Tales from the Ironwood

This essay was composed on 22 August 2022. On 20 August, I taught a Rune Yoga class to a large number of students. At the conclusion of the class, I was asked why one should discharge runic energy. Why wouldn't the practitioner want to store up this power? The essay that follows constitutes my research to properly respond to such a query. It is also a good reminder to master and beginner alike as to why such a practice is recommended and how it reduces the chance of undesired consequences of Rune practice. Minor edits on 26 February and 3 and 14 July 2023. ********* Masters of Rune Yoga, especially Armanen Rune Yoga, have long suggested that accumulated runic energy be discharged at the conclusion of one’s yoga work. It seems that the first Armanen Master to advocate the importance of this step was Siegfried Adolf Kummer in his Runen-Magie ( Rune-Magic ) of 1933. Most practitioners have continued this practice without pausing to understand why this act is necessary and strongly re...

This essay was originally written on 4 July 2019. Perhaps, with numerological significance, it came to serve as the eighteenth chapter of my book, Tales from the Ironwood . It was in 2016 sometime that I attended my first Rune Yoga class. I had learned of the practice sometime earlier with my first read of Edred Thorsson's Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic. Over the years, I have come to teach Rune Yoga on many occasions to several dozen students. I continue to explore its power and mystery each day. What follows contains a few minor edits and updates from that work which was published in 2019. ********* I was excited, if not perplexed, when I received an invitation to a class on “Rune Yoga.” Skylands Ásatrú Fellowship always placed a major emphasis on education. There were classes offered on a wide range of subjects from “Cosmology” to “Eschatology.” But what exactly was “Rune Yoga?” While I had never practiced yoga, I was quite aware of its popularity. There must be at least a h...

This short essay was composed on 8 July 2022. It represents my initial thoughts after reading Stephen E. Flowers' translation of Guido von List's, The Transition from Wuotanism to Christianity . List has long been maligned by his detractors for the  völkisch writings of his youth. It is important to acknowledge that his most influential works were all published when he was aged 60 years or greater. These range from his 1908, Das Geheimnis Der Runes (The Secret of the Runes) to his final unpublished work, Armanismus und Kabbala (Armandom and Kabbalah). It is certainly noteworthy that at age 63 he identified the Armanen as the keepers of an esoteric world-religion - Wihinei . ********* One of the key concepts that Guido von List (1848-1919) uses throughout his writings is that of “Wihinei.” The recent translation by Stephen Flowers of List’s 1911 work, Die Übergang von Wuotanismus zum Christentum ( The Transition from Wuotanism to Christianity [1]) goes a long way in clarify...

The Rune Poems: A Reawakened Tradition . P.D. Brown and Michael Moynihan, editors. (North Augusta: Arcana Europa, 2022). The Rune Poems by P.D. Brown and Michael Moynihan is surely the most complete collection of rune poems ever published. Over the past decade, Arcana Europa has been publishing and reissuing many important books about heathenry and runes. They may be best known as the publishers of the book-format journal TYR: Myth—Culture—Tradition . As arguably the foremost publisher of such volumes, Arcana Europa has made many difficult-to-find books readily available in new well-crafted and well-edited editions. In the case of The Rune Poems , I suspect that the present title stands in as replacement for hard-to-find Stephen Flowers volume, The Rune Poems, vol. I: Introduction, Texts, Translation and Glossary originally published by Runa-Raven in 2002. In the present volume, Michael Moynihan (best known for his award-winning nonfiction book, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of ...

This essay is offered to describe a practice that may help to align one's life rhythm with the energies of the runes. It is intended for those already familiar with the practice of Rune Yoga, Mudras, and Meditation.  ********* What follows is a description of a technique and approach to ritualizing Rune Yoga on a daily schedule. I shall assume that the postures are already understood through familiarity with the works of Kummer, Marby, Spiesberger, Welz, or Thorsson. It is important to understand what I intend by the use of the term, “ritual.” Ritual is, by definition, a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, or actions performed in a specific sequence. From a magical perspective, each element of a ritual should be meaningful or sacred. The inference here is that by setting aside each element or aspect of one’s rune yoga practice that more meaningful results may be attained. The ritual that follows may be used for either Rune Yoga or Rune Mudras ( Runen-Griff ) or some ...

This essay was written in a blinding flash worthy of SIG itself on 23 January 2022. It was subsequently revised on 20 February. It marks an important point in my "Untimely Meditations" as it is the eighteenth such essay. In the past the "conquering" imagery associated with this rune was too brash and superficial. SIG does provide hope and victory in battle against all odds --but such battles are not necessarily of the material world, rather they may also take place in our daily lives in the realm of the spirit.  ********* I begin my meditations on the eleventh rune, SIG by considering Hávamál verse 156. Here Odin reveals how to be victorious in life’s battles. “This I know as eleventh: When I lead Into battle the friend, The beloved; I sing it in his shield: He will win in battle And good luck around him Wherever you look.” [1] Once again we are presented with a Hávamál verse that on the surface does not appear to align with the traditional rune poems. Ea...

This essay was completed on 22 January 2022. It's been in the works for awhile. Like many of the essays in this series, I can no longer accurately say when I began to write it. One point that I failed to discuss in this essay is that AR is one half of the composite word "AR-MAN." In that important word, I have come to understand that the light --the streaming sun power-- of AR is joined with MAN's energies to enable those on the Armanen path to perceive the spiritual plane. Together these runes are surely a formula for personal enlightenment. ********* I begin my meditations on the tenth rune, AR by considering Hávamál verse 155. Here Odin reveals how to eliminate spiritual darkness and uncertainty. “A tenth one I know: When ill-witching spirits Fly high in the air. I shall cause them to turn Back to their homes, Deprived of their covers; Back to their homes, Bewildered their minds.” [1] On the surface this verse speaks of fending off “ill-witching spirits” o...