DEFINITION:
A character of the Germanic/Scandinavian alphabet. The original meaning of the word "rune" in most of the Germanic languages is secret or mystery, In Freya Aswynn's Northern Mysteries & Magick, "rune" is used to denote any sign or "letter."
Related Encyclopedia Articles
by Donald Tyson
The earliest allusions to runes concern divination. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing in 98 A.D., describes how the German priests would cut a bough from a tree and divide it into pieces, then distinguish them by carving into their bark "certain marks." The twigs were cast over a white cloth at ...
by Donald Tyson
Modern rune rituals are sometimes done entirely with visualization - the runes are made in the astral world and are never actually written down or carved on any material. This technique works fairly well, but it is not in harmony with the ancient practice. In ancient times one of the constants of ...
by Donald Tyson
The runes are a set of symbols that concisely embody the most potent magical system of the ancient world. Because rune magic was rarely described in written records, persecution by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages succeeded in obliterating almost the entire tradition of rune use from the ...
by Donald Tyson
Before the runes can be effective for works of magic or divination, they must be understood on the intuitive level and made to come alive in the unconscious. This will occur over time simply by using them, but the process can be encouraged through regular meditation upon the individual rune ...
by Donald Tyson
Runes are the manifest symbols through which rune magic is worked. They can be employed for all of the magical purposes that other magical systems serve, but they possess unique aspects that make them superior for certain uses.
Because they were forged over the centuries in the same creative fire ...
by Donald Tyson
Over the last century or so, several theories have arisen on the origin of the runes, each having a strong body of supporters at different times. The nineteenth-century Danish rune scholar L. F. A. WimmerM, struck by the obvious similarity between certain runes and Latin letters, put forward the ...
by Donald Tyson
Runes have always been mysterious and forbidding. The very word "rune" means a secret, a mystery. In popular folklore runes are dangerous, evil, pitiless, and destructive. But how did runes get so wicked a reputation? Part of it can be attributed to the magical efficacy of the runes. Rune magicians ...