A SHORT CULTURAL HISTORY OF DIVINATION WITH CARDS

Much of what we associate with the cartomantic arts, or the reading of cards, is a fairly modern invention that goes back to France, around 1760. Divination as an art has been around since the dawn of days, when people would rely on omens from nature as a means of foretelling the future, or as a means of finding cattle in case the herd would get lost.

No one really knows how far back we can trace the reading of cards, and there are as many legends about it, as there are people interested in the occult. Some credit the traveling gypsies with the dissemination of reading cards. Some look at the historical evidence, and point to the way the Mamluk cards in Persia traveled to Europe, being among the first to have influenced the European tradition of divination with cards. Some think the art is entirely Egyptian, and some attribute it to the rise of high magic in the Italian Renaissance.

Whatever the history of divination is, the cards are here to stay. Many use them, form schools around them, and promote them as tools towards self-discovery, other-discovery, prediction, and fortunetelling.

I will talk about three main traditions here:

THE FRENCH TRADITION AND THE RISE OF ESOTERIC TAROT

Image: Etteilla Lismon, 1850 originals; Tarot Egyptien, Methode D’Etteilla et du Livre de Thoth, 1870, facsimile (Photo: Camelia Elias)

Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738 – 1791) is credited with having contributed to separating fortunetelling with playing cards from divination with tarot. Now, why did he do that, some ask? My guess is that he wanted a place with the high-standing esoteric masons, and he needed something that would convince them of his occult inclinations.

Legend has it that Etteilla was a simple man, a wig maker, who wanted more in life than to coif others. In reality, we don’t have conclusive historical records about Etteilla’s family history. But we know that he wrote books, laying down the first written record for how to read cards according to an elaborate method.

If I were a historian myself, I’d follow the money, as the history of divination is tightly interwoven with that. As I’m more interested in divination from an anthropological perspective and as a cultural manifestation, I will say just this: All things Egyptian were in vogue at the time Etteilla developed his theories. To his credit, what he did that was original is conflate reading cards, based on a logical system, with some immortality of the soul.

This is a fairly well documented area in the study of the history of tarot and fortunetelling with playing cards. A good place to start for more information is Stuart Kaplan’s monumental Encyclopedia of Tarot.

Within the history of divination, I’ll allow for making my own conjecture here, as I haven’t seen anyone else proposing it: At some point Etteilla got tired of counting – French cartomancy can be pretty awful at that – and decided instead to replace counting with mapping. Following the esoteric axiom, as above so below, all he needed was a new speculative system that could be mapped onto all things between heaven and earth. Thoth was moving in his grave, and so were the celestial bodies. Fascinating stuff. A new system was born, and it was called ‘esoteric tarot.’

Here I would argue that what Etteilla did, and that almost marked an impossible return to traditional fortunetelling, was to replace a linear way of reading, based on counting and observing the play between intersecting lines, rows and grids with creating ‘spreads.’ The idea of locking a card in a certain position became very popular, and we need not look any further than the Anglo-American world where this culminated with the embrace of the Celtic Cross.

However, there is now a new revival of old cartomantic traditions, and from what I’ve seen, the greatest challenge that readers face in crossing over, so to speak, from tarot to fortunetelling is comprehending that one can read cards without there being a spread for them. I’ll return to this shortly. This is not to say that French cartomancy is devoid of ‘spreads’ – a grand tableau is a spread with all the cards on the table, and so is a horse shoe or a fan of 21 cards – all popular layouts.

My point is that when Etteilla ditched his playing cards, as they smelled too much of gypsy stock, as we can assume, and created his own tarots, he anticipated the future by going to the past. I’d venture to argue that what he brought to his own deck, the Grand Etteilla, is a method of reading cards in trios, rather than by pairing and mirroring, or by counting cards from the end of a line towards the center. He never said this though. Quite the contrary: He invented some rather complicated schemes, but the way in which he arrived at a conclusion was still by sticking to the old tradition of fortunetelling that goes back to the time before the French got elitist.

My suspicion is also that he employed the rather simple method of reading the Marseille tarot (the oldest pack we have going back to 1650s), based on following a rhyme scheme that’s built up so that it creates correspondences across the elements composing the images of the cards, rather than across what is presumed to be a correspondence between an image and its symbolic representation. Here, I can refer to the work of Enrique Enriquez, who has refashioned the method of reading the Marseille tarot in a most original manner.

To conclude on this bit of history, my guess is that Etteilla went esoteric, further ‘unveiling’ the book of Thoth after his predecessor, Antoine Court de Gébelin, but what he kept a secret was the fact that he still preferred the commonsense of traditional fortunetelling, or what can be termed the exoteric approach to card reading.

THE BRITISH TRADITION OR THE ESOTERIC SELF

Image: Waite-Smith Tarot, 1909, Universal Tarot US Games (Photo: Camelia Elias)

In around 1900, and in spite of the lack of sources, The Golden Dawn Hermetic Order in Britain revived the research into Tarot’s links with Thoth, and particularly Aleister Crowley proved to be influential. His own Thoth Tarot designed with Lady Frieda Harris as the illustrator, and published in 1943, is still very popular.

But none surpasses the popularity of Pamela Colman Smith’s tarot designed in 1909 under guidance from occultist Arthur Edward Waite. What is now known as the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot has made the greatest impact on divination with cards, and especially since the 60s, the esoteric Tarot has found a stable home in the psychology of under-represented groups.

But let’s see first:

The Victorian time was a time known for its love of all things occult, from spiritism to high magic, the latter a form of spirit evocation and invocation based on the grimoire tradition, or the use of books filled with household spells designed to help the magician with all the areas of life: love, money, health, work, and on occasion, the transcending of the mundane.

With the publication of the Waite-Smith Tarot, the Golden Dawn pretty much let the cat out of the bag. In a way, Pamela Colman Smith can be thought as the real Grand Lady of the Tarot, one who turned a marginal art into commerce. She was certainly a great genius, though, as with many women of her time, she also died poor and unacknowledged. Historians of the tarot love to hate this woman and her involvement with the Golden Dawn. Was she an enlightened woman or a business-woman?

Whatever the answer, where the tarot itself is concerned, the truth is that even before it went esoteric, some time around the mid 1700s, the tarot has been not only a marginal, narrow art, but always also a commercial, popular artifact – the marginal as testified by the few writings on it around the time it popped up in our cultural history going back to the first Tarots we know of, among them the Visconti Sforza pack from 1450, and the popular as testified by the countless spin-offs of the Waite-Smith Tarot.

What Pamela Coleman Smith did in 1909 was to open for the possibility for every housewife to earn a little extra on the side by reading fortunes, in addition to gaining a sense of self. Prior to this time women were pretty much the possession of their fathers or husbands, with very little sense of self-worth. In a way not much has changed. Her illustrations for Waite became not only iconic but also a cultural text participating in the movement of self-empowerment. We owe it to her that today there is simply no phenomenon out there for which there isn’t a Tarot to represent it: Tarot of the Housewives, Tarot of the Simpsons, Baseball Tarot, Vampire Tarot, Tarot of Everything.

Especially the 22 Major Arcana cards, the cards dealing with ‘archetypal’ forces, have undergone fantastic transformations. No other art form can boast such a history of engaging generation after generation in rethinking ways of understanding such popular cards as the Death card, the Devil, The Emperor, the Tower, or The Lovers.

It is, for instance, fascinating to see how a feminist deck puts a spin on these types, by telling the same story of an archetype as does a fantasy deck, a queer deck, a cats’ deck, or a ghetto deck. Before Pamela Coleman Smith’s time, it was mainly women who were card readers. Though we cannot underestimate the fortunetelling mages of the Renaissance. These were all men, deeply steeped into occult lore and magic, and having influenced a host of others that came after them. We still feel the influence of Marsilio Ficino, a philosopher, priest, astrologer and magician who is presumed to have participated in the creation of the images on the Marseille Tarot (see the documentary Mysteries of the Tarot of Marseille, director: Philippe Truffault, 2104, for ARTE).

THE TAROLOGUE TRADITION

Image: Marseille Tarot by Jean Noblet, 1650, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy, hand-painted by Edmund Zebrowsky (Photo: Camelia Elias)

By a twist of fate, we could argue that Italian Renaissance philosophy has participated in the creation of the ‘French’ style tradition of reading cards based on the Visconti-Sforza pack and the Tarot de Marseille pack, producing a kind of a hybrid reader involved in the space between the esoteric and the exoteric tarot, and going under the name of tarologue.

The Marseille cards, although originating in the north of Italy and then Paris, are a stylized derivation of the Visconti-Sforza cards. Unlike the occultist reader, interested in all things transcendental and using what can be termed ‘art tarots,’ the tarologue works with the historical decks that have no picture representations on the minor Arcana cards.

The tarologue not only sticks to the geometrical patterns on the cards and sees these as an opportunity to observe how they enter into play with the images of the major arcana, but she also centers the reading on dynamic transmutations. For instance, in my own work, as I follow this tradition, I prefer function over symbol. That is to say, before a card holds any ‘inherent’ meaning, it acts in context, it is placed next to another card, thus acting in accordance with such positioning.

The tarologue will not read the card of Strength as a symbol of force and vitality, but rather look at the way in which the card interacts with the one next to it, following the formula of image+function=situated meaning.

In most representations of this card what we see is a woman opening the mouth of a lion. Unlike the occultist reader, who’d skip this first indexical recognition of what’s happening in the card, and from there derive meaning, the tarologue acknowledges that meaning is never IN the cards, but is always situated in context. What the tarologue thus prioritizes in her divination is taking into account how the question and its context drive the narrative forward, and creates meaning. A woman opening the mouth of a lion is first that, a woman opening the mouth of a lion, before she acquires any symbolic meaning, such as, for instance: ‘stamina’, ‘devotion’, ‘dominance’, and ‘overcoming’.

The position that the tarologue thus assumes vis-à-vis divination, whether self-oriented or other-oriented, is one of looking: looking at gesture and action, voice, embodiment, and the function of transposition in the cards. For instance, for the tarologue, the card of Strength next to the card of the Fool, depicting a big cat chasing a man in rags, doesn’t ‘mean’ anything that’s even remotely close to the one-on-one mapping that the occultist would observe: Strength as a symbolic representation of stamina, and the Fool as a symbolic representation of freedom. For the tarologue these two cards next to each other in that order, Strength first and the Fool second, yield information that can be processed into knowledge based on what is seen: Big lion in front of you turns into a small cat behind you. By extension, the conclusion would be that whatever is perceived as a big problem is now behind you, and a much smaller irritation than to begin with, if it still persists at all.

What the tarologue does then is simply to dethrone and displace ‘meaning’ from its presumed position of superiority. One could say that while all the occultist diviners participate in the construction and maintenance of meaning, the tarologue goes Zen, insisting on language awareness, and holding herself to the fictionality inherent in all linguistic and cognitive games.

While the tarologue finds fascinating the stories of correspondences that the occultists tell, she does not assign any meaning to any system, whether it be Egyptian, Kabbalistic, Angelic, geomantic, numeric, or of any other orientation.

THE PENDULUM SWINGS BACK

To sum up here, we can say that the history of the tarot is not only a history of art, philosophy, and poetry, but also a history of self-understanding and of money. These two together. Anyone interested in the history of the tarot would be well served looking into the tarot as a cultural text, and ask a few seminal questions:

• Who does this pack of cards represent and why?
• How is it used and for what purpose?
• Why does making money from the Tarot unite so many diverse interests?

The pendulum always swings back.

From the gypsies making money from prediction and fortunetelling to the occultists promising eternal life through the transmigration of the soul, the Tarot functions as a primary gate towards power, self-empowerment, and then the deconstruction of both. Etteilla and his predecessor represented the first, the Golden Dawn magicians the second, and the tarologue the third.

Right now the pendulum once more swings back towards earlier forms of divination. People are getting tired of self-inquiry. Some just want to know if John and Mary will get together, and not be ashamed of such mundane interests. The more radical read cards with view to laughing at all conventions and constructions, pointing sharply to what people cling to and why.

Many read the cards right now by following an idea of what is imagined traditional ‘fortunetelling style’ may once have looked like, while also following marketing clichés: ‘It’s all about them, the cards are about them.’ Of course, fortunetellers of old already knew this, which aligns them with the tarologue who has a nasty habit of seeing things as they are, but consciously avoids the trap of cynicism.

At the end of the day, however, what divination is all about is this: Cards remind us of what is always at stake. No matter which way the pendulum swings, between dominant concerns with ‘me,’ dominant concerns with the ‘other’, and way beyond, we all live by the law of transaction. We transact for everything: an identity, a lover, war, and money, peace of mind, spirituality, pragmatism, and clear sight.

In these transactions we use the tarot to gain insight into how aspects of life relate to our conditions and the way in which we can act. We all suffer from blind spots. We see random images on the table in the form of cards, we tell a story about alternative solutions to a problem. Most people tend to go: ‘Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?’

For this alone, the cards deserve celebration.

References

Enriquez, Enrique (2011) TAROLOGY. EyeCorner Press

–––– (2012) EN TEREX IT: ENCOUNTERS AROUND THE TAROT. VOL 1. EyeCorner Press.

–––– (2012) EX ITENT ER: ENCOUNTERS AROUND THE TAROT. VOL 2. EyeCorner Press.

Elias, Camelia (2014) MARSEILLE TAROT: TOWARDS THE ART OF READING. EyeCorner Press.

–––– (2015) THE ORACLE TRAVELS LIGHT: PRINCIPLES OF MAGIC WITH CARDS. EyeCorner Press.

–––– (2017) THE POWER OF THE TRUMPS. A SUBTLE BURST. EyeCorner Press.

Kaplan, Stuart (1978) THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAROT. Vol 1-4. United States Games Systems.

Truffault, Philippe. Dir. (2014) MYSTERIES OF THE MARSEILLE TAROT. Documentary film for ARTE.

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* The following article has been published with the author’s approval. The original article can be found at http://www.cameliaelias.com/2016/06/15/how-the-tarot-works/

Recently I have participated in a collective project where 5 Tarot readers have been asked to answer one question about how the tarot works. Shelly Ruelle of Sparrow Tarot has curated it. I offer here my own contribution, but I recommend that, for interesting variation, you read the whole report: 5 Tarot Experts Explain how the Tarot Works.

The Question

What source, if any, do you attribute as the force behind the specific cards that are turned over in a reading/the answers that emerge from the cards? Ie, what or who “causes” those particular cards to emerge, and how do you explain the cards’ unique ability to answer each question accurately?

I’ll answer this question by making reference to two perceptions and positions we adopt when we approach the cards, either as readers or as seekers ourselves.

The first is related to dual perception and the second to nondual perception.

Dualism

From the perspective of duality there’s the idea – physical and metaphysical – that there’s polarity in the world: The Sun and the Moon, Man and Woman, the above and the below. Much of what we call cartomancy comes from our concerns with planetary movements and the desire to read our fate in the stars: ‘Will she love me tonight?’ Fair enough.

In this perspective, if the cards ‘work’ precisely, that is to say they answer whatever question we might pose to them accurately, then they do so because we approach the cards from the position of ‘all things being equal’. If I get a divorce, when she stops loving me, then I want to know how I can equalize my losses, both emotional and financial. I want to know how I get inspiration from the stars, as it were, so that I may overcome the mess.

When the cards answer my question precisely, they do it because they address both the form of our concern and content. Most people, however, don’t make that distinction, and a lot leave the tarot parlor thinking that the cards have managed to address their particular concern at content level only. ‘This is really me the cards have spoken to’ many would swear, while thanking the reader profusely for her psychic insights. But I don’t get excited.

On my part as a reader, I can see just how the cards address a frame of unity not a fantasy of separation: me against my ex, me against the world, or me against my boss. If the cards give a clear answer related to any of our concerns, it’s because they go beyond such mechanisms of identification with identity and whatever clinging to identity brings along. The cards speak accurately not because they are identity-centered but because they are event-centered.

Nondualism

This brings me to my second point, the nondual perception, the perception that holds the idea that ‘all things being equal’ is not about fixing polarity and conflict as part of our efforts, but rather it’s about seeing what we call causality as part of unity and presence: I’m getting a divorce not because this other thing happened, but because divorce itself happens.

Most querents will have a hard time admitting to the reality that things happen simply because they happen and not because something else causes them to happen, and they will cling to making all sorts of identifications that have nothing to do with things happening.

In order to get this, you need to completely suspend your idea of the cards being about you and your situation, and see them more as being about events.

Incidentally, however, without these identifications with our conditions and situations – I’m in love, I got dumped, my boss hates me – the fortuneteller would be out of a job, but when we talk about the cards addressing our issues precisely, we must allow ourselves a second to contemplate the possibility that the reason why the cards are accurate is not because they have anything to do with us, but because they have a lot to do with us in context, with us framed by a series of ever changing events.

In this sense we never get to predict the future, as there are no temporal divisions beyond our own constructions and cultural labeling: past, present, and future. What we do when we predict, and what the cards respond to, is operate with an enlarged field of vision ruled by unity not separation.

The cards in this sense speak the truth accurately because they point to this enlarged field of vision. They are part of it already. The fortuneteller doesn’t look into the future; she looks into the expanded field of vision that encompasses the querent’s own blind spots, her question, and the reader’s interpretation, all happening at the same time.

‘But you predicted three months ago that this would happen, and it did happen,’ I have clients say to me in awe – which is nice – but I always insist that what I operate with is not belief that this or that will happen, but discovery of how I see this or that happen; we conveniently call this ‘the future’.

Belief and Discovery

I find the force behind the cards precisely in this distinction between belief and discovery. Many people come to the fortuneteller and think that either they want to or must believe in the cards in order for the cards to ‘work’. All the while the cards work because people discover them. People get a glimpse into their own truths, awareness, and expanded fields of vision when they discover the cards in situ, and that is why the cards work.

The cards work because they are not separate from the questions asked to them. Nor are they separate from the reader interpreting them. The cards work simply because they happen to us. They happen to us exactly at the same time things happen to us.

When we go nodding in approval of what we see, the consistency of what we see as it aligns with our situations, what we nod at is this recognition that things happen to us. When we sit with the cards, we’re beyond language and mental constructs. We’re in eternity.

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About the Ouija

Basically the Ouija is a flat board used as a divination tool in making contact with spirits. The board is marked with all the letters of the alphabet and numbers from zero to nine, and the words Yes, No and Goodbye.

To use an Ouija Board a small heart-shaped planchette made of wood is needed to help indicate the spirit’s messages by spelling it out on the board. It is believed that the planchette is thus moved by the spirit. Others believe that this movement takes place due to the ideomotor effect (a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously – i.e. tears) . Skeptics say that the planchette is being pushed by the practitioner and not by spirits, and that our own mind comes up with the answers to the questions.

The most common way people divine with the ouija is through the deceased, though this is not the only use for it. The Ouija can help make contact with any spirit even with Demons and Angels. Many occultists agree that using the board may be dangerous for this reason. It is said that there is a high possibility to make contact with a spirit other than the one desired, thus is the risk of contacting an evil or lets say, dangerous and hostile spirit and to be attacked by it. People who have worked with the Ouija claimed to have been haunted by the spirits and even possessed by them. Some paranormal researchers say that most cases of demonic possession are caused by the use of Ouija Board (this is shown in the movie The Exorcist, when Regan talks with “Captain Howdy” who is in fact a Demon or Satan, so she becomes possessed). Harry Houdini the famous illusionist stated that five persons were driven insane after using an Ouija Board.

However, most of the times it is a spirit that comes through, or the users own subconscious thus the experience becomes less dangerous.

The history of the “speaking board” is interesting, as it has been used both as a form of divination and also as a parlor game in recent years.

“The first historical mention of something resembling a Ouija board is found in China around 1100 B.C., a divination method known as fugi (planchette writing).” (wikipedia)

A more recent historical event is the use of the Ouija Board by Aleister Crowley, who used it to summon Angels.

Rumors about the use of Ouija

It is believed that two persons of opposite sex should be using the Ouija. I believe this to be not necessarily true. Though I have never used an Ouija Board, I believe that one person using it is more appropriate, as it gives the practitioner and the spirit intimacy. Even so, it is believed that two people can handle the board easier. However, I don’t see the importance of the practitioners sexes.

Another rumor about the Ouija is that it should not be used very often, as one may become obsessed. I believe that obsession can come with any satisfactory achievement in life. And I can’t see anything wrong with that, as long as it doesn’t negatively effect you. If you found that Ouija is the proper Divination tool for you, and that you are comfortable using it, do not hesitate to use it. It can help you a lot in your occult practice. However, I must point out that if you are being obsessed by a topic or looking for the same answers repetitively that a Spirit or Demon cannot answer or wouldn’t want to answer you should stop.

It is also believed that the Ouija should be used only at night. You can use the board at anytime. This belief I think comes from the thought that Demons and spirits only come out at night or are more active during night-time. It may be true that they are more active or can be sensed easier at night. I recently read an interesting essay on this matter, and it was explaining why the night-time is more adequate for magickal practice. Magicians have always acknowledged that certain times are better than others for their workings. The reason why people choose to do magick during the “hours of darkness” is because, in cases of ceremonial rituals or such occasions, this is the time of silence because most people are asleep. It is easier to concentrate in that way. Also, the night is a time for inspiration. During the night-time we become more emotional. Unlike the lucid day-time when all the agitation and distractions take place, the night is a time for more spiritual and emotional work. When a person has been awake long after his normal sleep time, he becomes less lucid and more emotional. This is true for me at least. For example, when I must write an essay that needs more.. poetical explanation, I choose to write it at night.

In the article (Demons of Habit by Ray Sherwin) the author writes that “Magick performed on the dayside may not be romantic, dramatic, or mysterious but if clarity of thought is the object it is obviously preferable since it is only during periods of clarity that an analysis of one’s actions can be made and appropriate and remedial actions be devised.” In that case it may be true, the Ouija should be used at night.

One other rumor is that the practitioner should keep his eyes opened while working with the Ouija. Spiritualists say that spirits need to utilize the eyes of the medium during a Ouija session in order to point to the letters and words needed to form a message. I don’t say this is true or false. I do however want to bring out another example, when the eyes must be closed. This is why sometimes there is need for two people to work the Ouija. The person at the board must have his eyes closed so that he may not interfere with the Spirit’s work. The other person must write the messages that the person at the board writes.

Tips for working with the Ouija

You must first of all understand that the ability to use the Ouija board does not come to everyone naturally. Some people are natural mediums. They can get in touch with spirits much easier then others. For the person who is not naturally endowed with the ability to use the Ouija successfully, it takes practice. That means you must work at it. Do not look at yourself as a failure if you cannot use the board the first time.

Allow me now to give you a few tips for working and treating the board :

1. Keep the board clean. You must clean the board before and after using.
2. When not in use, keep the board in a box and put the box in a safe place
3. One of the first things you must do when working with Ouija, is to get into a state of trance, making you feel outside of yourself. For example, when you place your fingertips on each side of the planchette, you will not even feel when it begins to move because of your spiritual condition and relaxation.
4. Another thing you must do is to study your surroundings, because they can subtly change in the presence of a Spirit/Demon. Sometimes there will be a light breeze above the board or around you.
5. For a better and easier work, I recommend that you place the board on a surface at a favorable level. It is important to stay relaxed and comfortable when communicating with a spirit.
6. Only use the board when you feel like it. Do not force yourself to use it.
7. If you feel in danger in any way, say goodbye and put the board away.
8. When you use it, create atmosphere. Burn candles and incense.
9. Do not become hostile towards the Spirit, or he/she will be hostile towards you
10. If you do not understand what the Spirit is saying, ask him/her to clarify
11. If using the board to contact a Demon, you may use the demon’s enn to call him at the board. If not, chant his/her name and ask the Demon politely if it wishes to talk with you.
12. If using the board to contact a Demon, you may anoint the board with a magickal oleum or if available, with the Demon’s oleum (Demonolatry Blends:A Formulary by J.Thorp for more information on oleums.)
13. If using the board to contact a Demon, you may bless the board in the name of the Demon as well. Just pass it through incense smoke in the name of an Air Demon (like Lucifer), sprinkle it with salt water in the names of Earth and Water Demons (Belial/Leviathan), and pass it through a flame to bless it in the name of a Fire Demon (i.e. Flereous)

Sources :

Divining And Speaking with Daemons by J.Thorp

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Translated by “M.B.“

I have talked in the previous articles about the importance of the Holy Verses and fragments of Scriptures in the practice of divination. The Bible is not well reconciled with the divinatory arts, and Judaic and Christian traditions discourage the use of any means of finding out the future.

However, people in antiquity had a totally different perspective regarding divinatory arts. Unlike the practices of those they called “pagans”, the people of the Book (Jews, Muslims and Christians) considered that some methods can be employed to decide on a specific course of action. What does this mean? Considering man, a simple being and easily subject to error, he must do his best to align his will to the Divine Will. As the prayer also states “Thy will be done”. But how can we determine what is the Will of God? How can a simple man know how God intends to teach him certain lessons, what action to observe and what not to?

Obviously, these questions are related to controversial issues, not to simple things. No one would call upon an oracle or a divination method to know if he is allowed to kill or steal. These things were already known to be against the law, against the will of God and against the common sense. But some choices can be beneficial or less beneficial to man. For instance, 2000 or 1000 years ago, if someone became ill, the answer to his illness was quite easy to find: he suffered a divine punishment for the erring he did. Depending on the severity of the suffering or the illness, people should have learned whether or not he or she can recover. Also, if it was necessary to suffer until he or she confessed the wrong doing, if a doctor or a priest could help them, or if the famous healer in the city of X could be of service in that instance. Then, as now, there was the belief in the right to heal, because evidently not all people can be healed. Depending on the cause of the illness and the spiritual level of the healer, a patient may or may not be helped by him.

All of these things belonged to the divine logic and were kept in mind. Nowadays there is the desire to heal at any cost, in every suffering, however small, without taking into account the energetic or spiritual causes of the illness. We treat ourselves, we take pills, we get surgical procedures, but after several months of apparent health, the illness returns, or we develop another more serious condition. We should analyze if we need to apply a specific treatment, if a surgery is to be done, or if we have to cleanse ourselves spiritually first before trying to remove the disease.

In the old days, the oracle of Divine Will was consulted either by the book method, as I have explained in my article on bibliomancy, or by the use of sacred verses in certain operations. An example is the use of water or oil. In a small container oil sanctified by the priest of the community (in our case it would have been used the oil from the Holy Unction) or clean water was poured, but most of the time oil was used. Then a man who knew the Scriptures, either a priest or a mage, was consulted to identify two, three or more holy verses, depending on the variants of answer. Not everyone knew how to write and read in those times, and this method of divination was used mostly by people of faith, including monks, to find out whether their desires are in accordance with the Divine Will or if a certain course of action seems apparently good but can lead to erring results.

Let’s say a man is sick, and he needs to know if he can be cured or not. He be left to suffer, he can be healed by someone, or he can be healed by his own faith. The knowledgeable scholar of the Book would have chosen three verses from the Scriptures to match these situations. For the first case, he would have chosen (Acts 9:16): “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name“, pointing out that he should not be helped, and that he should be allowed to suffer. For the second case, he would have chosen (John 4:47): “When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death“, pointing out that if there is a known healer, he can successfully appeal to his help. There was even the question of whether a specific healer had power or grace from God, whether he was working with devils or whether he was simply a crook. That verse would have suggested it as a valid option only if the healer had his power from God. Then, for the third situation, he would have chosen (Jeremiah 17:14): “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed! Save me Lord, and I will be saved, for You are the one I praise!“. Once these verses were chosen, they were written on pieces of papyrus, parchment or paper, or even on leaves and other such materials, and they were folded tight, rolled up or crumpled and put in the already mentioned oil. After a while, some of them would sink and one would remain on the surface. The one on the surface would be the awaited answer. Another option was to throw the three writings, better if the patient himself could, in the air, as high as possible after doing a prayer. The one who would fall first or the one who first touched the earth was the right answer.

Many such notes have been preserved or found, each with some desire scribbled on it. Sometimes the verse was accompanied by a variation of the answer to the question we can evidently guess. “In the name of God, X is a wicked man and my daughter will be unhappy with him.”; or “In the name of God, X is a good man and my daughter will be happy with him.” It is understandable that a father had tried to find out the nature of his future son-in-law, appealing rather to divination and Divine Wisdom, than to the gossip of the moment. Many examples are to be found. The texts used for divination either come from the Old Testament, especially Psalms or Prophets, either from the Gospels or from the Qur’an, according to the seekers faith. We do not recommend abusing this method because of curiosity or in the desire to be entertained. Every man has to respect the sacred ways of his faith. Even if it is not a mainstream Orthodox practice, it uses verses from the Scriptures and thus must be properly respected. I do believe we should use such a method only for important things. Don’t you think we should do such a divination before spending tons of money on lottery tickets or before we impose on our children the career path to follow or the university that we consider most appropriate for them?

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Translated by Camelia Elias

(Source)

According to popular knowledge, cartomancy is divination with cards, or fortunetelling, and a lot more complex than assumed. The majority of people attribute the practice of cartomancy to charlatan fortunetellers, and although cartomancy has also been used to cheat others, there is more to it than the prejudice surrounding it.

Cartomancy as an esoteric discipline and mantic science has nothing to do with the way people use it, and not everyone using it must be put in the same basket with fortunetelling conmen. Just as we cannot accuse chemistry of also preparing poisons, or the press for always delivering lies and gossip, we cannot judge cartomancy by criminal standards or by the methods employed by some to manipulate others for personal gain. We must study the problem more attentively, and look at the history of cartomancy and the function of divination and fortunetelling.

As we’ve already seen in the first essay of this series about runes, divination rests on simple mechanics. We can say that our superior Self offers our inferior Self access to information that’s manifest in images and symbols. In order to better understand the premise for divination and the process involved in the art of divination, we can say that divination operates with how we acquire different types of knowledge of the three kind: rational, irrational, and divine.

Each kind of knowledge taps into specific information, and the one using this information subscribes to a specific typology. The rational way is used by many in their mundane life and is the way that opens the gate to science. The rational way is based on direct experience, logical deduction, and proof. This is the way that forms the predominant knowledge and is seen by most as the only way leading to truth, whatever truth is. The one using this type of knowledge is the Rational type.

The divine way is the most elevated among the three types of knowledge and is present in people with who have a marked spiritual inclination. However, not all who are evolved spiritually have access to the divine type of knowledge, and not all who have access to this knowledge are also necessarily evolved. The ones endowed with the gift of prophesy and clairvoyance, or what we call, foresight, are the ones who can access the divine in a direct way. Yet not all the saints we know of had clear sight/clairvoyance, and not all who had clear sight have been canonized. Not all the saints were prophets, and not all the prophets made it to sainthood. The few who have benefited from direct knowledge of the divine are called mystics. In most cases, mystics don’t seek divine knowledge. Divine knowledge reveals itself to them. Most who have had the gift of divination have also felt this as a burden, leading to suffering. Joan of Arc is an example among many. The ones who have direct access to divine knowledge are often people who have an important mission. What they personally think of their gift and their will power to use it is of no importance compared to this mission.

The irrational way is the way of the Oracle represented by the one who has access to divine or universal information, though not all the time, and not always in conscious ways. What facilitates this knowledge is the inferior Self, often through code. In order to better understand this we can use the analogy of a man on a submarine. He is deeply immersed underwater in a heavy vehicle, isolated from the world on the surface, and separated too from the pure world of absolute and real knowledge. This person can receive messages from his superiors on the surface via the Morse code. Likewise, he can also receive messages from his superior Self, his Higher Guardian Angel or some other code. Usually this code is vast, yet reduced to symbolic language. For instance, in the case of Runes, Fehu represents cattle, signifying possession and wealth. For the Nordic medieval man, associating cattle with wealth was normal: the more cattle, the larger the wealth. Thus Fehu is a sign of prosperity. The same with oniromancy, the art of dream interpretation. The symbols people are competent to recognize in dream can be seen as tools for divination, or as tools through which the inferior Self can communicate just the information we need.

In cartomancy, we have a similar situation. We can assume that the ones who designed the Tarot cards as tools for divination, imposing a symbolic system on the cards, and implicitly the playing cards, didn’t do it at random. The magical symbols, for instance via the kabbalah and numerology, had a strong hold on the inventors of the system. It is this force that has been transmitted through generations, together with various significations attributed to the cards. How this was done will be investigated in following essays.

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Written by Asterion

Translated by “M.B.“

Bibliomancy is the divination art that uses books or the Book. We are not referring here to the playing cards (Cartomancy) or to Tarot cards (Tarology or Taromancy), but to our book of daily reading. Many of us are familiar with this act of divination from the Christian sphere, where it is called “Opening the Book”. Today, there are many priests who are not strictly respecting the religious canon, so they consider the act of “opening the book” as something natural and even recommended.

But how is this process of divination done? Usually, a person comes with a specific problem to the priest, who often has a reputation of doing this act, and he opens the Holy Book, be it the Bible or Chapters of it, like for example the Psalter or the New Testament, hoping to find an answer where the book happened to open. Then he puts the finger on a particular passage of said chapter, reads it to the solicitor and gives him a certain explanation relating to his problem, to use the clerical language, an interpretation of it.

To the surprise of many, there is indeed a correlation between the question asked and the chosen verse, and a talented or gifted priest can often offer to the seeker interesting and relevant interpretations. This practice is not new and comes up in most of the world’s faiths. The Greeks used for this act of divination various oracular writings, particularly for this type of acts, literary works such as the Iliad or the Odyssey. The Romans did the same with Aeneid, while the Arab magicians and some Sufi practiced this kind of divination using the Qur’an and today, only human creativity can put a limit to the choice of books used.

It should be pointed out, at this time, that this art of divination, inappropriately called “guessing”, is not a vulgar art of fortunetelling, but it is rather a practice designed to provide additional information or clarifications to a specific problem the one who asks for, has. Obviously, the question will not resemble, in letter or spirit, questions like “Will it rain tomorrow?”, or “What are the winning numbers to the lottery?”, or “Where did I misplace my glasses?”…

Bibliomancy may be of two kinds, one sacred, one profane. In the beginnings of the art there was no such differentiation because the only books in use were the sacred books. But with time, even this divinatory process changed. This sacred divination is made exclusively by the use of the Holy Book of the faith one is born into or believes in and must have questions relating to serious matters, meaningful and put in a solemn way. Before any question, the seeker will be fasting and praying, as common belief is that one needs to be clean to be able to participate in this divination. Usually, the monks or priests who intend to do this divination know that they must pray before, must keep in strict observance the moral and religious rules and they need to be pure from a ritualistic viewpoint. For example, I myself, writing this paper have prayed and asked the question: “Is the bibliomancy good?”. With my eyes shut, I opened the Bible and I rested my finger where, from my inner self, I was inspired to stop. The answer came from Leviticus: “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.” What does this mean? Any divination art is useful if it is used properly and faithful to God.

The second we act out of desire to have some kind of advantage over our neighbor or to gain unlawful sums from it, any divinatory act is degraded to the state of “fortune-telling”. Sacred Bibliomancy should not be endeavored unprepared. We need to ponder on the question we wish to ask, we need fasting, we need to bring prayers to God asking for guidance and that we may be guided by the hands of our guardian angels in finding the answer we seek. If we come aggravated from work and want to “open the Book” to get an answer about the moment we get the desired salary, if we are intoxicated from having a beer with our friends and try “opening the Book” to find out if X tells the truth, if we are bored or simply curious, we should refrain from doing this divination act, for not only it will not work, but we are in danger of getting misleading answers. This would mean disregarding the sacredness of the process.

The rules of profane Bibliomancy are somewhat relaxed. Although it does not impose so many rules and restrictions as the sacred practice, we must take a minimum of caution. A small and sincere prayer, asking for divine help, doing some type of energy exercise, are welcomed anytime. With the question before our mind, concentrating on it, we will head to our library, eyes closed. If we do not have a library, it is sufficient a single book shelf. We will touch the books without thinking of which book we will stop to, but permanently focusing on our question, our hand will stop on a book without our conscious help. We will pick the volume up, maintaining the eyes closed and the focus on the question, and we will browse the pages of the book until we feel it’s enough, stopping at some random page. On the said page we will browse the page up and down, down and up, with our finger, until we stop at a certain point. The sentence or paragraph chosen needs to be interpreted in the most logical way possible, letting time decide if our perception was accurate or not. If our finger stops on a text without any meaning, a picture or a blank page, we obviously take the book back to its place and wait a little more or we call upon the sacred method of Bibliomancy. I also tested this profane method, asking about the journey I will start tomorrow, and to my surprise, the sentence was telling about a prince departing in a chariot. Quite close: I am not a prince, neither is the Bus a chariot, but the symbolism was the same.

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Translated by F.v.F.

Oneiromancy is the esoteric art of interpreting dreams. The ancients considered that the gods can communicate to mortals piece of information about what was going to happen and answers at their concerns through dreams. The wise kabbalists said that while sleeping, the human soul departs the body and travels to the other world, leaving behind only a scrap that would keep the heartbeat and breathing to continue. There they could converse with the angels and the souls of other people, either asleep as them or with the righteoust and saints of the traditions, who could guide them. Returned to the body, man can only vaguely remember what his soul learned and met during the dream state, and this was done through a certain language, alegorical, meaning a symbolic language.

Souls do not know any language and it is understood that if we would talk to our souls or other peoples souls, we would do this through symbols, senses and emotions, not by words. From the earlies times, people tried to corelate these symbols with what happens during the day or with what they wanted to find out. Thus, if somebody dreamt of a body in flames, it meant that his wife was cheating him, and if he dreamt of a child it meant he would win something. It is important to know that not all symbols from our dreams mean the same thing for everyone.

According to the era in which they lived, the civilization in which they were born and the beliefs they grew up with and were taught of, people began to consider certain signs as meaning something completely different than others. If they dreamt of a child they would normally consider this as a benefit or a prize, since children were not only the blessing for parents but also a help when they grow old, as well as a future source of income.

Someone asked me what it means if you have snakes in your dreams… Hard to say. If we’d ask a peasant he’d tell us that it means hidden evil or unknown danger. Where does this belief come from? From the meetings that country people have with snakes: snakes are many times venomous and we don’t know when they bite, because they stay hidden under rocks, in the grass or under houses and furniture. If we ask a devoted christian, dreaming of a snake means that someone is lying to us or is deceiving us. It is easy to figure out that this symbol comes from the mythical story of the snake in the Garden of Eden. If he haven’t met snakes in his life, he will associate them with what they heard of. But snakes, as Jesus said, were a symbol of wisdom. The Greeks considered it a sacred animal and signified healing, and the sign of medicine, Asklepios, the staff with a snake around it, has remained a classic emblem of medicine. If we asked a man from Ancient Greece what the snake in our dreams means, he would have told us it means healing.

The examples are many. Dreams play and important role in the Bible: Joseph has many prophetic dreams, and the gift to interpret them makes him the vizier of Egypt. But what dreams did Joseph have, that he could interpret? In his father’s home he dreamt of corn ears, and each of these symbolized his brothers, because they were working the field, picking grain, and in Egypt he dreams of cows and he knows that the cow symbolizes the year in Egypt. We cannot interpret a dream by what someone else is saying or what a different tradition is saying. Lets say that a man from Ancient Greece was sick and he was waiting his healing. He dreams of a snake, and asks a Christian, what does this mean? The Christian will tell him what it means in his tradition, that is deceit, and knowing that the snake is the symbol of healing, our man will think that his doctor is deceiving or lying to him, when in fact his dream signifies healing.

If we want to understand the interpretation of our dreams we must be wise and seek within ourselves what the dream means. A bread can mean the holy wafer for a priest, food and wealth for a poor man and poverty for the wealthy man who is used to fine dishes. A child can mean joy to a woman who likes children, but for an adolescent girl it can be a reason to worry. We don’t need to learn the significance of our dreams from others, we need to find it ourselves. We can listen to the advice of someone who knows us, but it is better that we meditate alone at its significance.

Dream books were born from dream journals, a practice that I recommend if you wish to learn oneiromancy. Once we have dreamt of something (and we remember the dream), we write it down as well and precise as we can, in a journal. With the passing of time we can observe certain associations between dreams and what happened or happens in real life. Slowly, we can create a very useful dream dictionary, to which we can appeal to any time our soul needs to tell us something.

Sweet dreams!

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Translated by “M.B.“

(Tolkien’s Cirth Alphabet – Source)

Even though we have finished the series of twenty-four runes, their significance in every position and domain, and even if we have written about the way the divinatory mechanism works, the subject is not yet finished. Since they began to gain popularity, the runes have been associated by various people with all sorts of things, concepts and ideas with which they have not the slightest connection.

1. The Empty Rune. In most rune sets, there is a blank piece that was initially introduced to replace a piece if it is lost or damaged. The author Ralph Blum, who popularized the rune divination in the 1980s, decided to introduce it into the divinatory process. He baptized this invention with the name WYRD, representing the blind force that can manifest upon our lives, the unknown, the providence. A kind of karmic concept, forged on the Nordic terminology. This concept belongs wholly and completely to Blum, his own invention, the rune masters knowing nothing about such a concept. What this rune is supposed to bring, is exactly what Ansuz brings, so not only is it a fake rune but also a futile one. Usually the divination practitioners who use this rune do not have a deep understanding of this system, and their knowledge springs from modern, popular books. It is highly advisable to preserve the symmetry and sacred order of the runes, because they pursue a precise purpose and employs a special symbolism. Adding an unnecessary rune would destabilize it and make the system inefficient.

2. Fictive Runes. There is a long history of fictional rune sets. Some of them are entirely invented, others are simply “improved” Futhark sets. The oldest added rune sets can be considered the Anglo-Saxon set with thirty-third signs. The Armanen runes, eighteen in number, were published in 1902 by the Austrian mystic Guido von List, and his rival, Karl Maria Willigut, also published a set of twenty-four runes. These are original sets, but because they have a magical foundation, we can call them authentic. They have quite a few followers using these sets and they can be considered effective. However, there have been countless examples of fictional rune sets, unrelated to the art of divination. The writer J.R.R. Tolkien invented, among the many languages ​​of the Middle Earth, the elves runes, or Cirth, which can have up to sixty signs. These, along with the multitude of fictional alphabets invented later on, either for books or video games, are outside tradition and cannot be used in divinations. But not even the Romanian writers are left out: the authors of the book “Magie si mistere: Rune”, known under the pseudonyms of Anton Nicholaus and Loan Gallien, introduce a whole new fictional run, Takad, besides the Wyrd Rune, symbolizing the evil.

3. Fictive correlations. In the above-mentioned book, the writers ascribe the runes to the tradition of Kabbalah, Jewish and Christian esotericism, mainly linked with the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse. We must accept the fact that the Nordic masters who created the runes had nothing to do with Jewish apocryphal literature or Kabbalah. Apart from the  number 24, the runes have nothing to do with the Revelation of John. The two are totally different systems, and we do not have to make hasty conclusions about the links between the two. (It would be more accurate to assume that the magazine Penthouse and the Pentateuch have a mystical connection only because they both start with PENT …). The Nordic belief system is fundamentally different from the Judeo-Christian one, the mythologies of the two are totally different as the perception of the world and the spirits is also divergent. There is no connection between Christian mystical literature and the runes.

4. Wrong use. Unfortunately, a lot of people fall prey to the desire to make quick money of the path of spirituality. One of the wrong uses of the runes I have seen is the so-called Runic Reiki. Runes and Japanese Reiki have nothing to do with each other. Yes, the runes are extremely powerful symbols that can be used in magical works. Yes, they can be used in healing. Yes, they can activate hidden powers in man to be used for the good of others. But no, runes should not be used with Choku Rei and Day Ko Myo; they should only be applied with great discernment on a living being; no, an obscene amount must not be paid to receive an initiation, because the runes can be used by anyone, even if they do not have a Reiki Master diploma.

There is some measure and a common sense when it comes to runes and money. Divination must be paid because an energetic exchange is made. Rune divination learning courses have to be paid because the materials that the lecturer needs are not free either. Rune books and rune sets must also be paid. But you do not have to buy all sorts of initiations for healing or energy work with runes. You do not need to have any Reiki Master’s degrees to work with runes. You just have to research and work on your own.

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Written by Asterion

Translated by Fr. Iustin

Fehu

Is the first out of the twelve runes of the norse magical alphabet.

The sound it represents is F, and its name means “Cattle” or “Wealth”. In the past, cattle were associated with wealth, owning a big herd showed a man’s community status, the wealth and prosperity of his household, but also a sign of a quiet, worry less lifestyle.

It’s shape represents the principle of goodness and can have multiple interpretations. It resembles a man with his hands raised towards the sky (the Heavens), representing praying and gratefulness. This reminds us that we can ask our Father for whatever we need, with the certainty of getting as much as we need, but also that we must express gratitude when receiving. Fehu’s shape represents also a young, fruitful branch gushing out of the trunk, or a thicker branch. This represents the work’s fruition and the naturally obtained success though hard work and perseverance. And not lastly, two affluent rivers spilling into a bigger one, meaning increasing forces, successes, wealth and harmony. Notably the two elements, be it seen as sacerdotal arms, tree branches of a tree or affluent rivers, they are positioned on the right side of the central line, meaning the positive side.

In a normal position, Fehu means wealth, earning, well-being, but also harmony and tranquillity. Is an especially good rune in a layout, announcing an abundant, profitable period. Depending on the question, the profit and abundance may manifest in different forms.

Socially foretells  of success with people, fame and even promotion. The person’s fame can grow, can receive favourable appreciations and even praise, that must be modestly received.

In finances, Fehu announces earned income, duteous work being rewarded, work retribution, and the appreciation of those we work with, be it clients or bosses.

In the erotic domain, Fehu means understanding between partners, emotional and sexual compatibility, and general joy and fullfilment. Partners are open, mutually honest, working together for couple harmony.

In what concerns health, this rune brings a general state of well-being, good immunity and healing in case of disease. Recovery might be treacherous, but sure and long lasting. Fehu does not foretell overnight, like sudden recoveries, but the gradual and solid type, for which the patient must work hard.

In reversed position, Fehu signifies loss, decrease, bad luck, lack of harmony and feuds. Depending on the question, loss and bad luck can manifest in different forms.

Socially, the reversed Fehu announces the loss of benefits or attributions. May be the result of unjust actions or a dishonest attitude toward those around. We can loose fame, respect from others and the good image we’ve created can be easily ruined.

Financially this rune foretells losses. Be it virtual losses, like blocked accounts or stock market losses, or the actual loss of physical things, including money, it foretells the alienation of our possessions.

In erotic relationships, it foretells the lack of harmony in the couple, arguing and even separation. Depending on the nearby runes, may signify temporary apathy, suspicion over one’s partner, or even the loss of a partner for abject and frivolous reasons.

Health wise, may point to low vitality and an endangered immunity. There is risk of disease and we lack harmony in our systems. In this case, the disease may be uncomplicated, but unpleasant, like a biliary or gastric colic. colds, anemia or occasional migraines. We could have exhausted energy reserves, nausea or insomnia, and we must look for the cause of those in order to heal.

Uruz

The second rune of the norse magical alphabet.

The sound it represents is U, and it’s name means “Wild Bovine”. The wild bovine is the ancestor of domestic cattle, that dominated European plains well into the Middle Ages. It was the symbol of primal force, of the animalistic power and of freedom. Uruz is the symbol of unbridled, unrestrained free forces, but also of brute energy and vitality.

The sign represents the silhouette of a wild bovine or it’s horns, but lacking in balance. The force is present, firmly grounded, but unevenly manifested. The lack of balance may lead to excess and then, to extremes, if a person is not cautiously manifesting power, force, energy and authority.

In an upright position, Uruz signifies force, control, dominion, governing and privilege, but also sudden changes. It’s a pendulous rune in a layout, bringing dynamism and reinforcing multiple other runes. Depending on the question, changes brought by Uruz may manifest in different forms.

Socially, foretells never before seen enthusiasm, a fulminating ascension and a sudden change on the material side.

Financially, Uruz foretells great, unexpected earnings, an undertaken risk paying off, but short-lived after all. We must be wisely aware of and carefully manage the earnings, because greater risks may appear, motivated by even greater gainings, that may lead to equally great losses, as sudden as they came.

Erotically, this rune signifies the primal attraction between two people, the animalistic magnetism, sexuality in it’s purest sense. For singles it foretell plentiful and passionate affairs, although short-lived. For couples, it contributes to sexual harmony, absolute fulfilment and passion, possibly revitalising a problematic relationship.

Healthwise, this rune foretells good health, plenty of vitality and endurance. Uruz is the symbol of physical force and vitality, of energy and adrenaline, coupled with a hunger for life that can completely reinvigorate someone. In case of disease, healing happens fast and sudden, unexpected and in a surprising manner.

In a reversed position, it of course signifies a variety of vices and weaknesses that may derive from the virtues described earlier.

Socially, a person is dominated by it’s surroundings, lacks power, and others take decisions in his/her place. The psychological power is at it’s minimum, same as motivation. If Uruz signifies unstoppable force, of course the opposite applies in a reversed position.

Financially, it brings major sudden losses and uninspired risks. Every gaining has its time, same as every loss.

In erotic relationships, may mean ignorance, insensibility,  brutality even, but also misuse of energy, that might lead to sexual problems, for men as well as women.

Healthwise, may indicate decreased vitality, disease or depression, lacking the will to live, sadness or anxiety.

Thurisaz

Is the third of the twelve runes of the Norse magical alphabet.

The sound it represents is TH, a specific Germanic languages sound, including English. It’s a T pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth, resembling the sound S. In English, this sound appears in words like thing, think, thorn or thunder, but very different from the the Th sound in the, there, this, that resembles the sound Z more.

The name Thurs means “giant” and Thorn is self explanatory. In Scandinavian tradition, the Thurs were ice giants, primordial beings of immense power, dwelling in the frozen lands. Thurisaz signifies their destructive, brutal force and reagent violence. Meanwhile, this rune is associated with the thunder god, Thor, standing for protective and righteous force. Thurisaz may have various significations, but always drastic.

Its symbol is a straight line with a triangle forming in the middle of its right side. Its shape represents a thorn or splint, but also a weapon. It can have a benefic or malefic interpretation. The benefic force is Thor’s hammer, called Mjollnir, used to generate thunder and protect humans and well as gods, against evil forces. The malefic force is the battle axe of the ice giants, who’s sharpened edge was most feared.

In upright position, Thurisaz signifies raw power, abruptness, change, necessary sorrow. It’s an unfavorable rune in a layout, foretelling a tormenting period with relatively unpleasant sudden changes, disputes, fights and unrest. Depending on the question, this violent force may manifest in different forms.

Socially, foretells arguing, unfavorable changes in a situation and bewilderment. It points to the fight for surviving, supremacy and rebellion. The situation requires striving for what we most want, animating our inner warrior and bringing its power, courage and arduous enthusiasm to the surface.

Financially, Thurisaz represents enormous risk based on instinct, that may lead to substantial gainings or ruin. Usually this rune draws attention upon the lack of reasoning and hotheadedness, and it’s best to take it’s presence into consideration. A softer, more calm and patient character is required.

In erotic relationships, Thurisaz foretells passionate relationships, on the edge between enjoyable and animalistic. Is the sign of instinctual dominance, brutal force and irrepressible lust. One of the partners, usually the man, is extremely sensual, sexually active to the limits of obsession, brutal or even violent in bed, possessive and jealous. Frequent arguing ended not by healthy communication, but sex.

Healthwise, this rune brings abundant vital force, intense activity and energy. Excesses and exhaustion may appear.

In reversed position, Thurisaz is extremely negative.

Socially, reversed Thurisaz foretells disaster, scandal, lost battles, betrayed purposes and rapid downturn of authority

Financially, this rune foretells sudden loss of possessions or liquidities, fraud, bankruptcy, prejudice and even theft. All financial endeavours are to be postponed when this rune shows up, being a good indicator of disaster.

In erotic relationships, foretells extreme fights, thunderous break-ups along with, or even caused by, the violent lash out of one of the partners, chiefly the male. Thurisaz reversed shows frustration, guilt, remorse, but also blaming, reproaches and threats. Is the symbol of revenge and hate between two ex partners.

Healthwise, may indicate excess, overexertion followed by exhaustion or disease. Activity sustained in an unhealthy manner may lead to major hormonal, physical, psychological and energetic imbalance. The subject is sensitive to various attacks, pathogens and even violence from other people. Lesions may appear as a result of fights or attacks.

Ansuz

Is the fourth of the twelve runes of the norse magical alphabet.

The sound it represents is A, and it’s name means “God” or “Ancestor”.

In Scandinavian mythology, the Aesir were a race of Gods, similar to the ancient Greece’s olympians.

It’s shape is a vertical line, with two lines slanting down from the top and middle of it’s right side. Is the analog form of Fehu and we can interpret it in multiple ways. If Fehu represents a man with his arms raised toward the sky, Ansuz is the God with his arms lowered towards the ground. While Fehu is calling and praying, Ansuz is the God’s grace, the celestial gift, the divine vindication and the fulfilment of prayers. It’s shape resembles an entity’s silhouette lowering it’s arms to bless and offer protection and knowledge. If we associate it’s shape to a tree, it would be the fir tree, with it’s branches coming down from it’s trunk, offering protection and shelter to those below. Also, the fir tree’s strength, it’s vertical rising and it’s evergreen appearance, suggest the God’s power, immortality and truthfulness.

In upright position, Ansuz is the rune of communication, inspiration, well-being, truth, joy and prosperity. It’s a very beneficial rune in a layout, announcing a period of joy, openness and progress. Depending on the question, communication openness and inspiration can be manifested in different forms.

Socially, it foretells a good ascension, slow but sure, acquired through work and diplomacy. We are honoured by those around us, our accomplishments are recognised and we’re fairly praised. We pick up the fruits of our labour, able to leisurely enjoy them as long as we value the same positive, spiritual and moral principles.

Financially it foretells gainings and achievements, or better put, inspired choices and favourable directions, more in investments rather than spectacular gainings. It shows profitable businesses and honest gainings, but also economical understanding.

In relationships, the God’s rune is as beneficial as they come. Partners enjoy harmony and understanding, manifesting love, compassion, understanding and honesty. Relationships are based on fairness, truthfulness, loyalty and never before seen compatibility between partners. The partners are often destined to one another to the degree of soul mates. Vigorously trying to make their partner comfortable, giving and showing affection in all circumstances.

Healthwise, this rune brings plenty of health, well-being, increased immunity and tranquility. In case of ongoing disease, it foretells recovery.

In reversed position, Ansuz manifests the vices of communication and the deriving problems.

Depending on the question, the misunderstanding,  lack of inspiration or confusion may manifest in different forms.

Socially, Reversed Ansuz foretells set-backs, slowing down or a stagnation period. Waiting to start new projects, but we keep on being pulled back. We may have to deal with confusion, faulty communication and even malicious words being thrown in our direction.

Financially, Ansuz reversed shows a set-back or minor loss.

In relationships, shows boredom, lack of inspiration, routine and stress. May also indicate a dishonest nature, miserly interests, manipulation, hidden things, gossip, lying and adultery.

Healthwise, Ansuz reversed may show lack of enthusiasm and energy, minor diseases and passing allergies.

Raidho

Raidho is the 5th out of the 24 runes from the magical Nordic alphabet.

It represents the sound R, and its name means “chariot” or “carriage”. It’s part of the same family of Indo-European RADH, which in English means wheel. The Latin equivalent is “Rota”. Centuries ago, the horse and carriage were the most widespread means of transportation. The carriage is a major movement in which all of the items of the owner are transported temporarily or indefinitely. Its shape expresses, to our surprise, not a carriage, but a man who is stepping forward. He has one leg firmly on the ground and another stepping ahead. The significance of Raidho is movement and travel and we can interpret it in many ways.

In a normal position, Raidho stands for all kinds of beneficial change, progress, success, and acceleration. It’s a very beneficial rune in a draft, announcing a time of unexpected precipitations, synchronicities, and coincidences meant to ease our lives. Depending on the question, the journeys can be literal or symbolic and can be manifested in different forms.

In a social aspect, it foretells great progress. You will be able to surpass any obstacle and do it with great skill. You will move forward in your social group and grow in a good way. Also, it announces change that might appear sudden or surprising, however to your benefit.

Financially, Raidho announces monetary fluidity. Its time to act and use our instinct. We might lose or win suddenly.

Erotically, Raidho is beneficial and indicates that things are going well. Step forward into an ideal relationship. Things will happen quickly but naturally and your love life will be energetic and deeply satisfying.

When it comes to health, this rune brings health but also many changes. Raidho indicates evolution and progress, and in this case a speedy and resilient recovery.

When reversed, Raidho personifies not only obstacles and hindrances but also the wrong way we might be going. Depending on the question, misfortune might manifest under different aspects.

Socially, Raidho reversed stands for crisis, tardiness, procrastination, and promises unfulfilled.

It’s time to let go of big plans and focus on personal growth.

Financially, this rune shows a considerable depreciation of income, late payments, inactivity, and lack of profit. This is in no way the time for new investments, more likely the moment in which we should be patient and re-evaluate available options, avoiding radical decisions as much as possible.

Erotically it shows a lack of interest, arguments, and drifting apart, but more than anything, routine. There might be boredom in your love life, either from a lack of communication or an excess in it. It’s time to reflect if the person next to you is the right one or if it’s just a passing phase.

Concerning health, Raidho reversed indicates crisis, rigidity, and immobility. Bad health might hinder your mobility and shut you in your home literally. The possibility of ending up bedridden is up ahead either because of physical, psychological or emotional ailments. There is also a predisposition towards melancholy, depression, and pathological introversion.

Kenaz

It’s the 6th out of the 24 runs of the Nordic magical alphabet and from the first set of 8, Freya’s aett.

It represents the sound C or K and its name means “torch” or “flame”. Its significance is tightly tied to the previous rune. Kenaz is the torch that lights the path, the lighthouse that guides the traveler or sailor. If Raidho is an astronomical allusion to the constellation “Ursa Major” or the Chariot,  Kenaz is its torch or the North Star which shows sailors where the North is. Commonly it’s the “light at the end of the tunnel” with all its meanings. Its shape expresses a stylized flame or tongue of fire.

In a normal position, Kenaz stands for the active element. The strong, expansive engine of motion and its motive. It’s the spark that starts everything, the original impulse from which can begin the process that we have in mind. It’s a very good rune for action, announcing a time of intense activity and of high energy. Depending on the question the dynamism of Kenaz can be expressed in various forms.

Socially it foretells the discovery of many aspects that up until now were forgotten, unveiling secrets that will help you. You will benefit from executive power, from freedom of action and decision, but also from a lot of responsibility.

Financially it shows a sudden growth and considerable profit. It can also stand for assumed risk in order to obtain the desired profit.

Erotically this rune represents the man, or at least the active person in the couple and the diviner can find out more things about him. It can also symbolize sexual energy, passion and newness, a pleasant surprise, and fiery feelings.

When it comes to health, this rune brings a lot of vitality and energy. The sick will experience a quick and safe recovery.

In a reversed position, Kenaz is wild energy, an out-of-control mind, and an unrestrained vice.

Depending on the question, the instability and negativity of Kenaz reversed can manifest in different forms.

Socially, Kenaz reversed announces disaster, disillusion, false expectations, and compromises. Some ugly truths might come to the surface, weaknesses and hidden vices. You are vulnerable out of your own fault and lack of wisdom. You will have to now pay for your lack of prudence.

Financially, this rune shows loss because of taking stupid chances, rushing, and lack of judgment. Particularly in the domain of finance, Kenaz reversed is the rune of carelessness, hurry, and bad judgment. It can also mean the victory of your rival.

Erotically, it shows weakness. The couple suffers from routine, and lack of creativity and activity. When it comes to procreation or having a baby, Kenaz reversed shows infertility in one of the partners. The relationship is insatiable and full of misunderstandings and fights. There is a lack of communication. If you are seeking new relationships, it warns you about rushing into things and irrational passions which can lead you into very unpleasant situations.

When it comes to health, it can indicate physical weakness and a frail immune system. Hope for recovery is low and is accentuated by the negative expectations of the ill person. Usually, it shows short suffering, crisis of vitality, or lust for life which can be redressed in a few days. However, it also depends on the runes it is associated with in order to have a more precise reading.

Gifu

Its the 7th from out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet and the penultimate out of the first set of eight.

It represents the sound “G” and its name(Gifu or Gebo) means “gift”, “present” or “generosity”

Centuries ago, every new relationship was sealed with a gift from both of the partners, thus the gift became the symbol of all kinds of relationships. Its shape expresses the idea of an honest exchange, evoking the stylized form of arms that offer gifts to one another.

Gifu represents equal forces that meet, that are of opposite genders, and coincide by nature. Each line between the two makes up the entire length, each inclination, and each orientation, but the point in the middle unites all of them. The same as in every human relationship, each partner has its own qualities, defects, properties, and attributes, however, what they offer is the link between the two and their common point. Up until now, we studied the positions of the runes in two variants: the positive and the negative, which means normal or reversed. However, what do we do with Gifu since it looks the same in any position? Gifu is part, along with the other 6 runes that we will study in time, of a group of symmetrical runes that look the same regardless of position. They symbolize general things, and depending on the runes around them, they can have more profound meanings.

This rune is a good omen in a draft, it announces a time of happiness, of fulfillment, and of prosperity. Because of its dual aspect, Gifu is associated almost always with love, romantic and sexual union, and even marriage. In the old German world, a marriage could be seen as a simple transaction of titles or a good understanding between two families. Peace relations between countries, regions, and tribes were sealed through the marriage of the children of the leaders, with all the financial implications that came from such a union.

Depending on the question asked, the force of Gifu can manifest in different forms. Socially, it foretells of a great success and great personal charisma. A great partnership is afoot, a friendship that will bring many benefits.

Financially, Giffu announces an unexpected gift, a reward. We can attain profit following our activities, or we receive a sign of friendship from someone through an unexpected gift.

Erotically, its always the sign of love, of relationships, and of good understanding. For single people, it announces a relationship that is expected to manifest, a link in the near future or a confirmation of hidden feelings towards a beloved person.  Partners are deeply satisfied, the content of each other and aren’t looking for anything outside the relationship to meet their needs. In a draft whose purpose is to find what is necessary for a happy relationship, Gifu can signify the gift or sacrifice: let us not forget that the most beautiful gift for the loved one is sacrificing of own interests, desires, and impulses in order to maintain the happiness of both.

Concerning health, this rune brings vitality, health, optimism, and joy. Exceptions you are looking for the cause of the affliction: Here Gifu can indicate that the origin of the disease is the contact with another person, in specific cases, it can indicate sexually transmitted diseases because of its symbolism related to relationships.

Wunjo

It’s the 9th out of the 24 runes from the Nordic magical alphabet, and its also the last rune from the first set. The Aettu of Freya.

It represents the sound “W”, a sort of a closed vowel, like in the English “What” or “Want”. It is also rarely pronounced as V. The name “Wunjo”(pronounced Wunyo or Unyo) means “joy”, “ecstasy” or “glory”.

In the past, this rune was associated with victory, peace, and lack of worry or suffering. It was also associated with Walhalla, the citadel of the forefathers where the souls of warriors went to after death to find peace, a sort of temporary heaven for the Vikings.

Its shape is easily confused with Thurisaz, thus we must remember the differences between the two: Wunjo looks like the letter P, just as Raidho looks like the letter R. Its shape is mysterious, but you can distinguish the shape of a stylized cup made out of a horn, the symbol of rest after prolonged effort. Wunjo expresses joy, happiness, and tranquility, however, short-term success, is the illusion of fulfillment in a moment, and it can be interpreted in many ways depending on the position we draw it and the domain in question.

In a normal position, Wunjo is a good rune in a draft, announcing a time of rest, contentment, and happiness. Depending on the question asked, they can manifest in different forms.

Socially, it foretells great fortune and the fulfillment of all plans you have endeavored recently. You are at peace with yourself and all you have accomplished and are in good relations with the ones around us.

Financially, Wunjo announces joy and winnings, however, a more accurate description would be a time with no worries or risk.

Erotically, Wunjo signifies happiness, and love between two partners. They are both a source of joy for one another. The couple is balanced, harmonious, happy, and free from fights or worries.

When it comes to health, this rune brings general health, optimism, and lust for life. In the case of the terminally ill who are in great pain, Wunjo means the end which comes as a release for the dying.

In a reversed position, the benefits of Wunjo are late to come and can be the source of dissolution if not proper issues. Depending on the question asked, the foretold problems can manifest under different aspects.

Socially, Wunjo reversed announces the decline from a comfortable position with which you were accustomed with. Increased attention for those who enjoy the fruits of others’ labor, and those who “work” by doing nothing, because those good days are coming to an end.

Financially this runes show loss of some money, of some funds or some possibilities of earnings that we thought were sure. Risks must be avoided, and we shouldn’t get excited at the first sign of success because everything can be overturned at the lat moment because our drive and excessive trust.

Erotically, it shows that love life is unpredictable, and upside down. There are fights misunderstandings and a lack of communication. Things are not as they seem.

When it comes to health, it can it can indicate the decline of immunity and diseases tied to vices that you may cultivate. The main idea of Wunjo reversed when it comes to health is that everything we don’t like harms us, and also that everything we like heals us. Complacency in bad, unhealthy habits brings us down little by little.

Hagalaz

Hagalaz is the 9th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet, and it is also the first rune out of the second set, its Aett is Heimdall.

Nauthiz

It’s the 10th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet and its also the second rune from Heimdall’s Aett.

It stands for the sound N, and its name means “need” or “necesity”. Its shape indicates a scale out of balance. It is a negative rune just as Hagalaz in a draft and it announces a time of poverty both literarely and figuratively.

Nauthiz represents the need to have, to obtain, be it something that is really necessary, or something that we believe will make us happy. Nauthiz is the void, the emptiness inside which many try to fill, be it with material possessions, money, fame, or cheap thrills. It’s the need for something that cannot be expressed and needs to be fulfilled out of cowardice with something we don’t really require. Nauthiz teaches us the courage to search deep inside ourselves to find what we really need. It’s a signaling rune, which warns us that we are not doing what’s right. Through our actions, we create unbalance in our life or the others, or we facilitate its manifestation. Depending on the question, it can manifest in different forms.

Socially it foretells a significant lowering of status. We lose ground in front of our rivals, we lose the trust of our friends and relatives, and we are constantly placed second in their priorities. Its the time to start working again and earn all the things we used to enjoy with honest effort.

Financially Nauthiz announces, just like Hagalaz, loss, poverty, delays, and necessity. We don’t have part of luxury and can’t afford more than what is necessary for survival. In a financial draft, this rune announces egoism, lust, and decadence, and we are advised to take the path of modesty and bare necessities.

When it comes to health, this rune announces a time of weakness, vulnerability, and lowered immunity. We need to be careful with our bodies and offer it the care that it need and not allow it to fall prey to excesses. What is beyond your basic needs can cause harm and expose you to danger.

Erotically, this rune attracts attention that there is an imbalance between what we want and what we really need. We impose unrealistic and rigid standards onto our partner without thinking of their perspective. Our thoughts go above deeds, and tensions don’t waste time in appearing. We are unfair or we are the target of injustice. Nauthiz brings discomfort, fickleness, and discontent, but also reflection concerning true priorities.

Isa

Its the 11th out of the 24 runes from the Nordic magical alphabet, and the third rune from Heimdall’s Aett.

It represents the vowel I or an open I, like in the word “Ice” or the y in “Eye”. Its name means “ice”. In the past, in Scandinavia, ice was the omnipresent element of winter, the symbol of stagnation. Even though we don’t know how the ancient Scandinavians saw ice, be it feminine or masculine, it is definitely the opposite of fire. Without times of frost, nature wouldn’t rest and the cycles of life would be perturbed, without rest, work would not produce results.

Ice symbolizes matter, a lifeless inert mass to which fire gives its vital impulse. If fire didn’t exist, ice would remain forever solid, and if ice didn’t exist, fire wouldn’t have anything to melt, there would be no spring. It’s one of the 9 symmetrical runes that look the same regardless if it appears in a normal or reversed position.

Its shape expresses the greatest of simplicity: a vertical line without any other element and we can interpret it in different ways because of its simplicity. First of all, most runes contain at least one vertical line, so it’s fair to say Isa contains the static potential upon which force acts. The vertical line symbolizes ice and because it seems straight, it is unmoving and solidified. These are the main ideas behind this rune.

In a draft, it is a neutral rune which accentuates the meaning of the runs around with which it is drawn. Depending on the question, stagnation, pause, and “freezing” can manifest in different forms.

In the social domain, it announces a cease of plans, a delay to which you arrive naturally and predicted. Even though it can be associated with inner frustrations and worries on the basis of delays, Isa represents most likely a static point, quiet and calm in which we can reorient our course of action and re-evaluate the situation to find clarity and wisdom from within. If we don’t feel pursued by our families and friends, it doesn’t mean that they abandon or don’t care about us, but they give us time to be alone with our thoughts.

Financially, Isa is equally neutral as the social domain. Our finances stagnate, regardless of their current state. A bad financial state that stagnates is obviously a negative thing, while if great earnings stagnate they are just considered to be constant. We must move beyond subjective judgment and see the freezing of our economic flow as a sign of change.

Erotically, things stay the same, however with a slight negative twist. Love life becomes monotonous, full of routine and there seems to be a sort of dissatisfaction for both partners. Communication is reduced to zero and the behavior is cold and distant. It announces major changes for each partner, however the nature of these can only be defined based on the other runes Isa appears with.

Concerning health, this rune brings an excess of coldness, winter illnesses(regardless of season), or a recovery. We may be bedridden or constrained and quarantined in our own homes. More severe cases indicate hospitalization for a few days or at least the restriction of personal liberties we are used to. Health is in a precarious state, and there is a lack of vitality, appetite, or even depression. Isa brings everything that means retreat, isolation, seclusion, and any situation in which we become aware of solitude. This can be physically real like in the case of hospitalization an isolation, be it mental or psychological, like in the case of depression in which someone feels alone no matter how surrounded by other people.

Jera

It is the 12th out of the 24 runs of the Nordic magical alphabet, and also the 4th rune from the second Aett.

It represents the sound associated with the letter J in Scandinavian languages and sounds more like a closed I or more Y rather than a J. In the English language, the sound Y as it appears in the words like “yes”, “young”, and “Yahoo”.

Long ago, especially in Scandinavia, progress, abundance, and light were associated with the warm seasons like spring and summer which came exactly after winter, just as Jera came after Isa. After the stagnation announced by Isa, it announces harvests, warmth, joy, and the fruits of labor. It is one of the 9 symmetrical runes that look the same regardless if it’s drawn in a normal or reversed position.

Its shape expresses natural cycles, the two seasons in the north that succeed themselves. From a Hermetic standpoint, the shape of Jera is very important, displaying the two eternal forces: Masculine and Feminine, Hot and Cold, Static and Dynamic, etc.

It’s important because they are not perfectly balanced, one always being above the other. When this happens, the Law of Vibration determines the change of places, the predominant element becomes dominated and thus motion is born. Taking into account the climate cycles as an example, during winter, the cold dominates and the feminine side dominates the masculine power of heat. We see this even in gender succession, patriarchy giving way to matriarchy which will later be succeeded by another patriarchy. Even love life has these accents, one of the partners always being on top sooner or later and the reverse. Jera has a multitude of meanings and depending on the question, we can interpret it in different ways.

It’s a positive rune in the draft, announcing a time of plenty, wealth, fertility, and satisfaction, however, and of the proverbial “turn of the wheel”.

Socially, it predicts great changes, often beneficial. Close ones will see us in a new light, work colleagues will notice our efforts and congratulate us on our successes, and our managers will observe us critically but pleasantly surprised of our evolution at work. We enjoy the fruits of our labor and we are going with “the flow” so we should rejoice. Social success brings prosperity and contentment both in the personal realm and in our family lives.

Financially, there are rewards for the effort we put in and for the results of our work. There may be a change in earnings, like a pay increase or a bonus, unexpected benefits like inheritances, lottery jackpots, success at the stock market or simply a favorable and satisfying financial state.

Erotically, things are going from good to excellent. Tensions between partners disappear, there are small and fun cat-and-mouse games, teasing between lovers, and those differences in character that make a relationship unique. Even though one partner will dominate at home, in society the roles will change, just as in other areas of love life: when one is detriment, the other will have his/her turn to be dominated. Things are going well. Partners get along and complete each other and all inequalities and unbalances transform into a diverse mosaic of emotions and feelings.

Concerning health, this rune brings recovery, and victory over disease. In extreme cases it can be a sign of alarm, announcing the resurgence of an older affliction we haven’t been paying attention to lately.

Eiwaz

It’s the 13th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet and the 5th from the second set, the aett of Heimdall.

The sound it represents is Ae or Ai and its name means “yew”. In the past, Yew was symbolically tied tightly to death, immortality, and the afterlife. Its shape expresses the duality of the worlds as they were perceived by the ancients: the upper hook is our world, and the one below is the world beyond. The two are actually the same world, they are part of the same divine reaction, just that they are in different stages of manifestation and solidity, making us believe that they are separate.

Eiwaz is a problematic rune, just like the thirteenth major arcana of the Tarot, it has the same meaning: Death, Change, Initiation, and it can be interpreted in many different ways. Eiwaz doesn’t have a negative form, it’s one of those special symmetrical runs that look the same regardless of how it is positioned.

It’s a powerful rune in a draft, strengthening the meaning of the other runes around and announcing major changes. Depending on the question asked, force, motivation, tenacity and the trust Eiwaz offers can manifest in different forms.

Socially it announces sudden loneliness or exile. Known ones no longer contact us and we are left alone almost from all around. This is in no way a bad thing, but a signal that we need to change something about ourselves and that now we have to chance to meditate on this in silence and withdrawal in order to fulfill it. It’s the time in which we can make drastic changes in our lives, and the boldest of choices. Far away relatives may appear as well as long-forgotten friends, people whom you won’t believe you would ever meet again. We need to be very careful concerning the circumstances of these meetings because they will reveal elements of our lives that we have forgotten and pushed aside.

Financially, we are dealing with a time of scarcity, poverty, or just a major blockage of money and cash flow. This is in no way meant to punish or to create discomfort, but in it, we need to see the inherited blockage of each normal flow. We need to carefully assess our situation be content with with what we have and return to the humility required of every person. Financial problems come when our attention is drawn to our values or our systems of values, obliging us to straighten ourselves out both in spirit and soul as well as in our daily needs. Our attitude towards our earnings needs to be correct, and the more we will try to save, the ore difficult this blockage will be.

Erotically, it shows a rather difficult but very important time, full of teachable moments. The lonely will experience even greater loneliness, being compelled to reevaluate their standards when searching for a partner. Often times we want more from people who are ultimately just as imperfect as we are, or we focus on superficial details such as how much money they have, how beautiful they are or what sign were they born with. These are trifling things compared with actual knowledge of the soul and characters of the people we get involved with. For couples, it announces a time of arguing and heated discussion in which both express their repressed feelings, ignored grievances that were “swept under the rug”. The purpose of these fights is in no way breakup, but deeper knowledge of the two partners. When too many things are kept under lock and key, left to silence or forgotten, they don’t stay there permanently, but erupt when the last drop fills the cup of suportability.

When it comes to health, this rune brings a time of suffering or recovery. Rarely does it mean death, and only when the question asks about this directly.

Perthro

It’s the 14th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet, and the 6th out of the second Aett.

It represents the sound P, and its name (Per-Thro, as in the English word “throw”) means “cup”, “vulva” or “vagina”.

In the past, destiny was associated with a game of dice of the gods. Luck seemed to be just as random for the one who didn’t know the laws of the Universe as a game of dice, however, the old sorcerers could find out the possibilities and probabilities and combination of dice. If the dice is the luck or misfortune of a man, the cup with which the old ones would mix the dice is the supreme unknown in which the destinies of everyone are mixed and decided.

Its shape expresses a cavity, an opening and we can interpret it in many ways. The glass or cup represents since ancient times the profoundness of initiation, and knowledge. The sacramental cup for Holy Communion, the Holy Grail, the cauldron of the witches, above mentioned mixing cup for dice, and the caves of the old oracles. All closed, deep, and profound things were seen as gates through which man could enter and exit to gain knowledge and wisdom.

Also, it represents the sacred allegory of the female sex, the vulva and vagina being always seen as symbols of fertility, fecundity, birth, and renewal. The god Mithras was born in a cave, Jesus Christ is born and resurrected in places hollowed out of stone, and the Greek initiates lived in subterranean caverns. The idea is that of death and renewal because Perthro follows after Eiwaz. If the rune before symbolized death, the world beyond, Hel, Pethro stands for return, rebirth, and victory over death.

In a normal position, Perthro is beneficial but mysterious, hidden and only partially revealed.

Socially it tells of a rebirth, renewal of old bonds which we believed long lost. We are coming back with new strength, and have a lot to do, and feel reborn and reinvigorated. We have fresh powers and a drive to work which fits very well with our new attributes that come to test our devotion and dedication.

Financially, there are beneficial changes afoot, sometimes unexpected. After a time of financial stress and stagnation, money seems to fow in again, comfort increases, debtors remember their promises and honor them, sometimes with unexpected interest in order to reward us for our kindness and patience. The little we have becomes substantial and more rich, and we also regain the joy of work.

Erotically, things are excellent, there is harmony, understanding and peace. Couples rediscover themselves, they fall in love again, discovering something new that makes them work. Single people become adventurers and take part in new romantic conquests with an active sex life.

Health-wise, this rune brings healing and recovery from a long-lasting illness. We have all hopes of recovering our optimism. We can stand on our own two feet and regain our strength, lust for life, and are grateful for our healing.

When reversed, Perthro announces murky situations in which we fall deep into, oftentimes because of our own fault. Depending on the question, changes and lessons can manifest in different aspects.

Socially, Perthro reversed announces loneliness and obscurity. We aren’t as memorable as we remembered, we are placed for one reason or another in the shadows, and our opinions aren’t taken into consideration and we feel that we aren’t even noticed by the ones around us. This can lead to melancholy and depression from which we can exit only by evaluating our priorities and goals.

Financially, this rune shows moments of stagnation, problems, and hindrances. We the future to some extent, and we know what to expect. Also, this reversed rune shows that we might unfortunately project our negative expectations onto the future. The mechanism is not predictive, but projective. We don’t know the negative result of our actions, but we attract it through thoughts and mental scenarios.

Erotically, it shows a bad mood and most of the time secret affairs. In a couple, Perthro reversed usually shows adultery and female infidelity or fights ensuing after these.

When it comes to health, it can indicate illness. Be it because of a venereal affliction of a reproductive nature in general, or because of a typical feminine affliction. Perthro shows the hidden nature of the disease. It’s good to do a complete set of medical checks to make sure everything is in order.

Algiz

It’s the 15th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet and the 7th from Heimdall’s aett.

It represents the sound Z, or an intermediate sound between Z and R, and its name is “elk” or “stag”. Long ago, this rune was associated with the god Heimdall, the tutelar god of the set, the god of crossroads, and the guardian of entrances. Heimdall is the ever-watchful guardian, never sleeping, the one who can even hear the grass grow and the leaves falling. He is the god of protection and all kinds of tests. Its shape expresses a man with open arms and fingers but also a stylized tree or even the horns of a stag. The horns are the symbol of protection and rulership. The open hand is a symbol as old as the world, in all cultures, it means protection against evil or malefic influences. We might interpret the shape of the man with open arms as a priest or oracle which has a direct link with the world beyond, the guardian that knows all that passes through the Gate of Life.

In a normal position, Algiz stands for balance, wisdom, prudence, and protection. In a draft, it is a good rune, announcing a time of stability in the current process, but also a rune that attracts attention upon possible mishaps. Depending on the question, the protection and cautiousness of Algiz can manifest in different forms.

Socially it foretells the stability of the current obtained state. Any earned good through hard work is well deserved, and the fruits of your work contain the seeds for future projects. We are keeping the job we won and we can be relieved if our worries are directed in this aspect. We are benefiting from divine protection and will continue so as long as we cherish morality, correctness, and practical wisdom.

Financially, this rune signifies certain well-being. We are fine and we should be happy with what we have. Luxury isn’t necessary here for survival, neither is happiness because it is only an illusion. We shouldn’t compare our financial state with that of others so that we may not become jealous, and neither should we compare ourselves with those who have little, because we might become prideful. We must aim for the bare necessities and with the place we are in now.

Erotically, it shows a good understanding and perfect dynamics for couples. Partners are completing each other, and they know their needs, desires, and mutual expectations, and they try to fulfill them in the most harmonious way possible. One of the partners, usually the man, is more protective and will tend to take care of his partner, while the woman will fulfill the need of the man to be a protector.

Concerning health, this rune brings good health, balance, and serenity. In extremely rare cases, like accidents that might put one’s life in danger or prolonged comas, this rune shows the link between the one in danger and the world beyond. It can be the rune of clinical death or out-of-body experiences. Other than this, Algiz is a sign of balanced health, without small afflictions man would no longer be man, such as rare migraines and passing colds. Vitality is good there is an indication of a lack of energy or sudden bursts of energy that can manifest in an unhealthy manner.

When reversed, Algiz is always a warning, an alarm bell to which we must pay attention. Depending on the question, the danger to which Algiz draws our attention can manifest in different ways.

Socially, Algiz reversed tells us of a bad situation. We are doing something wrong, we hurt the ones around us somehow, and we become vulnerable. Our position can change and there are upcoming issues adjusting. We don’t enjoy the new changes, but they are necessary to make us see where we did wrong. We need to be extremely careful about the way we talk, think, act, and behave so that we may not break laws of conduct. We are threatened with withdrawn divine protection that we enjoyed up until now and we need to re-evaluate our actions towards properly asking forgiveness for what we did.

Financially, this rune shows loss or decrease. If up until now we were lucky, now we need to be careful in actions and wise in deeds for what comes easy can also easily disappear. We must save money to live and to pay all our dues and first and foremost to not borrow. Any credits or debts are discouraged, leading to the most unpleasant of situations. Gambling, ambitious projects, and businesses are also discouraged. During this time, we only stand to lose.

Erotically, this rune shows a bad time, misunderstanding, and discord. Couples don’t communicate too well, taboos may intervene in which one partner doesn’t want to participate, the the detriment of the other. Communication suffers in this case and things turn cold. Partners don’t protect each other anymore and no longer work for the happiness of the other, instead they tend to their own needs and impulses which leads to arguments and misunderstandings.

In health, it can indicate a bad flow of vital energy in the entire body. A check-up is highly recommended here to see if something is wrong. We can pick ourselves up and raise our vitality up that our whole being is aligned with the ones around us, with nature, and last but not least with our spirituality. Algiz reversed is the classical sign of moving away from God and of rebellion, of forgetting of the celestial and supernatural origin of the human spirit, the root of many diseases.

Sowilo

It is the 16th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic Magical Alphabet, and it closes Heimdall’s cycle from the second set of 8.

It represents the sound S, and its name is Souwlo (related to the Latin Sol), meaning “Sun”. Another name for this rune is Sig or Sigel (Siegel).

Long ago, the Sun was one of the focal points of veneration, the brightest and most luminous visible object in the heavens. It dictated the natural cycle as well as the human one. Its shape expresses power and light, a flash, but also a simplification of an older solar symbol: the swastika.

Sowulo is a symmetrical rune and cannot have a reversed position. It is a profoundly positive rune in a draft, oftentimes amplifying the power of other runs it is close to. Depending on the question, the success, strength, and power of Sowulo will manifest in different forms.

Socially it fortells the attainment of goals and social ascension. We are benefiting from a great success and we have the graces of our managers, we are liked by our work colleagues and gain authority and the power to decide. Sowulo is the rune of leaders, which means a promotion into a position of leadership. However, we must be careful how we behave in this position, being careful and owning to the responsibilities that come with it.

Financially, we have success and abundance. A time of growth and gain is to follow when we can make investments, even those that involve more risk. We are “going with the flow” and luck is with us. We may receive pleasant surprises, unexpected earnings, and benefits. Our debts are forgiven and we rebuild ourselves financially after a time of stagnation which will raise our morale.

Erotically, the Sun rune is as beneficial as it gets. Things are going well, the relationship is evolving, and taboos are leveling pre-existing harshness. There is a good understanding within the couple and great optimism for the future. We may develop family plans or even children. The sexual dynamic is very good, and both partners are satisfied.

Concerning health, this rune brings a lot of vitality, lust for life, energy, and balance. Positive changes in life are directly reflected in health and vice-versa. We are full of momentum and have good energy, strength for work, optimism, and a rare kind of joy that is contagious for the ones around us. These are the times when we simply radiate as if nothing stands in our way.

Tiwaz

It is the 17th out of the 24 runes of the Nordic magical alphabet, it is also the first rune of the out of the third set of 8, named the Aett of Tyr.

It represents the sound T, and the name Tiw or Tyr are variants of the Scandinavian-Germanic god of the sky. Long ago, the most celebrated god, Odin, was considered to be the son of Tyr. It’s very close to the Greek “Theos”, Tiw is the good God, lord of the heavens who sends his son to rule but to also suffer, an interesting likeness to Christianity. Tiw is the god of sacrifice, but not the sacrifice of others, but of one’s self, of the ego, of personal interests for the good of others.

Its shape expresses sacrifice and we can interpret it in many ways. The three lines converging can represent a spear, a root, or a man. The Spear is the weapon of the god, in his role as a god of war and victory, he promises protection to those wearing it. If we look at the shape of the rune as a root, it will remind us of our origins, the longest root being the most ancient part of our souls. If we look at the shape of a man with open arms at a 45-degree angle, we will see a person who is filled with joy and peace, but also shrugging, someone who faces all life’s tribulations with optimism.

In a normal position, Tiwaz is one of the most beneficial and powerful runes that can be extracted. Depending on the question, Tiwaz announces protection, victory, and success in different forms.

Socially, it foretells an ascension, an elevation of a situation. Justice is being done in regard to anything that is corrupted or perverted. Things are set in order and the fair and oppressed have their rights restored. Honesty, truth, logic, and clarity reign and all unfairness is being punished. We are placed in our long-deserved place through our effort and work, most likely a key role in front of others. Tiwaz is the rune of leadership, of winners, and first of all of those with a sense of responsibility and of self-sacrifice.

Financially, Tiwaz represents an assumed risk that yields results. We have much to gain from the situation we are in and can benefit from many things at the moment we sacrifice what is less important.

Erotically, this rune is very beneficial, announcing good understanding between lovers, harmony and surpassing all hardships that might appear in a relationship.

When it comes to health, the Tyr rune brings health and fortitude, or better said, recovery and healing. We are healthy, optimistic, and resilient, we have a good immune system that not only fights heroically but also wins every battle, and we enjoy life at its fullest.

When reversed, Tiwaz is the rune of necessary sacrifice, of letting go, of humbleness and modesty, but also of failure and loss. Depending on the question, the loss and sacrifice announced by Tiwaz can manifest in different aspects.

Socially this reversed rune announces a loss of the position we are in. A reaction to some of our own actions or some fundamental mistake. We lose our standing and the state we earned in the social order. We must re-evaluate our way of work, and analyze our behavior to see clearly what we did to open the the gate of failure in our lives and how we can close it.

Financially, this rune shows a blockage of cash flow, discomfort caused by money or properties, fear of loss, and worry associated with these events. We must learn the true value of money through poverty, and we must cherish well-being properly, without taking it for granted and stupidly wasting what we are given. We are guilty of being ignorant, haste, and a lack of practical wisdom, and the price of these lessons will be financial loss.

Erotically it shows arguing, not getting along, lack of of compassion and empathy. The ego of each partner wants its way regardless of the way the other is feeling. A lot of energy is wasted in arguments and resentment, and communication is practically nonexistent at an emotional level. In some extreme cases, it can indicate a break-up or divorce.

As far as health is concerned, it can indicate an acute lack of vitality and lust for life. We waste our energy on useless things and have become the target of sickness. We are down when it comes to our immune system and we have to suffer to learn to keep ourselves healthy not only through a proper diet but also through a wise and balanced way of living.

Berkano

It is the 18th out of the 24 runes of the Scandinavian magical alphabet, and it is the second from the aett of Tyr.

It represents the sound B, and its name means “birch”

In the past, the Birch tree was a symbol of rebirth and of life, associated with the goddess of fertility Brecht. Its shape expresses the feminine form and we can interpret it in many ways. The same as its Hebrew ancestor of this letter was named Bat(girl, daughter) having the same form as B., Berkano represents the shape of the Goddess or of the pregnant woman seen from the aside. The smaller upper loop represents the breasts and the larger one below the womb. Often times, to represent motherly love, when the rune is placed horizontally, symbolizes the breasts. In Germanic languages, the words for breasts are closely tied to the name of the goddess Brecht: brust, brost, brjost, etc.

In a normal position, Berkano means prosperity, fertility, and a new beginning. It’s a very good rune in a draft, announcing a time of plenty, prosperity, growth, and abundance. Depending on the question, the fertile and growth energies of Berkano can manifest in different forms.

Socially it foretells of a new beginning. We are in on the threshold of a new stage in our social lives. New projects are born, new doors open where we didn’t expect and our lives are filled with a new sense of hope, and wealth on all levels.

Financially we are enjoying great success in what we do and our projects have great momentum. Businesses, investments, and our work bear its fruit and our efforts are now rewarded. Ne projects appear on the horizon, however all of them require a lot of work and commitment.

Erotically, this rune brings a lot of happiness and joy. Old arguments are forgotten and misunderstandings are left aside. The feeling of family appears, replacing that of the couple and maybe even a child.

When it comes to health, this rune brings healing and renewal after a time of recovery or labor. Berkano is natural healing via own strength or through the power of the natural world. If we wonder what treatment would be best for a certain illness or affliction, Berkano points to natural, traditional, and holistic treatment.

In a reversed position, we are dealing with the blocking of innovating elements and the frustration associated with this.

Socially, Berkano reversed announces a blockage, a frustration, or a loss. We are uneasy and worried, and our consciousness sinks somewhat into uncertainty and a lack of clarity. We are unsure of our own powers and of our capacity to do something constructive or really meaningful for the ones around us.

In the financial domain, this rune shows the loss of control of businesses and a disorderly sequence of certain events. We are bereft of caution and wasteful with our resources. Our finances are stagnating or we are recording minor losses, but enough to draw our attention to the mistakes we made.

Erotically, it shows dissatisfaction, worry, and misunderstandings. Everything is tied to the health of the female partner and the pain caused by menstruation. Partners need to be careful and not escalate the situation with inappropriate behavior or lack of empathy.

Health-wise, Berkano reversed can mean sterility, an inability to procreate, and in some cases a miscarriage. It often reflects problems with the urogenital and mammary system, and in the case of strictly sexual affairs, it can indicate the danger of venereal diseases.

Ehwaz

Its the 19th rune out of the 24 letters of the Nordic magical alphabet, and the third from Tyr’s aett.

It stands for the sound E, and its name is pronounced like e-was, with an “e” like in the word “end”. Ehwaz means “horse” or horses. Long ago, the horse was not only a means of transportation but also a valuable good for man. It represents not only the speed with which the owner can move but also his social status.

Its shape expresses duality, communication, and partnership. We can see in it the sketched shape of a horse, two horses pulling a hunting or war chariot, or two people shaking hands. It is the rune of communication and collaboration, because a horse without a master is an unbridled force, but a man without a horse is not a rider. The rider must love and know his horse well, and the horse must listen to its master to be fed and cared for.

In a normal position, Ehwaz represents contact, harmony, flow, and coherence. It’s a very good rune in a draft, announcing a time of fluidity in all that we do. Also, it only strengthens and accentuates the meanings of the runs it is close to when drafted. Depending on the question, the mediating forces of Ehwaz can manifest in different forms.

Socially, it stands for success and popularity. We are sought after, our fame grows in social circles that matter and people start talking to us more than they did before. We work in a team and are part of an appropriate group that we might even see even as a second family. Great satisfaction is afoot and many coincidences, synchronicities, and fitting situations.

Financially, we can benefit from fruitful partnerships or from the support of others in what we are undertaking.

Erotically, there is much harmony and compatibility between lovers. Our partner is happy and content. Communication is very open, which is very healthy in a relationship. Things simply flow between the two partners. There might be a moment when words are not needed and the two get along and communicate through minor gestures, looks, or by instinct.

As far as health is concerned, this rune brings a great balance to all systems of the body. We are moving into a sustainable life, we are in good shape and enjoy great ease even when we undertake difficult tasks.

When reversed, we cannot frankly say that it’s a completely bad omen. Depending on the question, its dissonant aspects and limitations can lead to frustration and they can manifest in various ways.

Socially, this rune announces a lack of cohesion and communication. We lose touch with most of our acquaintances, and human relations enter are shadowed. Some unpleasant synchronicities can appear out of the blue. People we once hoped to never see again can surprise us with our guard down. Things are uncertain and stagnant but not perilous.

Financially, this rune shows frustration and discontent. Regardless of how much we earn, our basic needs aren’t satisfied in the current financial state. We feel that we need something, that we don’t have enough, and that something important is missing. Often times our frustrations become an unhealthy conception of our quality of life out of unreal needs and personal whims. Comparison with others can play a big role in these wrong conceptions of needing to have more, to keep pace with others.

Erotically, it shows incompatibility between partners. It could be of a physical, emotional or mental nature. Physical incompatibility is tied to sex, but also the life styles of both partners like the distances between them. The emotional one indicates major differences in character, temperament and goals of each partner, and the mental one indicates their conceptions. The couple might be going through bad times, coldness and carelessness, lack of understanding and stubbornness.

When it comes to health, it can show a lack of harmony and vitality. Our lifestyle, our habits, and pleasures are clashing with our health. You might experience afflictions that limit your movement from simple colds that isolate you at home to injury to your legs.

Mannaz

Is the 20th of the 24 runes and the 4th from Tyr’s aett.

It represents the sound M, and its name means “Man” or “Mankind”. Its form is mysterious, but we can distinguish two people who are embracing each other.

In a normal position, Mannaz signifies all people who are tied in some way, all people that we touched in our lives both literally and figuratively. There is a constant exchange between ourselves and others regarding information, goods, emotions, and energies (indicated by the two bent lines). Every time we receive something, we must be conscious that we become indebted, and every time we offer something, we must be aware that we will receive things back eventually. Everything that we do, good or evil, has an effect not only on others but also on ourselves. This is a positive rune when drawn, symbolizing not only humanity but also kindness. Depending on the question, the understanding and matching qualities of Manaz can be made manifest in different forms.

Socially, it foretells much activity and a lot of communication. It can be active or passive, explicit or implicit. We are in the center of attention and have plenty of responsibilities, and we have to show that we are able to do what is right, not only what we want.

Financially, we are using the relationships that we avail ourselves of to advance our own business or to receive help from a well-intended man or group of people. We are enjoying stability and are engaged in a positive cash flow.

Erotically, Mannaz represents a unique partnership and a mature relationship that has surpassed the crisis at the beginning. Things are going well in all terms. Communication is very good, and partners are supporting themselves regardless of the gravity of the situation. This works well “for better and for worse”, even if marital vows weren’t uttered.

When it comes to health, this rune brings health, immunity, and vitality. We are in balance with the outside and inside and we could say we are in harmony. We are enjoying our lives and we can work more for the good of our neighbor.

When reversed, depending on the question Mannaz can manifest under different aspects.

Socially, Mannaz reversed announces frustration, discontent, gossip, badmouthing, and humiliation in one way or another. Our actions are selfish and we must look at what we are doing from the perspective of others.

Financially, this rune shows pointless risks and bad decisions. We have shown selfishness and rudeness, so we no longer benefit from the partnerships we had, neither from other’s help. We pay for what we broke, and sleep in the sheets we were too busy to make properly.

Erotically, this rune shows a lack of sensitivity and of feeling. Things are going colder, defects become more vident, even the small ones that we considered insignificant before. Everyone is on their own and love life is reduced to a masquerade just for the sake of others. Each partner thinks they are right and they justify their thoughts be they even hidden through the framing their own opinion.

Concerning health, it can indicate a lowered immunity, psychosomatic illnesses and crisis of identity. We no longer believe in our selves, and thus, neither in the idea of balance or the spiritual cause of disease. Anyone (especially God) can be responsible for our suffering, but never us.

Laguz

It’s the 21st out of the 24 runs of the Nordic magical alphabet and its the 5th from Tyr’s aett.

The sound it represents is L, and its name means “lake” or “water”

Usually, when modern man thinks about water, he thinks of flowing bodies of water or invariabilly the mind is drawn to the image of a tranquil lake or azure tropical coastlines. For us, water means more than life, beauty, and tranquility with which we associate it.

The ancient Scandinavians knew it under its more threatening forms: The sea in the Nordic tradition is an unstoppable force that can hardly be tamed. It can offer work, refuge, and food but at the same time it can forsake adventurers, it can sink ships and quench innocent lives.

In a normal position, Laguz stands for intuition, instinct, the unknown, dreams, everything hidden, and the truth of initiation. It’s a good rune in a draft, announcing a time of accentuated spiritual feelings.

Depending on the question asked, its sensibility and instinct of Laguz can manifest in different forms.

Socially, it tells of pleasant anonymity in which we can retreat when we seek peace and quiet. If everything around is shrieking like a hurricane, we can seek shelter in the eye of the storm where we can enjoy the calm, even if we retreat from events or not. We are left alone and it we could use a vacation or retreat, even if its only for a few days.

Financially, this rune brings success following an inspired purchase. Following instinct more than logic, we will make much better choices when it comes to our personal or professional cash flow, and it is indicated to make purchases and make investments which can bring us benefits later on.

Erotically, Laguz shows dreaming, mystery, and charm. Partners fall in love, each due to different aspects of the other that they hope to discover. Romanticism predominates along with dreaming, a sensation of lightness and something unreal.

Concerning health, this rune brings an increased sensibility to all external factors and a pronounced receptivity when in comes to those internal. In case of existing afflictions, we notice pain relief, withdrawal a steady recovery, and finally, health.

When reversed, Laguz tells us of imbalance, lack of harmony, confusion, ignorance, and lack of perspective. Depending on the question, disease, boredom, or angst are announced by the presence of this rune and it can manifest in different aspects.

Socially, Laguz reversed stands for forgetfulness and confusion. We are pale and don’t stand out in the crowd in any way. We become simple cogs in the machine. Routine, boredom, displeasure, and lack o perspective dominate. We dislike interacting with others especially if they are happy and upbeat because their success seems to bring us down. We also don’t enjoy the company of negative people because we sink even deeper into despair. We complain and ask for pity even if the situation is stagnant, not tragic.

Financially, this rune shows stiffness, lack of vigor, and vision. We shouldn’t invest in anything, and we should be careful with our money because we are inclined towards minor but numerous losses that could destabilize or put our economic comfort in jeopardy.

Erotically, it shows self-doubt in our own qualities, a lack of respect and trust in one’s self, image issues, and bad optics when it comes to ourselves as well as our partners. There are things lovers just don’t talk about anymore, and it would be good for them to converse about them. Feelings, desires, needs, fantasies, and thoughts are hidden away which leads to a decline in communication and the relationship turning cold. In the worst of cases, adultery may appear along with infidelity, falseness, hypocrisy, and lying.

When it comes to health, Laguz reversed can indicate mental issues and other psychological problems caused by repressed emotions. Everything we repress and all unaddressed problems are swept under the rug, hidden superficially out of comfort or cowardice until the moment they unleash anguish, unease, and even notable psychological afflictions.

Ingwaz

It’s the 22nd out of the 24 runes in the Nordic magical alphabet, and also the 6th in Tyr’s aett.

It stands for the sound Ng, a specific sound in Nordic languages. It’s somehow more of an echo than a spoken sound just like the English word “king” or “ring”, with a fading N, without the G, Its name is a variant of Yng or Inwe, a god that is more or less identical with Frey.

It’s the penultimate symmetrical rune in the Futhark alphabet. Its form expresses duality, balance, and opposing forces that flow into each other, but also the harmony between man and nature and everything surrounding him. It is a relatively neutral rune in a draft, accentuating the significance of the runes around, bringing their vibrations into manifestation. Ing stands for the ancestor, the father, origin and male fertility, virility, and vitality(being the masculine corresponded to Perthro in terms of sexual symbolism), harmony and understanding, but also work, effort, and spiritual peace coming from the fulfillment of duties. Depending on the question, its strength for work and hardiness can be made manifest in different forms.

Socially, it tells of an earned reward for hard work done. We are being appreciated for our efforts and our merits are recognized. We can become examples for those around us when it comes to work, however depending on the situation and qualities and one’s defects we can serve as models to be followed or avoided.

Financially, there is a time of tranquility and lack of worry. We work enough to earn as much as we need, and this should be enough. There is a balance between desires and means, and things are going in the right direction. We shouldn’t become greedy for big earnings, and neither should we slack off. Everything works fine as long as we work at what we like, as much as we should.

Erotically, Ingwaz determines courage, boldness, and a daring energy. Women are more dominant or at least full of initiative than normal, while the men are full of strength, vigorous, virile and fertile. In a couple everything works well, and there is a balance between partners, without the danger of things becoming volatile.

Concerning health, this rune brings energy, a balance of forces, and regeneration. In a positive aspect it is the sign of perfect health, the balance between body, mind, and soul and a good immune system. When negatively influenced or conditioned by a diagnosis-type question, it can indicate typical male-related problems, sexual disfunction, or low fertility.

Daggaz

It is the 23rd out of the 24 runes in the Nordic magical alphabet, and also the 7th rune from Tyr’s set.

Its name means “day” or “dawn”. It represents the sound given by the letter D. This is found in Germanic languages transcribed as Dh, and in English as Th like in the words “this”, “that”, and “the”.

In the past the dawn stood for light and hope, the day was seen as the emergence of the human being and assured safety. In ancient Northern Europe, the day was the time in which someone could see nature and everything that confronted him, while at night time was uncertain, and nobody should move away from the group, when wild animals roamed unchecked and when the enemy could suddenly attack. Its shape expresses balance, equality, and communication between the Earth and the Heavens, we can also interpret it in many ways.

Daggaz looks a lot like Gifu, the rune of gifts and love. The X in which balance is seen. But Daggaz has two extra lines that unite the superior and inferior points. In other words, things are being balanced both in nature and in the person as well as in the heavens. When drawn, Daggaz amazes through its circularity: it can be drawn endlessly. This signifies eternal balance, the unending and the expected change. If we stop and think, it is a runic equivalent of Lemniscatus, the symbol of infinity, the horizontal 8. Out of the four lines that form it, two are rising and two are descending in an unequal but clever rhythm.  Starting up, from the left, things go down quickly and suddenly (darkness), then they steadily build up(light), after which it descends suddenly again only to rise again steadily. They are all part of our choices. Daggaz is the last of the symmetrical runes, and as before we will present its aspects generally because it can be influenced in a good or bad way depending on the other runs it is extracted with.

Socially, Daggaz foretells of great success, happiness, and growth. We are at the end of labor at the end of a time of intellectual and emotional investment for which we will be rewarded properly. Our work is finally appreciated at its real value and we enjoy that we sacrificed so many resources. We are in a proper environment for growth, and even more, we have the power to decide to change things as we wish.

Financially, this rune is very positive, bringing an exit out of a crisis, the payment of dues or their erasure, recovered property, and general abundance. Things look pretty optimistic, and we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. We earn much and our financial plans take form nicely. Its time to end old calculations and to begin new projects, and investments made under the auspices of this rune will always yield good results.

Erotically, we are content and satisfied. Single people will find peace and balance in themselves and can become wiser understanding the necessity of being alone, and those in relationships are happy with one another and discover new depths to their love. There is clarity in communication and mutual understanding, empathy, and a sense of self-sacrifice. These are things that help make the relationship stable, and also help it flourish like nothing else could.

Concerning health, Daggaz brings comfort and recovery in case of suffering, but above all else, it brings harmony and balance. A healthy man on the inside and outside who is in a harmonious exchange with the fields around is the significance of this rune of light. In case of treatment, light is recommended, heliotherapy bioenergy therapy, or reiki, but often times it stands for exposure to some kind of rays.

Othila

It is the last of the 24 runes that comprised our study, the 8th in Tyr’s set.

It represents the vowel sound O, and its name can be a first name or a reference to an ancestral property. Long ago, even though cows were symbolized by the first rune, Fehu was the most visible sign of wealth, true wealth was the land. Often onsen and rarely taken into account, the plot of dirt or mud after a rain, the land was the most good someone could own. Without property, a man could own cattle in vain, not being able to feed and care for them. Having wealth was pointless if he couldn’t own a home. It didn’t matter if he was famous if he didn’t know his ancestors. All of these things are aspects of Othal: the earth, the land, property, dowry, and ancestors. We can see many things by looking at the shape of the rune, the roof beams of a house, the face and shoulders of an ancestor, or the crossed arms over the chest of a relative that passed into the beyond along with his helmet.

In a normal position, Othila is a good omen in a draft, announcing a time of stability, certainty, and fortune. Depending on the question asked, the inheritance and values symbolized by Othila will manifest in different forms.

Socially, it tells of the fundamentals, the foundation, and the base of our situation. A very powerful rune for the one who is interested in his social status, showing a deserved spot in a hierarchy or company. We are the descendants and we must prove ourselves of this, accumulating pertinent values to leave as inheritance to our descendants. Othila shows durable projects, for a long time, from which further generations will benefit, not little trifling things with which people use to kill time with. Even if it’s not for our genetic offspring, things started by us will be left to the proper ones and we must pick them with great care.

Financially, Othila stands for a firm situation, prosperity that comes from durable businesses and wise investment. This isn’t a luck rune or one related to risk or undeserved earnings but of the fruitfulness of one’s work, of certain and well-thought investments.

Its time to put our money to work for us in the correct way, helping including with their growth. Neither blind savings won’t do well here, only the establishment of solid future projects.

Erotically, this rune shows familiarity and good understanding between lovers. Those who are emotionally involved can now decide if it’s time to make bold moves, like living together or starting a family. The families of the ones involved will be well-intended and even eager in this sense, however, those who have the power to decide are still the members of the couple. Othila shows a solid long-lasting relationship. A mature relationship ore in the process of maturing.

When it comes to health, this rune brings resistance, immunity, and impeccable health probably inherited from the family. It can also signify the fact that health is the most precious thing in this field and it must be cherished as such.

When reversed, Othila is the rune of debts and waywardness, but also of inherited bad habits.

Socially, it stands for an unhappy inheritance from the ones before that is causing us trouble. We are faced with prejudice, especially concerning sex, race, nationality or origin. We must work hard rise above all negative expectations that we produce without our will.

Financially, this rune shows scarcity, bad luck, poverty, and austerity in general. We are facing unpleasant situations, inheriting the debts accumulated by the ones before us. We see ourselves compelled to straighten the wrongs committed by our ancestors, to pay their debts, and to face those who will ask for satisfaction.

Erotically, this rune shows oppression or routine. One of the members of the couple will impose their will upon the other, restricting their liberties and choices.
Also, it can mean that the relationship is stagnating, that habit has reached alarming levels for the relationship, and that there is a communication problem. Coupled with a financial rune, Othila reversed can mean problems related to the lack of a home, no inheritance, or money. In rare cases, together with runs commonly associated with magic, it signifies sexual ties or love charms.

Concerning health, it can show a lack of vitality and frail health. This can be inherited from one’s family: genetic diseases are mostly related to this rune. Additional runs can be extracted to investigate from which part of the family they originate, from where exactly, and for what reason along with what cures are recommended for reclaiming a state of good health.

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Translated by Emilia Buhus

Mysteries of the runes

Starting with this article, we propose to our readers a journey through the mysterious and charming universe of the runes.

Much has been written about these ancient symbols of knowledge. What we offer in the following articles is a small guide for rune divination, clearly explained. Going through the Rune’s Wheel, explaining them two by two, depending on the way they can be positioned, and learning their interpretation.

Why are the runes useful? What purpose do they serve? We’ll try to answer these questions from multiple points of view: divinatory, magical and ascensional. Runes have ascensional purpose, meaning they can help people going through ascensional and evolutionary processes. Every culture on Earth functions on certain informational codes, those vibrational light keys encoded in everyone’s DNA. Today, every embodied spirit has these keys in its spiritual DNA, depending on its origin and evolution. Certain spirits have sound and colour keys, and mostly present in shamanic cultures. Other spirits have sanskrit sounds as vibrational keys, these embodied in European and Asian regions, finding joy and spiritual fulfillment by studying Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. Other spirits have a semitic spiritual gene, their DNA being structured by Hebrew coordinates, finding spiritual fulfillment through the study of Kabbalah.

There are a few major families of primordial languages, or better said, light codes, and their study would take a long time, but its enough to say that nordic runes, or the old Futhark alphabet, represents one such family. Many are attracted to runes because these are part of their spiritual genetic code, or as the old nordic poets said, runes are in their blood and souls. By using the runes, certain people discovered not only a huge interest in knowing more about them, but also a special evolutionary and spiritual leap. Wisely and moderately used, runes reopen the energetic channels of people resonating with them, and helps them reactivate the subtle structures that have been lost or dormant.

Despite recent popular belief, initiation is not needed to link through runic energies, nor paying for Reiki or biodetection systems attunement, reason being they use runic symbolism. Those possessing runic origin light codes will naturally be attracted to them, unhindered and intuitively working with them, without the need of diplomas or prestigious lineages. Although belonging  to the Old Era, they don’t belong to the Old Energy, unless we want to.

Good runes work can be done in the New Energy, providing they are treated as intimate messengers of our own genetic language. From a magical standpoint, runes can be used for manifold purposes, but again, the subject is so vast, that we can’t even begin discussing it, making it the object of the science called Runology. However, we’ll talk about the divinatory nature of the runes, meaning their use to access information, namely Runomancy.

As any other divinatory system; be it Tarot, Bibliomancy, Radiestesia, Oneiromancy etc., Runomancy offers a wide array of information, depending on the knowledge we seek. It is not a method for future predictions, although it can offer informations on subsequences by predictability, nor a method for spying on others, although it can sometimes spare us of the inconveniences that others might impose on us. Simply put, runes are the intermediary language between us and the unseen, superior world, if used properly, an alternative tool of communication from the subconscious or superconscious.

Where does the information come from? From Angels? Devils? Gods? From the Holy Spirit? Neither. There is no specific source, nor an entity delivering answers, but ourselves. Integrated in our structures, there is the Inner Self. It must not be confused with the Ego, nor personality, nor with the notion of something inferior or negative. It’s the counterpart of the Superior Self, manifesting as the human autopilot, a soul being most often seen as childish by clairvoyants. It interferes when we need information, or use our instinct and intuition. The Inner Self has access to all possible informations, for being part of a Inner Selves Universal free network: those of minerals, plants, animals, people and even of the planet itself.

Because not everyone can directly connect to the Superior Self, people turn to the Inner Self. Every time we instinctually choose between two options, every time we forbear action when it doesn’t feel right, or simply know something without being told, it is this Self acting. This connection is most often met between mothers and children, and twins, intuitively knowing when the other is in danger, or needs help. Most people, erroneously allot these things to the sphere or Telepathy. Telepathy is mental, consisting of words, thoughts and concise formulating, whereas the Inner Self uses the whole array of human senses, from body sensations, emotions or feelings, to inexpressible emotional conditions.

Whenever using a divinatory technique, we turn to the Inner Self. The Inner Self determines the best expression of answers by accessing the informational field. If using the Tarot, we’ll pull the most expressive card concerning the situation. If using the pendulum or divining rod, these will send signals to our brain producing incredibly subtle muscular movements, which will guide the muscle by moving the object until we have a movement we can interpret.

If using Runes, we’ll pull the most suitable runes, in the most expressive positions for a specific answer. Nothing is haphazard, and nothing happens without the awareness of universal intelligence, that being an aspect of God. Great, the Inner Self does all the work, you’ll say! What about the Superior Self? The Superior Self is our help in the art of divination. It is the wisdom that we turn to and must demonstrate. Lacking a good and clean connection to our Superior Self, makes divination difficult, arduous and imprecise.

It’s our higher consciousness that helps us to carefully formulate answers, not to influence the divination seeker, or the guardian of information received during a readion or session. Every divinatory reading should start with praying formulated similarly to the following: “God, Celestial Father, offer knowledge to my Inner Self and Wisdom to my Superior Self, for the higher good of all. Amen”

Using the runes

After our introduction into divination, we’ll now dive into the Nordic Arcana, into using runes.

Where do they come from? How are they organized? How are the runes used?

From a historic perspective, the runes used by the nordic people emerged from proto-latin alphabets, or possibly fenician alphabet brought by merchants. Scientist haven’t yet concluded their origin. From mythical perspective, they have an interesting story: obtained by the god Odin, acclaimed among germanic people, from the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge, the giant Mimir. Odin sacrifices himself, spending several nights pierced by the tree, receiving during his suffering the knowledge of the runes, later revealing it to humans. In the nordic world, Odin’s sacrifice, is not seen as an atrocious act, but a necessary one, delivering a priceless gift to humanity, same as Osiris’s death for Egyptians and Jesus’s for Christians, are celebrated as initiatic thresholds and cosmic events.

There are three big rune sets used in divination and magick: Icelandic, Classic and Anglo-Saxon

The icelandic set contains 18 Runes, based on nordic, old magic keys, Iceland being long thought as the last Thule or the last remnant of Atlantis. The classic set, which we will study, contains 24 signs and is the most wide-spread, also known as Elder Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxon, the most complex, contains 32 signs encompassing great wisdom, together with multidimensional sacred geometry keys. Our inquiry shows existing ways to activate the human crystal field Merkabah by using this set, through special techniques.

Classic runic alphabet, that we’ll slowly slowly explore, has 24 runes, each with it’s own sound, name and meaning. Divided into three sets (aettir), each pertaining to a tutelary god. The first aett is Freyja’s, representing the manifesting feminine energy, and comprises the runes Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gifu and Wunjo, representing sounds F, U, Th, A, R, K, G and respectively V, source for their names. The second, Heimdall’s aett, mooring neutral energies, comprises runes Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro Algiz and Sowilo, representing sounds H, N, I, Y, EI, P, Z and respectively S. The last one, Tyr’s aett, representing dominant masculine energies, comprises runes Tiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz and Othala, representing sounds T, B, E, M, L, NG, D and respectively O.

In antiquity, the runes were used for multiple acts or magick: Victory Runes were chiseled into swords, safety runes grazed in viking’s vessels, runes to expunge poison scratched on cups and runes drawn on houses, thresholds, posts, or beams to protect or bring prosperity. When their divinatory power was needed, german priests would cut the branches of fruitful trees, inscribing them with runic signs, resulting the alternative naming of staff or wand.

In modern times, runes can be found in great diversity of forms, ready made sets, from bones, wood, nacre or mother-of-pearl, river stone or semiprecious stones. Some still use runic sticks or hardened fruit stones, even white beans runes, as oddly as it may sound. Regardless of the set’s appearance, hand crafting your own is ideal. You can obviously opt for buying ready made sets, but inscribing each rune makes familiarizing its vibration more efficient.

A good compromise is buying pieces to later inscribe ourselves. Pieces of wood or plywood, flat river or sea stones, almond or apricot seeds, anything that serves this purpose. As an oracle, resembling Tarot, runes can be drawn on play cards size cardboard pieces. There’s endless possibilities, depending on everyone’s creativity. Usually, red paint is used for runes drawing, as color markers are easily accessible. New utensils are preferably used in creating a rune set: Hand polishing the wood plates using sandpaper, carefully washing the rocks, while oracle cards would be cut from new cardboard sheets. Also using new brushes or markers.

The most favorable time for creating a rune set is during crescent moon, followed by consecrating the whole set during full moon.What does this mean? Once finished, the Runes will be consecrated to God, by holding them in your palms and saying: „God, My God, Father of humankind and Gods alike, Almighty Lord beyond comparison, Master of all mysteries and fair Judge of the entire Universe, grant these runes your blessing, in Your Holy Name’s Glory. Amen.”

Then, if the material allows us, pass them through candle flame and say: „Through the power of fire!” Then pass them through frankincense or incense sticks smoke, blowing on them saying: „Through the power of air!” Sprinkle them with clean or holy water saying: „Though the power of water!” Then throw them on soil saying : „Though the power of earth!”. The runes are to be kept in a round or square cloth, tied on the upper side like a pouch. When needing them, we’ll spread the cloth over a flat surface throwing the runes on top, or selecting them. There are many techniques to interpret runes, as well as a series or strict rules when working with them. From the way they are thrown or extracted, to their positioning. But for all these, keep on reading …

Extracting the runes

As agreed, we’ll now attend the subject of extracting, positioning and interpreting runes.

Extracting a single rune is the simplest. Best for this method is a short and concise question. Questioning for a Yes or No answer. After the opening prayer, with our eyes closed, we’ll draw one rune, vertically laying it before us. When opening our eyes, we shall see if it is faced downwards or upwards. If it is downwards, we’ll turn it horizontally not vertically. There are four possibilities. First is the rune named Wyrd. Every set contains a blank rune, uninscribed, of which many believe it represents the karmic aspect, although there’s no historic  proof of a blank rune, reason being a badly formulated question, or the Divine Plan blocking the answer. The question will be postponed. If absurdly, same question receives the the blank rune thrice, better stop asking as the answer might not want to be known. Second possibility is drawing an upright rune for an affirmative answer. A reversed rune for a negative answer, being the third possibility. Forth possibility is drawing one of the nine symmetrical runes. These look the same upright or reversed, meaning an unbiased answer. Either the question was too general, or the answer is influenced by future actions.

For example, a much too general question would be; Will i get my driving licence? Yes and no… Maybe we will, however on our tenth try. Not mentioning specific details, gives us correct answers, but useless. A woman might ask: Will i get married in July? The answer might be Yes. Now, it could be July of the ongoing year or July, 2057! The answer is correct, but useless… The correct question, would have mentioned the year. A question with a variable answer, for example, is: Would i become rich? This is totally depending on us, how hardworking we are or how little we act. Another simple draw is to find details on a particular situation or person. The answer could be immensely general, so formulating the question precisely is a must. Questions like: How will today go? or what is X like? So that we can grasp the idea before us. Slightly more complicated is a three rune spread. Drawing them in turn, eyes closed, whispering their representation. Drawing along these lines: Past, Present, Future, Reason, Situation, Outcome, Problem, Manifestation, Resolution, Affection, Sickness, Treatment, the possibilities are infinite. It’s the fastest and most precise short spread, and by deeply understanding the meaning of each rune, answers can be very precise. We can better understand ambiguous situations, disclose hidden motivations of people surrounding us and find the most favourable solutions for an array of problems. By finding the cause of a problem, our understanding grows and the course of action becomes clear.

There are also more complex rune spreads, like Destiny’s Paths, Wheel of the Week, Wheel of the Year, or Wheel of Houses. Wheel of Fortune uses six runes. First on the bottom, second laid on top, third on top of the first two, followed by the forth. The fifth positioned on the left and the sixth to the right, resembling a tree, a trident or the Eihwaz rune. First rune represents the primary, karmic source of the problem, or root cause, a lesson to learn in order to move forward. Second rune represents the past, what is already there,making the problem escalate. Third rune represents the present, present unfolding of the problem. While the remaining three are future possibilities. Forth rune, in the middle, represents the future outcome without interference, if we let everything run it’s course, ignoring or delaying solving the problem. The left is the negative path, if we act selfishly, destructively or neglectful, furthering our mistakes, deepening our sorrow. Last rune is the positive path, where we act faultlessly, wisely, rationally and undeterred.

Applications are practically endless, depending on the aspect of the problem, forethought circumstances, and our outlook concerning the problem. Wheel of the Week is simple enough: as the name suggests, we draw 7 runes, laying them in a circle or a straight line, each representing a particular day of the week. Drawing at sunrise, on the new week’s first day. Meanings can be general (How will this week go?) or precise (How will my health unfold this week? How will my business develop this week?). The rest are as simple. Wheel of the Year uses twelve runes, one for each month, drawing them on New Year’s Eve, or at sunrise on January first. Wheel of Houses can be done at any time, assigning them to astrological houses. It can be done on your birthday for insights into the personality or destiny of an individual.

The career, love life or spiritual growth of a child can be foretold altogether, with the use of runes, having the child pick runes for each aspect of his life, after baptism. Knowing all these details, we’ll proceed by analyzing the first 8 runes set, Freyja’s aett…

Runes Jewelry on Ka Gold Jewelry. Click on image to open the link.

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