Elder Futhark · Cleromancy
Draw one stave for a single answer, or three for a reading across past, present, and future. Each stone falls upright or reversed on its own.
Origins
The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, used across the Germanic-speaking world from roughly the 2nd to the 8th century. It takes its name from the sound values of its first six characters — f, u, þ, a, r, k. Twenty-four staves in total, carved into bone, horn, wood, and stone for names, charms, and short inscriptions long before it was ever used to tell fortunes.
The runes are traditionally arranged in three rows of eight, each row called an ætt. What those groups were actually called in antiquity is lost — the modern names below (Freyr's, Hagal's, and Tyr's Aett) are a later convention, not an attested ancient one. Casting runes for guidance, known as cleromancy, is a much later revival practice; there is little direct evidence of how — or whether — the Germanic peoples themselves used the staves for divination, though later medieval and folk tradition carried the idea forward.
Full Reference
Grouped by ætt. Tap any rune to open its upright and reversed (merkstave) meanings. Eight staves are symmetrical and carry no separate reversed meaning.
Practice
There's no single correct method — every tradition of rune-reading is a modern reconstruction. These are the two simplest, most common approaches.
Hold a question in mind and draw one stave. Read it as a direct answer or a theme for the day — the rune's upright or reversed meaning stands on its own, without other staves to weigh it against.
This is the fastest and least ambiguous form of casting, best for quick check-ins rather than complex questions.
Draw three staves in a row. The most common layout reads them as Past · Present · Future — the forces that shaped the situation, where it stands now, and where it's heading.
A variant reads the same three positions as Situation · Action · Outcome, useful when the question calls for a decision rather than a forecast.