Rune Might: The Secret Practices of the German Rune Magicians - Edred Thorsson 2018

Preface

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

(2018)

When the first edition of his book was published close to thirty years ago, the world of the early twentieth-century German rune occultists was barely known in the English-speaking realm. This book, along with my translation of Guido von List’s The Secret of the Runes (Destiny Books, 1988), opened the door to this world, interest in which has, to my surprise, grown quite vigorously over the years. My original intention was to quench the curiosity of the current esoteric rune investigators so they would move on to the more academically established traditions of the historical futharks. The story of the growing interest in the Armanen tradition and that of the other rune occultists of the dawn of the past century has taught me that there is still much of value to learn from the Armanen school that can be put to use today. Another impetus to this revival of interest is the long-awaited book Wotan’s Awakening: The Life and Times of Guido von List, a Runemaster in fin-de-siècle Vienna, by Eckehard Lenthe, published by Dominion in 2018.

The world of the German runic esotericists of the first half of the twentieth century holds a fascination on many levels. Some just want to understand the history, personalities, and theories of these often eccentric individuals. I have tried to satisfy more of this interest with the additional material in this edition. Others want to experience the practical side of what these men taught, and Rune Might contains copious amounts of material for those readers and students as well.

Many corners of the world we will explore in these pages are fraught with aspects that could be found to be “politically incorrect.” When I was growing up I had never heard these words, and I happily explored where the facts and my interests led me. I present the ideas of the men in these pages in an objective way and do not judge them morally. These men were interested in the esoteric—the hidden world—and they were not afraid to explore it. Occasionally they paid a great personal price for their interests. In these pages the reader will learn about the mystery of the Hagal-rune, which for the Armanen was a symbol of the enduring and invincible force of life and the persistence of meaning. Upon its underlying sixfold pattern is built the snowflake, but in its symbolism we do not see an easily melted and ephemeral temperament, but rather the ever-recurring, ever-returning paradigm of endurance that can survive even in the most hostile of environments. Such is an important tonic for what ails us today.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

(2004)

Rune Might has, over the years, proved to be a powerful introduction for many to the world of the runes. The main reasons for this are outlined in the Preface to the First Edition. Increasingly, over these same years, I have found myself drifting further and further away from the kind of magic outlined in the pages of Rune Might. However, I know that the kind of magic described in this book can be of tremendous use to the aspiring practitioner of active, or experiential, paleology. Experiential paleology is the method of actively and subjectively absorbing into one’s mind certain ideas and practices that are derived from the lore of ancient peoples—especially peoples to whom one is genetically related or linked. In addition to this practical aspect, Rune Might continues to serve as a good introduction to a vast area of twentieth-century magic that has gone largely unnoticed in the Anglo-American world.

The first edition of Rune Might was issued by Llewellyn Publications of St. Paul, Minnesota, in the fall of 1989. It was to be part of the so-called Teutonic Magick Series. As it turned out, the series never went very far. This was most likely due to the general fear inspired by the authentic Germanic tradition within the modernistic “occult world” and the entirely business-oriented philosophy that governs that world today. In 1990, Rune Might was reprinted in a second edition, with some of the problems regarding the illustrations and other minor details corrected. This edition went out of print, and by 1999 the book was generally unavailable to the public.

One of the most interesting features in Rune Might is the discussion of the “Ritual of the Ninth Night” first presented by Peryt Shou in his 1920 book Die “Edda” als Schlüssel des kommenden Weltalters! (The Edda as Key to the Coming World Age). It should be noted that a translation of the entire text of Shou’s remarkable book has been published by Lodestar. We are making this new edition of Rune Might available to the public again to begin the new millennium with something of the essence of the beginning of the past century. The dawn of the twentieth century has not yet finished dispensing its lessons to us. Rune Might is, we trust, one more of these mysterious messages, which will shape the next phase of the development of our experiential paleology.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

(1989)

Since the middle of the 1970s there has been a significant renaissance in the study and practice of the runes in Anglo-American occult circles. This has been an unusual aspect of the occult revival in these circles, but in Germany the runes have been a general part of the occult revival almost from its beginning in the late nineteenth century. The degree to which the traditions of rune magic form a distinct and coherent part of the general Western tradition is unclear. This is because, until quite recently, the runic tradition has been practiced completely outside the realm of modern English-speaking magicians. Given that the runes have been widely used and explored in German occult circles, it seems that those persons in the English-speaking world interested in working with the runes may have a thing or two to learn from the German tradition of rune-work. To a large extent, the German rune magicians of the early part of the twentieth century were eclectics. They gathered magical practices from various better-known systems and “runicized” them. Because of the traditions (and, in many cases, non-traditions) that the Anglo-American runic revivals have often followed, the Armanic system (18-rune futhork) generally used by the German rune magicians will have some drawbacks. But what I intend to explore in this book are the practical techniques pioneered by the German rune magicians.

For those who are fairly well immersed in another magical system, the runic techniques contained in this book can offer some new ideas to vivify the system with which you are familiar. For those who take an eclectic and perhaps pragmatic approach to magic, the runic techniques you will find here are ideal experimental material for the expansion of your magical repertoire. For those already engaged in serious, traditional rune-work (for example, with the Rune-Gild), this book will give some in-depth, practical insight into the dawn of the magical runic revival and will help put your work into a larger historical framework. There have been a number of books about rune magic produced over the past several years. Some have been good, although most have been fairly poor. But no book published in English has yet undertaken to explain the practical aspects of the rune magic practiced in twentieth-century occult circles. It is a complex and rich magical heritage, and here we will only be able to begin to open the door to this world.