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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Sunrise Hive offers rune interpretation class

Jeanette Barefoot and four others summon the Nordic Rune, Uruz, at the Sunrise Hive tarot shop Monday night. The Uruz Rune was chosen randomly by a participant that felt called to pick it out of a basin, and the Rune is said to have raw power that must be bound with other Runes.

The room was hot, and on a cloth on the floor lay little wooden squares inscribed with arcane shapes.

The Sunrise Hive, a psychic shop nested in the lowest level of the Graham Plaza, played host Monday night to “Rune: Mystery, Secret or Whisper,” a seminar teaching attendees to draw, interpret and derive power from Nordic runes.

But before diving into the 2,000-year-old mystery of the runes in front of her, meeting leader Annie Dill began the meeting with a simple question.

“Blinds opened or closed?” she asked.

Leading the seminar with Dill and perched on a floor cushion was Dara Enodia. They began the evening – blinds open – by invoking the runes.

The attendees added their energy to the circle around which they sat by taking a series of deep breaths and a brief meditation followed by 
introductions.

Some, like Jeanette Barefoot, had no experience at all.

Others, like her son, rune aficionado Jarrod May, have been studying them since childhood.

“When I was 12, I went out into the yard and peeled off pieces of bark from the trees,” he said, though at the time, he didn’t have the dedication to paint the runes in his own blood, as tradition dictates. “Since I didn’t want to cut my hands, I painted the runes red.”

Following the introduction was the rune chant.

“Fehu, uruz, thurisaz,” Dill began, before working her way through the following twenty-one runes three times. On the last pass, 
everyone’s voice joined hers.

Part of the evening involved choosing a communal rune.

Though the event involved everyone’s energy, in the end May drew for the group a rune resembling an uppercase “U.”

“Uruz,” May said without hesitation.

“Uruz means ‘raw 
power,’” Enodia added.

“If you need extra power, call on Uruz,” Dill said. “But it can be a little wild, so I would recommend binding it with another rune to 
channel its energy.”

Everyone stood up and touched their toes to bend themselves into the shape of Uruz.

Meditation followed, led by Enodia. She guided the group through a scenario, first asking participants to relax and imagine 
themselves in a forest.

Enodia lead everyone through a 
forest, down a cave, into another forest and lastly into the realm of Uruz.

Afterward, attendees discussed what they felt while meditating.

“Did you hear, like, wild party music?” Dill asked. “Thumps and lots of voices?”

“Yeah, but it was ancient party music,” Enodia said. “It wasn’t like modern day party music.”

“It was really loud,” Dill agreed. “But then I came out of it and it was quiet.”

After meditation, everyone drew a personal rune. IU alumna Kristina Czwakiel drew Ansuz but didn’t know exactly what to make of it, she said.

“But it’s mental and 
spiritual,” she said.

Her uncertainty as to the rune’s meaning fit a framework laid out by the event’s fliers: “The Runes have so much exciting information to share it is difficult to scratch the surface in just a few hours.”

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