Runic magic
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There is some evidence[ appears to have been a person versed in runes, including their magic applications.
In medieval sources, notably the
In the
Historical evidence
Tacitus
Historically it is known that the Germanic peoples used various forms of divination and means of reading omens. Tacitus (Germania 10) gives a detailed account (98AD):
- They attach the highest importance to the taking of auspices and casting lots. Their usual procedure with the lot is simple. They cut off a branch from a nut-bearing tree and slice it into strips these they mark with different signs and throw them at random onto a white cloth. Then the state's priest, if it is an official consultation, or the father of the family, in a private one, offers prayer to the gods and looking up towards heaven picks up three strips, one at a time, and, according to which sign they have previously been marked with, makes his interpretation. If the lots forbid an undertaking, there is no deliberation that day about the matter in question. If they allow it, further confirmation is required by taking
auspices.[1]
It is often debated whether "signs" refers specifically to runes or to other marks; both interpretations are plausible and Tacitus does not give enough detail for a definite decision to be made.[2]
Epigraphy
Many inscriptions also have apparently meaningless utterances interpreted as magical chants, such as tuwatuwa (Vadstena bracteate), aaduaaaliia (DR BR42) or g͡æg͡og͡æ (Undley bracteate), g͡ag͡ag͡a (Kragehul I).
A few
Medieval sources
The most prolific source for runic magic in the
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She goes on to give advice on the magical runes in seven further stanzas. In all instances, the runes are used for actual
- "victory runes" to be carved on the sword hilt (stanza 6, presumably referring to the Tyr[7]),
- ølrunar "laukazon the cup),
- biargrunar "birth-runes" (stanza 8, a spell to facilitate childbirth),
- brimrunar "wave-runes" (stanza 9, a spell for the protection of ships, with runes to be carved on the stem and on the rudder),
- limrunar "branch-runes" (stanza 10, a healing spell, the runes to be carved on trees "with boughs to the eastward bent"),[8]
- malrunar "speech-runes" (stanza 11, the stanza is corrupt, but apparently referred to a spell to improve one's rhetorical ability at the thing),
- hugrunar "thought-runes" (stanza 12, the stanza is incomplete, but clearly discussed a spell to improve one's wit).[9]
The Poetic Edda also seems to corroborate the magical significance of the runes the Hávamál where Odin mentions runes in contexts of divination,[dubious ] of healing and of necromancy (trans. Bellows):
- "Certain is that which is sought from runes / That the gods so great have made / And the Master-Poet painted" (79)
- "Of runes heard I words, nor were counsels wanting / At the hall of Hor" (111)
- "Grass cures the scab / and runes the sword-cut" (137)
- "Runes shalt thou find / and fateful signs" (143)
- " if high on a tree / I see a hanged man swing / So do I write and color the runes / That forth he fares / And to me talks." (158)
Other oft cited sources for the practice of runic[
Another source is in the
Modern systems
In the 17th century,
The
Several modern systems of runic magic and runic divination were published from the 1980s onward. The first book on runic divination, written by Ralph Blum in 1982, led to the development of sets of runes designed for use in several such systems of
Later authors such as
Modern authors like Ralph Blum sometimes include a "blank rune" in their sets. Some were to replace a lost rune, but according to Ralph Blum this was the god Odin's rune, the rune of the beginning and the end, representing "the divine in all human transactions".[15]
Ralph Blum
In 1982, a modern usage of the runes for answering life's questions was apparently originated by
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 Record Book (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 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.
Stephen Flowers
In the wake of a 1984 dissertation on "Runes and Magic", Stephen Flowers published a series of books under the pen-name "Edred Thorsson" which detailed his own original method of runic divination and magic, "odianism",[16] which he said was loosely based on historical sources and modern European hermeticism. These books were:
- Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic[17] (1984)
- Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology (1987)
- At The Well of Wyrd (1988) which was later reprinted under the title Runecaster’s Handbook: The Well of Wyrd.
- Northern Magic: Rune Mysteries and Shamanism (2002).
Runic divination is a component of Flowers' "esoteric runology" course offered to members of his Rune-Gild, as detailed in The Nine Doors of Midgard: A Curriculum of Rune-Work. Besides runic divination, Flowers also advocated the "runic gymnastics" (Runengymnastik) developed in the 1920s by Friedrich Marby, under the name of "Rune-Yoga" (also "Runic Yoga", "Stadhagaldr").[18]
Stephan Grundy
In 1990,
Most of Gundarsson's runic magic entails being in possession of a physical entity that is engraved with any or all of the individual runes or "staves", so as to practically work with their energies. The individual runes are reddened with either blood, dyes, or paints. The act of possessing the stave in its final form serves the purpose of affecting the world of form with "the rune might" of that particular stave. After use, the staves are discarded or destroyed.[20]
Gundarsson holds that each rune has a certain sound to it, to be chanted or sung; the sound has in common the phonetic value by which it is represented.[21] This act of singing or chanting is supposed to have more or less the same effect of using the staves in their physical form.[22]
Other
- Nigel Pennick proposes "Germanic Runic Astrology" in publications such as Runic Astrology: Starcraft and Timekeeping in the Northern Tradition (1995), ISBN 1-898307-45-8.
- ISBN 1-56718-047-7.
- Adam Byrn Tritt, in Runic Divination in the Welsh Tradition (2011)[23] presents a system based on a 10-stone set, including nine symbols which are unrelated to the historical runes, plus a blank stone, which represents the querent (inquirer).
- Diana L. Paxson deals with the subject of runic divination and the use of the runes in magical spell-casting in her book Taking Up The Runes: A Complete Guide To Using Runes In Spells, Rituals, Divination, And Magic (2005).[24]
- Wendy Christine Duke in Spiral of Life (2008)[25] presents a divination system based on organizing a set of 41 "revealed images" based on the runic letters.
- A. D. Mercer, Runen - The Wisdom of the Runes (2016) reintroduces the Armanen Runes.
- Saemarr þorsgoði (Peter Seymour), Produced during the 1980s, a tape recording "Runes" giving advice on the use and divination practice of runes, including theoretical Galdrar (chanting) of the rune names of the Elder Futhark for ritual use.
See also
- Germanic neopaganism
- Galdr
- Icelandic magical staves
- List of runestones
- Runic Gymnastics
- Uthark theory
- Veve
References
- ^ Birley (1999:42).
- ^ J. B. Rives, Germania By Cornelius Tacitus, Oxford University Press p. 166
- ISBN 1-84383-186-4.
- ^ Macleod and Mees (2006), 91-101.
- ISBN 3-11-016227-X.
- ^ translation and numbering of stanzas after the edition by Henry Adams Bellows (1936).
- ISBN 91-88930-32-7
- ^ "Such runes were believed to transfer sickness from the invalid to the tree. Some editors, however, have changed limrunar ("branch runes") to lifrunar ("life-runes")" Bellows (1936), p. 392.
- ^ "Here the list of runes breaks off, though the manuscript indicates no gap, and three short passages of a different type, though all dealing with runes, follow." Bellows (1936) p. 393.
- ^ [1] Archived 2007-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Internet History Sourcebooks".
- ^ Foote and Wilson (1970), 401.
- ^ MacLeod and Mees (2006), 235.
- ISBN 90-04-11030-5
- ISBN 1-85906-042-0.
- ^ Thorsson, Edred (1987), Runelore; A Handbook of Esoteric Runology.
Unfortunately, Thorsson's work is highly speculative and he has noted ties to the AFA (Asatru Folk Assembly) which impact his credibility. - ISBN 0-87728-548-9
- ^
Edred Thorsson, Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, Weiser Books, 1984, p. 15.
Edred Thorsson, Rune Might: Secret Practices of the German Rune Magicians, Llewellyn's Teutonic Magick series, 1989.
Edred Thorsson, The Truth About Teutonic Magick, Llewellyn's vanguard series, 1994.
Later also: L. E. Camp, A Handbook of Armanen Runic-Wisdom: History, World-View, Rune-Yoga, Divination, the Sidereal Pendulum and the Runic-Zodiac, 2005.
Criticized by Sweyn Plowright, The Rune Primer, 2006 (esp. pp. 137-139). - ^ Gundarsson (1990), 27; 211; 211-212.
- ^ Gundarsson (1990), 33; 34; 27.
- ^ Gundarsson (1990), 37-156.
- ^ Gundarsson (1990), 31-32.
- ISBN 978-0-9793935-1-8.
- ISBN 978-1-57863-325-8.
- ISBN 978-0-9818693-0-8.
Sources
- Birley, A. R. (Trans.) (1999). Agricola and Germany. ISBN 978-0-19-283300-6
- Blum, Ralph (1993). The Book of Runes : A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle: The Viking Runes with Stones, St. Martin's Press; 10th anniversary ed. ISBN 0-312-09758-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8204-0333-5.
- —, as Thorsson, Edred (1983). A Handbook of Rune Magic, Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-548-9
- —, as Thorsson, Edred (1987). A Handbook of Esoteric Runology. Weiser Books, ISBN 0-87728-667-1
- Fries, Jan, Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick, Second Edition, Mandrake of Oxford (2002), ISBN 978-1-869928-38-4
- ISBN 0-283-97926-7
- ISBN 0-87542-291-8.
- MacLeod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects. Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-205-4.
- Meadows, Kenneth (1996). Rune Power: The Secret Knowledge of the Wise Ones. Milton, Brisbane: Element Books Limited. ISBN 1-85230-706-4
- Plowright, Sweyn (2006). The Rune Primer. Lulu Press. ISBN 1-84728-246-6
- Tritt, Adam Byrn (2011), Tellstones: Runic Divination in the Welsh Tradition. Smithcraft Press. ISBN 978-0-9793935-1-8
External links
- Mystic Uses of the Runes bibliography
- Magic Runes
- On line readings
- Runic Magic