The runes I use are a system of writing from pre-Christian Germanic cultures that was known to have also been used for magic. They aren't related to the Witches’ Runes, which I know very little about.

There are three major historical variants: the Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark, and Anglo-Frisian Futhorc. The Elder Futhark is the most commonly used and the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc is what I use; I initially decided to try it because more possibilities generally seems better to me. I know it’s kind of a silly justification.

The Armamen Futhark was developed well after the Christianization of Europe by Guido von List, a nationalist and white supremacist. I don't use the Armanen Futhark because I don't want to get involved with that ideology.

I would argue that the historical rune rows are fair game for anyone who is interested, regardless of ancestry, but you are only going to fully understand them if you engage with Germanic religion. It's necessary to know what at least one Germanic culture believed and practiced historically to have a good foundation for modern practice, and modern practice - respecting that history but not letting it overrule the changes that are needed for modern life, because religions do change to meet the needs of practitioners over time - is necessary to engage with the spirits of the runes. And the god Odin is probably going to come knocking at some point, and if you get involved with Odin you need to be respectful to Loki as well.

In my article about divination in general, I said you can assign meanings to anything and make it into a divination system. But if a set of symbols already have metaphysical meaning associated with a specific cultural framework, please let them be. Even if it's culturally open and anyone can use it, I feel much differently about making the runes, ogham, I Ching, etc. into something different than I feel about doing the same with the English alphabet or a random set of shapes.

Mundanely speaking, the individual runes can be traced back to other alphabets of the time by their shapes. Magically, the Havamal, one of the surviving poems outlining Norse mythology, says that the runes were revealed to Odin after he hung from the World Tree for nine days and nights. 

The Havamal also says that there are runes for humans, and runes for the other sentient life in Germanic cosmology such as the alfar (elves). It makes me wonder if these other runes were developed through the borrowing of writing systems or other communication systems belonging to each species.

We know far less about the runes, their use, and what they were originally believed to mean for certain than what is presented in modern books as fact. And some newer practices have crept into rune reading that may not be historical, such as reading them differently when they land upside down or using spreads with them. I don’t think this is necessarily bad but I do think it’s important to be aware of where your information comes from and, if possible, who is giving it to you.

The runes are good for general inquiries about what you should do next, whether the current situation is good for the action you plan to take, or what you should know about the situation you find yourself in. They can be blunt and they don’t sugarcoat bad news. 

A rune reading can start and end with the same processes as the other types of reading I offer. I will almost definitely ask Odin to guide me when I’m reading the runes. You don’t have to follow him but if you don’t like him or find him intimidating, you might want to choose another form of divination.

I’m accustomed to laying them out in a pattern similar to a Tarot spread so that’s what I normally do. I also look at the angles they fall at; my rune set consists of round tokens so it’s not just right side up and upside down. When a rune lands horizontally I consider that to be blocked energy. When it lands right side up or upside down, it’s latent or not at its full potential. At a diagonal, it’s at full potential and expressing itself well.

If you have any further questions about runes or anything else I do, please use my comment form to ask!