Runes

The word "Rune" means "Secret" or "Mystery". This meaning was essentially for all germanic dialects:
 * Old norse: rún
 * Old high german: runa
 * Old english: run
 * Gothic: runa

When the germanic people started to write, like the greeks or the romans, they called their letters "runes". Every rune symbolized a mystery and was associated with a certain esoteric principle.

This might doesn't surprise, because the creators of this system were also the keepers of other intellectual and religious knowledge of their culture.

They used signs in order to express the spoken language and create magic formulas. These runes or "rune staff" "whispered secrets". They transmitted messages of the gods towards the humans and the messages of humans towards the gods - and to the nature as well. (The first one who used runes was considered to be Odin, who then granted the gift of the runes to the people.)

The oldest system of this "alphabet" is the "old Futhark", created out of 24 runes. It was probably used already about 200 B.C. - but at least about 100 A.D.. It was used until 800 AD in scandinavia without disruption.

After this time it changed into the "younger Futhark" with only 16 runes left. About 450 AD the frisians and the anglo-saxons created a futhark out of 28 runes and improved it until 1050 AD.

Runes where normally carved into wood and painted with blood or red paint. Those were called "hlaut-teinar" which means "Fate-branch" or "hlaut-vidhar" which means "Fate-lumbers".

There were lots of technical names for runes, such as: While others actually have a description of how they were used: Please note that there where even more of such descriptions.
 * Runes of speaking (málrúnar)
 * Bloody runes (blódghar rúnar)
 * Songrunes (leodruna)
 * brim-rúnar - Runes of the ocean which calmed the sea
 * bjarg-rúnar - Runes of birth, which ease the pain for the mothers

There were also different results closely related to the runes, some of them where positive: But there were also different runes, "myrkir stafir", (dark runes) and "böl-stafir"  (Evil runes)  which were negative:
 * líkn-stafir - Runes of health
 * gaman-rúnar - Runes of fun / happiness
 * audh-stafir - Runes of wealth
 * sig-rúnar - Runes of victory
 * beadu-run - Rune of dispute
 * flærdhstafir - Rune of deception

The process of "reading runes" was actually documented by Tacitus, who wrote that the people cut a branch of a tree which carried fruits, seperated the parts and carved the runes onto the lumbers; They just threw them without a system onto a white sheet and someone started to pray - a priest when it came to public questions, the master of a house in personal matters. They looked upon the sky and picked up three runes and interpreted the meanings of the runes. When the outcome was negative, the subject was not questioned any more on that day, but when it came out positive, it had to be validated by a sign or omen.

As stated before, the first one who threw runes was Odin. Therefore anyone, who threw or layed runes was imitating a "godly action". This is the traditional meaning of this procedure, at least for "odians" - people who believed deeply into Odin. These oracles where considered to be the messengers of the gods by other tribes; But they didn't came to the conclusion, that the one, who was performing these rituals, became a "god" themselves during this process. To communicate with the transpersonal reality of the runes truly, they had to reach this state. The runes then gave their results towards the human mind of the one who threw the runes (perhaps even towards the onlookers or bystanders). As you may note, it's not a passive ritual; The will, the abilities, the knowledge and the layer of existence of the one who throws the runes are exceptional important - without these criterias the Runes may be hidden forever.

A different aspect of the traditional theory are the "Godesses of fate", the Norns (Nornir): They symbolized action and reaction, cause and effect, time and synchronicity.
 * Urdhr
 * Verdhandi
 * Skuld

Besides the norns there were also the "Carriers of Fate", which are associated with an individual, whose fate (Ørlög) they carry. They affect our life and our actions. The one who throws runes therefore tries to understand these entities. These were: There where also "leaders", which cared for the results of the runes in a special way and the right interpretion of those. Such leaders could be norns, dead and even valkyries. The odians believed that these were aspects of themselves, though.
 * Ghosts
 * Lesser Norns
 * Valkyries (valkyrjur)
 * The dead (disir)

To understand the results of the rune-laying or rune-throwing it's necessary to understand the meaning of time for the old germanic people. Their system of time based on two pillars: Past and "non-past" - everything that was and everything that is. They didn't have a word for "future". The past was very real for them while the future was something very hypothetical and could change - so the presence was an eternal moment for them, ever flowing and ever changing. If we take a close look to this way of thinking, we get a glimpse of their understanding for "fate" (Ørlög). It's not unchanging, because it's affected by actions every time and therefore has to transform.

Ørlög is a mighty power though; only very few can run from it, once unique ways of thinking manifested themselves; This is why germanic people had a "fatal" way of thinking. Ørlög also means "ancient level" or "ancient rules" and points towards a certain way of action, which was already "settled" in our past; Though you have to consider the actions of other people, which affected you. (non-personal powers)

In this context, as you can see, one, who throws the runes, is trying to understand the past and the actual situation, in order to get a glimpse of the ways a life may take; the closest modern theory to this is synchronicity, a model created by the swiss psychologist C.G. Jung. In this theory he consider the happenings of our surroundings to be associated with our inner occurings in a way which makes sense. With knowledge about our soul we are able to affect our world, once we understood synchronicity.

But throwing runes isn't about predicting the future - it's more about discovering and understanding our inner and outer relations and finally settling them, in order to get to the "ancient level", where we might be able to understand our world.

Runes:
 * Fehu (F)
 * Uruz (U)
 * Thurisaz (TH)
 * Ansuz (A)
 * Raidho (R)
 * Kenaz (K)
 * Gebo (G)
 * Wunjo (W)
 * Hagalaz (H)
 * Naudhiz / Nauthiz (N)
 * Isa (I)
 * Jera (J)
 * Eihwaz (E, I or Ei)
 * Perthro (P)
 * Elhaz or Algiz (S, later Z)
 * Sowilo (S)
 * Tiwaz (T)
 * Berkano (B)
 * Ehwaz / Ehwo (E)
 * Mannaz (M)
 * Laguz / Laukuz (L)
 * Ingwaz (ng)
 * Dagaz (D)
 * Othala (O)