My Journey to Runes and What to Expect During a Reading
I was determined to find my way back to the culture of my people.
Several years ago I felt an intense need to connect with the cultural and spiritual practices of my ancestors. My people mainly come from the land that now or at some point has been called Germany. I thought this path would be a simple one, but the more I looked for texts to learn from the more frustrated I became. We are all very familiar with the atrocities enacted upon people during the Nazi regime, but I sat in a place of privilege to have never considered the great disconnection from culture that happened, as well. Books, scriptures, art, artifacts and more were destroyed in an attempt to remove cultural and spiritual beliefs from the people they belonged to. My heart breaks at the thought of how many of us lost connection to so many important ways.
This was a great setback, but I was determined to find my way back to the culture and folk practices of my people.
Somehow I found my way to the runes of the Elder Futhark, an ancient tradition practice for thousands of years in the land where my people lived. I can’t tell you how this happened, it was much more like they found me than the other way around.
It was commonplace to work the very structure of the home to be shaped as a rune.
My people believed that this would imbue the home with the magical properties of the rune, be it for protection, prosperity, or even something more specific. It was also a long-held custom to engrave a family crest or name into the home using runes.
My journey to reconnect with the folk practices hasn’t stopped at finding the runes, but they have been a portal into my heritage and a guiding light in what promises to be a bizarre yet enlightening undertaking.
Reading runes can be thought of as a combination of:
Intuition
Rune meanings and context
A complex web of mathematical interconnecting relationships between the runes
Deciphering signs and omens
Input from the asker (that’s you!)
As such, rune readings can look quite a bit different than other forms of divination!
A rune reading with me might look like:
First a brief conversation about your question or area of interest/concern. I might help you narrow down or broaden the wording of your question.
If our session is in-person I might ask to take your hand for a moment. You are always welcome to decline! Consent is an essential principle!
I will pull runes and lay them out, or toss them onto a cloth.
I will tell you about the runes I pulled, some first impression on how they may relate to your question.
You might make connections to your life (either related to the question or not), please share them with me! The runes will speak to both of us, but only you are the expert of your own life. We may make connections together.
I will consult my notes, charts, signs and/or omens, and perhaps do some calculations.
I might ask you some weird and random questions!
Sometimes I will pull more runes for clarification.
Lastly, I summarize our session with the final reading, and we chat about how that lands.
This may sound like a lot, but the process only takes between 15 and 30 minutes.
A note on questions
Runes are finicky. The runes are said to be a way to communicate directly with the divine. If we think much about Norse mythology - the gods the runes are meant to communicate with - we can probably see how runes, too, might be a little tricky. Be prepared to hear more than what you’re asking about!
Rune readings with Anna are 30 minutes sessions with a sliding scale of $25/ 30/ 35In celebration of launching this new service virtually this December, Anna is offering discounted 30 minute sessions on
Friday the 13th for $13/ 23/ 33
Solstice Special: $ 13/ 21/ 28 - Ends 1/1/25
