Runes

Raidho

Also known as: ᚱRaidho rune*raidōRaidoRaidō

Raidho (ᚱ) is rune 5 of the Elder Futhark; its modern keywords are journey, rhythm and direction.

Raidho is rune 5 of the Elder Futhark — the runic alphabet used roughly from the 2nd to the 8th century — and rune 5 of Freyr's ætt (an ætt is one of three groups of eight runes). It writes the sound "r", and in the Unicode block "Runic" it is ᚱ. The shape is like the letter R: a staff, an angular bowl at the top and a leg reaching down to the right.

The name *raidō means "riding, journey". The Old English poem jokes that riding seems easy to those sitting at home; the Scandinavian poems speak of the hardship of travel for horses. The names of the Elder Futhark runes are reconstructions by linguists, and the rune poems — Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic — were written many centuries later and describe later alphabets. They tell us about a tradition, not about a certain original meaning.

In modern reflective practice Raidho is linked above all with journey, rhythm and direction. Today Raidho is read as the rune of the road and of rhythm: travel, but also the order of a day. It reminds you that direction matters more than speed, and a good road has its own beat.

As the rune of the day in Cards of the day, Raidho has two short texts. The first: "Raidho is riding and the road. Check today whether the direction is still the right one — no need to hurry, just keep travelling your own way." The second: "Every journey has its rhythm: moving and resting. Raidho encourages a day with room for a step forward and for a pause." A question worth staying with: "Where am I really heading?"

In AstroSensus runes are a tool for reflection, not a prediction. There are no reversed runes and no "blank rune" — the latter is a 20th-century idea, not part of history. In a spread of three or five runes, Raidho is always read together with its position and the other runes. The rune can also be your avatar on social media, with the bio line "ᚱ Raidho — I choose my own direction" as a reminder of your own intention.

RUNE OF THE DAY