The Spiritual Runes | A book review

I love books!! There are just not enough shelves for all of our books! We end up with piles on tables or the floor. On occasion I get a chance to eek out some time between making art and homeschooling to read one of the books from Moon Books and write a review!

I’ve always wanted to buy myself a set of runes and learn how to read them so I was happy when The Spiritual Runes: A Guide to the Ancestral Wisdom was available for a review.

In Harmonia Saille’s book there is, of course, a section on making your own runes and reading them. Harmonia does not jump right into this, instead pointing out the importance of familiarizing ourselves with the runes first.

For once we know how they came to be, their history and traditions, we can start to form a bond with them just as we do when we become familiar with a trusted friend.

She equates the study of runes to that of a tree. We first travel up the roots to the trunk and then to the boughs and the knowledge we learn along this journey brings us to our own intimate relationship with our own runes. In studying the runes she also suggests to have more than one book on runes and to look for ones that cover the complexity of them, not just how to read them. Just like anything else, the more we understand the in’s and out’s of a situation or person, the more deeply we can relate.

Harmonia covers the different types of runes or rune rows and their history and mythology. I love both history and mythology so this chapter was an interesting read for me. She includes a story of how Odin found runes while hanging upside-down in a self-sacrificing ritual, the Icelandic Rune Poem, a creation myth and more.

In Chapter 3, she gives examples of ways to connect with your runes and includes a visualization exercise including music, candles and your runes. On the next chapter on meanings she makes it clear that rune meanings can vary from writer to writer. Along with an image of each specific rune she gives you a meaning in a reading, keywords associated with it, counsel, and accompanying colours she has assigned to each.

From here Harmonia goes into two more visualization exercises building on the first one in Chapter 3. From here she goes into making, cleansing and empowering your runes, casting and reading, using the runes for magic, and making a rune wand and a talisman.

The book also comes with an appendix just in case you need to familiarize yourself with one of the Norse Gods and Goddesses mentioned within as well as a glossary of the Psyche.

I love this book! There is plenty of information herein to get me started and I really do appreciate the fact that this book isn’t just about reading runes but includes much more. My only criticism is with the layout of the chapters and is just a personal one and not something that would make me deter anyone from purchasing. I think that making your own runes should be before all of the visual exercises but not necessarily the meanings of the runes. For me, learning the meanings would then add to the energy I put into the runes as I create my own and then make connections through visual exercises. I like to ‘do’ as I make my way through a book like this, meaning I would rather read the chapter on meanings, then make my own runes, and then do the visual exercises. Yet again, most probably just me being finicky in my learning style. I may change my mind about this the more I use this book and gain more knowledge. 😉

I have not made my runes as of yet. I will admit to that. I am waiting for the weather to be a little nicer so I can spend more time outside searching for just the right wood or rocks. Living on the east coast means beautiful, smooth beach rocks and great pieces of weathered driftwood. Mmmm…I may have to make two sets!

I may make another post about my experience making my own set, making connections and doing some readings or maybe even some magic. I only hope that my experience with reading tarot and a bit of my own magic-making over the years will help. We shall see! 😉

Happy reading and rune creating!

Moongirl ❤