A beginner's guide to the 24 Elder Futhark runes
You've got a bag of 24 runes. This is the page I wish I'd had when I got mine.
These are the Elder Futhark runes, the oldest set, 24 of them. Most rune sets sold today are Elder Futhark, so if you count 24 runes, stone, wood or bone, this is your alphabet. You may see some of them spelled differently on other charts (Sowilo as Sigel, Eihwaz as Eoh, Algiz as Elhaz). Same rune, older spelling. The chart you're holding isn't wrong; it's just using a different book.
Each rune here gets its sound, a way to say its name, what it means, and what it's most used for. Runes are useful in spellwork because each one carries a single, clear idea. You can scratch one into a candle, write one on paper and tuck the paper under the candle, or draw one on the stone or charm you're working with. Say the rune's name out loud as you set it, then light the candle.
Freyr's aett
The first eight are about building a life: what you have, what you can do, and who you share it with.
Fehu
Sound: F. Say it: FAY-hoo. Cattle, which meant wealth.
Resources and the flow of them. Fehu is wealth that moves: money coming in, money going out, and enough to keep it going.
Most used for: resources, money, prosperity, abundance, and keeping what you have secure.
In a bind rune: put it after the rune for what you want. It pushes the working along.
Uruz
Sound: U, as in rune. Say it: OO-rooz. The wild ox.
Raw strength. The kind that gets you up when you'd rather not, and shapes something out of nothing.
Most used for: strength, courage, vitality, and getting something moving.
Thurisaz
Sound: TH, as in thorn. Say it: THOO-ree-sahz. Thorn, or giant.
Force with a direction to it. The thorn on the branch, the hammer in Thor's hand.
Most used for: protection, defense, and clearing what stands in the way.
In a bind rune: it points the other runes where you want them to go.
Ansuz
Sound: A, as in father. Say it: AHN-sooz. A god, or the mouth.
The rune of the spoken word. What's said, what's heard, and the understanding between them.
Most used for: communication, understanding, speaking well, wisdom.
Raidho
Sound: R. Say it: RYE-tho. Riding, a journey.
Movement with a rhythm to it. A wheel turning, a road that leads somewhere, things falling into their right order.
Most used for: travel, rhythm, spontaneity, and setting things in order.
Kenaz
Sound: K. Say it: KAY-nahz. A torch.
Controlled fire. The torch you carry into a dark room, and the fire of making things.
Most used for: creativity, passion, vision, vitality, and light on a problem.
In a bind rune: it strengthens whatever it's placed with.
Gebo
Sound: G, as in gift. Say it: GAY-bo. A gift.
Giving and receiving as one motion. Partnership, exchange, and the balance between the two.
Most used for: love, partnership, balance, giving and receiving.
In a bind rune: a good center for a working about love.
Wunjo
Sound: W. Say it: WOON-yo. Joy.
Joy after the work. Success, fellowship, the good ending of the story.
Most used for: joy, success, and a happy outcome.
In a bind rune: put it last. It says how you want things to end.
Hagal's aett
The second eight. The hard weather, and what comes after it.
Hagalaz
Sound: H. Say it: HAH-gah-lahz. Hail.
When you read it, hail means disruption, the storm you didn't order. In a spell it turns the other way: a fixed, steady wall that keeps trouble out. Nature, and nature's wrath, on your side.
Most used for: protection of your space and what you own, and overcoming obstacles.
Nauthiz
Sound: N. Say it: NOW-theez. Need.
Need, and the will to meet it. Restriction, endurance, self-reliance. The friction that starts a fire.
Most used for: getting through a hard patch, willpower, endurance, and naming what you need.
Isa
Sound: I, as in see. Say it: EE-sah. Ice.
Stillness. Ice holds everything exactly where it is. Introspection, watching and waiting, stopping what you want stopped.
Most used for: holding something still, calming a situation, introspection.
In a bind rune: the upright line at the center of almost every bind rune is Isa. You've already got it, whether you chose it or not.
Jera
Sound: Y, as in year. Say it: YAIR-ah. The year, the harvest.
Cycles completed. What you planted, coming in at its own time. Results that arrive in their season, not before.
Most used for: reward for work done, abundance, prosperity, growth, and cycles completed.
Eihwaz
Sound: EI, between ay and ee. Say it: AY-wahz. The yew tree.
The yew lives for a thousand years and is poison to touch. It's the tree between life and death, the axis the worlds turn on. Balance, endurance, and the passage through change.
Most used for: protection, endurance, balance, transformation, and spiritual work.
Perthro
Sound: P. Say it: PER-throw. The lot cup.
The cup the dice are thrown from. Fate, chance, mystery, secrets, and what's hidden until it isn't.
Most used for: intuition, secrets, destiny, and finding what's lost.
Algiz
Sound: Z. Say it: AHL-geez. The elk, or the elk-sedge.
The first rune anyone reaches for when they want protection. Its shape is a person with arms raised, the antlers of an elk, a hand held up. Instinct and guardianship.
Most used for: protection, defense, instinct, guardianship.
In a bind rune: a good center for a working about protection.
Sowilo
Sound: S. Say it: so-WEE-lo. The sun.
The sun. Victory, honor, wholeness, and the will to see something through. Also used in healing work.*
Most used for: success, victory, honor, confidence, and healing work.*
*A traditional use in witchcraft and rune magic, not proven by science.
Tyr's aett
The third eight are about the wider world: doing right by others, the people and places you belong to, and the new day at the end of it.
Tiwaz
Sound: T. Say it: TEE-wahz. The god Tyr.
Tyr gave his hand to bind the wolf, and kept his word. Justice, leadership, logic, the courage to do the right thing at a cost.
Most used for: courage, justice, leadership, fairness, and winning what is rightly yours.
Berkana
Sound: B. Say it: BER-kah-nah. The birch tree.
The birch is the first tree to grow back after a fire. Birth, fertility, the feminine, the mother who shelters and feeds. Home and family.
Most used for: new growth, fertility, birth, nurturing, home and family.
Ehwaz
Sound: E, as in bed. Say it: EH-wahz. The horse.
The horse has to trust you before it will let you ride. Ehwaz is movement and the trust between two who travel together.
Most used for: movement, progress, change, trust, and protection while traveling.
In a bind rune: put it after the rune for what you want. It brings change quickly.
Mannaz
Sound: M. Say it: MAHN-nahz. Mankind.
People. Who you are, and the people who help you. Individuality and cooperation at once.
Most used for: help from other people, friendship, cooperation, clear thinking.
Laguz
Sound: L. Say it: LAH-gooz. Water, a lake.
Water flows where it needs to. Intuition, dreams, the undercurrent, the feeling under the thought.
Most used for: intuition, dreams, reflection, and the emotional undercurrent.
Ingwaz
Sound: NG, as in ring. Say it: ING-wahz. The god Ing, a seed.
A seed holds the whole plant. Growth, goals, fertility, and the moment something is complete and ready to open.
Most used for: growth, goals, fertility, and sealing a working so it holds.
In a bind rune: put it last. It closes the working so the energy doesn't drain away.
Othala
Sound: O, as in go. Say it: OH-thah-lah. Inheritance, the family estate.
What was handed down to you, and what you'll hand down in turn. The house, the land, the name, and everything that came with them.
Most used for: home, inheritance, ancestry, tradition, and protecting what you own.
Dagaz
Sound: D. Say it: DAH-gahz. Day.
Daybreak. Awakening, illumination, hope, the breakthrough, the moment the light comes back. Completion and enlightenment.
Most used for: new beginnings, awakening, breakthrough, hope, and a change of heart.
In a bind rune: use it at either end, to open a working or to close it.
You may have seen these last two the other way around. Both orders are old. I learned Othala first, so that's how they sit here.
Your first bind rune
A bind rune is two or more runes drawn over each other so they read as one shape. Here's how I build one.
Decide what the working is for, in one sentence. Then pick a rune for the subject and put it at the center. If you want, add one to start things and one to seal them: Fehu or Thurisaz to push, Wunjo or Ingwaz to close. Keep it small. A few runes read better than many, and five is plenty.
Overlap them so they share lines. Turn or flip any rune to make the shape sit right; in a bind rune a flipped rune still reads as upright. When it's done, look at the finished shape for runes you didn't put there. They show up in the overlaps, and they usually belong.
You'll see advice online to leave hail, thorn, ice and need out of a bind rune because each one carries a hard edge. The books on my shelf don't say that, and one of my teachers uses three of the four in her own combinations. Sometimes a hard edge is exactly what a working needs. If that's what you're asking for, use it.
Using a rune in candle magic
Scratch the rune into the wax with a pin or the point of a knife. Or write it on a slip of paper and set the paper under the candle. Say the rune's name as you set it, hold what you want in your mind, and light the candle. I never leave a burning candle alone.
This guide describes how runes are used in a witchcraft practice. Nothing here is medical, legal, financial, or psychological advice, and no outcome is promised. What you do with a rune is your own.
Sources. Lisa Peschel, A Practical Guide to the Runes (Llewellyn). Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries and Magick, and her rune descriptions at aswynn.com. Laurie Cabot, Book of Shadows and Book of Spells and Enchantments. Scott Cunningham, Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, for the candle method. Rune sounds from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic names.