Rune talk 2

[starstarnite]

I know its important to define the area of the reading but I suspect that this designation of specific stones to focus on a specific area of reading is a contemporary addition to rune readings...I bet that the original rune readers just used one set for everything. Runes sort of remind me of reading tea leaves or throwing chicken bones out in the dirt to divine...its probably dependant much more on intuition and less on symbology ...unlike tarot cards which use heavy symbology.

[EarlofLeicester]

I know its important to define the area of the reading but I suspect that this designation of specific stones to focus on a specific area of reading is a contemporary addition to rune readings...I bet that the original rune readers just used one set for everything. Runes sort of remind me of reading tea leaves or throwing chicken bones out in the dirt to divine...its probably dependant much more on intuition and less on symbology ...unlike tarot cards which use heavy symbology.

IMO you have some of this right and some of it wrong.

The right stuff:  In my studies of the runes, there was usually just the one set from the one material.  Usually wood.

The wrong stuff:  throwing chicken bones out in the dirt to divine?  less on symbology?  Oh, I really don't think so!  Runes require the symbol on the media (like a slice of wood).  This is not some primitive pastime.  History tells us:

The later Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (58-120AD) records a Germanic tribal Runemal in some detail in Chapter 10 of his ethnographical work Germania from about 97AD when he was Consul to the region:

To divination they pay much attention. Their method is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then the priest of the community (if it is done publicly) or the father of the family (if it is done privately) after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces one at a time and interprets them in accordance with the signs previously marked on them.

(Thanks to Oswald the Runemaker's site for the info:  http://www.runemaker.com/history3.shtml).

They may be scattered reverently on a cloth but I doubt they were tossed in dirt like garbage.  The Germanic people took their runes seriously.  And although they were scattered, the runes were read in a 3 rune cast.  This is pretty consistent with what modern teaching tries to recreate and how I do my 3 rune casts.

I can't claim to be the sites resident rune expert, but I know enough to state that documented history says you've got runelore wrong by a longshot.  If you have questions, please ask.  There are plenty of people here willing to share their knowledge and experience!

[MoonGoddess]

The one thing amongst other things I did learn from my teacher was that the most powerful Futhark was done on wood, as each different material has it's own energy and some such as crystals disrupted the energy of the Runes.  So I was told the safest materials to be used were either wood or river pepples.  All the others may look pretty and showy and some actually may give you good readings but Wood and Stone will always be the ones I use...Although I am like a bower bird and like shiny objects...lol

[EarlofLeicester]

There is no substitute for wood.  I think I said somewhere (I seem to be always saying something somewhere) that smooth stones from the bed of a creek would make a fine second choice. But for anyone serious about their runes, divination = wood.

[EarlofLeicester]

One thing I like about wood is that it is not fancy, like a beautiful stone, clay scultpture or crystal.  The wood is not beautiful like these things are (although wood has its own beautiful charm, but not the same thing). What wood is is life, and a wonderful medium to convey the living message of the runes.