Meditations on RIT: Constructing Midgard

Begun on 26 September and completed on 3 October 2021, my "Meditations on RIT" was born in a flash. I realized that some of the key concepts of RIT had snuck their way into my essay on OS. This error was simple to make as one rune indeed leads to the next in a continuous process of initiation. Now in their rightful place, those ideas contribute to this essay that considers both the cosmological and personal journeys that RIT enables.

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I begin my meditations on RIT, the fifth of the Armanen Runes by considering Hávamál verse 150.

“This I know as a fifth: If in hostile flight
An arrow shoots into the crowd;
No matter how it threatens, I block its force
By grasping it tightly with the look of my eyes.”[1]

On the surface, this verse from Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins “Odins Rune Song” seems similar to several other runic verses with the theme of “protection.” A key but subtle difference is that the protection of the folk[2]  empowered by this song and the Rune RIT is from a spear or arrow in motion. Turning to the Old English Rune Poem (OERP), we read:

“Riding is for every man in the hall
easy, and strenuous for him who sits upon
a powerful horse along the long paths.”[3]

This fairly straightforward verse has a similar theme in the other Rune Poems. Such verses have resulted in the common association of RIT, or its Elder Futhark equivalent *Raidho, with riding, travel, or journeys. From an esoteric perspective however, RIT takes on much greater significance.

In fact, many Armanen Rune Masters have associated RIT with the cosmic law of the universe. The etymologically-related term Rita referred to in the Vedas represents “truth” and “order” in the universe. As we have already noted, RIT is also associated with travel, riding and journeys. Esoterically, the “long paths” and the “powerful horse” of the OERP are no earthly paths or beast. RIT importantly also emphasizes ritual and ceremony. Aelfric Avery calls RIT, “the rune of all rune work, magic, spirituality, and ritual.”[4]

To fully appreciate RIT, it is important to consider it in the sequence in which it appears in the Armanen Futhorkh. We have moved from THORN, a rune associated with the raw unbridled power and lawless behavior of Ymir, the Ur-being, the primeval frost giant to OS, a rune of creative energy typified in the all-Father Odin. In RIT, we transition from Odin to his creation. Odin and his brothers Vile and Vé were born into the world of his primal ancestor Ymir. Ymir or Thorn’s[5] world is one without that which we understand as natural law as it was yet to be developed and implemented by Odin.

Odin, Vile, and Vé proceed to murder Ymir in what is the first primal act of Ritual. This first sacrifice not only brings an end to the chaotic world of Ymir, but enables Odin and his brothers who represent respectively "will," and the "holy." Vé is cognate with the Gothic weiha (priest), stemming from the Proto-Germanic *wīhōn, itself from the adjective *wīhaz, meaning “holy.” Odin’s act, then, along with Vile and Vé of sacrificing Ymir is performed in a holy or sacred manner as an act of will with the ultimate purpose of attaining a magical and spiritual end. Here Odin constructs the Earth / Midgard from Ymir’s corpse. This sacrifice, shedding of blood, is the ultimate example of manifestation—that is not creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo), but rather manifestation of the divine, from the divine  (creatio ex Deo).[6]

Snorri tells us in Gylfaginning ("The tricking of Gylfi") that Odin and his brothers proceed to transport Ymir to the middle of the Ginnungagap—that mighty endless void. Out of Ymir’s corpse they construct Midgard, from his blood, the sea and the lakes. Cosmic law is established from the chaos that was Ymir. Importantly, Snorri emphasizes that the sons of Bor transport Ymir’s body to the Ginnungagap. There is a great cosmological motion in process. Snorri continues by highlighting the blood shed during this primal cosmological ritual:

“Out of the blood that came from his wounds and was flowing unconfined, out of this they made the sea with which they encompassed and contained the earth, and they placed this sea in a circle round the outside of it, and it will seem and impossibility to most to get across it.”[7]  

Not only is the sea placed in a circle (wheel-like) around Midgard, but Snorri also reveals that Midgard itself is “circular round the edge.”[8] We must also remember that it is not only Midgard that is shaped during Odin’s cosmological construction project, but also the sky (made of Ymir’s skull) and stars (placed from the sparks that flew uncontrollably from the world of Muspelheim. While the planets (lights) may have already existed, Snorri notes that they previously “moved in a wandering course.” Odin then “appointed them positions and ordained their courses.”[9] In all ways then, what was previously chaotic becomes ordered under the cosmic law established by Odin.

Snorri continues his explanation of the arrangement of Midgard/Earth as well the sun, stars, and separation of day and night. Here the theme of cosmological journey and movement is once again employed:

“Then All-father took Night and her son Day and gave them two horses and chariots and set them up in the sky so that they have ride around the earth every twenty-four hours. Night rides in front on the horse called Hrimfaxi, and every morning he bedews the earth with the drips from his bit. Day’s horse is called Skinfaxi [shining-mane], and light is shed over all the sky and sea from his mane.”[10]

From the travels of Night and Day, Snorri goes on to describe similarly the course of the sun and moon:

“There was a person whose name was Mundilfaeri who had two children. They were so fair and beautiful that he called the one Moon and his daughter Sol [sun], and gave her in marriage to a person called Glen. But the gods got angry at this arrogance and took the brother and sister and set them up in the sky; they made Sol drive the horses that drew the chariot of the sun which the gods had created, to illuminate the worlds, out of the molten particle that had flown out of the world of Muspell. The names of these horses are Arvak and Alsvinn. Under the shoulders of the horses, the gods put two bellows to cool them, and in some sources it is called ironblast.”[11]

Along this theme, Jan Fries points out that RIT (Rad) refers to seasonal cycles. He writes:

"(RIT) refers to the wheel – the journey is a circle – and to this day the G(ermanic) Rad = wheel. In the Gaelic, the cycle of the year is divided into four ‘radh’, each of which is a season.”[12]

It is in this sense that we have cosmic order and law. Siegfried Kummer pulls together these seemingly disparate themes by commenting, “Wheel, the rolling sun wheel, the cosmic rhythm. Red, the color of the judge, executioner.”[13] Indeed we see the cosmic order founded upon oceans of Ymir’s blood spilled during Odin’s cosmological sacrifice. Kummer continues, “The rune RIT, Rita, is the symbol of the Great Ritual, the All-Rite, the rune of justice, right and righteousness.”[14]

In his magnum opus, Aleister Crowley explains the principles of ritual,

“There is a single main definition of the object of all magical ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm.”[15]

For our purposes, this point is essential. While macrocosmically, RIT is used to explain cosmic order (the Great Ritual) and law, on a microcosmic level, we establish our own personal world and order. Avery emphasizes this point:

“RIT allows humans to evolve spiritually and magically: to take control of our own destinies by developing magical knowledge and power that enables us to establish Right Order and sufficient good in our own lives.”[16]

To RIT, Guido von List applies the motto “I am my rod (right), this rod is indestructible, therefore I am myself indestructible, because I am my rod.” To best understand List’s motto, we must compare it with this line from Psalm 23 of the Bible, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Biblically the reference is to the god Yahweh. It uses the imagery of shepherds using a rod to defend their flocks from predators. Here, List’s formula emphasizes the “I.” “I am my rod” rather than “your rod.” Essentially List stands the Old Testament formula on its head. The individual begins to recognize the god within (Arahari). We create our order and take responsibility for ourselves and for our protection.

In the verse related to RIT, the Norwegian Rune Poem (NRP) adds a seemingly disconnected phrase, “Regin forged the best sword.”[17]  Understood however in light of Von List’s adage, we see that like the skillful dwarf Regin, we each must forge our own sword. RIT provides the ability to further establish and refine order and truth within. If we simply sit “in the hall,” this ride of life is indeed easy. If however we dare to venture out on the long paths of life’s journey, the adventure becomes strenuous indeed. RIT provides us with the ability to manifest our own world—our own Midgard —while simultaneously protecting us from whatever life may throw our way. 

 Notes:

1.Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions # 5: The Rune RIT. https://runemagick.com/rune_magic05.html

2. The phrase in question is flein i folk vatha in ON. Aelfric Avery translates this more literally as “a spear fly into the folk.” See Aelfric Avery, Völuspá and Hávamal: Old Norse Texts and Heathen English Translation (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 54. 

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

4. Aelfric Avery, Armanen Runes and the Black Sun in Modern Heathenry Vol. II (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 33. 

5. Thorn is another name for Ymir. See my article, “Meditations on THORN: Ymir’s Blood.” https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2021/09/meditations-on-thorn-ymirs-blood.html 

6. See Askr Svarte trans., Jafe Arnold, Polemos II: Pagan Perspectives (Prav Publishing, 2021) for a detailed discussion of the difference between creationism as a concept of Abrahamic religion and manifestationism as a concept of paganism. 

7. Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans., Anthony Faulkes (North Clarendon, VT: Everyman, 1995), 12. 

8. Ibid. 

9. Ibid. 

10. Sturluson, 14. 

11. Ibid. 

12. Jan Fries, Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick (Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford, 2006), 356. 

13. Siegfried Kummer, Holy Rune Might, trans. Aelfric Avery (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Bund Press, 2019), 95. 

14. Ibid. 

15. Aleister Crowley, Magick Liber ABA: Book Four, Parts 1-IV (San Francisco: Weiser Books, 2008), 144. 

16. Avery, Armanen Runes, 33. 

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

18. Pollington, 53.