The Runes are over 2,000 years old. On the surface they are a set of 24 angular letters making up the original alphabet of the Northern European tribes as noted by the Roman historian Tacitus during his exploration of Gaul in the first century. At a deeper level, the runes are mystical symbols transmitted to the human life wave by Cosmic Intelligence to insure awareness that our true nature will not be lost or compromised in the generations to come. There are so many different points of view from various scholars throughout the hundred of years on exactly how the runes came to be. I am not here to say exactly one way or the other as I have my personal beliefs in all of it alongside the years of studying I have spent delved into the Northern Traditions.

The Northern Tradition offers one of the few ancient cosmologies that remains nearly pure to its original state, free of deceptive revisions and dogma. This is true because of its preservation as oral tradition in the remote Northern villages of Scandinavia, and especially in far off Iceland where the Elder Poems by 12 century scholar, Snorri Sturluson, preserved the oral tradition in writing for history. By the time these Icelandic texts were discovered by mainstream European scholars, the terror of the Inquisition was over and they were brought into libraries as historical works of Northern Mythology. Specifically, it was the Danish academia of the late 1600s that preserved these writings in Denmark university libraries. They were then accepted and not subjected as in years past to the manipulations of religious conformity.

The runes can be understood from three different ways: idea, sound, and letters. All three are valid for modern rune understanding. It is important to remember that the runes were created from an ancient spiritual tradition and were only later used as an alphabet within the culture. Most people think of the runes as tools of divination, “predicting the future”. Divination is a time-honored use of the runes as is Tarot and I Ching. The difference between the three is that the runes can also be applied to awaken energy fields within your consciousness, which in turn can be applied to alter the formative energy patterns of the physical environment in which you live!

The runic alphabet is made up of 24 “letters” and is divided up into three groups of eight or properly known as “aetts”. They are known as Freyja’s Aett, Hagall’s Aett, and Tyr’s Aett. Each aett has a specific focus of energies:

1. The first aett is runes Fehu to Wunjo. This aett teaches the basic talents and personal characteristics that one must learn and master in the path to higher consciousness.

2. The second aett is runes Hagalaz to Sowilo and it teaches the subjective trials and confrontations that we will experience on the spiritually path along with the promise of good harvest and eventual success from having gone through these growth experiences.

3. The third aett is runes Tiwaz to Othala and this aett reveals the character of rune energies at their maturity. They include justice, divine ego, transformation of energies into substance, light of consciousness, and wealth from family and estates.

There is so much to be shown through the runes and the gods and goddesses that worked through them. I look forward in upcoming blog posts to share more about all of it, while explaining to you the inner workings of runes, rituals, and remedies! They are all extremely synergistic. ~~Traci