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We are not going to put any images alongside each Rune Name, far to many of us  rely on images to remind us which Rune it is, we want Our Folk to know off the top of their head what the Rune looks like once they read the name. Enjoy our introduction to The Runes.
Fehu: Represents wealth or cattle, in older society and I guess in some places still today, having cattle or similar stock means that you have some kind of wealth and where able to provide for your family.
Uruz: The aurochs where a wild ox, if you look at the rune and then imagine an auroch coming towards you, to confront you, its head would be down and its horns would form the Uruz rune. This rune is all about primal urges, strength, courage and raw power. I love the primordial force of this rune.
Thurisaz: Look at the rune and imagine a thorn from a rose bush. This is a rune of protection and repelling, a thorn also attacks and draws blood.
Ansuz: This rune always makes me think of Odin. Its a rune of intelligence, it reminds of how little I know. Its almost a cosmic intelligence, beyond most of our understanding. Its also articulate and cunning.
Kenaz: Do you ken? or Do you know? This is a rune of knowledge, but its a torch of knowledge, it lights up the path of where we should be going. If I am given this rune, and open up my mind, I know I will be flooded with truth.
Gebo: A gift and one of the most powerful gifts we receive is the gift of friendship, love or partnership.
Wunjo: This is my oh great rune, when I receive it, I just feel a pulse of joy.
Hagalaz: Is a rune I am in awe of, its a rune of destruction. I just love the power that you can feel about the rune, even saying the word is powerful. Its a rune of hail, think of you on your little farm, think of the destruction hail would bring, crops die, nothing to feed yourself, family or animals over the long winter, many would not well survive the damage and the repercussions of hail. Its a destructive natural force, and for me, that is something to be in awe of, and it reminds us that everything must end, so that new can begin. Although survive of the repercussions of hail is demanding, it can be a cleansing experience, at some level.
Nauthiz: When I have receive this rune it kind of jolts me. I think is that what is needed? This needs to occur? Sometime when it comes up I think its making me ask, is this a need or a want? Am I or who ever I am reading for, being honest regarding their true objectives. Sometimes I think it comes up when I am almost manipulating a reading, trying to find what the person wants the reading to say, when really my instincts and the runes are telling me different. It kinda slaps me in the face at times.
Isa: Ice, frozen, stop, take time, leave it till it thaws, put that idea on hold, do not change, persevere, or there is a coldness around this idea or situation.
Jera: Oh I love this rune. Its about harvest, it will take time to harvest, but it will occur. And for something to harvest, it has to be fertilized first, so its also a sexual rune, you know that old saying about plowing the fields, sowing the seeds, they have an agricultural, an intellectual and a sexual meaning.
Eihawz: It took me a long time to get this rune. It relates the Yew tree, a tree that has been long used to make items such as bows and magical implements such as wands. For me, its a direction of power, saying yes, this is good, it is powerful and there is magic about it, go a head and do it, forces are behind you, supporting you and directing this action. It a primeval forceful rune, and I did not understand this rune until Uller showed himself to me as a hunter. It is also came time me at a time I was wondering about celebrations of seasonal festivities, seeing I live in Australia, the seasons where mixed up and I had trouble relating to seasonal celebrations and choose to almost celebrate none. When the rune came to me, it was only days before Yule, some of you may be familiar with the Australian Santa Clause, wearing shorts, thongs, with the hat and the big red coat, Uller kind of came to me that way, adapted for the Yule in the Southern hemisphere. It made me realize that I should definitely celebrate Yule in December that the forces had adapted to Australia but we should still celebrate according to the northern tradition.
Pertho: Oh I love this rune as well. It is a purse, it is hidden, it is a womb, it is female knowledge, it is also a bit of a back off rune, sometimes, when you pick it up, its like the back off, this is hidden from you and you are not suppose to know it, you are not a wise woman. It is secretive, the secret knowledge of women. Also, it is the All-Mothers rune, other times when it appears, Frigga is saying, I will protect this, I will mother this with all the guile of my womanhood. You know if its a back off or this is a secret or a rune of motherhood and calm nurturing the moment you pick it up.
Algiz: I am always so happy to be given this rune. I just think Life when I pick it up. Also protection.
Suwulo: A rune of the sun, it makes me think of the sun shining, giving its blessing, but this rune has a force, you know when the sun shines in your eyes, it has got that unrelenting power, a momentum behind it.
Teiwaz: A rune of judgment, wisdom and outcome. Most folk believe it is positive, but sometimes I feel rather downhearted when I receive the rune, maybe acknowledging the battle needed for victory.
Berkana: Oh yet again, I love this rune. Feminine knowledge, power, understanding, feminine fertility and birth. It makes me think of midwives, who historically have been wise women.
Ehwaz: A rune of horses, movement, moving forward with force. Sometimes a little unpredictable, like a horse.
Mannaz: Relates to mankind, so it is not always masculine. It is not a rune I have a deep understanding of, it does not often crop up for me in a reading.
Laguz: Oh I like this rune a lot, it is of womens understanding and sorcery. If you get a flood of warmth when you hold this rune, it is very positive.
Inguz: Sex and fertility, need I say more, it is a great rune. For me, it always brings Freya to mind, and her powers.
Othila: Inheritance, our people, our home, and our homeland.
Dagaz: This is the rune of the day. It makes me think, this will occur sooner then later.
WAU Pagan / Australia
The WAU Sisterhood
Estd 1990
 To make dye for Easter eggs from natural materials in the kitchen try these ideas.-Red Cabbage leaves produce a robin’s egg blue color.
-Orange peels create a tender yellow.
-Carrot tops yield a smoky yellow green.
-Yellow delicious apple peelings dye eggs pale lavender flecked with soft rust.
-Brown (not white) onion peels dye orange.
-Fresh spinach gives you a pinkish color with gray-green buffs.
To use these methods place eggs in a pan and cover with water. Add 1 tsp of vinegar and dye material. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer gently 20 minutes. The color will deepen or change if the eggs are left in the dye solution overnight. DO NOT EAT the eggs if you leave them out of the fridge over night!!!
Here are a few other natural dyeing methods:
-Pale Red: Fresh beets or cranberries or frozen raspberries
-Orange: Yellow onion skin
-Light Yellow: Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, or celery seed
-Pale Green: Spinach leaves
-Blue: canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves
-Beige to brown: Strong brewed coffee
-Golden brown: Black walnut shells
We don’t always have time for a full springtime clean, many of us start with the simple and easy tasks, like cleaning floors and corners, dusting rugs and the like. There is just something about the freshness of the spring season that makes us all want that spring freshness in our homes. We hope you enjoy the below tips, HomeFront have adapted these tips are from one the e-newsletters HomeFront subscribes too – How to Make Your Home Feel Fresh in Spring – Enjoy!
 1. Open your windows. Let a fresh spring breeze flow through your home and get rid of lingering winter staleness. If it’s still cold where you live, try opening the window in your bedroom just a little, and sleep with an extra comforter, we always sleep with the window opened at night, today we started to open the kitchen and living room windows to cleanse the air in both rooms!
2. Try moving a piece of furniture or two. Sometimes the new perspective we gain when we change something around is all we need for a sense of spacious freshness. We haven’t moved furniture yet, but have plans to do so over the next few weeks!
3. Simplify your knick-knacks. Try the “Take-Away Half” plan: take away half of your knick-knacks and put them in a box. Then when the seasons change again, switch them. It will feel like you have all new decorations! Today I removed all my autumn candles and decorations, and I will only use flowers from spring décor, in my bathroom I just add cute little fairies with flowers and candles.
4. Consider bring colour into your home. Try bringing in more light airy spring colours to your home. A new slipcover for that tired sofa is a start, we don’t have a sofa that can be slip covered, I would love to change mine for each season, so I throw a pastel throw rug over the back of the chairs, or even a couple of pretty pillows will make a refreshing difference.
5. Use old things in new ways. Try putting rolled-up napkins in a clean vase, or placing candles on a mirror for the dining table, I put some of my candles that I don’t light on my coffee table on top of tiles I have of Spring Goddesses. I also use pretty painted baskets to hold my magazines and remote controls; you can get them cheap at craft stores.
6. Follow your nose! If something smells “off” in your home, find out what it is. Rotting compost, moldy drains, and a neglected pet bed–all these can contribute to a sense of winter stuck staleness. Be sure to empty compost daily; try pouring 1/2 cup of vinegar down your drain to freshen it; and give that pet bed a washing. And once you’ve eliminated the causes of bad odors, place shallow dishes with a tablespoon of vanilla extract in each one around your home to keep it smelling fresh. And if the fridge is the offending party I would suggest removing all food items from the fridge and cleaning the entire inside of the fridge, the last time I had a bad smell in my fridge it wasn’t even any food we had inside, it was just food that had spilled and started to smell. Also keep a pack of Baking Powder in your fridge to eliminate odors!
7. Fresh flowers help. The sight of pretty spring flowers blooming on a table or shelf livens our spirits. My husband has just started to plant flowers and herbs. Bulbs are a great value since after they have bloomed you can plant them outdoors to bloom again next year. My favorite flower is Daffodils, we still haven’t grown any but they are definitely a great spring flower!
8. Vacuum rugs/sweep or damp-mop floors. If you only have time for one chore, cleaning the floors is usually the one that will make the most immediate difference in how fresh a room feels. Today we slept under all the living room chairs, under the coffee table and under the mat at the entrance to our house, we actually threw out the rug from our living room as it a dust and dirt collector and no amount of cleaning would remedy it, so we just left our floors bare and it feels wonderful!
9. Do a quick pick up and put away. Anytime my husband and I clear out a little space, it gives us some breathing room, and that feels really great. It’s like the early-spring raking we do in our yard; today we got rid of fallen leaves we had ignored for the past few weeks, so new life can grow.
When we get rid of clutter and believe me it gets bad with two clutter bugs living in one small space, we create some growing room in our home. You can start small, maybe with just one corner, but if you make a daily or weekly habit of it, room-by-room, eventually your whole house will be done! Today we did our yard and living room!
10. Wipe pet hair off upholstered furniture. I absolutely hate pet hair on my furniture, so everyday I dust it off this only takes a minute, it really makes a difference.
HomeFront
 The kids and I blow out eggs and decorate them with Celtic and spring symbology. Then we hang them on a branch, spray painted white and put in a vase of brightly colored floral pebbles. This is our “Ostara tree”. We plan a spring menu to celebrate the spring Equinox ( we always celebrate March 21, disregarding the Christian Easter). We also begin some of our garden indoors on this day such as tomatoes and peppers. It brings the meaning of being closer to the earth to our kids. Of course, we always do an egg hunt too, usually indoors, since it is usually still chilly on March 21 where we are and the kids are still young. They go wild for this. I just wish I could come up with more ideas of things that are non-candy to out in the eggs.
Europa14 – USA
Every year so far we have followed the traditions we had in my household while growing up, which are pretty typical. Coloring eggs the night before, hunting for them the next morning or afternoon, Easter baskets, and a special dinner with family. This year I’m finally shaking the mindset that we have to do everything the day the calendar says; since we are not following Christian traditions, there is no reason to follow the Christian date. We’ve taught Thorin that we are celebrating spring, so we might as well do just that. We’ll be doing everything on the Equinox this year and avoiding as much store-bought stuff in favor of homemade as we can, which we do for holidays anyway.
WAU NC
When I was little my father used to hide chocolate egg(s) for me in the house, when I was close to find it he said “warmer” and when further “colder” this is a nice memory for me.
Skuld – WAU Finland
HUGE egg hunt! My Sister does this every year. She puts candy and prize vouchers inside of plastic eggs and hides them all over her yard and house. The prizes range from jelly beans, stickers, stuffed animals, videos, computer games – she really goes all out. The kids LOVE it! It’s sooo much fun. This year will be her 16th year having it!
Anne – WAU NJ
In Sweden, Easter is known to us as Påsk. It is a time rich in tradition and family.
On Easter morning the family, and good friends, gather at the kitchen table to color boiled eggs for many hours. After admiring everyone’s artwork, off to the refrigerator they go.
In Swedish folklore, Easter was thought to be the witches’ time. On Thursday, these witches were said to fly off to “Blåkulla” and return again on the Saturday before. People feared this “Witches’ Time” and tried to prevent their home and family to be killed or kidnapped by the angry witches who tend to roam the land. Grandparents would frighten the children with horrible stories of people being half-eaten by wolves or slaughtered by witches. Many of these tales are written down and can be found in libraries all over Sweden.
Nowadays, children dress up as Easter witches and go from house to house and are given candy or money – very similar to the North American Halloween.
Around noon my family sits down to a huge feast where we eat our decorated eggs and other goodies! As all the eggs are hand painted and are all different, it’s very enjoyable picking from the bowl those eggs you want to eat. In my family we have a contest to see who eats the most eggs; I remember one time I managed to stuff myself with 13 eggs, but I’ve heard stories of people eating up to 30 eggs! I also remember how excited I was to find an egg with my name on it.
After the meal – of course as we are Swedish – what would be a Swedish Easter without a “Nubbe”? (shot) While the adults are sitting around the kitchen table talking, the kids get to search the house for their Easter Egg: one huge Egg filled with Candy. Unlike the small plastic American teeny-tiny eggs they hide in the backyard in North America, these are huge and are packed with candy and fruit.
Many restaurants limit their menu during the Holiday to only Easter foods. Food like Janssons Frästelse (fish and potatoes casserole) or Smörgåsbord (Sandwich Table) – which is bread made into a huge cake, with all kinds of food stuffed into it like Olives, Meatballs, Potatoes, Eggs and alot more, and is eaten cold – a delicious meal.
NorseStar
I went to a honey farm recently and they had a small book on the history of the apron that i should have bought but didn’t and now here i am wondering what that history is.. From what i discovered from various sources was that t he principal use for an apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. My grandmother still wear’s one today and i have worn one on occasion but not often.
We all remember old movies were the mother collected eggs from the chicken coop and popped them in a scooped up Apron, i remember my grandmother putting her pegs in the front pocket when she went to hang clothes outside on a spring day, or using it to wipe food off one of her grandchildrens face.
Now that i think of it Aprons bring a feeling of comfort, memories of a mother or grandmother tending to her family in various way’s and her Apron being an extension of her, a place to put utensils whilst cooking and tending to homework and chores.
It will be a long time before someone finds something that will replace that old-time apron that served so many purposes and for some reason seemed to hold a family together.
Morrigan
 Love Homefront. Impressive site. Keep up the good work. Reader from Wisconsin..
I’ve been looking through the new issue & some of the articles on the site, and they’re very interesting, I’ll be bookmarking it. Reader from North Carolina..
Thanks for the printable version, its nice to not have to read it on the computer. Reader from Canada
What an excellent publication, thanks for sharing!! Reader from California..
Hey, thanks for this great resource! There’s something here for everyone–even though my kids are 18 and 16, I found several helpful tips (especially in the summer issue). Reader from Chicago.
This is a WONDERFUL publication. I can say that seeing as I’m single at the moment, and don’t have any kids, that I don’t usually look at these types of publications- However, I have two wonderful Nieces that have stolen my heart, and I will forward this link to my Sister-in-law! I’m sure she’ll be able to find something useful in there for little Vivian and Lilly. This is a very well-done publication, and I think that Homefront will continue to get better with each new issue. Reader from Nebraska..
Well – my Mom got a chance to sit and read the whole thing this morning and she calls up, crying! “I’m so proud of you girls, I wish things like this had been around for me when I was struggling with 4 kids and a truck driver husband who was home once a month!” There’s nothing like hearing something like that from your Mom! – Reader from NJ..
Nice website. I am going to turn my wife onto it! Recycling yogurt pots, awesome idea to use them from sprouting seeds! Reader from Florida
I should have paid attention in school. Viking Girl makes me feel stupid. Very nice. Something to work with the kids on. Reader from the Northwest USA..
Already downloaded! Another great issue, thanks! – Reader from Florida..
Good work! There were several really interesting articles and recipes I’ll have to try. I just read the whole thing, haha. Reader from Wisconsin
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