You oldbie practitioners are going to love this one, you get to teach a total n00blet about things.
Okay, so, everyone I know in the magick field babbles about runes. I've heard a bit about them, or at least, I've seen several of the characters in various places. I though runes where an ancient alphabet or something? However, I have no idea how they apply to magick, and now I've begun to get curious, because I am a....oh, how to put it? Symbol-jockey? I love symbols.
So, teach me, oh wise ones! What are runes, exactly? What are they used for? How does one use them?
Runes!
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amunptah777
So, teach me, oh wise ones! What are runes, exactly? What are they used for? How does one use them?
My suggestion is that you ask Eretik,
In the last 10 yeerz, she's the only person I've come across with any real insight on the matter.
No, we're not married or anything...I simply respect her opinion.
My own thoughts on Roonz would simply confuse you and irritate most everyone else.
Thet
We have several discussion threads on Runes in divination.However, none of these are beginners or introductory topics.Jcrowfoot and I,along with Sobek and others often find ourselves talking on this.We may be able to put together a reference topic,but we all have other projects/matters that we are involved with at the moment.I will look around,as I'm sure Juniper will also,she has a lot of experience with the Anglo Saxon runes,which I'm not too conversant with,we'll see what we can find for you to begin with.
http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html
I tend to think of the above link as "the old standby".
While I don't trust every page on this website. For example, stay away from the whole tarot-rune corispondence... it's faulty in a number of key ways I have yet to enumerate fully.
This page, however, will not guide you wrong. I also recommend meditating with the runes and see what they tell you.
Here are some pointers to working with runes, wracked freshly from my brain (and discussions with Eretik, enlightening as always!)
Keep in mind that Neid is not as negative as people think it is, while it's about needs and musts and have-tos, it's also about the needfire, and bringing the will to survive to bear, and is frequently used in magick to make good things happen. I also think of it as being linked to one's hidden reserves of strength, energy, and will that one is not aware that one posesses but comes out
when one needs it.
Isa, or Iss, is another rune that's useful in magick for reasons other than what you see in divination. Cooling a situation, keeping things the way they are, bringing peace, cooling tempers, it has many uses. It is also used to "anchor" other runes, or bring them to their full strength. Keep in mind that mythologically, Isa/Iss is the first rune to exist, since the whole world started as ice, so it's the prima materia for creation. This even follows through in form, since it's the first stroke you draw on any rune you write.
Radho is the rune that is often used for (safe) astral travel. It's also about distance learning, using websites, talking to people from afar, or even a safe airline travel. It implies "miracle travel" or swiftness as well as safety, "vision quests" and so on. Now the idea of Vision quests is a Native American concept, but I can't imagine that the Vikings and their ilk would fail to understand going on a trip more to learn things about Life, the Universe and Everything, not just to get to another place.
Now the trickiest thing about runes, in my mind, is explaining how NOT to use them. See, there are dangers inherent to putting the wrong runes together for the wrong thing. Some combinations of runes make Merkstaves and those are only useful for hexing and making people miserable.
So what kind of thing am I talking about? Well, when making bindrunes, one of the big signs that you are going wrong is if your combination of runes starts looking like a squished bug. Practice combining runes artistically, ie. without intent, before you start melding the energies with will behind it. Trust me, I'm glad I had a teacher for this kind of thing.
Also, some runes just don't get a long for this concept. For example, you probably don't want to use Iss/Isa when you are making a talisman for travel. Also avoid Halgaz
for safety in travel, unless you *want* your abilities to be tested.(It's a great rune for testing yourself!)
Now, Radho and
Ewhaz
are both good for safe travel, and I like Eiwhaz 
too. See, the yew was not only used for bows and handles, but walking sticks as well. It also helps you improvise MacGuyver style if things do get interesting.
So, use the runes first for divination, just to get to know them. Meditate on them, too. Combine them carefully in a playful, non-charged environment to get an idea of how to get harmonious combinations, and meditate on two runes together first, then go beyond that. Take plenty of notes, and keep a rune pad near you, to record all your insights. They are very experiential.
Enjoy your travels into rune-land!
I tend to think of the above link as "the old standby".
While I don't trust every page on this website. For example, stay away from the whole tarot-rune corispondence... it's faulty in a number of key ways I have yet to enumerate fully.
This page, however, will not guide you wrong. I also recommend meditating with the runes and see what they tell you.
Here are some pointers to working with runes, wracked freshly from my brain (and discussions with Eretik, enlightening as always!)
Keep in mind that Neid is not as negative as people think it is, while it's about needs and musts and have-tos, it's also about the needfire, and bringing the will to survive to bear, and is frequently used in magick to make good things happen. I also think of it as being linked to one's hidden reserves of strength, energy, and will that one is not aware that one posesses but comes outwhen one needs it.
Isa, or Iss, is another rune that's useful in magick for reasons other than what you see in divination. Cooling a situation, keeping things the way they are, bringing peace, cooling tempers, it has many uses. It is also used to "anchor" other runes, or bring them to their full strength. Keep in mind that mythologically, Isa/Iss is the first rune to exist, since the whole world started as ice, so it's the prima materia for creation. This even follows through in form, since it's the first stroke you draw on any rune you write. Radho is the rune that is often used for (safe) astral travel. It's also about distance learning, using websites, talking to people from afar, or even a safe airline travel. It implies "miracle travel" or swiftness as well as safety, "vision quests" and so on. Now the idea of Vision quests is a Native American concept, but I can't imagine that the Vikings and their ilk would fail to understand going on a trip more to learn things about Life, the Universe and Everything, not just to get to another place.Now the trickiest thing about runes, in my mind, is explaining how NOT to use them. See, there are dangers inherent to putting the wrong runes together for the wrong thing. Some combinations of runes make Merkstaves and those are only useful for hexing and making people miserable.
So what kind of thing am I talking about? Well, when making bindrunes, one of the big signs that you are going wrong is if your combination of runes starts looking like a squished bug. Practice combining runes artistically, ie. without intent, before you start melding the energies with will behind it. Trust me, I'm glad I had a teacher for this kind of thing.
Also, some runes just don't get a long for this concept. For example, you probably don't want to use Iss/Isa when you are making a talisman for travel. Also avoid Halgaz
for safety in travel, unless you *want* your abilities to be tested.(It's a great rune for testing yourself!)Now, Radho
andEwhaz
are both good for safe travel, and I like Eiwhaz too. See, the yew was not only used for bows and handles, but walking sticks as well. It also helps you improvise MacGuyver style if things do get interesting.So, use the runes first for divination, just to get to know them. Meditate on them, too. Combine them carefully in a playful, non-charged environment to get an idea of how to get harmonious combinations, and meditate on two runes together first, then go beyond that. Take plenty of notes, and keep a rune pad near you, to record all your insights. They are very experiential.
Enjoy your travels into rune-land!
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ATraveller
- Banned Member
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:21 am
You could do a lot worse than this book, to begin with.It contains much of Asswyn and Thorsson's Rune lore work.There was a court battle fought over it's accreditation,in regard to that.I have it,I recommend it too, but then, I also have Ralph Blum's notorious book..... 
::darkmood::
Just don't read too much into the Tarot correspondances.
::darkmood:: Just don't read too much into the Tarot correspondances.
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[Obsidian]
- Posts: 265
- Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:12 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location: Columbus, OH
I bought that encyclopedia book and I kind of like it (especially since it tells you to lose the inverted meaning stuff) but like with most rune books I have run into, the divination meanings are hard to interpret for me. I asked the runes how my relationship with a girl I like will develop and did the rune cast where you take a handful of them from the bag and throw them to get an approximate measure of time. According to my reading based on the book anything is possible, from her being the love of my life (in spite of her having a boyfriend right now) and her going kidnapping me and taking me back to kill JFK. I don't know why but rune interpretations strike me as so much more vague than tarot, although I have to say I really prefer to work with runes. They just seem more natural to me.
Harry
Harry