RUNE JUNE: DAY 4 - Consulting the Runes Part 2
Today I’m talking about rune casting. Rather than runes being pulled individually or as part of a spread, they are thrown down and interpreted based on where they land. There are different ways you can go about this, and these different methods can be combined in different ways. These are just variations I’ve heard of - if you use a different system I would very much like to hear about it. Again, I’m not going to be getting into individual rune meanings in this post, as each rune of the Elder Futhark will be getting it’s own post later in the month.
What do I need to rune cast?
In the most basic sense, all you need is a large flat surface and a set of runes. Most people cast onto a cloth, to help prevent damage to the runes and to the surface being cast upon, as well as to stop the runes from spreading so far and potentially sliding off of smooth surfaces. It is important to ensure that your cloth is as flat as possible to minimise wrinkles interfering with the fall of the runes. Personally, I have a separate set of runes (wooden beads which I burned runes onto myself) for casting, as the sound of my clay tiles being dropped causes sensory issues for me. You may find that some gemstone runes, if particularly rounded, may roll away too much and be difficult for use in castings. Clay runes also are predisposed to pile on top of each other as their weight doesn’t allow them to bounce away as other materials might. It is important to consider the connotations behind the colour of your cloth to ensure it isn’t at odds with your intention for the reading. White is always a safe bet.
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, you may want to ‘set the mood’ before undertaking a casting, in order to help you relax and focus. This could mean meditation, casting a circle, lighting a candle/incense, calling on your deities/ancestors with or without an offering and any combination of these and other practices.
Additional to the usual runes you use for readings, it is common in rune casting to use a ‘querent rune’, which is a rune that represents the person you are asking on behalf of (so that could be you, or whoever has asked for the reading). Some people have different runes depending on the gender of the querent, and I have also seen use of a ‘group querent’ runestone. As many modern rune sets come with a blank rune but not everyone uses it in the way that Blum (who introduced its use) intended, some use that as their querent rune. I have my own querent rune in a design that felt right to me, and represents the querent regardless of gender or number of people.
As with spreads yesterday, keep it broad. Things like “What do I/does the querent need to know today/tomorrow/about this topic.” (See yesterday’s post for more detail.)
I have come across two main techniques for casting runes.
1. Put your hand in the bag and draw out however many runes feels right, and drop/spread them onto the reading area. (This can be good for runes made of crystal and other materials that are likely to roll too far if cast from the bag).
2. Pour all of the runes from the bag from a height which allows them to spread around the reading area without going beyond it. This height will vary depending on the materials used.
It is more common to place the querent if using the first technique, whereas in the second the querent rune may be cast with the others. If using a placed querent marker, it could be printed or embroidered onto the casting cloth rather than being a runestone itself. You could also use a drawn symbol on paper, but it should be roughly the same size as the runes you are using.
The next decision to make is which runes you are going to read. Here are your options:
a. Read all of them, treating the face-up runes as upright and the face-down runes as merkstave (reversed). If using technique 2 from above, this potentially means interpreting the position of all 24 runes.
b. Remove the face-down runes and only read the face-up ones. If you have cast your querent rune and it is not visible, be sure to check for it before removing the face-down runes.
c. Remove any runes that are so far away from the querent that you consider them outside of the reading area. This could be used in conjunction with either of the above two methods.
My personal method at the moment is 2b, with the querent rune cast with the others.
How do I read a rune casting?
This is where it gets complicated, just because there’s a lot of variation. Runes were originally written and read from right to left, unlike many modern western languages, so some people read them from right to left. As a result, some see the right side of the reading area as representing issues in the past, but others ascribe the past to the bottom of the reading area (everything below the querent/centre). Runes to the left of or above the querent/centre are considered in the future. The further away from the querent/centre, the further it is in either direction from the present moment and the closer it is, the more important and currently relevant the matter is (diagram 1 below).
Whether you choose to observe past to present and right to left or bottom to top, the ‘other’ direction can be used to indicate importance (diagram 2 below). When using a querent rune/symbol, the reader might only use proximity to it in order to establish importance of different topics (diagram 3). Hopefully these images make it a little clearer, but you can mix and match what works for you.
In diagram 2, a rune in the position of X would be something that happened a little while ago that is very important. Position Y would be something in the far future that isn’t particularly important and Z is something currently happening which is moderately important.
Applying the methods in diagram 3 to the forth picture, Algiz and Dagaz are the most important, with Dagaz representing something which has recently happened and Algiz something which is about to. Sowelu and Hagalaz relate to each other due to their proximity and are the next most important issue.
These images are just examples, not difinitive ‘how-to’s. It’s not necessary to use a past/present method, you can just use importance and it can either be direction based or proximity based. And the other way around, you don’t have to use importance. There’s no right or wrong. As long as you are clear on how you will read it before you lay the spread, the runes will fall as they should. Intention, intention, intention!
What if the querent falls in an odd place?
Mine most often falls near the middle, but if it doesn’t that can mean something in itself. A cast querent rune which lands at the bottom of the reading area (or on the far right, depending on method) could indicate that the querent is focusing too much on the past to the extent that they are preventing themselves from moving forward. The querent rune landing at the top of the reading (or on the far left) could indicate that unresolved issues in the querents past are preventing them from moving forward. If you are reading for importance rather than past/present, a querent rune at the ‘important’ end of the spread could indicate someone who has been too self-sacrificing and needs to put themselves first. A querent rune at the ‘less important’ end of the spread could indicate someone who has been too selfish and should be better balancing their needs with the needs of others.
So I think that’s kinda it for the basics of rune casting? If you feel like something important is missing, feel free to jump in my asks and I’ll see if I can add it on!
