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How Were the Runes Found?

According to the Havamal, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, in order to find the runes the god Odin had to hang from Yggdrasil (The World Tree) for nine days without food or water, pined to it by his own spear. There are obvious similarities here to the traditional imagery of the Hanged Man Tarot card, especially as, like the figure in the Rider-Waite deck for example, Odin hung upside down. This inversion is important because it implies a humility and a willingness to look at the world afresh. Odin's action can be seen as an extreme form of shamanistic ritual helping him to reach an altered state of consciousnes. For, on the 9th night as he lay between life and death, he first saw the runes

"Down into the depths I gazed
Crying aloud I took up runes
Then finally I fell"

The reference to "depths" or "down" (translations vary) is not only to the roots of Yggdrasil but to Odin himself. This was a moment of self-realisation also - looking into his inner depths. This is supported by another line which speaks of this being a sacrifice of Odin to Odin. Having picked up the runes Odin is newly empowered and he is released from the tree and the state between life and death in which he was hovering. He thus falls back to the ground but with the runes in his hands.