When we choose a thing from a set of things as part of ritual or fortune telling, such as pulling a rune or tarot card, we are practicing three different skills. The one everyone knows about consciously is that we are practicing the application of knowledge we learned about that system. For example, if we work with the Elder Futhark we might associate Ehwo with a horse. There are two other skills that reading runes teaches us. One applies to all rune readings, like knowledge-based interpretations do, and the other only applies to picking from a set.

The second skill is psychometry. When we either cast runes or pull a rune we get psychic impressions off of the runes by touching them. This skill may generalize to other systems. For example, a practiced rune reader may get impressions off of tarot cards too, even without knowing anything about the tarot system. A practiced rune reader may even get impressions from objects that are not fortune telling lots, or from places. For example, decades ago when I visited England I got psychic impressions from the henge at Avebury and from an old church, which I wrote about in some of my earliest posts on this blog. My trained ability to get impressions from my rune stones generalized to getting impressions from a standing stone circle and other buildings.

The third skill is intuitively picking the "right" one from a set of objects. This only applies to pulling from a set, whereas the other two skills apply to both casting and pulling. This is a very subtle skill, so subtle it may pass unnoticed as being a skill at all. It is a skill, though, one that you practice every time you pull from an oracle deck or bag of runes. This skill can generalize over time, too.

The skill of picking the "right" rune does not mean you are picking the "best" rune, of course. They are all equally powerful and meaningful. This is where people may trip up when trying to apply this skill to picking from a list of things.

First let's consider picking something that doesn't seem to affect your life that much except as an investment, to make money. (Stay with me here, even if you don't have any money to invest in anything. I promise it's relevant. Just imagine that you have some in the future.) You might be choosing precious metals, or art, or land, or cryptocurrency, or racehorses. Say you see a list in the newspaper of "7 best stocks for (next year)" and want to use your trained psychic intuition to pick one from this list. When you pick one you are not picking the "best" company by any objective standard, you are picking the one that is "right" for you to pick at this point in time. That is, it's not only right at this time, but it's also right for YOU. That's assuming you're choosing one for yourself, of course. This concept may not make a lot of sense if you are thinking that the only thing relevant to picking from that list is how much money you're going to make. There are other considerations though. For example, you may want to avoid companies that do things with the environment of which you don't approve; that's something you can research objectively but it's also something the universal power or the gods or ancestors can steer you away from using your intuition.The universe may steer you to something that is just a better fit for your goals and morals-- or for the gods' plan, of course, because you trained this power for divination, that is, to receive messages from the divine. Applying it to mundane things doesn't turn that off.

The concept of the "right" fit for you rather than the objectively "best" one may be easier to see if you're trying to pick something that affects you more personally than a choice that only seems on the surface to be about money. For example, consider how much it would affect your life if you were choosing from these lists: 5 best states to start a business in, top 10 companies for women to work for, 3 best industries requiring college degrees, top 10 cities for bicyclists, 6 picks for working from home, or 3 most important languages to learn for business. Those choices could affect your life profoundly. There are lists from which you might choose that could affect your child's life a lot as well, such as: top 12 boarding schools, 10 most popular baby names, 3 best sports to develop teamwork, or 8 most in-demand musical instruments.

Of course, a lot of people will probably choose those types of things without having to resort to picking from a list, especially a list prepared by someone else. But, you may also be making your own list, such as: top 3 baby names we both like, 2 cities we're drawn to, 5 fields I'm interested in studying. If you have genuine trouble making up your mind about such important life decisions, then using your trained intuition to pick from your list may help you choose once and then go on with implementing your decision.

Image: rune lots on a doily