Meditations on GIBOR: Gibor Arahari!
My thoughts on GIBOR have been formulating for quite some time. I've understood that GIBOR involved a secret or a mystery. I hadn't realized however that the mystery was the runes themselves. And that the secret was in fact the answer as well as the question. Written from 25-30 May 2021.
*********
I begin my meditations on the last of the Eighteen Sacred Futhorkh runes by thinking of Karl Hans Welz’s translation of the relevant strophe from Hávamál 164.
An eighteenth I learned, but I would not
Let this know just anyone else, for everyone knows
The best for oneself: That which leads to the end of the songs.
Only One is to know, who is in my arms as my lover. [1]
The eighteenth rune contains a secret or a mystery. As Odin reaches the final rune of the Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins (“Odins Rune Song”) its meaning is obscured, even more so than usual. The mystery however is not to be solved, but rather is the answer as well as the question. While, many may think of discs or stones etched with hieroglyphs or symbols when they think of runes, such objects are more appropriately known as runestaves. The runes themselves are cosmological principles or ideas. Most importantly for our consideration of GIBOR is that “rune” is properly defined as “mystery” or “secret.”[2] GIBOR then represents the mystery of the runes themselves. In GIBOR we have the entirety of what has come to be called the Armanen Runes.
Throughout the Norse lore we read of Odin’s association with profound secrets. Perhaps most relevant for our understanding of GIBOR is verse 54 of Vafþrúðnismál (“The Lay of Vafthruthnir”). In this lay Odin participates in a game of wits with the giant Vafthruthnir. Interestingly, the competition is comprised of 18 questions posed by Odin to the jötun. The eighteenth and final question is:
Far have I wandered, much afield have I been,
have oft striven in strength with gods:
what did Othin whisper in the ear of his son,
ere Baldr on bale was laid?[3]
Vafthruthnir, unable to properly answer the question replies:
No dweller on earth knows what in days of yore
thou said’st in the ear of thy son.[4]
Poetic Edda translator Lee M. Hollander notices the association between this verse from Vafþrúðnismál and that of verse 164 of the Hávamál. Regarding the relevant Hávamál verse, he notes,“This is, perhaps, the same unfathomable secret Othin whispered in Baldr’s ear as he lay dead.”[5]
I am reminded also of the conclusion to Snorri Sturluson’s Gylfaginning (“The Tricking of Gylfi”). Gangleri (an Odinic character that we are told is King Gylfi in disguise[6]) poses a long list of questions to a triune god in Asgard -Hárr (High), Jafnhárr (Just-as-high), and Thridi (Third)—all names of Odin. His final question regards the state of the worlds in the days after Ragnarök, “Will there be any gods alive then? And will there be any kind of earth or sky?”[7] Hárr’s answer reveals the names of the gods that survive Ragnarök – and perhaps most importantly that the shining Sun god Baldr and his brother Hoth return from Hel. He also tells the names of the two people Líf (Life) and Lífthrasir (Lover of Life), who survive, and how mankind will descend from them. Hárr also tells of a new Sun that replaces the original Sun Álfröðull (Elf beam) that was devoured by Fenrir wolf. Hárr then preempts any further questions by stating:
“And now if you know any more questions to ask further into the future, I do not know where you will find answers, for I have heard no one relate the history of the world any further on in time. And may the knowledge you have gained do you good.”[8]
Aelfric Avery has called GIBOR “the rune of Ragnarök.” He writes:
“The external message of Ragnarök appears to be that everything dies. However, the real, inner meaning is that nothing actually dies; nothing can die, rather everything is simply renewed and reborn eternally.”[9]
GIBOR represents the Sun Wheel eternally spinning. Such spinning represents the cyclical nature of life. We experience such cycles through the change of seasons and witness it all around us. Despite the initial failure to return Baldr from Hel –an attempt thwarted by Loki, when disguised as a Giantess he refused to shed a tear for Loki’s return. Still, the world turned and Baldr leaves Hel in the days following Ragnarök to set up proper rule in Idavoll. GIBOR then is a perfect representation of the Listian formula Entstehen-Sein-Vergehen zum neuen Entstehen (arising-being-passing away to new arising.)[10]
GIBOR is however an incomplete Sun Wheel –an incomplete fyrfos. Its design is only two-thirds complete –revealing that the future is unknown. While Urd has woven the past (arising) and we live in Verðandi’s present (being), Skald’s future (passing away to new arising) is not only unknown, but can be altered, and shaped through free will. The power then comes from within the individual, even such power to alter one’s karma (garma[11]) or destiny.
Another important concept in the understanding of GIBOR is that of a “gift.” The Old English Rune Poem (OERP) is the primary source for such an association.
GYFU[12] (Gift) is an honor and grace of men / a support and adornment, and for any exile / mercy and sustenance when he has no other.[13]
Indeed GIBOR is a gift –but not just any gift. In fact it is a gift to mankind from Odin. It is ultimately the gift of the runes themselves. While the runes originate from a source even more primordial than Odin himself, Odin famously performs an act of self-initiation to gain them.
“I ween that I hung on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs.”[14]
Odin’s act of initiation and his Eighteen Rune Spells are recorded in his book of sayings, the Hávamál (“The Sayings of Hárr”). Odin’s self-initiation and his explanation of the sacred Futhorkh runes serve as a model for those following the Odinic path. Such rune knowledge is recorded but remains hidden in a concealed form so that only the initiate may rediscover their true meaning. Guido von List explains:
“Thus in the Eddic song “Wuotan’s Rune-Knowledge” [Runatals thattr Odhins] the skald interpreted the individual runes –in concealed forms—and implied the “magical songs” [invocatory formulas] connected to them, without actually communicating them –thus preserving the skaldic secret –but he revealed enough that their sense can be rediscovered.”[15]
Von List also identifies the esoteric doctrine of GIBOR as a “cohesion of man and divinity” which he turns into the motto “Man –be One with God.” Such Oneness with the divine is utilized through the mantra “GIBOR – ARAHARI” (Man, be one with god).[16] During his explanation of GIBOR, Von List utilizes a key concept from his cosmological ideology, that of the zweieinig-zweispältige Zweiheit (bifidic-biune dyad). This concept may be understood as the replacement of duality with unity or Oneness. Essentially, the “two-split” become and are simultaneously “two-in-one.” Dyadic “two-ness” becomes “One-ness.”
Karl Hans Welz emphasizes this concept in his “Song of GIBOR” several times. A few key examples are:
GIBOR – I am union of giver and gift!
GIBOR – Union of two forces, two egos, and One cause.
GIBOR – Being One in Two, we experience All in One.
GIBOR and Gea, Gibur and Gyfa, two forces, two souls, One being, One and Creating, unified in cosmic ecstatic joy.[17]
Such unification brings us back to the runes themselves and GIBOR’s relationship to the Futhorkh as a whole. If we align the eighteen runes of the Futhorkh in two rows of nine, IS (the ninth rune) is positioned above GIBOR. In IS we learn the principle of true ego. This concept is contrasted with, and unified with GIBOR transitioning into the universal and broader concept of Oneness through the bifidic-biune dyad.
If we align the eighteen runes into three rows of six, KA (the sixth rune), begins a column followed by TYR (the twelfth rune), and GIBOR (the eighteenth). Through KA we gain wisdom, capability, and skills. In TYR these abilities are joined with self-sacrifice and specifically the sacrifice of the lower-ego. It is then only through the attainment of such knowledge and abilities conjoined with self-sacrifice that one is able to attain Arahari in GIBOR.
The concept of cosmological cycles, union, and Oneness may be joined with any of runes that precede it in the Sacred Eighteen. GIBOR is representative of all runic mystery and contains and is comprised of the entire Futhorkh.
In Snorri’s Gylfaginning after Hárr has revealed all there is to know to Gangleri, Odin’s mighty hall Valhalla and Asgard itself vanishes:
“Next Gangleri heard great noises in every direction from him, and he looked out to one side. And when he looked around he found he was standing out on open ground, could see no hall and no castle.”[18]
At that moment Gangleri had indeed become Odin. Never again is King Gylfi mentioned in Snorri’s account. The triune god (Hárr, Jafnhárr, Thridi) vanishes along with the world of Asgard –and Gangleri is alone.
It is up to Gangleri to create his own hall and kingdom. Indeed the world is for him to shape and to create. The world that that he visited, and sought answers from, was but an illusion that has disappeared from sight.
GIBOR – Arahari!
Notes:
1. Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions # 18: The Rune GIBOR. https://knightsofrunes.com/rune_magic18.html
2. S. Edred Thorsson, The Runic Magic of the Armanen: A Primer of Runic Magic (Bastrop, TX: Runestar, 2018), 13.
3. Lee M. Hollander, trans., The Poetic Edda (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 52.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid, 40.
6. The name Gangleri means “wanderer” and is one of the names of Odin. See my article, “Becoming Odin: Tracking the Odinic Path in the Edda.” https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2020/01/becoming-odin-tracking-odinic-path-in.html
7. Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans., Anthony Faulkes (North Clarendon, VT: Everyman, 1995), 56.
8. Ibid, 57.
9. Aelfric Avery, Armanen Runes and the Black Sun in Modern Heathenry Vol. II, (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 76.
10. Guido Von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans., Stephen E. Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 10.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment