Runes
The runic system has been used by Nordic and Germanic tribes of Northern Europe for both secular and religious purposes. Although debatable among scholars, the first uses of them as a phonetic language can be dated back to the 2nd Century BC. The full alphabet was then developed as these tribes increased trade with Mediterranean neighbours who already possessed a fully developed alphabet. Prior to this, they were almost solely used as a magical system of pictograms, representing the objects and forces of nature.
The most common of the many Rune scripts is the Germanic or Elder
FUThARK, which was commonly used from about 200BC to the Late 8th Century. The form of the script can be put down to their method of creation. The linear nature of them is put down to the fact that a straight line is the easiest way to carve into an object. With the grained nature of wood, a hard wood would need to be used in order to make any curved carves cleanly.The knowledge of the runes and their use would have been kept by the village shaman and passed on orally to the "worthy" student or successor, but never written down, and never passed on flippantly. To the people who used or relied on them, they were the gateways to the Natural forces that shaped their lives. Today we have much less disregard for such forces for we feel that we can control them by use of science. In the 6th Century however, they would have been feared and revered for without the blessing of the forces of weather etc, their crops would not grow, and their houses would be destroyed. The shaman, therefore, had the quite unenviable task of harnessing these forces to create satisfactory conditions, or to predict the unsatisfactory.
Runes were then carved into many different objects in order to give the user(s) good luck, protection, favourable conditions or the like. They were carved into weapons, drinking horns, the prows of ships and the timbers of houses. Each of these had its own combination of runes for each specific purpose. In fact the fachwerk (half-timbered architectural style which gave birth to the Tudor Style) of Germanic houses often contain rune-forms within the structural timbers. The combination of runes was dictated by the individual
meanings of the runes.Because each rune has a meaning, they have also been used as a system of
divination similar to that of the tarot cards. It should however be noted, that as with many of these symbolic systems, the divination process is only as good as the mind which uses it. They can provide a series of variables revolving around the question or problem, and the reader must then be in tune with the runes and their personal significance to them. So, one shouldn't place total and utter faith in a single reading, but use it as an indicator strip for events which unfold.Another use of runes is in the form of talismans. These come in the form
Runescripts, and Bindrunes, which are the formation of a single symbol from multiple runes, and are carved into Tines. These are then worn by the magickian (the practicer of Magick not Magic, or parlour tricks like David Copperfield!) to exert the power for which it was made. It should be noted here that the talisman itself does not exert the actual power, it is the magickian who does this. The talisman simply acts as a temporal (earthly) focus for the spiritual powers that lie deep within us.Finally, to truly understand the runes, the practitioner needs to fully understand the origins of them as they existed within a society of people. This is far above and beyond the scope of this small piece of web space, but I have included some extra readings, and I hope soon to add some links. You need not actually embrace the ways of the Germanic tribespeople to use or even understand the runes. However, a thorough understanding of how the tribes formulated the links between the runes and the natural forces will help you understand how they link to the forces that you are subject to every day. Besides, a little more knowledge never killed anyone, and can only help to raise the overall consciousness of the planet- and that can't be too bad.