Runes and magick
History
Runes started as letters from the Germanic aplhabet in the form of Elder Futhark. They soon expanded towards the Scandinavian region, where the alphabet would then, arround 800 CE, be reduced from 24 to only 16 runes, creating a new version of the alphabet: Young Futhark.
With their arrival to the British Islands as well as to the Frisian region, came the creation of both the Anglo-Saxon Futhork and the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc.
Finally, with the arrival of catholisism into Britain, runic characters mixed with latin ones, producing what is called Medieval Futhork.
Alphabets
Here are some of the runic alphabets previously mentioned. I mostly use Elder Futhark, but learning to recongize other alphabets is also important.
Elder Futhark
Image obtained from here.
Young Futhark
Image obtained from here.
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
Image obtained from here.
Medieval Futhorc
Image obtained from here.
Magick Uses
Different writings and retellings describe runes being used not only as letters but as tools for magick as well. From their use as divination tools to their use for incantations and amulets/talismans.
In modern magick, their use in incatations is not as prominent, but one can easily find them in both amulets and in divination spaces.
How to use as amulets
Different runes can be carried aroun for things such as good luck or protection. This can be in jewlery or in some other place. Typically, runes can be found carved/painted in wood, stone or metal, but most surfaces will do.
How to use for divination
No definitive method exists as to how you can use your runes. Similar to a tarot deck, each rune has its meaning, and a rune set can be used in order to gain answer. However, each diviner reads their runes slightly different.
Runes can be either grabbed one by one after making a question, like one would do with a tarot or an oracle deck, or they can be thrown into a designated space (usually the floor or a white cloth) after asking a question.
With the first option, you shuffle/mix your runes as you ask a question and then pick one. That’s your answer.
For this style, many spreads exist, similar to what we can find for tarot. A common spread that I started with is the Celtic Cross spread:
When it comes to the sencond, rune-throwing method, there are many ways to do this, and I do recommend further reaserch if one is interested, however, here’s the method I learned:
You ask a question and throw the runes (either a handful or the entire set) into a white cloth with a big circle drawn on it. All runes that fell out of the circle, as well as the ones that have their back side facing up, are discarded.
Depending on what fits the best for the reading, the runes can be read in two different ways:
The circle represents the present. The closer one gets to the center, the farther into the future you’re reading.
The center of the circle represents the self. The closer to the center, things will happen closer to the person.
In both situations, the runes are read clockwise and from the circle’s borders all the way to the center.
If two runes fall close from one another, they are read together.
