What is this?
This is a non-fiction blog about Runes from the perspective of The Tarot, to teach people who love Tarot how Runes work. While I write this blog, I will write a parallel blog the other way: teaching people who love The Runes how Tarot works.
How I will structure this blog
There will be a brief history of The Runes, including a discussion of the Aetts. After this, I will give a basic introduction to Norse Mythology, then an explanation of bindrunes and galdr. Finally, I will spend a week on each rune, telling you about the related mythology, and how the rune compares to particular tarot cards.
Remember that, unlike Tarot, The Runes are integrally linked to Norse Mythology. The entire reason we know about Norse Mythology is because a lover of poetry, named Snorri Sturlusson, was worried that poetry would be reduced in quality if Europe forgot our pagan roots, so he wrote a book describing everything a poet would need to know in order to keep writing proper poetry. Because most of our knowledge of the runes comes from three rune poems, the concepts from The Eddas infuse the power of these simple symbols.
Who Am I?
When I was twelve, my Christian parents bought me a Tarot deck. They knew that their religion wasn’t really working for me, and they were trying really hard to keep me from becoming an atheist. They did their homework, and bought me a protective cloth in which to wrap the cards, to contain their energy. Anything. Just please have faith in something.
Around this same time I also introduced myself to the Younger Futhark, a set of Runes which was primarily used during the viking age. But The Runes were different from Tarot: they didn’t have pictures on them to tell me what they meant. In order to understand their esoteric meanings, I had to understand all of Norse mythology and culture.
This began a long journey of understanding, which has led to where I am today, a high priest in a small coven in New England. As I write this, I am still coming down from the energy high of a ritual we performed in the woods, with a gentle stream rambling to our west. I have studied long and hard, and in addition to the students that I am teaching in person, I have been asked to write for the people who aren’t in my coven, who aren’t near a group of likeminded people.
I hope this helps.