Rune casting
Divination by drawing or throwing marked stones or tiles carved with runes, the old Germanic letters.
Also: runes, Elder Futhark, runic divination, rune stones
Runes are the alphabet used by Germanic peoples from about the second century CE. The Elder Futhark has 24 signs, and later versions came from Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia. Each rune has a name, such as Fehu, wealth, and Ansuz, a god. Tacitus, writing about 98 CE, describes Germanic tribes marking twigs and drawing lots from them, but does not say that these were runes. No ancient source describes divination with runes as practised today. Casting runes grew in the twentieth century from German occult circles and then from the writings of Ralph Blum, whose 1982 book spread the practice. Modern Heathens and others use rune sets for reflection and as part of their religion.