Life is full of confusing decisions that might create big changes in one’s life path months or years down the road. Sometimes it can feel like there’s a fifty-fifty chance that what you’re picking is the right choice for you. Perhaps you’re trying to figure out whether or not to stay with a partner, wondering if he or she is the one for you. It could be that you’re choosing between two college majors, each equally compelling and with similar job-market potential. These are huge decisions, and flipping a coin just doesn’t seem to give these choices the respect they deserve. What if I told you that there’s a way that you can connect to the divine and with your destiny that feels tangible? You can hold in your hands the key to your past, present, and future. Runes are sacred objects that you can touch and feel that allow you a sense of control over the mysteries of life. Runes are also concepts. Just as the word “love” written out on paper by your beloved can make your heart sing, runes were designed long ago to evoke feelings and a sense of wonder.
What Are Runes?
Runes typically refer to a collection of stones, pieces of wood, or other materials with sacred symbols inscribed upon them. Each rune tells a story. When runes are scattered on a surface, pulled from a bag, or carefully laid out in patterns, they can tell your life’s story.
The word “rune” may come from the very old Proto-Germanic root word run-, meaning “secret,” “whisper,” or “mystery.” The runes are forces of nature—mysteries in the religious sense of spiritual truths, rather than a mere puzzle to be solved. Essentially, runes are ideas expressed in symbols that make up scripts that predate our Latin alphabet by hundreds of years. Written rune symbols are called “staves.” The runes are also called the “futhark” (and later due to language changes, “futhork”), which is the combination of the first six letters.
There are various proposed origins for runes because ancient evidence shows them spread across a wide geographic area. Norse legend says that the god Odin himself first discovered runes, but modern scholars believe that they were derived from an even earlier script, perhaps Etruscan in origin and blended with the ritual symbols of Teutonic shamans. Runes were used in the first or second century of the Common Era by Germanic peoples, also known as Gothic, Suebian, or Teutonic peoples. Use of runes in modern times is not limited by ethnicity or nationality, and modern Germanic languages include Afrikaans, Flemish, Frisian, English, Gaelic, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and more. Claims of ancient runes discovered in North America were met with shock and renunciation by rune scholars. Modern-era runic systems such as Dalecarlian runes, the Runes of Honorius, and Witch’s Runes have also been developed.
What little Scandinavian ancestry I have may not offer me a direct line to the ancient ones who used the first runes; nevertheless, I do find practical uses for these magical scripts. In fact, runes were my first “official” divination tools as a child, probably because stones and markers with which to make cheap and temporary rune stones are easy to come by. Divination is the art of telling fortunes with specialized tools and includes discovering past, present, and future knowledge. Runes are printed, painted, written, etched, or carved individually onto objects.
A collection of these objects that represent an entire runic alphabet, each with their own individual written rune, are sometimes called “trollrunes” (because trolls were associated with prophecy and magic), a set of runes, or simply runes. Ancient peoples may have used these runes for divination and magic. “Magic,” to the ancient world and some modern practitioners, means creating change in one’s world by using one’s mind and spirit. Runes can act as a tool for magic and divination by allowing our minds to focus upon goals and probable outcomes. Because the runes were considered so sacred and might not have been used secularly, especially after their decline in use as a script, their use only in a sacred context now builds their power over time. It is believed magical symbols, used over and over again, can take on their own power in the collective human subconscious, much like how a wagon wheel wearing a rut in a road can make the path more evident and more easily traveled by that wagon over time.
How Can Runes Be Used?
A set of runes is a very useful thing to have, indeed. This divination tool can be used to discover the potential of your future career, love life, and more. They can help confirm your own personality traits and reveal which virtues you’ve yet to develop. Runes can empower you with advice about relationships, money, conflicts, and an infinite variety of topics. They can make predictions and destroy illusions. A set of runes can also be used as a powerful gateway to meditation, allowing you to take on blessings and banish negativity. Meditation is the practice of quieting or focusing the mind, and it is wonderful for relieving stress.
It’s important to note that the runic stave symbols themselves can also be used alone, without a set of runes. I know that I’m introducing a lot of new terms here, but the distinctions are important. The overuse of the word “runes” confused me as a beginner. I could actually write the true statement that “you can paint runes on your runes to experience the power of the runes.” I strive to use clarifying differentiation in this book to convert sentences like those into something like this: “You can paint staves on your rune stones to experience the power of the runes.” I’ll give you some concrete examples to help you understand.
Staves can be drawn on anything or anyone, even invisibly, and imbued with wishes to inspire and create change. They can also be used as a secret script to protect information. Staves can be carefully combined and even altered or invented to produce spiritual results. Just as we combine letters to make words, runes can be combined to enhance their meanings, sometimes by layering them on top of one another. Take care with runes. I once saw a man who had tattooed what he thought was an entire futhark, from beginning to end, on his arm just because it looked cool. I was concerned for him. That’s not just harmless alphabet soup!
Like the Hebrew alphabet, staves have stand-alone sacred associations as well as the ability to spell out words. And because each runic letter not only has a phonetic meaning but also a spiritual meaning, imbuing random combinations of runes with spiritual power through ritual exercises such as tattooing is not advisable. There may be ancient wisdom contained in the order of runes in a runic alphabet. This book will give extensive instructions on how simple it is to use runes properly in divination and for spirituality.
Why Use Runes?
Divination is such a useful art. Fortune-telling is my regular job, five days a week. People come to me asking questions about choosing the right career, whether or not an old flame will be rekindled, and about the endless potential paths in life. I use divination in my personal life as well, often to help me refine and develop personality traits that can be both blessings and curses. Runes are so simple to make and to use that they make an excellent first divination tool. Some of the skills that are developed by using runes can easily transfer to the use of other divination tools, such as the tarot or fortune-telling cards. If you learn to divine with runes, you know that no matter what your situation in life may be, you will always have the means to empower yourself with sound advice.
Learning runes as a sacred script is valuable knowledge as well. You’ll instantly have the power to draw a meditative focus on any object. You can bring the energy of success to your workplace and the power of protection and peace to your home. You’ll have a secret script all your own that your family and colleagues won’t be able to read even if it’s emblazoned on your wall calendar. Rune-marked items even make wonderful gifts for others. And, once you’re familiar with an entire runic alphabet, you may start to notice runes that others have hidden in plain sight. Now that’s a super power.
How to Use This Book
Though this book is written for beginners, I’ve worked to make it a solid reference book for anyone’s shelf. The true novice should work through the book from beginning to end, since I build one skill on top of another. From rote memorization of meanings, you’ll move on toward simple interpretation and the myriad applications for runes, and you’ll also learn advanced techniques that will help you make the runes your own.
Though I strive to use English words for techniques and concepts that span many cultures whenever possible, you’ll find a glossary at the back of this book to help you learn some of the jargon. You’ll also find, for your reference, helpful breakdowns of the phonetic sounds and meanings of the most commonly used runic alphabet (the Elder Futhark) in the first chapter. The third chapter is devoted to helpful diagrams and charts that allow you to use and interpret a set of runes to gather more precise knowledge on topics in your life that are important to you.
As you move through this book, it may be helpful to keep scrap paper handy to practice writing runes. I am more of a tactile learner than a visual one, which means I had to write down runic alphabets many times before they were committed to memory. I still need to practice writing obscure scripts in order to keep them fresh and accurate in my mind. It is safe to jot down runes in pencil on scratch paper in any combination for learning purposes. Just remember to treat runes with respect. Don’t crumple up and abandon written runes just anywhere. Though I choose to burn my scratch paper that contains written runes, you can safely recycle or compost such paper. I suggest that you visualize their power melting harmlessly back into the earth as you add pieces of paper with staves written on them to the compost heap.
Prepare yourself for the spiritual disciplines of studious practice and plenty of memorization. The book you hold in your hands contains runes of power that will soon be yours to use. From A to Z, alphabets contain the means to create every sound within a language. Sounds and words bring forth human ideas into real manifestation, and thus they are truly divine. Speech is the breath of life that brings meaning to the connection between peoples across time and space. Handle the blessed runes, and all your words, with care.