RUNES

Introductory ideas for the study of the 24 rune system of the Elder Futhark.

Havamal: 142 You will find runes, meaningful staves, Very powerful staves, very strong staves, That Fimbul dyed, that the Ginnregin shaped, That the God Hropt carved. 143 Odin among the Aesir, but Dain for the elves, Dvalinn for the dwarves, Asvith for the Ettins. I carved some myself. 144 Know how to carve them, Know how to read them, Know how to stain them, Know how to wield them, Know how to ask them, Know how to bloody them, Know how to send them, Know how to sacrifice them.

1. Fehu is the rune of prosperity, cattle, vitality, the ability to cause change, fire. It is the power of wealth. It is the fire of creation. 
2. Uruz is the rune of the charging Auroch. It is vital formative essence. It symbolizes raw physical strength and energy. It is vitality of the physical. 
3. Thurisaz is the thorn. It can combine the force of 2 or more other runes and direct it outwards. It is an aggressive defense. It can break through barriers. It is the Thurses. 
4. Ansuz means a god (usually Woden). It is the vital essence of your ancestors, their desires and drives and wisdom. It is inspiration and the answer to questions. It is a state of ecstatic inspiration. The rune of Galdor and songs 
5. Raidho is a wagon. It symbolizes traveling along a path. It has power to continue you on a journey that you’ve started when that journey is Right for you to take, and has been taken for the right reasons. It symbolizes Asatru and Right Judgement. 
6. Kenaz is a torch. It represents controlled, directed energy. Similar to Thurisaz in its ability to combine other forces, it also represents the "truth" of spiritual light or enlightenment. Kenaz can amplify forces with its "fiery power" but it is more difficult to direct than is Thurisaz. It represent sexual lust, and the power of willed creations. It is the rune of craftsmen. It represents the technical aspects of Magick.
7. Gebo is a gift. Gebo is the perfect exchange of equal things. The two equal staves that make this rune represent the two entirely equal forces acting together in harmony. This is the Marriage rune which represents the coming together of the two people in perfect partnership. Gebo can bring people into psychic harmony, and is often used in Sex magick. 
8. Wunjo is Joy. Wunjo is the Frith and Harmony that exists when all people or forces are working together. It is also pleasure in general. It can bind several differing runes together, magickally. 
9. Hagalaz is hail. It is the universal seed of potential that allows all things to form. All other runes are contained within Hagalaz. It is a stave of protection and banishment in the seed-form. 
10. Nauthiz is need usually caused by distress. It represents the desire to improve, grow, the need for change. Can help you overcome negative Orlog. Creates a need for order. 
11. Isa is Ice. It is solidity, concentration, focus, and rigidity. Attraction, Gravity.
12. Jera is year. It is any cycle of time. It is the ever-continuous cycle of time. 
13. Eiwaz is the Yew tree. It is the axis of the macro and microcosm. It represents life, death, and stability. It is human spiritual enlightenment. 
14. Perthro is a gaming cup, or lot cup. It is the natural force of the past becoming what must be. It is an evolutionary force.  
15. Elhaz is the Elk. It represents passive protection. It utilizes the strength of stability to achieve an impregnable defense. It is a higher being. 
16. Sowilo is the sun. It is also lightning. It is inspiration from the gods. It is a tremendous sudden breakthrough and an almost overwhelming flow of insight or power.
17. Tiwaz is a spear, and the god Tyr. It represents warriors, and warrior’s codes. It is the ancient order, and decisive martial action. It also represents balance. 
18. Berkano is a birch. It represents the goddesses in general. It is also a container of other runes or forces. It is growing, and living, and femininity. 
19. Ehwaz is a horse. Actually, it is the combination of the horse and the rider. It is also twin gods, and two people working in unison. It is two people, totally focussed inward. It shows the close bond that the Germanic peoples have with the horse. Two forces that work harmoniously together. Sleipnir’s rune. 
20. Mannaz is mankind, Humanity. It is a human being in an evolved, divine state. A perfect state. It is the rune of blood brotherhood. It is the rune for Heimdalr. 
21. Laguz is water. It is the ethereal spiritual substance that exists between worlds, that "watery" realm of being that one must pass through when traveling to other worlds. It is related to herbal lore, and is the rune used to represent someone skilled in herb lore. It represents life (when the newborn child is sprinkled with water and named) and represents death (when the ship is sent to sea, burning, to carry the soul across the rivers that guard Asgard). 
22. Ingwaz is the Mighty Lord/King Yngvi. It also represents the God Freyr. It is a rune of gestation of magickal forces, until they can burst forth in full power. It is the secret of Freyr giving up his sword to acquire Gerda… and therefore it is sex-magick. 
23. Dagaz is Day. It is the light of mystical energy, the total awakening of the soul through the enlightenment that comes with meditation on the Odhinnic mysteries. It shows the secret of all power. 
24. Othala is ancestral property or inheritance. Not the physical wealth, but the property and the inborn, innate qualities that define the present person. Othala is a rune of Odin. It is a symbol of the whole might of the clan, past and present.