Why runes are NOT as popular as tarots ?

I suspect you could, as long as it is something that would adhere at least as well as the paint.

Seems someone has made themselves a set of stone runes - I just cannot now for the life of me remember who it was. Perhaps s/he will come along and read this thread - or you could post one of your own, asking that specific question.

AngelC said:

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.

Click to expand...

If you don't like the sound the stones make when moving against each other, I will recomend to get a set of runes made out of woods. Oak runes are very popular.

Umbrae said:

Onyx stones make lovely sounds together in their bag...

Click to expand...

OOOOh that sounds so nice.

yakn

I've just discovered this thread and have been reading it with great interest. I have Nigel Jackson's WITCHES RUNES, which are of course cards, and also a set of stone runes. I don't use them much but I do like to combine them with Tarot occasionally-as the "bonus draw" in a reading, that kind of thing. Sometimes I just draw a single Rune stone as a focus for the day.

Like several other posters, I am a visually-oriented person who is also deeply into story. I'm not saying Runes don't suggest story, only that it is more indirect. This is the main reason why I believe I will always feel more comfortable with Tarot.

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned is the Runic connection to the Nazis. They used them quite a lot-or rather, misused them quite a lot, most famously in the logo for the notorious S.S. , which is the runic letter the sigil. I'm told they also painted them on the huts of concentration camps, the huts where prisoners were kept and brutalized. Of course this has NOTHING to do with the real history and tradition of Runes, I'm not saying that, just that I have met a handful of people here and there who have seen the Runic letters, or some of them, and felt disturbed because of these associations.

I certainly wouldn't stop looking at runes because of this, any more than I will stop reading the tales of the Brothers Grimm-also appropriated and misused by the Nazis-but I think it's always important to bear in mind how symbols can get twisted. Just consider the Swastika : in India and Nepal and many other places in the world this is a highly positive symbol of happiness and wellbeing, infinitely older than the Nazi connection. But would YOU wear one in the street in Europe or North America ?

I also just discovered this thread, and read it with great interest.

I got my set of runes before I got my first tarot deck. I love the way they feel in their bag, I love running my fingers through them and hearing the wonderful sound they make. All of the wonderful, tactile things Umbrae was talking about earlier.

I just can't read with them. This is probably because I'm quite dyslexic, and I don't do well with letters. From a purely visual standpoint, runes are just letters in a different language, however steeped in history and lore they are. When I lay them out, I have a huge amount of trouble differentiating one from the other in any meaningful way. At a certain point, I just stopped fighting my weakness and learned to work with it. And tarot cards play to all of my strengths.

But that's why I don't use runes. When I was first trying to learn them, I found the amount of history, lore, and myth surrounding them absolutely daunting. I sort of felt inadequate to the task, and almost gave up learning before I'd actually begun. Perahps that's why more people don't use runes.

I find this topic fascinating! Thanks for bringing it up.

Fire Storm said:

How do you make your own set of runes? I'd love to make some out of stone. Could I paint the runes on them? What can I fix it with though to make sure the paint doesn't come off? Are those paint pens good for this?

Click to expand...

I made mine out of small, reasonably regular shaped pebbles from the local beach. I used an engraving tool to etch the runes into each one, then gave them a coat or two of beeswax polish which gives them a lovely lustre but not too false or too shiney for my taste.

I recently came across some polished stones in a store. The bag said they were from a river bed. (If you can trust labels) Anyway with what little time that I have had to get online one thread on how to make your own(since of course all of the rune sets that I was drawn too on e-bay was of course way out of my resources at the moment) and it said about cleansing your stones by the light of the full moon or in a running stream or river.
I happen to live very close to the Mississippi River and the thought that has been just burning in me is how awesome it would be to have my stones cleansed in the Mighty Mississippi. Now just to find a nice safe place to place my little bag of stones in the river for cleansing. But as yet haven't even gotten around to painting the symbols on them and being able to study up on the runes.
One step at a time one day at a time I guess.


yakn

I was first introduced by a shop assistant when looking for tarot cards. I dropped tarot and started runes.

After some while I moved on from the Nordic runes and onto the Anglo-Saxon runes. I tried to go back, but couldn't (to Nordic). Now I'm back on Tarot. Maybe I should start up the Anglo-Saxon runes again. Might still have some of the work I did on them when I was still using them.

As for my stones, I brought them off the internet. And I still don't know where I can buy tarot cards in a shop from around where I live.

I've found that when I do my daily tarot draw, my daily rune draw frequently corresponds with the interpretation of the tarot cards (I draw three cards for each day). It's just another little piece of synchronicity that makes me smile.

sunstallion said:

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 ?

Click to expand...

There's far less scope for individualisation with Runes/They're not as pretty.