Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm sorry, but I am a little confused. If you are speaking of cultural appropriation and the Futhark, the only thing that comes to mind is to be sure you have a very indepth understanding of how the Mysteries themselves present in the runes.

Did that answer your question?

I have never used runes, I just wasn't interested in them. I must say at the very least having an understanding of the gods couldn't hurt in the least for helping understand the runes. You never know what you may find when you just open your mind to them.

Not the energies behind the runes - the runes are energies. You can't understand them without understanding the gods. And personally I think it's disrespectful to use them without giving some thanks to Oðinn. They were hard-won, and sacred to him. If you've no interest in Oðinn, I'm just curious as to why you'd want to learn them.

Look, essentially, they take years and years of study. More if you don't already have a grounding in Germanic religion. I can't guess why you'd want to use them if you aren't into Germanic recon, honestly. It's just too much work for something that won't mean as much to you personally as it would someone learning them to understand their gods and the mysteries of their religion.

I mean, check out this rune-poem:
"Dross comes from bad iron;
the reindeer often races over the frozen snow."
That's for Uruz. What does it mean? Why would you want to spend so long working it out?

The Germanic cultures are open, but it's still inappropriate to take sacred things out of their cultural context. Not only is it not actually going to work without the context, but it's disrespectful to the runes as sacred things and it's upsetting to those who hold them sacred.

I know your SO uses runes about which there is little information, and no available rune-poems as far as I know, but I still would not recommend it.

I don't mean to come off blunt, by the way. We come across plenty of people who buy into Ralph Blum and company who have taken the runes and essentially turned them into an entirely different divination system. It's rife, and it's highly regretable.

As an aside - the gods, at least those of the North, don't "represent" things. They're interested in things. They might have "spheres of influence". They have personalities, and likes and dislikes. Those might be the same as the likes and dislikes, or even duties, of gods in other cultures, but they're not the same entities for that reason alone. For example, the Romans had a habit of equating particular gods with those of their own, based on what they had in common. They linked Mercury with Oðinn - communication, ecstacy, travel. But not only have they very different personalities (and by extension, personal energies) they hold very different roles in their pantheons. Jupiter and Þorr, another example. I respect your views here, though I don't understand them wink

This is a very interesting subject to me as a linguist. There is no mysticism in language theory, but practically all written languages are credited with mystic origins. Is this rune work entirely reconstructional? And does it attempt to reconcile with modern theories of language and archeological/historical evidence, or is it drawn entirely from literary sources (i.e. eddas and saga)?

To any future readers:
The runes can be used for divination and spellwork, but that was not their original purpose by any stretch of the imagination. They were an alphabet, the ABCs of the Fennoscandic (plus Iceland, the Faroes, Greenland, and Vinland) people, not a mystic tongue that only the seið masters knew. Furthermore, each rune of the Elder Futhark (as well as Futhorc and the Younger Futhark) has a poem to go along with it which has deep philosophical meaning.

Fehu
Wealth is a source of discord amongst kin
and fire of the sea
and path of the serpent.

Uruz
Rain is lamentation of the clouds
and ruin of the hay-harvest
and abomination of the shepherd.

Thurisaz
Thurs ("Giant") is torture of women
and cliff-dweller
and husband of a giantess
Saturn's thegn.

Ansuz
Óss is aged Gautr
and prince of Ásgardr
and lord of Vallhalla
chief Jupiter.

Raido
Riding is of sitting a blessing
and swift journey
and horses toiling

Kenaz
Disease fatal to children
and painful spot
and abode of mortification.

Gebo
Generosity brings credit and honour, which support one's dignity;
it furnishes help and subsistence
to all broken men who are devoid of aught else.

Wunjo
Bliss he enjoys who knows not pain,
sorrow nor anxiety, and himself has
prosperity and bliss and a good enough house.

Halagaz
Hail is cold grain
and shower of sleet
and sickness of serpents.

Nauthiz
Constraint is grief of the bond-maid
and state of oppression
and toilsome work.

Isaz
Ice is bark of rivers
and roof of the wave
and destruction of the doomed.

Jera
Boon to men
and good summer
and thriving crops.

Eiwaz
Bent bow
and brittle iron
and giant of the arrow.

etcetera.

There are a few poems which deal with the runes and don't really have an attributed author these are

The Anglo Saxon Rune Poem
The Icelandic Rune Poem
The Norwegian Rune Poem

The Anglo Saxon Rune Poem as recorded was likely composed in the 8th or 9th century and was preserved in the 10th century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol. 165a – 165b, housed at the Cotton library in London, England. In 1731, the manuscript was lost with numerous other manuscripts in a fire at the Cotton library However, the poem had been copied by George Hickes in 1705 and his copy has formed the basis of all later editions of the poems.

The Havamal also contains references to the runes. I'll post up the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem and it's translation up...just need to figure out thich forum it belongs in.