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

Introduction. The Runic Spring

Magical practice dealing with runes and the use of runic lore to shape occult teachings has a long history in Germany. For almost as long as there has been a magical revival in that country there has been a magical runic revival. In the annals of this renaissance two names shine out above all the rest: Guido von List and Friedrich Bernhard Marby. Others would expand and adapt their ideas, but it is beyond any doubt that all of the significant magical innovations of the occult German runic revival can be traced to one or the other of these two men. In the present book we will be dealing not only with the lives and work of List and Marby but also those of their followers and students, each of whom added something to the hoard of teachings that make up the German occult tradition surrounding the runes.

An essential part of the culture of early twentieth-century Germany was concerned with the idea of the “reformation of life” [Ger. Lebensreform]. This concern manifested in many areas that can still be seen today affecting our world in positive ways: ecology; ideas of healthy lifestyles; and a general holistic philosophy of life, society, and culture. The runic movement is part of this larger picture. A fundamental precept of this quite under-appreciated ideology is the link between the body and the mind. The runic exercises, rituals, and dances posited by many runosophists can be seen as a modality of making knowledge physical, and turning physical experience into intellectual perceptions. This general cultural and ideological drift is, in the final analysis, the great contribution of the early twentieth-century German rune occultists to the larger historical runic tradition.

In the present work I want to explore the practical teachings and workings of the German rune magicians. It will be shown how the German runic tradition fits well with the Western magical tradition, for it is largely an outgrowth of it (although the runic magician would argue that it is actually the deepest root and basis of the Western revival itself). The second part of this book is a collection of some of the most influential and powerful workings of the German rune-magical tradition. The techniques are drawn from a wide range of books, mostly printed in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s. They represent the teachings of various esoteric individuals and groups working with the runes in Germany during the early part of the twentieth century. The reader will be able to enact these runic workings and exercises for purposes of self-development, strengthening the will, and generally improving all phases of magical work. The runes, as taught in the Armanic system, can very easily be put in to the working context of any other Western magical tradition. This is a marked contrast to the highly traditional forms of runelore expressed in the 24-rune Older Futhark, which is fairly “intolerant” of admixture with other systems. This is simply because the 18-rune futhork as used by the Armanen (followers of Guido von List) and most other German rune magicians of this time is more a part of the so-called Western esoteric tradition than is the much older 24-rune system. If one is going to work “eclectically” with the runes it is perhaps best to work with the Armanic runes (the 18-rune futhork).