The runes are an old Norse writing system, and much more besides. There are a few different Runic alphabets that have been translated, but the most widely-known one is the Elder Futhark. If I was to spell that out for you in runes, it would look like this: fuxark. Now, if you're thinking to yourself, "Hey, I've seen these symbols somewhere before," don't panic, you probably have. It's not uncommon to slap runes on something to make it seem old, strange, mysterious, or mystical. J.R.R. Tolkein used the runes for his Dwarven alphabet in Lord of the Rings and runes have turned up in any number of other books, TV shows, and movies. Interestingly enough, the Thor movies don't get nearly as much mileage out of the runes as they could, though there is a very cool-looking runic inscription on the top of Thor's hammer, though you can really only see it in one scene with generous use of a pause button.
Also, a lot of early alphabets have symbols very similar to, or the same as, some runic symbols. The runes are all just various comings-together of straight lines, easy to carve into rocks, metal, and chunks of wood, which is about as far as the Viking interest in writing things down extended. There are only so many things you can do with intersecting straight lines, so a lot of early alphabets tend to look rather similar in some ways. Of course, there are theories about common language origins, and I in no way discount those, and the runes, in various forms, may be far older than most people suspect. Jan Fries' excellent book Helrunnar, explores this topic a bit more in-depth, and is my addition to the Magus Books Employee Picks section.
Legend has it the runes were brought to humanity (or at least, the people of ancient Scandinavia), by Odin. Wait, what? "Who's Odin?" They'll do two whole months on Greek myth in my eighth grade "Language Arts" class, but no one's heard of Odin. . . Odin, also known as the Allfather, is more or less the king of the Norse gods.
Odin is essentially the Norse god of wisdom. According to myth, Odin sacrificed an eye into the fountain Mimir, which granted him infinite wisdom. To absorb the knowledge of the runes, he hung for nine days and nights from a branch of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. After doing this, Odin had absorbed the knowledge of runes and rune-lore into himself, and then turned around and just gave it to humanity. Just gave it. No tricks, no strings, no trials. Oh, that whole thing with Odin hanging from a tree? Represented in the Hanged Man Tarot card, interestingly enough.
A lot of ancient societies imbued writing and the written word with mystic power. The old Norse people were no exception. Runic inscriptions of a person's name have been found on a lot of swords and other weapons, either to identify the owner, the maker, or to tie the owner and his weapon together into a greater whole. Other runic inscriptions seem to be spells to keep the user safe from harm, bring about good fortune, and so on. In short, the old Norse people believed that, because of their intrinsic connection to Odin the Allfather, the runes had a special power unto themselves, and were not shy about invoking that power. One of the things the Runes were used for is divination. Odin was the god of Wisdom, and as such, the Runes could connect you to a portion of that wisdom.
How Does It Work?
There are 24 runes in the Elder Futhark, and each one has it's own meaning. Moreover, as part of studying the runes, I've internalized and made my own interpretation of each Rune's meaning. For example, the first rune of the Futhark, f, means "Wealth." To me, I think of the idea of wealth coming from a source, and then being applied towards something. If you have no income, you're broke. If you have a billion dollars in a bank account. . . well, great, but what does a billion dollars actually do for you just sitting in a bank account?
Each rune has its own meaning, and my personal interpretations of those meanings. When I do a rune reading, I ask the client to think of a question, something they're looking for some guidance on. The question can be as vague or specific as you like, and you don't even need to tell me in advance if you don't want to. Then, I toss out all the runes on the table, turn over the ones that are face-down.
What's that about face-down and blank runes? All the rune sets I've seen only have the runes on one side, leaving the other side blank. Most rune sets come with one "blank" rune, which is sort of a metaphysical shrug. Some people who work with runes use it, others don't. One theory behind the reason for the creation of the blank rune I heard that actually makes a lot of sense to me is that, when Runes were starting to get popular again in the 1970s, the books that came with plastic stamped runes in the back put them on a five-by-five grid because it was cheaper, and since there are only 24 runes in the Elder Futhark, one of them was blank. There isn't any real evidence to support this that I've found, but I like it.
Once the runes have been scattered on the table and the face-down ones turned face-up, I delve into what the runes are trying to say. I start by looking at runes that seem to be in some sort of pattern, and/or ones that are close together. The unstructured nature of how I do my rune readings means that the meaning can come out in several different ways. I've had "streams of life," where a serpentine-like chain of runes will start in a person's past, move into where they are now, then give them insight into where they're going and how to get there. Sometimes this kind of "path" will branch in a few different directions, hinting at diverging paths the person could take, and giving insight into how their choices will affect which path they go down. Other times I'll get small "knots" of two or three runes clustered together in various places, highlighting different areas of difficulty in the client's life. Sometimes, almost every single rune (and even a few times, actually all of them) will bundle together in one giant mess, indicating a lot of chaos and difficulties that need to be straightened out. The more twisted and hectic the spread of runes, the more the person needs to get things in order, as a general rule of thumb.
What the Runes don't do is give you a definitive answer about the future. Someone once told me that the future is difficult to see because it's always in motion, and when we're doing a rune reading, a lot of that motion is dependent on you. If you ask me if you'll win the lottery tomorrow, I really can't tell you for sure, even if the Wealth rune does come up. What I can do is give you pieces of information, bits of wisdom, to help you make the choices that will lead you down the path you wish to go down. But in the end, the choices are yours and yours alone, and nothing I can do is going to alter your present or your future unless you take the initiative. Personal responsibility and personal initiative were big concepts with the Norse gods and the people who worshiped them, and the lessons of the Runes reflect that. Teach a man to fish, and he'll still starve unless he actually goes fishing.
ERIK BJELKE
No comments:
Post a Comment