The Celts believed that Wood was the most sacred of all materials as it was next to Humans.  They believed that it contained all five elements the same as humans do.  Wood comes from a tree which is nurtured in Earth, need water to thrive, air to breath, has the ability to burst into flames and most important of all it contained spirit.  This is why they use it for their Ohgam runes (Tree Runes).  Will have to get back to you on what the Norse believed once I look it up.  If anyone can contribute to this, the more knowledge we gather the more powerful we become.

The Norse had a strong belief in the importance of trees as well. Yggdrasil is the huge (ash) world tree that connects the 9 realms of the known Norse universe.  Odin hung on this tree to receive the gift of the runes (he paid for it dearly). Two of the runes, Berkana and Eihwaz, means birch tree and yew tree respectively.  The ancient Norse were practitioners of a nature type religion, though it was not as well organized as Celtic druidry, and the trees were important to them. I suspect not as much as it was to the Celts, but that is just conjecture on my part.

In ancient time as well as now, rune magic used wood extensively, for it contains the ond (.. over the o) which means vital qualities.  They also used bone which is meant to be also very powerful containing the same qualities as wood, probably frowned upon its use now though.

I once was working on a bush regeneration project on a river bank next to a cemetry and I stumble accross human remains.  They were of a child and had been buried for years, but before I realised what I was touching I got the buzz from it which probably made almost fall into the river upon noticing what it was.  Because the cemetry was quite old and the earth is always on the mover some of the old bones were being uncovered buy the errosion.  The police divers found heaps more in the river as well as old stone heads.  So I really get this Ond, thingy, and don't want to ever touch human bones again.

Yes, I was aware that bone was used, often animal, but that would be frowned upon, too.  (Recently I blogged about a famous Icelander and runic inscribed whalebone). I guess the key ingredient is life. Bone certainly qualifies as life, as does wood. Anyway, wood is as close as I want to get life in runes.  The wood works just fine for me, Odin and Freya be praised!

I have a drawing of one side of that whale bone somewhere, I will scan it and see if I can up load it.  The side I have is the picture of Odin son fighting a wolf.  The other side is suppose to dipict Odin on the tree of life itself.  Will have a look for it.

Definately Wood is as far as I go to get life into things, the only thing I would combine with it to make it more magical is colour.  As if you have seen Auras around people they are colourful so that must mean life is in colour also.  At the moment I am in the process of sewing a new bag for my wooden runes as I had a blow out and I don't want to loose any.  I am using Gold Chiffon and coloured thread: ie Black to absorb negativity, Red for magical purposes and protection, Blue for comunication and I think I will put in Green for creativity.  Not sure what other colours yet but I am embroyding Ansuz in blue and then in red.  If you can think of any other communication runes let me know.