It's All Been Rune'd

By Keri Kruspe

Author of Otherworldy Romantic Adventures

Recently I’ve taken the plunge and jumped into the Instagram pool.

Hey, that’s no small feat for me.

Social media and I have forged a tentative relationship since I’ve become a published author. I resisted adding yet another quiver in my communication arsenal, but at the urging of many of my (younger) friends, I decided to look into the matter.

Earlier in the year, I paid for a training program that included how to set up Instagram for authors and what was best to post (and when to post). So, I took an afternoon off and immersed myself into the hows and whys of this social beast.

One of the main suggestions the training gave was to have specific tropes to share – things that might be of interest to others instead of advertising my books all the time (boring!). 

Instantly I thought of sharing one of my favorite meditative techniques – consulting an ancient tool handed down to me by my favorite aunt about twenty years ago. In order to explain why the runes mean so much to me, I’d like to share a little bit about the woman who taught them to me.

My Aunt Jeanette was a formidable woman.

Someone who was way ahead of her time. She was my father’s older sister by eighteen months and ended up taking care of him when their mother deserted the family when he was a young preteen. Then, at the ripe old age of fifteen, she entered into her first marriage. I say first because the woman was married eleven times. The funny thing was she only had one child…out of wedlock…by a married man…in the 1940s.

Even though she married so often, I barely remember her in a relationship with anyone. She was one of those women from the sixties who was dressed to the teeth…bouffant hairdo, nails polished and manicured, her make-up model perfect. Living in Nevada, my family worked in the casino business, and she proudly told me that she was one of the first female pit bosses in Las Vegas – probably around the 1960s.

Then, around when she turned forty-nine, she took a 180-degree turn in her life. She quit her job, her house, her perfect image, and left Nevada and her family to live in Hawaii. There she lived for the next twenty-five years. To make a living, she took various jobs – from being a greeter at the airport (complete with leis), to a metaphysical minister.

As a metaphysical minister, she made a living by reading tarot cards and would draw a rune at the end of her card reading. The purpose, she informed me, was to aid the Spiritual Warrior…the one whose goal was self-change.

The Runes

The runes are a tool to keep one on course, on track for strengthening your intuition.

You see, the runes are used as in instrument for getting in touch with a part of yourself that knows everything. It’s a method of guidance and self-counseling used to assist us in navigating the unfamiliar waters we find ourselves in.

Using the runes is like consulting an Oracle.

An Oracle does not give you instruction as what to do next, nor does it predict the future. It points your attention to those hidden fears and motivations that shape where you are headed in your life.

Once you acknowledge what those might be, it directs your attention to inner choices that may be the most important elements in deciding what you choose your future to be.

When she taught me how to use these aids, I really needed the help.

I was going through a rough divorce and found myself a single parent with a toddler, a tweenie and a fourteen-year-old. Being able to get in touch with that part of myself that had been buried for years was a godsend. I firmly believe my ability to go into silence and contemplate the suggestions the readings gave helped to ground me and keep me sane. 

A brief history lesson on the runes…

Legend has it the runes are a gift from Odin, the principal divinity in the pantheon of the Norse Gods.

Believed to be even older than the New Testament, they are akin to the Tarot and the Chinese Book of Changes. The runes were commonly used in Iceland during the late Middle Ages.

Unfortunately, the wisdom of those rune masters died, never having written their divination's down nor did they pass their experiences orally. Little is left of the original Viking practice except rune stones, sagas, and far-flung runic lore. What we do know is to those who created the runes, the earth and all created things were alive.

To celebrate that fact, runes were carved into pieces of hardwood, incised on metal or cut into leather stained with pigment. There are twenty-four runes, plus one later innovation – the blank rune – the Unknowable. It is the rune of total trust and can be interpreted as an exciting evidence of life’s progression.

How I Use the Runes

The rune cards I use on Instagram belonged to my aunt. She preferred the cards while I have always felt a kinship to the actual stones. I keep the stones loose in a pouch and every morning, I let my mind go blank to open myself to receive what I should meditate on for the day.

I reach into the pouch, and a stone will let itself be known - hard to explain…it gets warm and my fingers automatically reach for it. I will then consult the book, The Book of Runes by Ralph H. Blum. The interpretations in his book are laid out clearly and in a loving manner. Easy enough to use and understand.

My aunt has been gone for several years now. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss telling her what was going on in my life. 

I know she’d be thrilled I’ve finally realized my dream of becoming a published author…something she encouraged me to do since I was twelve. To celebrate her life as well as the teachings she gave, I proudly include her cards with my stones on my Daily Rune on Instagram that I post every other day. Want in on the fun? Click here and follow me!

See, Auntie, I did listen. Thank you.