The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle

Ralph Blum's book is the single most influential source for modern rune divination in English, and this record states plainly what that influence actually rests on: Blum invented a new ordering of the runes, added a twenty-fifth blank rune with no historical precedent in any runic inscription, and drew part of his interpretive scheme from the unrelated Chinese I Ching, none of which reflects documented historical runic practice. It is cited here only as evidence of what Blum himself wrote and of the modern divinatory system his book actually created, never as evidence about how runes were used historically. Use it to document the specific content of Blum's own divinatory system and its wide modern influence; it is not evidence for any ancient or historical runic divinatory practice, which needs a dedicated runological or historical source.