Meditations on KA: The Manifestation of Askr and Embla

This essay was begun on 3 October and completed on Samhain 2021. It completes my analysis of the Armanen Runes making up the initial aett. In KA I complete the first third of a voyage that began in the raw potential of the Ginnungagap and arrives at the manifestation of the first human beings. The cosmological fire of FA is now the fire of spirit glowing inside each of us.

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My meditations on KA begin with a reading of the 151st verse of the Hávamál.

“A sixth one is mine: Should a warrior try
To hurt me with the roots of soft wood:
This warrior who awakens the hatred in me
Shall be struck before he can hurt me.”[1]

Guido von List interpreted KA and this verse specifically based on the zeitgeist of his time commenting “The tribe, the race, is to be purely preserved; it may not be defiled by the roots of the foreign tree.”[2]

The Old English Rune Poem (OERP) sounds a seemingly different note:

“(CEN) Torch is known to each living being by fire
Radiant and bright, it usually burns
Where nobles rest indoors.”[3]

While the exoteric interpretation of the OERP verse is rather clear, the esoteric meaning is somewhat obscure. It is often associated with personal abilities including magical abilities. Freya Aswynn describes KENAZ (the Elder Futhark equivalent of KA) as follows:

“The primary aspect of KENAZ is the torch, that is, the torch of knowledge which is to be passed onto the next generation of kin or cyn. The basic meaning of the word “kin” indicates members of the same family or blood relatives. However, “kin” may also be interpreted in a wider concept as like-minded people of the same tribal origins.”[4]

Aelfic Avery similarly writes, “In particular, KA is the rune of magical ability. This capability is connected to kin and genes.”[5]

KA is both a torch of knowledge and abilities that are manifested through our senses. Turning to Northern spirituality, there is a relationship between KA and Askr (ON: ash-tree) and Embla,[6] the first humans. We recall that Odin, Vile, and Vé provided Askr and Embla, with human life. Snorri writes in Gylfaginning ["The Tricking of Gylfi"]:

“As Bor’s sons walked along the sea shore, they came across two logs and created people out of them. The first gave breath and life, the second consciousness and movement, the third a face, speech and hearing and sight.”[7]

The Voluspá tells a similar tale but replaces Vile and Vé with Honir and Lothur. In this version, Odin breathed spirit or soul, Honir gave sense, and Lothur bestowed “heat” and goodly hue.

“Then from the throng did three come forth,
From the home of the gods, the mighty and gracious;
Two without fate on the land they found,
Ask and Embla, empty of might.”

“Soul they had not, sense they had not,
Heat nor motion, nor goodly hue;
Soul gave Othin, sense gave Honir,
Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue.”[8]

Here we recognize the importance of the association of “heat” and “goodly hue” with the OERP verse that similarly associates “fire” with “radiance” and “brightness.” Odin and his brothers gave the gifts of breath and life, consciousness, movement, speech, hearing and sight. The spirit that Odin breathed into Askr and Embla differentiated them from the purely material. They were alive as the trees Ash and Elm but without spirit or soul. Siegfried Kummer writes of, “Odin the OD-bringer, Odebar (the stork) who brings the children.”[9]  This etymological link emphasizes Odin as a life-giver. Kummer indicates that Odin was a “wind god.” He writes,

“In the language of our fathers, breath is synonymous with spirit. Without the breeze no fire burns, without breath there is no life.”[10]

Not unlike Askr and Embla, we gain intuition and inspiration through Odin’s breath. We also acquire skills and we use them. Some of these skills ought to be considered gifts. Such gifts or abilities may be inherited through our ancestors and past lives. It is in this way that List’s motto “your blood, your highest possession” rings true. This is not a matter of race per se but a matter of inherited abilities. Karl Hans Welz writes, “With KA, I am aware of the infinite potential of my skills. With KA, I effectively put into action my skills.”[11] KA then represents our abilities and knowledge –a fire burning inside us.

KA is the final rune of the first aett, which as a grouping represent the concept of “arising.” This aett has revealed the concepts of the Outer, Inner, and Creative Rune Realms and moved from raw primal potential in FA, to personal healing in UR. They have demonstrated the power of runic energy in THORN and how to properly wield such energy in OS. In RIT we learned more of the proper order of the outer and inner universe. Most importantly we realize that RIT represents the cosmological law established following the murder of Ymir, the frost-giant, by Odin, Vile, and Vé. As Midgard is constructed, it is from Ymir’s hair that trees were made.[12] Askr and Embla are then manifested through the corpse of Ymir –his hair specifically –and become man and woman through the gifts of the gods.

KA teaches us then to utilize all of our being, all of our learning, all of our senses, and all of our talents in our use and work with the Runes. From FA to KA we have literally moved from potential to being. KA is a figurative “torch.” It is the fire that burns deep inside us and makes us human. As the final rune in the aett, it is also a rune associated with transition. KA transitions us from the “arising” grouping to the “being” aett and connects us with the first rune of that set HAGAL.

Notes:

1. Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions #6: The Rune KA. https://runemagick.com/rune_magic06.html 

2. Guido Von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 53. 

3. Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore, (Cambridgeshire, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011), 46. 

4. Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick: Runes and Feminine Powers, (Woodbury, MN, Llewellyn Publications, 2018), 28. 

5. Aelfric Avery, Armanen Runes and the Black Sun in Modern Heathenry Vol. II (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 35. 

6. Many have interpreted “Embla” to mean “Elm tree.” This etymological connection is however unproven. 

7. Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans., Anthony Faulkes (North Clarendon, VT: Everyman, 1995),13. 

8. Henry Adams Bellows, trans., The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2004), 8. 

9. Siegfried Kummer, Holy Rune Might, trans. Aelfric Avery (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Bund Press, 2019), 78. 

10. Kummer, 78. 

11. Welz. 

12. Grimnismal 41.