Preparation to making a Rune reading
To begin, come with an issue, to a place where you can make either a full, short or simple reading undisturbed. Your issue may be as broad as “my procrastination”, “my health”, “my career choice”, “my family relationships” or a question about making a choice as specific as “where shall I hold my birthday party” or “shall I leave my frail, aged parent while I find work in another city”. A full reading of seven drawings, throwings and interpretation of the rune dice may take forty minutes. For a shorter reading, giving as useful guidance but providing less understanding, you may start from Book Four. For a very short reading start at Book Six. This is appropriate for lesser or very clear issues in which you are only seeking a strategy and a view into future outcomes.
As you sit, ready for your reading, take a few minutes to first explore as many aspects as you can of your issue. What do you associate with this issue - images, sounds, smells, tactile sensations, tastes, movement or stillness, temperature, interpersonal experiences, emotions, heavy or light physical sensations within your torso, your head and limbs? Is success, failure or frustration associated with this issue?
Now construct in your mind what will happen if you do nothing new about this issue, continue avoiding it or continue suffering it in the way you have until now. Will the problem go on as it is? Will it worsen? Will your spirit wither or explode with emotion? Experience how your body will feel if you allow matters to go on as they will if you do nothing new.
After recalling all these aspects, construct the condition you would experience if your issue had already been resolved. Give one or a few words to this condition — “my contentment”, “groundedness”, “self-acceptance”, “assertiveness”, “decisiveness”, “affluence”, “recognition from others”. (This condition is composed of experience of yourself and/or your world. It may include characteristics you ascribe to yourself or your world, including your physiological, emotional, mental condition; and how your world relates to you.) Don’t just imagine this favoured condition, really bring it to life, as if you have already achieved it and it is happening for you. Experience this condition in your mind and body.
The next step is to enter into your fullest awareness:
Sit comfortably.
Tell your heart it is happy, ready to learn and accept change.
Breathe gently, and note the small effort you use to fill your lungs, but notice how exhaling is effortless.
At the very bottom point of your breath, where you have finished exhaling but haven’t started yet to inhale, notice how your body and mind are at a point of rest, of perfect calm. (You may want to close your eyes to capture this sensation.)
With your next breath, carry that feeling of calm through your body and mind, throughout the breath — through the inhaling, the exhaling and back to the bottom point.
Continue breathing in this way. If any thoughts or physical sensations try to distract you, keep your attention gently focused on carrying that feeling of calm with you, wordlessly. Check your body gradually, from head to toe and let any part relax that is not already relaxed.
After eight or ten breaths, begin your Rune reading.