Gematria and the Armanen Runes

Rudolf John Gorsleben commented,"The Runes are symbols of the pulsating life, they are life itself, reduced to a mathematical formula. They are in some mystical relation to the law of the numbers as the basis of all cosmic and philosophical thinking." There is undoubtedly more to be said of this topic. 

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Gematria is the magickal practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, phrase, or letter and associating it with a number. While the word “Gematria” has Greek etymological origins, it was a practice often associated with Jewish texts and most often those associated with the Kabbalah. Such a process reveals otherwise unknown associations between words and their meanings. The numbers that are derived are then often reduced to a single digit by cross-addition. Therefore the number 10 (1+0) has the same reduced value as the number 1. Guido von List’s final work, the capstone to his metaphysical writings was to be Armanism and Kabbalah (Armanismus und Kabbala)—an unpublished, and seemingly lost work.[1] There can be little doubt that in his final work that List expanded greatly the Gematria ideas that he only touched upon in his earlier writings. List wrote, for example, “ten is the number of the divine perfection according to the rules of Armanism, as well as the rules of Kabbalah.”

In List’s Runic system, popularly known as the “Armanen” Futhorkh, there are 18 Runes. If we reduce the value by adding the digits together we arrive at 1+8=9. 9 is the number of Worlds in Germanic mythology or the entirety of the universe—the all. If we multiply 18 x 2 we arrive at 36 and the same result 3+6=9. Using the old method of three times a value to represent greatness,[2] we arrive at 54 and the same result 5+4=9. The 9th rune is IS which has an ideographic form of 1. The Armanen thought system states that there is one ultimate divine entity as the original nameless God, the creator of the universe. In IS we find both personal will and divine will. Applying the Hermetic principle “As above, so below,” we recognize ourselves as creator-God of our own universe. The Armanen awareness of these principles with regard to IS reveals the consciousness of personal spiritual power.

If we sum the entire Futhorkh we arrive at 171 or 1+7+1=9. In the value 171, we have 7 buttressed by two 1’s. In this we find HAGAL, the seventh rune, the mother rune from which all other runes may be created or found. Gorsleben calls this rune the HAG-ALL Rune in which we find the name of God - Arahari. In a demonstration of its perfection, there are two 1’s to each side of the 7, reminding us of the Divine creator. And again, summing the values we arrive at 9, the number of completion and wholeness. There is little wonder that List included HAGAL as the seventh “letter” in his formula “Futharkh” which he said was the correct term rather than “Futhark” which is more commonly used. Adding the values of the first seven runes we have 1+2+3+4+5+6+7= 28 or 2+8=10 or simply 1—the Divine “ich” and the original Logos.

If we consider List’s term AR-MAN we have 10+15 =25 (2+5) or 7. We see the perfection or the completion once again of HAGAL. List described HAGAL as “Introspective awareness, the consciousness to bear his God with all his qualities within himself, produces a high self-confidence in the power of the personal spirit which bestows magical power, a magical power which dwells within all persons.”[3]

The Armanen greeting, ALAF SAL FENA[4] results in 35+35+36 or 8+8+9 = 25 which may be reduced to 7, again the value of the Mother Rune HAGAL.

In this is the secret message of Armanism — GIBOR Arahari!

GIBOR=18=9. We return to IS, the ninth Rune, and the divine/personal (two-in-one) will of the creator.

Arahari is represented by the HAG-ALL-RUNE= 7. Here we find the Rune of completion and perfection, the HAG-ALL.

“Man- Be One with God!”

Notes:

1. Rumors have long persisted that a manuscript of List’s work exists. As of this writing, there are further rumors that a Spanish-translation of List’s final work is soon to be published.

2. A classic example of this attribution is in the name or title, Hermes Trismegistus, or Hermes the Thrice-Greatest. This syncretic title was given to the Egyptian god, Thoth. Hence, Thoth was Hermes times three. An epithet of Thoth found at the Temple of Esna in Egypt reads, “Thoth the great, the great, the great.”

3. Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen E. Flowers, (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 54. 

4. This phrase has been translated by Stephen Flowers as “All solar salvation to him who is conscious of power.” The phrase is associated with the ability to reproduce but should also be understood in terms of reincarnation, or what List would call the “eternal return” borrowing from Nietzsche.