Your go-to spread in all times should be the 1 rune spread. You ask your question and then pull out 1 rune. Then you meditate on it and try to interpret it. If you need a clarification you can pull out some more runes, or ask another question about the same situation and pull out a few more runes. This approach can give you answers to any questions that you might have. But this approach might be too hard for beginners as it requires a deep understanding of the runes and good connection with one’s intuition.

That is why there are various other spreads that organize the work and simplify it a bit. The next spread is the three rune spread or as it is also known as the “Three Norns”. You ask your question and pull out 3 runes and lay them in a row before you. The left rune represents the past, the middle rune is present and the right rune represents the most probable future. 

These two spreads are surely enough so that you can start your divination practice right now. Try asking your rune set question and pulling three runes. If you don’t know the rune meanings you can check them on the rune freebie file.

“Runic Wax” spread to diagnose negativity

We will learn a runic spread known as the runic wax. There is a known method of diagnosing and cleansing negativity in witchcraft by using melted wax, and this runic spread has the same goal, but done with runic divination, so it is called runic wax. 

The goal of this method is to diagnose negativity of any kind. For example you can make a general reading of a person, or of some concrete situation. Or you can diagnose a sphere of life (like money, health, relationships) to determine whether there is some negative energy on it. 

The spread is laid out like this:

The rune meanings in rows are like this:

First row – Diagnostic of the type of negativity

Second row – Source of the negativity

Third row – How this negativity came into the situation

This spread has very strict rules that must be followed. First you lay out the first row – 4 runes. The most important rune is rune on position 1. 

Here are the runes that mark the negativity on position 1:

• ᛇ Eihwaz – magical/ritual negativity
• ᚺ Hagalaz – a curse, a spoken curse
• ᚦ Thurisaz – revenge or counteraction
• ᛚ Laguz – love magick, like a love binding
• ᛚ* Laguz reversed – magick with the use of dead/cemetery water
• ᛟ Othala – very old negativity, ancestral curse
• ᛗ* Mannaz reversed – a malicious entity, spirit, draugr, deceased spirit

If on position 1 any of these runes appear, it means that there is negativity. If in the first position none of these runes appear, that means there is no magical negativity and rows 2 and 3 are not needed. 

All the other runes on the first row add more details to the specifics of the negativity.

If there are no marker runes but other weak runes, like reversed runes, that means just weakening of some sorts, but not magical negativity. 

The rune markers above and the rules of this spread must be followed strictly.

How to apply these rules? Take your rune set into your hand and tell the runes, that these are the rules of runic wax, name the marker runes and explain the rules of this spread to your rune set. From now on when you will use the runic wax method, these rules will apply. If you would like to get a professional runic reading you can contact me. We will discuss your situation and make a runic diagnostic.