by Darian Peters

Created on: March 29, 2007   Last Updated: May 19, 2007

The word Rune appears in languages of both Celtic and Germanic origin. It refers to a mystery or a holy secret that is whispered. All of the different runes have different symbols that are inscribed on stones that are known as rune-stones. This system of stones forms the basis of a divinatory practice involving the casting of runes. This is done to help to determine the future actions of the diviner, to find out the will of the gods, to alter the consciousness of the diviner, or perhaps even to cause external events. Runes would be cast at the birth of a child, for example, to find a name and to predict his or her life-path.

Runes are thought to have originated during the last Ice Age, 120000-10000 BC. It was then that a tribe called the Volsungr emerged from the far North of Europe. As they migrated south, they took the Runes with them, down through Sweden and Germany before reaching the Alpine region in the fourth to third centuries BC. It was here that the Runes were fused with Alpine alphabets. They created 24 rune-staves, which are the inscribed shapes placed on the stones that form the Germanic Runes.

From here the Runes were passed on along the North Sea coast up through Denmark and reached Norway by the third century AD. They even traveled across to England, with the Saxons, by the 6th Century AD. In the eighth and nine centuries AD the Norse Runes were developed. The Vikings then took the Runes with them on their journeys to the Arctic, Greenland, Newfoundland, and the Mediterranean from the 8th to 12th Centuries AD.

The 24 Germanic Runes (there are only 16 Norse Runes) are split into three families of 8 that can be used to symbolize directions, festivals, cycles of time and stars. Each of the Runes has a set of words associated with it that are related to the name of the Rune. These words are not actually the meaning of the Rune, but are to be uttered and meditated upon in an effort to unlock the meaning of the rune.

The divination occurs using a white cloth with the Nine Worlds of Creation on the Web of Wyrd (cosmic destiny) painted or embroidered on it. The Nine Worlds of Creation each have a different significance. The first, Middle Earth, concerns the land or environment. Beyond this we get, in order: The World of Mists and Ice (primordial Cosmic Ice); Giant World (home of the Well of Memory); the World of Fire (primordial cosmic fire); the World of the Vanir (fertility deities); the World of the Elven Smiths (sub-atomic space); the World of the Star Elves (stellar space); the World of the Dark Goddess of Spinning and Weaving (depths of the Underworld); Asgard, Realm of Aesir and Asynjur and the Well of Fate (where Odin and Frigg teach about the laws of physics).

During the ritual a sacred flame is kindled and a short invocation to a Norse deity is spoken and there may also be chanting based on rune-names. Then the runes must be placed or cast onto the cloth. One way to do this is to take nine rune stones from a bag one at a time and place them on the web at particular circles (representing the Nine Worlds of Creation) in a pre-specified order. Another approach is to empty the whole bag onto the web and to use those that fall closest to the nine circles. After a pattern has been read for the first nine stones the first stone can be read again in light of what has happened with the other Runes since it was cast. The reading ends with thanks to those beings contacted and the reaffirmations of belief before returning the stones to the bag and putting out the flame.

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