Runes: Theory & Practice

3 The Elder Futhark

This is not a historical examination of the runes. There are numerous books available, many of which are listed in the Suggested Reading section, that serve that purpose. Rather, this is an exploration of the individual runes from the perspective of someone who has worked with them, both as a diviner and an occultist, for close to 20 years. The descriptions of the individual runes given below focus not on their history but on the physical, mental, spiritual, and richly metaphorical exegesis that is the rune-worker’s purview alone. This is not to say that studying their historical context isn’t useful; I believe it is both useful and necessary. But that is simply not what this book is about.

The most commonly used system of ...