Book summary “Taking Up The Runes”: summary

Introduction

You want to connect with ancient Germanic spiritual traditions through the practical study of runes, but you lack a structured method to internalize their power. Diana L. Paxson provides a comprehensive manual for working with the Elder Futhark in Taking Up The Runes.

Runes function as a sacred alphabet and living system of spiritual symbols, meditation tools, and magical practices rooted in Germanic tradition.

You will learn how to carve staves, chant galdor, and integrate runic energies into daily life. The book offers a fourteen-month study curriculum that guides you from basic history and physical craftsmanship to advanced ritual application.

You might wonder as you begin your practice:

• How do you physically carve and consecrate runes?
• What does each symbol reveal about Germanic cosmology?
• How can you safely apply runes to personal transformation and magic?

1. Taking Up The Runes

Runes function not merely as letters for writing, but as a sacred alphabet and a complex system of spiritual symbols, sounds, and meanings. Each rune serves as a focal point for a constellation of cultural associations, operating similarly to Hebrew letters. They provide a practical symbol system used for meditation, divination, and constructing magical charms.

Runes are a sacred alphabet and spiritual symbol system that you can internalize through physical inscription, breath-focused meditation, and craft.

J. R. R. Tolkien utilized runes in The Lord of the Rings, though he rearranged some assignments, such as using Fehu for Gandalf's G rune instead of Gebo.

The runes and Germanic Heathenry are open to all people regardless of genetic background, and must be actively reclaimed from neo-Nazi and white supremacist corruption. While white supremacists have attempted to co-opt symbols like the Othala, Tiwaz, and Elhaz runes, the author refuses to abandon them. She emphasizes that ancient Germanic culture had no modern concept of race and that spiritual traditions are exportable across cultures.

In mythology, the runes were brought into consciousness by the god Odin through a supreme act of self-sacrifice on the World Tree. According to the Hávamál, Odin hanged himself on the windy tree for nine full nights, stabbed by a spear, going without food or drink to gaze into the deep and take up the runes with a scream.

Historically, runic inscriptions date back at least to the second century CE, drawing inspiration from Mediterranean or northern italic alphabets. Scholars debate whether the early runes originated among the Goths on the Danube, Romanized Germans in Raetia, or Jutland. The standard old Germanic runic alphabet, or futhark, consists of twenty-four symbols divided into three eights called aetts. The earliest known example of an inscription is potentially the Meldorf brooch, dating back to 50 CE.

Study Group Organization

Studying the runes can be effectively structured through a fourteen-month process addressing two runes per month in a group or individual setting. Paxson outlines that covering two runes each at monthly meetings allows a group to complete all twenty-four runes within fourteen months. The first rune class was started in 1988 in the San Francisco Bay Area, sponsored by the Fellowship of the Spiral Path, which eventually led to the founding of the Heathen kindred Hrafnar.

You can organize your study sessions around specific steps:

• Introductions, summarizing background and reasons for wanting to study the runes.
• Identify available resources and decide how to acquire additional materials.
• Decide on how your study will be organized.
• Summarize the history of the runes.
• Discuss ways of working with the runes between meetings.
• Ritual: Meditation, Taking Up the Runes.
• Celebration and grounding.

Meditation and Internalization

To internalize the runes, students must combine physical inscription, breath-focused meditation, visualization, and intonation. The internalizing practices train the mind to shift into a Norse mode of consciousness.

You can develop your practice using these methods:

• Sit in a balanced, un-tensed position or cross-legged, after stretching to loosen muscles.
• Deepen focus by breathing in to a slow count of four, holding for two beats, letting breath out to four, and pausing for two.
• Alternatively, practice stadhagaldr by forming rune shapes with the body.
• Scratch the rune on skin with a fingernail, consecrated oil, water, or saliva on specific body areas.
• Stare at a rune card intently, then cover it with a blank paper to view the complementary image.
• Stare at the card, shut eyes, and visualize it against a blank background.
• Imagine the rune pulsing with light and practice transforming its color at will.
• Hold the image in mind, visualize it expanding into a doorway, and step through to explore the world beyond.
• Intone the rune by taking a deep belly-breath and letting outflow carry a sonorous, sustained sound on a comfortable middle-range note.

Crafting and Consecrating Runes

Crafting and consecrating physical rune sets from natural materials establishes a direct energetic link between the maker and the symbols. Runes can be carved, burned, or engraved onto wood, bone, stone, or clay. Consecration incorporates bodily fluids like blood or saliva to bind personal intent and awaken the staves. Tacitus noted that ancient Germans cast lots made of fruitwood for divination, working with traditional Norwegian rune sticks four inches long.

You awaken your set by following specific craft actions:

• Carry a lit candle clockwise around the space to sain and purify it while reciting a cleansing verse.
• Invoke Odin as master of runes and Earth as Mother and source of materials.
• Set the rune disk on top of salt in a dish and focus the mind.
• Draw the rune on your forehead, chant its name, visualize it vividly, and incise it into the disk.
• Add blood or saliva to pigment and color the rune as an offering and link.
• Hold the rune against your heart, forehead, or palms, breathe on it, and impress the visualized image upon it.
• Name the rune using a specific awakening charm invoking Önd, Odhr, Lá, Læti, and Litr.
• Seal wooden runestaves with wax or thin lacquer.
• Store finished runes in a natural material bag like linen, wool, or leather alongside a plain casting cloth.

2. Fehu and Uruz

Fehu and Uruz represent mobile wealth and primal earth energy, governing productivity, fertility, and the vital forces of manifestation.

Fehu Wealth and Cattle

Fehu fundamentally means wealth, originally signifying livestock and cattle, which for early Germanic cultures represented mobile and living capital. Because prosperity can cause conflict, the rune teaches that wealth must be guarded, used productively, and shared generously rather than hoarded.

In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried wins a cursed treasure from the dragon Fafnir, leading to greed, family betrayal, his murder by Hagen, and the ultimate dumping of the gold into the Rhine.

You can apply Fehu in practical ways:

• Inscribe Fehu in gold ink on your checkbook to attract prosperity.
• Write Fehu on a garden plant tag and stick it into the ground to encourage growth.
• Invoke Freyr and Freyja, offer grain, and visualize abundance while drawing Fehu through a bowl of mixed seeds.
• Plant at least nine grains in a pot of soil and package the remaining seed mix to send to friends.
• Inscribe Fehu on the forehead with clear intention to increase attractiveness and sexual vigor.

Uruz Primal Energy

Uruz refers to the aurochs, a wild and fierce ancient ox, symbolizing primal earth energy, health, and the raw creative force that shapes spiritual strength into physical manifestation.

Uruz acts as the pattern of creation whose energy breaks down old forms and builds new ones, resembling the primal cow Audhumla from Norse creation mythology. Tacitus refers to killing a wild cow as a rite of passage among the young men of third-century Germanic tribes. Magically, Uruz provides the energy to defend the community and revitalizes patients by strengthening the will to live.

You can direct this raw power with specific actions:

• Draw Uruz on your forehead when tired to increase energy.
• Take a healing bath infused with strengthening herbs, release muscle tension, draw Uruz on your forehead, and rub your limbs vigorously with a rough towel while chanting body-reclamation phrases.
• Write Uruz on a hammer or stone, assign a life problem to an ice cube, wrap it in a cloth, and smash it while reciting a block-removal chant.

3. Thurisaz and Ansuz

Thurisaz embodies titanic elemental force while Ansuz serves as the primary rune of communication, poetry, and divine inspiration.

Derived from the Norse word thurs or giant, Thurisaz embodies pure action and potent energy on the physical plane. It mirrors both the chaotic forces of the Jotnar and the defensive strength of Thor.

In Skirnismal, Skirnir threatens the giant-maid Gerd with a three-headed thurs and a runespell to force her to marry Freyr.

You can harness this raw energy with specific protective and meditative techniques:

• Draw Thurisaz on a sharp object like a fossil tooth or thorn to focus evil in shamanic extraction magic.
• Draw the rune on your forehead to increase energy and intone it as a mantra to align with storm-bringing forces.
• Draw a hedge of Thurisaz runes with points turned outward to create a protective warding barrier.

Ansuz Communication

Ansuz is the chief rune of communication, poetry, and mind-magic, directly associated with Odin and his gift of ecstatic inspiration. It represents the organizing intellectual force that balances chaotic natural energies.

Odin seduced Suttung's daughter Gunnlod to drain the mead of poetry from the cauldron Othroerir, bringing the gift of verse to gods and humans.

You can establish contact with the god of wisdom through a structured altar practice:

• Prepare an altar for Odin with a dark blue cloth, candle, drinking horn with mead or whiskey, and your study books.
• Invoke the god of wisdom, state your need for wordcraft or writing inspiration, and ask for his ravens Huginn and Muninn to help.
• Draw the Ansuz rune on your forehead, chant it aloud, take a drink of the mead, and pour the rest onto the earth as an offering.

Raidho and Kenaz

Raidho is the rune of horse transportation, cyclical rhythms, right order, and both personal and organizational journeys. Tacitus describes early Teutonic tribes using a consecrated wagon to carry the earth goddess Nerthus in a procession that brought a general truce.

Kenaz represents controlled fire, the forge, physical and spiritual enlightenment, and transformative creativity.

4. Gebo and Wunjo

Gebo governs the magical exchange of gifts and social bonds, while Wunjo represents unyielding joy, the warded will, and communal feasting.

Gebo and Exchange

Gebo is the rune of the gift and equal exchange, symbolizing the uniting of giver and receiver. In ancient Germanic society, gift-giving and hospitality were moral imperatives that established social bonds and loyalty. Modern interpretations view Gebo as a rune of ecological balance, recycling, magical energy exchange, and the relationship between humans and gods.

Tacitus notes in Germania that Germanic peoples practiced liberal hospitality, never turning away strangers and freely giving and receiving.

You can apply Gebo directly through specific actions:

• Give unexpected gifts, write thank-you notes, or pay off debts.
• Give to strangers by supporting homeless individuals or donating to charities.
• Support environmental causes, plant trees, or practice recycling to give back to Mother Earth.
• Accept gifts and compliments gracefully to honor the giver.

Wunjo and Joy

Wunjo is the rune of joy, bliss, and the warded will that maintains enthusiasm against sorrow. Representing the final rune of the first aett, Wunjo signifies happiness in a social setting, family bonds, and emotional healing.

Meditation focused on the Wunjo rune allows practitioners to experience runic ecstasy and divine communion.

You can experience this inner light through a structured practice:

• Choose an uninterrupted, quiet time and secure the space with a candle and optional dwarf or god invocations.
• Sit upright in a supportive chair or cross-legged.
• Identify and relax each muscle group in turn.
• Regularize breathing by inhaling for four beats, holding for two, exhaling for four, and holding for two.
• Contemplate a candle flame until it fills inner and outer vision, then close eyes and imagine the flame forming the Wunjo rune.
• Allow the rune to grow until you walk into it, surrounding yourself with light.
• Conclude naturally, breathe deeply, thank protecting powers, stretch, and eat something to ground.

5. Transformation and Cycle

Hagalaz and Naudhiz compel traumatic change and necessity, whereas Isa and Jera establish stasis, primal ice, and the turning year wheel.

Hagalaz Potential Change

Derived from the old Germanic word for hailstone, Hagalaz contains contradictions as both a destructive storm and a nourishing seed. It serves as a rune of the Norns connected to the past and the Underworld goddess Hella, signaling that change is coming.

Farmers dread hailstorms because they can flatten crops and injure animals.

• Draw the Younger form of Hagalaz on a round piece of cardboard like spokes on a wheel.
• Place yourself at the center with your name or photo, labeling the upright axis Above and Below, and the other points with the four elemental directions.
• List six problems in your life, boil them down to basic principles, and place a word for each outside one of the points.
• Focus, center, and spin the circle three times while chanting the Hagal-wheel invocation.
• Use the resulting conjunctions with the directional points as a starting point for meditation or autohypnosis.

Naudhiz Necessity and Fate

Known as need or distress, Naudhiz embodies the Greek concept of Ananke and the workings of the Norn Skuld. It acts as the spindle and fire drill for the needfire, teaching individuals to endure hardship and find their deepest personal needs.

Siegfried is advised in the Lay of Sigdrifa to scratch Naudhiz on his beer horn and nails as a charm against betrayal.

• Meditate on the concepts associated with Naudhiz to identify hereditary, psychological, and environmental factors that compel or constrain you.
• Prepare a hank of red yarn or use a spindle and carded wool, measuring out a strand your height plus a foot for each identified need.
• Recite the Norns prayer to fathom fate and weave your wyrd.
• Tie or spin the strands together while humming or chanting the spindle song.
• Keep the completed cord in a safe place or wind it around your waist during spiritual work.

Isa and Jera Cycles

Isa represents primal ice, inertia, stasis, and absolute inner stillness, functioning as a protective shield or an icy prison depending on balance. Derived from the Indo-European word for ice, Isa is the static element of Niflheim that provides ego awareness and psychic bonding under stress.

• Lie down with spine and legs straight, arms by your sides, in a North/South alignment.
• Draw the rune Isa on your forehead and regularize your breathing, counting four beats in, holding two, and four beats out.
• Relax each muscle group limb by limb by contracting it and allowing it to slacken completely.
• Let tensions in your mind and spirit go one by one, replacing concerns with whiteness, emptiness, silence, purity, and rest.
• Visualize warmth releasing your frozen limbs, draw Jera on your forehead to speed the process, and restore sensory awareness.

6. Worldtree and Cosmology

Eihwaz and Perthro anchor the Worldtree axis and the maternal mysteries of chance, womb, and the Nine Worlds cosmology.

Eihwaz Worldtree Axis

Eihwaz represents the yew tree and functions as the world axis of Yggdrasil, linking opposing forces and providing a magical pathway between worlds. Authors like Edred Thorsson, Freya Aswynn, and Kveldulf Gundarsson view it as a conduit for spiritual ascent and a bridge across paradoxical opposites.

• Sit on the ground or a backless seat with your backbone against a living tree, preferably an evergreen.
• Ground yourself by allowing awareness to sink downward through your body and into the earth through your points of contact.
• Follow the roots of the tree as they spread through the ground anchoring it and you.
• Begin to move your awareness upward through the tree trunk and your backbone until it spreads into the branches in the sky.
• Send your consciousness downward again, tracking the flow of life to assist in raising energy through the chakra system up the spine.
• Thank the tree when you finish meditating.

Perthro Lot and Womb

Perthro is interpreted as a dice cup, lot, or gaming piece, embodying the concepts of chance, play, and the unfolding of fate. Tacitus describes Germanic tribes playing dice so seriously that losers wagered their personal liberty and entered voluntary servitude on the final throw.

Nine Worlds and Wells

The Norse cosmos comprises Nine Worlds intersecting the Worldtree, serving as a psychological and spatial map for shamanic exploration. Three distinct wells situated at the roots of Yggdrasil govern the cyclical relationship between past, present, transformation, and birth.

7. Protection and Solar Will

Elhaz provides defensive warding and spirit connection, while Sowilo acts as the solar rune of illumination and the active creative will.

Elhaz Protection

Elhaz is primarily a rune of protection and a link between human and divine worlds. Tacitus mentions the Alcis in Germania, interpreted as a sacred grove or twin divinities. You can draw the rune with a fingernail on your forehead, chest, or palms when facing danger.

• Ground and center while standing, or bend and place palms on the earth.
• Reach deeply for power, then slowly stand with hands at your sides and draw the power upward.
• Lift your arms, extend them at an angle, and project energy out through the crown of your head and fingertips.
• Alternatively, bring your arms downward to form a protective sphere while meditating on your guardian spirit.

Guardian Spirits

Working with guardian spirits such as the fylgja makes spirit journeying safer and easier. All references in the sagas describe female fylgjur attached to men.

• Prepare for spirit journeying by following instructions to reach the Tree in guided meditations.
• Ask your fylgja or hamingja to take you where you need to go and retrace your steps upon return.
• Repeat encounters until the guide can be clearly visualized, heard, and invoked.

Sowilo Solar Will

Sowilo is the solar rune of illumination, movement, and the will to victory. Snorri describes Sunna as the daughter of Mundilfári who drives the solar horses Arvak and Alsvith across the sky.

• Stand with arms upraised and turn palms upward to receive the power of the sun.
• Turn your face to the sun, sense its radiance through closed eyelids, and draw its power into your body with every breath.
• Bring arms to your sides, bend at the knees to assume the Sowilo stadhyr position, and touch the ground to pass excess energy to the earth.

8. Justice and Earth Power

Tiwaz enforces absolute cosmic order and legal sacrifice, while Berkano governs feminine protection, birch magic, and purification rites.

While Romans identified Tyr with Mars, and sagas mention him as a one-handed god who bound the Fenris wolf, his historical roots point to a sovereign sky god concerned with cosmic order. He governs trials, oaths, and the Althing, where blood feuds were settled. Tyr sacrificed his hand by placing it in the mouth of the Fenris wolf as a pledge while the gods bound the creature, showing how cosmic justice uses sacrifice to restrain unbridled chaos.

• Inscribe the Tiwaz rune on legal papers or draw it on your right hand for protection in disputes.
• Visualize a spear drawing Tiwaz across a courtroom to invoke justice.

Berkano Earth Power

Berkano is the rune of the birch tree and the Earth Mother, governing the perpetual cycle of birth, death, rebirth, and feminine protection. Linguistically linked to the bright white birch tree, Berkano represents the open womb, domestic protection, and the archetype of the tree goddess who nourishes mothers and children. In Scandinavia, birch twigs are brought inside in April and May to bud, and lads carry birch twigs on May Day to celebrate the return of vegetation.

• Use Berkano in female fertility magic, women's mysteries, and healing workings for women's troubles.
• Plant a birch tree in your yard or create a shrine to connect with local land spirits.

Sauna Purification Rite

The traditional sauna is a circumpolar purification custom rooted in spiritual significance, utilizing birch whisks and heated stones to cleanse both mind and body. Ancient Finns treated the sauna as a sacred space where fire came from heaven, treating the steam as a signifier of spirit itself.

• Spend about 20 minutes lying prone at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to let the entire body sweat.
• Sprinkle water on stones with a whisk or dipper, aiming for 175 degrees Fahrenheit and 10 percent humidity.
• Make and use whisks from silver or curly birch, starting at the top of the body and working down to the soles of the feet.
• Cool the body by plunging into cold water or snow, then allow it to cool naturally in the air until a leaf falls off the skin, followed by 15 to 20 minutes of silent rest.

9. Mobility and Humanity

Ehwaz and Mannaz symbolize transport, shamanic surrender, the divine creation of humanity, and the strength found within community.

Ehwaz Mobility

Ehwaz is the nineteenth rune in Tyr's aett. It is the horse rune, representing physical and spiritual mobility and aristocratic prosperity. Tacitus reports in Germania 10 that white horses yoked to a sacred chariot were observed for divination. Egil Skallagrimsson set a horse's head upon a stake as a neidhstong with a runespell to drive away land spirits.

Deity Meditation and UPG

The obscure Old Norse term ergi illuminates the paradox of spiritual ecstasy and trance work. Snorri describes in Ynglingasaga 7 that Odin's shamanic skills were accompanied by so great a degree of effemination that the magic was typically taught to priestesses. You can establish direct contact with Norse deities through guided meditation.

• Prepare the working place to ensure no disturbances.
• Use drumming, shamanic tapes, Wagner, or meditation music to induce a trance state.
• Journey to the Worldtree and summon your animal ally.
• Ask to be guided to meet the god or goddess you need most right now or who needs you.
• Focus on the recurring figure, ask its name, distinguishing characteristics, desired worship or offerings, and offered help.
• Research the deity and compare the vision with known lore to form an unsupported personal gnosis.

Mannaz and Human Identity

In Völuspá 17-18, Odin gives önd, Hoenir gives odh, and Lodhur gives lá, læti, and litr to Ask and Embla. Mannaz is the twentieth rune, symbolizing the human archetype and the rational mind. Hávamál 47 emphasizes that humans are man's comfort.

10. Water, Seed, and Awakening

Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz, and Othala complete the row with water mysteries, seed gestation, spiritual awakening, and ancestral heritage.

Laguz Water and Leek

The rune Laguz represents water, lakes, and rivers, and through association also connects to the leek as a protective and ritual herb. A bone-handled scraper from a mid-fourth-century woman's grave in southwest Norway bears the inscription linalaukr, meaning linen and leek, followed by a bindrune and a reversed Fehu.

You can apply these protective methods:

• Include the leek with other protective herbs in wreaths or dried nosegays hung in the house.
• Use a leek stalk as a blot teine to sprinkle the folk in blessing or to stir mead or any other magical potion while brewing.
• Draw the rune emerging from an upended Perthro on the womb to help relieve menstrual cramps, get the flow started, or stimulate contractions in childbirth.
• Combine Laguz with Fehu and apply it to both partners to aid in conception.
• Intone Laguz and draw the rune on the brow to dissolve writer's block or dispel a sense of constraint and sterility, combining it with Uruz to increase its power.

Ingwaz Seed and Ancestors

Ingwaz is a nature and fertility rune associated with the god Ing or Yngvi, representing seed energy, gestation, and ancestral continuity. Snorri Sturluson recounts in the Ynglingasaga that after Yngvi-Frey's death he was said to be still alive in his mound, and offerings continued to be made to him for good seasons and peace.

You can direct seed energy with specific practices:

• Use the seed form of Ingwaz as a magic circle or to contain other runic energies.
• Meditate on Ingwaz to understand the spiritual significance of the life cycle and to deal with death as a part of life.
• Set up an ancestor altar with pictures and candles on a low table, under a table, or on a multilevel altar with gods on top and ancestors below.
• Carve the names of ancestors on a piece of wood and pile a mound of earth or stones over it in a yard.
• Light candles, lay flowers and food offerings on the altar or mound during a blot, call on ancestors by name, praise their virtues, and ask for what is needed.

Dagaz and Othala Kinship

Dagaz represents daylight, the dawn of a new day, spiritual awakening, and the mystical moment of liminality where polarities synthesize. Othala signifies ancestral property, the sacred enclosure of the family, and the spiritual heritage of a clan or kindred.

You can awaken your heritage using these methods:

• Stand in the Osiris position with arms crossed upon the breast and fingers touching the shoulders.
• Draw the rune from one eye to the other so the lines cross over the third eye in the center of the forehead to transform consciousness.
• Celebrate Ostara at the spring feast by waking before sunrise, washing, putting on clean clothing, building a fire, facing the rising sun, and burning a list of banished problems.
• Use Othala in all workings involving the protection or strengthening of home and family.
• Create a household altar or place a clean boulder the size of a small melon near the stove to honor the house spirit.
• Leave offerings of milk, beer, or whisky with cookies or bannock overnight by the house spirit rock while reciting a welcoming blessing.

10 Key Ideas

1. Runes function as a sacred alphabet and living system of spiritual symbols, meditation tools, and magical practices rooted in Germanic tradition.
2. In mythology, the runes were brought into consciousness by the god Odin through a supreme act of self-sacrifice on the World Tree.
3. Students internalize the runes by combining physical inscription, breath-focused meditation, visualization, and intonation.
4. Crafting and consecrating physical rune sets from natural materials establishes a direct energetic link between the maker and the symbols.
5. Gebo governs the magical exchange of gifts and social bonds, while Wunjo represents unyielding joy, the warded will, and communal feasting.
6. Hagalaz and Naudhiz compel traumatic change and necessity, whereas Isa and Jera establish stasis, primal ice, and the turning year wheel.
7. Eihwaz and Perthro anchor the Worldtree axis and the maternal mysteries of chance, womb, and the Nine Worlds cosmology.
8. Working with guardian spirits such as the fylgja makes spirit journeying safer and easier.
9. Ehwaz and Mannaz symbolize transport, shamanic surrender, the divine creation of humanity, and the strength found within community.
10. Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz, and Othala complete the row with water mysteries, seed gestation, spiritual awakening, and ancestral heritage.