M. Elkman D. Taylor - Just Add Blood: Runelore - Understanding and Using the Anglo-Saxon Runes

Just Add Blood offers an extraordinarily insightful and profound understanding of the value of runelore to the modern mind. Combining esoteric and psychological understanding, Kennan Taylor has succeeded in revealing the ways in which our lives today can be enriched with this ancient system.

Philip Carr-Gomm, Chief of the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Author of Sacred Places and co-author of The Book of English Magic

Dr Kennan Taylor has provided a valuable, novel and insightful contribution to the field of runelore; in particular, the Anglo-Saxon runes.

With my knowledge of Dr Taylors work and interest in this field, I anticipate Just Add Blood to be the forerunner of other more detailed works in this field and the associated ones of magic and neo-pagan spirituality.

I also appreciate that it will both support and develop Dr Taylors online presence, and the commitment he has in furthering this from a therapeutic and educational perspective.

Dr Ian Cook, Politics and International Studies, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Murdoch University, Western Australia

Just Add Blood offers the kind of historical and cultural depth which is often missing from publications concerning runes or other divination or oracular systems. It is a work in progress, but it shows strong promise of rendering the symbolic referents and cultural contexts for the use of the runes in such a way that the material will be of great relevance to those who wish to explore the divinatory and spiritual development domains.

The work will benefit from additional, carefully structured treatments of the cultural histories of rune systems and detailed frameworks for use of the material in a practical sense.

Dr. Taylor has the requisite skill, intellectually, creatively and in terms of writing skills to produce a publication of some considerable value. It would certainly be of interest to readers with backgrounds in esoteric theory and practice, shamanism and anthropology.

Rafael G. Locke, National Director, Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society, Australia. National Director, Ikon International Institute, Australia. Visiting Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Just Add Blood is a welcome addition to the world of spirituality and its mysteries. Kennan Taylor has brought his expression of Runelore from out of the mists into the open as a gift for the use of existing and emerging practitioners, and new seekers of the seemingly lost soul. Kennans psycho-spiritual approach to the world is evident as he takes the reader on a journey into the world of Runelore.

Metaphysically, blood is the song of the soul and has magical qualities. It transforms the individual as it travels through veins and eventually sings in the heart. As a Keeper of the Stones and thus a practitioner of ancient ways I was hugely impressed by Kennans interpretation of the Runes, an ancient form of divination directly imparted from the Gods. To hold a Rune in ones hand is to take the blood of the Gods into oneself.

Given that humanity has shifted a notch upwards in its search for a deeper consciousness the Runes offer an avenue into the world of the new occultist and emerging mystic. The Runes provide a bridge from the mundane to the world of spirit, an entry into a level of consciousness, where there is direct contact with the vital force that sings, more often than not, unheard, within each of us.

Casting a Rune, either singly or in a spread, evokes a response from the world of spirit and, as Kennan states, re-establishes a connection, a relationship, to the greater reality in which we are embedded. Once that connection is made, there is no going back, only going forward into a greater understanding. It is the beginning and, for many, all it takes is to hold a Rune.

Anni Hoddinott, Metaphysical Priest; Keeper of the Stones & Medicine Ways

Just Add Blood is a captivating work, leading us gently, but swiftly and assuredly into the worlds and realms of Runelore.

As a guide, teacher, mentor and most importantly, fellow traveller, Kennan Taylor lays before the reader this ancient domain of mystery and magic and explains it in ways which are meaningful, intelligent, relevant and indeed vital; as an agent with potent possibilities for the recovery of individual and communal soulfulness in our contemporary times.

More than scholarly, this work brings to its subject matter, the authenticity of the lived experience of the human condition and its search for meaning, across the span of history to the present day.

To bring forward the ancient pillars of wisdom of the past, fully and authentically to the present and then to enable fellow human beings to rise and stand upon them, to look to their future confidently; informed and connected to that which is greater than themselves, is no mean feat and in this, Kennan has succeeded with brilliance and integrity!

A competent, alchemic synthesis of history, culture, heritage, landscape, mystery and imagination true medicine for our times!

Stuart McDonough, Clinical Nurse Specialist (Mental Health)

First published by Moon Books, 2014

Moon Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK

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Text copyright: Dr Kennan Taylor 2013

ISBN: 978 1 78279 401 1

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Dr Kennan Taylor as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Lee Nash

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

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Just Add Blood is an introduction to a personal study and use of the Anglo-Saxon runes. This small book will serve both as a point of reference, and also as a guide in how to use the runes. Inevitably, this will have my own personal imprimatur in a vast, expanding, and often confusing field. As I anticipate more research and writing about runes, extending to my interest in Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) medicine, magic, and spirituality, I have entitled the whole field as some other commentators have Runelore.

To begin, a few words about the content. If you are eager, then the short introduction will give you sufficient background before progressing to the how to use the runes section; how much of this you want to read will depend on your prior experience with runes, divination, and magic. The extended introduction is to give a more detailed context for the runes, to illuminate what has been called the Dark Ages, and to reveal that they were far from dark; indeed, an appreciation of this period gives a more grounded and traditional context for the modern age and its attendant challenges and dilemmas.