book of runes ralph blum

8/2/2019 Book of Runes Ralph Blum

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THE VIKING RUNES (readfrom right to left)i k

nfsHNXjfaThBtoK.^irtlP5. Strength 4. Retreat 3. Signals 2. Partnership 1. The Self)tlM^jrfnc,

10. Protection 9. Defense 8. Fertility 7. Constraint 6. Initiation

/

15. Warrior 14. Opening 13. Harvest 12. Joy 11. Possessions

20. Journey 19. Disruption 18. Flow 17. Movement 16. Growth

' NyfH


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THE VIKING RUNES Traditional Meanings '

nX

the SelfPartnership

t 5c"naU

ft Retreat

h StrengthInitiationConstraint

5 Fer-bLfUjDefense

rr

ProtectionPoSSesSIOrtSJocj

WarriorQroroth

M MooeraentFLotoDisruptionJowrneq

I

(qatezdatjbreakthrough.Standstill

i zonolenessthe tinknoLO^bLe

Man, the Human RaceA Gift, Offerings from the Gods or from Chiefs to LoyalFollowersGod, the God Loki, Mouth (source of Divine Utter-ances), RivermouthProperty or Inherited Possessions, also Native Land,HomeStrength, Sacrificial Animal, the Aurochs (bos primige-nius), species of wild oxUncertain Meaning, a Secret Matter (Rune of Mystery)Need, Necessity, Constraint, Cause of Human Sorrow,Lessons, HardshipIng, the Legendary Hero, later a GodYew-tree, a Bow Made of Yew, Rune Magic, AvertivePowers: Runic Calendars or "Primstaves"Protection, Defense, the Elk, Sedge or EelgrassCattle, Goods, the Vital Community WealthJoy, also in Cynewulf's Runic Passages, Absence of Suf-fering & SorrowYear, Harvest, A Fruitful YearTorch, Skiff, Ulcer, Associated with Cult of the GoddessNerthusVictory in Battle, a Guiding Planet or Star, the God TfwBirch Tree, Associated with Fertility Cults, Rebirth,New LifeHorse, Associated with the Course of the SunWater, Sea, a Fertility Source (See Grendel's Mere inBeowulf)Hail, Sleet, Natural Forces that DamageA Riding, a Journey: Refers to the Soul After Death,Journey CharmGiant, Demon, ThornDay, God's Light, Prosperity and FruitfulnessIce, Freezing, in the Prose Edda the Frost-giant Ymir isBorn of IceThe SunThe Rune of Destiny


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To lend courage to virtueand ardor to truth . . .Dr. Samuel Johnson


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TheBOOKOfRUNES


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TheBOOKOfRUNES

A Handbook for the Use ofan Ancient Oracle:The Viking Runes

Ralph Blum

ST. MARTIN S PRESSNEW YORK


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CONTENTS

Preface 7Introduction 12

1. The Oracle of the Self 172. The Emergence of the Runes 233. Consulting the Oracle 354. Runemal: The Art of Rune Casting 445. Theater of the self 606. Interpreting the Runes 657. Afterword: Magic in the Present Tense 120

Selected Bibliography 122Guides to the Transformational Process 124The New Oracle Foundation 126


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ifty?4W:yw/j*i^

This book is lovingly dedicatedto

Margaret Mead


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PREFACE

The Runes as described here are healing, merci-ful Runes; they will do you no harm. Learn theirlanguage and let them speak to you. Play with thepossibility that they can provide "a mirror for themagic of our Knowing Selves," a means of communi-cation with the knowledge of our subconsciousminds.

Remember that you are consulting an Oraclerather than having your fortune told. An Oracle doesnot give you instruction as to what to do next, nordoes it predict future events. An Oracle points yourattention towards those hidden fears and motiva-tions that will shape your future by their unfelt pres-ence within each present moment. Once seen andrecognized, these factors become absorbed into therealm of choice. Oracles do not absolve you of theresponsibility for selecting your future, but ratherdirect your attention towards those inner choicesthat may be the most important elements in deter-mining that future.


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8How can random selection of marked stones tell

you anything about yourself? Perhaps these Runeinterpretations are simply so evocative that eachcontains some point which can be accepted as relevantto some part of what is happening at the limits ofconsciousness any day, any time, to anyone. That isthe easiest possibility to accept from a strictly scien-tific standpoint. Nevertheless, my own play withthese Runes has shown coincidence piled upon coin-cidence and an apparently consistent "appropriate-ness" in each Rune reading which is difficult to ex-plain by the mechanism I have just described.

Can there be other factors that distort the ex-pected randomness of Rune selection so as to pro-vide a language by which the subconscious makesitself and its expectations known? For myself, Imaintain an open mind, reminding myself that ob-servations should not be discounted simply becausetheir underlying mechanisms have not yet beensatisfactorily explained.

So go ahead. Try out these Runes. See if thisOracle can mirror your subconscious process, butremember that such a link may take practice to de-velop. The Rune interpretations offered here comefrom the meditations of a gentle, healing mind. Theywill speak to you of change and growth. The onlynegativity you will find here relates to the blockageof appropriate growth, while all the positive aspectsare transcendent, transforming and lead to break-throughs. The subconscious you will encounter here


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is not a fearsome beast in need of obedience training.It is the inner seeker-after-truth who must be helpedto save us from ourselves.

Dr. Martin D. RaynerProfessor of PhysiologyUniversity of Hawaii School of Medicine


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1

'?* .::,. ,_,,,,,..Odin on the Yggdrasil, ' "\^-. """? r'A': ::'J.^kor World Tree, ^ . f v" " """"Spies the Runes


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HAVAMAL'THE SPEECH OF THE HIGH ONE"1

/ know I hung on that windy tree,Swung there for nine long nights,Wounded by my own blade,Bloodied for Odin,Myself an offering to myself:Bound to the treeThat no man knowsWhither the roots of it run.None gave me bread,None gave me drink.Down to the deepest depths I peeredUntil I spied the Runes.With a roaring cry I seized them up,Then dizzy and fainting, I fell.Well-being I wonAnd wisdom too.I grew and took joy in my growth:From a word to a wordI was led to a word,From a deed to another deed.

From the Old NorseThe Poetic Edda (ca. a.d. 1200)

t^$:^-L


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INTRODUCTION

Few people today have even heard the word"Runes." Among those of Scandinavian descent andamong readers of Tolkien, yes, a light goes on. Butthat's about the extent of it. An ancient alphabeticscript each of whose letters possessed a meaningfulname as well as a signifying sound, Runes were em-ployed for poetry, for inscriptions and divination,yet never evolved as a spoken language. Next tonothing has been written about Runes as a contem-porary Oracle.

The midwifing of alphabets and Oracles is astrange and mysterious transaction. Both the alpha-betical ordering and the letter interpretations foundin The Book of Runes are non-conventional. Yet thereis historical support for such flexibility. The greatDanish scholar L. F. A. Wimmer regarded the crea-tion of the runic alphabet as the work of one un-known individual (rather than as an evolutionaryprocess), much as Bishop Wulfila created the Gothicalphabet for the West Goths of the fourth century.12


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13Moreover, the interpretations of the Runes as usedfor divination are lost to us. While legomonismthepassing on of sacred knowledge through initiationwas, no doubt, practiced among Rune Masters of old,their secrets were not recorded or, if recorded, didnot survive.My first attempt at writing a handbook for theuse of the Runes as an Oracle included seventy-threepages of history, philology and archeology. But thenmy way of learning a subject is to research it, digestit, synthesize and write it and, finally, with the firmhand of a friendly editor guiding my own, to cut thetext severely. For support and courage in this notinconsiderable task, I gratefully thank my editor,Bronwyn Jones. Practicing self-control in limitingthe contents of this book involved me in the disci-pline of the Spiritual Warrior, the one whose aim isalways to be impeccable in his or her conduct.

It is with the Spiritual Warrior in mind at alltimes that I have composed The Book of Runes. TheSpiritual Warrior is free of anxiety, radically alone,unconcerned with outcomes; he or she practices ab-solute trust in the struggle for awareness, and isconstantly mindful that what matters is to have atrue present It takes a long time to grow in wisdom,to say nothing of the long time it takes to learn tothink well. Following the Warrior Way is not foreveryone, although it is available to all who arewilling to undergo its hardships. To embark on thepath is to cultivate the Witness Self, the Watcher


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14Within, the one who can profitably converse withthe Runes.

For my own introduction to the study of Ora-cles I am indebted to Dr. Allan W. Anderson of theDepartment of Religious Studies, San Diego StateUniversity. Dr. Anderson, who has a substantialworking knowledge of Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek andChinese, teaches a course entitled "The OracularTradition/7 in which he presents the / Ching as "theonly systematic sacred text we possess/7 His influ-ence, his spirit, his concepts* provide a unique teach-ing of the finest art of allthe art of self-change.

I have included at the end of The Book of Runes aSelected Bibliography for those who wish to press onin the study of runology. However, since to myknowledge there is in print no work having for itsfocus the practical application of runic wisdom forself-counseling, that is the primary purpose of thisbook. A second short bibliography, Guides to theTransformational Process, is included for those whohave chosen to follow what Black Elk calls "the pathwith a heart/7 the path of the Spiritual Warrior.Before beginning to write, I consulted the Runesabout the timeliness of the undertaking. I drew threeRunes and got Inguz [$] , the Rune of Fertility andNew Beginnings; Nauthiz [YJ , the Rune of Neces-sity, Constraint and Pain; and Dagaz [m] , the Rune*"Strive to live the ordinary life in a non-ordinary way. ... In thespiritual life there is no momentum: you are always at the beginning."


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15of Breakthrough and Transformation. The Book ofRunes was conceived in one fertile sleepless night.The constraint required for the amputation of thoseseventy-three pages was certainly not without pain.Yet through it all I kept mindful of a French saying,'Tain is the craft entering into the apprentice." Thework itself has been a source of transformation inmy own life and, through their introduction to theRunes, in the lives of many others.

All along the way, since beginning this book,there have been positive signs and omens. The finalsign came as I completed the Afterword. Since thelast Rune Masters lived in seventeenth-century Ice-land, it seemed to me fitting to close the loop withan Icelandic blessing. In order to check the spellingof Gud blessi thig, the Icelandic for "God bless you/7I placed a call to the Icelandic Consulate in NewYork. The woman who answered confirmed thespelling. When I told her what I was writing, andabout my work with the Runes, she paused a longmoment, then said, "My name is Sigrun. It means'Rune of Victory/ "


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ENVOIGod within me, God without,How shall I ever be in doubt?There is no place where I may goAnd not there see God's face, not knowI am God's vision and God's ears.So through the harvest of my yearsI am the Sower and the Sown,God's Self unfolding and God's own.

Grave stone, St. Lars Church, Linkoping,tenth century


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-RMSSsO^S{f^^gy^fruiremTfrvirwiMiffl

THE ORACLEOF THE SELF

oracle, /rom /fo Z,a/m oraculum, divine announcement . . . l.among the ancient Greeks and Romans, a) the place where, or mediumby which, deities were consulted; b) the revelation or response of amedium or priest; 2. a) any person or agency believed to be in communi-cation with a deity; b) any person of great knowledge or wisdom; c)opinions or statements of any such oracle; j) the holy of holies of theancient Jewish Temple.

Webster's New World DictionaryAnd the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the

ark of the covenant of the Lord.I Kings 6:1p

The purpose of this book is to reintroduce anancient Oracle, the Runes. Older than the New Tes-tament, the Runes have lain fallow for more than300 years. Akin in function to the Tarot and theChinese Book of Changes, the Runes were last in cur-rent use in Iceland during the late Middle Ages. Intheir time they served as the / Ching of the Vikings.Like all true Oracles, the Runes are an instrument fortuning in to our own wisdom.

*7


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18At our best, each of us is a channel through

which God's wisdom flows, and we are sensitive tothe inner guidance that provides us with the intui-tive knowing we require. But life can be hard anddifficult and we are not always clear. The channelsthat we are often become blocked by fears, silted upwith self-doubt. We do not always hear the stillsmall voice that is our natural inheritance. Consult-ing the Runes will put you in touch with your owninner guidance, with the part of you that knowseverything you need to know for your life now.

Throughout The Book of Runes I use the term selfto represent the little self or ego-self, and Self tosignify the Higher or Transpersonal Self. The Runes,then, are a dowsing rod. With their help, you canlocate the ground water of timely right action andundertake the one activity that has no equal: self-change. In ancient times, the Runes and their sym-bols were employed by warriors bent on conquest. Itis my hope that the Runes, in their contemporaryuse, will serve the Spiritual Warrior, the one whosequest is doing battle with the self, the one whosegoal is self-transformation. The Bhagavad Gita inchapter 6, verse 5, says it succinctly:

Lift up the self by the SelfAnd don 't let the self droop down,For the Self is the self's only friendAnd the self is the Self's only foe.


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*9The motto for the Runes could be the same

words that were carved above the gate of the Ora-cle at Delphi: Know thyself. The Runes are a teacher.Yet for some it may be more comfortable to ap-proach the Runes in a spirit of play. Oracles aresacred games, instruments for serious or high play,and the value of play is that it frees us from theeffort of learning, frees us to learn as children learn.The Book of Runes is offered as a primer for oracularplay.

Each of us is an Oracle, and when we pray to theDivine we are exercising our true oracular function,which is to consult the Knowing Self within. We areliving in an age of radical discontinuity. The lessonscome faster and faster as our souls and the universepush us into growth. Familiar waters seem suddenlyperilous, alive with uncharted shoals and shiftingsandbars. The old maps are outdated; we require newnavigational aids. And the inescapable fact is: you areyour own cartographer now.

If there is one prominent modern authority forthe efficacy of Oracles, it is Carl Jung. He had thewisdom to see and the courage to affirm that "Theo-retical considerations of cause and effect often lookpale and dusty in comparison to the practical resultsof chance."* This means that nothing is too insignifi-

*C. G. Jung, Foreword to the / Ching (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-sity Press, 1950).


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20cant to regard as a clue to guide us in right and timelyaction. Consulting an Oracle is a real-time event,because whatever happens in the given moment pos-sesses what Jung calls "the quality peculiar to thatmoment/' Consulting an Oracle places you in truepresent time.

Having a true present is something most of usfind extremely difficult. We waste a good part ofour lives dwelling on past regrets and fantasizingfuture disasters. In my own life, when I jog or drivelong distances, I am often busy reviewing ideas,sorting schemes, going over options and opportuni-ties. All of a sudden I catch myself at it; I realizethat miles of countryside have slipped by unseen,that I am not breathing the air, not aware of thetrees, the breeze, the ruts in the pavement. Nowa-days, I catch myself more and more frequently,which is a beginning. The "roof-brain chatter" isbeing replaced with a stillness that keeps me in thenow. The momentum is broken, the habit is broken.I have only to remember: in the spiritual life there is nomomentum, I am always at the beginning. Each movebrings us to a new beginning. Remembering thishelps overcome our addiction to "getting ahead."For if we have a true present that is where every-thing happens.

Consulting the Runes is one way to "be herenow." Working with them, you bypass the stricturesof reason, the fetters of conditioning and the mo-


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21mentum of habit.* For the brief span of interactingwith the Runes you are declaring a free zone inwhich your life is malleable, vulnerable, open totransformation. Just as the Vikings used the infor-mation provided by the Rune stones to navigatetheir ships under cloudy skies, so now you can usethe Runes to modify your own life course. A shift ofa few degrees at the beginning of your voyage willmean a vastly different position far out at sea.Rune casting is high adventure. It means takingthe wheel of your life and owning your power. Thenew maps, unlike the old, are three-dimensional,and the third dimension is Spirit. Whatever theRunes may beintercessors for the self with theSelf, simultaneous translators between the Self andthe Divine, an ageless navigational aidthe energythat engages them is our own. And, ultimately, thewisdom as well. Thus, as we start to make contactwith our deeps, we will begin to hear messages ofprofound beauty and true usefulness. For like snow-flakes and fingerprints, each of our oracular signa-tures is a one-of-a-kind aspect of Creation address-ing its own.*As Brugh Joy reminds us in his excellent book Joy s Way: A Map for theTransitional Journey, there are three sets of mental fetters to give up if youwant to be truly free: judging, comparing and needing to know why. The"why" inevitably becomes clear as you progress in your passage.


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THE RUNE OF HOSPITALITYJ saw a stranger yesiereen;I put food in the eating place,

Drink in the drinking place,Music in the listening place;

And in the sacred names of the TriuneHe blessed me and my house,

My cattle and my dear ones.And the lark said in her song:Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise:Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise... , : From the Gaelic

Christ figure, Jaellinge, Sweden,ca. a.d. q8o


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THE EMERGENCEOF THE RUNES

A King he was on a carven throneIn many-pillared halls of stoneWith golden roof and silver floor,And runes of power upon the door.

J.R.R. TolkienThe Fellowship of the Ring

Runes and charms are very practical formulae designed to producedefinite results, such as getting a cow out of a bog.

T. S. EliotThe Music of Poetry

The wisdom of the Rune Masters died withthem. Nothing remains but the sagas, the far-flungfragments of runic lore, and the Runes themselves.

In his fine book, Runes: An Introduction, RalphW.V. Elliott writes of

strange symbols scratched into ancient tools andweapons now lying idle in some museum showcase;names of warriors, secret spells, even snatches ofsongs, appearing on objects as diverse as minute

*3


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24silver coins and towering stone crosses, scattered inthe unlikeliest places from Yugoslavia to Orkney,from Greenland to Greece.*The influence of the Runes on their time was

incontestable. Elliott notes that when the high chief-tains and wise counselors of Anglo-Saxon Englandmet in conclave, they called their secret deliberations"runes," and that when Bishop Wulfila made histranslation of the Bible into fourth-century Gothic,he rendered St. Mark's "the mystery of the kingdomof God" (Mark 4:11) using runa for "mystery." Eightcenturies earlier, when Herodotus traveled aroundthe Black Sea, he encountered descendants of Scy-thian tribesmen who crawled under blankets,smoked themselves into a stupor (a practice still mettoday in the Caucasus Mountains) and then caststicks in the air and "read" them when they fell.Although these tribesmen were preliterate, theirsticks would probably qualify as Runes.

There is no firm agreement among scholars as towhere and when runic writing first made its appear-ance in Western Europe. Before the Germanic peo-ples possessed any form of script, they used pictorialsymbols that they scratched into rocks. Especiallycommon in Sweden, these prehistoric rock carvingsor hallristningar are dated from the second Bronze Age(circa 1300 b.c), and were probably linked to Indo-*Ralph W. V. Elliott, Runes: An Introduction (Manchester, Eng.: ManchesterUniversity Press, 1959), p. 1.


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25European fertility and sun cults. The carvings in-clude representations of men and animals, parts ofthe human body, weapon motifs, sun symbols, theswastika and variations on square and circular forms:^ ^ + E H rmi IElliott suggests an amalgamation of two separate tra-ditions: "the alphabetic script on the one hand, thesymbolic content on the other . . . The practice ofsortilege (divination) was cultivated among North-ern Italic as well as Germanic peoples, the one usingletters, the others pictorial symbols."* Numeroushallristningar, as well as the runic standing stones, canstill be seen in Germany and throughout Scandinaviatoday.

It is difficult for us to imagine the immensepowers bestowed on the few who became skilled inthe use of symbolic markings or glyphs to conveythought. Those first glyphs were called runes, fromthe Gothic runa, meaning "a secret thing, a mystery."The runic letter or runastafr became a repository forintuitions that were enriched according to the skill ofthe practitioner of runemal, the art of Rune casting.

From the beginning, the Runes took on a ritualfunction, serving for the casting of lots, for divina-tion, and to evoke higher powers that could infiu-*Elliott, op. cit, pp. 64-5.


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26ence the lives and fortunes of the people. The craftof the Rune Masters and Mistresses touched everyaspect of life, from the most sacred to the most prac-tical. There were Runes and spells to influence theweather, the tides, crops, love, healing; Runes of fer-tility, cursing and removing curses, birth and death.Runes were carved on amulets, drinking cups, battlespears, over the lintels of dwellings and onto theprows of Viking ships.The Rune Masters of the Teutons and Vikingswore startling garb that made them easily recogniz-able. Feared, honored, welcomed, these shamanswere familiar figures in tribal circles. There is evi-dence that a fair number of runic practitioners werewomen. The anonymous author of the thirteenth-century Saga of Erik the Red provides a vivid descrip-tion of a contemporary mistress of runecraft:

She wore a cloak set with stones along the hem.Around her neck and covering her head she wore ahood lined with white catskins. In one hand shecarried a staff with a knob on the end and at her belt,holding together her long dress, hung a charmpouch. She wore catskin shoes and catskin mittensto cover her hands at all times.

In pagan eyes, the earth and all created thingswere alive. Twigs and stones served for runic divina-tion since, as natural objects, they embodied sacredpowers. Runic symbols were carved into pieces ofhardwood, incised on metal or cut into leather that


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28phabet that became known as futhark after its first sixletters or glyphs:

f u th a r kv n * k M I r |7vp


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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bonner, W. "Survivals of Paganism in Anglo-Saxon England."Transactions of the Birmingham Archaeological Society, vol. 56,1932.

Branston, B. The Lost Gods of England. London, 1957.Dickens, B. "English Names and Old English Heathenism." Es-

says and Studies, vol. 19, 1934.. "Runic Rings and Old English Charms." Archiv Stud.

neuren Sprachen, vol. 167, 1935.r/A System of Transliteration for Old English Runic

Inscriptions." Leeds Studies in English, vol. 1, 1932.Elliott, Ralph W. V. Runes: An Introduction. Manchester, Eng.:

Manchester University Press, 1959.. "Runes, Yews, and Magic." Speculum, vol. 32, 1957.

Grattan, J.H.G., and Singer, S. Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine.London, 1952.

Haugen, Einar. The Scandinavian Languages. Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1976.

Hermannsson, H. Catalogue of Runic LiteraturePart of theIcelandic Collection Bequeathed by Willard Fiske. CornellUniversity Library.

Hollander, Lee M. The Poetic Edda. Austin: University of TexasPress, 1964.

Howard, Michael. The Magic of the Runes. New York: SamuelWeiser, 1980.

122


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123. The Runes and Other Magical Alphabets. Wellingborough,

Northants, Eng.: Aquarian Press, 1978.Jansson, Sven B. F. The Runes ofSweden. Translated by Peter Foote.

London: Phoenix House, 1962.Jones, Gwyn. History of the Vikings. London: Oxford University

Press, 1968.Knoop, Douglas, and Jones, G. P. The Mediaeval Mason. Manches-

ter, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1967.Krause, Wolfgang. Was Mann in Runen Ritzte. Halle, Ger.: M.

Niemeyer, 1935.Marstrander, C.J.S. "Om runene og runenavnenes oprindelse."

Norsk Hdsskrift for sprogvidenskap, vol. 1, 1928.Napier, A. S. "The Franks Casket." An English Miscellany Presentedto Dr. Furnwall. London: Oxford University Press, 1901.

Page, R. I. An Introduction to English Runes, London: Methuen, 1973.Ravenscroft, Trevor. The Spear of Destiny. London: Neville Spear-

man, 1972.Souers, P. W. Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vol.

17, 1935; vol. 18, 1936; vol. 19, 1937.Spiesberger, Karl. Runenmagie, Handbuch der Runenkunde. Berlin:Richard Schikowski, 1955.Stephens, G. Handbook of the Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scan-

dinavia and England. London and Copenhagen, 1884.. The Old-Northern Runic Monuments ofScandinavia and England.London and Copenhagen, 1866-1901.

Storms, G. Anglo-Saxon Magic. The Hague, 1948.Taylor, I. Greeks and Goths: A Study on the Runes. London, 1879.Thompson, Claiborne W. Studies in Upplandic Runography. Austin:

University of Texas Press, 1975.Walgren, Erik. The Kensington Rune Stone: A Mystery Solved. Madi-

son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1958.Wimmer, L.F.A. "Runeskriftens Oprindelse og Udvikling iNorden." Aaboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1874.


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GUIDES TO THETRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESS

A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace, P.O. Box 635,Tiburon, CA 94920.

Brenner, Paul. Life Is a Shared Creation.. Marina del Rey, CA: De-Vorss, 1981.

Chancellor, Philip, ed. Handbook of the Bach Flower Remedies. SaffronWalden, Eng.: C.W. Daniel Co., 1971Daily Word, a pamphlet issued monthly from Unity Village, MO64065.

Dass, Ram. The Only Dance There Is. Garden City, NY: AnchorBooks, 1974.

Epictetus. The Enchiridion. Translated by Thomas W. Higginson.Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1980.

Ferguson, Marilyn. The Aquarian Conspiracy. Los Angeles: Tarcher,1980.

Frydman, Maurice, translator. / Am That: Conversations with SriNisargadatta Maharaj, Parts I and II. Durham, NC: AcornPress, 1973.

Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing. New York: Bantam, 1981.Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet. New York: Knopf, 1980.Greene, Liz. Relating: An Astrological Guide to Living with Others on a

Small Planet. London: Coventure, 1977.Joy, W. Brugh./ay s Way: A Map for the Transformational Journey. Los

Angeles: Tarcher, 1979.Jung, C. J. Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. New York: Pantheon,

1961.

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125Keyes, Laurel Elizabeth. Toning: The Creative Power of the Voice. Ma-

rina del Rey, CA: DeVorss, 1973.Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane En-

glish. New York: Vintage Books, 1972.Leonard, George. The Silent Pulse: A Search for the Perfect Rhythm ThatExists in Each of Us. New York: Bantam, 1981.

Levine, Stephen. Who Dies? An Investigation of Conscious Livingand Conscious Dying. New York: Anchor Books, 1982.

Musashi, Miyamoto.A Book ofFive Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy.Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1974.

Rainwater, Janette. You 're in Charge. Los Angeles: Guild of TutorsPress, 1979.Spangler, David. Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred. New York:Delacorte, 1984.

Star + Gate, a Symbolic System. Available from Cloud Enter-prises, P.O. Box 1006, Orinda, CA 94563. (The AmericanTarot.)


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THE NEW ORACLE FOUNDATION

The Viking Runeswhat comes next?Developing a rewarding interaction with one'sown private Rune Oracle has been, for many people,

an exciting adventure in self-discovery. I would bemost interested to hear of your experiences with TheViking Runes. Please feel free to write to me at TheNew Oracle Foundation.

Learning how to tap into the "magic" propertiesof the subconcious Knowing Mind places oneamongst a very special group of people who havealso experienced this aspect of their own potentialabilities. We now need some way to establish bettercontact with each other and thereby to stimulatefurther mutual growth along the path of the SpiritualWarrior. To this end, I am developing the New Ora-cle Foundation that will publish a quarterly newslet-ter, The New Oracle News. This newsletter will serve asa forum for all of us to share our experiences withThe Viking Runes. It will contain insights into the126


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127oracular tradition, innovations in Rune-casting tech-niques, and new aspects of "Rune play" discoveredby readers of The Book of Runes; and will, in addition,serve as the source for new product information,ranging from crystal Rime pendants to computerprograms for Rune play.

For further information as to Foundation mem-bership, and to receive The New Oracle News for oneyear, send a five dollar donation to cover costs ofpublication and mailing to:

The New Oracle Foundation45-454 Ihilani StreetKaneohe, Hawaii 96744

]$Ufrt *,


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ralph Blum received his degree in Russian stud-ies at Harvard. Following a period in Italy as a Ful-bright Scholar he returned to Harvard where he didgraduate work in anthropology with grants from theNational Science Foundation and the Ford Founda-tion. He is a writer and a publisher.Blum is the author of three novels. His nonfic-tion book, Beyond EarthMan s Contact with UFOs, waswritten in collaboration with Judy Blum and isrecognized as a major contribution to the field. It hasover 800,000 copies in print.


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Futhark (Traditional Order)MODERN ENGLISH OLD ENGLISH GERMANIC ETRUSCAN PRE-RUNIC

LETTER RUNES NAMES RUNES NAMES SYMBOLS

f Y feoh K fehu \u Y\ ur n uruz YV Ay(fh) > porn v yuhsaza V 6s t ansuz Ar ft rad ft raido

book of runes ralph blum

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