The Runes : A Grounding in Northern Magic

The runes are more than an ancient alphabet. They are a key to the wisdom of the ancient peoples that used them in both language and magic, and surviving writings from these times not only clarify these uses, but provide at least the bones of what you need use them for yourself in this way. This book aims to help you on your first steps to being able to divine with the runes and attempt the magic of these ancient peoples. Our understanding of the runes is far from perfect, and this process requires intuition, but also many years of research.

This guide presents both research and practice candidly, and with good humour.

Where it is practical, original sources are either sited or provided outright, allowing the user to draw their own conclusions if they desire. Actual practical success and failure is also shared candidly in the hope that the reader can learn in a safe and steady manner.

All combined into a neat guide to runic practices and their inner workings. A mix match of elegant and coarse, gentle and gritty, sombre and witty, the runes are not to everyone's taste, but they echo a very real and relatable cosmology.

A world view that doesn't hide the warts, but that finds plenty worth loving at the same time.

Step into the world of the runes on steady feet, and start a spiritual journey from which you may never wish to turn back. * * * What are the runes, and are they actually good for magic?

Combining a life time of learning and experiences with the runes with a unique and quirky set of illustrations, James Flowerdew brings you this beginner's guide. Full of direct references to genuine ancient texts, as well as ripping yarns and poignant anecdotes, this book attempts to demonstrate not just the surface of rune magic but the underlying principles and culture that inform them, as well as some general magical practices.