Meditations on AR: Freyr’s Harvest

This essay was completed on 22 January 2022. It's been in the works for awhile. Like many of the essays in this series, I can no longer accurately say when I began to write it. One point that I failed to discuss in this essay is that AR is one half of the composite word "AR-MAN." In that important word, I have come to understand that the light --the streaming sun power-- of AR is joined with MAN's energies to enable those on the Armanen path to perceive the spiritual plane. Together these runes are surely a formula for personal enlightenment.

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I begin my meditations on the tenth rune, AR by considering Hávamál verse 155. Here Odin reveals how to eliminate spiritual darkness and uncertainty.

“A tenth one I know:
When ill-witching spirits
Fly high in the air.
I shall cause them to turn
Back to their homes,
Deprived of their covers;
Back to their homes,
Bewildered their minds.”[1]

On the surface this verse speaks of fending off “ill-witching spirits” or in other translations, “hags” or “witches.” Providing a deeper esoteric interpretation, Guido Von List explained how one might use the AR rune to remove spiritual doubt or physical darkness:

“The ‘ar,’ the ‘urfyr’ (primal fire, god), the ‘sun,’ the ‘light’ will destroy spiritual as well as physical darkness, doubt, and uncertainty.”[2]

For those familiar with the exoteric definition of the equivalent Elder Futhark rune *JERA, it may seem difficult to square this explanation with the common association with “harvest.” The Icelandic Rune Poem (IRP) is representative of the rune poems and the association of AR with harvest or good crops.

“Harvest (ÁR) is men’s bounty
And a good summer
And a ripened field of crops.”[3]

Upon close examination, it becomes clear that the common thread between these ideas is “sun” or “sunlight.” Sun is essential for a bountiful harvest, and also shines light metaphorically into dark places so that doubts and uncertainties may be “deprived of their covers.” Siegfried Kummer made this connection in his Heilige Runenmacht (Holy Rune Might), “The AR-rune means streaming sun power, sunlight.”[4] He also identifies AR as “the rune of light which releases all uncertainty and doubt.”[5] The common factor between the exoteric and esoteric definition of AR is “sunlight.” Esoterically we can say that man may have a positive personal harvest by removing all spiritual doubts.

Examining AR from the perspective of Germanic spirituality, I associate AR with the fertility god, Freyr. The Norwegian Rune Poem (NRP) helps support the validity of this connection.

“Harvest (ÁR) is men’s bounty;
I hear that Fróði
Was generous.”[6]

While clearly the source for the IRP, the NRP makes an interesting reference to Fróði. The reign of King Fróði of Denmark has long been associated with the fertility god Freyr. Snorri Sturluson explains this relationship in the Ynglinga Saga:

“In [Freyr’s] days began the peace of Frode [Fróði]; then there was also a good season over all the land. The Swedes gave Frey [Freyr] credit for it, and he therefore was much more worshipped than the other gods, as the land folk in his days became richer on account of peace and good seasons than ever before.”[7]

Fróði was a legendary Danish king who was famously associated with an extended time of peace. During this peace there were a long series of good harvests. This time was considered a “golden age.” Fróði is also associated with the god Freyr as a fertility figure and represented through good “harvests.” Such “harvests” must be understood personally however as the NRP refers to them as “men’s bounty.” AR then represents a personal “golden age.” It represents “fertility” as a metaphor for “creativity” and manifestation through the Creative Rune Realm.

The earliest of the standard rune poems is the Old English Rune Poem (OERP). While not referring to King Fróði, it is clearly the source for the NRP verse. It attributes good harvest to god, “the holy king of heaven.”

“Harvest (GER) is men’s hope when god allows /
-holy king of heaven – the earth
to give up / fair fruits to warriors and to wretches.”[8]

The close association here between “god” and “harvest” may certainly recall the pre-Christian god of fertility and harvest, Freyr. While it is clear that there was a long held association of Freyr with Fróði, to better appreciate the relevance of Freyr to the rune AR, we must also explore what the Eddas reveal about him.

Snorri writes in Gylfaginning (“The Tricking of Gylfi”):

“Freyr is the most glorious of the Aesir. He is ruler of rain and sunshine and thus of the produce of the earth, and it is good to pray to him for prosperity and peace. He also rules over the wealth of men.”[9]

We also learn from the Eddas that Freyr’s residence is made in the world of Alfheim (Light Elf World). This may seem strange to some, as it is widely known that Freyr was born of the Vanir gods and later is identified as Aesir. The Grímnismál ("The Lay of Grimnir") however reveals that his hall is in Alfheim. To better appreciate the significance of Alfheim, I turn to Snorri’s description:

“Many splendid places are there. There is one place that is called Alfheim. There live the folk called light-elves… Light-elves are fairer than the sun to look at.”[10]

We may draw the inference that Freyr, like the light elves, is fairer than the sun to look at. The Eddas then make a close association of Freyr –the god of fertility and harvest—with the sun itself. The Armanen Rune Masters often associated AR with “the sun man.” Karl Spiesberger for example equates AR with both “Sun” and “Light” and Armann with Sun-Man.[11] Using an etymological approach, Kummer identifies the word “Arr” with “Lord” which of course is the meaning of the name “Freyr.”

Freya Aswynn is one of the few Rune Masters that associates this rune with Freyr. While she makes the correspondence of the “earth” element rather than “fire” with AR, she draws a similar conclusion regarding Freyr:

“The element related to this rune is earth; the gods who are associated with it are the Vanir twins, Frey[r] and Freyja. The JERA[12] rune is strongly connected with fertility, in particular the fertility of crops.”[13]

I would argue that the element most closely related to AR is fire rather than earth. While the concept of harvest requires both fire (sun) and earth, a proper esoteric appreciation of this rune depends on it correspondence with fire. Von List understood this when he refers to AR as an “ur-fyr” or “primal fire” in his motto: “Respect the primal fire.”[14]

Karl Hans Welz further emphasized the association or AR with fire in his “Song of AR”:

“AR -- The original Solar fire cleanses me, and I open up to wisdom and beauty. Free from the weight of old and worthless patterns I am rising eagle-like into the heights of a spiritual existence.”[15]

Welz makes several linkages between AR and the energies of the Sun. Like Kummer he speaks of “a person of the Sun,” a “Sun-Man” which again reminds us of Freyr who was “fairer than the sun to look at”:

“The Rune AR has strong links with energies of the Sun. Practice of AR will help you bring to Light some of those trends that haunt you.”[16]

As noted by many Rune Masters, AR teaches that we are “sun-men.” This concept reminds us of seasonal change. We witness such change all around us through the turning of the seasons. We witness the cycles of the year and the cycles of nature. The tenth question / answer exchange between Odin and Vafþrúðnir in the Vafþrúðnismál ("The Lay of Vafthruthnir") reminds us that the sea-god Njorth was begat by the Vanir, traveled to and lived among the Aesir, only to return to Vanaheim (World of the Vanir) at “the world’s last wyrd” thereby providing another demonstration of a cycle of life.

It is appropriate to view AR as a rune of personal manifestation. In the fourth position of the second aett, it aligns with OS and ultimately YR. Each of these runes however corresponds to a different element, OS with air, AR with fire, and YR with earth. Like OS and YR, AR connects Rune practitioners with the Creative Rune Realm. It helps us to manifest our ideas and our will.

As the tenth rune in the Futhorkh, AR shares a central position with IS. AR rightfully follows IS in that it demonstrates a further evolution to a “higher man.” Welz writes, “I am a person of the sun. I am a carrier of the light, I am a priest of the Sun, I am One with Arahari, the spiritual sun, and the cosmos.” It is also the first rune of the final nine and in this position represents a cyclical pattern. In AR we are attaining the zenith of our runic being—soon to transition to a new state. As IS warns of winds at sea, AR warns of witches flying through the air. While doubts may haunt us, AR provides the ability to overcome them.

AR is a rune of light. It marks the beginning of the runes of the spiritual plane. The “ill-witching spirits” are our unhealthy ways of dealing with life. Our lives may indeed become bountiful harvests if we turn our faces to the sun – to AR -- and allow the light to eliminate our doubts, demons, and darkness. It is through AR that we may truly become enlightened.

Notes:

1. Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions #10: The Rune AR. https://runemagick.com/rune_magic10.html 

 2. Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 56. 

3. Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore (Cambridgeshire, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011), 55. 

4. Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Holy Rune Might, trans. Aelfric Avery (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Bund Press, 2019), 93. 

5. Ibid. 

6. Pollington, 53. 

7. Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings (New York: Dover Publications, 1990) 7. 

8. Pollington, 47. 

9. Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans., Anthony Faulkes (North Clarendon, VT: Everyman, 1995), 24. 

10. Sturluson, Edda 19. 

11. Karl Spiesberger, Runenmagie: Handbuch der Runenkunde (Basel: Esoterischer Verlag, 2020) 49. 

12. JERA is the Proto-Germanic equivalent of AR. 

13. Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick: Runes & Feminine Powers (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2018) 53. 

14. Von List, 56. 

15. Welz. 

16. Ibid.