Tales from the Ironwood

Joseph Campbell succinctly explained,“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words." Written from 26 May through 29 June 2025.  ********* While most modern readers of the Eddas view the tales as mythology or even fantasy, many adherents of present-day Heathenry adopt a literal interpretation of the events and characters. In both cases, the esoteric value of the stories are often lost with little more than an exoteric understanding gained. From the latter perspective, the stories make little sense and their application to one’s life is quite limited. For those who read the stories as pure fantasy, the tales excite the senses, but not in a more significant way than other heroic fiction might. For the literalists, and especially those who cling to some type of Heathen orthodoxy, the gods and giants are awesome figures to be feared or worship...

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, ...

Begun on 26 September and completed on 3 October 2021, my "Meditations on RIT" was born in a flash. I realized that some of the key concepts of RIT had snuck their way into my essay on OS. This error was simple to make as one rune indeed leads to the next in a continuous process of initiation. Now in their rightful place, those ideas contribute to this essay that considers both the cosmological and personal journeys that RIT enables. ********* I begin my meditations on RIT, the fifth of the Armanen Runes by considering Hávamá l verse 150. “This I know as a fifth: If in hostile flight An arrow shoots into the crowd; No matter how it threatens, I block its force By grasping it tightly with the look of my eyes.”[1] On the surface, this verse from Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins “Odins Rune Song” seems similar to several other runic verses with the theme of “protection.” A key but subtle difference is that the protection of the folk[2]  empowered by this song and the Rune RIT is ...

"Becoming Odin" was written on 12 January 2020 although the key ideas have been forming in my mind over the past couple of years. I recall many of these thoughts taking shape while touring Columcille Megalith Park during the spring of 2018. ********* For Ásatrúars the two primary texts are Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda and the anonymous compilation known as The Poetic Edda . It has long been my contention that Snorri’s thirteenth-century work contains secret messages and meaning for those who understand or are able to decipher the text.[1] The first part of Snorri’s Edda contains the well-known Gylfaginning (“The Tricking of Gylfi”), one of the most important early accounts of the Norse gods. On the surface, Gylfaginning recounts the tale of a wondrous visit to Asgard (ON: Ásgarðr ) by King Gylfi of Sweden. Once in Asgard Gylfi poses a long series of questions to its rulers, High ( Har ), Just-as-high ( Jafnhar ), and Third ( Thrithi ) --three of the many names of O...