Ralph H. Blum

Ralph Blum (5/1932-) is a writer and cultural anthropologist who has been working with the Runes as a tool for self-counselling since 1977.

One of three children born to silent film star, Carmel Myers, during her second marriage to husband Ralph Henriques Blum, Sr. (1893-1950) (Her first marriage was to Isidore Kornblum, which ended in divorce in 1923). Ralph Blum (Jr.), was also the nephew of Hollywood writer and director, Zion Myers, Carmel's older brother.

Blum studied at Harvard University (1950-1957). During this time, he also spent a period of time in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar, returned to Harvard, where he did graduate work in anthropology with grants from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation, and finally earning a BA in Russian Studies and Anthropology, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

He later studied Soviet Cinema at Leningrad University from 1961-1963. His reporting from the Soviet Union, the first of its kind for The New Yorker (1961-1965), included two three-part series on Russian cultural life.

In 1982, the modern usage of the runes for answering life's questions was apparently originated by Ralph Blum in his divination book The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle, which was marketed with a small bag of round tiles with runes stamped on them. This book has remained in print since its first publication. The sources for Blum's divinatory interpretations, as he explained in The Book of Runes itself, drew heavily on then-current books describing the ancient I Ching divination system of China.

Each of Blum's seven books on runic divination deals with a specialized area of life or a varied technique for reading runes:

The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle: The Viking Runes (1982); revised 10th Anniversary Edition (1992); revised 25th Anniversary Edition (2007).

The Rune Cards: Sacred Play for Self Discovery (1989); reissued as The Rune Cards: Ancient Wisdom For the New Millennium (1997). Rather than rune stones, this book uses images of the runes printed on card stock, much like a set of trading cards or tarot cards.

The Healing Runes with co-author Susan Loughan (1995) teaches methods for using runic divination in the context of health and personal integration.

Rune Play: A Method of Self Counseling and a Year-Round Rune Casting Recordbook (1996)

The Serenity Runes: Five Keys to the Serenity Prayer with co-author Susan Loughan (1998); reissued as The Serenity Runes: Five Keys to Spiritual Recovery (2005) utilizes runic divination as a method for assisting self-help and recovery from addictions; the title is a reference to the well-known serenity prayer widely used in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Ralph H. Blum's Little Book of Runic Wisdom (2002).

The Relationship Runes: A Compass for the Heart with co-author Bronwyn Jones (2003) shows how to use runic divination in matters of love and friendship.

Blum has also written books on the Tao Te Ching, Zen Buddhism, and UFOs. His work has also been published in Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Saturday Evening Post, and Western Horseman. Blum also published three novels: The Simultaneous Man (1970), Old Glory and the Real-Time Freaks (1972), and The Foreigner. Both The Simultaneous Man and Old Glory... reflect his involvement in early drug research.

Recently, Blum won the Nautilus Book Award Medal for Investigative Reporting for his latest book, written in collaboration with oncologist Mark Scholz, MD, Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers. He has been living with prostate cancer, without radical intervention, for twenty years.

Ralph Blum currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and on Ikaria Island, Greece with his wife Jeanne Elizabeth Blum, an author in her own right, best known for her book Woman