What are the Runes?

The runes are a set of symbols or letters, that were used in the ancient Germanic world. They say that the reason for their angular shapes was that because it was easy to carve them into wood and stone, as opposed to writing by ink on paper, like the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are not angular like the runes.

If you ask the academics, they will tell you that these symbols were purely a writing system and nothing else. However, if you consult the old myths and the numerous people, who work with the runes, they will tell you that they are also magical energies, which can be discovered personally and then used to perform readings and divinations. The word rune in ancient Germanic languages generally means mysteries or secrets, as well as letter.

Such a concept of letters of an alphabet having secret meanings and representing certain energies of the universe is not limited to the runes. Other alphabets also claim to have such power. For example, the ancient Hebrew alphabet is said to contain a lot of wisdom in just the letters themselves. There are other alphabets, which are said to have this information in them. It takes a seeker and his/her desire to discover the mysteries within them.

According to legends, it is possible to learn the wisdom of the world, its structure, its mysteries, its functions and even its history of creation by the means of studying each rune in order. Each rune shows you a basic energy, which permeates the whole of creation and you can find out how it manifests in our world and how it all fits together. 

According to myth, Odin sacrificed himself to himself, by hanging from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, upside down and stabbing himself with his spear, bleeding, for nine days and nine nights. He wanted to gain the wisdom of the world, to get the runes to be revealed to him. 

Finally, the runes were revealed to him and he screamed in pleasure and fell off the tree. It is said that a part of him died and a part remained alive to receive the runes. He had gone through a major transformation, a rebirth of a sort and had also become a shaman, who could travel all of the worlds of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. The runes did not only give him the wisdom, but also the ability to manipulate energies.

Odin became the keeper of the runes and he is the giver of the runes to people. Luckily, he does not require us to sacrifice as much as he did to receive them. 

I do not cover too many specific details here and please forgive me if this story is too general. There are many sources available online, which do a much better job of telling the story of Odin and the runes and I do not want to attempt to offer another detailed account of this story.

What I am attempting to do here is to report on my findings about the runes, as I discover them one by one psychically. I also hope to be transformed by the runes. 

I believe that in our age today, we can discover the world not only through books and the knowledge of those, who have written things down before us, but we can also tap into the ancient universal knowledge by activating and using our psychic perception.

I am eternally grateful to Odin, who is the generous giver of the magnificent mysteries of the world to those who seek it.

Image of the stone with rune inscription above by Paolo Ghedini from Pixabay.

Runes image by Geraldine Dukes from Pixabay