Seems to me this thread got sidetracked. I've worked with Runes for around 25 years now and one thing I've learned about them is they carry real power. With this is mind they need to be treated with the utmost respect.

They are great as an oracle but that was never their prime purpose. When Odin found them he had hung on the Yggdrasil for nine days and nights pinned there by his own sword so the story goes. Seizing them up with a cry on the point of death he won great knowledge, wisdom and well being. He (supposedly) spread the word and teachings of them and they were used to achieve very real results such as getting a cow out of a bog, healing, endowing courage and strength in battle etc. I have used them in this way myself with sometimes startling results but always sparingly because the gifts they give demand a gift in return according to the laws of karma.

Runes from the word runa originally meaning a hidden thing have long been lost in history and it's only a very few of them that survived in anything like their original form. A lot of the surviving runes have also lost their original meanings and have other interpretations assigned to them during the course of history.

Of course anyone can develop a rune of their own but that's a different story