Hello everyone! I’ve been doing a bit of research into the runes and decided that it might be useful for many people just beginning on this path to have a simple cheat sheet. I took the material from Diana Paxson’s “Taking Up the Runes” and condensed it into keywords. If you have questions, comments or additions, please put them in the comments and I’ll add or take away from the list as needed. I hope it’s helpful!
Sound | Norse Rune | Norse Meaning |
f | fehu | wealth (cattle), wealth causing problems, hoarding vs freely giving, productivity |
u | uruz | Auroch, movement of energy, changing of energy into something, consuming of energy |
th | thurisaz | thor, pure action, raw strength, applied power |
a | ansuz | Communication, Odin, rune of the word–song, poetry and incantation, the mouth |
r | raidho | riding, road, horses, movement, joy and labor within the movement process |
c/k | kenaz | torch, burning, logic, knowledge, light |
g | gebo | gift, exchange |
w | wunjo | joy, luck, innocence from pain and woe |
h | hagalaz | hail, fated change, stop moving and start simply being, go with the flow |
n | naudhiz | need, fated troubles, forced learning and growing |
i | isa | ice, temporary stability, difficulty, stagnancy, void space, antimatter |
yuh | jera | year, summer, continuation, the wheel of the year, harvest |
ei | eihwaz | yew tree, opposites (tree of eternal life and death), flexibility within opposites, world tree, transition point between this realm and the others |
p | perthro | chance, games, perthro is rarely used as p and b were interchangeable, cup holding runes or game pieces |
zh | elhaz | moose, protection, sword, holy edge, eelgrass |
s | sowilo | sun, extremely similar to the sun in the tarot, destroys stagnancy, guides, the will, victory, movement, illumination |
th | tiwaz | Tyr, victory, guidance, justice, spear, courage, civilized masculinity, courage, self-discipline |
b | berkano | birch tree, spark of life/fire, birth, womb, feminine fire |
eh | ehwaz | horse, freyr, partnership, cooperation, transcendence of the soul, unification of body and spirit |
m | mannaz | man, rational mind, logic, hope, the human condition |
l | laguz | lake, water in general, the sea, opposition to one’s passage and yet still a passage |
ng | ingwaz | Ing, Yngvi, male counterpart to Berkano, genetic inheritance, possibly destiny, meditation, calming passage, soothing masculinity, completion, transition periods that are calm and soothing |
d | dagaz | day, youth, illumination, the aha! moment, sunshine |
o | othala | ancestral property, mystical heritage, karma, that which is rightly yours, mystical heritage (i.e. fae heritage, dwarven heritage, etc), family, clan, group |