In this week's installment in our Meet our Readers series of where we give everyone a chance to get to know our readers better Raven's Dawn goes over her methods.
When people come in to have a reading with you, what can they expect?
My primary tool is working with the runes. The way I describe runes to people, because a lot of them have never had a rune reading, is they are basically an ancient lettering system, but unlike our alphabet, where each letter has a sound where the runes each represent ideas, concepts and natural forces. I have been working with them for about on 20 years to provide counsel, advice, to confirm course of action a person may be thinking about taking but they are not quite sure, or to validate a course of action maybe someone's already taken and now for some reason they are second guessing it. Just like cards they will tell you what you need to hear not necessarily what you want to hear and I don't sugar coat it. If there is a challenge or an obstacle I am going to tell someone because now it puts control back in their hands as to how they want to handle that obstacle.
Can you tell me about the different sets you have and how you use them?
I have many sets that I use for different occasions but there are two I use here. The first is a rose quartz set that I work with those in specific spreads just like you use different tarot spreads. Put them face down, stir them up and draw them into a specific spread where each position has meaning. The Second are a set of wooden staves that are made from a maple tree that was struck by lightning over in Ft. Wayne Indiana. They were made under my supervision then they ended up being gifted to me by the person who made them. With this set, because they are round they are more designed to be cast. I ask the client to choose between a number between 3 and 9, I mix up the runes, grab however many they select and then I just basically hold them over the middle of the table and drop them and see where they fall. And that requires more of an intuitive interpretation because sometimes I'm gonna look for a pattern, other times I'm going to be drawn to a particular rune that will end up being my starting point.
So these ones are more intuitive and there are more analytical
They have a very strong energy, a very good energy, that will be the set that serves a person their life as I like to call it.
I notice you also have a few decks laid out on the table
As a matter of fact I've actually incorporated tarot because I was asked to expand my repertoire because so many people are used to tarot readings and that was something I wasn't doing I have the Runic Tarot but its not a true Tarot, they call it that because like Tarot it has a structure but the format is completely different. it's broken down into 24 runes of the Elder Futhark which is the title of the lettering system; we have the alphabet, the runes have Futhark and then it's broken down by the 12 cross quarter seasons so it's kind of a mix between Norse and Celtic. Lydia actually helped me pick out The Raven's Prophecy Tarot and dang she knows her stuff. She knew exactly what they needed to work with because all of the decks I've got that one's been doing really good for me. Ravens have always called to me, I mean my reading name Raven’s Dawn. They are an incredibly powerful animal because they are social, very wary, very intelligent and they're also a bird associated with magic, intuition, and many mystical things. I also work with an oracle deck, The Raven Oracle and those I use towards the end of a reading but only if the ravens tell me they want to give somebody final counsel. I have days where they keep their beaks shut, they won't say a word so they don't want to be used. Then I have days where they are chatty as all get out, today I have had 3 readings and they have spoken to two out of three people.
So it's almost like an addendum And it could be whether you are doing a rune reading or a card reading
Exactly, they just tell me they have something to say. Normally at the end, practically most of the time after the timer goes off and the chime-in saying “By the way, we want to talk to them” and I'm not about to say no.
Do you ever combine mediums like when you are doing a rune reading you introduce cards into the spread.
Yes, a lot of time for longer readings there is a spread that I do that will it's a ten rune spread and it will actually cover the self and nine other things like health, lessons to be learned, love, abode and so forth. A lot of time I will use the runes for that and if further information or clarification I need i will either draw from one of the two decks either tarot or the runic deck and see what other enlightenment we can get.
The other things I offer even though it's a newer branch of runology are runic natal readings where I need first and last initial, date of birth, and the time of birth. They give the person an idea of the runic energy that was surrounding themselves at their time of birth.