Dear Friends,
Have you ever felt like you were in a rut? Maybe you’ve enjoyed a hobby for years, but then the initial spark of creativity and exploration fizzled out? A few weeks ago, “A Green Spell” asked a question about reading runes creatively. She’s been reading runes for years, but is now looking for ways to add a little zing and new inspiration to her readings. Here’s what she has to say:
I’ve learned a lot about [runes] from my research and from having done many readings with them, but I’m finding it harder to glean information from them…In other words, my familiarity with them has caused me to become “boxed in” with interpretations. Unlike tarot cards, in which different decks offers different illustrations and ways to pick up messages, runes are pretty standard! So if you have any ideas on how to open the mind to interpretations, I’d love to read it!
I totally see where she’s coming from, and I’m sure you do too. I wrote to “A Green Spell” after reading her comment and told her that even though runes are not my forte, I would play around with them to see what I could come up with and ask any readers to submit their suggestions as well (hint hint).
The best part for me was getting out my runes, which I made a few years ago. They are so happy and colorful, and I love Love LOVE looking at them. Looking at them is more productive for me so far than reading them is, even though I have been reading Helen Riding’s 12-week online runes course (great job Helen!). Instead of considering my lack of rune knowledge a detriment, I decided it would help me think “outside of the box”, since I didn’t know enough about the box to be in it 
Because I read tarot by getting impressions by looking at the pictures, I decided to look at the runes as pictures too. I picked a rune and stared at it until I made an association with something familiar. Then I thought about what feelings that image brought to mind. I asked a question & then looked at the runes to see if I could get anything (which I did!). It was pretty cool because I don’t know what each rune means, but many times I would compare what I got from looking at the rune to a meaning I found online, and they were very similar. Of course, your interpretation doesn’t have to be similar to traditional meanings in order to be accurate.
Another thing I noticed was that some runes look like combinations of other runes. For example, I drew the Othila rune in answer to a question (shown on the left in my paint program masterpiece below). As I looked at the rune, I rotated it sideways and thought of a fish, then schools of fish, then school. It was a career question, and the person was interested in working with schools, so that was pretty cool. Then I noticed that many other rune shapes can be seen in Othila, like Gebo, Inguz, and Kenaz. I looked up the meanings for those runes, and they added more insight into my reading and matched some of the meanings I had come up with before looking online!
Okay, friends, those are my ideas. We need your help! I’m sure many of you are more familiar with runes than I am and can offer great creative ideas for getting “outside the box”. Please comment with your insights.
Thank you so much!
Melanie Jade
