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About Magical Tools
| Magical tools are blessed items made with intention and charged with personal energy in the making. The process begins as an idea and ends with a power object. I believe that great power can be channelled in the process of creation, but objects can be cleansed and filled with might after they have been made as well. Singing rune galdor over them, especially runic songs composed for the occasion and filled with symbolic and appropriate meaning, is very effective. Tools can be cleansed by many means. I use the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water to cleanse. You can bury an object in the ground for a period of time to charge it with Earth energy, or sprinkle salt over it, or cover it with salt for a period of time. One can "smudge" or use the smoke of sacred herbs to cleanse and empower. Passing an object through fire is another way to cleanse it. Lastly one can use water to wash it, or let it soak in salt water for a time. The Sun's light is a great cleanser and empowerer, as is the Moon's light. Exposure of the object to natural forces, imbues it with the might of those forces. One chooses the method, the appropriate herbs, and an auspicious time to do these cleansing and empowering rituals. For cleansing, the waning moon tide is good, and for empowering the waxing moon tide is best. Carrying the sacred tool on your person fills it with your energy. Carving runes upon it of course is a traditional Norse way to make a taufr or talisman become filled with might and spirit. The act of carving, one's breath, runic song, concentrated thought, and blood or saliva are used to charge the runes. Sometimes red ochre or a plant dye is substituted for one's own blood. The blood of other creatures is not used, only one's own. This sacrifice of part of one's essence is a spiritual exchange of energy, or an offering for the tool, and also binds the tool to oneself very effectively, making it personal. Magical tools are used for many purposes, but their primary use is to protect, empower, and perfect the user. The tools are not absolute necessities, but are quite useful as keys to unlock hidden realms of power within the self. As an artist I love the symbolic and the beautiful, and I know that images, ritual, and sacral tools appeal directly to the hidden realms of the soul (these are called by some the unconscious mind, or 'child self'). By experiencing the magical tool directly with all of one's senses and attention, a desired state of consciousness may be achieved that might otherwise take much struggle to reach. The power object has a life and a spirit of its own, but it works with you, according to your intent and nature, to further your aims. Using holy tools, talismans, and totemic objects is a very ancient technique for spiritual growth, and because the tool or symbol creates an immediate effect on mind, soul, and body, it is an efficient technique. You program the tool to take you where you want to go. Using natural magical tools ties you into the whole universe. Making and using them is a process of recognising the living spirit in all things. This holistic view is very healing and necessary for those of us raised in a culture that denies the spirit in matter, and that has for centuries disdained the living Earth and Her creatures. I see it as my duty as a Vitka to "inspirit" matter, in other words, experience the spirit already omnipresent in all things. As William Blake once wrote: "you can see the universe in a grain of sand". I believe that using symbols and magical tools is not materialism, but its opposite: there is no dead matter in my universe, and all things contain spirit and can be made holy and mighty by our attention and recognition of their spiritual nature. Above you see a deer antler risted (carved)and reddened with the FUTHARK (runic alphabet). I use it as a cradle for my wands and seax. With it is my drinking horn. Also you see pictures of my seax-knife (used to carve runes), a pitcher for holding mead,and a recels (incense) burner. Explore the pictures with your mouse for more details of the tools. You can see pictures of and read about my hallowed tools by clicking on the links below, or selecting the site menu, which is a directory of everything on this site. |
Bags
Banners
Bowls
Coffer
Crow Talisman
Drinking Horn
Jewellery
Recels Burner
Rune Bags
Runic Antler
Seax Knife
Spear
Staff
Thor's Hammer
Wands
Harrows
Holy Steads
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All photos, art and text on this website © Óðindís 1999-2003