Gods of the Runes: The Divine Shapers of Fate

by Frank Joseph, Ian Daniels (Illustrator)

The ancient origins and divinatory power of the runes

• Uncovers the original divinatory meaning of each rune through the myths of its corresponding Norse god or goddess

• Includes beautiful full-color illustrations of the runic gods and goddesses

• Presents rune-casting spreads for divination and character analysis

• Explores the controversial history of runes from the Paleolithic Stone Age to today

Invented long before the appearance of the runic alphabet Futhark less than two thousand years ago, the runes were originally created as symbols for specific deities. Representing the twenty-four Norse gods and goddesses from the Vanir and Aesir pantheons, the runes provide a way to establish direct contact with the divine shapers of fate.

Based on the work of Austrian mystic and runologist Guido von List and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas as well as the oldest rune artifacts to survive from pre-Christian Europe, this book reveals the long history of runes from their appearances in Paleolithic cave paintings through their rechristening in Medieval times to their modern resurgence as a popular tool of divination. It uncovers the original names and divinatory meanings of each rune by exploring the myths, personality traits, astrological periods, identifying colors, and gemstones of the rune’s corresponding god or goddess. It also illustrates and explains five ancient rune-casting spreads used by Norse adepts for divination as well as character analysis. By renewing their link with the divine, Gods of the Runes shows how working with the runes can be a genuine mystical experience, enabling a personal connection with the gods and a rediscovery of their perennial truths.

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2010

About the author

Frank Joseph is the pen name of Francis Joseph Collin, a former activist with the American Nazi Party/National Socialist White People's Party and the founder of the National Socialist Party of America. In 1979, Collin was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison, and he lost his position in the party.

Upon his release from prison, Collin reinvented himself under the pseudonym of Frank Joseph, a New Age writer and a pagan worshiper. In 1987, he had his first New Age book published, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization.

He wrote articles for the magazine Fate, and between 1993 and 2007 he was also an editor of Ancient American. This magazine focuses on what it considers to be evidence of ancient, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between the Old World and North America, with the implication that all complex aspects of North America's indigenous cultures must have originated on other continents.

Reviews

[hawk]

EDIT : literally just checked the author bio on goodreads, and learned that the author of this book is a white supremacist neo-Nazi 😬⁉️😬⁉️😬⁉️ ❌❌❌

makes sense of alot that raised questions in the book for me, and confirms I've given him way more benefit of the doubt than I should have. I would not have read this if I had known. and I obviously should have followed my instincts in the first few sentences of the first chapter!

lesson to me - look up authors more, and sooner, maybe! 😯

****(original review below)****


I stumbled across this in the RNIB talking book library. I thought the pictures would be abit lost on me accessing it as an audiobook, but the reader does a good job of describing images and other things outside the main text 🙂

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the book...

initially I thought I was abandoning it really really early in - the start of chapter one seemed to be some self indulgent story, including referencing another book he wrote, about something the author made for his friend... and I was sure from the level of detail that far he was going to talk about what they ate when they met at the restaurant when he met up with her to give her this gift... 🙄🥱🙄

but instead I skipped to chapter two 😉

but I'm still not sure exactly what to make of it...

it's abit rambling, and states some stuff that I'm not sure where it's coming from and/or how accurate it is.

the author speaks of their 17 thousand year history, linking runes to paleolithic cave paintings in France... 🤔

then pulls in Kundalini yoga, placing the different realms on the chakras - the 9 realms onto 7 chakras? then maybe realising the math doesn't add up, drawing in other (geographically and culturally diverse) traditions with a ninefold chakra system.

he definitely lost me when he seemed to suggest the chakra system came from North Western Europe 😬⁉️, and seemed to use the Gundestrup cauldron as part evidence of this... ⁉️🤔🙃⁉️

(I don't dispute that similar ways of envisaging and working with energy, and energy centres, within the body could have arisen in many places and cultures and/or times)

there's some notes at the end of chapter 2, listing some sources the author used for some of it, but nothing seemed obviously linked to his speculation about Kundalini yoga.

throughout the parts of the book I read, the notes with sources are quite scant and pretty lacking. and it took a while for a translation of old texts to appear amongst references.

I continued to read on a while. the chapters about each god/dess and rune were quite interesting, but I'm not sure how useful.
there's a kinda life story/excerpts from the life of the god/dess, and some associations, and rune meanings... BUT no rune poem, despite the Hávamál having been mentioned in an earlier chapter 🤔🙄⁉️

the stories were kinda fun, whether or not they're especially accurate 🙂 tho I think the readers skill is a large part of them being enjoyable 🙂

I didn't really pay alot of attention to the divinatory meanings being assigned to each rune with its deity, and just listened the god/dess stories. I think the credibility of the authors assertions were already too much in question for me by that point.
the meanings took a form very similar to some approaches to tarot with meaning and reversed meaning, and with crystal and astrological associations added. they felt abit pasted on, and pasted together - drawing on alot of potentially diverse harvesting, and in places unsubstantiated stuff - tho maybe that was just a lack of good references, and/or a broad reading of sources for the book.

〰〰〰

there was some obvious Anglo-European racism within the stories - a blond and beautiful goddess cf dark dwarves etc 🙄😬

〰〰〰

I don't think I'd read anything about runes written by a North American author/from a North American perspective before... which was kinda interesting... 🤔🙃

and I'd thought the book was maybe written in the early 70s, but one of the notes referenced a source from 1995!?! 😆


👋 abandoned around chapter 10/11, about 44 percent thru 👋🙃

(unrated)

[E.S. Wynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has beautiful and inspiring artwork. When I found it and leafed through it, I almost put it back on the shelf because I could see right away that the text was very much like someone put the Eddas in a blender and then spilled them on a page, but I ended up picking it up because of the art. And hey, it was at Goodwill, so only $2. Can't go wrong there, right?
The art and the occasional truly lucid insight that Frank Joseph works into his book is about all this book has going for it. The gods are shoehorned into runic roles that mostly don't even make sense. Each chapter starts with a story that is Norse-flavored (borrowing from the Eddas and Sagas, mish-mashing it all together with bizarre claims (Geri and Feri [aka Freki] were husband and wife Ulfhednar that killed King Hunding? or all Norse came from Atlantis and our cousins are the Inca? or Donar and Thor are brothers? Uhhhhh. . .) that create a book that would make a wonderful Norse Bible maybe for a distant alternate dimension. Also, while it's clear that Frank Joseph has read a bit of mythology and the sagas, his primary sources for "ancient knowledge" are Guido Von List and Nigel Pennick. I've read Nigel Pennick's book on Norse Astrology, and even he states that it's something he made himself that wasn't ancient knowledge, yet Joseph cites it like it was carved in stone in the 7th century (or further back.) As for Guido Von List-- if you don't know his name, look him up on the Wiki. He's about as wild (and racist) as it gets.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big yikes! I grabbed this off the library shelf on a whim while browsing the esoteric religion section. I think runes and Norse gods are cool, but have been co-opted by some deeply uncool groups.

I got suspicious when I started reading and found no mention whatsoever of the Nazi appropriation of runic symbols, particularly in the entry for the 'S' rune. Like, that one was kind of famously adapted into the emblem for an infamous Nazi paramilitary organization. You gotta mention that if you're trying to distance your work from Nazis, right?!

That led me to looking up the book and author and audibly growl when I discovered that the reason to not mention the whole Nazi symbolism thing is that the author agrees with their ideology. Was not expecting to get white supremacist garbage off the shelves of the public library in one of the most liberal cities in the country. I seriously considered burning this book so no one else would have to read it. But I'm going to write to the library asking them to weed it at the next opportunity, because the shelf space is better used for almost literally anything else.

[Robert Alvarez the Psychic Witch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a professional Psychic Reader for more than thirty years. Although I began with Tarot, over the past two decades or so, I have expanded my offerings to include Oracle Cards, Lenormand, Kipper, Playing Cards and Runes. Specifically, Elder Futhark Runes. For the record, in my life I participated in one Rune course, which took place once a week for three weeks, and another which focused solely on the Goddesses of the Runes for about a year.

Also, this is a book that I have owned for at least a decade or so; do not recall when, exactly I purchased it, from where, but it proves that some books I shall read sooner than later, some I shall read over time, and some I may never read, but I digress.

What I found for myself (I mean, talk about a mind-blowing moment) is that these Runes can and do correspond to various Norse Deities. Also, by associating these Runes with a Norse Deity, it gives an additional nuance, energy and weight to the Elder Futhark. Truly, when I began reading this book for the first time on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, something awoke in me, and I began connecting to the Elder Futhark Runes like never before.

Now, I have always had challenging relationships with Trickster Gods, and Loki is no exception. So, you can imagine my disgust and dismay when I learned that He is associated with one of my favorite Runes--Lagaz, as in "Flow--" but I got over it. Actually, this association helped me develop a better understanding of Loki, to the point I have called on Him, a few times. Go figure!

All but the last two chapters have numbered notes, and there is a separate chapter that lists their references, in the back of the book. The two chapters which do not have this feature are Chapter 26, "Ostara Goddess of Spring," and Chapter 27, "Current and Past-Life Rune Readings Using the Runes of the Gods."

Speaking of which, I could not help but think about the Lenormand Grand Tableau Reading when reading about the Runecasting Spread, "The Life Reading." It comes very close to using all the Elder Futhark Runes, if not using them in their entirety.

This book has now joined an ever-increasing amount of Metaphysical/Magickal/Divination reference books, which truly, deserve their own bookcase.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book I really did, but as I continued reading all the runes contradicted the stories being told and who pairs Freya with the Mannaz rune. Her brother Freyer would have been a better idea. This book was based on Germanic lore and not the lore from Scandinavia that I'm used to and that's okay. I like reading different views or versions of the stories but some of the characteristics made no sense or would not be associated with those deities. The drawings and the stories were quite beautiful and the only reason why I gave this book two stars. The book should have also specified that it used a combination of the Elder and Younger Futhark. The writer seems to also be one of those people who despises Loki with every fiber of his being and therefore couldn't be objective and it seems to me only included Loki because he had to and not because he wanted too.

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book, I adore the author, but was sceptical if I should be reading this topic since I'm not familiar with Norse mythology. I was very happy when this turned out to be an excellent read!!

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a wonderful read and a valuable addition to my Rune/Northern Tradition book collection.