The Occult

Understanding Rune Readings

Divination · 6 min read

Rune reading is the practice of casting the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark and reading their meaning in the context of a question. The practice is the modern Western form of the runic tradition, the writing and magic of the Germanic peoples from the second to the eleventh centuries. For the broader context, see Scrying, Runes, and Other Oracles and the central account of divinatory practice. The Elder Futhark, the oldest runic alphabet, is the working alphabet of the modern rune reader. The indispensable short introduction to the runic tradition is Michael Barnes, The Runes: A Beginner’s Guide (1993); T. J. Krause’s The Complete Book of Runes (1989) and Ralph Blum’s The Book of Runes (1982) are the most cited practical manuals; Stephen Flowers (Edred Thorsson), Runes and Magic (1986), is the standard scholarly treatment of the runic magical tradition.

The Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest fully-attested runic alphabet, with inscriptions going back to the second century CE and continuing in use until about the eighth century. The 24 runes are organized in three groups of eight, called aettir (families): the first aett of Freyr/Frey, the second of Hagal/Heimdall, and the third of Tyr/Tiwaz. Each rune has a name, a phonetic value, and a meaning. The 24 runes, in the standard order, are: Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo; Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz, Sowilo; Tiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz, Othala. The order is preserved in the Old English Rune Poem (in the Exeter Book, c. 950 CE), the Old Norwegian Rune Poem (c. 1200), and the Old Icelandic Rune Poem (c. 1500), which give a short verse gloss for each rune. The Elder Futhark was not the only runic alphabet: the 16-rune Younger Futhark was the Scandinavian form from c. 800 to c. 1100 CE, and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc extended the Elder Futhark with up to 28 additional runes for Old English phonology. The modern divinatory practice works almost exclusively with the Elder Futhark.

The Meanings of the 24 Runes

The following list gives the modern divinatory gloss used by most contemporary English-language readers. Where the Old English Rune Poem gives a sharply different image, the traditional gloss is added in brackets (after Michael Barnes, The Runes, 1993).

  • Fehu — wealth, possession, luck.
  • Uruz — primal strength, vitality. [OE: “The aurochs is fierce, huge-horned.”]
  • Thurisaz — the thorn, defensive force, a warning.
  • Ansuz — the god, divine breath, wisdom, Odin.
  • Raidho — the ride, journey, ordered movement.
  • Kenaz — the torch, opening, vision, craft.
  • Gebo — the gift, generosity.
  • Wunjo — joy, harmony, the wish fulfilled.
  • Hagalaz — hail, the disruptive force, sometimes loss.
  • Nauthiz — need, the constraint that teaches.
  • Isa — ice, stillness, patience.
  • Jera — year, harvest, the cycle completed.
  • Eihwaz — the yew, transformation through death.
  • Perthro — the secret, the fated. [OE: “Fate is obscure to all, most hidden of things.”]
  • Algiz — protection, the hand raised in defense.
  • Sowilo — the sun, victory, illumination.
  • Tiwaz — Tyr, victory, just authority.
  • Berkano — the birch, birth, the new growing.
  • Ehwaz — the horse, partnership, swift movement.
  • Mannaz — humanity, the self, intelligence.
  • Laguz — water, the flow, the unconscious.
  • Ingwaz — the seed, internal growth.
  • Dagaz — day, breakthrough, the dawn.
  • Othala — heritage, the ancestral land, the inherited home.

The meanings are not fixed. Each rune is read in the context of the question, the spread, and the other runes. The medieval rune poems sometimes give a sharper image than the modern divinatory gloss, and the reader who works with both has a richer grammar to draw on.

Single-Rune and Three-Rune Spreads

The most useful beginner spreads are the single-rune draw and the three-rune draw. The single-rune draw is the daily rune: the reader draws one rune at the start of the day and reads it as the day’s theme. The three-rune draw is the Nornir spread (sometimes called the Norn spread), named after the three Norns of Norse mythology — Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, the past, the present, and the future. A more elaborate spread is the five-rune spread: situation, obstacle, root cause, advice, outcome. The nine-rune spread, with nine runes in a 3×3 grid, is still more elaborate. The reader who has worked with the single and three-rune spreads for a year is ready to move on.

How to Cast the Runes

The runes are usually drawn from a bag, traditionally made of cloth or leather, and laid out on a casting cloth. The runes themselves are usually made of wood, stone, clay, or glass; wood is the most common, and the traditional wood is rowan, ash, or yew. The casting is meditative: the reader holds the question in mind, shakes the bag, and draws either a single rune or a small handful. A traditional alternative is the casting of the runes on a flat surface, in a manner resembling bone-casting; the bag is generally easier for the beginner.

Reversal and Non-Reversal Traditions

Some rune readers work with reversals: a rune that falls upside down is read as a complication or shadow aspect of the upright meaning. Other readers do not. The non-reversal tradition has the advantage of simplicity and is preferred by most beginners. A related tradition works with a “blank rune,” a 25th rune representing the unknown; the blank rune is associated with Ralph Blum’s The Book of Runes (1982), and most serious modern readers do not work with it, on the grounds that it has no historical basis in the runic poems and tends to function as a “pass” card.

To Buy or to Make

The modern reader of the runes can buy a set ready-made, or make a set. The bought set is well-made and ready to use; the made set is the reader’s own, charged with the reader’s attention and labor. If you make a set, the traditional wood is rowan, ash, or yew; the runes are inscribed with a knife or with a wood-burning tool, and the making is itself a meditative practice. If you buy, the main considerations are the material, the size, the clarity of the inscription, and the carrying bag.

Bind Runes and Sigil Work

A common modern practice is the making of bind runes — two or more runes written on top of each other (or, on a set, tied together or carved onto a single piece of wood) to form a single composite glyph. The Old English and Norse sources attest the practice: the Gandreið and Víkinga saga contain examples of staves in which the strokes of several runes are combined into one. The modern bind rune is composed for a specific purpose (protection, fertility, the success of a project) and is treated as a working sigil, comparable to the sigils of Austin Osman Spare’s magical system.

Historical vs. Modern Occult Rune

The historical runic tradition, the use of the runes as a writing system and as the basis of certain kinds of magic, is the source of the modern occult use. The Old English, Old Norwegian, and Old Icelandic runic poems are the major medieval sources, and the historical runic tradition is part of the history of the occult and of the ancient esoteric roots. The modern occult use is a more recent development, beginning with Guido von List’s Das Geheimnis der Runen (1908) and continuing through the Ariosophist, Thule-Seminar, and post-war Asatru currents. The older Ariosophist readings have been largely rejected, both for their association with National Socialism and because their etymological arguments have not held up under modern philological scrutiny (Page 2009). The most defensible working position is to treat the modern divinatory meanings as a 20th-century gloss on a 9th-century set of poems, useful as a working language but not a closed system.