Runes, what do they do, and some history.

Ange

I would dearly love some of the runes that are for sale in another thread.....but....would you beleive that I haven't got a clue what you do with them....

How do you use them?

What do the symbols mean?

Do you read them as with Tarot cards?

Ang x
 

cardlady22

Are you talking about the historical/cultural Runes (futhark/futhorc) or the ones canid is making- the Angelic writing symbols?
 

einhverfr

My last attempt to answer those questions resulted in a book....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439223084/ref=cm_pdp_arms_dp_1

These are not quickly answered and I still find myself discovering things that cause me to re-evaluate views on various staves.

Basic summaries are possible, however:

One can use the Runes for divination and magic. Since this is a divination forum, and since one should learn to read before one tries to write, I will limit my answer to this aspect.

The probable historical methodology (from Tacitus) goes something like this:

1) Get a branch from a fruit-bearing tree, carve lots from it.
2) Mark each lot with a symbol.
3) Caste them onto a white cloth
4) Looking to heaven, select three lots then look at them and interpret them.
5) If the answer is unfavorable, accept it, but if it is favorable, follow up by asking sacred unridden horses, or observing the flight of birds.
6) Burn the lots after use.

There is no discussion what the three lots stood for. One possibility is past-present-future. Another possibility is king, warrior, and producer. I usually combine these into a 5-lot spread.

Modern practitioners rarely make a set of lots for each inquiry.

Aside from my book (referenced above), I would recommend "Rudiments of Runelore" by Stephen Pollington as a good place to start.

Also a few works by Edred Thorsson ("At the Well of Wyrd" and "Runesong" are probably the best for beginners), and a few others are also good.
 

Ange

cardlady22 said:
Are you talking about the historical/cultural Runes (futhark/futhorc) or the ones canid is making- the Angelic writing symbols?

Well it looks like einhverfr is talking me through the historical ones.....thank you for your post...:)

What is the difference between those and the Angelic ones that canid is making?

Ang x
 

cardlady22

There were many variations of writing scripts for the 22 Hebrew letters. Most people used them to record things in their notebooks (grimoires) that they didn't want anyone else reading.

Ancient Writings, magical alphabets

I learned about them by browsing Deniart Systems font catalogue and then looking for other websites. (usually Hermetic and Alchemy)

Agrippa
John Dee

~*~*~*~*~*

The Elder Futhark runes have 24, three rows of eight symbols. There are other variations with less or more depending on the geographic area in Europe.

When I use these types of oracles, I pull one at a time OR I use a simple 3-symbol variation of the past/present/future type of reading. You can adapt whatever topic is assigned to each stone's placement based on the question.
 

canid

I'll try to explain. I simply discovered that the 'Enochian/Angelic' alphabet has corresponding major arcana cards to each letter. For me, it made it easier to use since I know the tarot, so I got a hair-brained idea to paint the symbols on rocks. I've never spent a lot of time learning the specific meanings of the various runes available, so it seemed simple for me. The fact that they turned out to be really pretty spurred me further to make a throw spread, where the stones land on it determines my interpretation. If it's on a line between, say, present issue/self & recent past/hidden fears & if it happens to be death, with the lovers right beside it, (just did this one today for my friend who keeps vaccilating between kicking out & taking back her way worthless abusive boyfriend), I interpreted it that, once again, she's still on the fence about her decision - what to do with him. SHE knows & everyone else knows she'd be much better off, but she has yet to come to that place in her heart to get rid of the bum.

But I digress. I can't really say much about other methods of runes; I just devised this for myself because it makes much more sense to me & I can actually use them.

Clear as mud?
 

cardlady22

Personally, I like the way canid is designing them to use along with the Majors correspondences *much* better than a lot of the magic/spells/talismans that those types of sites usually employ.
 

einhverfr

If I were being pedantic, I would argue that the Runes are specific to Germanic traditions, with a separate set of ideas referred to as runes (or rather the cognate term) in Celtic languages. Ogham is not "Celtic Runes." But when a mother refers to her son as "A run, a run" or one lover refers to another as "Mo run" then these are somewhat related.

If one wants to come up with a divination system utilizing Enochian letters and Tarot, they are no more "Runes" than would a is Poker a game played with Tarot cards.....
 

cardlady22

divination categories causing confusion?

I think much of why these varied types of "manipulative oracles" (as opposed to card-based oracles) get lumped together is due to the marketing and sales departments. There have been quite a number of modern authors who seize upon the ancestral word meanings like {secret, whisper} & combine that with the idea that the Germanic/Nordic/etc is "just another" magical alphabet.

So, we come across the gypsy runes, the witch's runes, etc. Basically, in this loose sense/application of the word, each oracle is a set of symbols with associations that trigger the reader's unconscious to present them with direction; or energies to be directed.

It is quite understandable that people of a certain ethnic descent resent their sytem being appropriated . . . especially after the long historical oppression and the more recent prohibitions and demonizations made of it because of the choices of a few evil and unsavory people.
 

einhverfr

Part of the problem is that the various Futhark systems are not just more magical alphabets. Unfortunately people want to see them that way. Hence the desire for tables of correspondences, etc. The Futharks don't admit to tables of correspondences because that is not how they work....

There are tremendous fundamental differences in how, for example, the Hebrew Alphabet is approached by Hermeticists and what the surviving sources say about the Futharks, and even if you try to compare with the most similar sources (The Sepher Yetzirah), the gaps are just too big in approach to munge the traditions.

Unfortunately we suffer greatly from an idea of shopping-mall spirituality, which is what leads to this confusion.

Let me provide an example of how the lore of the Elder Futhark works. This is going to be a bit long, so bear with me.....

Thurs is the torment of women
And the dweller in the rocks
And Vardhrun's man.

Each line here is an indexical pointer to a larger set of ideas. In some cases, these pointers are many-layered and hence somewhat ambiguous (perhaps deliberately so). Here are the quick set that I have established:

Torment of women ---> Skirnir's curse of Gerd as part of love-magic.
Dweller in the rocks ---> This is a typical reference to trolls and other hostile forces of nature.
Vardhrun's man ----> I have argued in an article in Runa magazine that this is a reference to childbirth charms. The reasoning here is fairly technical and I won't go into it.

These are not correspondences. They are one-directional pointers.

Another example:

Gold is the kinsmen's strife (---> Fafnir killing and being killed over the gold)
And the fire of the tide
And the path of the grave-fish (or serpent) (The dragon hoard of Fafnir)

Here we have two clear references to the Niflung hoard (Rhine gold) along with a third possible one.

Each of the above two stanzas of the Old Icelandic Rune Poem could be the subject of a long essay (10-12 pages perhaps for each). These don't provide ideas relating to forces or energies but rather mythic models which provide for insight in a more complex way. One could study the tarot that way, but few do (Arcanum and Rune mean more or less the same thing too, though there are subtle differences).

Deyr fe
Deya fraendir
Deyr sjalfr it sama........