This weekend I am travelling westwards for the Pagan Federations Summer Camp where I shall be giving a rune workshop on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it.

The runes are a brilliant method of divination, although people tend not to find them as attractive as the Tarot. I believe this is partly because with the Tarot (depending on which deck you use) you have something recognisable to look at: the magician, the moon, the hermit etc., whereas the runes are completely abstract.

And yet there's a freedom with the runes that you don't get with the Tarot. The runes work on your subconscious if you allow them too. They are tricksy, mischievous things, rather like the Norse trickster god, Loki. No wonder they were used for codes and riddles!

As I get older, I am drawn more and more towards the Anglo Saxon Runes. I'm not quite sure why... I spent an entire summer brushing up on my Anglo Saxon just to be able to get to grips with the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem. A year ago I sat in the garden reading the Leechbook of Bald and the Lacnunga (Anglo Saxon Herbals). There is just something about the Anglo Saxons, in my opinion they are sadly neglected when it comes to magic.

Part of the problem, of course, is that much of the literature we have by them has a distinct Christian gloss to it. Many pagans find this a bit off putting. But often if you dig just that little deeper, if you go the extra mile, the door opens and you're back in a world of feasting, swords, ogres and gods that throw hammers!

For anyone interested in learning more about ancient languages, I can recommend the Tiger of the Stripe website at www.tigerof the stripe.co.uk You need to have a real browse around it to find all the treasures hidden there, but I had my Anglo Saxon dictionary from them at a fraction of the price elsewhere!