On The Secret of the Runes, Guido von List.

Let us begin at the very beginning; - with the title of  Guido von List's [GvL] book, 'The Secret of the Runes' [SR]. The original title in German is 'Das Geheimnis der Runen', and in this word 'Geheimnis' [Secret], I believe we have the essence of GvL's runology.












Ø So the occult hides for a good reason:







to *empower!

This is not to be confused with obscurantism, verbiage etc., which only seeks to befuddle and obscure a lack of real power.

The occult seeks to *enhance* the inherent power of its central message by secrecy, by code and by concealment.

This is why it often speaks in terse aphorisms and cryptic rune-staves.




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GvL was certainly *aware* of the Elder Futhark though, hence his reference to the exclusively Elder runes Eh, Gibor and Othila.


Q. How are these Armanic runes "exclusively Elder"?



A.; In that they were excluded by those who created the Younger 16 stave Futhark from out of the Elder 24 stave Futhark .





GvL used two of these exclusively Elder runes [Eh and Gibor] to add to his version of the Younger so as to make it up to 18 staves for reasons already given [the 18 'songs' of Odin's Rune Tally].





That GvL drew these two extra runes from the Elder is made clear if we look at SR, the page of illustrations at the beginning called by the translator;







'Plate of runic symbols with original illustrations by GvL' etc.,















The very top line has the Armanen Futharkh depicted in a row; the Eh rune has an explanatory bracket, containing two Laf staves, one reversed.



Put together, these make the *Elder* stave form of Eh [GvL says that they are "two bound together by law"].



This is a clear indication that;







1) GvL was aware of the Elder [Common Germanic] Futhark, and that,







2) He derived his additional two runes from that Elder source.



Therefore his Armanen Futhark is a synthetic row, derived in the main from the Younger;







"The Scandinavian 16 stave rune row ... has had great influence in magical traditions through the Armanen Futhark of Guido von List".



[T. Karlsson, 'Uthark' page 26]







"GvL's 'Armanen Runes' are clearly a version of the 16 Mixed Runes that were once used in Scandinavia. All List did was to add two more ... GvL's runes give similar results to those of the Younger Futhark, on which they are based. He also reversed runes by turning them the other way around and thereby gave them additional meanings".



[Nigel Pennick, Runes, Element]


















6

Trifoil









Staying with the book's title, let's look at the title page.

Note that a symbol is placed below the book's title; it is the symbol GvL calls the 'Flamboyant Trifoil'.

This is significant for at least two reasons.

Firstly, it emphasises the importance of what GvL sees as the tripartite nature of Aryandom; secondly, it is a Gothic figure, thereby adverting to GvL's allegiance to the 'Gothic' outlook.

Going back to the import of the triadic, Flowers says forcibly in his introduction to the SR;

"Things to GvL not only had a 'hidden meaning', but ... this occult significance was everywhere threefold".
[SR page 24]

This is all pervasive, as GvL himself writes;

"This ideological classification into three levels;
a) arising,
b) being ...
c) passing away to a new beginning ..."
[ib., page 68-9]

Basic to GvL's own ideology, says Flowers, was a complex triadic conception;

1) The bifidic [split in two] - biune [two in one] dyad [set of two].
2) The trifidic [split in three] - triune [three in one] triad [set of three].
3) The multifidic [split into many] - multiune [many in one] multiplicity [manifold variety of the whole].

This totalising ideology works itself out in the realms of
Cosmology, Sociology, Theology and Language, for example.

GvL uses the old Aryan triad of social castes, calling them by the names that Tacitus mentions in his Germania.

So the ruling caste [i.e., the kings and priests of the nobility] is the Armenen [this is derived from the tribal name Herminonen in Tacitus].
Next is the military caste [Istavaeonen in Tacitus].
Thirdly is the peasantry [the Ingavaeonen in Tacitus].

As Flowers points out, the Edda provides a source for this outlook in the Lay of Rig.

We might discuss the placing of the 'intellentsia' as Flowers has it, above the military, though.

In 'theology', GvL noted the various triads in the Eddic conceptions;
Woden-Wili-Weh; Odin-Thor-Loki etc.,
[see Flowers SR page 23]

In language, GvL uses a system he calls 'Kala' [deriving from the 16 'fractions' of the moon as it waxes and wanes].

As Flowers explains;

"In this [kala] system, each runic sound is put through a
*threefold* permutation in order to yield its hidden meanings on three distinct levels of arising, being, and passing-away to new beginning. These were also the (1) exoteric, (2) esoteric, and (3) Armanic levels of understanding ..."
[ib., page 23-4]

We will come to see that when GvL examines the 18 rune songs, he gives a three part analysis each time in the manner explained above.

Going back to our Trifoil symbol on the title page, we see that it is very apt given this Aryan triadic-obsession.

Also, it is Gothic: that very Germanic stylisation which preceded the Renaissance, and was supposed to relate to the Goths, the Swedish tribe who have been seen by some to have invented the runes.

To GvL many of the runic staves which were not used in the Futharks were transmuted into Gothic ornamentation and heraldry, a theme developed in SR.

Not only that, the Gothic is associated with the macabre, the irrational, and the Dark-side. By emphasising the Gothic in this opening Trifoil, GvL is placing his allegiance to the Left-Hand Path.

All this and more can be derived from that simple symbol on the title-page!










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7


The Runes and the Runes














List’s Armanen Futhark is a synthetic row, derived in the main from the Younger.





Of course the runes as *mysteries* are prehistoric – they are a "gift" - refer to the rune Gibor itself.







But the point is that the *particular rows* were/are the creation of men at particular times in history.



Pollington has argued this well as regards the 'fit' between the Elder and early Germanic.







So clearly, the rune rows are created in time, whether the Elder Futhark of the Gothic Herulians, the Younger Futhark of the Vikings, the dotted Rows of the Scandinavians, the 33 runes of the Anglo-Saxons, the Adulruna of Bureus, or indeed the 18 stave Futharkh of GvL.







But they *all* show clear derivation from that original Elder row described so well by Pollington - *that* is the template for all variations - even Kosbab's.







Before this deliberate creation of the Elder, there was but a mass of symbols, as we see in the 'Hallristningar' of Bronze Age Scandinavia. It was the genius of one man/group who only some 2 millennia ago invented the particular Order which is the Futhark.










But don't confuse the Runes [i.e., the mysteries, which are timeless] with the Rows [i.e., the staves, which are man-made].


The runes indicate that there was very much a unified ethnic culture which spoke early Germanic and utilised the Elder Futhark.


As that culture spread out, then variations occurred which led to the different languages of Old Norse, Old English, Gothic etc., - and accordingly to the variant futharks.


However, the template was the same - early Germanic and the Elder Futhark.






The source for the rune-staves of the Futhark is the Elder Futhark.


Again, don't confuse the timeless mysteries with the invented staves.






Even in the Havamal, Wuotan does not specify the particular rune row - he sings charms, or power-songs, which are open to wide interpretation.






GvL says that the songs reveal the 16 stave row with two added, whereas Freya Aswynn puts the Elder row to the same rune songs, saying that more than one rune is applicable to each song.


Both GvL and Freya work on inspiration of the mysteries.






However, it is self-deceiving to pretend that the Elder Futhark in terms of its *staves*, was not a human invention in recent historical time.


One thing about Nordic spirituality is that it doesn't have time for the vanities of 'revealed scriptures' and the like.






There are no 'revealed scriptures' in the Nordic spirituality.



There are no Nordic equivalents to Moses, Jesus, Mohammed or Joseph Smith.






Read what Caesar had to say about the Germans of the Elder era.


The Eddas contain old heathen material filtered through, and written down by, *Christian* scribes; even Snorri was a Christian.


Since when were Christians vehicles for the revelation of 'Nordic scripture'?


The very term 'Nordic scripture' is an oxymoron, and is the stuff of pagans who use Christian models to invent their 'Nordic' religions which are just versions of Cross-tianity.




None of these - Eddas, Sagas etc., could be called with any sincerity or sanity, "revealed scriptures".


I think it self-defeating that a so-called religion would need to have its scriptural revelations carried out by the enemies of its faith!


Nordics do not bow down to books - they only bow down to the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.






You could use the word 'revelation' to describe the 'winning' of the runen by Guido von List [despite its Christian connotations], but you could not call GvL's books "revealed scriptures"; he certainly didn't make that case himself - he was more modest than that.






I repeat, there are no equivalents to the Torah, the Bible, or The Koran in Nordic Spirituality; nor should there be - we leave such brainwashing to the Slavish Races.














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Armanen Runes


On the so-called 'Bible of Aryan Invasions' [which is no longer on the 'net].






I agree that one's heart sings when sadism is imputed to the Aryan races by the Enemy - what a compliment!






I had a similar feeling when reading recently about the practices of the Druids before the Romans put them down [but who was crueler, the mighty Romans of the Druids?].






I was wondering whether these Druids were related to the Germanic priesthood posited by von List, his Armanenschaft.






The whole question of what is actually Kelt and what is German is one that must be pursued in the future.






Going back to the so-called 'Bible of Aryan Invasions' - thanks for reminding me about that source, I read through it some time ago, and had forgotten it - it certainly ranks as one of the greatest back-handed compliments on the 'net.










I tend to go along with Nietzsche on the Vedas - ultimately they are the work of priests.






When I said that Nordic spirituality [and by extension Aryan] has no 'Bibles', I was speaking in the context of those works which are considered 'the word' of 'God', and a word of which cannot be changed.


I said [maybe rashly] that this was alien to the Aryas; it certainly *was* alien to the Nordic Aryans by all accounts.






I was also trying to get away from treating the Eddas as if they were 'our Bible' as the rather cloying New Ager Asatru paint them.






Let's face it, the Eddas are mythological [in the best sense of the word], not theological. They were written down, as we know, by Christians, and so cannot have the kind of "revealed to a Prophet" status that some want to give to them.






But again, I could be wrong - someone may be able to show me that the Eddas are indeed the divine Bible of Nordic Aryans!






One of the reasons I am doing this study of von List is to demonstrate how bad at *reading* so many of the present-day Asatru are - they talk of von List, and yet have not even read a page of his from beginning to end.






The nearest to a Nordic Bible we have is probably Thus Spake Zarathustra [the book by Nietzsche, of course]; and that is a thoroughly ironic suggestion; indeed, it sums up what I take to be the real Aryan attitude to 'Bibles'.


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I regard notions of purity etc., as goals, rather than absolutes.



It is the Platonic concept of absolutes in general that I recoil against.



But then my philosophy is of Nietzsche, rather than Plato.



Nietzsche said, for example, that "there are no pure races, races only *become* pure".



And it is that sense of 'Becoming' that is all important.



Even at rest [such as sleep], the mind is active in dreaming. It is forever listening and reacting to the rhythms of the blood - diastole systole.

As it says in the Havamal;






Cattle die and kinsmen die,


thyself eke soon wilt die;


but fair fame will fade never,


I ween, for him who wins it.


...


One thing, I wot, will wither never:


the doom over each one dead.







*






Laughter have I pronounced holy; you superior humans, *learn* from me - to laugh! [TSZ IV; 13]


Stephen Flowers [translator of SR] glosses 'Wihinei' as;






"A Listian word for 'religion' in its exoteric level as practiced in ancient times".










GvL himself writes;






"One can never forget that Wuotanism grew out of the intuitive recognition of evolutionary laws in natural life, out of the 'primal laws of nature', and that 'Wihinei' (exoteric religious system) formed by Wuotanism spread a teaching and conducted a mode of living based on the laws of evolution. It set for itself a final goal of bringing into being a noble race ..."


[GVL SR pages 95-96]






*


I would say that shamanism is essentially Aryan; but then my understanding of it is probably not as great as your own.






I tend to think that the Aryans initially used various forms of intoxication [dance, music, liquor, drugs, and orgy] to expand their [already broad] spirits/minds.






They may have given this art of auto-intoxication as a gift to other races, as symbolised in the Prometheus myth.


I would aver that the first and purest Aryans [i.e., the gods/goddesses and heroes] were of great spirit/mind without intoxicants.


Therefore intoxication was always an attempt of those post-the Golden Age Aryans to become like the gods.






Forgive my vagueness on this question - there is much work to be done on it, and I welcome comment from those far more learned than myself on this, especially on the question of Soma amongst the Indo-Aryans etc.,.






Of course, the runes themselves signify a form of this intoxication.










Guido von List certainly sees the Pentagram [he calls it the 'Thruthenfuss'] as an important Aryan symbol.






For him it says 'Return' - a vital Aryan notion, as anything from the Eddas to Nietzsche demonstrates.