Runes Today Options

Howdy all-

I was having a thought today, and thought I'd post it here.

Runes are generally thought to be a very powerful magick, right? In my experience, though, they don't seem to be very well fit for spellcasting today. I've been trying to think of a reason why that'd be. I was thinking that perhaps it was because for us today, the runes do really have any meaning. I mean, before I started looking into magick I had no idea what they were or meant, and even still, there's no real connection for me, with them.

I was thinking how I could remedy that and I came up with an idea, but I'm not even sure if it's a good idea, but I thought I'd toss it out here to get some input.

Runes were powerful for their originators because they had strong meaning to them, and they put their power into them. For us today, though, I think that disconnect probably significantly weakens what we can do with them. Yeah, there's an allure to working with something ancient, but personally, I think that a personal connection is probably more important.

Then I thought: "why doesn't everyone work with their own runes"- I think it'd be a decent idea, but then there isn't that universal power that everyone using them puts into it.
What if we created our own rune system- it could have a personal connection, and the benefit of a large body of users putting their energies into it?
The downside that occurs to me is that by not using the current, ancient-based runic system, we'd be disconnecting ourselves from that source of ancient power.

I would think that this downside would be a pretty big one, and I can't really think of a way to rectify it. Perhaps by keeping some of the ancient runes, and mixing them up some.

What do you guys think? I realize this would be a really difficult thing to do, I mean, getting enough people to put their energies into it to empower the marks.

Any input would be most appreciated.

The runes have always worked well for me as a divinatory tool. Then again, I'm of Northern European descent which might explain something. I live on the West Coast now, but I grew up in New England where the forces the runes speak of are still very much alive and kicking--just ask anyone stuck in the airport over the last couple of days.

I think with some effort people can make the connection to the Futhark. Thing is, most people don't want to put in the effort. They think, 'oh, 25 symbols to memorise. This would be easy, I can learn this in half an hour!' That's true only on the most superficial level. To work well with runes, Tarot, or any other system of divination or magic requires getting your hands dirty and working with the system quite a bit before you ever get consistent results. Some people will click with certain systems more than others, and while there's nothing wrong with that at all, too many people use it as an excuse not to try.

I don't use the runes much anymore though. I don't really have a lot of mystery in my life these days, and what mystery I *do* have tends to be very complex, so systems like the Tarot are better for that as they can pull out nuances and fine details that the runes can often miss. I do like using them for meditation, though.