Sahmain 1999 Newsletter The Runes (Sweyn, Steward Rune-Gild, South Pacific Jarl of Berserks, Orden av Blå Falken)

Since the early 1980's, the Runes have become a growing fad among the New Agers. Unfortunately, very few actually study the system in any depth. Most use runes as a simple divination system without any knowledge of their history, cultural context, or deeper magico-religious meaning. Many adherents of the northern traditions see this as an erosion and abuse of their heritage. Looking on the positive side, the vague awareness of the Runes in New Age circles has led some to look further, and to realise that those of us of Northern European origins do in fact have a native spiritual tradition.

The Runes are part of the Germanic heathen religious heritage known as Asatru, the veneration of the old gods. The Runes are specifically the territory of the god Odin, dark and mysterious lord of knowledge, magic, and battle. Perhaps if the New Agers realised this they would be a little less carefree, or careless, in their approach to the Runes.

Odin and rune magick are certainly not the innocuous fun often implied by the popular manuals. We only need to read the sagas to see the ambivalence, fear, and respect felt toward Odin and rune users in heathen times. To study Odin's runes is to face your fears, to question your most cherished assumptions, to scale the mountains of madness, and leap blindfolded into the abyss. We scry the blade's edge, walking the borders between sanity and madness, life and death. This is the hard and dangerous road toward the fulfilment of our potential, a task not to be undertaken lightly.

Central to the Odinic/Runic path is the concept of Wyrd. Similar to Karma, but without the moralistic connotations, Wyrd is the subtle web of interaction existing between all things. No deed, word, or thought is free of some repercussion however small. Over time, an object or even a symbol can collect a powerful wyrd of its own, usually connected to the wyrd of the system to which it belongs. The wyrd of an object can interact with the wyrd of a person in extreme and unexpected ways.

The Runes (the Elder Futhark) is the oldest Northern European magickal system for which we have substantial evidence, dating back at least to 150ce. It is also the only genuine survival of a pre-Christian European magico-religious system, having come close to extinction in the 18th century to be revived several times in the late 19th and 20th. Almost 2000 years of continuous use has given the Runes an enormously powerful wyrd. The Runes manifest raw power, referenced only to the will of the rune-magician. Using this system is rather like putting a racing engine into your car. Without training and some mechanical adjustments, the result is likely to be fatal. To many, the Runes seem to be the least threatening system, but in practice many will find them the least forgiving.

Odin is a hard teacher, tricks and traps are par for the course. Once opened, the doors of our magickal heritage expose us to a world in which only the most dedicated warrior survives. It is no surprise that the serious rune user often looks with consternation at the dabbling and flippant manner in which this awesome system is usually approached. It is for these reasons that the Rune-Gild was formed in 1980ce by Edred Thorsson PhD, whose doctoral thesis was on the magico-religious use of the Runes in heathen times.