Almighty GIBOR: Understanding Guido von List’s G-Rune
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There is much misunderstanding and controversy over the 18 runes that Guido von List associated with the 18 Rúnatal verses of the Hávamál (verses 146-164). An internet search discovers the accusation that these runes, oftentimes, but inaccurately called “Armanen” runes are “pseudo-runes” or not runes at all. Some critics suggest that List simply “made them up.” While many are quick to condemn the authenticity of List’s entire Futhorkh, such complaints fail to comprehend the historicity and importance of List’s work. In fact, the first 16 runes of List’s system are what is today known as the Younger Futhork (which was in use throughout the Viking period from approximately the 8th through 12th centuries). The primary variation between List’s first 16 runes and what is commonly documented as the Younger Futhork is the sequence of the fourteenth through sixteenth runes. Generally, we find these runes ordered MAN-LAF-YR, while List uses the sequence LAF-MAN-YR. This sequence however is not unique to List’s Futhorkh, rather we find the exact same sequence in the Early Modern Swedish Rune Poem (circa 1600).[1] Another “variation” is the symbolic forms that List used are not always those that are most familiar to contemporary readers—they are however historic forms and variations that have been found on various artifacts. There are many variations in the symbolic forms of runes. One should realize that List’s work was groundbreaking and predated the flood of contemporary rune books by 80 years or more.
With the challenge to the first 16 runes dispelled, we arrive at the 17th rune, EH. While the chief complaint is that EH (Elder Futhark name *EHWAZ) is not commonly found along with the Younger Futhork runes, all must admit its historicity. The chief complaint then is with the 18th rune of List’s system, the G-Rune, oftentimes referred to as GIBOR. The people who edit Wikipedia state emphatically, “There is no historical runic equivalent to the 18th rune, the “gibor rune” (the name may be based on the Anglo-Saxon GYFU rune.)[2] They go on to state that “Its shape is similar to that of the Wolfsangel symbol.” From here, the argument typically loses all nuance and denigrates into a condemnation of racism and Nazism. Recently Mitch Horowitz, who is typically quite nuanced and insightful, charged in his Modern Occultism: History, Theory, and Practice, that “pan-German theorist Guido von List (1848-1919) —falsely conflated the swastika with images found in Germanic runes, which had been experiencing an early twentieth century revival.”[3] Presumably this is a reference to the GIBOR rune, although Horowitz does not clarify. Before considering the validity, or lack thereof, of such charges, some background into the work of List is required.
Background
Guido von List was born in Vienna, Austria on 5 October 1848. Throughout his formative years, he wrote articles on a wide range of subjects—but became particularly well-known for his investigations into, and ruminations on, the early history of the Germanic tribes. It was during his lifetime that the German Empire was founded —in 1871. In the early 20th century, and especially from 1908 forward, List’s writings shifted to the mystical, esoteric, and even occult. It was during this final period of his life—List was 60 years old in 1908—that what are considered his most important and influential works were written. List’s new focus was undoubtedly the result of his having read H.P. Blavatsky’s, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy which was fully translated into German in 1901. While Blavatsky’s Theosophical movement was primarily interested in the universal principles of religion and the point at which religion and science meet, List’s interest was the application of such ideas to the early origins of the Germanic people specifically.
Here is it necessary to explain what List meant by the term “Germanic” and his frequently used phrase “Aryo-Germanic.” The terms are often misunderstood by those not well-versed in the German language. The German-language word for “German” is Deutsch and the country known to English-speakers as Germany is Deutschland. List however frequently used the words Germanen and Ario-Germanen rather than Deutsch. Germanen refers, not to the contemporary Germans, or the Germans of List’s time, but rather to the Germanic tribes or peoples of an earlier time—dating back perhaps as far as 750 BCE. The Ario-Germanen refers to the point of earliest interest for List, that of the origin of the Germanic tribes among the “Aryan” people. Today, of course, the term “Aryan” is super-charged by its use and association with the Nazis. It was, however considered an accurate and even scientific term at the time in which List lived. While the source of List’s understanding of this term is unclear, there can be no doubt that Blavatsky’s use of the word in The Secret Doctrine colored his understanding. In what is certainly the most speculative and controversial of the concepts described in her book, Blavatsky describes seven “root-races” which take us from the dawn of time over a billion years ago into the future. The current “root race,” the fifth, she called the "Aryan." These so-called races went through cycles of arising, being, and passing away to the rising of a new “race.” The first four of these races were arguably not human—in Blavatsky’s explanation. Of the fifth race, she writes:
“History does not begin with it, but living and ever-recurring tradition does. History—or what is called history—does not go further back than the fantastic origins of our fifth sub-race.”[4]
For Blavatsky, all people living in the present were of this fifth root race which she called, “Aryan.” She further described that there were divisions from the root-race that resulted in the different peoples that populate the planet. List’s focus was specifically on the “Germanic” or “Aryo-Germanic” branch of people. In this, he sought to explain the earliest structures of society, religion, and language. Driven particularly from the standpoint of language, List’s was an early —perhaps the earliest—attempt to derive what we would today refer to as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language. While today PIE is typically not associated with a people per se, List surely believed that such an early people existed and spoke “Aryo-Germanic” or Proto-Indo-European—what List referred to as a “Mystery Language.” This point will be key in understanding the names that List used for each of the runes.
Beyond this, List embraced the idea that Blavatsky espoused that all religions come from a common root that shared a universal religious principle. Blavatsky wrote:
“Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion.”[5]
Here List tends to be misunderstood by his proponents and detractors alike. Far from seeking a revival of Odin-worship,[6] List taught the secret doctrine of what he called Armanism—an idea deeply rooted in Theosophy. He described both of his terms “Armanism” and “Wihinei” in his The Transition from Wuotanism to Christianity:
“If up to now there has only been talk of ‘the religion’ and never of ‘the religions,’ this has been done consciously, for there is only one religion, the Wihinei, that is, the ‘secret doctrine of Armanism,’ which is the origin of all other religions that ever existed, do now exist or that ever will exist in the future, therefore all of these ‘religions’ are nothing other than merely ‘systems of religion.” Such systems of religion, falsely called religions, have always been established by contemporaries for contemporaries, by people of the same kind for people of the same kind, as they correspond to the requirements of the age and kind of people, and never had the aim—according to the intention of the founders involved—of forming a common world-religion, which in any case could only exist in the esoteric sense, but never in an exoteric arrangement of details.”[7]
List posited that a disintegration of language resulted in a split of the old Wihinei into two different teachings. The older of these was that of the now secret doctrine of Armanism which was understood only by those of knowledge—the Armanen (a class or estate of people and not an ethnic group). Within the Germanic branch of people, the second teaching was the exoteric system of Wuotanism (Old High German term for Odinism).[8] List describes the origins of Wuotanism as a decline from the original Armanic religion:
“The point at which Wuotanism began to branch off from Armanism is to be discovered where the brief characteristic terms for the highest incomprehensible and unfathomable divine essence were no longer understood by the initiated, so that they were reduced to individual names in such a way that eventually an anthropomorphic entity (personality) bearing a name, was created out of the great incomprehensible divine essence. These individual characteristics were further anthropomorphized (given human shape) such that they formed a series of gods, which, becoming ever more human, arranged themselves like a great royal family around a high-king until eventually even the familial relationships were no longer sufficient and the ranks of servants in all their hierarchies had to be instituted to complete the picture for the lower divinities.”[9]
Beyond Theosophy, List explored and incorporated ideas from Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Kabbalah, and even the works of Joannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa into his esoteric vision.[10] It was this combination of ideas which formed the principles of Armanism, which he championed for the balance of his life. He argued that the universal principles of the original Wihinei became a secret doctrine understood only by the priestly estate throughout the period of Wuotanism. Just as exoteric religions, or systems of religions go through cycles of arising and decline, so did the original Wihinei of the Armanen. The rise of Christianity only resulted in the change of the outward, exoteric principles of Wuotanism. The Armanen continued the original teachings, now in an even-more concealed, or secret manner. The old symbols were hidden within new forms and constructions—including signs, shields, and even architecture. The old religion was secretly maintained by the skalds, and Minnesangers (memory-singers in List’s etymology) in the sagas and songs of the medieval era. Those who undertook the work of maintaining the old ways were described by List as a brotherhood called the Kalander.[11]
The secrets of the old Wihinei —the universal religion of the Armanen—was hidden, oftentimes in plain view. While few could recognize the signs, that challenge was, of course, taken up by List himself who rediscovered the original religion and teachings and wrote extensively on his theories. He found numerous examples of the old gods and old ideas in the names of places and rivers. He also discovered such ideas hidden in Christianity itself, and in the old signs and coats of arms.
One such ancient symbol that List associated with the original Wihinei was the fyrfos or swastika. While certainly familiar with this symbol prior to encountering it in The Secret Doctrine,[12] his ideas about it may have been colored by Madame Blavatsky. Blavatsky called the swastika the “Hammer of Thor” and the “Hammer of Creation.” She writes,
“Born in the mystical conceptions of the early Aryans, and by them placed at the very threshold of eternity, on the head of the serpent Ananta, it found its spiritual death in the scholastic interpretations of medieval Anthropomorphists. It is the Alpha and the Omega of universal creative Force, evolving from pure spirit and ending in gross Matter. It is also the key to the cycle of Science, divine and human; and he who comprehends its full meaning is for ever liberated from the toils of Mahamaya, the great illusion and Deceiver.”[13]
She later describes the swastika as having, importantly, come from the symbol of the cross —“X.”
“The four arms of the ‘X,’ the decussated cross, and of the ‘Hermetic,’ pointing to the four cardinal points—were well understood by the mystical minds of the Hindus, Brahmins, and Buddhists thousands of years before it was heard of in Europe; and that symbol was and is found all over the world. They bent the ends of that cross and made of it their Swastica now the Wan of the Buddhist Mongolian. It implies the at the ‘Central point’ is not limited to one individual, however perfect. That the Principle (God) is in Humanity, and Humanity, as all the rest, is in it, like drops of water are in the Ocean, the four ends being toward the four cardinal points, hence losing themselves in infinity."[14]
While List was busy immersing himself in rediscovering the lost and hidden secrets of Armanism, he began losing his eyesight. Cataracts resulted in near total blindness. Unable to work, List underwent cataract surgery in April 1902. Far from the routine procedure of the 21st century, List’s eyes remained bandaged until March 1903. While the eight operations that he underwent were considered a success, List remained forever blind in one eye. It was during these eleven months that List became a visionary. He recalled:
“It remains incomprehensible to me today how I became a visionary in the bandaged darkness, and by means of what energy my powers of memory worked, so that every passage in the heroic epics, namely every verse of the Edda was completely at my command… During that time I also discovered the law of kala, as well as the basic structure of the pictographic writing and its continued existence in heraldry.”[15]
By kala, List was referring to his term, derived from the Sanskrit, in which words, and particularly the runes have a three-fold definition aligning to the concepts of arising, being, and passing away to a new arising. The three-fold level of understanding was also that of exoteric, esoteric, and Armanic—having a hidden meaning.[16]
Secret of the Runes
List published the results of his revelations of 1902-03 in what is today his most well-known volume, Das Geheimnis der Runen (The Secret of the Runes) in 1908. What he determined during his period of blindness was that the Rúnatal section of the Hávamal that described 18 rune spells was actually a Rune Poem—with each of the verses corresponding to a rune. Here was a work of great antiquity hearkening back to the Armanen and the Armanic Kalanders of old who had hidden an important secret—that of the meanings of the runes—in otherwise difficult to discern exoteric poetry.
List noticed that the well-known 16 runes (today identified as the Younger Futhork) corresponded quite well to the first 16 verses. In his book, he would provide the earliest of rune names for each —establishing a system of mono-syllabic root words for each. From his understanding of language—and particularly German—he could further derive meaning etymologically for each. In this way, List sought to identify, what we would today call Proto-Indo-European names for each of the runes. His theory of language was that it would logically grow from single to multiple syllables and that sounds and language would grow from fewer to greater numbers of sounds and words over time. While, he perfectly understood that there was a 16-rune system, he believed the correspondence of runes to the Hávamál verses represented an evolution of the earliest system. In his Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache (The Primordial Language of the Aryo-Germanic Peoples and their Mystery Language), he refers to the 16-rune system as the primal runes.[17] Interestingly, his idea of establishing the earliest “Proto-Indo-European”[18] names for the runes is exactly what modern scholars have done to derive the names today associated with the Elder Futhark. While List’s detractors complain about the rune names used in The Secret of the Runes, none of the Elder Futhark rune-names are found in any source from antiquity. In fact, the asterisk that is used in front of these names (in some, but not all books) indicates that the names were reconstructed by scholars. Conversely, many of the rune names provided by List come directly from the Old English Rune Poem. These include: UR, THORN, OS, HAGAL, IS, TYR, EH, MAN, and YR. Others are very similar to the Old English spelling including: RIT (RAD), KAUN (CEN), and SIG (SIGEL). Far from having simply made up the rune names, List often uses names known from antiquity, and in a few cases, monosyllabic versions of the same. These are all far closer to the historical documents than the reconstructed Elder Futhark names such as: *URUZ, *THURISAZ, *ANSUZ, and the like.
This brings us to the highly controversial G-rune. While detractors argue that there is no historical documentation of the name GIBOR, (neither is there for *GEBO), List actually continued his method of attributing monosyllabic root words for his G-rune. The first name provided by List for the G-rune, is actually GE and not GIBOR. He also suggests the name GI. He writes,
“The primal word is ‘gi,’ or ‘ge’; in it lies the idea of ‘arising’ (to give), but it also indicates ‘being’ in the idea of the gift, and ‘passing away to new arising’ in the idea of go-ing.”[19]
The Wikipedia critic who commented “the name may be based on the Anglo-Saxon GYFU rune” seems disingenuous. Of course, the name is based on the name from the Anglo-Saxon or Old English Rune Poem. Virtually all of the rune names attributed by List match that source. List’s GI or GE is a monosyllabic sound roughly equivalent to the first syllable of GYFU. In List’s system, one can connect primal words to other primal or root words to arrive at multi-syllable words that may be understood by joining the meaning of each syllable. He writes, “The primary word “gi” or “ge” can now be connected to other primal and root words, a few examples of which follow. In connection with the primal word “fa” as: gifa, gefa, gea, geo, it indicates the ‘gift-begetting’ earth.”[20] In this system one joins a consonant with a vowel to create primal words, and ultimately in the work of masters who followed List, magical mantras and chants — for example: FA, FE, FI, FO, FU. If we join the G-rune root “GI” (using the German pronunciation GEE —with a hard G) with the final example from the F-sounds, we have GIFU —corresponding exactly with the Anglo-Saxon. In the Kala table included in Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache, List includes the “F” example with “FU” as described above. Unfortunately, List does not include this example in The Secret of the Runes. The point was not missed however by Rune Masters who followed. In his explanation of the G-rune, Karl Spiesberger indeed includes GIFU, along with GI and GE.[21]
But then what of the name, GIBOR? With each of the runes identified in The Secret of the Runes, List provides several names and definitions or meanings based on the root word / name provided. These are not necessarily the rune name, but words associated etymologically to the root. In Stephen Flowers’s English translation, these words are rendered as follows: “ge, gi, gifa, gibor, gift, giver, god, gea, geo, earth; gigur, death, etc.”[22] List noticed the name GIBOR was built upon the root “GI” and included it in his list of relevant names and concepts—and, at times, does refer to the “Gibor”-rune. He begins his explanation of the G-rune by writing, “Gibor-Altar—God, the All-Begetter!—God is the giver, and the Earth receives his gifts. But the Earth is not only the receiver, she is also in turn a giver.”[23] As is his practice, List identifies the place-name Gibraltar as containing a secret Armanic concept. He explains that Gibraltar was a Halgadom (pre-Christian sanctuary or place of worship) that was consecrated to “God the All-Begetter” by the Vandals in the southern region of Spain.[24] Far from having made up the word GIBOR, we find this word, of Hebrew origin, appears 159 times in the Bible. The word, also spelled GIBBOR means “mighty” or “strong” and is used in conjunction with the word El to form one of the names of the God of the Bible, “Almighty God.” List writes that God is the “giver” and the Earth receives his “gifts.” The standard definition for the Elder Futhark rune *GEBO is “gift”—exactly as List describes—and also corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon definition of GYFU. GIBOR is also found as the fifth Sefirot of the Tree of Life of Kabbalah. Here again, the name emphasizes “strength.” While one might be skeptical that List associated such a term with his 18th rune, it should be known that List’s final (unpublished) work was Armanismus und Kabbala (Armanism and Kabbalah) surely suggesting that he was familiar with this word as one of the ten Sefirot.
Some have also argued that the symbolic form of the rune is ahistorical—noting the similarity to the Wolfsangel for example. List, however did not use that form in his The Secret of the Runes or in any of his writings. In fact, the form he used is basically an X-form as found historically in the Old English Rune Poem and in several rune stones and artifacts. The rune shape that is criticized is a later development that may be found in the works of Siegfried Kummer, Rudolf John Gorsleben and others.
What of the association of the G-rune with the swastika? List did indeed make such an association. Here, certainly influenced by H.P. Blavatsky, he suggests that the ancient fyrfos symbol was purposefully hidden or concealed with the oncoming of Christianity into a cross-form. List writes:
“The eighteenth rune which is actually present is a —doubtlessly intentionally incomplete-fyrfos, and that it harkens back to this sign in both name and meaning—without, nevertheless, exhausting it. In this the intention of the skalds to guard vigilantly the fyrfos as their exclusive innermost secret, and as the sigil of that secret, can be seen. Only after yielding to certain pressures did they reveal another sign which replaced the fyrfos.”[25]
While we cannot prove the validity of List’s theory, we can attempt to better understand what he understood of this ancient symbol. To understand List’s meaning, we must recognize that List’s explanations are founded in the esoteric and spiritual rather than the academic and mundane. Such understanding provides context ridding it of its Nazi association. List explains the GE or GIBOR rune seeks to explain exoterically the idea of the divine from below upward. That is to say, from humanity to the divine. The fyrfos reverses this approach and seeks knowledge of God esoterically from within —and finds it. For List, man and God are two-in-one. He writes:
“So, while the exoteric doctrine teaches that ‘man emerged from God and will return to God,’ the esoteric doctrine knows ‘the invisible cohesion of man and divinity as the ‘bifidic-biune dyad’[26] —and so it can be consciously said, ‘Man-be One with God!’”[27]
The ultimate secret of the Armanen, is the divinity of man—a concept found in the final rune of the Magic Rune Songs of the Hávamál. That it is with this rune, the one most descriptive of List’s philosophy and ideas, that his detractors take their stand is ironic. The key principle of Armanism, found in the GIBOR rune is that God is incarnate in all mankind. This is the gift of the G-rune and the gift of God, the one divine essence, to mankind—this is the secret doctrine intended for all.
Man, be one with God — Gibor Arahari!
Notes
1 P.D. Brown and Michael Moynihan ed., The Rune Poems: A Reawakened Tradition (North Augusta: Gilded Books, 2022).
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armanen_runes
3 Mitch Horowitz, Modern Occultism: History, Theory, and Practice (Gildan Media, 2023), 255.
4 H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy vol. II, (Theosophy Trust Books, 2015), 258.
5 Blavatsky, vol. I, 2.
6 Mitch Horowitz makes this imprecise but oft-repeated claim in Modern Occultism, 255.
7 Guido von List, The Transition from Wuotanism to Christianity, trans. Stephen E. Flowers, (Bastrop, TX: Lodestar, 2022), 19.
8 Guido von List, The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric, trans. Stephen E. Flowers, (Bastrop, TX: Lodestar, 2014), 2.
9 List, Religion, 2.
10 Ekehard Lenthe, Wotan’s Awakening: The Life and Times of Guido von List 1848-1919, trans. Annabel Lee (Waterbury Center, VT: Dominion, 2018), 88.
11 List, Transition, 73.
12 Some have asserted that List only discovered the swastika while reading The Secret Doctrine, which could not have occurred earlier than 1901. He recounted a story from his youth involving the fyrfos symbol in his Deutsch-mythologische Landschaftsbilder vol. 2 which was published in 1891. The story refers back to 1875 when he created the symbol from emptied wine bottles at the site of the Heathen Gate in Carnuntum. See: Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen E. Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 3-4.
13 Blavatsky, vol. II, 71.
14 Blavatsky, vol. II, 410.
15 Lenthe, 112.
16 List, Secret, 23-24.
17 Guido von List, Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache (Upper Austria Printing and Publishing, 1915), 104.
18 List would have used the term “Aryo-Germanic.”
19 List, Secret, 65.
20 Ibid.
21 Karl Spiesberger, Runenmagie: Handbuch der Runenkunde (Basel: Esoterischer Verlag, 2020), 79.
22 List, Secret, 65.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid., 64-65.
26 One of List’s concepts—suggesting both two and one at the same time. Hence, Man and Divinity as separate both also one.
27 List, Secret, 165.
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