Why runes are NOT as popular as tarots ?

Sienna

I have recently been gifted a set of Runes from one of my clients, in return I have gifted her a tarot deck, but that's by the by. I have been AMAZED by the results so far. Like many have already said the Runes just tell IT like IT is, very succinctly, whilst of course, I will never leave the Tarot (Goddess forbid!).

I hve already had impressive results, certainly I will use them for further clarification on a Tarot spread and even on their own and eventually for clients. I have actually adopted the Celtic Cross spread - don't know if you are supposed to do that... but it works for me!

Also I love the feel of them, and often touch them and play with them in my hands!

Sx
 

garfield

for me, i think runes is not popular because the readings or interpretations is far less than what tarot can give
 

sharpchick

As I have started to read about the origins and interpretations of runes, a suggestion for study and meditation on individual runes has really struck a chord in me.

The author of the book (and right now, I forget which one, because I have several going simultaneously) suggests that you draw a rune for a week. One of the ways in which you connect with the essence of the rune is to note the times during the week that the rune appears in your life - in nature (the shape of a branch on a tree in the park you walk by every day at lunch or the pattern made by stones fallen on the ground), road signs, documents, works of art in visual media (such as paintings and sculpture) and all sorts of other things.

The study takes 24 weeks (using the Elder Futhark), but it sounds to me like it would be a very good way to undertake an intensive study of the runes that I could connect with aspects of my daily life.

Now, I'm just waiting for my bone runes to arrive.
 

yakn

Julien said:
Well, I haven't learned to work with Runes, but I have wanted to for a long time... But I've had a really difficult time finding a set that were not the plastic-y fake kind; and because I can't find good "source material" to help me learn the symbolism... This leads me to think that some of us who would like to learn to work with them are not because they seem less readily accessible.

Which means I need to get on-line and find what I need and order it... But that's not as much fun as walking through my favorite esoteric store and finding lots of what I want. Which is always the case with tarot and oracle cards...

Just my two cents.
Julien

Is there a study group or such on AT for runes? I have been interested for some time. A search led me to this thread.

yakn
 

sharpchick

yakn said:
Is there a study group or such on AT for runes? I have been interested for some time. A search led me to this thread.

yakn

Yakn, Helvetica has started a thread on pulling a daily rune that is very informative.

Here's the link.
 

Umbrae

garfield said:
for me, i think runes is not popular because the readings or interpretations is far less than what tarot can give
EEEEEEEKKKKKKK...It is not SO!!!
 

chrisam-crystals

Norse Tarot!

a good friend of mine once made me a special set of rune stones according to my favourite colours, flower and norse goddess and they were absolutely beautiful - i lost them in transit when i moved home though. :(

i think that a big reason that runes aren't as widely popular in the US is because we in the UK have a bigger connection to the "vikings" in our country, and so they are known about a bit more.

and as for runes and tarot......get a deck of the norse tarot if you can find it, as it is now out of print.

each of the major arcana has an associated rune on the card, and also a god or goddess on most (thought you might like to how clive barrett links the two together) and i have also included the rune symbolism after each rune...

fool - balder - sigil - glittering, sun
magician - odin - peorth - dice cup
high priestess - frigga - ear - sea, water
empress - freya - ger - year, harvest
emperor - tyr - tir - splendour, power, glory
high priest - frey - ing - one who travels in a wagon
lovers - brisingaman -gyfu - gift
chariot - thor - thorn - thor
justice - forseti - lagu - the law
hermit - heimdall - eolh - protection
wheel - norns -rad - travel, knowledge
strength - tyr & fenrir - ur - trials of strength
hanged man - odin & yggdrasil - os - god, hero, odin
death - honir - yr - yew tree, death
temperance - hel - beorc - rebirth, spring
devil - loki - nyd - thralldom
tower - ragnarok - hagall - hail
star - a star - cen - torch
moon - a moon - is - ice, winter
sun - a sun - winn - joy
judgement - new gods - ethel - inheritance, homeland
world - balder - mann - mankind


as you can see, there are a hell of a lot of associations between the runes and the tarot symbolisms and when you dig even deeper the similarities are too good to be true. :)

an excellent book for working with the runes is "Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic" by Edred Thorsson which goes into detail about each of them and also some excellent exercises, meditations and magickal workings.

so if you can find the norse tarot, then you will be able to combine the two techniques and get quite a lot of insight once you learn the runic meanings.

jue xx
 

yakn

sharpchick and umbrae, thanks. I am off to check out the threads.

yakn
 

AngelC

I guess I'm off to find my bag of runes. I never thought of them being so closely related to the tarot cards. It will be interesting to see how a daily rune will work with my daily card.
This is going to sound so weird but I actually put them away and stopped trying to use them because I didn't like the sound the stones made when moving against each other in that bag.