Soul Runes are a divination tool, and complete magical system, specific to Crane Practice, though they can be used by anyone. These Runes and Rune system can be used as simply, or as complex, as a practitioner makes them.
To get started though, you first need a basic understanding of them, how to craft your own, and ways to get started with them. As with everything in Crane Practice, the structures around a tool are a place to help you get started, connect, and learn how it can work – what you do with it in your craft, along your own path, and how the practice develops for you is going to be personal to you.
Two Primary Sets – Soul and Body
Soul Runes are divided into two primary sides: The Soul side that focuses on the internal self, spiritual side, spirit family, and unseen worlds. The Body side that focuses on the external self, outward action, community and physical world.
Together they give you not only directions as to the energies and movement at play, but also the clarity for which side each is directed at. This is an important distinction as I have seen people use other divination tools and only equate the messages to one side or the other, physical or spiritual aspects. In this tunnel vision you can loose sight of the real message trying to be conveyed and make a wrong turn in actions because of it.
Four Subsets in each Primary Set
Each Primary set holds four subsets. These four subsets are aligned with the Four Turnings of the Master Pattern and the Four elements of Fires, Earth, Air, and Water.
The first line across is aligned with the element of Fire and the First Turning – The Seer, The Observer, The Thinker. It envelops the energies of beginnings, the spark of creation, passion that drives us forward, new ideas to explore, deconstructions for something new to emerge. (internal)
The Second line across is aligned with the energies of Earth and the Second Turning – The Illusionist (senses), The Ruler, The Guardian. It envelops the energies of experimenting, feeling through the senses, testing ideas, finding our own truths, discovering what works for us, developing and growing ourselves/ our ideas through action. (external)
The Third line across is aligned with the element of Air and the Third Turning – The Enchanter (mind), The Stabilizer, The Healer. It envelops the energies of reflection, reconciliation of what has been experienced, discovering deeper understandings and meanings, nurturing phase of our ideas/ creations, letting go of what does not serve us now, conflict resolution. (internal)
The Fourth line across is aligned with the element of Water and the Fourth Turning – The Knower, The Balancer, The Weaver. It envelops the energies of an ending, the culmination of a journey, what has been created, the last steps, understanding what has been gained, transformative movement/ change, wisdom gained. (external)
The deeper you go into more advanced practices with the Soul Runes the more the layering of these energies will make sense. When first starting out I advice just getting to know the Runes in their base Primary set forms. Like every craft, we need to build strong foundations before we start to layer on-top of them.
After you have built a strong connection with each rune, then you can add in the layers of the other energies to give you another layer of understanding – the Turnings – then the element of them – and then the colors of them.
Individual Runes
Each Rune has a Core energy. For example: Empa’s Core energy is Experience and Exchange – the experience gained in the exchange.
The Core energy never changes and gives you a solid focus, but because each of us has our own path to walk, confronted with our own challenges, combined with our own needs – How that energy is expressed, the details of that Core energy is going to take its own shape and expression. That means this does take a little more reflection and deeper thinking than other forms of divination such as tarot which tend to have more restrictive expressions of the meanings.
Each Rune holds the full Duality (positive and negative) of the Core energy. For example: Odeem’s Core energy is Domination. This means all forms of domination can be at play – strength of the self, being in control or in charge of something, mastery of something, to have dominion over something – or to dominate over someone/ something, take the will of, control the will of, to control. Domination means the exercise of control or influence over someone or something. Which aspects are being expressed or needed is going to depend on why the rune was drawn – the question, situation, seeker’s intent, and so forth.
Soul Rune Dice
Soul Runes are meant to be used in dice form. There are six individual Soul Runes for every subset (one die). This makes four dice per Primary Set, and eight dice total for a full Soul Rune set.
You could make them individually as you see other Runes, but you would need to keep them divided up into their subsets and primary sets for them to work properly. This will make more sense the more you work with them and get into some of the more advanced practices with them.
Creating Your Dice
I am always going to advocate for making your own tools, and these dice are no exception. I believe when we create our own tools, the act of creating, the energy we are using in the act, connects us to the item in a more deep and powerful way. The tool itself becomes attuned specifically for us and our path with it.
If you have the skills or access to create your own wooden blocks, do that. If not, you can easily find blank wooden blocks at your local craft store or online. I wood burn my Runes into the blocks but you can paint them, use permanent marker, or whatever tickles your fancy.
Each block represents one of the subsets. So you will take one die and mark all the Runes of one subset onto that die. Once completed, you can do any additional rituals to infuse your own magic into them. For example, charging the Soul Runes under the moonlight and the Body Runes under the sunlight, infusing them with those energies. I have a whole other ritual process when I am making them for someone else, to bind them to that persons energy, charge them, and set the runes for their journey.
As I said, I will always advocate making your own, but I also know there are many reasons why someone may choose to have a set created for them. If this is something you are interested in, I do have them available in my shop. Please note though, because I hand-craft these as they are ordered and magically set them for the intended person – it can take up to 30 days to complete the process and ship them. (Note: if you are buying them as a gift for someone else, note the full name of the person in the notes section of the order form so they are set for the right person.)
Using Soul Runes
The depth and scope of use of Soul Runes can get very complex, especially when you get into the magical crafting and spell-casting aspects with them. For that reason, We are just going to touch on the very starter aspects of using them here.
If you want to go deeper and see the more intermediate and advanced practices used by Crane Practitioners, you can follow along the Soul Rune Series on YouTube here: Temple Crane – YouTube or get my upcoming book Grimoire of the Crane which comes out later this year. (Note: I am just starting the YouTube series, so videos will be rolling out over a several month period)
Simple Divination
Just like with other divination tools, you can ask a question or inquire about a situation, then role all the dice. Your Runes will be the ones on the top (facing upwards). You can align them in the order they fell, into their subset groupings, or use your intuition to align them.
Remember though, one Primary set is for the internal world/ within yourself and one Body Rune, the external self, actions, your interactions with the world. So when you are interpreting the message, take clear note of which is which and how they are working together.
Feeling your way through is an important learning aspect with this tool. It not only is good to sharpen the mind, but also to connect us deeper on a spiritual level. Honing into our psychic senses, the collective energies, and Divine energies – learning to trust ourselves.
At the beginning of a project, moon cycle, sun cycle, or any other period of time similar to these: You can role all the dice, place them into their subsets, and onto the Crane Master Cycle Board to see the core energies of the cycle at hand.
Each Section of the board represents a Turing, beginning at the top right and going clockwise around the board. Each Turing section will have one Soul Rune and one Body Rune. This is giving you the internal and external energies for each stage of the project/ time period. These may give you specific directions as to what needs to be done or energies that are surrounding each stage, depending on how you are asking.
You can use them in conjunction with other divination tools such as tarot/ oracle, scrying, trance work, or pendulums to name a few. The Soul Runes can add another layer of depth to a reading, make clear the core energies, or give you actions to accompany the reading.
You can also use them for a quick reading or focus point, similar to how some may use Oracle cards. If it is internal: randomly choose one die from the Soul set and role it. For external or an action needed, do the same process with a Body Rune. For completeness and the best result, randomly choose one die from each Primary set, roll them, and get the aligned energy between the soul and body (internal and external).
Journaling and Interpretation
Keeping a Journal specifically for these readings is the best route to go. Writing it out will not only help you in working out the messages, but also for deeper contemplation and reflection work later on. When it comes to some of the magical crafting aspects, you may be given parts of spells in a reading and not realize it until later when you are ready to use it.
When you have your answer/ message, write down the core energies for each Rune (I also write the name or draw the rune for later reference above the core energies). These are the core energies, but now it is time for you to work out how those core energies are being applied or the aspects of them that are at the forefront.
Sometimes it will be very clear to you right away, and sometimes it may take a little time for it to emerge because it is a different approach and they are new to you – so be patient with yourself.
If you have not read my last article The Challenging and Misunderstood Duality I highly recommend you do so. It will give you different insight and perspectives that will be extremely helpful in working with Soul Runes.
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