Rune Magic: The Celtic runes as a tool for personal transformation

Deon Dolphin Rune Magic: The Celtic runes as a tool for personal transformation Van Nuys (CA): Newcastle Publishing, 1987. 149 pp., $9.95.
 
 At one time, all I knew about the runes was an obscure line in Poe's The Bells, where a chorus of demons is tolling "bells, bells, bells, in a sort of Runic rhyme ... " or something like that. Poe probably chose the line for the sound effects, rather that for any great interest in the Rune themselves. But we can use the runes as a form of divination, or character analysis, or whatever mystical meaning we want to read into them.
 
 This classic text is only one of dozens of "explanations" of the runes, intended to provide beginners (like you and me) with the tools we need for readings for ourselves and our friends. After some preliminary background information, the author plunges into a series of actual interpretations of varioous patterns in the runes. Drawn or engraved in small stones, shells, or other objects they are cast into a set of three circles, preferably drawn on a specially marked cloth. (Of course, there are probably as many ways of casting the runes as there are people reading them, but this way is the one that the author describes.)
 
 Depending on their positions in the circles, the runes can be interpreted for the client to show his or her character, decisions to be made, possible future happenings, or whatever else comes to their attention. The markings on the runes vary, according to the specific tradition that they represent, and the number of runes can be as many as fifteen, meaning that the reading will depend on the specific set of stones that are being consulted.

 For those that are looking for an alternative to the familiar occult tools many of us use, this book will provide an introduction to another way of performing readings.

JMM