The five-rune spread: a cross of runes
Five runes laid in a cross, the middle one for the matter itself and the four around it for its sides. Which side means what varies from book to book, and it varies because there is nothing older to check against: no runic source assigns positions at all. The cross itself is a card-spread shape.
Where this comes from
no source no text before the twentieth century lays five runes in a cross
The number five is nowhere in the old descriptions: Tacitus counts three. The cross with a centre and four sides came into rune books in the twentieth century, the same road the other spread shapes took. Their position meanings vary from book to book, and no older text exists to settle them.
That verdict is about reading systems. Carving runes with intent is ancient, and where that stands written is its own page.
What the poems say
The poems describe the runes, one by one, and stop there: none of the four witnesses describes a way to cast or read them. What each rune means in them is gathered rune by rune.