness is not. The imagination and intellect may roam freely throughout the worlds once it finds the paths to do so. This process is akin to dreaming, wherein the mind fashions a mental body for itself to interact with the visions and landscapes it encounters. Odin's steed Sleipnir had eight legs and so does the human mind. The body remains in Midgard, but the legs of the imagination may ride throughout the other eight worlds.
Mapping the Nine Worlds
How does one set about exploring the World Tree? First of all, remember that you are established in Midgard, the central world, into which the influences of all the others flow and become manifest. S
o don't make the mistake of assuming that you start at the bottom and work up, or at the top and work down. Your journeys will begin in Midgard, the centre, and wend outwards, up and down from that point.
If you refer back to the diagram of Yggdrasil in chapter three, you will note that pathways run between the various worlds, connecting them all. A journey will consist of establishing your consciousness in Midgard, then sending it forth along these paths, making note of all that you see and experience along the way, finally arriving in one of the other worlds described in the third chapter.
You will notice that there are twenty four of these paths and it makes sense to assume that this number is significant, with each path relating to one of the runes. I am not going to spell out for you which is which or suggest an authorised interpretation, I will simply suggest that if you begin in Midgard and chart your path out, up and down from there, you will find a pattern of meaning that appeals to you. Let each path speak to you and inform you of its own merits. Ultimately, if you have put the groundwork in and are confident of your rune lore, you cannot be wrong, since every path contains every rune to some degree, just as all runes are but aspects of the one Rune.
Each journey should have a specific destination. For example, you may decide that you wish to visit Vanaheim to learn the wisdom of that world. You would begin by using the techniques already learned to quiet your thoughts and enter a light trance. Then create a vivid mental image of yourself and powerfully imagine yourself 'stepping out' of Midgard and travelling west, in the direction of Vanaheim. Carefully observe everything that you encounter on the path that leads you there, as you will want to make extensive notes of all your travels. If you fail to keep notes, there is no point even beginning this Work. Eventually, the path will lead you to Vanaheim and you will enter that realm. Don't rush things: simply getting there will probably be sufficient for your first visit. The next time, you will be able to tread the path more quickly, relying on the landmarks you have already established, and will be able to spend more time in the world of Vanaheim itself. Each retreading of a journey will become more solid and 'real' in your mind, adding structure to your psychic universe. You will become familiar with the paths, noting more and more detail as they open themselves up to you. These journeys should be made many, many times.
Do this for all of the paths and worlds, lay claim to them and come to understand them as a regular traveller of the rune-roads.
Once you have become accustomed to the layout of the nine worlds and the paths that run between them and have established a series of landmarks whereby you navigate the branches of Yggdrasil, it is time to start personalising them a little more.
Turn now to the dream journal you began keeping in the Work of the previous chapter. If you have been keeping this journal for any period of time, you will have already noticed how certain themes, images and locations frequently recur in your dreams. These are themes which are unique to yourself and are reflective of the manner in which your subconscious chooses to communicate with you. You should therefore make the effort to try to place those dreams within the psychic map you have been constructing. Consider carefully to which world – or connecting path – a given dream image belongs. You might wish to draw an outline of the world tree, write upon it the traditional attributions and over a period of time add those dream images which are your own.
Interpretation of Dreams and Omens
Once you start mapping your own dream world to Yggdrasil, you will find a new coherence of vision within your innermost self. What is more, you will find that this coherence begins to inform you on many levels.
Forget books about dream interpretation. The guide to the meanings of your own visions will be discovered by the attributions you apply on your world tree. As these expand and grow, so the Mysteries of your subconscious are gradually revealed. The meaning of your dreams will be laid bare to you. (Of course, not all dreams have important meanings, but all arise for some reason; interpret the little along with the great. Practice always makes perfect.)
This will further lead to the apprehension and interpretation of those synchronicities that arise in the magical life with ever-increasing frequency. This ability is at the root of accounts of soothsayers who could divine the future by observing the flight of birds and so forth. All things speak to the mind that is awake and alert and tuned into its own language of Mystery. This observation and interpretation of symbols incorporated in synchronistic happenings is another aspect of seith and should be practised by the Initiate. You will score many failures at first as you learn the 'language', but each failure will teach you more until you begin to see and speak True.
Blood and Venom
We will be dealing with the full initiatory symbolism of the Sigurd / Fafnir myth in the next chapter, taking it to its culmination. But first, it is appropriate to investigate the nature of the Dragon and its attributes a little more closely. We need to be fully aware of the forces we are dealing with.
We have already spent some time looking at the outward powers of the Dragon, in particular the Helm of Awe, but we also need to examine its inner power: its Blood and Venom.
The blood of Fafnir is key to the Sigurd myth. It is after tasting the Dragon's blood, that Sigurd is able to understand the languages of bird and beast and thus discover Regin's plot to kill him. It is thus the blood that passes on the power of the Dragon into the hero and which ensures the hero's own survival.
Blood is key to survival, of course. It is the vital fluid that carries life-giving oxygen around the body. It is red with the heat of vital energy. Blood is used to enliven runestaves. We use the term 'bloodline' to refer to our ancestry, to the heritage we carry within our genetic structure. Those of us who view the world through spectacles which are not purely mechanistic believe that blood may also carry forward a psychic heritage, a pattern of Becoming that is ultimately traced back to Odin.
The Dragon is symbolic of the Beast in Man. It is the primal root of Being, the reptilian brain stem which predates the development of true consciousness. It is the raw Chaos-stuff of which our psyches are born and shaped. The bloodline of the Dragon carries forward all of these qualities, the genetic and psychic attributes of the Beast. So what does it mean when Sigurd slays Fafnir and then tastes the Dragon's blood?
The slaying of the Dragon is indicative of the victory of consciousness over non-consciousness in the individual. This is that moment when one becomes an Initiate and can honestly say, “I have Come Into Being.” The Initiate has learned to steer the course of his life by conscious Will, jettisoning the pre-programmed survival responses and conditioning, and adopting free choice in their place.
The act of consuming the Dragon's blood establishes a very important fact, however, one that is deeply rooted in the Northern tradition with its emphasis upon ancestral sovereignty and the literal kinship between Man and his Gods. This tasting is an act of affirmation that the hero and the Dragon are linked by blood: they are kin.
In other words, the Initiate takes conscious control of his life and establishes his own Will in the place of sovereignty, but he accepts the Beast that he has conquered as a valid and necessary part of himself. Its functions and powers are vital ones in this world, so he brings them into conscious awareness, unifying the heroic essence with the Draconian essence by an act of Will.
This essential step of unifying the conscious and bestial natures is an important one in the practice of Draconian magic. Some initiatory schools neglect to stress the necessity of this step, assuming that the 'lower nature' can be sloughed off and disregarded. This ultimately leads to the resurgence of those powers as 'monsters from the id', as admirably illustrated in the old science fiction movie Forbidden Planet. After the ascension of consciousness to the throne of Self and the overthrowing of the pre-conscious imperatives, they must be examined, understood and brought fully on board as essential parts of the mind-body-soul complex.
So as Sigurd kills Fafnir in the saga, in a very real sense he
actually Becomes the Dragon. A further metamorphosis / integration lies ahead of him, which will be discussed over the next two chapters.
Blood is not the only fluid associated with the Dragon of the North, however. As blood is the fluid of life, so venom is the fluid of death. All of the great Serpents and Dragons of Northern mythology are described as venomous in the extreme: their breath, their bite and their very presence are poisonous. In the Sigurd myth, pits are dug for the venom to spew into; it is the venom of Jormungandr that causes Thor to fall at Ragnarok after the mighty God kills the Serpent with His hammer; Beowulf is brought low by the venom of the Dragon which has been laying waste to his kingdom. In so many tales, the hero kills the Dragon but is then himself overcome by its venom.
The thing that distinguishes Sigurd from other legendary Dragon-slayers is that he tasted the Beast's blood and assumed its qualities, integrating it into himself. The consciousness that cannot integrate the Dragon within is doomed to die by its venom.
What is the nature of this venom? The poison of an ordinary snake tends to break down and dissolve the tissue into which it has been injected. In other words, it is a dispersive agent, whose function is to break aggregates down into their constituent parts. Naturally, as the venom courses through the blood stream, the body of the stricken victim breaks down altogether and death ensues.
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