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The Witches' Runes: History, Creation, and Use
The Witches' Runes, first presented by famed occultist Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, are a set of ten marked stones that have traveled the world by way of occult teachers and students. Now, for the first time ever, this obscure system of divination is presented in its original form for a general audience.
Josephine Winter and Jason Tremain present each rune in its own in-depth chapter along with meditations and journal prompts, allowing you to explore its traditional meaning and how it connects with you on a personal level. You will also learn how to create your own Witches' Runes and interpret the symbol combinations. Much simpler than tarot or the Elder Futhark runes, anyone can pick up this system and find that the future is just a stone's throw away.
Josephine Winter and Jason Tremain present each rune in its own in-depth chapter along with meditations and journal prompts, allowing you to explore its traditional meaning and how it connects with you on a personal level. You will also learn how to create your own Witches' Runes and interpret the symbol combinations. Much simpler than tarot or the Elder Futhark runes, anyone can pick up this system and find that the future is just a stone's throw away.
220 pages, Paperback
Published January 8, 2026
2 people want to read
About the author
Josephine Winter
10 books8 followersJosephine Winter has been a Pagan and witch for over two decades, beginning in Norse-inspired Heathenry and later the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca. She holds degrees in education, literature, and the arts. For the last decade, she has been a regular volunteer and organizer at various Pagan events around Australia. Josephine is the founder of Lepus Lumen, a teaching collective of covens, outer courts, and solo practitioners. She lives in country Victoria, in Australia's leafy south-east.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 9, 2026
Find the full review with trigger warnings on my blog.
DNF @ 37%
I was disappointed with this guide. When I requested it, I was unaware that the rune set was based on a Romani rune set that was likely not meant to be shared outside of Romani culture, given that the (non-Romani) woman who was taught it by a Romani woman said she had to wheedle the information out of the woman who taught it to her.
It concerns me that the woman who is said to have discovered this rune set decided that she was the ultimate authority on what the final missing rune from the set was, and that she claimed that the rune set was gifted to the Romani people by a Welsh god, Llŷr.
The way the runes are discussed in this book is very snycretic, confusingly so. How could the Eye rune be symbolic of Odin's eye if the runes were gifted by a Welsh mythological figure? I understand that the authors wished to help the reader understand the various runes by relating them to mythological figures from different cultures, but it just makes it confusing. Additionally, many of the runes are related to elements of Kabbalah, which is a closed religious practice. As someone who is Jewish, I don't even think that the ways the runes are related to the different parts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life are accurate.
As a final note, the meditations to connect with the different runes are very repetitive and similar, perhaps overly so. If these runes are so different from each other, why are the guided meditations to connect with the spirits of the runes all so similar? The way that the guided meditations were written also felt more like forcing than guiding in some cases.
Thank you to Llewellyn Publications and Edelweiss for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
DNF @ 37%
I was disappointed with this guide. When I requested it, I was unaware that the rune set was based on a Romani rune set that was likely not meant to be shared outside of Romani culture, given that the (non-Romani) woman who was taught it by a Romani woman said she had to wheedle the information out of the woman who taught it to her.
It concerns me that the woman who is said to have discovered this rune set decided that she was the ultimate authority on what the final missing rune from the set was, and that she claimed that the rune set was gifted to the Romani people by a Welsh god, Llŷr.
The way the runes are discussed in this book is very snycretic, confusingly so. How could the Eye rune be symbolic of Odin's eye if the runes were gifted by a Welsh mythological figure? I understand that the authors wished to help the reader understand the various runes by relating them to mythological figures from different cultures, but it just makes it confusing. Additionally, many of the runes are related to elements of Kabbalah, which is a closed religious practice. As someone who is Jewish, I don't even think that the ways the runes are related to the different parts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life are accurate.
As a final note, the meditations to connect with the different runes are very repetitive and similar, perhaps overly so. If these runes are so different from each other, why are the guided meditations to connect with the spirits of the runes all so similar? The way that the guided meditations were written also felt more like forcing than guiding in some cases.
Thank you to Llewellyn Publications and Edelweiss for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 of 1 review