Heill Birka,

You know, to be honest, I've been thinking deeply on your response for candles, and to be honest, I use them for the same reasons, for the townhouse I live in has no fire place, and funny how I'm a water element to some beliefs', however, I have always been more of a fire lover. I do the same in baths which can be magical, in which (my own personal experience and not to be taken as actual magic), extends me to laguz, but not the rune, just the language with semantics, and when a sense of actual history has been taken into play is when few can reconstruct, or give a opinion on why this act is used. Which has been my topic on the controversal issue of the runic poems or the semantics for the names in historical use as such for the mundan modern use misconstrued--divination.

Heill ok vel,
Mike

Heill Birka,
As modern heathens and generally speaking we tend to adapt redes to suit our way of living and mindset. This is O.K. and I have no issues with that at all. In fact it makes good sense from a practicality POV. Whilst it would be fair to surmise that "modern" candles were a product dating way back to the middle ages but beeswax candles for instance back them was a much sort after commodity and expensive to boot. It also seems that dishes of animal fat with a fabric or some plant material to serve as a wick may have preceded candles. None the less I am comfortable with the idea of adapting redes for reasons of practicality. Not every heathen has access to a motor vehicle for ease of transport to a forest or hearthlands. So we adapt our ways to suit a modern lifestyle. Apart from the fact that lighting open fires in most British woods is forbidden and you will most likely draw attention to what you are actually doing via the public eye and possibly end up in court for trasspass and breaking forest codes ;-) I also hold the view that you need not be in a forest or sacred grove to work your magic for indeed what were cities before men built on them?

Best
Rig