I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring new forms of divination this summer. It’s one reason why I was intrigued when offered a chance to review Rune Reading Your Life: A Toolkit for Insight, Intuition, and Clarity by Delanea Davis. This book was an all-in-one kit allowing readers a chance to learn and practice using Runes. Sadly, the audience seems particularly limited for young or novice practitioners. It missed the mark for me.
The first part of the book is an introduction to Runes. There is a little bit of history, lots of stories from how the author uses Runes, and practical how-to’s. This is the part of the book that really disappointed me the most. The author’s personal experiences were so specific to a very particular class and type of lifestyle. It was hard to see how the author’s experiences could be adapted to fit different people and their needs. The overall tone was very casual, usually a great thing, but it came across as almost flippent to me. Readers looking for a historical backing to their rune practice will be sorely disappointed. There is little history or myth to back most of the uses.
The second part of the book is a guided, 30 day journal that walks readers through different techniques to learn and use runes. This is probably the most useful part of the book. Many will find the ease of writing right in the same book that has all the meanings to be quite lovely. It’s even a format that could be used with other divination tools.
The third part of the book is a reference of all the runes and their meanings. Each rune gets two pages with easy references and a bit of depth to help you provide context to your readings.
Overall, I think this book will appeal to a teen reader or someone who is only looking for a very light introduction to runes. I wasn’t impressed but know that others will find it to be useful and fun.
Esoteric Moment 