A comprehensive and practical guide to the ancient oracle based on the runic alphabet of the Norse
• Reveals the symbolism and divinatory significance of the 24 rune "staves"
• Provides clear instructions on how to craft your own rune stones
• Explains the role of runes in the Norse wisdom tradition and its influence on such works as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
Nordic runes are a potent and profoundly transformative magic system that gives contemporary readers access to the ancient wisdom tradition of Northern European cultures. The runes have deep resonances within the pagan Norse world of gods and goddesses, giants, dwarves, warriors, and wizards, which have greatly influenced the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, among others. Norse tradition attributes the discovery of the runes to the "All-Father" Odin--a god of inspiration and secret wisdom and the mythical prototype for runecasters, who established the pattern for gaining his knowledge.
Nordic Runes addresses three major areas: Runelore, the history of this 2000-year-old Norse oracle; Runestaves, the meaning of the individual runes of the Elder Futhark alphabet and their powerful mythological, magical, and practical lessons for daily life; and Runecasting, a comprehensive guide to the oracular application of the ancient runes, including their crafting, divination, and self-development. As Nordic Runes shows, the runes do more than simply reflect the path of fate; they help develop and enhance intuition. By learning to cast and interpret the runes, the user becomes receptive to the energy currents in material reality and empowered in the arts of its transformation. Paul Rhys Mountfort is a writer, researcher, and workshop leader specializing in the Celtic and Norse traditions. He is the author of Ogam: The Celtic Oracle of the Trees. Active in the contemporary pagan community, he lives with his partner and son on Waiheke Island, in the Hauraki Gulf of Auckland, New Zealand. fom the Introduction:
The Origin of Runes and How to Use this Book
This book is a complete guide for those who wish to draw on the well of practical and esoteric wisdom embodied in the ancient Runes. It provides the necessary tools for interpreting 'the runes of good help' and the teachings from the Norse wisdom tradition on which they are founded. Having come into prominence some two-thousand years ago, the twenty-four runestaves of the ancient Elder Futhark alphabet are more relevant to us today, at the dawn of a new millennium, than ever before. Like the images of the Tarot deck and hexagrams of the I Ching, Runes are profound keys to personal empowerment, self-development and spiritual awareness.
The Runes are native to traditional Northern European cultures. They have deep resonances within the pagan Norse world of high gods and goddesses, elemental forces, giants, dwarves, warriors and wizards that inspired, among others, J. R. R Tolkien in the writing of his fantasy fictions. Ancient tales tell of their discovery by the magician-god Odin, their use in magic, and divination. This last, predictive use of Runes continues with us today. However, the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark are more than mere fortune-telling tokens: they are a potent key to the rich mythological heritage of the Norse world. Each 'stave' (individual rune) evokes a set of tales and correspondences in ancient Norse myth; they encode a set of profound teachings, an entire wisdom tradition. These teachings, moreover, have a universality and a timelessness to their insights, messages to impart that transcends their Northern European origins.
Divination systems like the Runes are based on sets of meaningful signs, omens which we 'randomly' choose and interpret for their personal message to us. But how could such a procedure possibly work? The traditional Norse answer would be that, in the Web of Wyrd (Destiny), all things and events resonate in a profound and luminous way and that Runes faithfully
