Hi, my name is Bente, I'm the Norse Witch and welcome to another part in my rune series. This time we will talk about divination using the runes, finally, because so many of you were waiting for this topic. Just a heads up though, it's possible that this will be maybe a multi-part one, because I will show you my favorite ways to divine with the runes, and it's quite some methods, and I don't know how long it will take me to properly explain how to do it. So, let's get started. It's possible that I will only explain the easy fast ones in this video and then more complicated ones in follow-up videos.
We will see. I don't know yet. Before we start out with the methods of rune divination, I want to go a little bit into the sources and what we know about rune divination first. Because as always it's not a lot but it's still worth mentioning.
So I only know of three literary sources that mention rune divination or what we would think are about rune divination. Why? You will see soon.
The most important one of course is Tacitus Germania. It's the biggest account. Then we have the Inklinga saga and the Vita Ansgari but those two are very very tiny mentions but they're still important in my opinion.
But But let us first get into Tacitus Germania and what Tacitus says about rune divination. Oh, and by the way, there are of course multiple translations and the translations actually say different things sometimes, so I will go with the translation that I personally like most and that makes most sense to me and then I will tell you what other translations say about it. the differences.
Okay, so, Tacitus Germania says, For divination and the casting of lots, they have the highest regard. Their procedure in casting lots is always the same. They cut off a branch of a nut-bearing tree and slice it into strips.
These they mark with different signs and throw them completely at random onto a white cloth. Then the priest of the state, if the consultation is a public one, or the father of the family, if it is private, offers a prayer to the gods, and looking up at the sky, picks up three strips, one at a time, and reads their meaning from the signs previously scored on them. If the lots forbid an enterprise, there is no deliberation that day on the matter in question.
If they allow it, confirmation by the taking of auspices is required. So that is one translation. There are some different translations that say different things. For example, in this translation it says it has to be a nut-bearing tree.
I've also seen other translations that say just in general a fruit-bearing tree. So for example also an apple tree. Also this translation says a prayer to the gods is said. I have also seen translations that say that the gods are invoked, which for me personally is a different thing. And lastly, probably the most important difference, is that this translation says the wooden slices are cast at random on a white cloth and then three of them are picked while not looking at them.
And another translation that I've read actually said that each rune is picked up three times, which to me personally doesn't really make a lot of sense. So I go with this translation, it just makes more sense to me to pick three random runes. Why would you pick every rule three times? That doesn't really make a lot of sense. But I wanted to mention it.
So those are the different translations that I know of. If we look at the Inklinga saga and the Vita Ansgari, they don't say a whole lot more. They basically only also mention that there are wooden slices that are thrown at random and then interpreted. Which, it isn't a lot, but at least they say the same thing as Tacitus Germania. so that gives it more value.
It would probably suck if they would say completely different things, because then we wouldn't know what's correct. So the fact that three separate sources say basically the same thing gives it more value. But the thing is, and you've probably already noticed it, nothing in this text says that the symbols on the wooden slices are the runes that we work with today.
We also, at least as far as I know, we don't have any archaeological finds of any divination sets or rune sets or anything like that. Which makes sense if they were made from wood because wood breaks down very easily So as long as they don't throw them in a bog or something, they would have just broken down by now So that's probably why we haven't found any divination systems But as far as I know we don't have any so we don't know which symbols it was on these wooden slices that were interpreted It's possible that it was runes because I mean we know that Runes were used as like magical symbols, for example, and that they wrote with runes So it would make sense that It was the runes that we work with today, but we don't know for sure. We only know they had wooden slices with symbols on them and they interpreted them. It could have also been a completely unrelated set of symbols.
So you see, as kind of always, we don't really know a lot. We know something at least, but we don't really know a lot, which gives a lot of space for interpretations. It gives a lot of space for questions, but it also gives a lot of space for creativity. And that's why if you if you pick up two rune books, two books on the runes, two different authors, you will probably see two different ways of doing divination with runes, because a lot of people kind of come up with their own systems or like methods how they like to divine with the runes.
So the pattern of throwing you will see that pretty often because it also makes sense because it's mentioned in Tacitus Germania. So the throwing makes sense, but you will also see other things. Since we don't really know how exactly divination was done with the runes or if they even used the runes for divination, there is no one true way to do it and nobody can tell you that this is the way you have to do it. You can go by what your intuition says. If you feel like you want to throw the runes and then pick up one rune and interpret that, do that.
We don't know exactly how it was done so there's a lot of freedom in that. But yeah, in this video I will just show you the ways that I like to divine with the runes. As I said, could be a multi-part video.
We will see. Let's get rid of my face from the camera. Let's get into the divination methods. So the first way in which I like to do divination with the runes will seem very familiar to you if you read tarot.
So, of course, if you want to now say a prayer to the gods, you can. I usually don't, but what I... do is that I will say the question that I have out loud or I will say it into the bag of the runes depending on what I feel like that day and then I will just feel around the bag of runes and then I will just pick one. One single rune, Urus in this case, and that will be the answer to my question. And if I feel like I need more info I will go in again, I will ask for more insight and I will pick another rune.
So this would be a very very easy way to do divination with the runes. Basically the easiest way I can can think of and if you start out with runic divination probably this will be the way that will be most easy for you to get into it by just interpreting one rune at a time. Next up would be a way that's pretty similar because I'm pulling one rune at a time from the bag but it includes three different runes and It's pretty similar to a tarot spread and it's the past present future spread So I would again ask the question and then I would pull the first rune Which will represent the past for this question Then I would pull another rune which would be the present and another rune and that will be the future outcome.
I really like this way if you need some insight into a situation and how it developed over time then this method is very very convenient. I do this a lot actually and if you need more insight into these into the times so if you need more insight into the present for example you can also pull three runes for each so for example these three rules would be the present and and these three runes will be the past, etc. So in the end you will have three runes for the past, three runes for the present, and three runes for the future.
With these kinds of divination systems, you can pull as many cards or runes as you want. There is no, yeah, there is no wrong way to go about it really. The next method will be a little bit more difficult because it includes five runes. So the first thing that you will do is you will actually think about the question that you want to get some insight on and think about which rune represents that question.
So for example if I take all my runes and let's see I have a question about some travel that I'm doing for For example, then I would choose a ride or for example as the Significator for the question and I will put it in the center and Then what I would do afterwards is I would think of a cross that goes through my significator rune and here would be the line of time so again we have this past and future situation but we would also have two runes on the top and on the bottom. So let us first as I did previously think of the question and what the past influences were in the situation and then draw a rune. This will be the past influence and next up we will pull a future influence or the likely future outcome. Then we have the timeline and then We pull two other runes, one for the top, one for the bottom.
The bottom one would be advice from the gods or other entities, other spiritual beings. And the bottom would be influence or advice from my own. own subconscious. So I would ask for advice from the gods and from other spiritual beings on the question that I have and I would pull a rune for that.
Hagalas. Okay, interesting. And then I would pull another rune about my own subconscious influence on the situation.
Kenas. And this will be the finished reading. So we have the significator for the question which I choose myself, I don't pull.
Then we have the past influence, the likely future outcome, the advice from... the gods or other spiritual entities or spiritual beings and our own subconscious influence on the situation. These four.
I really really like this method when I need some yeah some deeper information insight and also some advice. I don't want to just know what the past influences were and what the outcome will be. I also want some advice on the situation.
So that is where I like this fourfold wheel as it is called. Sadly I don't remember from which book this method was but I really like this. I use it quite a lot. Next up is the eight-fold wheel, which is the four-fold wheel, but a little bit more juicy. So again, we will choose a significator rune for the reading.
So this signifies my question again. Then again, as we did with the fourfold wheel, we will pull a rune for the past influences. So what led to this situation. Then also the same as with the fourfold wheel, we have the likely outcome of the situation.
Again, the advice from the gods or other spiritual beings and influences from our own subconscious mind. This is unchanged. This is the same as it was with the fourfold wheel. But now it gets a little bit more interesting because we will add more rules.
here. Between these existing ones we will add four more runes and that makes it the Eightfold Wheel. First up we have the active past. Those are also past influences. but it's past influences that still affect the situation so they are still there they are lingering then next up down here we have also influences from the past because we are on the past side of the reading but these influences are past influences that cannot be changed they cannot be altered because they're wird related so they are a kind of fate related you cannot do anything about them where you can do something about it is right here on top This is the active future.
So this rune signifies what you can do to alter the situation, to change the situation, to save the situation possibly. And then lastly this one, this lower right one again on the future side, so it relates to the future, but it's also on the bottom. So like the inactive past rune, this inactive future rune signifies aspects in the future. and influences in the future that you cannot influence, you cannot affect, because again, they are virt-related. You cannot change them.
So this is the Eightfold Wheel. It's a little bit more difficult to do. There's a lot more runes to it than, for example, just a normal past, present, future rune reading.
But I personally really like this method if I need a lot of insight on a situation. How it is changing from the past to the future, what the outcome is and also which influences there are. Not even my own influences, but also from the outside. And I guess this is where I will wrap it up, because these are all the methods that I do that include drawing one single rune at a time from the bag.
All the other methods that I use include either... drawing a specific amount of runes from the bag and casting them on a cloth or using all the runes and casting them on a cloth. So I feel like this is a good natural cut. We will get into the casting throwing methods in the next video.
Before I close this video though, Patreon shoutout! Thank you very very much to Timothy, Anna, Qboard, Maud, Kaliach, Lorna, Victoria, Alexander, Laura, Bert, Amber, Kristen, John, Ivy, Phoenix, Anton, Noemi, Jenny, Tyler, Els, Betty, Misty, Cameron, Tiffany, Amy, Colette, Soren, Brayden, Tell, Timothy, Koffi, TheHonoraryGossipSquirrel, Bjorn, Scylla, Ash, Lucy and Joss. Thank you very very much. As always I really hope you enjoyed this video.
I hope it was helpful especially since so many people were waiting for this video. I really hope that it helped you. If it did, make sure to subscribe and give a thumbs up and of course check out my Instagram and TikTok, all my other shenanigans, and especially my online shop. I very regularly get new rune sets in, either made from wood or sometimes from crystals or stones, so make sure to check out my online shop.
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