What you get
One mortar and one matched pestle, carved from fossil stone. The bowl measures 4 inches across the rim and sits on a turned pedestal foot. Weight 2.32 lb. All 24 Elder Futhark runes run around the outside of the bowl in one continuous band, cut deep enough to feel under the thumb and filled with black enamel. Pestle length 4.75". Ready to use on arrival; wipe the bowl dry before the first grind to clear carving dust.
One only. The piece photographed is the piece that ships.
About the stone
Fossil stone is a marine limestone: lime mud that settled on a shallow seabed and hardened around whatever was living and dying on top of it. The pale ground is the mud. The darker flecks, rings, and comma shapes scattered through it are cross-sections of shell and coral. Also known as fossil jasper and fossil coral. Keep vinegar, citrus oils, and acidic tinctures out of the bowl, because acid will etch and dull the interior. Hand wash, dry it promptly, and don't leave it soaking.
Correspondences
Fossils sit under Spirit in traditional correspondence tables, the element of transcendence, transformation, immanence, and the void. Spirit rules no single chakra but the whole column together. Its colors are clear, black, and white, and its place in the life cycle is after death, before birth. Spirit's working tool is the cauldron.
Provenance & tradition
The Elder Futhark is a 24-character runic alphabet used across Germanic-speaking Europe from roughly the 2nd to the 8th century CE, organized into three groups of eight called ættir and named for the sound values of its first six characters.
Who this is for
Herb workers and incense makers who want a grinding bowl that belongs on the altar as much as the workbench. Rune students who learn the futhark faster by handling it in order. Anyone building out a Northern Tradition or Heathen practice, or assembling a working apothecary for spellcraft.
