Why runes are NOT as popular as tarots ?

Hi all,

I cannot find the answer to my question at all "why runes are not as popular as tarots ?" I mean most psychics dont use it to aid their readings. Even people who dont do psychics dont use it, but they use tarots instead. I wonder why ? why runes cannot get the attention like tarots do ?

I have found, with the runes, I get a short sharp message. I find the tarot fills in the gaps more. I suspect though, that the more you read with the runes, the more detail you can give. Also, I think, the pictures on the cards tend to draw me in - whereas there is only one symbol on the stone.

I use the runes as an add-on - an extra to reinforce the tarot reading.

Sue.

Because I am still a beginner with the runes, I am trying hard not to compare them with Tarot. The runes have their own history, mythology, world-view, sensibility. They are an alphabet that are also a magic tool and a tool of divination - the bridge between preliterate and literate Europe and a living relic of the age of European shamans - something altogether more ancient and mysterious than the Tarot (as mysterious as the Tarot can be!).

That is both the appeal of runes - and the reason many people have trouble picking them up. To be used well, they demand that you recast yourself along that bridge in time, that you learn something of the shaman and the preliterate Norseman for whom the runic alphabet is not only a technological find, but also magic - the mark of the breath of god upon us, the password to a different consciousness. And then, that you bring it back that knowledge and use it here, now, today, a world away from the shamanic Norsemen.

We are far closer to the Renaissance than we are to the Vikings, even for the redheaded blue-eyed among us. We know how to read pictures, we live in a world of image. But only Kabbalists know how to read alphabets as magic and the creative force of god. So for most people, who are not Kabbalists or Norse mythologers, or shamans, it is a plunge in a strange world, in which we have few bearings.

Of course, for some (like me ) - that's the attraction...

I can't do runes. at all. It's just a squiggle on a card to me , whereas the tarot is infinite in colour & symbolism & design, maybe thats why people aren't drawn to them, because they're too plain ?

It is solely because of marketing, I think. I have heard of Tarot from the time I was a child. It was, if not a party game, at least marketed that way, at least in my dim memory. That and the oh, so innocent Ouija board.

On the other hand, I only heard about runes about a year or so ago when studying the ancient alphabets. It was only because of another scholar who had made some runes for a charity fundraiser that I even knew the divination properties of runes.

I will give you another example: Sudoku. That particular little puzzle has been in the puzzle magazines for years because I've been working them for years. It has been what, since last year? that the game has become a hit. Now it's everywhere, in the daily paper, even on the cell phones.

marketing ?

Ok, I dont think I used the term "popular" is the correct term for me to use. I should say "it is not as 'practical' as tarot'.

No, I dont think it's because of the marketing thing.

For example, Chinese astrology and the Western astrology are completely two different systems, but each is welcome on both sides of the world.

Another example is in technology, American cars, German cars, and Japanese cars are both popular. But people like German and Japanese cars more because of the qualities, although they are more expansive.

But I have not found out what "qualities" that runes dont have that tarots have that made tarots more attractive than runes ? may be because of the art or the nature of tarots ?

psychic sue said:

I have found, with the runes, I get a short sharp message. I find the tarot fills in the gaps more. I suspect though, that the more you read with the runes, the more detail you can give.

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Helvetica said:

The runes have their own history, mythology, world-view, sensibility. They are an alphabet that are also a magic tool and a tool of divination - the bridge between preliterate and literate Europe and a living relic of the age of European shamans - something altogether more ancient and mysterious than the Tarot.

…To be used well, they demand that you recast yourself along that bridge in time, that you learn something of the shaman and the preliterate Norseman for whom the runic alphabet is not only a technological find, but also magic - the mark of the breath of god upon us, the password to a different consciousness. And then, that you bring it back that knowledge and use it here, now, today, a world away from the shamanic Norsemen.

So for most people, who are not Kabbalists or Norse mythologers, or shamans, it is a plunge in a strange world, in which we have few bearings.

Of course, for some (like me ) - that's the attraction...

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Great points Sue and Helvetica.

I’ve been using Runes for…I don’t know. Seven years? Eight? Beats me…I still get nice short to-the-point brutal readings from Runes. And always…dead on. No monkey business…just the message.

For a pro-reader it’s difficult to have somebody sit down for a reading, pull 5-Runes and 2 minutes later the reading is done. Over. Next.

But they always mesh with Tarot readings so they make a nice ‘value added’ thing for readings.

But for navigating your way though life, or digging below the refuse of denial to get to the root causes of issues – give me Runes.

That said…please look around you…there’s a whole gaggle of folks (now this is simply opinion, so don’t get too excited) who prefer rose-colored glasses, they like to soften things; look at the preponderance of Sunny Bunny decks, the "wrap it up in a pink bubble and I’ll have nice chilled Chablis please" new-age spirituality folks…runes cut through the layers of false spirituality pretty damned quick…

But then that’s my opinion.

I used Runes years ago while exploring many forms of Divination, then I-Ching and now I'm completly into Tarot, although the three mentioned Divination tools are Oracles, I've found Tarot to go deeper than Runes and I-Ching, cards are very appealing, but then I'm a visual oriented person.

Worldwide, Tarot cards had some reputation, so for common people (not into Divination) Runes seem very inofensive and less misterious, Rune readers have a lot of hard work ahead if they want wider public recognition of their tool.

Umbrae said:

That said…please look around you…there’s a whole gaggle of folks (now this is simply opinion, so don’t get too excited) who prefer rose-colored glasses, they like to soften things; look at the preponderance of Sunny Bunny decks, the "wrap it up in a pink bubble and I’ll have nice chilled Chablis please" new-age spirituality folks…runes cut through the layers of false spirituality pretty damned quick…

Click to expand...

Well, if you put it like that - I'd better get on with making this set of mine, hadn't I?

Like Flavio, I use Tarot, I-Ching and Runes - the tarot for nigh on ten years, and i-ching for nearly seven. Runes are too new to me to be able to argue persuasively - I can only give my impressions over the past few weeks. I have found them an amazing find. A glorious opening onto a hidden world. No image, and maybe, as an oracle - just short and sharp, which doesn't satisfy some people. But behind that - what a world!

When I draw Fehu for the day, I am also drawing upon the power of the beginning of creation, the power of the cow that formed the first man-god by licking the ice and mingling it with fire...

I might also make a buck that day. Or I might just feel great about my world - abundant, loved, loving and prosperous. But that primeval cow is there too - and she fills my daily life with a sense of awe-inspiring mystery and promise.

Fire and ice, and the first god.

Wow!

Perhaps people just don't dig deep enough when they work with the runes, so they think them more superficial than tarot? But then, Flavio - I'm a story oriented person