{"id":5350,"date":"2026-10-31T03:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T03:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/?p=5350"},"modified":"2026-10-30T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T21:15:10","slug":"what-the-witch-is-reading-october-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/what-the-witch-is-reading-october-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"What The Witch Is Reading – October 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
This section of my blog is dedicated to spreading the love of reading and books and the people who make them happen. I would not be the Witch I am today without books. I owe an obscene amount of gratitude to all the makers of books out there. This is my way of giving back. I hope that something I pick up and review will guide you to acquire the next tome on your To Be Read stack.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

One Impactful Book<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Happy Halloween, everyone! I\u2019ve been writing more than reading in the last weeks. Between teaching, readings, and Patreon, as well as witching, I\u2019m a busy crone. Not surprising, it\u2019s the season of the witch. Regardless, I finished one impactful book and it has a place of honor now on my rune study shelf now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queering The Runes: Reclaiming Ancestral Wisdom in Rune Magic & Mythology<\/em> by Siri Vincent Plouff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"An
As you can see, I’ve marked passages I want to return and reflect on within Queering The Runes<\/em>. For diviners like me this book is so reassuring and validating. Pretty cool & interesting that the author of the first rune book I found an alternative approach to the Elder Futhark, Lara Vesta, wrote the foreword. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Friends, I feel so validated in my own relationship with the runes after reading this book. It\u2019s certainly a book I\u2019ll recommend to my runic divination students. The author starts the book with this true seer\u2019s perspective, too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe runes collapse time. It\u2019s actually helpful that they are letters from a dead language \u2013 because sometimes, to get over the clashing static of our own modern psyches, we need to look to something older. We need to slow down and interpret something that isn\u2019t directly of our own world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the book has all the basics like a rune cheat sheet, but finding a book that feels like how I connect with the runes may have given me a moment of ugly crying when I was done reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve often told my clients and students about the promise to Those That Came Before we are and when the gift rune shows up in a reading, we need to pay attention. Plouff confirms it while discussing that particular rune: \u201cGyfu is not just a gift, but an oath: that you will use what has been given for the greater good.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those that work with the runes quickly find out that understanding the mythology of the people who used this ancient tool is important as well. I appreciated Plouff\u2019s take on this mythology \u2013 again resonating with me about figures like Freyja, \u00d3\u00f0inn, and, warming my black heart, Hel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They wrote: \u201cHel is a great equalizer. For queer folks, she is the understanding that we are all subject to the same laws of physics, the same law of mortality. Hel is also a great connector. Heathenry relies so intensely on ancestral veneration and connection with the wisdom of those that came before us that Hel becomes a connector. When we are working on connecting with our queer ancestors, Hel operates as a link in the chain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t