Runes, Religion & the Search for the Sacred

Hey Hey, Welcome back to Taste0ftruth Tuesdays. In today’s episode we are sitting down with Tina K. of The Rune Shack to explore runes, esotericism, and Norse-Germanic spirituality, alongside my own path through New Age spirituality, Christianity, and deconstruction.

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For years, I was searching.

I wandered through wellness culture, festival communities, New Age spirituality, psychedelic conversations, evangelical Christianity, and eventually the long road of deconstruction. Every step taught me something. Every community offered language for experiences that often felt deeply meaningful.

But over time, I began to wonder:

How do we know when spirituality is making us more grounded—and when it is simply helping us escape reality?

Modern spirituality often promises awakening, healing, manifestation, higher consciousness, hidden knowledge, or secret wisdom. Sometimes those ideas genuinely encourage reflection and personal growth. Other times, they can become substitutes for the harder work of living honestly, accepting limits, grieving loss, cultivating discipline, and remaining accountable to reality and to other people.

This conversation isn’t a rejection of mystery. Far from it.

I believe human beings need myth, ritual, symbol, beauty, and experiences that remind us life is deeper than material reductionism alone can explain.

The challenge for me has been learning to distinguish between mystery and manipulation.

That distinction is one reason I wanted to invite Tina K. from The Rune Shack onto the podcast. Rather than centering on a single article, this conversation explores a broader landscape of ideas:

• What is heathen spirituality?
• What are runes beyond their popular image?
• What does esotericism actually mean?
• Why can spiritual authority become dangerous?
• What makes New Age spirituality appealing and where can it become escapist?
• Why do so many modern spiritual movements continue to reinterpret Jesus through ideas like the cosmic Christ or Christ consciousness?
• And perhaps the deepest question of all:

What does real spirituality actually require?

I don’t approach these questions as someone who has everything figured out.

I ask them as someone who has lived inside several different spiritual worlds and has become increasingly interested in discernment rather than certainty.

My hope is to encourage more thoughtful questions about the stories we inherit, the authorities we trust, and the practices that shape our lives.

I hope you’ll join us for the conversation. Please let me know your thoughts.

LINKS mentioned:

My interview I did with Tina Part 1 & the Part 2 (paid)

Rune Shack Radio with Torna Braggison

Tina’s article on Rune Magick in the Sagas