The Runes as described here are healing, merciful Runes they will do you no harm. Learn their language and let them speak to you. Play with the possibility that they can provide 'a mirror for the magic of our Knowing Selves', a means of communication with the knowledge of our subconscious minds.Remember that you are consulting an Oracle rather than having your fortune told. An Oracle does not give you instruction as to what to do next, nor does it predict future events. An Oracle points your attention towards those hidden fears and motivations that will shape your future by their unfelt presence within each present moment.

Once seen and recognized, these elements become absorbed into the realm of choice. Oracles do not absolve you of the responsibility for selecting your future, but rather direct your attention towards those inner choices that may be the most important elements in determining that future.How can random selection of marked stones tell you anything about yourself? Perhaps these Rune interpretations are simply so evocative that each contains some point which can be accepted as relevant to some part of what is happening at the limits of consciousness any day, any time, to anyone. That is the easiest possibility to accept from a strictly scientific standpoint.

Nevertheless, my own play with these Runes has shown coincidence piled upon coincidence and an apparently consistent 'appropriateness' in each Rune reading which is difficult to explain by the mechanism I have just described.Can there be other factors that distort the expected randomness of Rune selection so as to provide a language by which the subconscious makes itself and its expectations known? For myself, I maintain an open mind, reminding myself that observations should not be discounted simply because their underlying mechanisms have not yet been satisfactorily explained. So go ahead. Try out these Runes. See if this Oracle can mirror your subconscious process, but remember that such a link may take practice to develop.

The Rune interpretations offered here come from the meditations of a gentle, healing mind. They will speak to you of change and growth. The only negativity you will find here relates to the blockage of appropriate growth, while all the positive aspects are transcendent, transforming and lead to breakthroughs. The subconscious you will encounter here is not a fearsome beast in need of obedience training. It is the inner seeker-after-truth who must be helped to save us from ourselves.

About Author:

Ralph Blum is one of the world's foremost authorities on the Viking Runes and an American New Age author of several books dealing with runes, including The Book of Runes, The Healing Runes, and The Rune Cards.

Encountering the Runes while doing research in England, he subsequently explored their origins and reinterpreted their meanings in terms appropriate for our time. He has been working with the Runes Oracle as a tool for self-counseling since 1977.

Blum received his degree in Russian studies at Harvard University. Following a period in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar, he returned to Harvard, where he did graduate work in anthropology with grants from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. He has since authored numerous books on Runes and is widely acknowledged as a leading modern day authority on the oracular tradition.

Blum's books - each packaged with a set of ceramic runestones or cardstock rune cards - have drawn criticism from some rune enthusiasts for including a non-traditional blank rune and rearranging the runes from their traditional order, as well as for Blum's non-traditional interpretation of some of the rune meanings.