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. Revised 19-10-24.

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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final work, the capstone to his metaphysical writings was to be Armanism and Kabbalah (Armanismus und Kabbala)—an unpublished, and seemingly lost work.[1] There can be little doubt that, in his final work, List expanded greatly the Gematria ideas that he only touched upon in his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 as well as the number of mothers of Heimdall. 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. Gorsleben writes of IS, 

"Its number, the Nine, refers to completion of the ninth level, which is the last initiation, with which the law of evolution according to measure and number from one to ten finds it end, because the ten, the step that follows, is perfection, therefore it is equal with the One again. Therefore the Rune shows the One, the vertical single line, the ace, the Divine ego."[3]

In Armanen thought, there is one original divine entity --the primeval nameless God, the unnamed and unrevealed. In IS we find both personal will and divine will. Applying the Hermetic principle “As above, so below,” we recognize in ourselves the creator-God of our own subjective universe. The Armanen principle associated with 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 ALL. 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 First 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.”[4]

The Armanen greeting, ALAF SAL FENA[5] 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 or 1+8=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.

The corresponding Runes of the word, "Arahari" are: AR-RIT-AR-HAGAL-AR-RIT-IS. From a Runic meaning we have thrice-AR --the Sun Man, the Noble, the Enlightened Man. We have RIT twice or an emphasis/doubling of the Cosmic Law, joined with HAGAL, the Rune of the Cosmos, completion, and perfection, and finally IS, the Divine Ego joined with the personal ego. From an Armanen definition we have: through Cosmic Law, the Enlightened Sun-Men as part of the divine All, are one with God. The numerological correspondence supports this interpretation as well. We have 10+5+10+7+10+5+9 = 56 which may be reduced to 5+6=11 or 1+1=2. The 1+1 is a perfect representation of List's concept of the "bifidic-biune-dyad"- or essentially the principle of the two-in-one, divine/personal.

List provides this explanation in The Secret of the Runes:

"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' --and so it can be consciously said: 'Man- Be One with God!'"[6]

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. Rudolf John Gorsleben, Hoch-Zeit der Menschheit (Peak-time of Humanity), Karl Hans Welz trans. 452.

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

5. 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.

6. List, 66-67.

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