Womanrunes Starter Kit Molly Remer 2015 Brigid s Grove www.brigidsgrove.com Womanrunes Starter Kit 1
Womanrunes Starter Kit Excerpted in part from: Womanrunes A guide to their use and interpretation Text & interpretations copyright 2014 Molly Remer, MSW, M.Div Symbols & system copyright 1988 Shekhinah Mountainwater This starter kit is intended as a basic guide to get you started with Womanrunes. A full book of interpretations is available for purchase at these locations: www.amazon.com www.createspace.com www.brigidsgrove.com And, as a book and card set at: brigidsgrove.etsy.com 2 In memory of Shekhinah Mountainwater. You inspired me and I am honored to carry on your work. Brigid s Grove www.brigidsgrove.com
What are Womanrunes and why use them? Womanrunes are a unique and powerful divination system that use simple, woman-identified symbols to connect deeply with your own inner wisdom as well as the flow of womanspirit knowledge that surrounds you. Used as a personal oracle, they offer spiritual insight, understanding, and guidance as well as calls to action and discovery. Women who use them are amazed to discover how the symbols and interpretations reach out with exactly what you need in that moment. Women s experiences with Womanrunes are powerful, magical, inspirational, potent, and mystical. The wisdom within them can be drawn upon again and again, often uncovering new information, understanding, and truth with each reading. Herstory On the Summer Solstice of 1987 after having worked with traditional runes, but sensing something more behind them, Shekhinah Mountainwater fell into a state of enchantment and in a single day created a 41 symbol woman-identified rune system to be used for divination, self-understanding, guidance, and personal growth. Shekhinah s friend suggested Womanrunes Starter Kit 3
she create a specifically woman-identified rune system. As Shekhinah writes, goddess-lightning struck. I fell into a state of enchantment and, in a single day, the symbols for my Womanrunes were born Suddenly I was liberated, and the new symbols poured out beneath my pen. Like the priestesses of old, I opened myself, and the Goddess sent me Her magic (p. 219). In 2012, I was reading a back issue of SageWoman magazine from 1988 and stumbled across an article about Womanrunes. I instantly fell in love them. They issued a powerful call to me. I scoured the internet for more information, where I eventually found a handout and pronunciation guide (included on following pages). I purchased Shekhinah s classic book of women s spirituality, Ariadne s Thread. As a priestess and ritual facilitator, I shared the basic list of Womanrunes with my women s circle and we adopted them as a special part of our group, using them on a variety of group projects. The depth of my connection to the symbols led me to begin to sense more detailed interpretations for them. I began a personal practice of choosing one rune each day, going to a sacred place in the woods with it and discovering what it had to tell me. Over the course of 18 months, this powerful practice developed in a 4
complete guidebook to interpreting and using Womanrunes. Shekhinah s book, Ariadne s Thread, explains that womanrunes are very intuitive and can readily be interpreted using your own inherent sense of their meanings. While this can be true, I ve also observed that many women wish there was more explanation for each rune expanded from Shekhinah s original titles and associated words and I am pleased and excited to offer expanded interpretations and uses in my guidebook to Womanrunes available via brigidsgrove.etsy.com How to Use The simplest and most common use for Womanrunes is to draw a card daily or when you feel an intuitive need for guidance. Draw the card and feel into it. What is it sharing with you? Read the companion interpretation and let it soak in. Many women are amazed by how these symbols speak to something deep within them. You may have the experience of feeling heard and answered when you choose a card and read its interpretation. Womanrunes provide a pathway to your own truthsense. They open you up to your own internal guidance or to messages and inspiration from the Womanrunes Starter Kit 5
Goddess, the Earth, or your spiritual guides. Womanrunes may also be used to do guidance readings for friends or clients. Messages from Womanrunes are not prescriptive or directive, instead they serve as a rich conduit to exactly what you need to hear and receive in that moment. Many women have found that Womanrunes make an excellent addition to their Red Tent work. For Red Tent Circles with others, the Womanrunes book and cards can be available in a divination, guidance, or inspiration corner. Create a quiet, nurturing nook in your Red Tent space where the women can sit with the cards, drop into their own heartspace, and receive the message they need. There are many additional uses for Womanrunes, including creating bindrunes, runewriting, runespells. Many women also find them satisfying to draw or carve onto art, calendars, sculptures and more. Used in this way, the Womanrunes can attract their messages deeply into your life or can serve as potent declarations of intention. 6
Why Such Simple Images? Many divination and oracle systems include beautiful artwork on the cards. Womanrunes are simple symbols and are, in fact, a type of symbol writing that speaks to a deep part of the soul. The clean focus and simplicity of the Womanrunes symbols evoke rich messages and soul guidance in their own special way that differs from the image-rich paintings of other systems. They are also very easy to use directly yourself including them in your own art, drawing or etching them onto objects, and thereby writing them into your consciousness in a living manner. Used as a dynamic, hands-on, participatory system, Womanrunes become part of your own language of the Divine, the Goddess, your inner wisdom, and womanspirit truths. Womanrunes Starter Kit 7
8 Original Handouts
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Print your own rune set 10
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Three rune basic spread Center yourself in your body. Take three deep breaths and drop into your heartspace. Draw three runes and lay them out in a row. The first rune represents the past and its relationship to your current issue or question. The second represents the present. The third represents the future and what you need to know as you move forward. Past Present Future 12
Goddess Guidance layout (adapted from a method in The Goddess Speaks by Dee Poth, p. 8-9) After centering, draw six runes at random and lay them out in a two-three-one arrangement (see illustration). The first two runes deal with the outer and this is where you will bring your question, issue, or concern. The second line of three runes represents your inner direction and may involve your inner, deep response or knowing about your question. The final row with one rune suggests the action to be taken or outcome to be pursued. Row 1: Question or situation you bring to the Goddess Row 2: Inner response and Goddess guidance. Row 3: Action to take. Womanrunes Starter Kit 13
What People Are Saying I have never had a deck be so right from the first draw in tune and intuitive. Molly s insight and interpretations only add to the experience. Using my Womanrunes deck makes me excited for my daily centering. B Great item for gatherings of women! B.F. I love this deck. What a beautiful interpretation on the runes and wonderful presentation. L. This set is great, high quality and user friendly. E.R. Powerful, beautiful, inspiring! I am so looking forward to diving deeper into this, but am already seeing benefits from the wisdom in these pages, and I appreciate everything about this set. S.B. Wonderful deck and guidebook, and so easy to use but with great depth. Thank you kindly for manifesting this vision into reality! H.V. The cards & books are high quality & the descriptions are very easy to understand while leaving room for your intuition. I also appreciated the tree pendant gift total & very pleasant surprise! A.A. Beautiful and insightful. Enjoying adding them to my morning practice! L.B. 14
Womanrunes A guide to their use and interpretation is available at these locations: www.amazon.com www.createspace.com www.brigidsgrove.com And, as a book and card set at: brigidsgrove.etsy.com Womanrunes Starter Kit 15
About the author Molly is a priestess, writer, teacher, and artist who lives with her husband and children in the midwest. She is a professor of human services and a doctoral student in women s spirituality at Ocean Seminary College. She holds master s degrees in both clinical social work and in goddess studies. Molly and her husband co-create at Brigid s Grove: http:// brigidsgrove.com and she blogs about priestessing, theapoetics, ecopsychology, and the Goddess at http://goddesspriestess.com. 16
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