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Runecasting |
There is some evidence that runes historically served purposes of magic in addition to being a writing system. This is the case from earliest epigraphic evidence of the Roman to Germanic Iron Age, with non-linguistic insriptions and the alu word. An erilaz appears to have been a person versed in runes, including their magic applications. In medieval sources, notably the Poetic Edda. The Sigrdrífumál mentions "victory runes" to be carved on a sword, "some on the grasp and some on the inlay, and name Tyr twice."
In early modern and modern times, related folklore and superstition is recorded in the form of the Icelandic magical staves. In the early 20th century, Germanic mysticism coins new forms of "runic magic", some of which were continued or developed further by contemporary adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. Modern systems of runic divination due to Stephen Flowers and others are based on Hermeticism and classical Occultism, while others like Ralph Blum have drawn from modern Self-help and New Age techniques.
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Besides the "victory runes" mentioned in the Sigrdrífumál, the Poetic Edda also seems to corrobate the magical significance of the runes the Hávamál where Odin mentions runes in contexts of divination, of healing and of necromancy (trans. Bellows):
The Ansuz and Tiwaz runes in particular seem to have had magical significance in the early (Elder Futhark) period. The Sigrdrífumál instruction of "name Tyr twice" is reminiscent of the double or triple "stacked Tyr" bindrunes found e.g. on Seeland-II-C or the Lindholm amulet in the aaaaaaaazzznnn-b- muttt, sequence, which besides stacked Tyr involves multiple repetition of Ansuz, but also triple occurrence of Algiz and Naudiz. Many inscriptions also have meaningless utterances interpreted as magical chants, such as tuwatuwa (Vadstena bracteate), aaduaaaliia (DR BR42) or g͡æg͡og͡æ (Undley bracteate), g͡ag͡ag͡a (Kragehul I).
A few Viking Age rings with runic inscriptions of apparently magical nature were found, among them the Kingmoor Ring.
Historically it is known that the Germanic peoples used numerous forms of divination and means of reading omens. Tacitus (Germania 10) gives a detailed second-hand account:
Tacitus' reference is not likely to refer to runes, however, as the runes do not seem to have been in use at the time of Tacitus' writings.
Other oft cited sources for the practice of runic divination are chapter 38 of Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga Saga, where Granmar, the king of Södermanland, travels to the Temple at Uppsala for the seasonal blót. "There, the chips fell in a way that said that he would not live long" (Féll honum þá svo spánn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa).[2] Another source is in the Vita Ansgari, the biography of Ansgar the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, which was written by a monk named Rimbert. Rimbert details the custom of casting lots by the pagan Norse (chapters 26-30).[3] The chips and the lots, however, can be explained respectively as a blótspánn (sacrificial chip) and a hlautlein (lot-twig), which which according to Foote and Wilson 1 would be "marked, possibly with sacrificial blood, shaken and thrown down like dice, and their positive or negative significance then decided."
The Armanen runes "revealed" to Guido von List in 1902 were employed for magical purposes in Germanic mysticism, by authors such as Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer, and after World War II in a reformed "pansophical" system by Karl Spiesberger. More recently, Stephen Flowers, Adolf Schleipfer, Larry E. Camp and others also build on List's system.
Several modern systems of runic magic or runic divination were published during the 1980s to 1990s. The divinatory runes according to modern systems typically take the form of runes incised in clay, stone tiles, crystals or polished stones. Modern authors like Ralph Blum sometimes include an ahistorical "blank rune". Several authors - most notably Freya Aswynn and Diana Paxson - have attempted to draw a direct correlation between runic divination and Tarot cards. They routinely discuss runes in the context of "spreads" and advocate the usage of "rune cards", which are a direct borrowing from Tarot cards.
Stephen Flowers in the wake of his 1984 dissertation on "Runes and Magic" published a trilogy of books under the pen-name Edred Thorsson which detailed a method of runic divination loosely based on historical sources and hermeticism. These books were entitled Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic (1984), Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology (1987) and At The Well of Wyrd (1988) which was later reprinted & retitled Runecaster’s Handbook: The Well of Wyrd. Runic divination is a component of the "esoteric runology" course offered to members of the Rune Gild, as detailed in The Nine Doors of Midgard: A Curriculum of Rune-Work.
Stephan Grundy a.k.a.Kveldulf Gundarsson (1990) describes runic magic as the active principle as opposed to the interpretation based on runic divination. It is more active than the allegedly shamanic practice of seid practiced by the Seiðkona. Runic magic, in practice, is intended as using the runes to affect the world outside based on the archetypes they represent.2
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 so called energies. The individual runes are reddened with either blood or store bought dyes or paints. The act of having 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.3
Gundarsson holds that each rune has a certain sound to it, to be chanted or sung; that has in common the phonetic value by which it is represented.4 This act of singing (or chanting) is supposed to have more or less the same effect of using the staves in their physical form.5
The modern usage of the runes was popularized by Ralph Blum in his self-help book The Book of Runes (1993) which was marketed with a small bag of "rune cookies" or 25 round tiles with runes stamped on them. Blum's expertise on the runes is unknown, but numerous critics have noted a correlation between Blums' runic divinatory attributes and the I Ching. [4] Indeed, Blum explains in The Book of Runes that he relied heavily on the I Ching for his interpretations. Blum has also published Ralph H. Blum's Little Book of Runic Wisdom, The Relationship Runes, The Healing Runes and The Serenity Runes the latter two books having a distinct Christian self-help approach. Blum has also written books on UFOs, Zen and the Tao Te Ching.
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