Recently I have had several different people talking to me about runes. They asked my opinion about which set to use and whether there are books on how actually to use the runes for magick, instead of the many giving nothing but extensive history lessons in several languages. And to all of them with European DNA I say this. The first book I would advise you to read is The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates. This will loosen up your preconceptions enough for you to understand the mind set of those who lived with the runes as symbols of powers.

Then the best order in which to learn runes, in my opinion of course, is Armanen, Elder Futhark and Uthark, each for a couple of years to get the hang of them

If you wander round Europe and mention runes in any country where German is widely used, anyone who actually understands you will be thinking of the Armanen runes.

There are only eighteen of them and they are, roughly speaking, sixteen from the Younger Futhark, and two special ones discovered, invented, or cognited by a German occultist. The special beauty of them is that they are all based on the regular hexagon and its diagonals. Every angle of every rune is either sixty or one hundred and twenty degrees.

This means that they can also be related to the intersecting equilateral triangles of Solomon’s Seal, the alchemical symbols for the elements, and the six equal circles round a single central circle, which is the basis of the correct drawing of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and much else connected with old magick.

The usefulness of these runes is that they are geometrical shapes, neutral entities that can be used in any other branch of magick whatever. The figures on the Tarot always associate in the mind of the student with something human, they carry stuff with them.

The symbols and patterns of astrology are useful only in our universe of the Sun and its family of planets. If the astrologer were transported to Alpha Centauri 3, he or she would have no way of using the Earth centered or Sun centered material.

If a runist were so transported the runes would be as applicable there as on Earth, or anywhere else in the universe for that matter. They are the Swiss Army knife of magickal symbols.

The Armanen runes are each part of a jig-saw puzzle of the blueprint of the energetic architecture of the universe. When used together, as in bind runes, more of the blueprint comes into play and the whole is always greater than the parts. The connection between these runes and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as a blueprint of the way the energies descend into manifestation from the Inner Realms to the Outer Planes is very strong.

As the simplest example I’ll use the rune IS, which looks like a simple vertical straight line.

That simple straight line is the English letter I with its myriad magickal and spiritual connections to the ego and the Self. It represents also in context the physical and subtle spinal column around which the serpents ida and pingala weave the seven major chakras of the subtle body. It represents in context the I of the sentence “I AM THAT I AM” There are many magickal spears that it represents in context: the spear of Odhinn, the spear of Longinus in both masculine (shiny) and feminine (bloody) in the Grail context, the spear of Lugh in the Faerie city of Gorias, and others.

It is the trunk of the Tree of Life, the trunk of every sacred oak in Druidic lore, the trunk of the tree Yggdrasil of the Nine Worlds of the Norse magicians and several other trees in Celtic lore concerning Ogham.

It is the sacred finger that writes on the wall of the inner sanctum, the tent pole up which the Russian shaman climbs into the spirit world (Jack and the Beanstalk), sacred swords from every tradition, including of course Excalibur and the sword of Nuada from the Faerie city of Finias.

It is the staff of every wizard, including Paracelsus, Vaughan, Merlin, Taliesin, Melchizedek, Psalm 23 in the KJV, the Hermit of the orthodox Tarot, the Ace of Wands of the Tarot, the distaff of the Mother of the Norns, the horn of the Sacred Unicorn, the sword bridge over the Chasm of Fire of the Sufis, the hair whose visibility enables the Muslim to distinguish night and day (discrimination), the edge of the Axe of Judgement and much else.

It is also, and importantly, the stem of the Greek letter that looks like Y. This was invented and put into the Greek alphabet by the mathematician/magician/mystic Pythagoras, whose Mystery School lasted for a thousand years. It represents the path of the initiate as he or she gradually acquires powers and comes to the fork in the magickal road.

To continue, he or she MUST choose either the left hand path, which is broad and looks easy, or the right hand path which is narrower and looks like it leads into difficult country. This is the choice mentioned in the teachings of Jesus. This is where the term ‘left hand path’ comes from for those who use magick for personal power and self aggrandizement. It is a reality to everyone who has studied any branch of magic, and IS is the main stem that takes you to the place of choice. It is the ‘strait and narrow way’ of the KJV Scriptures. In many type faces the left hand path is actually wider than the right, to make it easier to remember.

I have to mention that in the original initiations there were groups that took this matter very seriously. The initiate going through the underground maze would come upon people demanding passwords or explanations of riddles, and he would also come upon little scenarios, his reaction to which was carefully watched.

If he showed any inclination to accept the temptations of the left hand path, usually symbolized by piles of gold coin or beautiful and seductive women, he would be immediately killed. The Schools concerned thought that this was doing both the would-be initiate and the world a favour, by not letting a flawed or unfocussed character enter the path of power.

Today the initiations of the various Wiccan groups, the Freemasons, the Order of the Golden Dawn, OTO and others, are milder versions of the actual life and death situation of their ancestors in initiations.

The esoteric properties of the rune IS are associated with all the things mentioned and many more, because of the neutral character of the runes. Any magician of any kind can add the runes to his or her armamentarium without interfering with anything already known, and with great integrating possibilities.

One of the literal meanings of IS is ice. In a standard rune circle it is opposite the rune FA which has connections with fire. The Norse universe was created by the interaction of fire and ice. It is worth a little contemplation on these two as opposites and as entities.

The effect of fire on ice is to change its quality. It becomes liquid instead of solid, a different state. Further application of fire and the liquid becomes a gas, another change of state. These three effects ripple through the 18 runes in triplets. Each opposing pair of runes in the rune circle initiates three cycles of change.

Opposites are always alike in some way. Another magickal principle. Love and hate can both become obsessive. Fire and ice can both burn. Each of them gives the skin sensors a warning to adapt to the new conditions. One gives the skin heat faster than it can adapt to it. The other takes away heat faster than the skin can adapt to it. The result in each case is a burn. And burns due to cold are often much more serious than those due to heat. IS represents the middle way between the opposites of the rune circle.

Touch a hot plate on the stove. Your hand withdraws before your brain tells you there was danger. The skin tries to adapt to the situation by producing the opposing element in a little sac. The blister fills with fluid, as water is the opposite of fire. When the skin is put into a cold situation it adapts by bristling the hair (goose bumps). On furry animals this thickens the fur and increases insulation. The muscles contract and force the warm blood away from the surface. If the cold is allowed to impinge on the skin for a long time then the muscles relax, the blood flows to the surface. The body feels superficially warmer and then begins to sleep, a sleep that could painlessly enter into death.

These contemplation points are valid with all magickal entities. Every front has a back as the Orientals say, and the bigger the front, the bigger the back.

Use this method of thinking to look at the stories of magic rings, birds, belts, gloves, staffs, swords and so on that fill all the old stories. Every person, old or young, who has read about these or seen them in movies, and who has thought,“I would like one of those,” has put desire energy into an Inner Realms field where these thoughts have collected and concentrated.

When psychic energy is put into an inner field it eventually becomes self initiating and attains a sort of personality of its own. This is called an egregore, a focus of accumulated energy. In this case a field of magical instruments.

Every god or goddess available to devotees is a result of an accumulation of energy into a specific form. This energy can be contacted by anyone who acknowledges its presence. The egregore of ISIS for example contains the accumulated energies of millions of worshippers over thousands of years. It is still available to anyone, like the members of the Fellowship of Isis, who still worship her.

Going direct to source is an attribute of IS. Anyone who actually plugs into the egregore of sacred belts or gloves can put on a belt or gloves with the conviction that extra energy is now available. And it becomes so.

Some of my students have encountered such an instrument, though it is not a belt. I use it as a help to remember things that I need to recall. Many people have remarked upon, and some have actually written about my remarkable memory. It didn’t just happen. And it actually isn’t really there. Someone with a phenomenal, though normal memory has it all the time, like Cardinal Mezzofanti who could speak 123 different languages, fifty or so well enough to pass as a native. I don’t have it all the time as he did. But I do have a helper, who I contact magically, who goes through the filing cabinets whenever I ask. Anyone can create or contact such helpers. And the direct way is best. IS.

Now IS is the ninth rune in the Armanen sequence. And nine is very important both in the Norse and other magicks. Nine represents the end of a cycle, the natural octave, and the beginning of a new cycle. All the digits to 9 have been used once. To continue counting we use the Hindu space maker zero and begin again, but at a higher level with 10.

This is why the Hermit card is #9 in orthodox Tarot and he is standing at the very top of a mountain. He is now at the peak of his cycle as a human, and the only direction to go is up. He cannot go higher without changing in some way. Just as the ice changes to water under the constant application of heat, so the human being changes through the impetus of spiritual practices and eventually becomes a different creature. Someone who does this is at the Foundation of the next cycle. Kabbalists know why the 9th Sephiroth on the Tree of Life is called The Foundation.

Runists are very interested in the Hermit because he is at the end of a cycle, and it is the sacred hexagonal Star that he is holding high above his head in the lantern. It is the only light available for those who desire change. It is the only light on the peak. The Hermit is illuminated by it and supported by his staff IS, held in his left hand, which is the direction in which IS is approached in the Armanen rune circle. This card portrays in a very real sense the position and situation of a runist who has attained to IS starting from FA.

The Runes have scriptures too. One of them is the Rune Poem of Odhinn, whose eighteen verses are a life’s work to decipher. They are like the book Light on the Pathchanneled by Mabel Collins. When I was a young magician I belonged to a group that used this book for the First Degree initiation. That was in the days before we knew who M.C. was.

When I had my initiation the official concerned took away my book and asked me many questions. When my answers were satisfactory he gave me the book again and said, “This is the book you study for your Second Degree.” The same book was used for all the degrees. By the Fourth Degree everybody knew it by heart, but there was always more to be dug out of it. And the difference between the Second degree holders and the Fourth was obvious. The Rune Song of Odhinn is similar in depth. It is the mine from which the old rune-masters dug their amazing abilities.

Consider superficially verse nine, attributed to IS which says:

The Hermit, your Higher Self, mastered the four elements to reach the goal of unification. In the Armanen tradition, the material ship carrying the consciousness is the element Earth. The wind is the mind. Air, the floods of the sea, Water, are the emotions stirred up by thought attaching itself to objects of the outer world. This verse is an interpretation of someone who has gone beyond taking the reports of the senses as actual reality.

Non-initiates attach themselves to their interpretations of the world. Actually, the universe is a mental construct. Only the Self is real. The real world is nothing like our interpretations of it, interpretations that differ for every person. Rather like the situation in the movie Matrix. By using the mind in a way different from that of most people the runist can detach himself or herself from the whirlwind of thoughts and bring them to a standstill at will. Will is Fire. When that is done then perception of reality is possible, or more possible.

To the Norseman, who used the runes, every uncharted sea was dangerous. They kept as close to the coasts as they could and only bit by bit enlarged their fields of marine activity. The inner danger mentioned in the verse is probably obvious now.

To the magician it means that navigating the illusory sea of life with a map made of words and thoughts is what everybody does until they begin to see that all is not as it seems on the surface.

In modern analogy IS represents the antenna that receives navigational data even in fog, rain and storm. The Norsemen used Iceland spar, considered by them as super frozen ice, because it polarizes light. By holding two pieces on top of each other and twisting one around until there was a sudden darkening of the crystal they could tell where the sun was even in a fog so thick that the eye could not see it. Polaroid sunglasses and prisms are the modern version of this kind of Norseman’s ice.

There is evidence that the Norsemen knew that a suspended piece of magnetite always pointed to Odhinn’s Eye, the North star. IS is in the north in the rune circle. Such seamen could always know which way they were traveling.

The master smith of the Norsemen would know at which angle to hold a piece of iron to magnetize it by heavy blows of a hammer. Nowadays every physics student knows that you hold it at the angle of latitude, pointing towards the North star, and the hammer blows jolt the molecules into alignment with Earth’s magnetic field. Now it’s physics 101. Then it was magick. For the runist the rune IS is the compass needle pointing to true north, which is the truth about the way things actually are.

Every front has a back, and everything that changes does change into its opposite. This is the message of the Yin Yang on the Tai Chi diagram.

Antennae like IS must have two properties. They could be receiving antennae or transmitting antennae. It is because the lightning rod (another IS) emits a slight charge that it attracts the enormous charge of the thunder cloud and receives the lightning flash.

The occultist and the runist both verbalize this analogy in the same way…“Seek and ye shall find.” No movement on your part towards the runes, or anything else, means no movement on the part of the runes, or anything else, towards you. But even a little movement towards the truth can produce tremendous effects.

The tiny charge of the lightning rod can attract the megavolts from the cloud. Compound interest is nowhere near in the comparison. The benefits of continuous tiny steps towards the goal are immeasurable. This is one of the truths that a little contemplation of IS and its placement in the rune circle can provide.

Celts perform the same production of significant and helpful analogies by considering the sacred oak as being the tree most often hit by lightning. The Druids, whose name in Welsh also means oak, used it as a picture of a bard or magician being hit by inspiration. Analogies that are so obviously interwoven are the secret of how to know one thing by learning about another. This principle can be used in any work involved with using symbols.

The projective sword, spear, or dagger and the receptive cup, body, or scabbard hold many such secrets in Grail work. The feminine cup and scabbard and the masculine sword are very elementary concepts, but the analogy can be made subtle, and therefore more universally applicable.

The receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna can both be the same antenna. The masculine energy represented by the spear is also feminine energy when the spear drips blood, as in the Grail stories.

Everything changes polarity at the next or previous level. Catholic priests who were magicians knew that. In the first level into the Inner Realms they would have to say the Lord's Prayer backwards for it to be effective. The next level in they would say it the usual way. A student wandering around in the Inner Realms MUST keep alert as to which level it is.

The student only needs to ascertain the level of one thing in his or her own Realm, or conscirings, and compare everything else with it. Now you may see clearly why the scabbard of Excalibur was more valuable than the sword.

Use a pendulum on the fingers of your hand and you will see how the thumb is neutral, the forefinger positive the middle finger negative and so on alternating in polarities. This gives you the secret of how to use the pendulum for direct yes, no answers, without your desire for a certain answer interfering with the process.

If you need to know something don’t forget to ASK. Asking is the action of will that emits a tiny bit of charge towards the great cloud of truth that you seek. No ask, no lightning. Contemplate how to ask and what or whom to ask, then do it. When you ask you are the lightning rod of IS.

Looks like this is getting a bit long for such a dense subject. I’ll do another post or two on it later continuing from this point.