The motto for the Runes could be the same words that were carved above the gate of the Oracle at Delphi: Know thyself. The Runes are a teacher and a source of guidance. Consider this Oracle, if you will, as a sacred game, an instrument for serious or high play. For the value of play is that it frees us from the effort of learning, frees us to learn as children learn.

The truth is that each of us is an Oracle, and when we pray we are exercising our true oracular function, which is to address the Knowing Self within. Consulting the Runes will put you in touch with your own inner guidance, with that part of you that knows everything you need to know for your life now.

One prominent modern authority for the efficacy of Oracles is the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung affirmed that “theoretical considerations of cause and effect often look pale and dusty in comparison to the practical results of chance.” This suggests that nothing is too insignificant to be regarded as a clue to guide us in right and timely action. Consulting an Oracle places you in true present time because whatever happens in the given moment possesses what Jung calls “the quality peculiar to that moment.”

Experiencing a true present is something most of us find extremely difficult. We waste a good part of our lives dwelling on past regrets and fantasies of the future. In my own life, when I jog or drive long distances, I find I am often busy reviewing ideas, sorting agendas, going over options and possibilities. Then I catch myself: I realize that miles of countryside have slipped by unseen, that I am not aware of breathing the air, not aware of the trees, the breeze, the contours and colors of the land.

Nowadays, I catch myself more and more frequently, which is a start. The “roof-brain chatter” is slowly being replaced with a stillness that keeps me in the present. Once the momentum is broken, the habit will soon wither. We have only to remember: In the spiritual life, we are always at the beginning. Remembering this helps us to overcome our addiction to “getting ahead.” For when we experience a true present, that is where everything happens.

Nowadays, I catch myself more and more frequently, which is a start. The “roof-brain chatter” is slowly being replaced with a stillness that keeps me in the present. Once the momentum is broken, the habit will soon wither. We have only to remember: In the spiritual life, we are always at the beginning. Remembering this helps us to overcome our addiction to “getting ahead.” For when we experience a true present, that is where everything happens.

Consulting the Runes enables you to bypass the strictures of reason, the fetters of conditioning and the momentum of habit.3 For the brief span of interacting with the Oracle, you are declaring a free zone in which your life is malleable, vulnerable, open to change.

We are living in an age of radical discontinuity. The lessons come faster and faster as our souls, the universe and the Divine push us into new growth. Familiar waters seem suddenly perilous, alive with uncharted shoals and shifting sandbars. The old maps are outdated; we require new navigational aids. And the inescapable fact is: You are your own cartographer now. Just as the Vikings used the information provided by the Rune masters to navigate and sail their ships under cloudy skies, so now you can employ the Runes to modify your own life course. A shift of a few degrees at the beginning of any voyage will mean a vastly different position far out to sea.

Whatever the Runes may be—a bridge between the self and Self, a link between the Self and the Divine, an ageless navigational aid—the energy that engages them is our own and, ultimately, the wisdom as well. Thus, as we start to make contact with our Knowing Selves, we will begin to hear messages of profound beauty and true usefulness. For like snow- flakes and fingerprints, each of our oracular signatures is a one-of-a-kind aspect of Creation addressing its own.

Excerpt from the Book of Runes by Ralph Blum (all rights reserved)
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