What are Runes?

Discussion of runes.
Post Reply
User avatar
Ashrend
Posts: 435
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:06 am
Gender: Male
Location: Devon

What are Runes?

Post by Ashrend »

I went to the local wicca shop and I saw some beautiful quartz runes. I was really drawn to them and nearly bought them because I felt the need was so strong. My question is what do runes do? Is it divination of sorts, prophecy, path finding, answers to questions?

fire and flames
Shawn Blackwolf
Banned Member
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:47 pm

Re: Runes

Post by Shawn Blackwolf »

Yggdrasil, now runes.

You going a northern path, BinxyHollow?

(just kidding)

I am just waking up, only a few hours of sleep.

I will let others answer for now.

I have had plans on starting a thread in Advanced Witchcraft.

(please leave that one to me and Wolf if I may ask)

Short answer here.

Can be used for divination...that is low end usage.

Can be used to understand universe around you.

Can be used to understand universe inside you.

Can be used for magic and witchcraft.

Can be used to write code and restructure reality.

Short answer for now.;)
User avatar
SpiritTalker
Banned Member
Posts: 6237
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:51 am
Gender: Female
Location: Earth temporarily

Re: Runes

Post by SpiritTalker »

I've used runes as sigils, but got edgy because I really am not familiar with their layered meanings. I just have a lamenated sheet with the signs and a brief description. Haven't studied them at all and figured I'd better leave it alone until i was willing to learn it, because I was seeing runes in tree bark, con-trails, and puddles...earth, sky& sea. So when you get around to it, Wolf and Shawn, I'll be reading with interest. :)
User avatar
Ashrend
Posts: 435
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:06 am
Gender: Male
Location: Devon

Re: Runes

Post by Ashrend »

Possibly XD I have always like norse mythology and did used to have runes when I wasn't 'awake' as a witch. Thanks for the info though, I'll ponder on it

fire and flames
Last edited by YanaKhan on Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited to add capital letters and punctuation and remove text speech.
User avatar
MamaMagpie
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 5:18 pm

Re: Runes

Post by MamaMagpie »

Wolf will be able to answer this one for you :D

I've seen him use them to answer queries and questions, to gain knowledge from the Universe. He's a pro :)
Shawn Blackwolf
Banned Member
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:47 pm

Re: Runes

Post by Shawn Blackwolf »

Yeah, I knew Wolf would, Maggie.

That's why I answered the way I did.

I honor him and his practice and study.;)

I have used them for divination, yet that is only one
of the many ways to work with them.

I started reading runes in the 1980's.

Yet I am always ready to hear and learn more.

I think Wolf and I should start two different threads in
the advanced Witchcraft section, one for the 24 system
and one for the 29 (+ 1 composite).

Not saying we can't find common ground and work together.

I just think it would open up worlds of information for the
members of the site. I am getting my teaching sheets ready.

Wish I had a scanner as well.

But I shall be making videos starting within the month.

Posted one in the thread we were talking in before, did you see it ?

Give Wolf my best!
User avatar
RyukaAscendant
Posts: 329
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:52 pm
Gender: Transgender Man

Re: Runes

Post by RyukaAscendant »

If you were to make your own runes do you have any recommendations on what substance to make them from? I've heard that it influences them when you move from simple divination but I've yet to find a method of divination that works for me and I can understand on my own.
Child of Gaia; student of Athena, Odin, and Djehuty; and follower of the middle path.

Moderation in all things, including moderation.
Shawn Blackwolf
Banned Member
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:47 pm

Re: Runes

Post by Shawn Blackwolf »

You can make a very simple set from soft wood from a
craft shop or lumber yard for your first set. Scribe the
designs with a stylus or small knife carefully.;)

You can use a thin permanent pen to draw in the runes
after you scribe them. Some use a ruler to guide the
cuts and inking.

Then, how do I say this without saying it?

Hmmm...look up "staining" runes on google. This embeds your energy signature into the runes.

In my Tradition, where I use number symbol
correspondences, there are eight pairs of runes
created by marrying a single rune from one column
with each of the eight from the other.

When I post sheets, you will see what I mean.

Yet, one of those sets of eight pairs equals 455:

455 = Runes + Weyyrd

454 = Energy Signature

455 = Telluric Current

(Telluric Current Of Earth = Earth Air Fire Water)

Connections, which my Tradition says make the runes "live" and bonds them to you.

So, later, they can be made of stone such as sandstone or soapstone.

I even have a set of glass ones made by former students.

Start simple, then if you decide this is for you, make a more complex set.;)
Last edited by Heartsong on Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Grammar errors
User avatar
Ashrend
Posts: 435
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:06 am
Gender: Male
Location: Devon

Re: Runes

Post by Ashrend »

Feel like I've stumbled down the rabbit hole starting from something seemingly simple to what you have been describing XD think this calls for some research. Thank you for your replies, they have been helpful.
Last edited by YanaKhan on Sat Mar 11, 2017 4:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited to add capital letters and punctuation and remove text speech.
User avatar
Heartsong
Posts: 1342
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:07 pm
Gender: Female
Location: South Carolina

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Heartsong »

binxyhollow wrote:I went to the local wicca shop and I saw some beautiful quartz runes. I was really drawn to them and nearly bought them because I felt the need was so strong. My question is what do runes do? Is it divination of sorts, prophecy, path finding, answers to questions?

fire and flames
In my experience, binxy, it's all of the above. I work with runes as well as tarot cards for the purposes you've said, as well as just to share some time with Odin. I find things shaped like certain ones as messages a lot of times too. In a lot of ways, runes are another medium of communication, with deity, with energy, with yourself, etc. :)
Dance like the Maiden
Laugh like the Mother
Think like the Crone
User avatar
Ashrend
Posts: 435
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:06 am
Gender: Male
Location: Devon

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Ashrend »

That's interesting you say that, the other night I wrote down symbols without meaning to which were runes. My friend said what I had wrote was dangerous and designed to trap a wandering soul so wiped it away.

fire and flames
Last edited by YanaKhan on Sat Mar 11, 2017 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Please pay attention to capitalization and punctuation when posting! Thank you!
User avatar
Wolf
Posts: 67
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:23 am
Gender: Male
Location: NC

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Wolf »

Okay, lets start from the begining.

Havamal, stanzas 138-139, Runatal:


"I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes,
screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there."

This is where the runes originate. Odin hung himself from the branches of Yggdrasil in a shamanistic sacrifice to himself, and at the brink of death he found the runes and came came back from the abyss, and shared them with mankind. But this does not say exactly WHAT the runes are. So lets go with what they first can do.

The runes are most commonly used a divination tools for started. There is a divinatory meaning ascribed to each rune that can allow them to be read in a similar manner as tarot cards.

Secondly they can be used as talismans. Whether on their own, in sets, or superimposed upon eachother, they can be carved, scribed, or simply written to produce magical effects.

Third, there is the art of Galdr. Galdr is the art of singing the runes as a form of incantation to produce the magical effects of the runes used.

That is the basic three uses for the runes, and most other applications can fall under these categories.

Now the runes as a whole represent cosmic forces and powers in the universe and in the human body/mind/soul. Macrocosm and Microcosm. They are the forms of the formless, the shapes of the shapeless. Much like how many of us view the gods themselves, the same is true for each rune. They are the incomprehensible put into a form that we can comprehend.

Now as Blackwolf has pointed out, there is not just a single rune set. There is the Elder Futhark (so called because the first runes in the series spell out futhark: Fehu, Uruz, Thurizas (th), Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz), the Younger Futhorc, the Armanen Runes. Where Blackwolf uses the larger sets, I work exclusively with the 24 rune Elder Futhark...for now anyway.

One last bit for now, on coloring and charging you runes, and materials used. Traditionally the runes are to be made from the wood of a fruit/nut bearing tree, then stained red. As for the wood, I have found it to be nearly inconsequential as to the type. And plenty of people use stones and such with success.

On the coloring, the traditional thing is to use blood, but historically any sort of red coloring, such as red ocher has been used as well. In fact in old norse, the words to magically charge something meant literally "to make red".

Now that I have covered the very very basics, I'm happy to answer any other questions to the best of my ability.
Shawn Blackwolf
Banned Member
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:47 pm

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Shawn Blackwolf »

Just to clear something up here, Wolf.

I work with the 24 Runes , as well the 29 + one composite.

Our Tradition just does not say the runes came from Odin.

Matter of fact, as I understand it, even in the Northern Tradition ,
there is a story of Urd holding the runes at the foot of the tree
of life and I show where that story comes from in my classes
when I show the different arrangements of the runes.

As I know it, there is also the story of the Vanir, before the Aesir,
and Freya (the witch of the Vanir) using the runic knowledge then.

And when Odin claimed her from Frey, her husband, he claimed the
runic knowledge.

There also were the Ice Giants, who held the old runic knowledge.

The Jotunn...

Yet, as I have said before, my Tradition is a Faery Tradition.

And we say the Faery held the knowledge of the Runes long before
humans existed so there are many stories and many ways of seeing.

And many "holy books" around the world claiming many things,
many stories of creation and the way things happened.;)

The way you described it from the Havamal is the way I am familiar
with the Odinic worldview of the runes.

Yet something to add is "Rune" means "secret".

As we say: "Revealed and Concealed"

Always more layers...

So, Binxy and others,

There are four systems as I know them:

A sixteen rune system, a twenty four, a twenty nine (plus one composite),
and a thirty three rune system and there may be others, kept secret and
unpublished. This is what I meant about how much info there is to be shared.

Even just by Wolf and I...;)...lol...the Well of Weyyrd is very deep.
Last edited by Heartsong on Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Grammar errors - Please don't put a space before punctuation, it's not needed.
User avatar
Wolf
Posts: 67
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:23 am
Gender: Male
Location: NC

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Wolf »

There is indeed many systems and many stories, and different versions of the same stories. All of which are codes to be analyzed for the knowledge held within. I was just trying to keep it simple and traditional for the time being lol. Gotta crawl before you can walk. And in that same vein, I gotta little monster who can't do either one just yet that keeps me from getting down everything I wish to convey in one shot usually :p
Shawn Blackwolf
Banned Member
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:47 pm

Re: What are Runes?

Post by Shawn Blackwolf »

Understood, Wolf.

Whattaya mean keep it *simple* for now?

(I knew I would like you)

And I know you mean "traditional" from the Odinic perspective.

(and I have to say with love for you and Maggie...you asked for it , didn't you?)...lol...

Home is where the Hearth is as well the Heart. Aidall Odall, by any spelling.
Last edited by Heartsong on Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Grammar errors - Please don't put a space before punctuation, it's not needed.
Post Reply

Return to “Runes”