Esoteric Rune Magic

© 1994, D. Jason Cooper, Esoteric Rune Magic, pp. 48-63

There are three aettir (aett is singular, aettir is plural) of the Elder Futhark. This fact has often been mentioned In both occult and academic books on the runes, but no one has bothered to wonder what this division means.

The Enochian alphabet has no similar division; its only internal structure is its alphabetic order and numerology. The Hebrew alphabet has both these divisions and the division between single, double, and mother letters..

Perhaps this is why when the runes regained popularity the existence of the aettir did not excite much attention. Indeed, the only mention of their use was as the basis of ciphers such as the twig runes or tent runes. Additionally the aettir form the basis for runic numerology, a sophisticated subject in its own right.

But the aettir, on examination, create a careful division of the runes. This system has several implications for the magical use of the runes. The aettir not only imply an initiatory structure, each aett being one degree in a three-degree system, but they seem to reflect the age-old division of Aryan tribal society: nurturer, warrior, and priest/king. This theory of the division of Aryan societies, by the way, is not an occult theory, but an academic one associated most closely with G. Dumezil.

In its simplest form, the theory is as follows. When the Aryan tribes swept from the steppes, they brought with them a society already divided into three groupings...

These groupings affected the different Aryan societies in a variety of ways. in India the divisions multiplied, became more fixed, and were transformed into the caste system. In Iran, too, the caste developed but was much less complicated and rigid, and eventually atrophied into merely two divisions: priest/king and everybody else. These divisions apparently explain a wide variety of phenomena. For example, in early Rome there were priesthoods called flamens. G. Dumezil believed the Latin flamen to be a corruption of "Brahman."

Furthermore, there were three major and twelve minor such priesthoods-priesthood here being an office held by an individual. The three major priesthoods were dedicated to the gods Quiurnus, Mars, and Jupiter. Dumezil saw these as reflecting the nurturer, warrior, and priest/king respectively.

Similarly, medieval society with its division of people - "those who work, those who pray, and those who fight"- reflected the same ancient traditions. Dumezil saw the same division in Germanic society. We should not think Dumezil's ideas have been universally accepted...

What Dumezil has done, however, is trace structures of society to their common origin. Where we find the structure remaining in society we can expect it to exist in its institutions. This is certainly the case with the Germanic tribes.

The divisions Dumezil noted were essentially those of the Germanic pagans. They had nurturers in their farmers, women, and to an extent, merchants. They had their warriors, the Vikings being one example, and their priest/kings. Many royal houses traced their ancestry back to one of the gods. In the pagan era all royalty had divine sanction.

These divisions are reflected in the aettir of the runes in different ways. If you look carefully, you may notice some overlap in the duties of the runes. Each aett has its complement of functions and its own character.

The first aett is Freyja's, the aett of the nurturer: the mother, the farmer, and the merchant. It is also the aettir of the first degree and shows this in its structure. The runes set three pairs of opposites which are fairly typical of the kind of test/choice early students face in initiatory training.

Take the first two letters: feoh and ur. These are domesticated and wild oxen, respectively. The similarity is obvious, since both deal with cattle. The distinction is between the social, domesticated, and responsible on one hand and the wild, untamed nature on the other.

Do not assume that feoh is good and ur is bad. The task of the student is as much to get away from his or her own conventional ways of thinking as to learn the methods of magic. On the other hand, the student must often face parts of him or her-self he or she hoped never to face again: the student must learn to capture and tame the wild side of his or her own psyche.

The second pair, thorn and os, is even easier to see as a dichotomy, since it admits no ambiguity. It is all demons, especially the one called thorn, versus all gods, especially Odin. In other words, the student has to choose the gods with every fiber of his or her being.

To choose the gods only because it is expected is not good enough. The student has to see the reality of the choice, and make it using all the factors of him or herself unleashed (the lesson of feoh and ur).

The third pair, rad and ken, complete the simple opposites in his aettir. They are the otherworld and the journey to the land of the dead on one hand, the light of the torch on the other.

With this pair we seem to have an image of a two-part initiation. On the physical level we have a person in a cave (rad) who has been subject to sensory deprivation (darkness) being brought the light (ken) before being brought out of the cave as if reborn.

Psychologically, we have a typical shamanic ride into the otherworld on a cart or an animal (rad). There the shaman uses his or her harnessed magical powers (ken) as a guide, conducts the journey safely, and returns.

Note that initiations in caves were common in both Germanic and Celtic cultures. In the case of the Germanic tribes, torches were a symbol of magical power. Even today torch light parades, a tradition started by the pagans, take place.

The final two runes are gyfu and wunjo. Gyfu is the gift, the exchange; wynn, the glory. In the light of previous pairs it would seem the parallel here is that in return for the gift the student receives the glory, which in this case means wisdom.

The sacrifices the student has made (and a last such sacrifice may be indicated by the rune gyfu) yield the wisdom of wynn. The student has passed the degree of the nurturer (Freyja) and it ready to undergo the tests of the warrior, Heimdall.

Heimdall is sometimes thought of as a god of silence, which might seem like priestly meditation to some. I believe he, in conjunction with Loki, forms a special description of the world. Loki is the bound giant whose fingers eat away at coastlines.

Loki is a shapeshifter, as dunes change shape. He steals, as erosion steals topsoil or land. Yet he brings the gods their greatest treasures (usually of gold), as erosion reveals alluvial gold or other items.

Heimdall is the watcher against this. He is associated with goats because they live on the cliffs identified with him. He is identified with sea cliffs because they are seen as Heimdall watching for Loki's arrival. His horn is the waves crashing against the surf, the sound heard throughout the nine worlds.

He is associated with the land, in that Heimdall refers to the land just as do the names Vanaheim and Svartalfheim. Similarly, Freyja is called Merdall, which is the sea equivalent of Heimdall. But Heimdall himself was born of the sea, as land is often thought (correctly, geologically speaking) to be born of the sea.

In essence, Heimdall is a warrior. Ever-watchful, he struggles against overwhelming odds, showing unending courage in his watchfulness.

His aett begins with hoel. It is winter, ice, and the season of cold. In this we again have the dichotomy of Loki and Heimdall.

Winter is a season in which people spend long months indoors. Pranks and mischief become common and can go too far. This was the sort of thing against which Heimdall, watchful and patient, was to stand.

The second rune is nyd, necessity. Long periods of enforced rest, even boredom, can lead one past the obvious. The usual mechanisms of personality break down and the individual reaches for something inside him or herself. He or she finds sources of power beyond his or her dreams.

When such things occur, and they do occur in several societies, they are described in terms of combat or in relation to a warrior. It is interesting to note here that Freyja's aett starts with safety and moves to danger, while Heimdall's aett starts with danger and moves to its resolution.

The next two runes of Heimdall seem to repeat the relationship of the first two: isa (spear or ice) and ger (the year, especially the harvest). Naturally Isa (as ice) parallels hoel, and ger (harvest with the implication of winter stores) parallels nyd.

If so, this implies the application of the power of nyd, in turn made necessary by hoel. Defense of the food stores against the enemy, human or natural, is part of this. But there is another dichotomy represented here.

Isa is the barren time of winter. Ger is the fruitfulness of the harvest. In this the warrior reaches into his or her lowermost depths to find the wellspring of personal strength, a strength which exists almost by natural law.

The runes go through boredom and find necessity. They go rough barrenness and find fruitfulness. One would expect a third such division, yet the next two runes do not provide it.

Both eoh and poerdh deal with restriction. Eoh is natural restriction, and might be compared to the literal meaning of the Latin prohibit, which means "for life." Poerdh is the funeral mound and its entrance. It is death not in the mold of rad, a crossable state, but it is death as a warrior finds it--an impenetrable barrier; a final limit.

The last two runes are also similar in direction, but on different scales. That is, eolh is protection while sighel is the sun salvation and protection.

Restriction is matched with protection and death is matched with salvation. In this poerdh is not an absolute barrier; any breach of that barrier exists only through a higher power. Sighel, as the sun, transcends death. It is not the warrior who digs permanently deeper into him or herself to eventually overcome even death: for this he or she requires outside aid. With that in mind, we turn to the third aettir.

Tir, in his original form of Tyr, was the head of the Germanic pantheon. His name comes from the same source as Jupiter (originally Deus Pitar) and Zeus. He was a sky god whose worship went back at least to the Bronze Age; we have carvings which show a one-handed figure who is taken to be a god.

It is possible that his ancestry is much older than this. The rough outline of the Germanic mythic universe, a column or tree holding up a skull which is the sky, seems to go back to the days of the Neanderthal. In a Neanderthal cave, a stick on which rests a skull has been found. Surrounding the stick is a ring of stones. The stick relates to Yggdrasil, the world tree; the skull is the skull that is the sky. The stones can be compared to the Midgard serpent. The parallels are too close to ignore.

The first rune of the aettir is tir, a complex rune that is not only its god's initial but also a version of his name. It is a rune that represents victory and protection and is a symbol of cosmic justice.

We in the modern world forget that among ancient tribes war was seen as a test, and the gods gave victory to those who were most deserving. Those who deserved victory were those who displayed the martial virtues of courage and order. When the technology of weapons was usually equal, this was not an illogical stance to take.

The rune tir was the promise of such a victory. But it can also be seen as the priest/king's dispensing of justice. The priest/king must see clearly what is right and where something has gone wrong, which leads to the next rune.

Moral value in peace and war is perhaps ensured by the rune boerc. Boerc stands for atonement.

Where victory in war is considered a moral victory it becomes imperative that the members of the army not have pollution in their souls. This was as true of the Germanic pagans as Cromwell's New Model Army-and in both cases seems to have been a concern only until it was time to sack the town. The duty of the priests was to ensure that atonement.

In times of peace, the priests or rulers had a similar duty of atonement politically and personally. It was assumed that there was, on a social and personal level, a natural state of health and smooth functioning. When something went wrong it was because of an imbalance or a pollution. In any of these cases an atonement was necessary to restore health.

The third rune of the aett is ehwis, which represents the twin gods, the Aclis. Only three runes specifically refer to a deity. os in the first aettir is any god, though it is sometimes taken as Odin specifically. In the third aett are tir and ehwis: cosmic justice and the gods who help people, respectively.

The Aclis seem to have been very close to the human race, even if they did not have a large formal cult. Their tendency to be the originators of various royal houses shows this. In an aett of the priest/king we would have to have some reference to the functions of the office and the gods as overseers of this. The notion of the divine king given special powers would last until the time of Charles I.

The atonement necessary was often a punishment. Sentencing was not to reform someone, but to provide atonement, which itself was thought to provide the basis for rehabilitation.

Ehwis is the rune of calling on divine aid, but also of strengthening the bonds of society. The atonement that was required made certain everyone reaffirmed the social norms.