Runes for yes or no: when one word is not enough
Sometimes you badly want a simple answer. Yes or no? Go or stay? Write or keep quiet? Agree or refuse? And the simplest modern way of reading runes offers exactly that:
- draw one rune;
- upright — yes;
- reversed — no.
It sounds convenient. But there is a problem with runes: they are almost always more interesting than one word.
Why «upright = yes, reversed = no» does not work very well
Not all runes even have an obvious top and bottom. Isa looks the same however you turn it. And so do some other signs of the Elder Futhark. So you get a strange system: some runes can say «no», and some physically cannot. That is a good sign that this is not an old rule but a modern way of making the answer binary. And perhaps runes are simply not very well made for it.
And did people ask «yes or no» in the old days?
We know a lot could give a favourable or an unfavourable answer. Around AD 98 Tacitus described a Germanic custom: marked pieces of wood were scattered on a white cloth, and then three were picked. If the result was unfavourable, the question was not asked again that day. If it was favourable, confirmation was still sought. But Tacitus does not say those marks were runes. And he certainly does not describe the rule:
«sign up — yes, reversed — no».
That is already a modern practice.
Try asking a better question
Suppose you ask:
«Should I quit?»
You can draw a rune and demand of it: yes or no? Or you can draw the same rune and ask:
«What do I need to see before I decide?»
And the difference here is enormous. If Isa comes, it is no longer simply «no». It is ice. Something has come to a standstill. Perhaps now really is not the time to move. Or perhaps it was that very feeling of stagnation that made you ask.
A rune does not close a decision.
It opens it.
If you do want a «yes or no»
You can.
Just try not to stop at the first word. Let the rune first give a direction: leaning toward yes or leaning toward no
And then put a second question: why? What in this rune’s image supports the decision? What warns against it? What condition has to be met? Then even a simple «yes» becomes more useful.
Not:«Yes, do it».
But:«Yes — if you are ready for what comes with it».
Sometimes the right question has no «yes» at all
«Will he come back?» can be turned into: «What makes me wait?»
«Will I get this job?» into: «What depends on me right now?»
«Will everything be all right?» into: «What will help me get through whatever comes?»
Sometimes we ask for a «yes» or a «no» not because the question is simple. But because for a few minutes we want to stop being the ones answering for the decision. That is exactly when one rune can be especially useful.