Making Runes Your Personalized Divination System
When I was a child, I was obsessed with secret codes and languages. I had an Egyptian hieroglyphics rubber stamp set that I would use to fill sheets of paper with prose. I memorized Morse code and spent hours with a flashlight sending signals to friends in the dark. I gravitated toward storybooks that included special alphabets like the Dinotopia series by James Gurney. For one birthday party, I made up my own cryptic alphabet and my parents printed out small cheat sheets for all of the kids so that they could decode clues for a treasure hunt. Imagine my delight when, as an adult, I learned that plenty of grownups are inventing their own special alphabets to learn more about themselves, keep private things private, and tell fortunes with new divination systems.
How to Buy Runes
It is good luck to receive a set of runes as a gift. Rune sets can be purchased on the Internet or in metaphysical bookstores. The most common set of runes available are the Elder Futhark runes. If you don’t know which type of runes to choose, the Elder Futhark is a good place to start. It’ll be familiar to other rune aficionados, should you run into any, and if you read further advanced literature about runes, it’s likely to be included.
Some prefer to choose divination tools in-person, rather than buying them online or waiting for them to be provided as a gift. The theory behind this is that the essence or energy of the runes can be sensed through the hands or other sensory perceptions. To use this method of choosing runes, go to a metaphysical bookstore that supplies runes and run your hands over the available sets of runes. You may sense the set that is best for you as warmth, coolness, a prickling sensation, a fuzziness, or simply an internal thought that they feel right. In some belief systems, it is unlucky to haggle for a tool like this, so consider paying the sticker price even if bargaining is something you normally do.
To make your own set of runes, you’ll need to first choose the base material upon which to mark the runes. This may depend on what runes you choose. The largest runic alphabet is the Anglo-Saxon runes with thirty-three characters, to which some people add one blank rune. The smallest runic system is the Witch’s Runes, which number thirteen. Obviously, you don’t want to choose hunks of gold for your runes, or you’ll go broke. Again, if you don’t know which runic alphabet to choose, select the Elder Futhark, for which you’ll need twenty-five rune bases if you include the optional blank rune. Your base materials should also be all roughly the same size and shape. As you get used to your runes, you don’t want to inadvertently begin identifying the runes by feel as you select them. Keep the rune selection process during divination as random as possible by not allowing the base shapes of the runes to give them away as your hand grabs for them.
Runes can be made of clay, stone, wood, deer antler, bone, ceramic tiles, crystals, resin, fruit pits, and more. Consider affordability and durability when choosing your runes. My first runes were made with stones I found outside my home and a permanent marker, which I don’t recommend because the oils in your skin will rub the markings off over time. Likewise, paints are likely to chip from the runes tumbling against one another. The most durable runes are those with markings carved or etched into their bases.
Runes of stone are the most popular modern type, even though ancient runes were most likely made of wood. You can purchase polished rocks, leave your rocks natural, or use a rock tumbler to polish your own. You can also look up the associations for common semiprecious gemstones on the Internet. For example, amethyst stones correspond well with healing runes. You’ll also need a rotary tool with a cutting or engraving bit. In addition, you may want to buy waterproof paint or a permanent marker to fill the etched markings in. This will make them pop. A thicker paint will make the runes smoother to the touch, thereby enhancing random selection. Carve the markings into the stones, one per stone, and leave one optional blank rune. Carefully fill the etchings with contrasting paint, if you like, and wait for them to dry completely before use. The paint can be whatever color you choose. I don’t use plastic sealant on my runes because, for me, touching the stone, bone, wood or other material is an important component of getting in the right headspace.
Ancient runes may have been painted with red paint. You can even paint your runes with your own blood if you’re not squeamish, but take care to keep your runes to yourself and to wash your hands and workspace when finished using them. You can make staves in whatever single color shows itself best on the stones or other bases you’ve chosen, or you can pick multiple colors that help you remember the meanings. Whatever color you associate with the meanings is best. For example, for a rune that means war, I chose red because I associated it with blood-red imagery. Here are some more color associations that work for me, but please choose your own associations over mine if they conflict. Keep in mind that the rocks you choose may have color that can enhance the meaningfulness for you as well.
Red: War, conflict, passion, sex, violence, hearth or flame. Fehu, thurisaz, raido, ken, tiwaz, mannaz.
Pink: Love, femininity, family.
Orange: Success, victory, energy, masculinity.
Yellow: Intellect, travel by air, study. Wunjo, sowilo, ingwaz, othila.
Green: Money, fertility, growth and change, travel over land, gifts, birth, wealth. Uruz, berkanan.
Blue: Healing, sadness, travel by water, justice, sea. Hagalaz, jera, dagaz, ansuz, gebo, eihwaz, laguz.
Purple: Spirituality, femininity, joy, destiny.
Brown: Nature, earth, animals, stagnation.
Black: Protection, balance, hiding. Neid, isa, pertho.
White: Spirituality, healing, protection, stagnation, balance.
Silver: Divine feminine. Ehwaz.
Gold: Divine masculine.
Gray: War, Tyr.
A set of black runes with red letters that is reserved for only speaking with the dead can be made from any material. I suggest using a dark or stained wood or black polymer clay, but you can also use glazed clay, black stones, or whatever you like. The practice of casting black runes to talk to spirits was taught by the goddess Freya, who instructed the gods on how to conduct a “sitting out” (a type of séance).
Runes of polymer clay are easy to make if you have an oven. Polymer clay can be purchased at a craft store, shaped, and then carved or imprinted with rune symbols. When choosing the uniform shape for all your rune bases, it’s best to have runes that lie flat with the runic symbol on top or on the bottom. So, think of something flat with two sides, like a poker chip or a domino. Whether they have rounded edges or pointed edges is up to your preference, as is the size. Select for visibility. I like runes big enough that I can read them when I cast them on the ground even if I’m standing up, but it’s nice to have smaller runes that fit into a purse for travel as well.
I’d also like to extoll the virtues of wooden runes. Ash and elm are represented in Norse mythology, along with many other woods. The rowan tree is the “tree of runes” and its wood is well known for its innate protection magic. Oak is also a popular choice due to its toughness and because it is sacred to the god Thor, but prepare for a lot of work if you want to hand carve your staves in hardwood. You can buy wooden pieces or cut your own and then burn them with a wood-burning pen, available in most craft stores. I find that wood burning is much easier, but some believe that cutting the staves while singing the runic sounds is a magical act in and of itself. I use a utility knife with a replaceable blade, available in hardware stores, and bend the tip of the blade with pliers to form a groove to scoop out tiny bits of wood to make the staves.
Ritual for Harvesting Wood for Runes
Fallen wood can be used for runes if you can find a piece that is about two feet (sixty centimeters) long and one to two inches (two to five centimeters) in diameter. You’ll slice this into quarter-inch (five-millimeter) rounds later and sand them smooth. The only tree that is unlucky to cut or burn for runes would be the elder tree, because it is sacred to the Elder Mother Goddess of Wicca. Other trees are fine to harvest from, but you may observe these ritual steps in order to imbue your runes with respect for the divine.
Step 1: Select an offering to give to the tree spirits in exchange for the wood. Traditional offerings are ale or other alcohol for the gods or milk and sweets for the fairies. A pragmatic modern offering to the tree is compost and water. Bring the offering, a hand saw, and a black ribbon with you when you go to harvest.
Step 2: Find a place to harvest wood, and make sure that you have permission to take the wood from the owners of the property and the tree.
Step 3: Gain permission from the tree spirit by knocking thrice on the tree and talking to it. Explain the intent of your rune making and give the offering to the base of the tree. Ask the tree for permission to take its wood and then wait in silence and listen for any negative omens for a few moments. If all feels well, knock on the branch you are going to cut to encourage the tree spirits to flee into the trunk of the tree, and then tie the black ribbon around the branch on the tree side of where you’re going to cut. Think of it like an energetic tourniquet.
Step 4: Cut the branch swiftly. Give thanks to the tree. Untie the ribbon and save for future use only for this purpose. You may choose to rub mud onto the tree’s “wound” as a healing balm for it if practical. Then take your leave. It’s okay if forest creatures nibble on the cakes or other offerings as proxies for the tree spirits. Finish the wooden runes however you like or leave them natural. This is an affordable, durable, and lightweight option.
Other Options
A script similar to runes, the ogham is traditionally marked on sticks that can then be cast or drawn at random as if you were drawing straws.
Similar to wood, fruit pits such as peach pits or avocado pits can be carved. Eat a delicious avocado and then split the pit in half with a pocketknife along the natural seam. Each pit can make two runes. They can be carved easily, like potatoes, when fresh. They dry hard and can be sanded and treated with oil or other finishers as you wish.
As a child, I wore a rune of protection carved from bone and painted black as a pendant. A rune set made from bones is a nod toward the probable precursor of rune divination—the act of casting bones or stones and divining the future from the patterns in which they lie. With the powerful symbolism of life and death, animal bones seem to possess a special energy. Since I’m a vegetarian, I don’t always have ready access to animal bones, but I always pick up dried bones when I find them on the ground in order to construct rune sets. A hike in old farmlands or desert areas can yield plenty of old bones. These can be carefully carved with a knife or rotary tool and coated with polymer to preserve them if you wish. Be careful with bone rune sets, as they are fragile. Avoid divination methods that involve casting them on a hard surface. Reserve them for meditation or gently drawing them one at a time out of a bag, or cast them only on thick cloth or soft sand.
Storing and Protecting Your Runes
Don’t forget the bag! It is not an optional part of rune divination. A bag in which to keep your runes is an important part of the divination system, as one way of using runes is to simply mix them up while they’re still concealed within the bag and draw one rune at random. A black cloth bag is also sometimes thought to protect and preserve runes from external energy that might affect their readings. Choose or make your own cloth bag that is thin enough that you can gently roll the runes through the cloth in your hands to mix them up for random drawing. A black velvet drawstring pouch is a common and ideal bag for runes. However, if you prefer, you can choose other colors and decorate your bag however you wish. It’s best to get a new bag for your runes rather than repurpose an old one because the energies of the used bag are thought to affect the runes.
In between readings, store your runes in the bag. Some people choose to expose their runes to moonlight during the full moon or to sunlight by placing them on a windowsill or outdoors. This is done in order to charge the runes with energy for success by the sunlight and with energies that help intuition with the moonlight. If you choose to lay out your rune stones to collect moon energy, return them to the bag afterward in order to preserve the purity of the lunar energy. The bag itself will seem to take on a life of its own after a time, having bonded with its contents, and it may seem strange to put a different set of runes in that bag.
You may also wish to have a cloth onto which you can cast your runes. This tool is vital if you are using breakable runes made of particularly fragile stones, bones, or clay. If you toss your runes on a cement floor and they break, it will be very distressing, not to mention a rather bad omen of the potentials of the runes you broke being unexpressed. Avoid this tragedy by treating breakable runes gently and using a thick cloth onto which you can gently lay or cast your runes. Traditional casting cloths may have been white in color, according to Tacitus, and so it is used in modern times as well. Having a casting cloth is an excellent tool for a beginner, too, since you can mark casting cloths with your favorite rune-casting charts or spreads.
It’s worth noting that some people choose to never let others handle their runes, in order to keep their energies purely personal. This is also a good practical step to take if you painted your runes with real blood, as some blood-borne pathogens are known to stay viable in dried blood for up to ten days, and other contaminates could remain virulent even longer. Therefore, if you run into other rune aficionados, it’s important to ask permission before touching their runes. I keep sets of runes that are safe for others to handle and welcome my clients to cast them for me if they wish.
Getting Creative with Runic Divination
We have our own personal connections to the runes, but what each one means is well established in history. We come up with our own interpretations and ways to understand the main meaning. Each rune has a specific meaning, and the meanings don’t change. But even as a beginner, you can be inspired by runes to add your own tweaks to rune divination or even invent an entirely new system. In fact, as a beginner, you will be unencumbered by preconceptions and therefore more likely to innovate. Here’s an analogy that I like to use when teaching my students: When you learn to sew or knit, you start with a specific set of procedures that work. Then you get creative. As a beginner, one often gets started with a craft by following patterns that are known to work and were made by more advanced practitioners of the art. Creativity comes into play when changing a pattern to fit your own needs or when inventing completely new patterns.
Divining Rune Combinations
You know that runes can be combined to form bindrunes. Up until now, you’ve been reading runes in divination one at a time. Runes can also be read as bindrunes if they fall near or on top of one another or if pulled from a bag specifically for the purpose of reading as bindrunes. Try pulling two runes at once from your bag of runes and reading them together as if they were a bindrune. Reading the compound meanings of bindrunes while performing divination can increase the spectrum of meanings in a rune reading.
You’ll need to draw upon your own intuition when deciding what two runes mean once they’re intertwined. One person’s reading of a bindrune might not match another’s, and indeed this is one reason why runic inscriptions still puzzle archeologists and runeologists today. You’ll find that the divinatory meaning of bindrunes shifts according to the topic or focus of the reading as well. For example, fehu and uruz together may mean the strength of uruz helping the success of fehu in a financial reading, or it could mean a stormy home life in a relationship reading.
The following are some more examples of rune combination meanings. You’ll note that I haven’t included all possible rune combinations and that these meanings might differ from yours. Try writing down some random rune combinations and thinking up personal interpretations.
Thurisaz-Ansuz: When these two runes fall together, it means that something that seems like a misfortune is actually a blessing in disguise. If you’ve just been rejected by a crush, it means that your crush is not right for you and that somebody better is right around the corner. These runes also ask you to look for the growing opportunities in any problem. If you find yourself yelling at your kids, you might take moments of struggle as opportunities to confront your own flaws and eliminate them.
Raido-Ken: Moss does not cling to a rolling stone, so will you be able to heal only when you move forward. For some reason, you’ve been hanging onto some old baggage. Problems from your childhood might be preventing you from being successful, and you need to seek help to become more than your past. If you’re hanging onto hope that an ex will come back to you, it’s time to move on.
Gebo-Wunjo: A surprise gift will give great joy. You might win an award at your work or school for a job well done. More than one person will share your joy, so make sure that you spread the love of this rune combination. If you get an unexpected raise, take your family out to dinner. If a friend gives you a surprise party for your birthday, make sure to return the favor to her on the next holiday.
Hagalaz-Neid: You have to destroy in order to create. It’s time to not only say goodbye to something negative in your life but to obliterate it. Throw away old garbage that is cluttering up your garage. Kick an addiction to cigarettes. Get rid of whatever is standing in the way of the lifestyle you need and deserve. There’s no way to destroy things cleanly with these two runes. You’ll have to kill off obstruction and oppression in your life like you’d kill off weeds.
Isa-Jera: Cut your losses and walk away from the gambling table before you lose everything. You might have spent a lot of money going to school, but if you’re failing to enjoy and thrive in your choice of major, it is better to drop out than continue to punish yourself. If you’re hoping for a promotion, your boss is just leading you on. Don’t raise prices in your business, or you’ll see your clients leave.
Eihwaz-Pertho: You’re on target to win success, but it will take many more tries before you succeed. The competition is fierce between you and others. If you are applying for jobs, scholarships, or competing for the attentions of a desirable person, you’ll need to keep your eye on the long-term prize. Expect delays to success, but success can come.
Algiz-Sowilo: A wonderful friendship is forming. You will meet somebody and it will feel like you have known this person in a previous lifetime. You will find a job or hobby that will fit you like a glove. This rune combination expresses a feeling of comfortable familiarity and trust. When reading on communications, this indicates that a person is telling the truth.
Tiwaz-Berkanan: It is time for some tough love. If you’re dealing with friends or family members who are abusing your kindness, it’s time to let them see some consequences for their actions. It is possible that you are struggling with yourself and have to treat yourself like a kid for a while. If you’ve been spending too much on your credit cards, put them in a block of ice in the freezer or cut them up. If you’ve been avoiding work, turn off the Internet or ground yourself until your homework is finished.
Ehwaz-Mannaz: This combination of runes can represent a soul mate. Loyalty and companionship are represented. With this alliance, you can move farther and faster than you’ve ever been able to progress before. In business, this represents a powerful merger or a partnership that will take the business to the next level. If you’re in a relationship, this rune combination suggests that all that is needed to solve difficulties may be to shift your frame of mind.
Laguz-Ingwaz: The very beginnings of love are happening, and sparks are flying. Emotional love can come from what may seem like just a sexual fling. A friendship can develop into something more. If you’re trying to choose between two jobs, choose the one that inspires you rather than the boring one that pays more because this could be the beginning of something greater for you.
Othila-Dagaz: This rune combination represents the cycles of life and death and the pause for breath that happens sometimes in such cycles. A college student may need to move back in with his or her parents for a while after a bad breakup or flunking out of school. A brief fling with an ex might lead to yet another breakup. A sabbatical from a teaching job might lead a tenured faculty member to choose to retire to write romance novels instead of continuing a teaching career.
Creating Personal Divinatory Bindrunes: Making Sigils with Runes to Make New Divination Sets
One frustration that beginning students often have with runes is that their rune readings often seem too vague because of the big concepts embodied by each rune. Some beginners combat the limitations of a small set of runes by adopting additional runic alphabets and rotating or combining sets of runes. You can also develop your own bindrunes to add to your runes that have significant meanings for you. There’s no rune that precisely tells you that your car will break down, so go ahead and make one. There’s not yet a rune for when your work computer goes on the fritz, but you can easily add one to your runes. The runes you select to combine to make the meanings you need may be different from the ones that I’ve shared in this book, and that’s okay. You’re trying to evoke meanings from your own brain, and everyone operates a little bit differently. You might even find yourself adding embellishments and symbols that don’t come from any known runic system.
Here’s one way that I like to brainstorm new bindrunes that I need: I turn back to my rune journal and look at the daily runes that I have pulled and the life events that happened as a result. I once suddenly found myself struggling with being chronically late for appointments. I absolutely abhor being late for anything. When I had a twenty-mile commute to work as a schoolteacher, I would leave two hours early and sometimes sit in the parking lot waiting for the custodian to unlock the school doors, so terrified was I of tardiness. I even find myself leaving early to get to events at which my lateness wouldn’t be noticed, such as library story time for the kids. My husband is endlessly annoyed by the fact that we’re always the first family to show up to every party we attend because I shoot for the start time.
I’d rather be two hours early than two minutes late for anything, so imagine my consternation when I had a series of events in my life that led to being late to doctor appointments, school drop-offs for the kids, and other random outings. Each individual event of lateness seemed to be random—the result of unpreventable circumstances. So I turned to the runes for a little help. At first, I looked through my rune journal to see if the daily rune draw happened to be the same rune each time I was late. Nope. That would be too easy. However, I did notice a pattern of some runes showing up more than others on days when I ran late or came close to running late. Laguz and dagaz seemed to make themselves known in my daily readings around this time, which I interpreted as a message to relax my emotions and get a jump-start on each day. My original interpretations remained true, and indeed staying calm and leaving early are two things that I do to combat late arrivals. However, to get more of a head’s up about when I might run into another lateness situation, I created a new rune that was a bindrune of laguz and dagaz and added it to the sack of runes from which I did my daily draw. If I pulled my new “lateness” rune, I would make certain to leave much earlier and to let people know I might run late that day.
If I had designed a lateness bindrune by thinking about all the runes and putting two together that make sense, I might have chosen an entirely different rune combination such as raido and isa, which might have worked just as well. However, by retroactively gaining meaning from how the runes expressed themselves in my life in the past, I feel that I got to know those runes a little more. From re-examining them, I was able to see a new side to some old friends and otherwise expand my knowledge and interpretation of the runes. I highly recommend that beginners record and review how their runic divination turns out to build upon their own understanding of the runes, resulting in divination that is more practical and potentially more accurate.
Runic Wheels
There is a special kind of bindrune called a runic wheel that is popular because of its beauty and usefulness for meditation, given that it looks like a mandala, and it feels like you’re making a mandala if you draw a particularly complex runic wheel. The central rune on a runic wheel is the subject or start of your knowing. For example, if your runic wheel was going to protect or enhance your mind or a person, you might have mannaz in the very center of your wheel. One should always carve the center rune or runes first and add more later, starting with a ring around the center stave or staves and, if necessary, adding outer rings around that. Around the outer edges of the runic wheel are modifiers, or those poetic phrases and adjectives that you might add to your knowing.
To “Fix” Runic Inscriptions
You or Others Have Made
I was asked when writing this book what thing I would do differently if I went back to being a beginner with the runes. I definitely did not keep enough records of my learning when I was just starting out, though I did try somewhat. I had a rune journal, dream journal, and scrapbook in which I wrote down the spiritual exercises that worked for me. However, I only added the rune inscriptions for spiritual exercises in which I had tried and proven their efficacy. There were many magic spells, chants, and meditations that I attempted, saw no positive results for, and immediately gave up on. I’d burn up any runic objects made during the failed spiritual exercise and allow myself to forget about my failures. I run into this same pattern in other areas of my life as well. I’ve been learning to dance for a few years and, now that I have intermediate level skills, I wish that I had made more videos of myself as a beginner so that I can see my accomplishments more clearly.
The added bonus of keeping records of all of your spiritual exercises that involve runes is that, even if they don’t work, you may be able to make minor revisions later when you have more experience and see them work very well. I’ve worked throughout this book to show you that you have a lot of freedom and leeway when it comes to the runes, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no right way or wrong way to do things. The tricky thing about real magic work is that there actually is a right way for you to create results in your life. It may take much experimentation and many changes to be able to make your runes work best for you.
In general, runemasters agree that poorly designed runic inscriptions can be “fixed” to work more effectively. You will necessarily have to carve the runes all over again, since it’s ineffective to cross out any misspelled words: that alone does not destroy the energy and will mar your inscription with distractions to your focus. You’ll have to repair the energy of your runes as well by charging them anew. Most runemasters try to prevent bad runic inscriptions in the first place or by reviewing some of the rules already learned and checking to see if spaces can be removed or if the inscription can be condensed and made more efficient on a rough draft on a piece of paper. As you gain more experience, you may be able to see how some runes work better for your purposes than the ones you chose in the past for a specific spiritual exercise. Don’t shy away from failure as you learn. Remember your mistakes and carefully build upon your previous knowledge.
Hiding Runes in Plain Sight
for Divination and for Empowerment
Runes are forever around us; we just have to look in order to see them. There’s an urban legend I’m often asked about that suggests runes are hidden in bar codes on packaging. Since bar codes are just bars, unless you’re talking about isa, no runes can be easily discerned in plain sight in the average barcode. However, runes make their appearances in many corporate logos, in other branding marks, or in cultural iconography. One can observe that the peace sign has algiz, the rune of friendship and protection from the Elder Futhark, upside down and enclosed in a circle. Some believe that the peace sign actually depicts a rune from the Younger Futhark that means death since it looks like algiz flipped upside down, but that meaning seems to be less of a fit to me.
I’ve also noticed that the Bluetooth symbol is a bindrune of hagalaz (of the Younger Futhark) and berkanan. Recall that, in ancient times, runes could be written from left to right or right to left, or even one line in one direction and the next line in an opposite direction. Staves were often written backward or even upside-down with no known reason. When interpreting runes that you find out in the world, keep in mind that the runes can be facing in any direction or combined with any other rune.
You can hide runes in order to discreetly use them for spiritual empowerment or to have a secret set of runes just for fun. Runes themselves are a secret code for the powers of life. In this era of information, when the meanings of the runes can be looked up instantly on the Internet, a beginner may be puzzled by the fact that I allude to the keeping of sacred secrets, so I’d like to speak to the value of secrecy.
First, the runes have to be experienced in order to be learned, lived, and believed. I don’t think that one beginner is going to look through this book, close the cover, and believe that the runes have every power I say they do. A student who practices real experiential learning will be the student who truly understands that runes work. I could write runes as big as the Hollywood sign and the general public wouldn’t know all of the runic mysteries. As much as it pains me to say it as an author and a reader, books aren’t enough to solve sacred mysteries. Runes are like music in that they can cause emotion and express concepts that mere words cannot touch.
Second, it is okay to keep sacred things private. You don’t owe a translation of your hidden runes to anyone but yourself; it’s between you and the divine. Privacy can be a rare thing for me. I’m a public figure, and at home I have young kids, so privacy is often a joke. With the runes, I can respectfully keep some information private. My family knows that when I’m in my sacred temple room working on something, I am not to be disturbed and no questions are to be asked about my specific activities. Much of my personal religious practice is private because it’s simply too personal to share and is my business alone. You don’t have to keep your runes secret, but if you do, have confidence that you deserve to do so and don’t let anyone bully you into revealing your personal business.
Secrecy also keeps things special. If everyone used the runes as an everyday script, they would no longer be special. People wouldn’t have to undertake serious study to learn how to use the runes, and thus they might seem boring and too mundane. If you use the runes to write your grocery-shopping list, it might be difficult to turn around and try to use them to evoke the sacred powers of the divine. As a beginner, it is fine to give yourself lots of practice with the runes. But as you gain confidence with your knowledge of them, consider reserving their use for special occasions if you find they begin to lose their novelty. Personally, even though I use them frequently, the thrill of the runes never fades. And my love of runes is still going strong despite having to work so intensely with them as an author of a rune book.
Another reason to keep secrets is to avoid spoiling surprises. When I teach students about the runes, I don’t automatically translate every bindrune I show them, but ask curious questions about what each student thinks the bindrune means to him or her. We all know that the experience of a surprise party or a gift without occasion can brighten one’s mood more than an anticipated event. Mystery and wonderment can add to any experience. When I handed over a “lucky magic charm” to my father before his surgery, I didn’t explain to him the minutia of how I made the charm or what each individual rune meant. Knowing that there were secret formulas involved in what I was doing was enough to enhance my dad’s belief that my lucky charm could work. Don’t guilt trip yourself into thinking you’re being deceptive if you don’t have a full public debriefing of every rune that you use around friends and loved ones, even if you are using the runes on those friends and loved ones. It’s enough to get permission to “pray” or make a magic charm for someone and then allow the enigmatic details to surprise and delight. Your kids don’t need to know how electrical systems work in order to flip on a light switch for them, and likewise you don’t have to explain how the runes are at work on their school textbook covers to help them pay attention as they read, unless you want to.
Finally, there is something sacred about the act of keeping secrets. I learned from several of my spiritual teachers that the four powers of the magician are to know, to dare, to will, and to keep silent. It’s easy to see how boldness, force of will, and knowledge are all powerful things, but silence is just as powerful. Gurus, monks, and priests of some religions take vows of silence for long periods of time. Silence allows the ability to listen. And keeping private things sacred instead of blabbing about them in public or on social media can be a welcome respite from oversharing. As a talkative Gemini, I know that silence can be like a muscle that needs to be developed over time and flexed on occasion. I used to blab just about every thought that tiptoed its way across my mind, mistaking verbosity for honesty. As I developed my own spirituality, I found that keeping quiet about what I was doing helped me to focus on my work and devote myself to the task of the present moment. When I retreat to my temple room to work with runes, I am not simultaneously thinking up ways to describe my accomplishments later to my followers on social media or to my family; I’m just doing my work.
For all these reasons and more, you may wish to encrypt your runes or make them even more secretive than they already are, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Of course you can also develop your own methods of secreting away your runes. If you do design a secret code, remember to write down a key to your encryption. You can hide the key somewhere, like a locked trunk or a file with a password on your computer, but don’t skip the vital step of writing down how you made the code. I wrote some rune codes years ago and, in some cases, I can’t make heads or tails of my encrypted runes now even though I was sure at the time that I’d remember my new “ingenious” system.
The following are two simple ways to encrypt your runes for the sake of secrecy.
Numbers
Since each rune has a number, you can simply write down a number in place of a rune when you want to be discreet about that rune. Instead of writing the stave for fehu on your laptop for success, you can write the number one and charge it with fehu, for example. Using numbers has limitations if you’re working with more than one rune, however, because adding numbers together or writing them too close together might obscure their meanings so much that even you become confused.
Tree Runes
Try using tree runes, which are a common rune encryption system that involves numbers. Remember that the Elder Futhark runes are written in three aettir of eight. Tree runes look a little bit like trees: the branches represent the rune’s number. Branches that lead off to the left represent the rune aett, and branches off to the right represent the number of the rune within that aett. Fehu would have one branch to the left and one branch to the right because it is in the first aett and is the first rune within that particular aett.
Rune Tree Example for Fehu
Rune trees are a more artful way to disguise runes that you want to place on talismans or other public objects. It is also possible to write with rune trees as a script. Decoding rune trees is a project that will take you some time if you forget what you wrote later on. Since rune trees are so artful and repetitive, they make fine decorative borders for things and rune wheels made from rune trees can be positively mesmerizing to look at. Experiment with rune trees to see what beautiful art you can create.
In the example below, I’ve disguised the rune wheel To Break a Curse, taught in chapter five, by using rune trees. If you know your enemy is a skilled magician, he or she might try to use your runes against you. A person can more easily hex you if he or she knows your true name or intentions, which are spelled out in your runes. By hiding ken, thurisaz, and, uruz with rune trees, you protect your own strong magic so that your spell can’t be broken. It is still possible for a malevolent person who is well-versed in runes to decipher your rune tree if you leave it lying around for him or her to study at length, but a rune tree will protect from casual observation and also tricks the eye of one very familiar with runes into not recognizing it as a rune right away. A rune tree swinging from a pendant or nestled amongst other trees in a painting can be easily overlooked. Your enemy would likely have to be looking for a rune tree, so don’t go bragging about your amazing skills in this area.
Below is an unbreakable anticurse helm of awe that uses rune trees.
Unbreakable Hex-Breaking Helm of Awe
Designing a Personalized Runic System
Imagine having your own secret fortune-telling stones that represent a map to your own personal inner consciousness. You can become an expert in your very own system for telling the future and revealing the secrets of the past. Your specialized magical tools and knowledge can be passed down to your children, can be shared like a secret language between you and your lover, or can be kept as a sacred treasure for only you to know. Learning divination by creating your own system of runes is kind of like decoding your own genetic code or being able to explore the deepest regions of your own subconscious. I’ve included creative exercises in this book not because they’re easy but because they give beginners the best foundation in the concepts to help them realize that runes are just tools to release the power and knowledge stored within each person.
I’ve made many sets of my own rune systems in my lifetime. Of course, the runes I invented as a child don’t look like the runes I designed as an adult, and that’s okay. Change and evolution are natural as you grow spiritually throughout your life. It’s easy to get overwhelmed as a beginner and think that you need to include everything in your divinatory rune system, but bigger is not necessarily better. Consider the four alchemical elements of earth, air, water, and fire; the four elements together symbolically represent the totality of matter in the universe and there are only four of them. A bigger alphabet wouldn’t necessarily allow me to write a book with more thoughts or speak language more clearly.
A good place to start is to think about what number of runes you’d like in your system. The Witch’s Runes have thirteen, but you can have even less to make things simpler. I suspect that thirteen runes were selected in the modern divination system as a nod to the magical nature of the number thirteen. Here are some other number associations that I, and some numerologists, make:
Two: A set of two runes, such as creating one that means “yes” and one that means “no,” represents the duality or polarity of the divine between light and dark, good and evil, feminine and masculine, yin and yang, or other matched pairs.
Three: Add the independence of the number one to the loving pair of the number two and you get three. I always think of the number three as the divine child of the Goddess and the God of my religion represented by the number two. When one and two combine to make three, the three are now the Goddess, God, and divine child. It is a number, then, of growth and completion. The triangle is a very stable shape, too, so a simple rune set of three can be complete.
Four: If you made runes for the four elements, they would form four stable and complete quarters. Any set of runes with four is stable. I always think of the number four as the four legs of a table that keep it operating as a solid and trustworthy foundation for work. If you need runes to read on topics of creating a foundation in your life, consider making them a set of four.
Five: A set of five runes would be a good one for teasing apart the chaos of interpersonal relationships like friendships or alliances and squabbles with coworkers. The number five is an unstable one, so it is associated with the constant destruction and creation required for growth.
Six: The number six is another stable even number, often associated with both literal and figurative journeys. If you’d like to make a set of runes for your school career, for example, I’d advise it to be made up of six runes. If you want to make a special traveling set of runes, used to read on your trips, on the ups and downs of travel itself, I’d suggest making six runes. Airport security has carefully examined my runes before but has always let them through without quibbling.
Seven: Seven has always been my favorite number, and it is the number of magic and mystery. Make rune sets dedicated to spiritual exploration out of runes that number seven. It’s an odd number, so there’s a bit of that unpredictable instability in the energy of seven, but such is life. Think of the odd number above the serene growth of the number six as the wild card that the universe throws into your life to create change.
Eight: As we climb higher, the numbers represent greater degrees of completion and success. The number eight represents taking achievements that already exist in your life to the next level. If you want to make a rune set just for your career path, consider creating that set of runes with eight sigils.
Nine: In Chinese numerology, the number nine is very lucky, and this meaning carries over to Western numerology since it is a high number representing completion. Make nine runes that each symbolize the joys in your life. You can pull out your special set of runes when you’re feeling depressed and they can help you navigate through the blues.
The above numbers can be added together to make larger sets of runes with a number of runes that has a significant meaning, but remember that simplicity can be best. Here’s a brainstorming trick I use when I’m designing a new rune set: I make a pie chart with the number of sections equal to the number of runes I’ll be using. Try this for yourself. Get a large piece of paper and draw a big circle. Draw lines to divide the circle into the number of runes you’ve chosen. The pie chart you are creating is a visual reminder that all your runes together represent the totality of the universe or the realm that you want your runes to describe. So if you are making a set of career runes, the runes together represent all possible career potentials for you.
From here on out, your rune creation is limited only by your imagination. You can divide your diagram in half and make half the runes negative and half the runes positive, or you can keep everything upbeat if you like. You can start making bindrunes based on the notes in your journal or begin drawing symbols that bubble up from your own mind unhindered by anyone else’s drawings. By the time you’re finished, you’ll have learned a lot about yourself, and you’ll be ready to learn even more by using them for divination. Remember to write down your rune meanings in your rune journal. You are the leading expert in the world on your own personal set of runes, so don’t let the knowledge you gain be lost to the ages.