There is a belief that the energy of runes continues working after they have been burned, so you need to cleanse yourself further and disconnect (cut yourself off) from their effects. I do not quite understand the logic of this claim. First, we attract something with the help of runes, and then we need to cleanse ourselves of their influence — and, apparently, of whatever we were attracting?
Let us take a look!
The Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson:
When they already had the sails ready, Egil went back onto the island. He took a hazel pole and climbed with it onto a rocky headland facing the mainland. Egil took a horse’s skull and mounted it on the pole. Then he spoke an incantation, saying:
“I raise this pole here and send a curse upon King Eirik and his wife Gunnhild.” He turned the horse’s skull towards the mainland. “I send a curse upon the spirits who inhabit this land, that they may all wander without a path and find no rest until they drive King Eirik and Gunnhild out of Norway.” Then he drove the pole into a cleft in the rock and left it there. He turned the horse’s skull towards the mainland and carved onto the pole, in runes, the incantation he had spoken.
The Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson:
Egil was once a guest of King Eirik and angered one of his men — the retainer Bard, who went to the king’s wife and told her that a man was sitting there bringing shame upon them: however much he drank, he kept saying that he had not had enough.
Gunnhild and Bard then mixed poison into the ale and brought in the drink. Bard made the sign of Thor over it and gave it to the serving woman who was distributing the ale. She brought the horn to Egil and invited him to drink. But Egil took a knife and stabbed his palm. Then he accepted the horn, carved runes on it, and coloured them with his own blood. He said:
I carve runes on the horn,
My blood shall colour them.
In runes, every word
Shall be firmly carved.
The merry maiden’s ale
I shall drink if I wish.
But will it do me good,
The ale that Bard has poured?
“The horn shattered into pieces, and the drink spilled onto the straw.”
In these cases, there is no statement at all that the runes must be destroyed. The working is aimed at a specific result. Once the result is achieved, the working ends.
Skirnir’s Journey:
I carve runes —
“Thurs” and three more:
Lust, madness,
And unrest;
But I shall destroy them,
Just as I carved them,
Whenever I wish.
The passage from Skirnir’s Journey mentions “destroying” the runes, but not the method or any subsequent cleansing. We can, however, conclude that it is possible to stop the influence of runes by destroying them.
The Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson:
When Egil and his men sat down to eat, Egil noticed a sick woman lying on a cross-bench. He asked Thorfinn who the woman was who was suffering so much. Thorfinn replied that her name was Helga and that she was his daughter:
“She has been ill for a long time. She has a high fever. She does not sleep at night and has become as if deranged.”
“And have you tried nothing,” said Egil, “for her illness?”
Thorfinn replied:
“Runes were carved. A farmer’s son lives nearby, and he did it. But since then she has been much worse than before. Perhaps you, Egil, could do something to help in such distress?”
Egil said:
“Perhaps things will not get any worse if I take this on.”
When Egil had eaten his fill, he approached the sick woman and spoke with her. He asked for her to be lifted from the bench and for clean garments to be laid beneath her. This was done. Then he searched the place where she had been lying and found a piece of whalebone with runes carved on it. Egil read them, scraped them off, and threw them into the fire. Egil burned the entire piece of whalebone and ordered the garments that had previously been beneath her to be taken outside into the fresh air… Egil carved runes and placed them beneath the pillow on her bed. She felt as though she had awakened from sleep and said that she was now well, although completely without strength.
Here is a concrete example: he scraped them off and burned them. He took the garments outside and changed the bedding, but did not cleanse her or the person who had originally carved those runes.
Runes are energy. But that energy does not manifest on its own. We carve runes (draw them, burn them into a surface, or use any other method) to manifest them in this world and thereby set their energies in motion. Manifested runes are present — their energy is present. No manifested runes — no energy. Therefore, destroying them in any way will stop their work. The best option is to burn them, or scrape them off and burn the scrapings (from a stone, for example).
Moreover, if the runes have a clear task (for Vasya to arrive today), once that task has been completed, there is nothing more for them to bring about. The task is completed, the runes are destroyed, and that is all.
If a working is intended to have a prolonged effect, but at some point things go off course and it needs to be stopped, the procedure is the same — burn it (destroy it). There is, however, a nuance. Changes to processes that have already occurred will remain irreversible. You will therefore need to take those changes into account in your subsequent actions.
Influencing a situation sets in motion processes that change the sequence of events. Therefore, the influence of runic energies may still be felt for some time after the runic arrangement has been destroyed. It is like throwing a stone into water — ripples spread out, but they do not last forever. Time will pass, and everything will settle.
Of course, everyone has their own approach, but I do not understand this panic about energetic contamination, energy drain, and the need for cleansing after every runic working, even after the runes have been destroyed.
✨ “Journey through the Yggdrasil Oracle” Course ✨
👉 [ENROL IN THE COURSE (CLICK HERE)]
You can discuss this topic and ask questions – HERE
Back to the main menu – CLICK HERE
© Helga_V
Master of runic practice, researcher of the Northern tradition
