During Yuletide, I made a set of runes using birch wood I brought back from Iceland in April of last year. Because I'm a folklorist, I thought it might be interesting to document the process in pictures and share them with you. The tools and the burning/soldering kit (not shown) were gifts from my husband (I've needed proper electric tools for a while now), the cutting board oil is made of coconut oil and essential oils that smell faintly of lemongrass, and the velvet comes from my grandmother's quilting stash, which I inherited in the late nineties before she passed away.
I usually allow a set of runes to germinate for at least four seasons; two to cure the wood, one to make the runes, and one to let them rest before blessing them. I prefer to make runes at Yuletide, and I'll bless this set on May 1st when I return from Newfoundland. Meanwhile, it sits on the altar in my studio at home in Nova Scotia, sleeping as the snow falls outside.
This is a particularly sacred set for me, since I traded an oath for the wood. Later, I laid that wood out under the summer solar eclipse to charge it. Given the creation of the runes at Yuletide and the blessing of them at Walpurgisnacht, they promise to be powerful conduits, and I plan to utilize them with that in mind.
Here are the photos.
Birch Branch Cured Since April 2017
Rune Blanks Cut With a 60-Tooth Mitre Saw Blade
Mitre Saw Set Up to Ensure Rune Blanks of Equal Size
60-Tooth Mitre Saw Blade
Runes Sanded With 120, 220, and 400 Grit Sandpaper Using an Electric Sander
Runes Penciled on the Blanks
Runes Burned on the Blanks
Runes Oiled With Organic, Plant-Based Cutting Board Oil
Finished Runes Resting on a Piece of My Grandmother's White Velvet
Finished Runes Resting on a Finished White Bag
Dr. Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran holds hold B.A. in Celtic Studies from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Maine, and a PhD in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is also an author, poet, and musician under the name C.S. MacCath. Her long-running Folklore & Fiction Project integrates these passions with a focus on folklore scholarship aimed at storytellers, and she brings a deep appreciation of animism, ecology, and folkloristics to her own storytelling. You can find her online at csmaccath.com, folkloreandfiction.com, and linktr.ee/csmaccath.
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