Notes

Wyrd: The blank rune

The blank rune is a curious appendage to most rune tile sets. Called the “Wyrd rune” or “Odin’s rune,” this mute little tile is a topic of much debate among rune readers. Whether you feel it is telling you that there are endless possibilities before you, or you see it as the emptiness of nothingness, Odin’s message is strong. This rune was added in order to allow for the breath of chance from the universe when a spread is cast.

The 24 Elder Futhark runes are—among other things—an archaic alphabet and a divinatory system. Each character has three broad levels of meaning: a phonetic sound, a worldly object or concept, and a spiritual/esoteric idea. The blank rune is no exception to this schema. It represents, respectively: The sound of silence (phonetic), the absence of things (material), and the unknown/unknowable hand of Fate (abstract). That’s why it’s associated with Wyrd, the Norse word for Fate.

The original runemaster, the God Odin, received knowledge of the runes, and so passed from ignorance into wisdom. The blank rune—the absence of runes—invites the students to reflect on the experience of not-knowing. It is also known as Odin’s rune in honor of the All-Father and the patron of runic lore.

Wyrd, the Blank Rune, is a message to look to the inner self. The blankness of this rune is actually a invitation to go deep within. For, the forces that are moving unseen in the background are forces you have put into effect. The forces represent the culmination of your life’s actions to that very moment. One of Wyrd’s messages is that the emptiness that is the blank slate at the beginning of our lives is filled by our own actions. These actions cumulate over time creating an energy flow that is carried with us as we move on our life’s path. It is on the small decisions we make moment by moment that we create our future. Wyrd is reminding you that life is a clean slate, ready to write your future on.

The blank rune is silence, the zero, the void of infinite possibility. The space between words, the breath before speech. Its Tarot equivalent is the Fool—the sensation of empty space, the Hebrew letter Aleph, the most primordial form of the element of Air. The divinatory tone of the blank rune is ambiguous. Nobody can really agree if the blank rune is a “good” omen or not. (Or even if it belongs in readings.) It may represent the darkness of ignorance, the sinister hidden workings of destiny—or the eternal wordless hum.

Here is what some different rune books have to say about reading the blank rune:

1. This is the Rune of total trust and should be taken as exciting evidence of your most immediate contact with your own true destiny which, time and time again, rises like the phoenix from the ashes of what we call fate. The appearance of this Rune can portend a death. But that death is usually symbolic and can relate to any part of your life as you are living it now. —The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle (1983) by Ralph Blum

2. When this rune appears in your reading, you may be certain that something unexpected is going to come to you. Whether this something is positive or negative depends on what you warrant by virtue of your past behavior. […] Its meaning may best be interpreted by the way in which it relates to its neighbors. —A Practical Guide to the Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magick (1989) by Lisa Peschel

3. When we cast this Rune, it indicates to us that our own spiritual development is progressing. It also offers a reminder that our own knowledge is greater and stronger than we think. —Pagan Portals: Runes (2013) by Kylie Holmes

4. The closest approximation to this rune is the Wheel of Fortune in the Tarot, which simply indicates that some kind of change is about to take place, but whether it is a change for good or ill depends on the rest of the reading. —Simply Runes (2006) by Kim Farnell