78 MAGIC WORDS Meanings: • Consultation -- Paul Rhys Mountfort, Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle (200 ) • Holy secret -- Willow Arlena, Tarot of Transformation (200 ) • Incantation -- Paul Rhys Mountfort, Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle (200 ) • Magical binding -- Edred Thorsson, Runelore (1987) • Mystery -- Jean Marie Stine, Empowering Your Life with Runes (2004) • Secret script -- Robin Lumsden, The Allgemeine-SS (199 ) • Whisper -- Nigel Pennick, Magical Alphabets (1992) Origins: Of uncertain etymology, the word rune is found only in Germanic and Celtic languages.12 Facts: "The word rune denotes a poem or a piece of a poem. . . . Incidentally, it might be the root for the word tune."1 The word rune refers to an ancient writing system. "[T]wo Swedish runestones call their alphabet 'of divine origin.'"14 In Literature: • "Saaski could feel her eyes stretching wider and wider. The word rune was echoing and re-echoing in her mind, filling all its spaces." -- Eloise Mc- Graw, The Moorchild (1996) Rushety Gushety Lickety-Split In Literature: • Deborah Hautzig, Little Witch's Bad Dream (2000) 12 Ibid. 1 A.J. Drew, A Wiccan Bible (200 ) 14 Heather O'Donoghue, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature (2004)