No, the runes are not for sale
Published: Thu, 11/27/14
On the 13th of December there will be a Christmas Market here in
Crewkerne and I have just booked a small stall. The main purpose of
being there will be to give out leaflets and talk to people about
the Stav Centre. We will also have some booklets to sell and I was
thinking about making some rune sets to sell too. In fact last
night I had a go at cutting out 24 tablets of wood in Beech from a
piece left over from making the worktops in the Stav Centre. I have
plenty of Oak and Ash too so, using my mitre saw, I could
practically mass produce sets. Find some bags to put them in and
complete the set with a copy of Stav Book of Runes and it could be a
nice little earner as they say.
It doesn't seem quite right though and I have been trying to
work out why I don't feel quite right about the idea. This
morning I think the reason is that it won't do the people buying
the sets any good. It wouldn't do any harm either and in a
context such as the Mercian Gathering I would feel fine about it.
But people go to events such as the MG willing to spend money on all
kinds of 'pagan tat' and if they want to add a rune set, a
Stav Rune set at that with the younger futhork inscribed 3 times, to
their collection of Tarot decks, Elder Futhork sets, crystals and
who knows what else then good luck to them.
But here in Crewkerne I want to teach people Stav and the knowledge
of the runes which is inherent in learning Stav. Spending money on
a rune set, playing with it a couple of times and then leaving it in
a drawer until it is thrown away is not the way to do it. Worse,
the sets might be given as presents to people who will have even
less idea what to do with them.
It may sound like I am fussing too much. So why not let people spend
their money on whatever they want? Again it is about context and
runes should be embodied in the stances and the meanings and
associations known. If you are within easy reach of Crewkerne then
you can actually train on a regular basis. That is what I want
people to do rather than just buy an artifact they may never use.
So I may well have a rune set on the stall with a notice saying
'Not for Sale' and when people ask why they can't buy it
I can tell them why.
If you don't live near Crewkerne then you might like to come to
the Summer Camp, I will make sure there is the opportunity to make
your own rune set and learn how to use it during the camp. That
will be as well as training in stances, martial training, health and
well being and learning the history and context of Stav directly
from Ivar himself. http://www.stavcamp.org
regards
Graham
PS Stav book of runes is available from
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/elit.html in ebook form