Skysinger’s
Brief Guide
To the
Old runes

Fourth Edition 2010

What are Runes?
Runes are letters in an ancient Northern European alphabet. Evidence of runic writing in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Great Britain dates back to 500 B.C.E, and it may be much older. In addition to writing on bark or skins, runes were used for monuments and tombstones and inscribed singly on stones or staves (pieces of wood) for rituals and for divination.
Besides its literal meaning, each rune also has a symbolic meaning related to a familiar plant, animal or experience familiar in the life and culture of ancient times. Modern interpretations come from several rune poems which are thought to be memory devices from documents in the 1500-1700 C.E. The interpretations in this booklet are the most common meanings found in two or more of the references listed at the end.
Most people who use them for that purpose work with twenty-four runes of the oldest and most widespread runic alphabet. You can buy rune sets made of polished rock, glass, or clay, or you can make your own. It’s easy to inscribe the characters with a pen, knife, or wood burner on small precut wood pieces available at craft stores. You may wish to use a branch from a special tree cut into slices. As you inscribe the figures, concentrate on their meanings. Your effort and concentration increases their value to you and their power with you.
Consulting the Runes
When you use the runes for divination, you attune yourself to the wisdom of the ancestors who lived in Northern Europe 2500 years ago and to their connection with the mystical structure of life and being. You can ask their guidance and wisdom about any situation in life. Or you can use them for meditation, to focus on a particular rune or a combination of runes.
When you consult the runes, “ground and center” yourself. Relax your body and enter a state of calm awareness. Use any basic meditation technique for getting to that state. Open yourself to the inner wisdom that resides in your blood and connects you with your ancestors or spirit guides.
Call to mind the situation you’re concerned about. Good questions to ask when looking to the runes for guidance are: “What do I need to know about…?” Then, for the quickest, simplest reading, choose one of the rune staves or stones and look up the interpretation in this book.
You can spread the staves face down in front of you, move your hands over the runes, and draw one of them from which you feel energy or warmth. Or you can draw one out of a bag or box at random, quickly, the first one your fingers touch
Pay attention to whether you drew the stave right side up, upside down, or slanted to one side or another. Upside down usually means “no” or indicates that the rune’s energy is blocked. Some runes, such as the Ice rune, a simple vertical line, are the same upside down and right side up.
If the rune you’ve drawn has a top and you’ve drawn it sideways, you can sometimes get insights from the direction of the slant. Runes operate clockwise for most people. If the top of the rune is to your left, the energy is growing or needs to grow. To the right, it’s waning, on its way to being blocked. Then again sometimes the staves get turned accidently and their direction has no significance whatever. If you want a yes or no answer, draw three runes. If they’re right side up, the answer is yes. If they’re upside down, the answer is no. The particular runes you’ve drawn and the direction they may be slanted can give you other insights. Irreversible runes, those that look the same upside down and right side up, indicate uncertainty. Life is uncertain and even the runes don’t know everything!
For guidance that’s more detailed or more complex in meaning and interpretation, use a three-rune spread. Meditating as before, draw three runes. Keep track of the sequence in which you draw them. The first one tells something about the venture or your feelings toward it; the second, a problem or conflict; the third the outcome. Or the first can refer to the root of the problem, the second to action you need to take, the third to the outcome. Or past, present and future. It’s up to you how you apply the interpretations to your specific question or problem.
How to Interpret the Runes
When you interpret the rune you’ve drawn, use your intelligence and knowledge, as well as your intuition and imagination. While each rune refers to an object, it also refers to a cluster of ideas and characteristics that relate to experience in ancient times. The Rune Isa, for instance, stance for ice. Forget about ice in your refrigerator and imagine what ice might mean for primitive people.
Ice may suggest a season of the year when our ancestors had to spend most of their time inside huts, caves, or wooden shelters; a time when the process both growth and decay slow down and seem to stop. Ice may also suggest different possibilities such as ice fishing or traveling a body of water without a boat, both of which may be somewhat risky.
What might the ideas or feelings suggested by “ice” mean to you today? A time when the rate of change slows almost to a stop? A time to stop, withdraw, survive? A time to do things in a different way, taking great care for the risks involved? There are many possible interpretations for any situation. Accept whatever interpretation seems right to you. Use your common sense! The Ancients were practical folk who would as likely have thought of the ice rune to indicate caution for thin ice as to have taken it as a good omen to set out across a frozen river!
I’ve had runes accurately predict future events, and I’ve had them instead reflect what I was feeling or needing. “Will I see ...soon?” was answered with the rune for Joy. Joy was what I felt about the meeting and desperately need at the time. However, joy didn’t come from seeing my old friend. At least it hasn’t yet, and it’s been several years!
Sometimes the message of the runes is profoundly obvious. One of the first questions I have ever asked the runes was, “What’s the deal with my mother?” Though she had died several years previously, she was on my mind just then. I drew the flowing water rune upside down, indicating “interrupted flow.” Yup! That was my mother, all right! It startled me that the first message I asked for her summed her up so perfectly, and yet I really didn’t need a divination system to tell me that. I meditated and dreamed on it for several nights and came up with the following insights:
My mother, or even thinking about my mother interrupts my creative flow. I knew that. She’d be turning over in her grave if she knew I was delving into something like runes!
My mother’s creative flow was disrupted for most of her life, which was sad.
Since she’s no longer living and I don’t have to think about her unless I choose to, the flow of her influence over me is interrupted. Then I dreamed my mother’s face, and she was smiling. Sometimes the most obvious aspects of a situation are the most important and the most fruitful for contemplation.
The Runes of the Elder Futhark
Since the runes were the alphabet for several languages, each has several names. I’ve given the Germanic first and the Anglo-Saxon in bold type, so that this booklet will be compatible with other sources you may find. For the same reason, I have offered alternative shapes for some runes. The runic languages are no longer spoken so the pronunciations of their names are uncertain. The sounds they stand for makes the runes easier to remember. You can write in a phonetic code with the runes.
The world “futhark” stands for the sounds of the first six runes. The futhark is divided into three sections of eight runes each, each section called an “aett.”
The Aett of Feoh
Fehu or Feoh sounds like “F.” It stands for cattle, which represented wealth to the ancient peoples. In their world, wealth not only meant status and power but also reputation and the obligation to pay ones dues and to contribute to the community. The word “fee,” meaning payment, comes from this rune. Feoh is associated with the twin brother and sister deities, Frey and Freya.
As the first letter, it refers to beginnings of all kinds, especially healthy beginnings. Fehu can indicate general thriving, fertility, and the ability to create wealth and to keep it.
Uruz or Ur sounds like oo and stands for the Aurochs, a wild ox known for size, strength, and ferocity. Its long horns were used for ceremonial cups by tribal chiefs. Though now extinct, its magickal power is still available.
Ur carries the untamed strength of the primal ox. It is a rune of stamina, perseverance, single-mindedness, and solid grounding. Protective, stubborn and durable, it can represent healing and growth.
Thurizaz or thorn carries a “th” sound and is still used in the Icelandic alphabet. On a tree or bush, thorns protect the plant passively. They don’t do much damage, but they prick and annoy. This can be the niggling rune, representing petty annoyances that cause real pain but little damage. Thorn may have phallic overtones and represent libido. Its energy is neutral, but the potential is great.
Anzuz or As represents an ash tree. In Norse mythology the World Tree from which all life comes is an ash. In Sanskrit this “ah” sound is the primal sound, the divine breath. As is a stable, deep-rooted rune, suggesting the axis between the upper and lower worlds. It also suggests anything having to do with speech, wisdom, sound, air, or wind.
Raido or Rad sounds as it looks, like an R. It suggests anything having to do with riding, with a physical or spiritual journey, or with moving or transporting. It can also refer to cycles such as the wheel of the year.
Both the path and the mans to travel, Rad can be a rune of action and movement as well as change. It suggests taking charge of situations, taking control of one’s destiny, exercising freedom and moral responsibility. For full advantage of Rad, you must be in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.
Kenaz or Ken can be a K. Ken represents a torch, and so the light of teaching and learning as well as the inner light of knowing and intuition. Although Ken suggests a warm, safe, contained fire, it can also indicate change through learning, transformation through enlightenment. It suggests facing what you already know and trusting intuition.
Gebo or Gyfu means “gift” and its sound is a hard G. It signifies the power that connects people with each other and the divine, suggesting unification through exchange. It is written, not with two crossing lines, but as a combination of > and <. It is found on ancient boundary markers, contracts, and betrothals.
The creation of balance is a key feature of its symmetry, and it suggests reconciliation of opposing forces and the mutual giving of gifts that enhance spiritual worth. Some aspect of a situation may be a gift or an occasion for giving a gift to balance relationships.
The last rune of the first aett is called Wunjo or Wyn. Pronounced, “win,” it can be either a V or a W. It is shaped like the metal weathervanes atop Viking ships and churches, and is an indicator of joy and harmony. When you see Wyn, think of joy, wholeness, fulfilled wishes, physical pleasure and passion. The power of Wyn greatly amplifies one’s true will and combines well with Gyfu.
The Aett of Hagal
Hagal is a rune of change or transformation, like the sudden transformation of the landscape after snow or after a thaw. Sometimes disruptive and violent, it refers to the processes necessary to make a project successful, the unconscious mind, the roots of things physical or in the realm of time. Hagal suggests a dark female energy with protective aspects so benign as to be used as a greeting, “hail” or “hello.”
Nauthiz, or Nyd, likely pronounced “need” literally means need, scarcity, or absence of something. The form represents two bundles of wood used for making the ritual need fire in times of famine or pestilence. The idea within the rune is that the power to release one from need is found within the need itself. It suggests a tight band across the chest or crossed fingers. When you see this rune, ask yourself what you truly need.
Isa or Is, pronounced “EE-sah” or “ees,” means ice. Its shape is an icicle, vertical and fixed. It represents static existence, the present time, a fluid transformed into a solid state. When ice moves, as in an iceberg or a glacier, its power is slow and inexorable, and 90% of it is unseen.
Is suggests cold, wintery external circumstances, slowing of the rate of change, containment, and the need for self preservation. While there is no “upside down” for this rune, it sometimes appears horizontal, which I would interpret to mean “thin ice!” Is quiets the disruptive forces of Hagal.
Jer or Jera sounds like the J as in jam. The twelfth rune stands for the cycle of seasons, two halves of the year circling, the Ken rune looking both backward and forward. It is the harvest garland, the wreath on the door. Jer suggests the passing of time, the division of time, completion, endings and beginnings.
Eiwaz, eoh is the yew tree, the evergreen with rugged wood of which bows were made. The bow was the bringer of death in hunting and combat and the bringer of food and protection. The yet is the longest-lived of all European evergreens, but its bark, leaves, roots, fruit, and resin are all extremely poisonous. Certain yews develop wounds that don’t heal from which red resin flows like blood. Others die partially and new trees grow from their decaying interior. The wood is considered magickal as a connector between the worlds.
It may be thought of as the spine with chakras, a connection with the spirit world. Eoh is a tool for protection and provision that extends from one world to the next.
Pertho or Peorth is the womb of the Goddess Frigga, the goddess of spinning who knows all but does not speak. It is said to represent a cup for throwing dice in a game, and as such suggests the relationship between chance and skill.
Peorth also suggests birth or initiation, with all its uncertainties and unknowable potential. It calls to mind the relationship between the constraints to fate and one’s own skill and free will. As an answer to a question, it may mean you already know, but you don’t know that you know.
Algis or Eohl has meanings ranging from elk to eelgrass. The latter, a species of impenetrable, prickly marsh grass, is the most common. Eohl may be a hand gesture with the three middle fingers raised, palm turned toward the other and as such a warning or a claim of sanctuary. Seen on tombstones it means date of birth; its reverse is the date of death.
Traditionally eohl suggests sanctuary, or protection of people or property against all forms of attack by humans. It can suggest reaching form earth to sky. If you inscribed it in a circle and turned it upside down, it would be our peace sign. Its sound is “yo.”
Sowulu, or Sigel in old texts represents the sun goddess, the sail of a ship, or the sun stone, a crystal carried by the Norse for navigation. It refers to the return of sunny weather, sails raised high, and accurate navigation. Sigel suggests hope and the victory of light over darkness. It indicates growth, health, wholeness. It is the highest force in the self, directing individuals along the path of development. This is the “go for it!” rune. Its sound is “s.”
The Aett of Tyr
Teiwas or Tyr is a spear and represents the sky god. The spear is used to hunt and to win justice or victory in conflict. Its vertical form suggests the targeting of positive forces in an upward direction. Tyr suggests victory and justice in confrontation. It can also be a clear indicator of direction, safe passage and guidance. Its sound is “t.”
Berkana or Beork is the birch tree. As the first tree to recolonize barren land when the ice retreated at the end of the last ice age, it is symbolic of regeneration. In Northern Tradition, eighteen is symbolic of completion and new beginnings at a higher level. Eighteen is double the nine of Hagal and suggests the beginning of the other half of the cycle. Its shape represents the breasts of the earth mother goddess. Bork is the protector of mothers and children and stands for the creative feminine principle. Its sound is “b.”
Ahwaz or Eh, the horse rune, is the nineteenth stave. Horses were the most sacred animals in pagan Europe. They are the pride and joy of their riders and obviously important as transportation. Eh suggests trust, loyalty and partnership as between a horse and rider, training for the physical body, and a physical or shamanic journey. Its sound is “eh.”
Manna or Man, denotes the basic qualities of humanness that we all have, male and female. The rune is the shared experience, the double Why, a hug rune, the loving basis for social structure between people and between tribe and individual, humans and earth. It suggests developing intellectual powers and awareness of ourselves as members of families and human communities. Its sound is “m.”
Lagos or Lagu is water. Think of a lake or lagoon. Water flows to conform with solid surroundings and in turn shapes the earth. The old Norse were seagoing folk. Both danger and the safety of harbor were well known to them. This rune signifies flowing energy and creativity. It may also suggest a bracing sail, an acknowledged risk. Its sound is “L.”
Ingus or ing is a symbol of light, a beacon that moves over the water making it safe, a westerly moving constellation that identifies the pole star. Ing is the name of a god who is the male consort of the Earth Mother of fertility and nurturing. It represents the gradually rising energy of self, the continuation of the tribe, germination and growth, transformation, and initiation. Its sound is “NG.”
Othila, Odal or Ethel is the rune of home, of one’s native land or ancestral heritage. It has the form of an enclosure and it is seen beneath the gable end of houses. It suggests one’s own place in the world, an inheritance, a completion of a journey, and enclave. It combines Gebo and Ing, the mystery of blood and soil. Its sound is “O.”
Dagaz or Dag stands for day or daylight. Its form represents balance between polarities. It is carved on doorposts, shutters and other uprights in a house to prevent entry of harmful spirits. Dag suggests the saturation of energy as at noonday, the apex of the one cycle before another cycle begins. It may indicate a catalyst or a synthesis of polarities. It can be considered the rainbow bridge to connect the right and left brain hemispheres. It’s sound is “D.”
References
Aswynn, Freye, Leaves of Yggdrasil. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications. 1990
Eason, Cassandra, Rune Divination for Today’s Woman. London: Foulsham, 1994
Pennick, Nigel. Rune Magic. Hammersmith, England: The Aquarian Press, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 1992
Osborn, Marijane, and Longland, Stella, Rune Games. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1987