In order to clear a few misconceptions up about runes, I am going to do a few 101 blogs on the subject.
History of Runes
Runes are a system of writing, divination and magick that probably originated sometime before 200 b.c.e. (the earliest dated runic artifact found.) It is the second oldest known form of divination in the world. (Artifacts with the Chinese I Ching have been found that are several centuries older than the Runic artifacts.) All legends surrounding the discovery of the runes are directly related to the Norse god, Odin, who sacrificed Himself for nine days upon Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, before He drew the runes up from the roots of Yggdrasil. In the Havamal, also called the sayings of the High One, Odin says:
"Nine nights long I hung upon the windy tree
pierced by my own gar
sacrificed unto Odin, myself unto myself.
no drinking horn nor bread
offered me as I hung upon that tree from
from whose roots no man
knows whence they spring. Looking down
I seized the runes
Screaming I fell back again."
This is how the origins of the runes are explained. It was the sacrifice of a great god who embarked upon a shamanic journey into the roots of life itself that brought back these signs of primal energy we call runes. Diana Paxton in her wonderful rune curriculum/book Taking Up the Runes suggests that Odin may have brought more than those twenty four we now know up but gave to humanity only twenty four. That would be typical of Odin to give us only part of the runes He discovered and perhaps give to other realms little bits and pieces of other runes. He is a clever God and had to put the meanings of the runes into terms we humans could understand. The word rune itself comes from the root reu, a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to roar. Its meaning changes in the languages of Northern Europe from the German raunen (to whisper) to the Old Irish run and Middle Welsh rhin (both meaning secret or mysterium.) Even today, the meaning of the word rune has changed among some facets of culture to simply mean a mysterious or magickal symbol.
The set of runes are called the Futhark. "Futhark" is what the first six runes spell in our common language. The Futhark is divided into three sets of eight runes, called Aetts. Each aett is named after the first rune of its set so we have a Fe or Fehu Aett, Hagalaz or Hagall Aett and a Tiwaz or Tyr Aett. Please note that I used two different but similar words for the first runes of each aett. Runes are known more commonly by their Germanic names ( Fehu, Hagalaz and Tiwaz) than they are by the Old Norse names (Fe, Hagall and Tyr.) For the sake of conformity, most people seem to use use the Germanic names for the runes here since most literature and runesters today use that language for the runes. I was once in a group discussion with the author of a book on sacred wells of Ireland and England and tried to explain that we Norse have sacred waters as well as a rune of water. I repeatedly said the rune "logr" to blank faces, some who were well versed in runes then I showed them the hand stadha (hand sign language) for the rune and they all nodded and said "ahhh, laguz!" I learned runes using the Old Norse and had a communication problem until I learned the Germanic names!
Runes survived for over two thousand years of Christian attempts to erase them from the earth along with the Pagan faiths that held them dear. How did the runes survive such a long campaign of disinformation and blood letting? All across Northern Europe, Ireland, Scotland and England there are huge standing stones with runic charms and words written on them. Some mark boundaries, deaths of great people, or events that were not supposed to be forgotten. Tools, jewelry and weapons have survived with the runes inscribed in them. The 9th century manuscript "Abecedaium Nordmannicum" and the 14th century "Codex Runicus" were both written in runes and survived. It is the common man's keeping of runes that is truly remarkable, though, for they used runes in the structure of their houses in Germany for so many centuries that even the builders forgot why they built things the way they did. In Europe, runes were used as House Marks for the great houses as well as a way to identify property and boundaries.
Because of the Christian persecution, by the 1800s there were but a few runesingers left, mostly in remote parts of Scandinavia. The Runic Mysteries remained alive in the traditions and lore of secret societies in Germany until Guido Von List, a great German mystic, brought them back into the light of day in the early 1900s after what he described a "spontaneous runic initiation". Von List was a bigot but he sparked the modern Runic Revival. He wrote the Armanen Orden that is used to this day by some German mystics and others. Twenty years after von List's death in 1919, the Nazis tried their nasty hands at rune magic and came up with the true "Aryan" symbol, the fylfot or swastika. Perhaps it was a good thing they didn't know a lot about the runes because they reversed the Fylfot ( a kind of magical Runic symbol for success and achievement) and ended up wearing the symbol of failure on all their neatly pressed uniforms!
In 1955, another German magician, Spiesberger, published two books on runes minus bigotry and racism. They were Rune Magic and Rune Exercises for Everyone. Spiesberger did not use the traditional runes (his Futhark consisted of only 18 runes!) but he brought runes into the modern era. In 1973 Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson established the first official Asatruar troth in Iceland and the true research and recovery of the ancient runes began. There are now Rune Guilds all over the world.
Where do the runes go from here? Whatever the runes were when the Alfather found them, their ultimate use is written in the Voluspa, another Heathen writing carried down through the ages like the Eddas and the Havamal:
"Again the Aesir meet
on the Idha plain,
and speak of the mighty\
Midgardh serpent,
and remember again
the mighty World Doom
and Fimbultyr's (Odhinn's)
elder runes."
(Stanza 59)
And, so, it seems, that the runes play a serious purpose in the defense of the world of order and good. Interesting, huh?
On an experiential note, one of the areas few rune writers and teachers cover is the personal gnosis of the runic path. This is a natural progression for those who work a long time with runes. Runes become a kind of key to doors we did not know were there until we bump up against them in meditation and spiritual journeys. We find truths about ourselves and both the mundane and higher planes by using runes as guides and focus points. In my study groups, everyone is required to do rune meditations. For example, everyone will have to do a rune meditation on Fehu/Fe and the results will surprise all the participants to the point they will wonder if they were all really meditating on the same rune!
To understand why this happens, we return to the story of how the runes were discovered. Odin went on a shamanic journey to find the runes. We never really know if He meant to look specifically for the runes but that is what the Universe gave Him. A shamanic journey of that proportion requires sacrifice and discomfort. Odin hung upside down on Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, for nine days and nights, fasting and deep in vision. Even after He brought the runes up from the roots of Yggdrasil, He had to put them in terms humans could understand. Like spoken language, words can mean something different depending on the life experience and culture a human has come from. For example, the word "creek" can mean a waterway that is only two feet wide and six inches deep in one part of the country and, in another part of the same country, mean a waterway that is a hundred feet wide and dozens of feet deep! Runes reveal themselves to a person in a way that person can grasp. While runes have specific base meanings, they are keys to open different doors for different people. It is my belief that the runes offer to a seeker in direct proportion to what the seeker offers to obtain the information of a particular rune.
Odin frequently is referred to as the Shamanic God because of His thirst for knowledge. He even gave up an eye for a sip of water from a sacred well that bestowed special gifts upon Him! He sacrificed much for knowledge. He continually seeks knowledge by voyaging among the realms, including Midgardhr, our realm. Understanding Odin's association with the runes is crucial to understanding the runes themselves and why they have survived for two thousand years. Sacrifice and thirst for knowledge brought the runes to us. What we do now with them in our individual experiences determines how much truth we learn about ourselves, our realms and each other.
Hope this helps a few people who have had questions about the origins of runes.
Tree
Sources:
Aswynn, Freya: Leaves of Yggdrasil
Paxson, Diana: Taking Up the Runes
Thorsson, Edred: Futhark:A Handbook of Rune M
