Valeria MRAVYAN
Kleinburg, ON

“Whisper of Runes”

solo exhibition 2021
aug 11– sep 11

PRESS RELEASE
ARTIST'S WEBSITE

To name a few galleries out of Canada, Valeria exhibited her painting, batik and tapestry in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Arts (Japan), Frankfurt Messe (Germany), Chagall House (Israel), Krimsky Most Gallery (Russia), Monserart Gallery (NY, USA), Los Gatos Museum of Art (CA, USA)

Reception with artist:
Thursday, August 19, 5–7 pm

On the above painting, "Opulent" 40"x40":
RUNE Fehu – “Cattle/Wealth”
The first of the Elder Futhark, Fehu indicates prosperity and material wealth, either won or earned income. It can represent good luck, abundance and financial success in the near future. It can also relate to social success. Not everyone chooses to read a rune as reversed (“merkstave”) if it comes up that way, but if doing so resonates with you- its reversed meaning may indicate the loss of personal possessions or income, a dip in self-esteem or some other kind of struggles. In Tarot, this could be seen as The Tower card.
KEYWORDS: Abundance, luck, hope, prosperity

WHAT ARE RUNES?
Rune stones are an ancient proto-Germanic tradition dating back to potentially the 1st century AD. They consist of a runic alphabet of 24 letters, usually made out of wood or stone that were used as a method of fortune-telling and protection sigils. The first completion of the total alphabet was the Elder Futhark runes in the 5th century AD, that are most often used still today, and then the Younger Futhark stones were adapted by the Vikings and other Nordic tribes and continued until Medieval times. They are said to be based off of Old Latin inscriptions. Runes stones are full of powerful and magical history, and so were highly venerated and used with extreme caution. In the Norse cultures and across other Northern Europeans, it was believed that they held strong divinatory powers and as such were taken very seriously.
The origin of word “rune” stems from the Germanic word for “mystery” or “secret”, and similar findings are present in Old Irish Gaelic, Welsh and Old English, sometimes also meaning “miracle”. In Lithuanian it can me “to speak”, and in Finnish it can also mean “poem”.
These days, runes are used as a method of connecting to one’s higher self, inner guidance and tapping into intuition as a method of foretelling what the future may hold and offering advice (similar to Tarot Cards). Read on for our guide to what are the rune meanings and how to use them for yourself!