This is a copy of an article I sent yesterday to a couple of correspondances of mine. Please examine it and see if this helps unravel things for you any.
Notion: the runes were pied (scrambled) to conceal ideas and teachings, and hints exist in the mythology."Nine glory wands took Othinn and smote the serpant into nine parts."
Glory wands are runestaves, sticks or slivers with runes on them. In the furhark, there are 9 special runes. Coincidence? NOT...
The world is wrapped in the midguard serpant, states the Edda. Also, the futhark is occasionally presented in a ring, rarely inside a serpant as a ring or complex woven figure on a large standing stone. Most of these are in the 2nd AEtt, but a few are in the 3rd, and one in the 1st. Let that fester for a moment.
In the book Rune Magic, Donald Tyson describes laying out the runes in two parallel rows or collums. To follow this idea, assume a pad of paper and we write them down the middle, in 2 collums,
left-right, (next line)
left-right, (next line)
left-right, (next line)
etc...This gives us:
Fehu Uruz Thuriaz Anuz Raidho Kenaz Etc... Etc...Intresting. Left appears to be docile/passive/reciving/weak, etc, and those on the right as assertive, action oriented, powerful, imposing, etc.
UNTIL WE GET TO
Tiwaz Berkano!!!Woah! Berkano dynamic/powerful/agressive?
Tiwaz passive, submissive, receptive???? NOT...Not entirely perfect, but intresting. I remembered also that the trick of misordering symbols, letters, and poetic paragraphs had been used before to conceal sacred truth, as investigated at great length in The Golden Bough and The white Goddess. So I tried other arrangements to see what would pop up.
This simple text format does not let me display a wheel (and I not much of a wizard with Adobe or paint shop), but a simple wheel arrangement with the traditional ordering does NOT reveal anything particularly intresting. Fot the student, draw 2 circles one around the other (same center point, we call it coincentric), with a gap of about 1/10 of the diameter (or even less gap), and mark out 12 points- the points of the clock. Then 12 more, evenly spaced between the first 12. Try it and see what you see.
But:
"Nine wands took Wothan and smote the serpant into nine parts."Hmmm... This is beginning to look interesting...
if the serpant is indeed a ring, where are these parts, how may they devide it into 9 parts, and what are they?There are 9 runes which may be turned upside down and still be the same. I suggest that these are the glory wands. Simply listing the AEtts in sequence produces a big block of glory wands in the middle. That's not devision, that's snake paste! Yuk! I think anyone who made this his life's work has more on the ball than that!
I am indebted to my friend the howlingly holy and right reverand Greg Miller who reminded me that "properly understood, everything is simple."
Looking at those simple primal meanings was a noticible aid in unraveling this puzzle.
What are the simple and basic meanings of the runes?
***1st Aett************************************************* Fehu- cattle, wealth, liquid assets. Uruz- the wild ox, a valuable beast, VERY hard to catch, it usually escaped the hunter. Catching it was an accomplishment. Thurisaz- The strong one. The opposer. Opposing forces. Thorns. ***** Ansuz- A god. Wisdom. Communication. Empowering advice. Raidho- Wagon. Vehicle. Means of Travel. Kenaz- Torch, tame fire, revealing illumination, UNDERSTANDING. ***** Gebo- Gift, blesing, reciving assistance. Wunjo- Joy, perfection. And baised on language, I suggest WINNING, 'winnatude'. *****2nd AEtt********************************************* Hagalaz- Hail. Active ice, disruption or disruptive forces. Naudhiz- Need. Labors of necessity. Hardship to struggle with. Isa- Ice. Locking in, standstill, held fast, imprisoned. ***** Jera- Year, harvest. Results come to maturity. Eihwaz- "Yew tree". Yew was the anchient SPRING, like them silly leaf or coil springs on your car. It STORED ENERGY and gave it back later. It was a cylical action thing and energy gaget. There may also have been mysteries involving hallucinagenics from the yew tree (there shure were with OAK!). By itself, it is a cylical action, repeating over and over. (as in a bow: load, draw, hold, release. Repeat until victory is gained.) Pethro- Mysteries, "device for casting lots". Fairly accurate actually. Ever drew runes from a cup? The mysteries come to light from the rune bowl. Also read about the Cauldron of (spell check?) Cerridwen. ***** Elhaz- Elk, Protection. NOT obvious to citified folk (Unless thegentlereaderisan Elk or Moose). Takes a bit of animal behavior reading to figure out. Elk and moose and several other species are VERY protective of the herd, and come along LAST to protect. One source talks about REEDS, or RUSHES, as a place of refuge for waterfowl. The idea is a place of refuge, a place to retreat to which shelters. Sowilo- Sun. Radiance. Glory. Profound outward emission of some virtue. Being HIGHLY noticible. FAME. *****3rd AEtt************************************** Tiwaz- The god Tyr, precise judge, great warrior, final and telling judgement. Berkano- The birch goddess, the gentle nurturer. Birch grows at the leading edge of an expanding forest, and cannot grow under canopy, as it requires some direct sunlight. It SHELTERS the edge of the forest, allowing it to grow. This also represents a certain sort of person, USUALLY female. Ehwaz- Horse. The tractor of the previous age. Wagons were passive vehicles, and demanded a motive force. This was the force of choice. USeful for a man as a vehicle as well, although for serious transport a cart, wagon, or sled were used with the horse as the motive force. ***** Mannaz- Man. Humanity. Partnership. That odd joining of the Pure intellect, and the physical life on the Earth. Laguz- A body of water. Leek. Hmm, sounds like 'lake' to me. Say, rivers, lakes, and estuaries were the highways of old, adding OCEANS to the list once sea sailing was worked out. Trackless and mysterious, the waters also concealed many dangers, and was a frightening thing. for us moderns, it is also a metaphor for many of the traits of the subconsious mind. Ingwaz- The hero/God Ing. Interpenetration, or penetration is suggested in some works. If I am correct in my sumizes, there was sex magik practiced by Ing's cult long ago. ***** Dagaz- Day. Dawn/Sunset instant. also, less literally as 'era', such as in the day of Harold Bluetooth, in the old days, etc. A specific and clearly instant or span of time. Othala- Ancestral property, estate, inheritance, homeland. One historic dwelling, one's 'home'. *************************************************************So I looked at the runes. A simple ring is not devided into nine parts, but maybe I sliced them wrong. Lets look at them VERTICALLY, in slices of three. look what I see!
FEHU/HAGALAZ/TIWAZ:
Wealth/disruption/judgement.HHHHHmmmmm...... If that were a 3 rune reading...
Background result calling for> WEALTH DISRUPTIONS WISE JUDGEMENT Wealth produces Disruptions calling for decisive and wise judgement.
I think I'm on to something...
Wealth WHICH ESCAPES YOU results in NEED, calling for CHARITY and GIVING.Forces hemming you in result in your being imprisoned or held fast, calling for DYNAMIC FORCES to pull you free.
WISE ADVICE results in A HARVEST, requiring PEOPLE (harvest workers).
A RIDE or VEHICLE
produces CYLICAL action,
demanding A PATHWAY to journey down.
(Oars row, feet follow a cylical pattern over and over. Wheels rotate.)LIGHT or ILLUMINATION of the mind
results in the PENETRATION
of the MYSTERIES.
(say, did I depart from the old pattern a little? Stay tuned...)Shelter
produces blessedness, granting the gift
of a HOME.
(He did it again! He did it again! HERETIC!)JOY or PERFECTION at some task or act
results in great visibility or noticibility, a state of radiance,
resulting in ERA or FAME.
(There he goes again!)Now if we take this altered sequence I have used in these interpetations, and set THEM in a circle, we do indeed get a circle cut into nine parts. We also get a sound body of wisdom, a insight into the teachings of the founding meanings of the runes, and burned at the steak for heresy. Oh, well...
your comments and replys? EMAIL ME!
-- Respectfully, Rev Dr Kird D Bailey MsD KsC Fnord.
