Category: Creative Crone

Fighting Internalized Capitalism with Runes

Posted on by runa

I spent the last week chasing healing for a severely arthritic knee. I learned I need to slow down and be patient. However, the doctors didn’t tell me that, the Runes did. The treatment process will be ongoing for the next season, or three. I’ll likely need surgery down the road, but regardless of surgery timeframe, I need to get stronger.

To get stronger, I first needed to completely rearrange my home to facilitate better flow for my mobility, a physical therapy spot, and an ergonomic tune-up in all my work spaces. Little did I know the Runes were following me through the whole thing.

This new normal and journey to healing has brought up a lot of feels for me. Not surprising, since fighting against capitalism has been a key foundation in the Craft work that I do. But what a reminder this week has been. There has been a lot of dialogue this week in my world about production, worth, abilities, new disabilities, and a general berating of my unchecked to-do list. I felt underwater, as if Laguz (ᛚ) had swallowed me.

Number one on my to-do list is assisting people in living their most magical life. Capitalism is the antithesis of magic. My creative consulting business focuses on how what I’ve learned living a life in the Craft can help others to live one, too. However, much of my time right now must be spent on healing, while balancing the demands of life. I expect I will have to remind myself that prioritizing self-care is magic. Bringing my Practice along whilst I do the things necessary to heal brought out renewed energy towards disrupting systems that are unhealthy for the Earth, people, and ourselves. This journey began with me turning to the tools of my Craft to help boost my resolve to get better and do so without internalizing capitalism’s judgment of how I live. I did this by spending extra time with the Elder Futhark.

I took a bag of Runes along with an ice pack and heating pad and did all the hot/cold sessions that my medical team wanted me to complete in a day, to stave off the nastiest of the inflammation in my poor knee. And then I started divining while healing. I jumped into digital communities where other mystics and seekers hang out and I gifted readings to others. An exercise in maybe feeling productive, but also as I did it more and more, I recognized I was able to partner with these ancient symbols as another layer of healing. It morphed into a spell for healing as I put out that complimentary witchy energy to others. The beacon of hope that is Kenaz (<) gifted me with inspiration when I didn’t even know I was looking for it.

As I sat with the Runes, meditating on the symbols between Odin Pulls for others, they brought other things deep into focus. Raidho (ᚱ) came in with its over-arching perspective: Capitalism doesn’t just organize economies. It organizes nervous systems. When productivity becomes worth, rest feels like guilt. When survival depends on output, burnout becomes normal. That isn’t a personal failure. That’s structural trauma. Under capitalism, self-neglect is reframed as drive. Overwork is ambition. Exhaustion is hustle. We learn to override hunger, fatigue, grief, and the witch’s most important tool: intuition. Then we wonder why we feel disconnected from ourselves.

A system that rewards constant production trains us to abandon our bodies. We ignore pain. We silence intuition. We distrust rest. Imagine! We don’t feel trusting enough to take a minute to breath, take a nap, or make our sleep schedule sacred. Self-care in the eyes of capitalism becomes another task to optimize instead of a relationship with ourselves, especially in the care of our physical bodies. Ehwaz (ᛖ) reminded that self-trust is the key to harmony.

Trauma isn’t only catastrophic events. It’s non-stop pressure. It’s economic precarity. It’s never feeling safe enough to slow down. When your survival feels conditional, your nervous system never fully recovers. Add chronic illness into the mix and you have another are of your life that capitalism makes you feel less than. This is where spiritual practices can become radical, as my Craft has done for me over the years. It’s not as escapism, or aesthetic. It is reclamation. My time. My body. My mind. My Practice. Take divination for example: Rune divination invites slowness, reflection and listening. That is the opposite of the constant output demanded by capitalism. Isa (I) provided the on-time message of Rest Is Doing.

Casting Runes isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about interrupting the grind long enough to ask: What am I ignoring? What truth am I avoiding? Where am I out of alignment? It’s structured pause in a system that profits from your exhaustion. Runes require presence. You breathe. You focus. You feel (sometimes I hear, too). That moment alone challenges a culture that wants your attention fragmented and monetized. Attention is power. Reclaiming it is healing. Much like the Seed Rune (ᛜ), Ingwaz’s energy let’s us lean on that self-focus.

Capitalism says: Be productive. Divination asks: Be honest. Capitalism says: Do more. The Elder Futhark asks: What matters. One measures value in output. The other measures value in awareness. When you sit with the Runes, you’re practicing listening instead of reacting, reflection instead of performance, and meaning instead of metrics. That’s nervous system repair. That’s self-trust rebuilding.

Taking care of yourself in a system that benefits from your depletion is not indulgent. It’s resistance. If Runes help you slow down, reconnect, and remember your inner authority. That’s not fallacy, that’s reclamation.

What messages do the Runes have for you? The Creative Crone Shop features Rune Castings for a quick questions or long-detailed year-ahead readings. What guidance does the Elder Futhark have for you? Book a casting with Runa today.

Creating Connection & The Magic of Hearth Craft

Posted on by runa

Over the past few months, I’ve been showing up on Bluesky with what I’ve categorized as “Creative Crone Dispatch.” They are little tidbits of Craft knowledge, curated into regular threads born from my skills & experience of  more than four decades of being a Woman In Total Control Of Herself. I started to really dig them and they made me recognize I have more to say.

A writer having more to say?

At my deepest heart, I’m a nerd. I’m also a Scorpio Stellium, so I like to get deep. I like to discuss the depths of a subject and learn as much as I can.  And if we can sneak off into that corner booth at the pub underground and talk over it with our fav beverage deep into the night, I’m in heaven. 

Social media can be a bit of the opposite, a hellscape, so controlling the content we want to explore, and keeping the coolest of folx closest, the Creative Crone Dispatch was born. Normally, I know exactly what I want to focus on – but today I decided to ask the near 1k people following me, what they wanted to chat about.

The answer came quickly via @4islesandco.bsky.social . However, my response wound up being too many threads and this blog post was born. So, my dear one, here is my very quick, hopefully easily digestible, thoughts on your query.

Let’s start with what Hearth Craft is – it is the magic of tending our center. It can look like sweeping the floor with intention. It’s stirring the pot as prayer. It’s is lighting a candle and fucking meaning it. Before temples, before skyscrapers of capitalism, there was the hearth. And around it – women. Hearth work is civilization’s first altar. 

When someone mentions Hearth Craft, it is often in the same sentence with Hestia, the keeper of the flame. She did not wage war. She did not chase lovers. She did not leave. She stayed. Her power was continuity. Her magic was steadiness. Her gift was the flame that never went out. 

If it’s not Hestia, then it’s the goddess Brigid. She represents not only poetry, but the forge. She is also the ‘banked’ fire in the kitchen. She lives in bread rising under cloth. In clean thresholds. In the quiet pride of a well-kept space. Hearth Craft is not perfection, but devotion made visible. 

In Nordic tradition, Frigg is associated with the home, weaving fate at the spindle. She knows the threads before they tighten. She sees what is coming, and keeps her counsel. Queen of Asgard, yes; but, also keeper of keys. Guardian of the household’s inner sanctum. In the ol’ Norse world, women carried the keys at their belts, the symbols of authority over stores, wealth, and running of the home. This was not small power. It was sovereignty in wool and iron. Frigg’s magic is not loud. It is strategic, patient, and protective. Hearth Craft, in her lineage, is the weaving of peace – sacred harmony – within walls that can withstand the storm. 

Not every hearth keeper had a myth. Most were unnamed. Grandmothers who salted soup by instinct. Caregivers who rose before dawn. A partner’s hands cracked from winter wood. Hearth Craft honors them, too.Their magic was consistency. Their altar kin-keeping. Their spell was love. When they cooked, they crafted communion. When they tended home, they tended spirit. This is not “just domestic.” This is sacred architecture. 

They would sit at the hearth, a portal available to most of humanity, as the hearth is a threshold between worlds. The fire of the hearth transforms. Food becomes body. House becomes home. 

In a world obsessed with spectacle, Hearth Craft makes us consider if the magical act of ‘tending’ isn’t one of the holiest, powerful. To tend the hearth is to hold fate gently in your hands. 

And I leave you with this final piece of my regular Creative Crone dispatch – a bit of ‘hearth craft’ to get you started: This week, choose one hearth ritual. Light a candle before cooking. Bless your doorway. Sweep with intention. Bake bread as an offering. Ask yourself, what am I building here? And then follow the answer. The flame is waiting.

Although not entirely all Hearth Craft, my book, Magic In Your Cup talks about intention, tending, and the sacredness of what we put into our bodies and how to make it more magical. Find it wherever books are sold, or get one personalized just for you at the Creative Crone Shop.

Letting the ancestors decorate the Covenstead

Posted on by runa

In the last few years, my partner and I have felt the gentle tug toward older traditions, especially as winter begins. We’ve leaned in harder to the unique cultural aspects that our ancestors loved. These pops of echoes throughout the covenstead honor stories told by grandparents, snippets of folklore tucked between recipes and holiday rituals. On the surface it looks like our house is full of garden gnomes. And it is. 

Over the years here at Villa Westwyk, our cozy cottage has begun to be filled with images, statues, and decor of (Jule) Nisse (Tomte), aka what Americans know as gnomes, or what those in Iceland call the Yule Lads (Jólasveinar). The latter have names like Spoon Licker, Door Slammer, and Window Peeper, so you know they are put in the trickster spirit column. But none of the pranks they do are completely harmful, but more a reminder that the spirit of the Land needs tending and nurturing.

Found throughout Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, these small, mischievous household guardians from our Northern European ancestors have become a charming theme for our winter Solstice observances, and we’ve employed them as part of our regular warding and protection magic. The gradual inclusion of these symbols of gratitude for the simple things in winter – As we began to decorate the covenstead for Yule, the theme of these holiday tricksters bring a blend of generosity, humor, and just a pinch of chaos, which aligns well with the PNW’s moody, moss-draped December.

Growing up both of my partner and I were taught about these protectors of farms and families, hosting a beard much like my partner bears.That such energy would follow us here to the landscapes of evergreen forests is not surprising. Our covenstead, soft with rain and wrapped in fog, already feel like the natural habitat of the energy that tomte & nisse hold. They are after all, creatures who thrive in places where the boundary between the everyday and the enchanted is thin. The Yule Lads, who in Iceland descend from the mountains one by one each night, would find no shortage of dramatic ridges and misty foothills to wander here. You can almost imagine them stepping out from behind a cedar trunk with a half-eaten cookie and a grin. They remind us that winter magic lives in the handmade and the thoughtful. They were like tiny elfish guardians, ensuring the well-being of land, livestock, home, and community through long, dark winters. Their presence mirrors a worldview where the home and Land are sacred, alive with unseen watchers. 

However, you do not want to disrespect these spirits. Like other Land spirits across the world, these mini-santa-claus characters are highlighted in the time between Dec. 12th and December 24th, coinciding with many of the global cultures’ winter festivals. They can be as prickly as the Yule Cat, the pet of the ogress Grýla, who is said to be the mother of said Yule Lads. Don’t disrespect them or you won’t be seeing a mysteriously placed pinecone on your windowsill, but maybe a broken window, which is especially not fun when it’s winter. The lore about their naughtiness was that the pranks were spurred by misbehaving children in the household (sound familiar?) Well behaved children meant the Yule Lad milked the goat as opposed to stealing the milk. And good children received small tokens and treats for their efforts. When the Yule Lads are helpful, they would like to be acknowledged for that help. So traditional celebrations, offerings, and poems of gratitude fill the winter nights in their honor. 

We’ve rekindled and reinterpreted this ancestral customs of the Yule Lads as winter offers simple, low-pressure ways to bring the tradition into modern life. Ancestors may have left out a small bowl of porridge or cookies (sound familiar?); and today it’s a lighted candle in the window, a little brew from the cupboard, left as an offering in gratitude for the home and the Land that shelters us. The GrandWitchling likes to check to see if “someone” has taken a sip. Honoring traditions doesn’t require strict accuracy or elaborate ceremony. What matters is the spirit of the custom. For us it’s about respect for the unseen energy everywhere that is channeled to safeguard the home and protect all its inhabitants. In a region where winter stretches long and the nights fall early, these small rituals offer warmth and a sense of continuity. And if what matters is held in the vessel of an impish gnome, I’m even more about it because, let’s have fun and joy where we can get it, yes? 

Announcing! Creative Crone Coaching & Classes

Posted on by runa

Spring is here, Witches! And with it big news for my digital covenstead over on Patreon! It makes me so thrilled to announce this, since back when I created this digital covenstead. My goal was to provide the teaching I would have loved to have when I was diving deeper into walking the Craft path. It was so hard to find teachers, texts, or even anyone who wanted to talk about all things witchy and woo-woo. Sharing our knowledge strengthens community. Let me bring the witchy and the woo-woo to you. As part of that goal and aligning with the spring cleaning energy currently, there’s been a few additions, clarifications, and offerings within the framework of Patreon.

The big news is what you’ve been asking for…and you’re getting it! I’ll be teaching four times a month and the classes are open to Patreon patrons only. Let’s take a look at what all that means. First off there are two new tiers to the Covenstead. Within The Witch’s Dream Circle: In this tier, we’ll be working on our dreams together. This tier receives monthly dream interpretations from me. That’s right, you tell me your dream and I give you an interpretation. It’s all done digitally, so no need to fret about your busy schedule. Additionally, you receive all the benefits of the rest of the prior tiers. This group will also receive quarterly Rune Castings and special offers seasonally, as well. Monthly classes, ala Runa’s Dream Academy are included in this tier. These classes will be on the 1st Monday of the month beginning in May 2024, with the first class scheduled for May 6. This tier also receives a complimentary dream journal designed in conjunction with Darling Weridos specifically to pair with my classes & to work through the classes on. 

Next, I’ve included a new tier called, Covenstead Studio Squad. Only a few folx get to be invited into the Witch’s studio. This is a small but mighty level that will benefit from one-on-one Craft coaching, and classes on permaculture & magic, runes, lucid dreaming, and more. There is also an annual retreat invitation included within this benefit after the patron has supported this level for at least six months. This level will not only be able to enjoy the Runa’s Dream Academy classes on the 1st Monday of the month but will also be enrolled in the Creative Crone Coaching sessions available on the 3rd Monday of the month, beginning in May 2024 as well. These sessions will cover all of the topics above and will be announced monthly. The first class will be May 20. This tier also receives a dream journal and Are You Dreaming? Bracelet as part of its perks. This bracelet will be necessary as we move to further our dream work together. This gorgeous bracelet was handcrafted by Darling Weridos as a special commission and features dreamwork-specific crystals and metals. Wearing it will protect and energize the dream worker as they move from waking life to the dream world. More on that in the classes!

But there’s more, Witches! If you’re in Under the Willow tier through the Studio Squad tier on the 4th Friday of the month I’ll be hosting the class “Runes with Runa.” Want to learn more about the Runes? Want to dive into all that esoteric Nordic mythos stuff? We’ll be doing that during this time. Details and topics will be included in monthly posts and provided on the Covenstead Calendar. The first one of these classes will be on April 26, 2024. 

And last, but not least, the entire covenstead is welcomed for Witch’s Happy Hour – held the 2nd Friday of the month. This monthly event is all about covenstead connection, where we can do some show & spell, drink weaving, divination discourse, and all manner of witchy ways under the sun, moon, and stars. Like the other classes, we’ll have a monthly theme that will be announced prior. Again, this is available to every patron. Our first Witch’s Happy Hour will be on April 12, 2024. These classes will be online. I’m finalizing all the technology, and class details will be announced closer to the class dates, so please make sure all your details within Patreon are up to date – email address, snail-mail address! You know how I love to send Magic in the Mail. 

How’s that for the big announcement? I’m so excited to kick these classes off! I hope that you’ll consider joining me in any or all of these classes and sessions. Thanks again for being here. If you have any questions, please let me know. If there’s someone you know who might be interested in joining us here, please feel free to share this post with them. 

New Moon In Scorpio – Diving Back Into Tasseomancy

Posted on by runa

Tea leaf readings, also known as tasseomancy, have been an outer-edge flirtation in my magical practice. It was some divination I could do as a Witch deep in the broom closet and not many even blinked about it. It was one of my first divinations – outside of dream work, before Runes just spoke to me so clearly. But every autumn I seem to want to cozy up with some appropriate tea – today I used Witch’s Harvest from Night Rituals, which is just what the New Moon in Scorpio called for – Rooibos, which is all about strength, courage, and wisdom. Apple, for health; cinnamon for abundance; and marigold for healing. It’s very flavorful, too. So, as you sip, you connect with the liquid, the tea, as well as your intuition and, if it’s in your practice, ancestors (this practice feels very ancestral to me) (insert Spirit, Guides, or Divinity, as well here). 

I can easily recall my grandmother and aunts talking about it – on my father’s more heathen side, of course. My mind’s eye easily plays little tea-reading sessions inside a tiny kitchen table that could not even begin to seat the amount of people who had to live in that house (1,000 square feet and a partially finished basement and weirdly attached garage for 11 people… what our ancestors went through). Messages like this are why I’m playing around again with my nose down staring at tea-mains inside a cup. 

Additionally, a lovely group of my friends (Witches, all, y’all) surprised me on my birthday with this little set (pictured above). They knew I was giddy about giving this set (with book, of course) a home here on the covenstead. The gift came with a tea reading demonstration and general Q&A session with Ruthie Connel. Yes, that Ruthie. Did you know she’s a whip with a pendulum? Yes, the set came with one of those, too. My friends spoil me so much. Thank you, ‘Chamily!’* 

It’s been a lovely magical pull back into a practice I’ve done for a bit, put down, come back to, put down again… you maybe know the drill. Our practice, our crafts go through cycles just like everything in the Universe. And that’s okay. Now I find myself back in love with this witchy tool. I’ve been practicing pretty much daily since receiving this gift – not always with this mug, mind you, as sometimes I find that I need a more sparse canvas for reading tea leaves. But I love the interaction of this particular set, including the astrologic influences as well as common culture symbols. It reminds me of the Runes’ ‘interactions on my casting cloth. Speaking of Runes, they show up often in my tea readings, which gives it this level-up feeling to the divination. 

We awoke today with the new moon in Scorpio, and I had to swirl that energy into yet another tea reading. Let’s just say it didn’t surprise me when the moon symbol showed up. Working with this energy has provided me with a laser light on what and where I need to expend my energy this season. 

Over on my Patreon, I examine more of what this new moon in Scorpio tea reading said to me. 

In the meantime, I invite you to take the time this late autumn, and even throughout winter, to dedicate yourself to a magical practice you’ve been away from, you would love to explore, and get your Witch on! May we dive into the darkest time of year shining lights on things that bring us joy, knowledge, and comfort. All of this or better. So it is. 

*Chamily = chosen family. Yeah, I made it up. All words are made up. (See: my Mercury return a couple of days ago. Hehe. Mercury is in Sagittarius, what do you expect? 😉 

Magicae Optimum Daily Grimoire Coming Soon

Posted on by runa

A New Way To Optimize Your Magic

Two West-Coast Witches Collaborate on New Magical Life Tools

Bellingham, WA. – This autumn’s season of the Witch may just be more organized. A new foundational tool is premiering for all those who practice witchcraft, love astrology, Tarot, and love to celebrate lunar and solar observances.

The Magicae Optimum Daily Grimoire (MODG) is an all-in-one Book of Shadows, astro-weather guide, as well as a tracker for your dreams, intentions, and your everyday Magic. Walking in the Craft is all about being our truest selves and living our best lives. We get there day-by-day. Improving, one step at a time. One day at a time. Present in the moment, and eye on the details.

Runa Troy along with fellow Witch and co-creator, Kelsi Horner, contend that the MODG gives its users a way to optimize their time and energy (and thereby their resources and energy). 

This Grimoire gives each day its due with a big focus on Magic, including the day’s astrology featuring the degrees of the transit. Every month has an overview detailing the moon cycles and zodiac transits. Throughout the planner there are art, quotes, and witchy knowledge and tips to perhaps teach, inspire, and entertain.

“I got tired of carrying – and often losing – multiple planners, astrology calendars, notebooks, and journals to keep me on track,” Horner said. “Runa and I found ourselves discussing wanting something different, a new system to incorporate keeping our mundane and magical lives aligned, with a focus on the Magic.” 

“Next thing I know we’re working on creating just that and Magicae Optimum was born,” Troy said.

It is available for pre-order on September 16, 2023.

Special collections to complement the MODG are also available at MagicaeOptimum.com. It can also be ordered through DarlingWeirdos.com.