Three Rune Reading

Choose three rune stones to begin

Your Three Rune Reading

Three runes tell three parts of your story. The first looks at an important situation in your past, the second at the present, and the third at the near future. These are usually closely connected: how an event began, how it is unfolding, and where it may lead. If the future rune is not what you hoped for, remember that you still have time and the power to change things in your favor. Forewarned, you can take charge of your own destiny.

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Rune Readings

Runes, Dragons, Valkyries, and the Future

Rune stones and the world of Norse legends Treasure, dragons, heroes, and ancient gods: all have a place in the story of runes. The word comes from the old Germanic root run, meaning “secret.” Germanic peoples often turned to rune magic. In Norse mythology, even Odin, the highest of the gods, learned their secret.

One poem in the Poetic Edda, “The Lay of Sigrdrifa,” describes the magical power of runes:

These are beech-runes,
birth-runes,
ale-runes,
and runes of magic.
Whoever has learned them,
without confusing
or spoiling them,
can use them well.
Keep that knowledge
until the gods perish!

Birth-runes, intended to help a woman in labor, were drawn on her palms and around her wrists. The elves, spirits of nature and divine beings, were then called upon. These runes are associated with Norse goddesses, possibly Freyja, Berchta, and Frigg.

Ale-runes have protective power. They were learned to prevent a woman one trusted from betraying that trust. They could also help conceal a love affair:

Learn ale-runes
if you do not want
another man’s wife
to repay your trust
with treachery.
Carve them on the horn
and the back of your hand;
mark Naud on your nail.

Warriors turned to victory-runes, including a rune connected with will, a rune of the homeland that gives strength, and Odin’s rune.

Runes hold an honored place in a vast literary heritage: Beowulf, the Song of the Nibelungs, the Poetic Edda, and the Prose Edda. These works tell of Siegfried, the monster Grendel, and dragons. They describe runes themselves and many of their protective powers.

There is a rune to protect against poison. Sea-runes give power over the elements. Those seeking wisdom or an answer would turn to spirit-runes or thought-runes, which strengthen memory and bring inspiration. Speech-runes were used to win contests of words, including arguments in court. The instruction to “twist and weave runes” meant making an amulet. Healing runes were used to protect health.

Germanic divination reaches farther back than these literary works. In the first century BCE, Julius Caesar described women casting lots to decide whether the time was right for battle.

Thousands of years have passed. Monsters and dragons have disappeared, but the runes remain, along with the magic that reveals the future. A three-rune reading is especially suited to this: one rune for your past, one for your present, and one for the near future.