Rune magick is the practice of using runes, ancient symbols of the Germanic peoples, for divination, protection and spellwork. Runes are a tool used in Wiccan magick that come from a long Nordic history. While there are several different types of runes, we are focusing on the 24 Elder Futhark runes in this article. This is a brief overview of runes, from their history to using them in your current magickal workings.
What Are Runes, Exactly?
Runes are the earliest known writing system of the Germanic peoples. They were used and developed across northern Europe and functioned as much more than just letters. Each rune was carved as a picture, or symbol, that represents a powerful force. When these people wrote runes, they were working with those forces to bring about different outcomes, similar to how we witches use spells and incantations to manifest different results.
Each rune has a different magickal significance, as well as a visual and sound form that it represents. Each runic alphabet is called a “futhark,” which is named after its first six runes (Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho and Kenaz).
There are three main futharks: the Elder Futhark, the Younger Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. We will focus on the Elder Futhark, the oldest fully formed runic alphabet. It was in use from around the 2nd century CE until roughly the 8th century.
How to Use Runes
Runes are generally carved into wood, stone, bone or metal. Traditionally, simply drawing runes on paper isn’t thought to carry the same power. The person using the runes can hold them and absorb their energies, and while paper and pen can work with certain methods, runes have been a physical tool since their creation.
Many people make their own runes, but it’s perfectly acceptable to use a ready-made rune set. Just make sure to cleanse and charge them to truly make them yours. You can cleanse a new set with incense smoke, moonlight or a bowl of salt, then charge each rune by holding it, breathing on it and speaking its name and meaning aloud.
During the time period when runes were created, the spoken word held a lot of power. It was thought that words spoken out loud were given a physical form, and that words created reality, not reality creating words.
When you use runes, you are invoking powerful magick, and understanding which rune to use is important in your spellwork. You can use runes as a divination tool, and as symbols in spellcasting and manifestation.
7 Ways to Work with Runes, From Beginner to Advanced
There’s no single right way to begin with runes. These seven practices start simple and build up, so you can grow your relationship with them one step at a time.
1. Draw a Daily Rune
Each morning, pull one rune from your bag without looking and ask what you need to know for the day. Read its meaning, carry the message with you, and note it down in a journal. Over a few weeks, you’ll learn the runes far faster than by memorizing them from a list, because each one gets tied to a real day in your life.
2. Carry or Wear a Rune
Choose one rune for something you want more of in your life, and keep it close: in your pocket, in your purse, or as a pendant. Algiz is a classic choice for protection, Fehu for money and Wunjo for joy. Charge it with your intention first, and it becomes a simple talisman that works for you all day.
3. Meditate with a Single Rune
Sit quietly with one rune in front of you or in your hand. Gaze at its shape, then close your eyes and picture it glowing in your mind’s eye. Breathe slowly and notice what feelings, images or memories come up. Working with one rune at a time this way, over days or weeks, gives you a personal understanding of its energy that no book can.
4. Use Runes in Candle Magick
Carve a rune into a candle that matches your intention, like Fehu on a green candle for money, Gebo on a pink candle for love, or Algiz on a black or white candle for protection (more on candle colors in this article). Anoint the candle with an oil that suits your goal, state your intention, and let it burn while you focus on what you’re calling in. Candle magick and runes make a natural pair, since the flame releases the rune’s energy as it burns.
5. Cast Runes for Divination
Once you know the meanings, use rune spreads to answer questions. The simplest is a single rune for a quick answer, sometimes called Odin’s rune. A three-rune spread can show past, present and future, or the situation, the challenge and the outcome. More experienced readers cast nine runes onto a cloth and read them by where they fall and which way up they land.
6. Chant the Runes (Galdr)
Galdr is the ancient Norse practice of chanting or singing the runes’ names to raise their power. Choose a rune, breathe deeply, and intone its name slowly and repeatedly, letting the sound vibrate through your body. Some practitioners pair galdr with rune postures, holding their bodies in the shape of the rune as they chant. It takes practice, but it’s one of the most powerful ways to awaken a rune’s energy.
7. Create a Bindrune
A bindrune combines two or more runes into a single symbol, merging their energies towards one specific goal. For example, Fehu and Jera together for steady, lasting prosperity, or Algiz and Othala together for protecting your home. Sketch the runes overlapping, sharing lines where you can, until they form one balanced design. Then carve or draw it, and charge it as you would a single rune.
Keep bindrunes simple: two or three runes is plenty. Check your finished design carefully, because overlapping lines can accidentally create extra runes you didn’t intend, like Isa or Thurisaz, which could block or complicate your working.
The 24 Elder Futhark Runes and Their Meanings
The following are the runes you will see when you begin working with them. The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark are traditionally divided into three groups of eight, called aettir: Freyr’s aett, Hagal’s aett and Tyr’s aett.
Fehu (Feoh) ᚠ
Attracts wealth, initiates prosperous enterprises, brings motivation and activity, circulates abundance and life-force, and invokes the fire of the heavenly bodies. Repeated use of Fehu will give you a larger capacity to send and receive energy. Use to advance projects and goals to the next stage, to protect property and valuables, to give your career an added boost, and to increase wealth.
Uruz (Ur) ᚢ
Enhances strength, removes weaknesses and self-doubt, and draws earth and oak-strength into the personal sphere. Use to draw new situations to you, to initiate new processes, or to divert difficulties through sudden change.
Thurisaz (Thorn) ᚦ
Brings breakthroughs and catalyzes change and regeneration, beginnings, luck, dynamic defense and protection. Can break barrenness and stimulate fruitfulness.
Ansuz (Asa) ᚨ
Promotes word power and eloquence, increases spiritual consciousness and wisdom, invokes the hidden divinity within, and strengthens the Magician-Self-Persona. Brings inspiration, ecstasy, trance, increased psychism and the unleashing of divine power. Use when preparing for or taking an exam, giving a speech or presentation, writing a proposal, or composing any type of written information. Use when working with genealogical information to cultivate or remember ancestral power. Ansuz is the rune of hypnotherapists and those who study past-life regression, as Odin (the primary god of the Norse pantheon) is the Lord of the Slain and keeper of this hidden power.
Raidho (Rad) ᚱ
The rune of ritual and astral travel. Establishes rightful order and arrangements, obtains justice, and assists in finding the right way and orientation of one’s true purpose in life. Brings progress and good counsel, sustains the world order, brings attunement to cosmic harmonies, and helps to right unsteady and wayward situations. Moves or removes energies, and directs them to a specific destination. Inscribe or paint Raidho on your vehicle to carry you safely from destination to destination. Excellent for divination, astral travel, meditation and hypnosis.
Kenaz (Cen) ᚲ
The rune of openings. Awakens executive ability, unleashes skills and prolific creative impulses, reveals secrets, finds hidden knowledge, works well in love magick, kindles the flame of knowledge and the cunning of one’s mind, transforms energies onto higher creative levels, and increases artistic craft.
Gebo (Gyfu) ᚷ
An energy of balance. Promotes generosity and exchange, and brings gifts and mutual benefits. A powerful enhancer of marriages, partnerships, bonding and relationships. Establishes mutual giving, brings good luck and abundance, and bridges the human and divine realms.
Wunjo (Wyn) ᚹ
The Wish Rune, and one of the most powerful runes in the entire set. Induces success and harmony with others, and heals disagreements between individuals and groups. Brings contact with like-minded people, and establishes empathy, fellowship and friendly interaction. Promotes peace, fruitfulness and sensuality.
Hagalaz (Haegl) ᚺ
The rune of protective holism, which turns away storms and evil spells, crystallizes the life-pattern, and facilitates shamanic passage between the worlds. Useful for overcoming obstacles, banishing bad habits and aiding in decision making. A blessing rune in marriage or partnerships if used in its protective energies.
Nauthiz (Nyd) ᚾ
The banishing rune. Helps turn frustration and stress to one’s advantage. Liberates from constrictions, and loosens the bonds of ill Wyrd (karmic destiny). Enables one to turn a bad situation into a good one. Used to bind in curses, and considered a war fetter. When the situation is hopeless, use Nauthiz. A general magickal rune that can be used for the success of any venture and to free one from all locks and fetters.
Isa (Is) ᛁ
A blocking rune, which hinders, slows and stops events. It freezes and obliterates unwanted activity, and can be a bringer of stillness and total stasis. Provides clarity, inward focus, concentration, strength in solitude, and a turning to one’s center of gravity. Helps ferret out your enemies. A binding rune. Can be used to cancel unwanted aggressiveness or to stop someone who is harassing you.
Jera (Jera) ᛃ
A bringer of gentle revolution and improvement. Use when material results are expected, especially if you have spent your time, money or effort. Promotes change for the better. Realizes the natural cycle and manifests the true results of one’s own efforts. Establishes peaceful prosperity and brings productive results. Most helpful in legal matters, as well as workings involving fertility magick. Jera can turn any dream into reality, and is considered a luck rune. Draw it in indelible ink or waterproof paint on any item for long-lasting prosperity. An excellent rune for herbalists, gardeners, farmers and landscapers.
Eihwaz (Eoh) ᛇ
A rune of endurance, for hardening one’s self and achieving true aims. A hunter rune for stalking and attaining an objective, which facilitates the ability to survive. A potent magickal protector. Can bring initiation and understanding of fate. A guard against self-destructive behavior, and a supportive rune to work with alongside proper help when overcoming addiction. Use to find lost objects, complete a challenging task, or find a new job or home. Gives strength.
Perthro (Peorth) ᛈ
The rune for understanding Wyrd and the hidden roots of past incarnations, and for unlocking ancestral memories. Use in divination, meditation, self-hypnosis and hypnosis therapy. Provides answers to mysteries. This rune is shaped like a cup. In magick, some practitioners hold that when the cup’s opening faces right, it equates to birth, and when it faces left, it equates to death.
Algiz (Elhaz) ᛉ
The guardian rune of activated higher consciousness, protection, and the confident warding away or destruction of harm and hostile forces. An active ward and defender. Increases the field of one’s magickal power. Draw this sigil on anything you want to protect, including your mail.
Sowilo (Sol) ᛊ
A rune of self-orientation and guidance towards the light. Used to strengthen the magickal will of the witch. Invokes the solar power of victory and success, and promotes illumination and spiritual willpower. Draws the female energy of the sun into the personal sphere. (In the Norse tradition, the sun is feminine and the moon is masculine.) Excellent for promoting self-confidence.
Tiwaz (Tyr) ᛏ
The victory rune. Brings victory in contests, trials and legal judgments. An upholder of faith, steadfastness and honor, which increases loyalty to higher ideals. Strengthens confidence during ordeals and competition, invokes justice, maintains order, sustains promises and oaths, and brings a lawful outcome. In healing work, it’s associated with speeding recovery. It cannot be used to pervert justice. Carve it on any weapon to be used for right justice.
Berkano (Beorc) ᛒ
A promoter of new beginnings, which brings ideas and projects to a bright conclusion. A birth rune in matters of femininity and motherhood. This besom rune invokes the energies of the Earth Mother, and brings things safely from conception to birth. Used in healing work for women’s health. An excellent protective rune for young children and teenage girls.
Ehwaz (Eh) ᛖ
A rune of partnership, marriage and pact. Binds a pair together towards a mutual end, and facilitates movement over obstacles. A bringer of swift change, progress and motion. A general good-luck charm to pull towards you the protection and safe bonds of friendship. Can be employed to find mundane transportation for the magickal person when needed, and used in astral travel.
Mannaz (Man) ᛗ
A thought-rune for increasing intelligence and intellectual power. Brings success in study and mental effort, aids social integration and career potential, and is a bringer of psychic harmony. Helps one to realize one’s full human potential, and gains help from others.
Laguz (Lagu) ᛚ
The rune of the occult. Holds both the constructive and destructive power of the lunar tides. Increases intuition, psychic seership and clairvoyance. Gives access to the realm of dreams. Good for drawing down moon energy. Invokes the mutable energy of sorcery. Use as a magickal net to cast out and draw in needed energies, or to put someone gently to sleep, bringing pleasant dreams.
Ingwaz (Ing) ᛜ
Brings focus and centering, invokes inner energy in expansion, and promotes fertile opportunities. Very powerful in erotic spells, and an awakener of masculine fertility and phallic force. In healing work, it’s associated with clearing illusions and restoring balance. Calms domestic difficulties and brings safety to the home or work environment. Helps bring about a successful conclusion to any matter, increases fertility, and allows one to release energy quickly.
Dagaz (Dag) ᛞ
A harbinger of total light and enlightenment. Brings the dawn of a new day and opens doors on all planes to complete realization. Induces cosmic consciousness, invokes perfection, and helps situations and matters to flower. A potent protector of portal gateways. Renders a person or thing invisible. Banishes negativity. Use for financial increase, to change another’s attitude, or to assist in launching a new project. A good-luck charm. Comforts those who are grieving, and is used in healing work to ease pain and sickness.
Othala (Odal) ᛟ
Enhances the peace, security and prosperity of home and hearth. Draws fortunate influences into a dwelling, aids in putting down roots, protects and screens the house enclosure, safeguards monetary investments, and invokes the earth and ancestral tradition.
Final Thoughts on Rune Magick
While you are using these runes in your magickal workings, remember the meaning and the invocation that you are attempting to work with during your practice. Runes are powerful forces, and can become a powerful tool in every witch’s arsenal. To see an example of how to use runes in your magick, check out this rune protection spell.
For more in-depth information about runes, Edred Thorsson’s Runecaster’s Handbook is an excellent source of knowledge.
Kelly has been a practicing witch for over 10 years, and loves educating newbies to the craft! She tends to be drawn to tarot cards, scrying, and candle magick. This interest in Paganism and magick started at a young age – Kelly’s mom always says that she’s channeled Wednesday Addams, even as little girl! Kelly is a proud Ravenclaw, fangirl, believe of superheroes and fairytales, and obsesses easily. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter for more.
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