Tales from the Ironwood

Last night I turned my attention to the Rune KA in advance of a class I was to conduct. In a wave of understanding I came to appreciate that beyond the physical or even the intellectual, that KA symbolizes the divine spirit within - bestowed by the Gods themselves-- a concept that crosses cultures, religions, and time itself. "Torch is known to each living being by fire." (OERP) Written on 21 and 22 July 2026. ********* The KA Rune represents capability—the innate power to think, create, and become. It signifies not only intellectual capacity but also the living spirit that animates the human being. Like a torch, KA symbolizes the flame within: the light of consciousness, wisdom, inspiration, and life itself. In the Norse creation myth, Odin and his brothers find Askr and Embla as lifeless pieces of driftwood upon the shore. Though they possess form, they lack the animating principle of life. Snorri writes in Gylfaginning ,  “As Bor’s sons walked along the sea shore, they cam...

This essay was completed on 23 November 2021. Life's experiences over the past several weeks helped provide new insight into the HAG-ALL rune and in turn to that tree of which none telleth from what roots it doth rise. ********* As I begin my meditations on the rune HAGAL, I return to the Hávam ál. In verse 152 Odin reveals how he uses this rune magically to save people from a hall in flames: “A seventh I know: Should the hall blaze high in flames above all the people; no matter how it burns, I save them all: This magic I know to perform.” [1] Immediately the exoteric association of HAGAL with hail, which is emphasized in each of the standard rune poems, comes to mind. It is simple to envision hail colliding with the blazing hall resulting in the flames being extinguished. Each of the standard rune poems also use “corn” as a metaphor for HAGAL. Representative of these is the Old English Rune Poem ( OERP ): “Hail is whitest of corn, from heaven’s height it whirls, w...

This essay was begun on 3 October and completed on Samhain 2021. It completes my analysis of the Armanen Runes making up the initial aett. In KA I complete the first third of a voyage that began in the raw potential of the Ginnungagap and arrives at the manifestation of the first human beings. The cosmological fire of FA is now the fire of spirit glowing inside each of us. ********* My meditations on KA begin with a reading of the 151st verse of the Hávamál . “A sixth one is mine: Should a warrior try To hurt me with the roots of soft wood: This warrior who awakens the hatred in me Shall be struck before he can hurt me.”[1] Guido von List interpreted KA and this verse specifically based on the zeitgeist of his time commenting “The tribe, the race, is to be purely preserved; it may not be defiled by the roots of the foreign tree.”[2] The Old English Rune Poem ( OERP ) sounds a seemingly different note: “(CEN) Torch is known to each living being by fire Radiant and bright, ...