How to read runes

You do not have to know all 24 runes by heart. You do not need a complicated spread. And you do not even have to decide whether you believe in magic. Start with one question and one sign. Draw a rune.

Look at its old image. And then ask yourself: what does this image make me see in my situation? That is the simplest reading there is. Everything else is a way of making it deeper.

If you do not know where to start

Ask a question you can answer something to yourself.

Not:«What will happen to me?»

But:«What is worth noticing right now?»

Not:«Will everything be all right?»

But:«What will help me get through this?»

Then draw one rune. Isa, for instance. Its old image is ice. And now the question is no longer «what does Isa mean?», but:

where in my life has everything come to a standstill?

or:

where had I better not hurry?

A rune gives an image.

You find the place where it touches your question.

Choose a way of reading

• How to cast runes on a cloth Instead of drawing runes one at a time, throw a handful in front of you. Look at which signs stayed visible, what lies beside what, and which rune drew your eye first. A modern practice — but with a very old gesture inside: around AD 98 Tacitus was already describing marked lots scattered on a white cloth. More →
• The rune of the day: when one rune is enough The simplest beginning. One question, one sign, a few minutes of attention. It works well for a rune of the day, or for a situation you do not want to break into ten parts at once. One image can open more than a dozen ready answers. More →
• Three runes: when one is not enough When you want to see movement. The first shows what you brought into the situation. The second — where you are now. The third — where it all may lead. Not three separate answers. One small story. More →
• Five runes: when you want the whole picture For a question with many things in it at once. One rune can show the situation itself, and the others the cause, the resource, the obstacle and the direction. Not five answers, but one situation from five sides. More →
• Runes for yes or no: when one word is not enough You can put a binary question. But runes rarely become more interesting for being forced to answer in one word. Instead of «should I do this?» try «what do I need to see before I decide?» A rune does not close a decision. It opens it. More →
• Reversed runes: when the sign speaks differently Some modern readings give a reversed rune a meaning of its own. Not necessarily a «bad» one. More a blocked, delayed or more complicated side of the same image. This is a modern practice, not a rule from the rune poems. And using it is entirely optional. More →

And how were runes read in the old days?

Here the answer is harder. We know runes were used for more than ordinary writing. There are magical inscriptions, amulets, formulas, mentions of runes for protection, healing and victory. Tacitus describes Germanic lot-casting with marks on pieces of wood. But he does not call those marks runes. And the old sources left us no book of rules familiar today:

• one rune — yes,
• reversed — no,
• three — past, present, future,
• five — a cross.

Most of those formats took shape much later. What is old is the runes themselves and part of the ritual practice around them. The ways of reading them today are mostly modern. And that is fine.

The most important rule

Do not try to make a rune say what you want to hear. If the image does not fit your question — do not hurry to dismiss it. Ask:

• why does this particular rune irritate me?
• what do I not want to see in it?
• which part of the situation does it complicate?

A good reading does not always give an answer. Sometimes it simply puts a better question.