My first assignment from my Seiðr course was to make my own ritual rattle. The whole process was very instinctive and intuitive, like riding some sort of natural flow.
At first I didn’t know where to start but sleeping on it helped. I started the day with a clear picture of the kind of branch I would wish to use. Of course, finding a branch in that exact shape is a question of luck (and fate?). Only the more surprised I was when my four year old daughter brought me exactly such a branch during our afternoon stroll along the local river. She had found it and wanted to gift me this beautiful looking branch. As if she knew!
I actually wanted to dress my rattle with seashells from the Dutch beach, thinking it would sound really nice. Looking for those seashell I thought I still had I bumped into a couple of little bells instead. The seashells must have gotten lost during the last move, because I still haven’t found them. Though not my first choice, bells it is.
The yarn used to attach the bells to the branch is handspun on one of my wonderful turkish spindles. Rather than using my spinning wheel it felt fitting to use a spindle instead. The colour red was chosen instinctively. I really can’t give a particular reason as to why I choose this colour, other than it feeling absolutely right. The yarn is meant to form some kind of web between the sticks.
Who knows what I’ll ‘catch’ with it.
The rattle is not dedicated to anyone or anything, except perhaps to the unfolding of and the journey through my own Wyrd.
Right now I’m getting acquinted with my rattle. With how she sounds and feels. I noticed that the sound of the bells takes some getting used to for me, but other than that she already feels quite familiar and I’m very sure that the more time we spend together, the more we’ll grow on one another.