Folkish Runes

I am going to use the term Folkish Runes in order to distinguish the Ar-Kan Rune-Lag system from the 'academic' study of runes, which really means that the rune-meanings stay the same eternally simply because new insights are dismissed because they are not 'valid' and 'historical'. Guido von List had a mystical experience whilst blinded through a cataract operation, and thus created the 18-rune Armanen System and the High Armanen Orden which disseminated his teachings. Other rune-magicians and rune-workers also took up this system and developed it with their own ideas - and thus it became a working system for the German Revolution that brought the Triumph of the Will in 1933.

The Armanen System has been taken up by Don Miguel Serrano of Chile who has further developed this system, added more ideas to it, and created a working system designed to achieve the Resurrection of the Arya. It can thus be seen that the runes are not static and do not have set meanings, but evolve themselves through the work of Initiates who gain further insight into the use and meanings of the Ancient Runes. Without these insights the runes would not be effective at all.

We should never dismiss academic study since these people are the experts in their field and have access to the books for research, which we will not always have. But what we need to realise is that academics are only 'experts' with the material that they have, which in the case of the runes is very little. And their work could never go any further unless new material came to hand; it is also true to say that much dogma creeps in when we realise that much of what is done is no less 'speculation' and 'individual interpretation' than that of the more magico-mystical rune-workers who are inspired (by Woden) to gain new insights into the Runic Mysteries.

Those people that criticise the work of the more magico-mystical rune-workers are usually the people who cannot gain insights into the runes, maybe because they were never meant to. Because their work can go no further it seems they do not wish anyone else to achieve what they cannot. It would be far better if such people were to cease their criticism and to work the way they are able to work, and with their academic knowledge were to put forward the facts of what there is, and then others could interpret these and so help the runes to evolve.

If we look at the Anglo-Saxon Rune-Row we can see clearly that every rune-meaning is mundane and linked to the material level - on the surface. If we take these meanings literally these meanings would serve very little purpose at all. But when we consider that ancient teachings were based upon symbolism then we can begin to see the purpose behind each rune-meaning. It is also important to note that the rune-staves have shapes that give us more information about each one. One example is the Rad-Rune which is a zig-zag shape (Blood) running down a Pillar (Upright Stave) and thus is the Rune of Sacrifice. Nowhere is this meaning given in any of the rune-rows, but the symbolism gives us these insights. This rune is also connected to the Dream of the Rood in that the rune-name links to the Rood (Gallows-Tree) and also to the Hanged God on the Bleeding Tree which features in this Old English text. Again, nowhere do we find this in the rune-poem, but the idea is inherent in the rune-stave and others works that give further insight into this meaning.

When I was young I kept experiencing visions of an ancient book that opened and showed me ancient knowledge. This I could not understand at the time, until I grew a little older and started to read and to study in order to gain knowledge. Then the visions stopped. Looking back on this some Higher Power was forcing me into reading and gaining knowledge. But there is much more to this, since it would seem that certain books are meant to be read by certain individuals, as if they were written especially for them to read, and thus interpret. This would seem impossible when we regard time as linear, but when we consider that time is cyclic, then this seems far more feasible, since they were written at one point of a cycle in order to be interpreted at another point - and thus used in the Eternal Struggle that we have undertaken as Einheriar who are resurrected at certain times of the cycle to wage this Eternal Struggle.

After doing a meditation on the Tir-Rune one night before going to sleep (some years ago) I had a strange dream that I was standing on an open field looking up towards a Holy Mountain and a voice was telling me 'the polarity of the Earth is changing - this will herald the arrival of the Superman'. Now, nothing in any of the rune-poems suggest that the Tir-Rune has any meaning like this, but logic tells us that it is a rune of direction since it looks like an arrow (or spear) and an arrow is used to symbolise direction. So this rune actually does refer to polarity (which is direction) and thus the meaning of the dream has some truth in it that cannot be seen using an 'academic' approach to the runes.

We can use the Edel-Rune (Odal Rune/Adal Rune) as another example, since the basic meaning is 'inherited property'. On the surface, at the mundane level of meaning given in the rune-poems, this refers to the property passed on from generation to generation - i.e. the home and the land. However, the other 'inherited property' that we have is our genetic inheritance, passed down from generation to generation. So within the Odal-Rune we have the Folkish concept of Blood and Soil. The Blood (DNA - Genetic Inheritance) and The Soil (Inherited Land of the Folk - the Odal Right). The Odal-Rune is made up of a Germanic Ing-Rune and the Gyfu-Rune as a bind-rune, and thus has the meaning Gift of Ing (I think this was pointed out by Freya Aswynn in Leaves of Yggdrasil). The Ing-Rune in its Saxon version has the shape of the DNA Spiral and is thus associated with the Blood and the Genetic Inheritance which is the Gift of Ing. These two runes are linked in the Blood & Soil concept. This is the mystical link between the Blood of the Folk and the Soil of the Folkland.

In the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem we find that 'Ing follows his waen eastwards over the waves' which if taken literally would be very much like Jesus Christ walking on water! But if we recognise the symbolism that underlies this statement we can find two simple meanings -

1. Ing (Venus - the Morning Star) follows the Sun-Waen (Sun) eastwards over the waves (day skies), and sets as the Evening Star in the West.

2. Ing (Bootes) follows Woden's Waen (Great Bear) eastwards over the waves (night skies) revolving around the Pole Star.

Now the whole thing makes sense, since we have not taken this as a literal meaning, but as a symbolic meaning. Indeed, the constellation of Bootes can be seen as an alternative Ing-Rune on some occasions. The figure of Ingwe/Ing can thus be seen as important to the most ancient Polar Mythos and also to the later Solar Mythos. But the symbolism of this figure is the same for both eras.

I have shown in my book and also in many of my writings how August 11th 1999 (Solar Eclipse) heralded the conception of the Age of Ing and also the Resurrection of Ingwe as the God of this World Age. I have also shown how the name Ingwe can also be found in certain 'Celtic' texts from these islands, and that the figure referred to is a One-Eyed God, which must link this to Woden in another of his guises - although this is not made obvious in any myth or legend in either English or Norse. Of course, we could consider the title 'Ygg' or 'Igg' as linked to Ing, since in the Greek Language the letters 'gg' are pronounced 'ng'.

On a rather more speculative level NG can be seen as the Broken S-word that has been re-forged, since the letters 'n' and 'g' are today separate letters, whereas originally they were one single sound 'NG'. The symbolism is clear in that this refers to the re-forging of the Broken S-word which itself symbolises the Resurrection of Ing. We have seen how the Odal-Rune is the Gift of Ing and we should note that the Gar-Rune is also the Gift of Ing (Ing-Gyfu bind-rune again) and this is the Spear of Woden. The famous sword Miming is the 'Memory of Ing', and taking all this together the figure known as Ingwe must have had some significance and importance that has been lost with time.

In interpreting the runes in these ways we are not changing the rune-meanings, we are merely giving new interpretations of them, which we could not do were we to consider their meanings in a 'historical' context, or through a literal interpretation of the rune-poems, rather than seeing them as symbols.