Rune Might: The Secret Practices of the German Rune Magicians - Edred Thorsson 2018
The High Tide of Rune Magic
Background
(1919—1935)
The years following the death of Guido von List and the end of the First World War were a time of great expansion and dissemination of runic practices. Most of the old groups continued to flourish, and new ones were also springing up. Many of them began to make the practical aspects of runelore more available. It is not entirely incorrect to say that the spiritual, economic, cultural, and political upheavals following the war encouraged this increased popularity of mystical and magical thinking; however, it would be entirely wrong to assume that it caused this interest. The runes and rune magic and mysticism have their roots in the “Germanic spring,” a time when the dream of national renewal based on self-determined values was fully alive and highly optimistic. The cultural disappointments brought on by the unhappy conclusion to the Great War only put a bitter edge on the continuing movement and tended to spur it on—not so much with the former thoughts of an exuberance that wells up from within as with the desire to strike out and avenge itself on those whom it perceived to be the destroyers of its ancient dreams.
Rudolf John Gorsleben (born March 16, 1883, in Metz; died August 23, 1930, in Bad Homburg) created a synthesis of the work and theories of Guido von List and the other rune occultists, Ariosophists, and Theosophists of the age. This synthesis is represented in his magnum opus, Die Hoch-Zeit der Menschheit (The Zenith [or High-Tide] of Mankind), published in the year of his death. This work encompasses almost seven hundred pages and covers all of the major theoretical fields of neo-Germanic occultism popular at the time. Gorsleben avoids giving any practical instruction in the book, however—in this respect he follows the lead of Guido von List.
Gorsleben, who fought in the First World War on the Western Front and in a German unit attached to the Turkish army in Arabia, was very active in the political right after the war. He was originally a member of the Thule Society but soon tired of the political infighting and turned his attention to more esoteric matters. On November 29, 1925, he founded the Edda Society in his home in Dinkelsbühl. The grand master of the society was Werner von Bülow; Friedrich Schaefer was its treasurer. Schaefer’s home was also the meeting place of a circle gathered around Karl Maria Wiligut in the early 1930s. Bülow (1870—1947) was a retired civil servant and the owner of the Hotel Karwendel in Mittenwald. He was the author of Der Ewigkeitsgehalt der eddischen Runen und Zahlen (The Eternal Substance of the Eddic Runes and Numbers, 1925) and Märchendeutungen durch Runen (Runic Interpretation of Fairy Tales, 1925) and the designer of the widely reproduced “runic clock,” which is a graphic system coordinating various aspects of runic lore in the Armanen tradition. Other members of the Edda Society included Otto Sigfrid Reuter, Emil Rüdiger, and Mathilde von Kemnitz (who would later marry General Erich Ludendorff and become the spiritual leader of the society dedicated to the old general). Gorsleben also edited a newspaper called Deutsche Freiheit (German Freedom), which later changed its name to Arische Freiheit (Aryan Freedom) in 1927.
According to Gorsleben’s vision, the zenith of power of the Aryan race, which originally manifested in an antediluvian Golden Age, is to be remanifested through a combination of eugenics and the systematic reawakening of occult powers and abilities. In this general idea he was hardly original, but he perceived the runes as the key to this reawakening. The runes were seen by Gorsleben much in the same way that Marby and others would come to see them—as tools for the reception and transmission of subtle forces in the universe. It is through them that the “people of the runes” and the ultimate powers in the universe may commune, thereby constantly bringing those who use the runes into a greater level of universal power.
Chiefly through his voluminous book, Gorsleben exercised a great influence on most subsequent rune occultists. Die Hoch-Zeit der Menschheit was reprinted in Germany in the early 1980s, and it continues to make its influence felt. In general, the considerable influence of Gorsleben’s work has perhaps been underestimated. His position as an esoteric philosopher of the Armanen traditions places him second only to Guido von List in the scope and breadth of his vision, and it was really after the publication of Die Hoch-Zeit der Menschheit that the runic esoteric world expanded in new ways.
Following Gorsleben’s death in 1930, Werner von Bülow took over full leadership of the Edda Society. After 1933 he entirely sided with the National Socialists. The journal Bülow produced, Hagal, devoted three numbers to the writings of Jarl Widar (Karl Maria Wiligut), whom the Edda Society supported. (English translation of all these documents can be found in Flowers and Moynihan, The Secret King.)
A glimpse into the practical application of Armanic runic knowledge was initially provided by an author otherwise better known for works of more mainstream occultism: Ernst Tristan Kurtzahn (1879—1939). Kurtzahn was a shipbuilding engineer from Hamburg who wrote the first German-language book on the tarot (Der Tarot, 1920). He was a member of the Theodor Reuss branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and a proponent of a kind of Gnosticism that included sexual mysticism. His contribution to the history of runic occultism is chiefly his 1924 book, Die Runen als Heilszeichen und Schicksalslose (The Runes as Signs of Salvation and Lots of Fate). The practical appendix of Kurtzahn’s book is translated as appendix B in this volume.
Friedrich Bernhard Marby (born May 10, 1882, in Aurich; died December 3, 1966, in Stuttgart) could be considered the third great pivotal figure in the history of German runic occultism alongside Guido von List and Rudolf John Gorsleben. He was certainly the first to publish extensively on the practical applications of the runes in magical work. It was Marby who apparently first began to employ the runes in a psychosomatic system of gathering and channeling rune might, both throughout one’s personal sphere and among the bodies in the cosmos. Marby called his system Runengymnastik (rune gymnastics), but Siegfried Adolf Kummer, who developed a system based on the same idea, referred to it as Runenyoga (rune yoga).
The details of Marby’s life are fairly well known. (I am indebted to documents made available to me by Herr Rudolf Arnold Spieth.) Marby was originally a printer and editor by trade. He was apprenticed to a press in Hannover in 1896 and remained in Hannover until 1915. In 1906 he was married to a woman whom he later called “Else” in his writings. By his own account, it was in 1907 that he first started working with the runes in esoteric ways. But it was not until 1911 that his researches had progressed to the point where he felt that he could actually talk about them. The dates are significant in that if Marby had begun his runic studies in 1907—one year prior to the widespread publication of Guido von List’s landmark study, The Secret of the Runes—then he could have claimed to have begun on the runic path independently of List. But it should perhaps also be noted that List’s text of his rune book actually appeared in serialized form in the Neue Metaphysische Rundschau in 1906. In any case, even if Marby did begin his studies in 1907, it cannot be denied that the Listian system had some influence on his development between that time and 1911.
Marby eventually made his way to Stuttgart, where he worked for the Württemberger Zeitung. In 1922 he published his first works concerning astrology and runic esotericism. That same year he gave up his regular profession to devote himself fully to his esoteric work and to publication in that field. In 1924 he began to publish the newspaper Der eigene Weg (Our Own Way), which dealt mostly with astrological questions. Marby founded a society called Orion, which gave him many opportunities to deliver lectures throughout the country.
It was in 1928 that Marby really began to delve deeply into the traditions of the North. Marby was of Swedish and Frisian extraction, and it was at this time that he undertook a trip to his ancestral homeland in Rimbo, Sweden. Two years later he also made a trip to Holte, Denmark. These trips supported his research into the practical applications of the power of the runes. After this period of traveling, he returned to Germany in 1933 and began to concentrate even more intensely on rune-work. He became very well known for his runic investigations, and this reputation made a sprinkling of enemies for him—much more so than had been the case with his astrological studies.
From 1931 to 1935, Marby published four double volumes of his runic researches in his Marby-Runen-Bücherei (Marby Runic Library). During this time he also founded the League of Runic Researchers, which was largely active through correspondence and coordinated daily projections of rune might among all its members. According to figures published by Marby in 1932, the league consisted of two hundred members at that time. Of course, by 1933 the National Socialists were in power in Germany. In 1935, Marby returned to Stuttgart and continued his rune-work. The National Socialists had tolerated his work up to a point, and indeed Marby had been a vocal supporter of the Nazi ideology in the early years; but apparently when it became obvious that Marby would remain an independent voice in the field of occultism, he was arrested and tried in 1936. He spent the duration of the war in concentration camps. Two things were clear about Marby’s arrest and detention: (1) if he were to talk about certain things and the involvement of certain people in his work, he would be secretly killed; and (2) if he did cooperate with the Nazis, he would leave the concentration camp alive. All his property was seized, and his presses were destroyed. Ultimately he spent a total of ninety-nine months in the camps Welzheim, Flossenberg, and Dachau. He was liberated from Dachau on April 29, 1945.
Marby did not receive any financial restitution for the losses caused by the Nazis’ persecution of him, because it was determined by the Allied authorities that he too had made some anti-Jewish statements in print and in the beginning had supported the Nazis. It was not until 1952 that Marby was in a position to resume his work, publishing the periodical Forschung und Erfahrung (Research and Experience) until his death in 1966.
Marby and some of his followers spent much time and effort in trying to show that he was the original rune esotericist, and in charging others in the field with “plagiarism.” This seems rather absurd in a way, since Marby and others claimed to be reviving ancient forms of folk wisdom, which seems a difficult thing to copyright. In the early phase of Marby’s career, these charges were first primarily directed against Siegfried Adolf Kummer, who apparently had some early contact with Marby’s practices, although Marby never claimed that Kummer was his student.
Siegfried Adolf Kummer (born September 24, 1899; died 1977?) created a system of rune magic that was more harmonious with the system of runology taught by Guido von List. He considered himself an Armanist and more strictly used the 18-rune futhork of List in his work. One of his works has been translated into English: Rune-Magic (Lodestar, 2017). Kummer is a somewhat mysterious figure, and few verifiable details are known about his life. He studied art at a private institute in Dresden and served on the Western Front in WWI. After that war he continued his artistic studies at the Kunstakademie in Berlin. Kummer was to struggle at making a living as an artist all his life. His style of art is perhaps best described as “Late Expressionism.” Examples of this art can be found in his book Heilige Runenmacht (Holy Rune Might), which includes depictions of his visionary experiences of spiritual life on other planets. In 1927 he founded the “Rune-School Runa” near Dresden, where he taught his techniques of rune magic. In 1932 he also taught at the Ariosophical summer school organized by the Richter brothers at Bärenstein. Kummer’s methods openly made use of the terminology of Eastern spiritual systems such as yoga. After the Nazi seizure of power, Kummer went to work for the Reichskulturkammer (Office of Cultural Affairs). It is known that he, along with Marby, was criticized by name in a report by SS officer Karl Maria Weisthor (Wiligut) to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and in July of 1934 his organization was banned. At this point he fades into obscurity. One report speculates that he fled to South America. It is more likely that he toiled away as a bureaucrat, remained in Dresden, and after the war resumed work as an artist. He is said to have received a prize from the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Another suspicious report has it that he was killed on February 14, 1945, in the Allied firebombing of the city center of Dresden made so famous in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). The most likely date of Kummer’s actual death is 1977 in Communist East Germany.
Interestingly, Kummer’s rune-work also found its way into the curriculum of the famous Czech magician Franz Bardon. Recent investigations by Matthew Blankenburg have brought to light the fact that the runes were originally part of Bardon’s advanced magical system and that he actually translated Kummer’s Runen-Magie into Czech for his students. Bardon’s Textbook of High Magic, published in Czech in 2017, contains references to this (pp. 36—39). The small Kummer book appeared under the Czech title Runová Magie in 1939. In the postwar period Bardon removed the runic teachings from his curriculum as he felt that the runes had become “too dangerous.” In his translation of Kummer’s basic book, Bardon includes a note that reads in part:
Through my little work I would like to refer researchers of Czech Hermeticism to the field of Rune Magic, about which Czech occult literature has until now made very little reference. The origin of runes lies far back in the dim ancient times. Thus, we could care less whether it is Germanic or Slavic. Our foremost interest is in its practical side. Therefore, we want to try to lift the mysterious veil that for long millennia has covered this type of magical practice.
At the time (1939) Bardon apparently planned to make Kummer’s more extensive book, Heilige Runenmacht, available in Czech in serial form. But the events of the Second World War were obviously about to engulf his country, so this never happened.
Bardon was also intimately linked to Dr. Georg Lomer (1877—1957), now famous for his book Seven Hermetic Letters. Lomer was himself an Ariosophical enthusiast who wrote a book titled Die Götter der Heimat (The Gods of the Homeland, 1929) and edited a magazine called Asgard, in which Marby also published articles.
One of the most unique rune-workers who thrived in this period was Arnold(o) Krumm-Heller (1876—1949). In 1894, Krumm-Heller left Germany on a secret military mission to Latin America (Chile, Peru, and Mexico), and it is in Mexico that he began to study the occult. From 1907 to 1909 he undertook medical studies in Paris, and in 1910 he returned to Mexico as a doctor of medicine and as a political operative for the imperial government of Germany. Krumm-Heller was attached to German Naval Intelligence and became close to various Mexican political leaders. He even became the “personal physician” of the Mexican president. During the time of the First World War, the Germans tried to get the Mexicans to instigate war with the United States in exchange for assistance in the postwar annexation of the states of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico by Mexico. The purpose of this operation was to keep the United States out of the war in Europe. In 1914, Krumm-Heller was arrested by British Intelligence, but because of his Mexican citizenship he was deported back to Germany. He spent the duration of WWI in Berlin, where he became involved with the O.T.O. and various Rosicrucian orders. After the war he returned to Mexico. Over the years Krumm-Heller toured South America and Mexico but spent a good deal of time in Germany as well. He worked as a physician, using techniques of alternative medicine, and spread his ideas about occultism through many publications. In 1927 he founded the Fraternities Rosicruciana Antiqua in Mexico. He died in Marburg, Germany, at the age of seventy-three. As a matter of private, internal instruction, Krumm-Heller taught a course in esoteric runic practices. This Cursus de los Runas was purportedly used to “purify the blood” of the native populations of South America! Nowadays this runic course (in Spanish) can be found online. The contents of the course seem to indicate close connections with the runic teachings of Siegfried Adolf Kummer and E. Tristan Kurtzahn. After Arnoldo’s death, his son Parsival Krumm-Heller continued his work in South America.
Lying outside the mainstream of the Armanen school of runology, but intimately interwoven with its culture, is the personality of Peryt Shou (Albert Christian Georg Schultz, born April 22, 1873; died October 24, 1953). He was the son of an innkeeper in Pommerania and studied chemistry in Berlin before becoming immersed in the Bohemian world of turn-of-the-century culture in that city. He became an artist and poet before delving into the world of esoteric studies. The name “Peryt Shou” is a Francophonic rendition of the ancient Egyptian formula per-yt shû, which is supposed to mean something like “priest of the original light.” Shou would go on to write approximately forty books and as many as seventy articles between 1909 and his death. His works covered an eclectic spectrum of interests, but his most important contribution to the runic corpus is his 1920 book, Die “Edda” als Schlüssel des kommenden Weltalters (The Edda as Key to the Coming Age). The core of its message is laid out in chapter 15 of the present book. Shou managed to avoid trouble with the Nazi authorities through his good connections and due to the fact that he remained aloof from organizations of any kind. He was much respected by, and influential among, his fellow esotericists.
In the high tide of the runic renaissance, there were dozens of writers and private occultists dealing with the runes. Every sort of magical school, it seemed, had to come to terms with them. It was also during this time that the most influential eclectic magical lodge in Germany, the Fraternitas Saturni, began to incorporate runic occultism into its magical curriculum. For a review of the history and teachings of this magical order, see Stephen E. Flowers, The Fraternitas Saturni (Inner Traditions, 2018). Some runic concepts that were promoted within the Fraternitas Saturni are also presented in appendix F of the present book.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, the runes had found a broad and powerful field of activity, but a bitter edge had also been ground on the runic sword. These circumstances, and the lack of a wise leader to wield that sword magically, had the effect of laying down the law, leading to a woeful wyrd.