Today I started picking out beachstones which I felt were fitting for each rune and began using our Dremmel Kit to carve the runes into the stone, which worked surprisingly well - I thought it was going to burn up the drill and break the carving piece, but it didn't !! I think I will then use a deep red paint to paint the carvings. I am not sure if my rune meanings will be the same as other peoples because although I have obviously done some standard research I try to pick up what I can from them intuitively. I was guided through the complete set of runes a couple of years ago by a lady who practised Trad Craft but rather than telling me what they meant, she showed me how to discover them for myself. I tried to work with the rune first, and then go and research them afterwards - so what I picked up intuitively wouldn't be influenced by what the books said they should mean. Its been a few years since I have touched on the runes and I feel that it is time to start working with them again! Anyway, here is the first entry of my study of the Runa - the rune 'Peorp'.

PEORP - Elder Futhark (or PERTHO - Anglo Saxon) - resembling a cup, or beer jug on its side

"Peorp is always play and laughter, amongst bold men where warriors sit, in the beer hall, blithe together" - Anglo Saxon Rune Poem

The rune resembles the cup, and also the birthing canal, linking this rune to birth - our actions start at birth, and create the future. This rune has connections to wyrd and the red thread, or witchline - the Distaff line passed from mother to daughter. Peorp also emphasises the need to face fears and leave the past behind, in some cases forgive and forget, an important quality for family life. To me, it signifies the connection between family or a group of people who are all working towards one aim, and the celebration of that unity, hence 'where warriors sit, in the beer hall, blithe together' and where the past is left behind in order to focus on a positive, unified future. This rune also has links to changing our fate, which is set on a certain path by our past actions but it is possible to change and leave the past behind. It signifies the relationship between free will and the constraints of the circumstances; what is possible within the restrictions of Wyrd. In terms of Craft, this rune signifies Crossing the Hedge, traversing the Tree and the Otherworlds, in order to control Wyrd. Therefore it is also linked to divination and oracle.

This was the first rune I was introduced to, but is probably the one I have the least experience with. It is also the only one which is carved into my staff (for the time being!!) but I will update this blog once I have some more experiences with this rune.