1

FUTHARK RUNES, GREEK MYSTERIES & ALCHEMICAL ALPHABETS

Judith Dillon
Once, there was no alphabet; then there was. The world's first alphabet emerged
out of the magic of Africa and the mysteries of Egypt. It contains hints of star watching
Mesopotamians and a whiff of ancient Anatolia where vulture maidens once carried the
dead toward lights in the sky. In time its Mysteries, hidden in this early alphabet, evolved
into secrets of Rune magic.
Runes of northern Europe, like all Mysteries, once included a circling back from a
grave ending. "It was the belief in the old days that men were born again, but that is now
called an old wife's tale." (Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane). Old traditions recall a
gravid grave, from which the dead once returned in their season. "What is eternal,"
Aristotle said, " is circular, and what is circular is eternal."1 Although later users of runes

forgot the older promise, Othala, last of 24 runes, remains a welcoming 'homeland':

Our first true alphabet was an adaptation of picture writing from ancient Egypt.
Western Semites from Canaan, the area now known as Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, took a
few Egyptian hieroglyphic images (ox, house, etc.) and renamed the pictures in their own
language. Early alphabet letters, first appearing around 1800 BCE, have been found in
Canaan, near Egypt’s Thebes and by the copper-turquoise mines of Sinai, areas
frequented by travelers from Canaan.
Variations of these letters eventually appeared outside Egypt. In time these proto-
Canaanite letters became Phoenician and Hebrew, ancestor of all true alphabets. First two
symbols are the Aleph (Ox) and Beth (House). Although Hebrew alone kept the names
and order of the early symbols, the symbolic pattern of the letters was widely adapted by
numerous peoples. The order of the alphabet symbols hides alchemical secrets along
with the technology of writing.
Northeast of Egypt is Canaan containing the rich coastal cities of an early Semitic
people: Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. In their own language, their name was Kn'n, claiming
descent from biblical Cain who had a mark saving him from death. The seafaring culture

1
quoted, Giorgio DeSantillana & Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill (1977), Godine, 1992, 48.
 2

of these people quickly became distinct from other closely related Canaanites including
early Jews. By convention, they are called Canaanites before and Phoenicians after1200
BCE. Sailing their black ships, Phoenicians were both traders and pirates of the
Mediterranean Sea. Wide-ranging sailors, they were part of an extensive trade between
Egypt, the labyrinths of Crete, Greece, Anatolia, the Black Sea, and the Near East. In
time they would be credited with the spread of the new alphabet.
A Phoenician known as Cadmus carried an alphabet out of Egypt. Associated
with both writing and with secretive mystery traditions, this alphabet eventually supplied
the mythic pattern, the ‘spells’ underlying Germanic runes. As more familiar to the
reader, I am using Hebrew names for the Phoenician letters. As a caveat to scholars of
ancient alphabets, I have no interest in this paper in describing how the original alphabet
physically morphed into all the alphabets of the ancient world.
Phoenicians transmitted the alphabet, their phoenetica, along with trade goods. In
addition to the gift of alphabet letters, they are closely associated with the transmission of
the Mysteries of Resurrection: the return from the dark. Phoenix, the very name given
them by the Greeks, hints at this return: This glowing firebird rises, eternally reborn,
from the blackened ashes of his destruction.
My interest is in the stories, in the orderly attributes belonging to symbols chosen
to represent the letters. I believe the symbols were mnemonics not only for the sounds of
a language, but for a passage through the dark before returning to the light. Before
discussing the Runes of ancient Europe, I need to explain their ancestor.
Mysteries as well as alphabet letters were carried out of Egypt. The resurrecting
Phoenix is the name of the palm tree bearing the dates (dactyls) of each new calendar
year: Phoenix dactylifera. Phoenicians undoubtedly learned the secrets of resurrection in
Egypt, a country obsessed with rebirth after each passage through the dark. The Bennu
bird is Egypt's Phoenix. Returning after each Deluge to enchant a new world into
existence, Bennu is also the palm tree midwifing Egypt's sun king each new morning. 2

2
"The word Benu in Egyptian means both purple heron and palm tree.
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/ancient_egypt/the_benu_bird.asp. In addition to the
bird and palm tree, Phoenix also translates as 'purple', the dye of the Phoenicians.
 3

"[Egyptians were] the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal, and
that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the
moment, thence passing on from one animal into another, until it has circled through the
forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it
enters again into a human frame and is born anew. [Greek writers borrowing from Egypt]
put it forward as their own.” Herodotus (d. 425 BCE), Book II, Rawlinson, trans.

The palm (Phoenix dactylifera) represented eternal life, her fingers (also dactyls)
returning souls through childbirth. In Greece, the palm midwifed the moon (Artemis) as
well as the sun (Apollo). "The [palm-tree] played midwife [...] under its branches she
bore Apollon and Artemis."3
In Israel, the mothering Palm gave birth to another set of twins: "Why was Tamar
[palm tree] worthy of being the mother of Peretz and Zerach? It was because her name
was Tamar... Why were they called Peretz and Zerach? Peretz was named after the moon.
The moon breaks out (paratz) at times [...] Zerach was named after the sun, which always
shines (zarach) in the same manner."4 The line of Judah descends from the offspring of
the moon, Peretz.
Just as the seasons of a revolving year, the dates of the calendar, and the stars
marking the evolving sky always appear in a set order, so do alphabet letters. Order will
prove important in understanding why each specific symbol was chosen as a letter. Each
letter represented an object. As object, the first sound of the word (Aleph/ox = 'A'), can
write any number of words. In addition to representing sounds, an object can act as a
mnemonic for a proper Spell. A properly spelled word demands its letters in order.
Each object chosen for our earliest alphabet, Phoenician/Old Hebrew, tells stories
spelling an orderly passage through the world of time, death, and a return to the light. The
choice of letter-object was determined by its place in the order. Number is the key to
finding our way through the labyrinth of alphabet myths. Numbers having roots in the
calendar-cycles of the sky, it is well accepted that ancient myths use the sky to illustrate
their tales.

3
cited: www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27. 259 ff trans. Rouse
4
Kaplan, Aryeh trans. The Bahir (1176). Weiser, 1990, 79.
 4

A shining (Kdm) Phoenician Cadmus carried the alphabet and its hidden
Mysteries to Greece.5 His sister Europa (name derived from 'erv', a dark Eve) was
kidnapped by a bull and carried to Crete. There she mothered a dynasty that included the
Minotaur deep in his labyrinth.6 The goddess of Thrace ("We call this Thrudheim"),
home of both the Norseman's Thor and the Mysteries of Eleusis, was a sister of Europa.

The genealogy of Cadmus and his relatives reflect close relationships between
Greece, Crete, Phoenicia, Anatolia, and Egypt. One of Cadmus' ancestors is the River
Nile; another is the goddess Isis, also known as the cow goddesses Io, Hathor, or Baalat.
She is connected to zodiacs and the early alphabet letters found in her temple in Sinai. "I
separated the Earth from the Heavens I showed the path of the stars. I regulated the
course of the sun and the moon. I devised the activities of seamanship. I made what is
right strong."(Hymn to Isis, c. 305-30 BCE)7

Phoenicians and Egyptians are closely associated with the Mystery traditions of
Greece. Germanic runes were gathered near their colonies in Anatolia. These traditions
include the number secrets of Phoenician Pythagoras, the Mysteries of Cadmus' grandson
Dionysus, and of metal working Cabieri who also claim descent from Cadmus. In
addition to promising auras of enlightenment if not actual resurrection, Mysteries
transmitted such skills as wine making, metallurgy, alchemy, mathematics, masonry, and
astronomy. They all include a passage through the dark before returning to the light.
Miners for instance enter the dark underworld to return with their shining ores. Secrets of
metalworking, like other Mysteries, were closely guarded.

5
Outside this paper, there are contested opinions that Greek letters came from an earlier form of
the Canaanite alphabet before Phoenician decreased its letters to 22 around 1050 BCE.
6
Cadmus meaning the bright 'east', his sister's name Europa, is thought to derive from Semitic
'Erev' meaning 'evening''. The twins of sunrise and sunset, morning and evening stars appear and
set in the east and west. Young Eve and her bright red (Adam) spouse belong to a similar
tradition.
7
quoted, by Lloyd Graham,
academia.edu/440504/Echoes_of_Antiquity_in_the_Early_Irish_Song_of_Amergin
 5

After acquiring the Semitic letters, Greeks changed their names. Originally, letters
represented a physical object at each position in the alphabet: Aleph as 'ox' became Greek
alpha, Beth as 'house' became 'beta'. Although the early letter-objects were transformed
into meaningless sounds, Greeks acquired a form of Kabbalah, numbered letters as
Gematria (geometry) with multiple associations and attributes for each letter.

The Anatolian city of Miletus, later ruled by the Greeks, was the first to use letters
as numbers necessary for the later Greek practice of Gematria. Colonists from Crete, they
claimed a lineage from Cadmus: “Milesian nobles traced their descent back to the
Phoenician or one of his companions."8

In the divergence and convergence of ancient traditions, Gematria eventually

returned to Canaan to rejoin the number and letter magic of the Jews, cousins and siblings
of ancient Phoenicia.9 Shining Cadmus brought the alphabet and Mysteries to Greece;
Adam Kadman is the Jewish Kabbalah's man of light.

"Heaven rained down ripe grain the day that [letters] were first invented." (H.N.
Humphreys, Origin and Progress of the Art of Writing, 1853)

Cash Cow as Aleph to Tau10 "Feoh id est pecunia." (First rune is Feoh)

8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus_of_Miletus It, was settled by people from Crete which was
closely involved with Phoenicia.

9
See Barry Kieran, Greek Qabalah, Weiser, 1999 for further description of Greek tradition.
10
Harold Bailey, Lost Language of Symbolism (1912), Rowman and Littlefield, 1968, 102.
 6

INTRODUCTION TO RUNES - A MYTHIC HISTORY

A thousand years after the Phoenicians spread the alphabet, Germanic runes
appeared. A warrior's god hung on a World Tree to acquire their secrets (rune).
Understanding the story of our original alphabet allows us to interpret the magic
empowering runes. Runes, like Phoenician/Hebrew, use the first sounds of the letter-
object to write their language. While runes were chosen from their own culture, I hope to
show they followed the alphabet's orderly path of Mystery.11

Along with the technology of an alphabet, the North acquired secrets hidden in
the alphabet's order. "At the origin [runes] were probably a secret craft, if the
interpretation of [...] 'run' as a secret, mystery, etc. is to have any value."12 Carved and
painted, Rune's very name hints at mysteries hiding in their order, rune meaning 'secret'.
Runes adopted few shapes or sounds of the original alphabet but like their
ancestor, each letter names an object and is in a set order. They were seldom used for
writing stories or histories, rather, were primarily employed for magic, divination, on
boundary markers, or inscribed on stones raised for the dead. This suggests a belief the
rune spells facilitated a passage between these boundaries.

"For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other
warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone, which custom
remained long after Odin's time." (Ynglinga Saga)
Three common runic alphabets are 24 runes of the Elder Futhark (c. 150–800
CE), Old English Futhorc (28 runes c. 400–1100 CE), and the Younger Futhark (16 runes
c. 800–1100 CE). Like the alphabet named for its first two letters Alpha-Beta, the
Futhark is named for the magical 'hex' of the first six letters: Fe (Cattle), Uruz (Aurochs),
Thurs (Thorn or Giant), Ansus (God), Reid (Ride), and Kenaz (torch).

11
I am not implying Runes evolved directly from Phoenician. There were undoubtedly
intermediaries along the twisting path alchemy traditions traveled.
12
R. Derolez, Runica Manuscripta, Ghent, 1954, xv.
 7

Earliest known runes are the 24 letters of the Elder Futhark.13 Being interested in
the myths rather than in the epigraphy of runes, I am seldom concerned with the various
shapes of these letters. I purposely ignore them because modern scholars tend to fixate on
differences between the shapes and sounds of Phoenician/Hebrew and Runes. They need
to comprehend the similarity of the mythic qualities of the ordered objects.
Mysteries linked to number magic, 24 commonly appears: there are 24 Books of
Homer's Odyssey through the heavens and 24 vertebrae of the spine India's serpent-
goddess climbs toward enlightenment (Kundalini). As calendar marker, 24 numbers the
hours in an Egyptian day; the number of bright and dark fortnights measured by the moon
during the 12 months of the solar year. The potent full moon falls of the 15th day of each
lunar cycle. (360/15 =24). After dying into the black, the new moon returns brightly
young. After midnight, the dark sun begins to return as a shining new day. Day's

emerging butterfly is sometimes placed as 24th rune; more often as 23rd symbol
where the Greeks eventually placed the psyche (butterfly) of psi.

Psyche's tale is another connected with the Mystery journey into and return from
the dark: "Who are Psyche’s parents? Answer: She was the youngest of three daughters
of an unidentified king of Miletus."14 Milesians, as above, claimed the alphabet
disseminating Phoenician Cadmus as ancestor.

There is never one origin, one explanation for myths. Each source adds to the
power of the story. The power of 24 may even derive from a cycle of Mars ♂, known as
Tir (Tues) in the Northern world. Spinning out Time (which began on the third day of
Tuesday), Mars loops "around the zodiac in seven steps, returning to the area where the
first loop was made with the eighth loop. This cycle takes 15 years and once every 15
years the planet is particularly brilliant."15 (360/15=24)
Time begins when the 'pricks' of arrow-shooting rulers of the third symbol bind

13
wiki/Vimose_inscriptions
14
http://www.rwaag.org/psyche
15
Davidson, Astronomy & the Imagination, 1985, 130-134. Both number 15 and Mars are also
associated with devils. Saturn, another Lord of the Rings, is also bright every 15 years.
 8

Earth's Flood in pregnancy. "This Third I chant thee: if great waters threaten to
overwhelm thee, may flood and foam [...] dry up before thee." (Svipdagmal) After her
bonds are loosened, Earth delivers through the mouth 'Os' of the fourth rune. Adapting
birth magic to a warrior's use: "A fourth I know: If my foemen lay bonds on my limbs, I
can chant myself free; the fetter flies off my feet, and the shackles off my hands."
(Havamal) Another alchemical tradition agrees: "Untangle the knots." (Tao Te Ching,
fourth verse)16

BLACK SEA AREA: CELTS, GERMANS, GREEKS, & PEOPLE FROM CRETE
Runes are associated "with the settlement of the Goths in the Black Sea area."17
Myth constantly diverges and converges with true history. The Norse recording their
history remembered Odin acquired runes in the lands of the fate goddess Asia, lands now
known as Asia Minor. "The country east of the Tana Kvisl [the Don] in Asia was called
Asaland and [the chief city was] Asagaard. In that city was a chief called Odin."18

The river Don “which flows into the Sea of Asov-Black Sea, was viewed as the
border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers [...] During the
times of the old Scythians it was known in Greek as the Tanaïs (Τάναϊς) and has been a
major trading route ever since."19 The area was an intersection of cultures since the early
Bronze Age. Trade goods as well as Mysteries were exchanged here.

Following the thread through the labyrinth of myth into history, Asia married
Iapetus. He is identified with Japeth son of Noah, biblical ancestor of the Greeks, Celts,
and the Teutons, Odin's people.20 Before travelling north from the Black Sea, Odin
acquired fertile Earth gods and goddesses, the Vanir. The Vanir, like gold loving, stave

16
Lao Tzu, Man-jan Cheng Lectures, 1981
17
Derolez, Runica Manuscripta, xv.
18
Snorri Sturluson, Yglinga Saga (Samuel Laing, trans.)
19
wikipedia.org/wiki/Don River
20
It is "far from unlikely that Iapetus and Japhet are the same person. Neither name is Greek or
Hebrew, perhaps a shared tradition from an Anatolian source." Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd
edition, 1970, 539.
 9

casting Scythians from this area, travelled in wagons. Odin learned the art of Otherworld
travel from the Vanir.

"The power of the Vanir over the realm of the dead is associated with rebirth
rather than with a journey to another world, as was the cult of Odin. [Freyr, Vanir son of
Earth, brother of Freya] was reborn in the person of each king, while at the same time the
king who died was identified with the god in the earth [...] Here again there is an
interesting parallel with the ritual of kingship [of] Ancient Egypt."21

We tend to vastly underuse mythic stories in our modern search for historic 'truth'.
An early name for Greeks, the Danaans, comes from an Egyptian colony of Danaus.
Danaus, was a brother of Egypt (Aígyptos). Also descended from the cow-goddess
Isis/Hathor/Io and the Nile, his cousin is alphabet bearing, Mystery transmitting
Phoenician Cadmus. Danaans had colonies around the Black Sea..

Danaus and his 50 daughters may even hint at another numeric mystery. 50
numbers the letters Kali, dark goddess of India, wears around her neck (The Varnamala).
Through their sounding, both enlightenment and new worlds are delivered. 50 is the
number of children a black daughter of Egypt brought to Ireland along with her script
(Ogham): "The Caillech [Kali] had fifty foster children in Beare. She passed into seven
periods of youth so that every husband used to pass from her to death of old age."22

Fifty numbers the wands of the astral Yarrow (Asteraceae) used in the divination
of China's I-Ching. "Casting rods by which the diagrams of the I-Ching are calculated
was known to the Greeks as a Scythian practice, suggesting that the art may have been
introduced into China by Mongol seers."23 A Scythian king named Phoeniusa (Phoenicia)
Farsa created a Celtic alphabet known as Ogham. Like the divining runes, Ogham was
primarily used on boundary markers and tombstones. Note: there is an esoteric tradition
that Ogham hides a calendar among its letters.

21
Davidson, Scandinavian Mythology, 82.
22
Rees, Celtic Heritage, 1991, 134-135.
23
Walters, Alternate I-Ching, 1987,7.
 10

Just south of Troy in Asia Minor is the once important trade city of Miletus.
Around 1900 BCE, Minoans arrived at Miletus. "For some centuries the location received
a strong impulse from that civilization, an archaeological fact that tends to support [...]
the founding legend—that is, a population influx, from Crete".24 First (mythic) queen of
Crete was Cadmus' dark sister, Europa.

"Milesian nobles traced their descent back to the Phoenician or one of his
companions."25 'Sons of Mil' sailed to Ireland with a Pharaoh's daughter, Scotia. Also
known as Caillech the Hag of Beare, she is closely associated with Ogham letters.
Returning to the Black Sea where Odin established his city, it was in this area he learned
his mysteries. Milesians began colonizing the area by the 7th century BC.26 Before
leaving the lands of the divine Asia, Odin learned the secrets of rune magic.

Other stories claim Odin came from Troy itself. "From the north and over the
eastern areas all to the south, this is called Asia. [This area was the middle of the world.
Here] was constructed that building and residence [...] which was called Troy. We call
this Turkey. Odin [...] found out that his name would be exalted in the northern part of
the world and glorified above all kings. Because of this he was keen to set off from
Turkey." (Prose Edda )27
The ritual center of Troy hiding a stolen maiden fell to attacking Greeks (c. 1200
BCE). "The Walls of Troy were rebuilt by [...] architects of Crete after the model of the
Cretan Labyrinth which was an exact representation of the stellar universe."28
By the period the Prose Edda was compiled (c. 13th Century CE), multiple
peoples claimed descent from Troy. Greek works were entering Europe by way of Arab
translators. Merovingian Franks claimed Trojan ancestors. Virgil's Aeneid described a
prince from Troy founding Rome; Troy town mazes appeared throughout Europe. Cretien

24
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miletus
25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus_of_Miletus
26
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Azov
27
Prose Edda, quoted, Lukas Rosli, Institute of German Studies / Scandinavian Philology, 4/2015

28
R.W. Morgan, Trojan Era (1857), quoted by Matthews, Celtic Reader, 1992, 104.
 11

de Troyes wrote the first grail story. Grails are healing treasures carried off and hidden
deep in the labyrinth until returning to the light.

Maiden in Troytown maze, painted in church at Sibbo, Nyland, Finland c. 1400

CE “Teven, Teven are you going to heaven. Shall you steal my little one: Troia, tra-la-la,
Troia, tra-la-la, Troia, tra-la-la, Troia, tra-la-la.-la (Norwegian Troy-town song)

The British, like the Norse, also claimed descent from Troy. "The only two
national names acknowledged by the Ancient Britons are Kymry and Y Lin Troia, the
race of Troy."29 Note: mythic history does not imply literal history, rather the need for
royal or godlike genealogy. Having an illustrious ancestor helps bind a group together.
Rather than a blood lineage, I believe the practice contains very real memories of a
transmission of a culture to that people.

Etruscan vase c. 630 BCE Soldier riding away from Troy maze 30 Next to
the maze lies a mating couple seeding new life. Early magic was very 'earthy'.
I have found no evidence that historical Troy possessed a labyrinth, but it may yet
be found. Virgil has people from Crete establishing Troy itself. That Odin learned his
letter magic near Troy and Miletus implies a transmission of history in mythic terms.
Remember that Greece, Crete, Phoenicia, the Black Sea area, and Egypt have a long
history together. That history included mathematics, masonry, astronomy, Mysteries,
medicine, divination, and writing.
Runes, like all Mysteries, hide knowledge of both earth and sky among their
order. The Old Play of the Volsungs "tells of the origin of Runes and seems to contain
another fragment relating to the signs of the Heavens and the mysterious characters
29
R. W. Morgan, op cit., 103. Many texts from the Classic World were entering Europe this
period through translations by Moslem and Jewish scholars.

30
Detail from Estrucan vase:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing_Etruscan_TRUIA_oinocho%C3%AB.pdf
 12

which they trace on the black vault of a moonless night, a fancy which the Jewish
cabalists shared."31

Without some basic understanding of the knowledge available to ancient scholars,

we dismiss their observations. That arrogance has begun to change as we learn more
about the depth of ancient science. "This oldest scientific knowledge of mankind is no
longer part of general education in Western cultures, not even among the university
educated elite which specializes in understanding texts of old."32

I am following the path of runes by watching for clues dropped by earlier writers.
Although 24 runes of the Elder Futhark provide my template, we have no poems
describing them. Later Futharks decreased the runes to 16 (Younger Futhark) or
increased them to 29 (Anglo-Saxon). The decrease undoubtedly held a mystical meaning
to the scholar changing the number, but I found no information on why it was done.
Reducing the number of letters made it less useful to write speech, however despite this
reduction, the new positions keep the symbolism implied by the earlier position. I will
indicate the EF and YF positions: e.g., 21/15 (Both are triangular numbers: the Phallic
Leek/# 21 replaces a horned Sedge/#15, sedges having triangular stems).

Later Rune traditions have mnemonic poems for each position. I use their poems
to help flesh out the attributes of the 24 older letters. They include the Old Icelandic Rune
Poem (OIRP), recorded late 15th century; the Old Norse Rune Poem; the Old English
Rune Poem (OERP), c. 9th century. Although later Futharks changed the number of the
older runes, the first six runes of the spell, the hex, remained: Giving us F-U-Th-A-R-K.

In addition to the poems, there are other numbered stories available: The nine
ordered verses a dead mother recites to her sun (Groa's Chant, Svipdagsmal). A Valkyrie
gives a (numbered) series of directions to her lover (Sigdrifumal) and in another text
(Havamal), Odin taunts a slow-moving dragon with his knowledge of 18 charms. In

31
Vigfusson & Yorke, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 29.
32
Sigurdsson, Snori's Edda: The Sky Described in Mythological Terms, 2014, 184
 13

Grimner's Lay "whose subject is Celestial Geometry," Odin describes Twelve Halls
occupied by a god.33 These further illuminate our openly hidden story.
It has been asserted that the peculiar arrangement of the twenty-four runes of the
Germanic Futhark betrays a “mnemonic device that is no longer retrievable, but which
may have left some slight echo in the runic poems preserved in medieval manuscripts.”34
I believe the many hints left behind make retrieval of the pattern quite possible.

33
Vigfusson. Corpus Boreale Poeticum, Grimnismal, 69 ff; Havamal, 23 ff.
34
Elmer H. Antonsen, Runes and Germanic Linguistics, quoted Angel Millar, The Old English
Rune Poem – Semantics, Structure, and Symmetry (Academia.edu) - 2006
 14

THE THREE FAMILIES OF RUNES

EARTH: Runes are arranged in 3 families of 8 Aettir, ('eight' or 'compass direction').35

The first group reflects a cycle of fertility, growth, harvest, and then a rising-up into a
new light. The joy of white Wynn is 8th rune. In the North these powers belong to Frey.
Under his golden reign earth knew peace and good harvests.

THE UNDERWORLD: Second family begins with Hel, goddess of the Underworld. Her
eight runes, following the earlier Phoenician spell, describe a soul-journey after death and
emergence once more into the light of day (sun, 16th rune). Phoenician begins Hel's
family with ninth letter Teth ('clew' or 'coil'), the thread helping heroes navigate this
Underworld. "Clew: A ball of thread used especially with reference to the thread
supposedly used by Theseus to mark his way out of the Cretan labyrinth." (Oxford
Dictionary)

THE HEAVENS: Last family begins with Tir as 17th rune. Associated with the
command of stars spinning around the North Star, Tir's family includes more
astronomical data: Greek Pi (π), commanding the area of this circle, and Hebrew Pe
('mouth' or 'commandment') also appear as 17th letters. As the command of the North
Star was changing, Tir held his hand in a ravenous 'mouth' (Pe) keeping control until a
new ruler kept the stars circling in their seasons.
The 18th symbol belongs to the midwife moon (Saros Cycle of 18 years), 19 to
the sun (pulled by the horses of the 19th rune). The rune shape for Ingvi-Frey as 22nd

rune is an alchemical symbol for the lead of Saturn, Frey being an avatar. We end as
the 24th and final rune returns to earth as womb shaped Othala ('homeland').
Phoenician/Hebrew end with the mark promising Death will pass over (Tav/mark).

The Futhark may once have hidden an alchemist's promise of enlightenment. By

the time of the rune poems, several hundred years after runes first appeared, the symbols

35
The Aettir are from at least the 6th Century: Vadstena & Grumpan Bracteates, Derolez, Runica
Manuscripta, xviii.
 15

have transmuted into a warrior's magic that eventually end in a grave. "Grave is hateful to
every noble when steadily the flesh begins --- the corpse --- to become cold to choose the
earth palely as a bedmate; fruits fall, joys pass away, bonds of faith dissolve." (Last rune,
OERP, c. 800 CE)
Most rune lore comes from Christian scholars transmitting a pagan world they did
not fully understand or admire. I believe the original Mystery, transmitted secretly by
symbols, and deliberately obscured by alchemists, sought to guide the soul toward
enlightenment. If later Vikings followed this spiritual path, it is seldom apparent in the
stories inscribed in the sagas and rune poems that have survived.
 16

FIRST AETTIR - FREY'S FAMILY

ONE - Fehu, Feoh, or Fe (Cattle, Wealth)
TWO - Uruz (Aur Ox/wild bull) or (Ur/water, also 'dross')
THREE - Thurisaz or Thurs (Giant) also Thorn
FOUR - Ansus, Ass (High God) or Oss (Mouth)
FIVE - Raido, Rad (Wheel) or Reidh (Ride)
SIX - Cen (Pine Torch) or Kaun (Ulcer, Cancre)
SEVEN - Gyfu (Gift)
EIGHT - Wunjo, Wynn - (Joy also White)

ONE -Fehu, Feoh, or Fe (Cattle, Wealth)

First eight runes belong to the Earth god, the generous Frodi (Freyr). Under the
direction of these charms, we are born, marry, have children, and reap the peace and
plenty of a material world. After Midsummer's prime, our spirits die south toward the
Fall of Man. First position in our ancient Mystery belongs to an Undivided One (1).
When One divides into duality, the cascade toward the material world ensues.

The alphabet's promise of entrance into that material life included help, a guide
along the path toward the light. It also promises the wealth that will emerge from Earth's

Bottomless Pit. Cadmus's first letter is . This is the shape of a woman's womb, out of
which the path of new life begins and of cow-shaped motherly graves from which the
dead hoped to return.

Grave in form of 'A', Yugoslavia c. 6000 BCE36

Aleph, first alphabet letter is 'ox', a non-sexual creature. One has not yet
36
By permission, Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, 1989, 156.
 17

separated. When sexuality emerges with duality, when One becomes Two, multitudes
emerge after Deuce's opening. First rune 'Fe' like Aleph’s 'ox' suggests this androgynous
fairy. Fey One stands at the boundary between the worlds.

In many traditions, young Mercury/Hermes (depicted as bovine ☿) is the guide,

the pathfinder between the boundaries of life and death. Hermes who began life as a
simple herm, a pillar like numeral 1, is associated with trade, wealth, and the shared
knowledge trade enabled. As herm at the boundary between light and dark, he traces the
shadow of the bright sun throughout infinity.

Herm as Sundial tracing a year's shadow

In addition to promising material wealth along the journey, first rune offers help
along the path: "There are Beech-runes, Help-runes, Love-runes, and great Power-runes,
for whomsoever will, to have for charms [...] till the world falls in ruin. Profit by them if
thou canst."37 In this chant of the High One (Havamal), Odin, identified as a warrior
avatar of Mercury, sings 18 spells: "I know songs, such as no King's daughter, nor son of
man knows. HELP the first is called."38

First rune of the journey into the world offers guidance along the way. In another
story, a young man setting out on a dangerous journey wakes his mother from her grave
to ask for her advice. "The first charm I chant thee [...] let thyself be thy guide." (Groa's
Chant)39 She advises him to find his own path.

Although North men were wide-ranging traders as well as pirates, Odin was
primarily a warrior's god. Thor/Tor, rather than Odin, was the source of help and the
pathfinder evoked for protection and fertility Along with three rune poems, there are
other stories fleshing out Mysteries hiding among the runes. In Grimner's Lay "whose

37
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Fragments of A Spell Song, 30. (My capitals)
38
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Havamal, 23ff. These 18 charms all fit the pattern.
39
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Swipdagsmal, 92ff. Most but not all Groa’s charms follow the
alphabet pattern.
 18

subject is Celestial Geometry,"40 twelve halls are described. Tor's home is in the First
Hall. "... Thor shall ever in Thrudheim dwell, Till the gods to destruction go."
(Grimnismal)41 It may be folk etymology but Thor, a Thunder god invoked for fertility
and help, also appears as Tor. A Tor is a tower, a High Seat pillar, or a herm as numeral I.
As a Taur, he recalls Aleph's ox
Following the links with Mystery Traditions underlying early alphabets, Thor
came from Thrace ("Thrudheim").42 Greece, Turkey and Black Sea, and the Balkans
border on Thrace. Thrace was home to the Eleusian Mysteries involving descent and
return from the Underworld. Although this does not appear in the usual genealogy of
Cadmus and his sister Europa, Thracians derive their name from the "heroine and
sorceress Thrace," sister of Europa.43 Allies of the Trojans, another famous Thracian is
Orpheus. Like other initiates, Orpheus entered and returned from the Underworld (Orphic
Mysteries). Astronomical knowledge hiding in the Mysteries, Orpheus was son of Earth
and Starry Heaven.
In Grimnismal (stanza 24), Thor's Hall has 540 doors. 800 warriors will emerge
on the Day of the Wolf. On this day, 'the gods to destruction go'. (800 x 540 = 432,000)
"In the Hindu tradition the present cycle of time consists of 432,000 years. This is called
the "Kali Yuga". [...] A Greek version of the history of Babylonia says that between the
time of the building of the first city, Kish, and the time of the Great Flood [...] there
elapsed a total of 432,000 years."44 The Precession of the Equinox lasting 25,920 years,"
is also connected to 432 because 432x60=25,920. Each of the 12 Ages of this particular
cycle last 2,160 years..."45

At the end of time as Ragnarok, Kali Yuga, the Flood, at the end of each
Precession Cycle the old-world dies; a new green world emerges. As pillar (l) standing at

40
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Grimnismal, 69 ff.
41
Henry Adams Bellows (1936) sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe06.htm..
42
Snorri Sturluson, Edda, Anthony Faulkes, trans., 1995, 3.
43
wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace. The Mysteries of Eleusis also originated in Thrace.
44
mythsdreamssymbols.com/nine.html from (Campbell, Inner Reaches of Outer Space, 1986)
45
http://synchromystic.wikia.com/wiki/432
 19

this boundary, first symbols mark each new beginning after the decimations of Time
(who always eats his children).

Returning to tors and Thors as pathfinder's 'Help', Vikings sailing to new homes
took their High Seat Pillars with them. These were two poles, tors if you will. Thrown
overboard near land, the new home was established where Thor's pillars landed.46

ONE FOR THE MONEY (Mother Goose divination poem)

The wealth of the material world appears as life on Earth unfolds. Vikings, both
traders and raiders, sought wealth when they went a-viking. Fe (Money or Cattle) is first
rune. Fe offers the promise of a fertile Earth's golden bounty. "Feoh id est pecunia."47 The
Norse, encouraged to share their gold among their companions, were also warned against
becoming materialistic.

Wealth (Fe) source of discord among kinsmen and fire of the sea, path of the serpent.
GLOSSES: aurum/ Gold and fylkir /King or leader of gang (Old Icelandic Rune
Poem/OIRP)

Wealth (Feoh) is a comfort to all men; yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord. (Old English Rune Poem/OERP)

Wealth (Fe) is a source of discord amongst kin. The wolf lives in the forest (Old Norse
Rune Poem/ONRP)
The lone wolf is one who has been banished from his kin.

46
wikipedia.org/wiki/Öndvegissúlur
47
Cotton MS, Domitian A-9, Saec XI, Derolez, Runica Manuscripta, 7. Gloss is 16th C. hand.
 20

TWO Uruz (Aur Ox/wild bull) or (Ur/water, also 'dross')

When Undivided One becomes Two, male from female separates as the child
matures. Sexuality arriving with the appearance of their red and white waters, the young
Virgins must be prepared for their coming role as fertile adults. The land must be readied
for plowing in all its farming and sexual connotations.

Second Phoenician letter, Beth means 'house'. Beth also means 'temple'. Early
spring mandated cleansing and purifying both Temple and Bride prior to her Sacred
Marriage. Because the second charm's stories concern the return of the Virgin as the Hag
of Winter grows young, 'Beth' gives us the Hebrew Bethulah a marriageable young
woman. 48

Goddess as Temple49 Macedonia, c. 6000-5800 BCE

Two's story contains the magic to prepare the awakening Earth's adolescent
aspects for the seeding to follow at 'Three's the Charm'. Although there are numerous
ways to mark time, our western calendar follows the alphabet pattern. In our second
month of February Earth is young, a Virginal Spring, the Bride having renewed herself
during her dark winter period.

Duality opening her Underworld, Two's story includes healing energy,

inspiration, learning, and wisdom. Far Travel, frenzy, ecstasy, and strength also appear,
this being the time of Earth's 'heat' (februa). It is during the stormy tempests of
adolescence the virgin's red and white waters appear, signaling the moment for initiation
into adulthood.

48
"Judaism maintains that the word bethula is the Hebrew word for "virgin."
agapebiblestudy.com
49
Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, plate 3.
 21

Ireland's Bride is celebrated early February when the Hag turns young with the
year. Scandinavia's young bride is Skade. Her name, like that of dark moist female Yin of
China, translates as 'shadow' or' darkness'. Skade also translates 'harm'.50 A later scribe
added glosses under each verse. The gloss here is Shadow (umbre), a name given the
shadowy Bride.

2. Shower (Ur)
lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay-harvest, abomination of the shepherd.
GLOSSES: umbre/Shadow vísi/leader or chief (OIRP)

Young men must also be initiated into manhood before they can seed a new
generation. With the arrival of sexuality, both the male and his twin enter the ring, the
clan, joining the circle of their village. This rune poem links the Initiation rites of
adolescent males to the second rune: "Aurochs (Ur) is proud and has great horns; it is a
very savage beast and fights with its horns; a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of
mettle. (OERP) According to Julius Caesar Aurochs were hunted by Germanic youths:
"This arduous sport toughens the young men and keeps them in training."51

HEALING & DIVINATION"

A second I know which the son of men must sing, who would heal the sick."
(Havamal) Healing belongs among the powers of the second charm. One of the problems
facing a Western scholar is the firm belief that a symbol has finite definitions. Older
peoples appreciated a looser approach. Primal Ur mandates flexibility if one is to resolve
its seeming contradictions.

The powers of healing and divination are associated with young virgins: A virgin
delivered the oracles of Delphi founded by Apollo and people from Crete (Homeric
Hymn to Delphic Apollo). February, our second month, was the correct time to seek the

50
wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaði She has also been linked to moon goddesses, though this might be a
late association. A ski goddess, she travels with wolves.
51
Caesar, Conquest of Gaul (c. 50 BCE), Book VI 28, Handford translation.
 22

Oracle's advice: "Originally the oracle delivered its pronouncements on an

annual basis, the day chosen for the event being [Apollo's birthday in
Byblios, the month] being approximately the equivalent of February." 52

The red and white waters of the healer Virgins still color the Red Cross flag and
swirl up the turning barber pole, barbers acting as healer-surgeons in medieval times. One
rune manuscript glossed the second Ur rune with the Latin word 'noster' (our).53 While
this is technically an incorrect translation of the Ur rune, the writer is correct in his
mythic association. By Christian times, the Paternoster (Our Father) had become an
important healer's charm: a 'nostrum' to be dissolved and drunk. Dissolving written
charms in a liquid still occurs in the folk medicine of India as it once did in Egypt.
In Grimnismal, Odin describes twelve halls each occupied by a god. Glorious
Uller lives in the Second Hall. Associated with the Shadow Bride Skade, Uller (Wuldor)
may also have been a healer. Although most of his stories are lost, he possessed nine
healing twigs borrowed by Odin: "Then took Odin Nine magic twigs (wuldortanas); then
smote the serpent that in in nine bits dispersed."54 (See ninth letter for related stories).

RINGS AND OATHS

"I counsel thee secondly: Swear no oath, except it be true." (Sigrfdrifumal)55
Rings and Oaths arrive with the second charm along with divination and healing powers.
In time the young Virgins of February will exchange their oaths and rings and enter the
marriage bed. In palmistry's divination system, the ring finger, medicine finger, Apollo's
finger is second finger.
Uller was keeper of the temple rings on which Vikings swore oaths: "By the
southing sun, the Great God's rock, the lintels of the bed-chamber, and the ring of
Wuldor."56 The ring keeper shares the Second Hall with Freyr. This earth god brought

52
Boutsikas, academia.edu/362751/Knowing_When_to_Consult_the_Oracle_at_Delphi
53
Cotton MS, Domitian A9 (saec XI) described Derolez, Rúnica Manuscripta, 8.
54
Rohde, The Old English Herballs (1922), 1989, 18.
55
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Sigrfrdrifumal, 42.
56
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Atli Lay, 422.
 23

peace and fertility to his land. As such, "Freyr was a frequent recipient of sacrifices [and
gave] the blessing of a wedding."57
Skade the wise god-bride, in turn, was known as 'bow-stung Var'. "In Norse
mythology, Vár or Vór meaning either 'pledge' or 'beloved' is a goddess associated with
oaths and agreements [...] she listens to people's oaths and private agreements that
women and men make between each other. Thus these contracts are called varar. She also
punishes those who break them."58
Like wolfish Nemesis, mother of the twins Artemis and Apollo also associated
with the second symbol, Var in company with her wolves punished oath breakers. Our
word 'beware' as well as a German word for truth, wahr, comes from the goddess Vargr
('wolf'). She demanded wergeld in payment for spilling blood within her circle. The lone
wolf was the individual who, breaking her peace, was evicted from the clan: a wanderer
no longer under the protective eye of the goddess.
At the end of the gods, on the Day of the Wolf, a wolf will kill the oath-breaker
Odin. This is the day 800 warriors emerge from the 540 doors of the First Hall standing at
the edge of time: "... a ring-oath Woden swore to Gundfled and broke."59 He had
promised her marriage in exchange for help stealing a mead-giant's precious brew.
"Then second I rede thee, to swear no oath If true thou knowest it not; Bitter the
fate of the breaker of troth, And poor is the wolf of his word." (Sigdrifumal, Bellows
translation)

FIREWATER, TREES AND RISING SAP

"I sing you the second spell, in case you must travel roads against your will, then
may Urd's bonds (Urðar lokur) hold you on all sides, while you are on the way." (Groa's
Chant) Urd, like Var, is a fate goddess, her name cognate with Wyrd. From Urd's Well, a
World Tree grows, and her waters rise up the tree to drip their sapience down from
above. "Thence come the dews in the dale that fall--It stands ever green above Urdr's

57
http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freyr
58
wikipedia.org/wiki/Vár Gylfaginning Chapter 35, in Prose Edda. Vor/Var is the ancient name
for Spring. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_calendar, Summer beginning early April.
59
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 422.
 24

Well." (Gylfagnning)
Festivals celebrating trees occur in early February.60 Some spring-rising sap is
used for brewing. "The milky-sapped trees whose sap also produces hallucinogenic
drinks are the most appropriate timber source for making wood lingas […this connects]
sacred trees, cosmic pillars that are temple thresholds, and ambivalent notions of
sexuality, ascetic meditations, and the warriors vanquishing power."61
There are overlays and underlays of meaning hiding beneath the objects of rune
images. Ur is a multi-headed hydra. It can mean gold, fire, water, young as in primal, an
Aurochs with his drinking horns, auras of divination and the arts of brewing: the making
of fire (ur)-water (also ur).
"Ale-runes learn [...] On the horn thou shalt write [...]. Thou shalt bless the
draught, and danger escape."62 The Aurochs (Ur) as second rune was prized for its huge
horns used as ale cups. They were thought to protect from poison, especially when
inscribed with special runes. Confused with unicorn horns protective against all poison,
unicorns appear only to virgins.

During the period the rune poems were composed, Vikings had kin among Celts
who supplied many ale-serving brides for these sea-raiders. Bride of Ireland is Brigit. Her
festival celebrated along with the sap-rising trees of adolescent February, she was both
midwife and brewer of ale. Brigit was also a metal smith. During her February festival
the fires of the Smith were blessed.

METALLURGY

Along with healing and initiation rites, Ur hides important secrets of the ores of
metallurgy. The earliest Canaanite alphabets in Egypt are associated with metalworkers,
the “sons of the furnace” (bn kr), whose “equipment” (’nt), notably the “melt-furnace”

60
New Year of the Trees (Tu B'Shevat), Jewish tradition; Shivaratri, Hindu tradition
61
David Napier, Masks, Transformation & Paradox, 1986, 160.
62
Henry Adams Bellows, trans., Sigdrifumal (1936), sacred=texts.com, 394.
 25

(kbšn mš), features strongly in the inscriptions, and the remains of such metallurgical
apparatus have been found on the site."63

Phoenician Cadmus, on his way to Greece, founded the Mysteries of Cabieri

(which included metal working dwarves, dwarves also being metal workers in
Scandinavia). Transmitting both the alphabet and Mysteries to the Greeks, at the end of
his days, Cadmus became a serpent like the Chinese dragon arriving each February; a
serpent emerges each Brigit's Day (February 1). "In Scotland, a serpent was supposed to
emerge from the hills on Imbolc, Day of the Bride."64

"Dross (Ur) comes from bad iron; the reindeer often races over the frozen snow."
(ONRP)
A warrior's weapons were originally made from bronze, a mixture of tin married
with copper. Earth's iron was too soft to make a good weapon until men learned to harden
and purify it. Purification being one theme of our second charm when ore (Ur) is purified
by fire (Ur) and water (Ur), slag/dross (also Ur) remains. In the arts of alchemy, dross
(Ur) is purified into gold (aur), a blackened soul into the shining of enlightenment. 65,
And finally, we tie together gods and goddesses traveling with wolves (whose
estrus/februa was once celebrated early February as the Lupercalia), metallurgy, oaths,
and oath-rings. Viking warriors once carried ring swords: "These swords were
prestigious, prized possessions, probably reserved for) kings and high nobility. The ring
is interpreted as a symbolic "oath ring."66

63
Brian Colless, Origin of the Alphabet, Academia.edu, 79.
64
Herder, Dictionary of Symbols, 1986, 14. Imbolc, Day of the Bride, is February 1.
65
Second verse of the alphabet Psalm 119 asks: "Wherewith all shall a young man cleanse his
way?" (Beth), Both male & female need purification after their waters appear (februa).
66
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_Period_sword
 26

Wolf Warrior holding ring sword, Late 7th Century 67

Another example. Wolf Warrior and Ring sword in warrior's belt68

Aurochs horns appear to decorate his helmet.

67
Scabbard from Gutenstein, Bad.-Württ. (Pushkin Museum). Replica Central Museum in
Mainz., source Christian Bickel, Wikimedia commons
68
Knut Stjerna (1874-1909) - Knut Stjerna, "Hjälmar och svärd i Beovulf" (1903)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Torslunda_helmet_plate_patrices
 27

THREE - Thurisaz or Thurs (Giant) also Thorn

Alchemists following the path of light hiding among the alphabet letters, the
Third Key of the Anatolian alchemist Eudoxus of Cnidus (390-337 BCE) promises that
which "terminate at the generation of a new substance." 69The Virgin Spring's adolescents
have matured with the calendar's passage of time. Duality's Twins have been initiated,
purified, and prepared for their coming role in the fertility of Earth. In the farming world,
the land is ready for plowing. Lightning's arrow will seed new life in Earth's moist
furrows.

Our oldest Rune Poem is the Abcedarium Nordmanicum (c. 825 CE, Ms 878, St.
Gall). 70 Under Fe's promise of wealth, runes spell out Tir and Earth. Tir is an ancient
Arrow God whose story has almost disappeared from history. Odin took his role as
supreme leader, Thor, his control of thunder and lightning. An 'A' shape graces the last
rune, perhaps a memory that runes once implied resurrection, a return to the circle; the
last shall be least.
The turning Wheel brings us to our third month of March ruled by arrow shooting

Mars ♂ identified with the northern god Tir . Tir (Tius) gave his name to Tuesday, our
third day. "In Judaism [...] Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the

69
M.A. Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy (1850), Julian Press, 1960, 500 ff. All quotes of the Keys
come from this text. (Keys of Eudoxus)
70
Reproduced Derolez, Runica Manuscripta (1954) 78, also Hans Jensen, Sign, Symbol & Script
(1969), 562.
 28

first chapter of Genesis [...] this day contains the phrase 'it was good' twice."71 It is the
best day for a wedding. On the third day Genesis, God dried the waters of earth and
created seed bearing plants. It is this seeding of Earth, her impregnation during the sacred
marriage, that empowers the third symbol's magic. With pregnancy, her waters are
bound; her red seas no longer flow.
The Germanic world celebrated the Equinox (March 25) as First Month, the
border between winter and the growing year. "The world was created on the 25th of
March which made the world to begin on that day."72 Time begins when Earth's womb is
seeded. Still counting out a clock's hours is the arrow of Mars.

MARS, MARES & MARYS

"Mars was the only god to whom a horse was sacrificed..." 73 The northern spring
beheld battles among stallions for the right to impregnate a herd of mares. Named after
arrow-shooting Mars, March, a 'prick' like the third rune 'Thorn', also translates as both a
'border' and 'horse'. An important part of northern spring rituals: "horse fights remained
popular in Scandinavia well into Christian times. They were held in spring in Norway
and were believed to ensure good crops." The winning stallion may have been ultimately
sacrificed, but first he covered a herd of mares.74 March 25 among Christians became
Lady Day when Mary learned she carried a baby.
Horse-headed Mars rules red-rusting iron. which connects him with the secrets of
metallurgy begged, borrowed, or stolen along with the magic of fertility. Originally iron
cast from heaven was the only hard iron available. Earth's iron ore was too soft to make a
warrior's weapon until smiths learned how to harden it with blows, fire, and water.
Multiple traditions have adopted the Mysteries for their own use. In Egypt 3 balls
are the hieroglyph for metal.75 In Indian iconography, another country sharing the

71
wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesday
72
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 427-430.
73
http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-roman-god-mars-facts-mythology-quiz.html
74
Davidson, Scandinavian Mythology, 1988, 78. These were dedicated to Freyr.
75
E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Language (1889), 1983, 34.
 29

alphabet mysteries, they represent a thunderbolt as fiery third eye.76 India has 50 alphabet
letters scattered among seven energy centers (chakras) lying along the 24 vertebrae of the
spine. Ascending past the letters to the crown brings enlightenment.
Third Chakra is the Navel Chakra. Navel stones sit at the center of the world,
wherever 'here' might reside. The stones containing the waters of chaos, floods emerge
when the stone is moved.77 An archer who won his wife by shooting a winning arrow
resides in the Third, the Navel Chakra. It contains “the seed mantra of Fire, Ram himself
[...] Meditate upon him seated on a ram...he is of ancient aspect and three-eyed."78 Ram's
wife is Sita (a moist 'furrow').79 Like Troy's Helen, Sita was stolen away to a labyrinth in
the fall (see Ninth Letter).

MARRIAGE, GIANT FOOLS, SEEDING, & PREGNANCY

While love's thunderbolt could burn up her land, it also stirred Earth's fertile
cauldron. It is the property of an object that spells its use as a symbol. Iron "is one of only
three naturally occurring magnetic elements. The other two are nickel and cobalt."80 The
magnetic attraction of Heaven and his Earth are the subject of March's 'Three for a
Wedding'. This sacred marriage results in the drying of a woman's red flood while her
womb thickens with new life.
By the time the rune poems were written down, the earlier joy of seed-begetting
pregnancy and childbirth had been replaced by a curse. Women would now bear their
children in pain. In an older time, the one-eyed Giant lit her fires with far more pleasure.

"Giant (Þurs) causes anguish to women; misfortune makes few men cheerful." (ONRP)

76
David Napier, Masks, Transformation & Paradox, 1986, 215.
77
Myth often having a basis in physical fact, black navel stones (Umboliths) can form in belly
buttons, that site where the baby once grew on a Mother's World Tree.
78
Motoyama, Theories of the Chakras, 170. Thurs, the Foolish Giants of third rune can have one,
two or three eyes.
79
Ram's giant bow of stone lies in the jungles of southern Nepal near Sita's home in Janakpur.
80
chemistryexplained.com/elements/C-K/Iron.html
 30

Giant (Þurs) is the torment of women and the dweller in the rocks and the husband of
Vardh-rune (varðrúna, a giantess?) (OIRP)
GLOSSES: Saturnus/ Saturn, þengil/King

According to the website on the mystic meaning of names, Thengil offers: “For
number threes love life only has meaning if it materializes by becoming a parent.” 81
Remembering Skade/Var as Bride of Scandinavia, Skaði is described as a jötunn
(giant) and a 'fair maiden'. Her first husband was the earth god Njord, identified with
Saturn. Another husband was one-eyed Odin: "Of sea-bones, and sons many the ski-
goddess gat with Óthin."82 Lee Holllander explains that "bones-of-the-sea" is a kenning
for "rocks". This defective stanza may refer to Skaði as a "dweller of the rocks" in
connection with her association with mountains and skiing. Giant Saturn, ruler of a
Golden Age, was once considered "the sower of the seed" before he blackened into
leaden old age. 83 In our era, Skathi (Skade) names one of planet Saturn's moons.
Saturn is one of the (many) names for the stars of giant Orion. Orion, like Tir and
Mars, is often depicted as an arrow-shooting Giant, although some cultures saw him
simply as an arrow (Tir). "Saturnus has been another title [for Orion] but its connection
here I cannot learn."84 In palmistry, Saturn owns the fertile third finger, middle finger,
also used for cursing (F...k you).

(Thorn) is exceedingly sharp, an evil thing for any knight to touch, uncommonly severe
on all who sit among them. (OERP)

81
http://www.namekun.com/3/letter-names-with/thengil
82
Hollander, trans., Heimskringla, History of the Kings of Norway, 2007, cited
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaði
83
For further information on relationship of Saturn, Floods, and Navel Stones, see: ancient-
wisdom.co.uk/earthnavels.htm
84
Allen, Star Names (1899), 1963, 308.
 31

While Thorn and Thurs (giant) seem to have little in common to a modern reader,
Thorn is a 'prick' with all its phallic connotations.85 One-eyed giants were very fertile.
Like arrow shooting Ram of the Third Chakra, some Thurs have three eyes. While most

rune symbols came from a northern stock of symbols, third rune was apparently

adapted from Phoenician letter 'ros' a 'head'.

The one-eyed 'head' belongs to a Fool, the foolishness of spring's mating being
another attribute of the third charm. Orion's Hebrew name is 'Fool' (Kis'l). Thurisaz, are
"marked […] by their stupidity. Thurses, too, are of great age."86 "I counsel thee thirdly:
Do not plead in court against an ignorant man: for a fool may drop worse words than he
knows of." (Sigrfdrifumal) The sexual symbolism of the foolish one-eyed 'head' should
be as obvious as those of thorns, arrows, rampant stallions, and lightening-serpents
entering the furrows of a moist receptive earth.

THE DRYING OF WATERS, THE BONDS OF TIME

Once Lady Earth's fertile crescent (our third letter C) is impregnated, her waters
are bound until delivery at the fourth charm. "On a magical level, Thurisaz is an excellent
binder."87 This binding magic aided warriors as well as women seeking a full womb or
farmers praying for a good harvest. Groa (Growing), chanting charms from her grave,
teaches her son the magic of binding red floods with this spell: "I sing you the third spell,
in case mighty rivers threaten you with death, then may Horn and Rud [river names]
meanwhile revert to Hel, and ever dwindle for you" (Svipdagsmal)

"A third one I know: If I am in sore need of bonds for my enemies, I can deaden
my enemies' swords, their swords will bite no more than staves." (Odin speaking in
Havamal poem). Third Hall of the Gods belongs to Odin, owner of a triple knot with the
power of binding. The Valknut (the triple knot) "is thought to symbolize the power of

85
Sturlsson uses 'Thorn' twice to name a giant. Edda, Faulkes, trans.1995, 83 & 85.
86
Thorsson, Runeplore, 1988, 189.
87
Aswynn, Leaves of Ygdrassil, 1990, 20.
 32

[Odin] to bind and unbind""88 "Odin could make his enemies in battle blind, or deaf, or
terror-struck, and their weapons so blunt that they could no more but than a willow
wand." (Ynglinga Saga) 89

Through seeding and impregnation, Time and Death enter a now martial world
along with the Bonds of Time, the Bonds of Orion. "A third home is there [...] Valaskjolf
(Shelf of the Dead) is it, in days of old set by a god for himself." (Grimnismal)90

Three has other associations with impregnation and bonds. Although I have been
concentrating on the fertility aspects of the third charm, the knots and bonds may also
have been used to prevent pregnancy. Women in the ancient world knew ways to control
the number of their children: "Possibly knotting of cords played a part in contraception as
it did in healing or the more notorious intervention of impotence magic."91

Note: a woman is most likely to become pregnant during three days of her
menstrual cycle: the two days before and the day of ovulation. Binding her legs together
on those days greatly reduces conception. For those desiring a full womb, the three days
offer the greatest chance. After binding the womb of pregnant Earth, the knot magic of
this charm must be loosened to enable waters of delivery to appear with the Fourth
Charm.

88
Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, 1990, 147.
89
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/02ynglga.htm
90
Death and Time entering the world with the third charm may be why Odin, Lord of Fallen
warriors, appears along with other martial gods. Saturn owns the phallic third finger in palmistry.
91
Max Dashu, www.academia.edu/9833263/Herbs_Knots_and_Contraception
 33

Navel stone of Oracle of Delphi covered with a knotted net.92

When the Navel Stone is moved, when the knots are untangled, birth waters spew
forth. Mother Goose's 'four for a boy" soon arrives: "It unties all tangles [...] I do not
know whose child it is. It seems to be the [...] father of all things." (Tao Te Ching, fourth
verse)93 The Tao is another earthy alchemical tradition that follows along the path hiding
among the alphabet order.

92
Photo, Юкатан
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Omphalos_museum.jpg
93
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, John Wu, translation
 34

FOUR - Ansus, Ass (High God) or Oss (Mouth) or

The name of our fourth month, April, derives from 'aperie' to 'open'.

Several Zodiac signs have precessed past the flowing waters and April showers
since star symbols began developing. Four's charm brings us to the Escape of Passover,
the freedom from knots binding the 'Drought of March'. As Earth Magic, the fourth
charm now loosens the birth waters bound by the third charm. The baby now swims out
of the womb through the delta of our fourth letter.94

"Birth-runes learn, if help thou wilt lend, the babe from the mother to bring; On thy
palms shalt write them, and round thy joints, and ask the fates to aid." (Sigrdrifumal)

Stories connected to the seasonal festivals and to the alphabet order push the
festival origins far back in time. "Long forgotten sages watched the heavens and recorded
the names of the stars, not in writing but in myth [...] The imperceptible movement of the
stars reveal secrets] disclosing when the legends first came into being."95 The lion of Leo
ruled the spring sky about 8000 BCE, an age the sphinx of Egypt may have been built.
"The Egyptian king [...] taught that at the Creation the sun rose here [Leo]." Women once
sat upon a lion throne to deliver her Sun.

Lion throne with birthing goddess, Catyl Huyuk, c. 6000 BCE96

94
Myth being amazingly consistent, accordingly, 'God overcame the [...] rebellious humans when
he [flooded] the earth] on the 17th of the second Hebrew month'. First month being the Equinox
of March, April's showers follow this earlier drought.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-
numbers-in-bible/17

95
Derek Walters, Chinese Mythology, 1992, 7.
96
Photo Roweromaniak, wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ankara_Muzeum_B19-36.jpg
 35

Jupiter came to share ownership of Leo with his spouse: "Manilius had it Jovis et
Junonis Sidus [were in Leo] and appropriately so considering its regal character."97 Juno
was Roman goddess of childbirth and of their land. No knots to impede birth were
allowed in her temples. Four's delta appears on this comb used to loosen a woman's
braids, untangling her hair so no knots would prevent delivery of the coming child.

Switzerland, c. 4000 BCE98

In the image below, God creates Adam with his fourth finger, forefinger, Jupiter's
finger.

God creating Adam with his fourth finger99

Fourth Phoenician letter (daleth) is the 'door' through which we now begin the
journey into the material world. “Estuary (Óss) is the way of most journeys; but a
scabbard is of swords.” (ONRP) An estuary is the meeting of the sweet river's arrow with
the mothering sea (Mare). Here, the very female delta forms as new earth is delivered at
the watery mouth (Os) of the fertilizing river.

Egypt's Delta100
Oss (mouth), or Ass (god) is placed as fourth rune. Although gods eventually took

Wikimedia Commons
97
Allen, Star Names (1899), 1963, 252.
98
Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, 301.
99
Photo Jörg Bittner Unna, Creative Commons, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, c. 1511-12
100
Nasa Photo, wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_Delta#/media/File:Nile_River_and_delta Public domain
 36

over the Mother's delta to speak worlds and words into existence: It is "widely accepted
that this word [Ass] is ... related to *h₂ens- "to engender" (cf. Hittite hass- "to procreate,
give birth"101 That is, the Ass once had a very real female component.

The binding of the womb by the actions of the third charm must now be
unknotted to allow the birth. Warriors adapting the loosening charm: "A fourth I know:
If my foemen lay bonds on my limbs, I can chant myself free; the fetter flies off my feet,
and the shackles off my hands." (Havamal)102
By the time of the OIRP rune poem, King Jupiter has assumed Four's square
throne. Odin, glossed as Jupiter, maintains a watery home in the Fourth Hall of the Gods
Jupiter's symbol is the four-shaped . In alchemy, this symbol represents Tin.
Making the Bronze Age possible, Tin married Copper (Venus) to produce the brass and
bronze used for a warrior's sword. He was originally an Etruscan sky god, a king of gods
like Jupiter and other Ases and Emperors residing here. Because this position concerns
the charms of speaking new worlds into life, brass makes sweet sounding bells and
singing bowls. Jupiter (and King Tin) also spoke with the sound of thunder.

“Óss (God) is aged Gaultr [Goth] and prince of Asgardr and lord of Valhalla”
Glosses: Jupiter oddviti (OIRP)

Odin (Woden/Mercury), lord of Valhalla, gave his name to the fourth day of the
week, Wednesday. He shares his watery home in the Fourth Hall of April Showers with
Saga. "Sokkvabekk (Sinking Stream) is the fourth, where cool waves flow, And amid
their murmur it stands; There daily do Othin and Saga drink In gladness from cups of
gold." (Grimnismal) Not much is known about the goddess Saga, but "the names suggests

101
wikipedia.org/wiki/Æsir
102
Up to now, the counsels of Sigfridr seem to follow the alphabet myths. The fourth does not
seem to fit, although I may be missing the clue: "I counsel thee fourthly; if a witch full of evil be
in thy way, better to go on than sleep there, though the night overtake thee. The sons of men need
an eye of foresight, wherever the fray rages, for balewise women (evil Fairies) often stand near
the way, blunting swords and mind." (Sigrfdrifumal)
 37

some relation to history or storytelling."103 While earlier Earth goddesses gave birth
through their deltas, later gods spoke worlds into being, and the word was made flesh.
Although I am concentrating on runes in this paper, the Mystery pattern hiding in
the alphabet travelled widely through time and space. Gathering information from other
traditions helps understand the broken and hidden traditions of the Futhark secrets. In
Tibet, there are Five Buddha Families. The Buddhas of the Fourth include Manjusri,
representing "the sound of emptiness which is the source of all words. Gita (Song) who
sings to the music of Manjusri also resides there."104 And in India, the Lord of Speech
dwells in the fourth Chakra of the spine-tree containing the 'unstruck' sound (Anahata).
The 4-letter name of the God of the Torah, like the mysterious unstruck sound, is never
sounded: YHVH.

“Mouth (Os) is the source of all language, a pillar of wisdom and a comfort to wise man,
a blessing and a joy to every knight.” (OERP) "Runes of Speech (Mal-runar) thou must
know [...]when the assembly is going into full court." (Sigrfridumal)

The radiation of laws at the court’s Thing begins on our fifth day. The Five Books
of the Torah and the wind's gift of Speaking in Tongues also arrive with the breathy
sounding of the fifth charm. "The Tao is like a bellows [...] the more you talk of it, the
less you understand. Hold on to the center." (Fifth verse, Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell,
translation

103
Henry Adams Bellows, sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe06.htm
104
Freemantle, F. & Trungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Shambhala, 1987, 20
 38

FIVE - Raido, Rad (Wheel) or Reidh (Ride)

Raido includes both the act of riding and the vehicle.

“Riding (Rad) seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors and very courageous to
him who traverses the high-roads on the back of a stout horse.” (OERP)

We now arrive at the Perfect Fifth, the pure Quintessence. Freed from Three's
bonds by the fourth charm, we set out on a journey. In the North, summer began on a
Thursday, the fifth day.105 May, our fifth month, is time to ride forth, to radiate:
"Whitsuntide [...] Pentecost [50], the other name of this festival was a time of gatherings
[...] Knights from King Arthur's court set off to begin the great Quests."106

“Riding (Reið) joy of the horsemen and speedy journey and toil of the steed.” (OIRP)
(Glosses): iter ræsir. Journey

Fifth Phoenician/Hebrew letter is Hey, the 'sound of rough breathing.' In Tibet,

another country adopting the Phoenician alphabet, aspirate H (ha) is written ཧ this being
the shape of our numeral 5. 'Ha', is 1. a yawn 2. breath 3. sound of laughter.
(Tibetan/English Dictionary, 1881)

The early Phoenician letter Hey was a man with upraised arms and may have
represented the call to order by a man in power. God added this letter to Sara (h) and
Abram (ham)'s names empowering them to become leaders of a new people. They then
set off to find the land promised their tribe
While the radiating journey of the fifth rune (Rad) does not seem to follow
Phoenician's attributes of breath, the similarity will soon become clearer. There is a
transmission of laws and wisdom within the circle of the fifth charm. With the fifth

105
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 430.
106
Green, Calendar of Festivals, 1991, 61.
 39

charm, we encounter circles, eyes with studious pupils; mouths sending sounds and souls
out into the ether (the quintessence); hearts, that red center where our ancestors located
wisdom; and priestly heads that have been shaved to preserve wisdom and potency.
"Rad at the end is written mouth." (Abcedarium Nordmanicum) And the fifth
verse of the Tao warns: "Too many words exhaust. It is better to hold to the center." The
fourth charm delivered a manifest world into existence; the fifth shares both the harvest
of that world and Five Books of Law. The shearing of the barley is celebrated along with
the gift of the Torah (Shavous). The Hebrew festival is one of three mandated pilgrimage
festivals. One now travels forth to hear the Law.
The breath of 'Hey' has also been translated as 'window' from Anglo Saxon ‘vindr, the
‘wind’s eye’). When Hebrew changed the shapes of their alphabet from Old

Hebrew/Phoenician , they added a window to Hey: ‫ה‬

A Tibetan tradition again helps illuminate rune's shared number magic. The Law
of Karma is a Wheel, Rad (Wheel) being fifth rune. Karma, like the circular Five Books
of the Torah (transmitted at Pentecost/50), embodies the law. "On the fifth day there is
the karma family, which is the pure quality of air or wind."107 The fifth buddha's feminine
aspect is Tara. Tara, the starry ‘pupil of the eye' is also "the knowledge which arises from
reasoning in regard to the principles, the condition of the intellect.” Tara also means
'silver'108 Forgotten Mysteries remembered in children's songs, 'five is for silver, six for
gold.' (Mother Goose)
The Fifth Buddha may help explain the following rune charm: Tara is literally an
eye's 'pupil'. Once the square foundation of Four becomes Five, the circling around a
centering pupil becomes possible. Eye magic is one of the powers attributed to number
Five: "A fifth I know: If I see a shaft shot with deadly aim into the ranks; fly it never so
fast I can stay it, if my eyes light on it." (Havamal)
Puns and folk etymology are never far from ancient traditions. Watching pupils

107
Freemantle & Trungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, 1987, 20-21. The Five Books of the Law as
Torah has also been linked to a Wheel (Rota).
108
Benfey, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1886), 1991, 361.
 40

acquire the wisdom radiated by the fifth charm. People (and students) gather to share the
harvest of the season and to hear the Law. In Norse Iceland, people made the journey
each summer to hear laws proclaimed. The council of law, the Thing began on Thursday,
our fifth day.109 Iceland, like Ireland, was divided into four provinces with the council as
the (fifth) mystical center.
"Rad id est consilium."110 According to Snorri Sturluson, Council's definition
includes the wisdom shared during the season's councils. "Wisdom is called sagacity,
counsel, understanding... " 111
In ancient Greece, the speaking oracle of Delphi's chaste virgin gave counsel.
Apollo founded the oracle with priests from Crete. According to Plutarch, a large E (fifth
letter of Greek alphabet) was inscribed over the door. Delphi, like other centered fifth
symbols, was the navel, the 'here' as centering heart of the Greek world.112

RITUAL PURITY & CHASTITY

"In Indo-European languages the first four numerals were declined, with feminine and
masculine forms. Five, was thus the first number that had only one form..."113

The Quintessence is the purest, most perfect manifestation of a being. As such,

there is a celibacy associated with the fifth charm: "I counsel thee fifthly: Though thou
seest fair brides on the bench, let them not hinder thy sleep. Do not allure women to
kisses." (Sigdrifumal)

109
Davidson, Scandinavian Mythology, 59.
110
Derolez, Runica Manuscripta, 7. Cotton MS, Domitian A-j9, Saec XI
111
73-Skaldskaparmal, Prose Edda, Faulkes trans., 1985, 55.
112
As Greek vowel, it is number two, another number associated with Apollo.
113
Rees & Rees, Celtic Heritage, 1961, 191. Number 5 (V) represents celibate Minerva/Athena
 41

The shape that ultimately became Phoenicia's 5th letter Hey (E) is . This
seems unlikely to have come from the above hieroglyph of a person of power, but it does

seem to imitate the hieroglyph for 'hair'. In Egypt, priests were the keepers of the
Mysteries. They were completely shaved as a mark of their purity. The owner of Five's
summer magic is often described as a bald lawgiver who became celibate either by choice
of because he lost his head with the harvest.114 Having sprouted 50 days earlier, Barley
receives his first haircut. Fifth day of the Easter season is Shere Thursday when "people
would that day shere theyr hedes and clypp thyr herdes."115
Round baskets of riddles were both a way of teaching and distributing the harvest.
They are symbols of some of the chaste deities of numeral Five.116 Shere Thursday is also
known as Maundy Thursday. This is the day the Pope washes the feet of priests in
preparation for setting off on a procession: "Some derive the word from mandatum,
command; but others and I think much more probably, from maund, a kind of great
basket."117 Like the Law and harvest, alms were then shared among the poor from the
baskets (also known as riddles).

HERCULES, LAWS, AND ALPHABET WISDOM

In the magic of this radiating season, four fingers circle around the thumb, the
fifth finger. “The most important finger is the thumb, which among other things, is strong
in virtue and power.” (Book of Beasts, c. 12th Century)118

The giant thumb's association with numeral five suggests the naming of fifth day,

114
Ogham's Tree ogham for this position is the red-hearted Green Willow. Its seeds induce
sterility: “If anyone drinks it, he does not have children, and it makes women unfruitful.”114 T.H.
White, Book of Beasts (12th C.) 1954, 218.
115
Brand's Antiquities, vol. 1, 1849, 142.
116
As goddesses, they include Lady 5 (Shri Panch) as Lakshmi; 5th epagomenal god, Nephthys;
and chaste Minerva whose symbol was V (five).
117
Brand's Antiquities, 143.
118
White, Book of Beasts, 1954, 219.
 42

Thursday, after Thor. While neither the red giant Thor nor his priests were celibate like
other deities associated with this position, Thursday was the day to deliver law. "It is
significant that the Althing, the Law Assembly of heathen Iceland, opened on a Thursday,
the day of Thor."119

Thor is identified with both the red giant of Jupiter and with Hercules. In
palmistry, the thumb is given to the rule of Hercules. Red headed Thor's priests, unlike
the shaven Egyptian priests or circle haircut priests of the Celts, wore beards. Indeed, his
priests "have such names as Skeggi or Mostrarskegg. Skegg is the Norse world for beard,
and these names may perhaps be based [...] on their connection with the bearded god."120

Although he was not shaven, his wife Sif was shorn of her wheat-gold hair. Magic
working dwarves replaced it with strands of gold. Thor, remember, came from Thrace
("which we call Thrudheim). The goddess of Thrace was related to Europa, and therefore
to her brother, alphabet gifting Cadmus.

"Ogham was first invented [...] by the legendary Scythian king, Fenius Farsa." In
this tradition, his stepson was Hercules. 121 Under the name of Ogmios, a silver-tongued
Hercules transmitted the secrets of Ogham letters to the Celts. Oghams are arranged in
groups of fives. According to Herodotus (Book IV), "From Scythes, the son of Hercules,
were descended the after kings of the Scythians." They were the wild Indo Europeans
travelling in wagons and by horse between Mongolia and the Black Sea. Like later
Scandinavians, they knew the secrets of throwing staves to divine knowledge:

RIDDLES, THUMBS, AND SPEAKING IN TONGUES

This Norse riddle refers to 5's thumb magic and a Gift of Tongues which for
Christians happened at Pentecost (50). " Riding (Ræið) is said to be the worst thing for
horses. Reginn forged the finest sword." (ONRP)

119
Davidson, Scandinavian Mythology, 67.
120
Davidson, Scandinavian Mythology, 67.
121
Lebor Gabala Erenn (11th c.), & Auraicept na n-Eces 14th c.)
 43

The hero Sigurd roasted the heart of a great serpent-dragon Fafnir after killing
him with a sword forged by the smith Regin. Burning his thumb he popped it into his
mouth, thus gaining the ability to understand the speech of birds discussing Regin's plan
to kill him. "Then Sigurdr went over to Reginn and slew him, and thence to his horse,
which was named Grani, and rode till he came to Fáfnir's lair. He took up the gold,
trussed it up in his saddlebags, laid it upon Grani's back, mounted up himself, and then
rode his ways. Now the tale is told why gold is called Lair or Abode of Fáfnir, or Metal
of Gnita Heath, or Grani's Burden."122

12th century Hylestad stave church, Setesdal, Norway123

In this image, Sigurd sucks his burned thumb. Note the dragon heart is carved into
five steaks. Regin sleeps by the sword. Myth meeting history, Fafnir's lair was at
Gnitaheidr—today known as, Bad Salzuflen. The area is famous for the fire-breathing
dragon's legacy of thermal hot springs.

PROTECTION AND SHIELDS

"The fifth is Glathsheim (Place of Joy), and gold-bright there Stands Valhall
stretching wide; [...] Its rafters are spears, with shields is it roofed. On its benches are
breastplates strewn." (Grimnismal) Fifth Hall belongs again to Odin. It does not seem to
fit the usual attributes of the fifth symbol unless it is the reference to the shields. Many
protective ancient shields were associated with numeral five.
There are five layers to Achilles's shield and Irish hero CuChulainne had five
wheels on his shield. The five-fingered hand (Hamsa) literally meaning' five' is another
shield and protective against the evil eye. Thumbs, poking out of the third and fourth

122
germanicmythology.com/ProseEdda/BRODEURSkaldskaparmal.html Verse XL

123
Photo Marieke Kuliier from Leiden, The Netherlands,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hylestad_-_Sigurd_Sucking_Thumb.jpg
 44

fingers (fig thumb), once offered the same shield. In Ancient Rome," the fig sign, or
mano fico, was made by the pater familias to ward off the evil spirits of the dead."124
Earthiness losing favor, as a phallus it became a rude sign rather than representing the
virtues and testaments of other fifth symbols.

Hamsa (5) Fig Thumb 125

SECRET FIFTH
Like the many-layered shields, there are deeper meanings known only to initiates.
The original letter five (Hey) was the sound of breathing, the sound of the wind, fifth
Ogham being the willow, the speaking 'slough tree'. Ireland claiming secrets brought by a
pharaoh’s daughter (Hag of Beare) from Egypt, their poets explained "There are five
languages, including the (coic) fifth that is secret." This same tradition has different
rhythms of chanting poetry: "Five words are adjudged to be a breath of the poet." Rhythm
was measured "by a word completing a breath which was dictated by the fifth word."126

124
wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig sign
125
Photo Jeremykemp, Creative Commons

126
Alwyn & Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage, 1961, 190-191.
 45

SIX - Ken (Pine Torch) or Kaun (Ulcer, Cancre) or

"Thryheim the sixth is called where Þjazi lived, the terrible giant, but now Skadi, shining
bride of the gods, lives in her father's ancient courts." (Grimnismal)

Leaving the celibacy of Five's priest-kings meditating in their circles, the sixth
charm belongs to the maturing Bride of the Land. No longer a princess, the Queen now
assumes her glorious role in midsummer's marriage. The bright honeymoon of June's
sixth month is named after Juno, protector goddess of Roman lands. Friday, our sixth day
is named after earthy Freya. This is the night the Sabbath Bride joins her Israel. In
Spanish, the sixth day is Viernes after lovely Venus. As fertile goddesses, they produce
summer's wealth. Red roses once decorated their marriage beds.

"Six is Sex." (Barbara Walker), while 'Ken' means to know one in the biblical sense.

In the Midsummer festivals, the land is again seeded to ensue her unceasing
delivery of summer's gold. Jumping over torch-kindled fires lit this season increased the
probability of these children. Kindle, according to the dictionary, is from Old Norse
kynda, influenced by Old Norse kindill ‘candle, torch,’ 'torch' being sixth rune. "Jack be
nimble, Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick."
Mother Goose is yet another name for the ancient goddess. She sang 'five for
silver, six for gold' of the summer-seeded grain. Her son Jack was associated with
country folk who kept the old ways. While Jack is a knave, a fool, the simpleton, and
Jack-of-all-trades, he is also the one-eyed Fool, the Jack of Hearts who stole the Queen of
Heaven's cakes (baked all on a summer day).
 46

One Eyed Jack of Hearts

In the North, to rule kings must marry the land for it belonged to the Queen. The
bride and her dark lover first joined in spring. Now she prepares for her summer
wedding. While the marriage did not always prosper, Scandinavian rulers once followed
the mandate: Hallfrod said this: "The pine-haired deserted wife of Third [Odin]; his
deserted wife is [the land of Norway]."127 Skade is the shadow Bride of Norway.

"To Asa's son Queen Skade bore

Saeming, who dyed his shield in gore
The giant-queen of rock and snow,
Who loves to dwell on earth below,
The iron pine-tree's daughter, she
Sprung from the rocks that rib the sea,
To Odin bore full many a son,
Heroes of many a battle won." (Ynglinga Saga) 128
Saeming is an ancestor of the Kings of Norway. Another Bride of the Land wed
the kings of a northern kingdom of Norway: Thorgerdr. She is the 'bride of Helgi',
founder of Halogaland and of the later land rulers.129

In this image from Egypt, Earth and Sky mate to produce their young Air.
Separated by air so other children could be born, Y-shaped hooks hold Sky in place.

127
Skaldskaparmal, Edda, 1995, 67
128
wikipedia.org/wiki/Sæmingr
129
Davidson, Roles of the Northern Goddess, 1998, 177-178.
 47

Drawing, E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934)

Languages and alphabet letters contain the shadows of their forgotten ancestors.
Sixth Phoenician letter is a hook, a nail. In Hebrew, the letter is known as the 'vav' of
connection because it represents 'and', the joining together of people and objects. The Y-
shape in Old Teutonic, thought to be a debased form of the knotty thorn-rune, has the
dictionary meaning of 'with' and 'together' when used as a prefix. When used as a suffix,
Thorn's offspring inherit the qualities of the parent word ('ice' delivers 'icy').

Other traditions marry their symbols in a more abstract way. Here a six-
pointed star mates the fiery male spirit with the female matter. Like other sixth symbols,
the upward thrusting male triangle joins the female delta. Similar in concept, sixth letter
of ancient Greek is a di-gamma, 2 gammas (Γ+ Γ) joined to create sixth letter F. Kinfolk
are born when gametes join.

“The sixth one is the Throne of Glory, crowned, included, praised and hailed. It is
the house of the World to come.” (Kabbalah tradition, c. 1100 CE)130 The throne once
belonged to the Queen of the Land. A king must mount her throne, must sit on her lap,
must enter her house to attain legitimate rule for his children. Mother Nature accepting all
her children as legitimate, it was probably a concern with paternity that demanded a king
legally marry his Land. He now exchanges his marriage vows (6th letter as vau).131

FALLING TOWARD DEATH AFTER MIDSUMMER'S PRIME

Ulcer (Kaun) is fatal to children; death makes a corpse pale. (ONRP)

Venus of many names was one aspect of the Summertime Queen. By the time the
later rune poems were written, the rune belonging to lovely Venus represented venereal
sores. Her dancing hours had become whores. Roses once decorating her summer

130
Ayreh Kaplan, trans., The Bahir (1176), 1990, p. 53
131
In Arabic, 6th letter Vau, still means a vow in swearing w'Allah.
 48

honeymoon had become a ring-around-the rosy of plague, and her gay gold ring with
which kings once courted, a cankerous thing. “Honey is sweet and so is he […] he’s
married with a gay, gold ring […] a gay, gold ring’s a cankerous thing. About the Merry
ma tanzie.” (Traditional)132 But if you can grab the ring, there is yet another ride on
Mary's-go-round.
It is possible, though only conjecture. the following spell uses the wounds of the
sixth ulcer. Another possibility is calling upon June-swarming honeybees to come
stinging from their trees: "A sixth I know: If a man wounds me by spells of a tree; the
curse shall bite him that lays the spells upon me rather than me." (Havamal)
Midsummer’s mating produced the kin and kind of each new generation. The old
pleasures were never quite forgotten despite the later overlay of horror. Lovers still meet
for their Friday night date; Lovers still spoon beneath June's honeymoon.

Ulcer (Kaun) disease fatal to children and painful spot and abode of mortification. OIRP)
(Glosses): flagella (Whip) konungr (young king) (

I don't know the relationship of the whip to the usual attributes of the magic of
numeral six (unless it relates to 'sore' or to the tradition of beating fruit trees to make
them produce), but 'konungr' means the 'young king'. It was not forgotten, however
repressed, Midsummer's wedding resulted in the next king of the land. In Rigsthula
(Prose Edda), Heimdall, the Watcher of the Gods, leaves his rainbow bridge to assume
the name Rig (king). He fathers each class of people. Youngest of his three sons Kon, a
golden young prince, becomes the new king. Like all mortal kings, in time he must
eventually pass his torch.

6. Torch (Cen) is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame; it always burns
where princes sit within. (OERP)

At the end of Midsummer's golden honeymoon, both honeybee king and sun
begin losing strength, dying south. The prime of the longest day passes as the sun moves

132
Skelton, Blackwood, Earth Aire, Fire, Water, 1990.
 49

toward his fall but Earth never dies. She stores the seed of each dying king until he
returns as another year. ('ar' meaning 'year' is a word referring to Norse kings. We meet
Ar the High King again as the ruler of El's 12th letter. L
On the Day of the Wolf, the Norse world is destroyed. "The goddesses [escaped
the universal destruction at Ragnarok] We are told that the earth was to emerge cleansed
and purified from beneath the waves [...] We can be confident that in this new age the
goddesses will be there once more, protective and threatening, with their special gifts and
powers. Life could not continue on the earth without them.”133

“The Spirit of the The Fountain dies not. It is called the Mysterious Feminine.” (Sixth
verse, Tao Te Ching)134

133
Davidson, Roles of the Northern Goddess, 1998, 190.
134
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, John Wu, trans.
 50

SEVEN - Gyfu - Gift

7. Gyfu brings credit and honour, which support one's dignity; it furnishes help and
subsistence to all broken men who are devoid of aught else. (OERP)

Only the Old English Rune Poem includes the Elder Futhark's seventh rune.
Others have dropped Gift from their letters. This makes unraveling the charm more
difficult. In many traditions, seven is the number of endings, often in a fire or by deluge.
As in all earth magic, Help is promised as we cross the border.

The X shape of Gift's rune imitates the shape of Phoenicia's last letter, Tau.
Written X, T or +, multiplication and plus signs promise an increase, a good return. In the
circling mysteries of Hebrew, when last letter (T) is reached, one begins again at 'A' (T-
A).135 "Tau is the last or first path of the Tree of Life. It is also the womb and the grave
through which life passes in and out of our physical body."136 In music, we have also
reached T (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti) before rising into a higher octave. The X shape
also appears as tenth Roman numeral, promising a continuation after ten's decimations:
10 +1=11, 10+2=12.

Tau/Tav, translated 'mark', saved Cain from death (Genesis 4:15). Painted on their
doorposts, it saved enslaved Jews from plagues killing the firstborn of Egypt. In India,
'marg' is the spore, the guide of footprints along the path the returning soul must follow.
And in the Mysteries of winemaking, 'marc' is the residue after the grapes have been
trampled. Seven's gifts of rising spirits help ascension into the bright light of the eighth
rune Joy.

In the North, winter begins on Saturday, the seventh day. At seven's charm, the
physical body is abandoned. When the aging king leaves his pied de terre, when he steps
off the world, he leaves his marc behind, the sole his prince must emulate as he follows in

135
Around 250 BCE, Hebrew changed the letter shapes from the original Phoenician to the
Assyrian script adapted from Phoenician. (Ketav Ashuri).
136
http://www.qabalah.dk/Paths/32tauuniverse.html
 51

his father's footsteps. "The country [Scythia] has no marvels except its rivers [...] and one
thing besides, which I am about to mention. They show a footmark of Hercules,
impressed on a rock, in the shape like a man's foot, but two cubits in length. It is in the
neighbourhood of the Tyras."137 Tyras was a city founded by colonists from Miletus on
the Black Sea, near the home of the Aesir. 138

There are multitudes of prints left where gods, saints, kings, or buddhas stepped
off the earth, leaving their pledge behind. "These footprints [marg] are meant to remind
that Buddha was present on earth and left a spiritual ‘path’ to be followed."139 They
might also promise a safe return. "Romans were accustomed to carve pairs of footprints
on a stone with the inscription pro itu et reditu, "'the journey and return'. They used them
for protective rites on leaving for a journey and for thanksgiving for a safe return.”140

The more literal Germans swore binding oaths upon their 'soles. "On entering
upon a league [brotherhood], the ancients were wont to soak their footprints with a
mutual aspersion of gore, that their pledges of friendliness might be established by the
blending of their blood."141 'League' is a covenant, a pledge between people. It also
measures the path they walk together.

At the end of the sixth day in Persia "God created Saturn. Therefore, the Persians
call it "the day of hope."142 It is now the Sabbath when the gift of the day is generously
shared with friends and family before returning to the realities of work. "The seventh day
was SHaBaT (He rested).143 After taking the aging king's seed into her womb at her
Midsummer wedding, her Friday night date, the late summer's land experiences a
137
Herodotus (d. 425 BCE), Book IV, G. Rawlinson. trans., (1928), Tudor, l947, 230.
138
Miletus, remember, claimed Cadmus as their founder. The wine-mad Dionysius leaving his
'marc' was Cadmus' grandson.
139
wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_footprint, also Tres Riche Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, c. 1400:
Ascension of Christ by Jean Colombe shows foot prints left when he stepped off the world.
140
wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrosomatoglyph
141
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), quote in Vigfusson, Corpus Boreale, 423
142
DeSantillana,, Hamlet's Mill, 83.
143
Gikatilla (b. 1248) Gates of Light, Ari Weinstein, trans., 1994, 69.
 52

pregnant pause.

Saturday is named after aging Saturn, the Lord of the Rings whose name is
literally 'seven'. As a planet, Saturn takes 30 years to circle the sky, spending 7.5 years in
each quarter (30/7.5 = 4). Ancient gods assumed multiple names and forms, even co-
existing at one and the same time. Saturn is the Bull of Heaven; he is also Osiris, the Bull
as Orion. Disappearing from the western sky at sunset, Orion takes 70 days to reappear.
In time he is reborn into the night sky.

His faithful Isis, the star Sirius, follows Orion. Crying tears over his death causes
the waters of the Nile to flood. Around 2000 BCE, Sirius rose in our 7th month of July.
In time, seeds protected by her womb will sprout. A dead land will renew itself. Note:
there are many calendars used over the millennia Mysteries have existed. After the rising
Nile Flood, Egypt's new year begins. Grain will again sprout.

Osiris/Orion as sprouting barley after the Nile Flood144

Seven is associated with rising waters. Modern dictionaries no longer include this
definition for Gift (7th rune), but I once found "to give, lessen, to give way, [and] to
make moist." "In Scandinavian countries, Saturday is called lördag, [the name derived
from the old word] laugr/laug meaning bath, thus Lördag equates to bath-day. This is due
to the Viking practice of bathing on Saturdays."145

Both Fire and Water arrive with the seventh symbol. The Deluge coming with the
opening of the Seventh Seal may empower this seventh spell: "A seventh I know If I see
a hall aflame over the sleepers, be the flame ever so broad I can stay it. Such a charm
know I how to chant." (Havamal)

144
Drawing by E.A. Wallis Budge. 1900
145
wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday
 53

THE PLEIADES

Another group of stars associated with Seven's rising waters are the very ancient
Pleiades. Their appearance signaled coming storms. Although only a faint cluster of stars
riding of the shoulder of the Bull of Taurus, they were important calendar markers among
almost all ancient cultures. Their seven stars appear here along with the sun and moon.146

Nebra Sky Disc, Germany, c. 1600 BCE147

"The mystery-shrouded sky disc of Nebra was used as an advanced astronomical

clock [...The sky disc] was used to determine if and when a thirteenth month - the so-
called intercalary month - should be added to a lunar year to keep the lunar calendar in
sync with the seasons." It was found near Europe's oldest known observatory in Goseck.

According to the much later Babylonian rule (c. 500 BCE), "a thirteenth month
should only be added to the lunar calendar only when one sees the constellation of the
moon and the Pleiades exactly as they appear on the Nebra sky disc."148 The tips of the 4-
day old crescent moon on the disc mark the sunrises of summer and winter solstices on
the local horizon.

"According to accounts provided by the early Spanish explorers of the 16th

century, every 52 years the ceremony to mark the end of a sheaf period coincided with a
precise observation of the Pleiades star group at midnight, when it appeared exactly upon
the meridian. [...] The key reason why an Earth-Pleiades conjunction was held to be of
such importance to the Maya and the Aztecs, is that it was [that might] mark ‘the end of
the world."’149 To prevent this, a human sacrifice occurred at the moment the Pleiades
culminated at end of the 52-year cycle.

146
Only 6 are now seen by the naked eye Myths describe the loss of the 7th Pleiade.
147
Photo Dbachmann, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nebra_Scheibe.jpg
148
bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/nebra_disk.htm
149
http://www.ancient-world-mysteries.com/pleiades-venus-mayan-calendar.html
 54

Number magic is widespread and ancient. Our Western tradition lays out 52
weeks of 7 days in a 364-day year. Common decks of playing cards also number 52 and
contain the astronomically important number of 13 cards in each of the four suits.
Coming from China via India, Persia, and Egypt, they begin with the Ace, highest and
lowest number of a deck that includes 4 suits of 13 cards. Originally, the ace is the one-
eyed, snake-eye roll of a die (plural is dice). Dice herself is one of the dark Fate
goddesses. "Dice was in charge of justice ... she not only punished injustice but rewarded
virtue."150 Their kings facing death, seventh Phoenician letter is 'weapon' (Zain).

"How many miles to Babylon? 3 score miles and 10 (70). Can we get there by
candlelight? Yes, and back again. Here comes the candle to light you to bed, here comes
the axe to chop off your head." (Mother Goose)

"The one-eyed King of Diamonds is typically shown with an axe

behind his head with the blade facing toward him [the King of Hearts is threatened by his
sword]. These depictions, and their blood-red color, inspired the nickname "suicide
kings". 151 The cards have a value of 13. (The Pleiades and Moon determine the 13th
month on the Nebra disc.) The sharp axe returns us to the Pleiades and the seventh letter
Zain (weapon).

India measures her lunar calendar by 28 mansions. The moon passes through the
homes of his 28 wives on his round through the month. Over a year, he has visited each
wife 13 times. The mansion of the Pleiades is Krittika, meaning ‘cutter', a sharp object
like weapon as seventh Phoenician letter; like axe and sword threatening the one-eyed
Kings.152

150
Robert Bell, Women of Classical Mythology, 1991, 164
151
wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_52-card_deck
152
Harness, The Nakshatras, 1999, 11.
 55

DEATH AND RESSURECTION OF THE KING

"Hey the Gift, ho the Gift. Hey the Gift on the living, Son of the dawn, Son of the clouds,
Son of the planet, Son of the star” (Song for a Mother's sacrificed Son) Like Odin's son
Baldr living in the Seventh Hall of the Gods, the son will rise again.

"The seventh is Breithablik; Baldr has there For himself a dwelling set, In the land I
know that lies so fair, And from evil fate is free." (Grimnismal)

A Mistletoe arrow killed white shining Balder, best loved of Odin’s sons. Odin
placed his magic gold ring, Draupnir, on the funeral fire. "His death is seen as the first in
the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarok
when gods, monsters, and giants make war."153

"The sun turns black, land sinks into the sea, the bright stars vanish from the sky; steam
rises up in the conflagration, hot flame plays high against heaven itself." Seas rise, a great
Deluge covered the land, putting out the fires of war. After the death of the gods on the
Day of the Wolf, Balder will be reborn in the new green world. "Without sowing, the
fields will grow, all evil will be healed. Baldr will come." (Voluspa)154

The Hags of the dying year are included among Seven's symbols. They are crones
to Saturn as male Kronus. As old Father Time he swallows his children. In the second
letter I discussed the saturnine Fate goddesses and their wolves. Black Nemesis, mother
of Apollo and Artemis, celebrated her holidays on the seventh of the month. Her Sun,
Apollo is the only other Greek god to celebrate on the seventh. "His mother Leto
[Nemesis] originated in SW Asia Minor. All Apollo's festivals were celebrated on the
seventh day of the month; the other Greek gods choosing the full moon for their
worship."155

153
wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldr
154
Edda, Carolyne Larrington, trans., (1996), 2014, 11.
155
Thomson, Studies in Ancient Greek Society, 1965, 293.
 56

The Crone delivers the kiss of death. With the kiss, the soul fleeing its worn host
was gathered into a woman's womb to wait rebirth into another circle. Kisses are written
as XXX's while OOO's represent hugs. Earth, taking the seed of kings into her generous
womb, ages into a winter Hag, but like her dying king she will renew as a Virgin Spring

PLEDGES & ALE RUNES

One final comment on the cross my heart and hope to die pledge of Seven's Gift.
At the second rune Ur, I also discussed oaths and ale runes. In the Chakra tradition of
India, the second Chakra contains a young goddess "whose mind is exalted from drinking
ambrosia." (Shat-Chakra-Nirupana, 1577 CE)156 The drink drips down from the seventh
Chakra. Like all proper spirals, seventh and last chakra contains first letter 'A'.

Odin's mead, like India's ambrosia, comes dripping down to exalt his warriors.
Above his hall stands a goat feeding on the branches of the tree: "from the goat's udder
flows mead with which it fills a vat each day. This is so big that all the [dead warriors]
can drink their fill from it." (Gylfaginning)157

These ale runes begin with the Gift rune's cross (X). "Cross thy cup against ill [...]
then I know that thy mead will never be poisoned [...] Learn alerunes (Al-runar) if you
would another's wife in whom you trusted would not betray your trust. Cut them on the
horn and on the back of the hand and mark Need on thy nail." (Sigrdrifumal)

Vikings took their drinking (and another's wife if they were strong enough) very
seriously. Drinking in the Freesian (Dutch) way became a symbol of excess but drinking
a comrade under the table once marked male prowess rather than dissolution. Alcohol
gave 'Dutch courage' and strength; 'Dutch treat' implies each person contributed his Gift.

To refuse a drink was a deadly insult settled by knife or fist. To accept the drink
could be equally lethal. Ale might be poisoned by any number of substances. The act of
raising the cup to swallow exposed one's throat to an enemy. Attendance at a banquet,

156
Motoyama, Theories of the Chakras, 1981, 169.
157
Prose Edda, Anthony Faulkes trans., (1987) 1995, 32.
 57

lulled by food and drink, might end with the doors being barred, the building burned. "I
counsel thee seventhly: If thou hast to fight out a quarrel with dauntless men, better to
fight than be burnt in the house." (Sigrfridumal)

What to do? What to do? Happily, the custom of pledging, the cross my heart,
evolved. This became a necessary part of what was becoming an increasingly dangerous
social life. When someone pledged your health, he stood guard while the drinker safely
finished his drink. The first drinker then guarded the second. Pledges eventually included
both friendship and romantic love. The woman was allowed to kiss the glass (or her
lover) without drinking. Note: a double cross negated the pledge.

"Mark Need on thy nail." Need is a cross-shaped 10th rune ; Roman numeral ten is
written X.

Need, reflecting the Ten's decimations of Time, married Necessity, mother of

invention. Written on the fortunate thumb presumably kept the drinker's cup running
over. The ritual of the 'Supernaculum' included the tapping, circling, or marking the
thumb with the last drops of ale in the emptying glass marked with a cross against ill. The
X-crossed cup within the circle (XXOO) contains a very old promise.

Sipenitsi, Ukraine, c. 3800 BCE158

"Say, whence, great Apollo, the Custom we follow, when drinking brisk liquors per
bumper. In a circular pass We quaffe e'ry glass; And why is it o'er the left thumb, sir?
When Mortals with wine Make their faces to shine, Tis to look like Apollo in luster. And,
circulatory, to follow his glory, Which over the left thumb they must, sir."159 Apollo, like
fateful Nemesis, celebrated his festivals on the seventh day of the month.

158
Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, 218.
159
Information about drinking from Brand's Antiquities (1849), vol. 2, 325-343.
 58

EIGHT - Wunjo, Wynn - Joy also White

"An eighth I know most profitable to men: Where so feud arises among princes, I can
heal it forthwith." (Havamal)
We are coming to the end of the first Aettir, the family belonging to the generous
earth god Freyr. The earliest division of 24 runes into 3 groups of eight appears shortly
after the origin of the Futhark. Two bracteates (thin pieces of metal worn as jewelry)
from southern Sweden c. 450-550 CE show the division.160
Even after the runes were reduced to 16, the families (no longer containing 8
runes each) still began each family with Freyr, Hel, and Tir. Perhaps reflecting a darker
age, both Gift and Joy have disappeared from the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark.
Although we left the Gift of the seventh rune with the promise of a return to the
circle of light, stars dying to the west are first reborn into the night sky. The next family,
Hel's family, continues the path through the dark Underworld before returning to the light
of the sun (16th rune). But first we must follow the soul path through the eighth position
and number eight belongs to winsome Venus.
Bright, white (wynn) planet Venus (also Wynn) loops around the circle of the sky
taking eight years to return to her original position. She travels 1.6 years between each
heliacal rising. The entire cycle returning her to the original zodiac position takes 8 years
(8/1.6=5). During her journey she has five morning risings. Each appearance in a
different zodiac sign traces out a five- pointed star, a pentacle ✩ in the sky; and each arc
contains the important number 72 (360/5=72).
Numerals 5 and 8 are both associated with the journey of Venus through the sky.
Wearing the lawman's star as fifth symbol denotes her role as keeper and transmitter of
the Law. Orbiting earth 13 times on that journey also links her to the moon's number 13.
Venus, like Mercury, is an inferior planet. She passes in front of Earth and then circles
behind. Passing from Earth's shadow, she grows moon-like horns as she emerges. Like all
goddesses, she has both warlike and peaceful aspects. As eighth symbol, she appears in
her peaceful aspect as Justice: "Wynne (Bliss) he enjoys who knows not suffering,
sorrow nor anxiety, and has prosperity and happiness and a good enough house." (OERP)
160
Page, An Introduction to English Runes (1973), 2006, 82.
 59

In our Western calendar, the week's new octave begins dancing on bright Sunday.
This is the day the stone circles of Long Meg and her daughters of Cumbria once came to
life and danced. They were turned to stone for "unlawful love."161 Earlier cultures being
more comfortable with her earthiness: Venus still "embodies sex, beauty, enticement,
seduction and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin
orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the Latin noun venus ("sexual love" and
"sexual desire")."162 "
Seven for a Witch, Eight for a Whore" is a Mother Goose verse that doesn't
appear in children's books, while Sigrfrida also warns against venial lust: "I counsel thee
eighthly: Beware of evil, and avoid staves of falsehood. Betray no maid nor man's wife,
nor lead them to shame." (Sigrfridumal)

HARVEST AND STOREHOUSE OF EARTH

Our calendar month now brings us into late August, a harvest month. The
storehouses of ancient goddess kept the harvest until needed. Although the Norse stories
do not seem to remember the earth goddesses as Bottomless Pits, the concept helps
understand Eight's symbol. Eighth Phoenician letter is Heth a 'gate' through which
harvested kings and their seed are carried. The children of Heth sold a cave to biblical
Abraham for his burial (Genesis, Ch. 23).

Heth (Gate) is written H or as , the shape depicted on the womb of this

Anatolian goddess. Eventually the Gate to Earth's treasures moved to heaven, its symbol
became Hel's ninth rune. Note: Hekate Underworld goddess from Thrace and Anatolia is
another 'Gate', standing at the liminal crossroads of time and place.

Anatolia c. 2500 BCE163

161
Ashe, Mythology of the British Isles (1990) 1993, 50.
162
http://www.crystalinks.com/venusrome.html
163
Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, 11.
 60

Wynn, 8th rune, can translate 'fair' or 'friend'. Joy and White Wynn are names
associated with Venus. In the late summer sky, Virgo sat on her throne with the harvested
grain in her arms. As star goddess, Virgo is identified with Ishtar, one of Venus's many
names. Known as the Joy of Mercury, Virgo was the last of the earth goddesses to leave
her land. The world having grown too harsh for her gentle nature, she joined her sisters in
the sky. Virgin Mary, acquiring many of the attributes of her older sisters, also ascended
to heaven in August. Her assumption occurred after her work on earth was finished.
"Two, four, six, eight, Mary stands outside the gate."
Virgo "is called Astrais [...] and identified with Dike or Justice." Regardless of
her name, during the eighth month of Earth's solar calendar, the gold of her harvest, grain
from her fields and honey from her hives was carried through the gate (Heth) of her
opening storehouse. Justice, a necessary component of a bountiful harvest, was dispensed
at these summer gatherings. Held for two weeks in late July, early August the purpose of
the Icelandic All-thing included the recital of law and the judging of disputes. In keeping
the peace of Venus "there was a ban of arms."164

SUN KINGS OF SUMMER

The sun sign of Leo eventually replaced Virgo in the morning sky of late summer
due to the Precession of the Equinoxes. In Ireland, Loaf Mass (August 1) was celebrated
in the name of Lugh, another sun king. The Lughnassad, held eight moons after the
Winter Solstice, included horse races, games, and Troy-town mazes. Lugh dedicated his
August festival to his foster mother, a grain goddess who died clearing her land. Like
other earth goddesses, she left her name on the land. Her games were held around the
graves of the Teltown hill.165
"In "Pagan times tribes would hold fairs where they sold their wares, races horses,
met in athletic competition and participated in tribal conferences [...] Teltown marriages
of a year and a day were consecrated."166 I found no information on whether the Icelandic
Thing held country weddings during their late summer gatherings. But in keeping with

164
Davidson, Myths & Symbols in Pagan Europe, 1988, 16.
165
Ellis, Celtic Mythology, 1992, 215.
166
Morwyn, Secrets of a Witch's Coven, 1988, 215.
 61

Venus' association with our peaceful eighth symbol there was a ban on arms during both
gatherings.
Eighth House of Astronomy is a house concerned with other people's money. The
The Celtic festival celebrated with weddings, games, and bread baked from the bones of
Earth's summer gold eventually degenerated into a British Bank Holiday. Although banks
are still concerned with Venusian appreciation, the gates of England's House of Treasure
now close August 1.
Virgo is sometimes "figured with the scales in her hand."167 Her labyrinthine
womb being source of all wealth, both grain and gold are still measured in Troy ounces.
Earth giving all wealth inspires the naming of money: In India, an Anna is a common
coin as well as a goddess; In Germany, there are hellers, Hel ruling the Underworld.
'Money' comes from Rome's Juno Moneta. Unable to prevent her warring citizens from
indulging in their favorite pastime, Juno agreed to fund wars but only if they were just.
Janus, the two-headed god of Roman Gates, invented that money. Janus welcomed Saturn
to Italy when he was exiled from his own land.168
Many people moved January's winter Gate to fall. St. Januarius is now celebrated
on September 19. Setting off to war, Roman soldiers marched through Janus's Gate. In
our alphabet, harvested souls pass through a gate on the way to Underworld. But first we
must cross the bridge.

BRIDGE BETWEEN THE WORLDS

"Heavenmount is the eighth where Heimdal is said to rule the sanctuaries. The watcher of
the gods with joy Quaffs good mead in this happy house." (Grimner's Lay, c. 1200)169

Like white shinning Venus, Heimdal is the whitest of the gods. His home is at the
end of a shimmering rainbow often identified with the Milky Way. After an earlier
Deluge a rainbow announced the end of destruction. Heimdal's shimmering bridge will

167
Allen, Star Names (1899), 1963, 462.
168
Grimal, Dictionary of Classical Mythology, 1990, (Juno and Janus). Janus is the Gatekeeper of
January in our calendar, standing between the New Year and the Old.
169
Titchenell, Masks of Odin, 1985, 159-173.
 62

carry giants and monsters destroying the northern world. But until the end, the Watcher
stands guard on the rainbow stretching between Middle Earth and home of the gods.
The Twelve Halls of the Gods demonstrates knowledge of astronomy as well as
hiding a mythic order. It is not a random action of a poet that placed Heimdal and his
Milky Way at the gate of late summer. The stars of this bridge grow very bright in the
late summer skies.170 "When Autumn comes it grows more discrete. Although floating
clouds may cover it." (The Silver River, Tu Fu, c. 700 CE)
An alternate name for Heimdal is Rig, meaning king. With the Precession of the
stars King Leo with his glowing red heart, Regulus, eventually administered Virgo's
Justice. Described above, Venus's travels through the sky included a pentacle as well as
her eight-pointed star of directions. Although Leo's king still owns the Fifth House of
Astrology, his stars moved into the eighth month, replacing his Mother as administrator
of Justice. (Justice is traditionally 8th Tarot card.)

Rainbow Bridge of the Milky Way171

Heimdal-Rig guards the

Rainbow Bridge as one of Eight's
symbols. Glowing Celtic Lugh once celebrated his mother's harvest holiday in the eighth
month of August. This king who gave his name to London is now little stooping Lug, the
leprechaun still guarding the gold hidden at the end of each rainbow.172
The Milky Way, formed from milk spilled by the cow goddess, was sprinkled
with glittering straw dropped by St. Venus when she tried to retrieve her harvest stolen by
St. Peter. Peter ended as another watcher by Heaven's Gate. Like northern Heimdal, he

170
Serviss, Astronomy with the Naked Eye, 1908, 175-8.
171
Bruno Gilli/ESO - http://www.eso.org/public/images/milkyway/ Creative Commons

172
Ellis, Irish Mythology, 1987, 154
 63

blows his horn and judges the harvest as he directs the fate of entering ghosts. "Churn,
butter, churn. Peter stands outside the Gate, Waiting for a buttered cake."173

TRAVEL BETWEEN THE WORLDS

The German gods learned the secrets of Far Travel from Freya, Frigg's star being
another name for Venus. Among the male gods, only Odin practiced far-travel because it
was considered unmanly, a shaman's journey leaving one weak and exhausted. While
Freya has lost many of her Venusian qualities, "among Asiatic peoples the planet Venus
excites unique reverence as the shaman's source of prophetic inspiration."174
Celtic monks, who added their own variations to Germanic Mysteries, transcribed
many rune manuscripts. A manuscript, of German origin with a "trace of an Irish
ancestor", named the eighth rune, usually written Wynn (Joy) as 'Wing'.175 Possibly
influenced by feathered Celtic shamans and kings travelling the River of Birds on their
way to the Otherworld. Wing is a name given to both far-travelling Odin, shaman-king,
and to Thor, son of Earth.

173
Balding, elderly St. Peter is also associated with the fifth symbol. He inherited the Keys to the
Kingdom lost by an angel who was thrown from heaven: “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw
a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit."
(Revelations, 9)
174
Tolstoy, Quest for Merlin, 1985, 209.
175
Derolez, Runica Manuscripta, 1954, 65.
 64

SECOND AETTIR - HEL'S FAMILY

NINE -Hagalaz (Hag god, Hail, Hel, or Heal)
TEN - Naudiz, Nyd (Need or Need Sticks)
ELEVEN - Isaz, Is, Iss (Ice)
TWELVE - Jera, Ger, Ar (Harvest, Plenty or Year)
THIRTEEN - Ihwaz (Yew Tree)
FOURTEEN - Perth (Lot or Dice Box)
FIFTEEN - Algiz - (Elk as Horned Deity, also Elk-Sedge)
SIXTEEN - Sowilo, Sol, Sig (Sun, Victory)

"One for Sorrow, Two for Mirth, Three for a Wedding, Four for a Birth, Five for
silver, Six for Gold, Seven's a story ne're to be told." Mother Goose then follows with
"Eight for Heaven, Nine for Hell." After crossing Heavenmount's Bridge, runes now
bring us to Hel's domain.
Part One included the history Norsemen attributed to the origin of their gods and
their learning the secrets of runes. To write this paper, I sifted through and compared
numerous patterns from vastly different cultures, starting with the first transmitters of the
alphabet: the Phoenicians. Their alphabet represented the sounds of their language using
the first sound of each physical entity representing a letter (e.g., 'A' for Aleph/ox).
I explored attributes associated with each physical object. This translated into an
understanding why the rune objects were chosen a thousand years later. It also became
clear runes followed the orderly pattern of the older alphabet Spell. The Mysteries,
learned in the lands of Egypt and Asia by the Black Sea, were hidden in alphabet
symbols. They tell of a journey through life, death and return into light. They hold
calendar secrets based on the turning Earth and mirrored in her sky.
The world of time and harmony began on the Middle C of Tuesday, the 'three's
the charm', and ended on the seventh note. Having risen into the white light of another
octave, we now continue the journey through the Underworld: It begins with Hel as ninth
rune. The number placement of each letter hides the marks, the footprints of an ancient
path out of Africa. We must follow carefully if we are to understand the secrets of Runes.
Modern scholars, distancing themselves from the excesses of earlier generations
 65

reincarnating as pharaohs and noble Trojans have not bothered to learn the alchemy, the
astronomy, and the number magic empowering earlier scholars discussing their
Mysteries. This is a liability in uncovering their secrets.
 66

NINE - Hagalaz (Hag god, Hail, Hel, Heal) or

According to Mother Goose's counting rhyme 'Nine is for Hell'. An alternate

rhyme declares 'Nine's for a burial'. Sigfrida counseling her lover continues: "I counsel
thee ninthly: Care thou for corpses, wherever on earth thou findest them, be they sick-
dead, or sea-dead, or weapon-dead. Make a bath for the departed man; wash his hands
and head; comb him and dry him, ere he be put in coffin; and bid him sleep sweetly."
At the ninth hour, the traveler has given up the ghost. For those not returning to
the circle with the eighth charm, we now enter the Underworld. In the north, the ninth
world belongs to a rotting Hel. Rotting or not, as guardian of the tombs, she welcomed
small children, women, the sick, and those who did not die in battle into her dark earth.

It took nine long nights to walk to Hel. The dead might be fitted with special Hel
Shoes (Hel Skor) for the journey. Once the tomb is reached, sleeping witches and kings
could rise from dead to give advice; Hel could be asked to return the dead to life. "There
was an old woman lived under the hill. And if she's not gone, she lives there still."

In addition to Hel's fierce form, traces of an earlier, more powerful ruler of the
burial mounds appear among the Norse stories. Under her many names, Freya welcomed
the dead.176 Although Freya and her older aspect as Frigga have been disassociated from
pi-bald rotting Hel, they undoubtedly once had had a closer connection.

Far travelling Freya flew in a feathered coat, rode a boar, or traveled in a cart
drawn by cats, cats having nine lives. She taught the art of far seeing and magic (Seidr).
Female seers, known as Volvas, wore cloaks of cat fur or feathers: "The word vulva was
taken from the Medieval Latin word volva or vulva ("womb, female genitals)"177
Described earlier (eighth symbol), the shape of Hel's rune appears on the womb of a
goddess from Anatolian Asia. The earthy Freya, owner of the Ninth Hall, originally came

176
Preparing for her death, a woman vows to not eat 'til I come to be with Freyja.' Davidson,
Roles of the Northern Goddesses, 1998, 176.
177
wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulva#Etymology
 67

from the land of the fate-dispensing goddess Asia.

"The ninth is Folkvang which Freyja decrees Who shall have seats in the hall: The half of
the dead each day does she choose, and half does Othin have." (Grimnismal)

Freya's hall, Sessrymnir (Rich in Seats), is the name of a boat. The rich were
buried in actual boats. Instead of walking, they might comfortably sail to the Otherworld
along the River of Heaven. Setting fire to the burial boats are the ritually spinning Nyd
sticks following as tenth rune. For those not rich enough to be buried in a boat, stones
were placed around the burial mounds in the shape of boats to help sail the sky. "The
Stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but
also found in Northern Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial is
surrounded by [...] stones in the outline of a ship."178

ASTRONOMICAL CYCLES
Like other great goddesses, Freya owned a bright necklace, the Brisegamen.
"Brisgamen is the Magick Circle and the Wheel of the year [giving] power over the
cycles of the seasons."179 Created by four dwarves named North, South, East, and West,
she offered gold for the necklace. Refusing gold, their fee was her sleeping one night
with each. A lusty earth goddess, she did.
Sun Kings have been incorporated into myths of the dying and rising grain. The
Star-of-Heaven has become hopelessly intertwined with stories of sun kings. The sun,
beginning to die in his prime (six) after Midsummer's sex magic, enters the tomb our
ninth month of September's Equinox. After his fall, Day grows steadily weaker. Sailing
through the night, he will return on Mother's Night: twelfth month's Winter Solstice. The
risen sun once more will grow stronger with the year. The sun journey takes a year, and
we will join the ruler as High King again at the 12th rune (Ar, English letter EL).

Star Children travelling along the ecliptic path of zodiac stars take 40 days to
reappear in the sky. Among the Scythians, the new dead were a 'living dead' and wheeled
178
wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_ship
179
Campanelli, Ancient Ways, 1992, 36.
 68

in a wagon around the countryside to visit their kin. At the end of forty days, the dead
man became a ghost and was carried into the womb of Earth. From here he might awake
to grant guidance and favors.180

Milky Way with Galactic Center between her legs

Twice a year, the zodiac's ecliptic intersects with the Milky Way: now in spring
and fall. The river of the Milky Way flows toward the Galactic Center, the black source
of the stars of our galaxy. This womb of the stars lies between the Hag of Scorpio and
Sagittarius. Among the 27 mansions visited monthly by India's moon, this mansion is
known as Mula the 'root star' belonging to a hag form of Kali, Time herself. 181

Ur, c. 2400 BCE -Scorpion Goddess opening her womb Note

nine legs. I believe this reflected Scorpio's movement into a later month due to the
Precession. All animals have an even number of legs; scorpions have eight.

Like all proper earth goddesses, India's Hag wearing a necklace of alphabet letters
takes the seed of the dying into her womb until a new world is born. "At the end of each
cycle during which one creation lasts, [Kali] gathers the seeds of the universe that is
extinct, out of which a fresh creation is started."182

180
Rolle, World of the Scythians, 1980, 27.
181
Harness, The Nakshatras, 1999, p. 75.
182
Great Britain Imperial Records, Feasts & Holidays of the Hindus, 1914, 45 Her festivals are
celebrated late October/November during which Scorpio now rules the sky.
 69

Sheila-na-gig opening her womb, Kilpeck Church, England183

Stars following the path of the Bull of Orion and Sirius are known as decan stars.
Slightly south of the ecliptic travelled by the sun, stars, and planets. 36 decan stars rise 10
days apart to count out a circle of 360 degrees. Disappearing from the western sky at
sunset, they reappear in the night sky after 70 days. Each remains "in the underworld for
seventy days where it purifies itself and rises on the horizon like Sirius. One is reminded
[...] of the embalmment of Tutankhamen in which his body was prepared for burial [...]
for seventy days, during which time hymns were chanted and prayers and spells recited
for the soul of the dead."184
It is the aging hag whose womb welcomes the seed of her dying children to await
their return to the light. Describing a rune list whose Hag rune is glossed with letter 'A',
Derolez notes that of all the glossed runes only the Hag's rune is capitalized. "I admit
there is no reason to have a capital H here." 185 The capital seems to imply respect paid to
a disappearing goddess.
'A' is the shape of a woman's womb as well as a cow goddess' head giving birth to
early alphabets. Within her powerful womb, treasures are kept safe for another
generation. In keeping with the memories of older cow goddesses, the fey troll children
of Frau Hulda sport cow tails.186 Beautiful when they are young, Hulder folk marry
among humans. Because of this ancestry, Germanic people must control their trollish
nature.

183
Image by Pyrderi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SheelaWiki.jpg
184
Davidson, Astronomy, and the Imagination, 1985, 47.
185
Cotton Ms, Domitian A9, saec XI, Derolex, Runica Manuscripta, 1954, 10.
186
The Norse, intermarrying freely with the beautiful Hullder maidens, also need beware taking
on trollish tendencies as they age.
 70

Hulda, an ancient goddess of the North, makes the snow fly when she shakes her
pillows. Outside this paper, the related Celts placed Holly as their tree alphabet ogham in
this position. Sacred to Holle, Hel, Hilda, and Hulda, like the Hag's rune described above,
"Of all the trees are in the wood, the Holly wears the crown."

LABYRINTHS & HEALING

The zodiac sign of Sagittarius is the ninth house of Western astrology. It signifies,
among other things, long journeys. Sagittarius was identified with Chiron, a centaur, half
man, half horse, and a skilled healer. The Centaur's sister was Helle, the goddess who
rode a Golden Ram coveted by Greek Argonauts (Voyage of the Argo, c. 200 BCE).
Their mother a cloud, their stepmother was Cadmus' daughter. The healer in ninth place
leads us to another attribute of Hel.

The Underworld can be hot, cold, or filled with salty brine water. In some
traditions, the Underworld contains a labyrinth. Ninth Phoenician letter is Teth, translated

'Coil' or Clew as 'Ball Of Yarn': or Θ . The dictionary directly links the clew
with the thread helping Theseus find his way into the labyrinth of Crete. Like other
ancient heroes, he entered the dark Underworld before returning to the light of day.

Having deleted the Gift (7) and Joy (8) runes, Younger Futhark places the Hag as
Crone of the seventh rune.187 None-the-less, Hel still rules the second group of the Aettir
(which no longer have 8 letters in the Younger Futhark families). By the time of this rune
poem, Christ rather than the fertile womb of the Creatrix has become the Creator.

9/7. Hagall (Hail)l is the coldest of grain; Christ created the world of old. (ONRP)

Hel was once a bottomless pit, a coiling cornucopia where the cold seed waited
out the dying of the year. Hail grew in her womb and snow flew when Frau Holle shook
her feather bedding. Although Hel came to represent a world of terror, her name is related

187
The 16 runes of the Younger Futhark keep the mythology if not the original positions. 7 is
another number associated with the saturnine Hag.
 71

to 'hale and hearty' and 'heal'. Her children were gently heeled into her rich womb until
their return to the light.
Several traditions associate the ninth symbol, as well as the second, with healing.
There are two times in a woman's life associated with healing and divination: First is with
the onset of the fires of adolescence. The fires flame again with the dying of her sexuality
when her Underworld opens for one last riverine flow of slowing Time.
A star shape replaced the H shape of the older Hag rune. The star of 'Hail'
represents a healing star, the hale and hearty symbol of EMT's. Ice, brimstone (sulfur)
and salt brine from her womb all contain healing qualities. One of the variant symbols for
Teth Θ is the alchemical symbol for the brine of salt. It also represented the ocean brim.

9/7. hagall (hail) EMT logo

Hail cold grain and shower of sleep, sickness of serpents (OIRP)

Glosses: grando (Grain), hildngr (child of Hild)

Earlier (second rune), I described the nine healing twigs with the power to cure
this 'sickness of serpents': "Then took Odin Nine magic twigs (wuldortanas); then smote
the serpent that in in nine bits dispersed."188 In India, the wife of the archer Ram was
stolen by a demon and hidden in a labyrinth. In fall, Rama woke the sleeping goddess
Durga to help. Durga like Wuldor has nine healing twigs, her nine forms manifesting as
nine plants. Her festival originally held in the spring, was moved to fall in memory of her
helping Ram's wife escape the labyrinth. Like Freya and Hild, Durga is a goddess of
both vegetation and battle. Like Hel, she is associated with the number nine and is
worshipped over nine nights (Navarati/Durga Puja).189.
Healing magic underlies the Earth magic adapted to the needs of warriors.
Freya/Frigg was goddess of married women and marriage, and childbearing was always a
gamble. In Scotland sheep's thyroid (brisgein) was given to human dwarves to help them

188
Rohde, The Old English Herbals (1922), 1989, 18.
189
Great Britain Imperial Records, Feasts and Holidays of the Hindus, 1914, 20-26. Sita was born
in the fourth month (April/May).
 72

grow, thyroid being a source of growth hormone in some forms of dwarfism.190 L'ves are
Elle's little people. Her name (often replaced by Mary) names numerous healing plants.
"She helped women give birth to children, and as Scandinavians used the plant lady's
bedstraw (Galium verum) as a sedative, they called it Frigg's grass"191 Placed in the beds
of women giving birth, it was also called Freyjar's grass.192 But we have just entered the
swirling Underworld. Return of the Star Child must wait the opening eye of 16th rune.

BRIMRUNES
"A ninth I know: If I am in need to save my ship afloat, I still the wind on the waves, and
lull the whole sea" (Havamal).

The coil of Teth ('clew/ball of yarn' or 'coil') is ninth Phoenician letter. In Greece,
the womb of the goddess Tethys is the source of all winds and ocean waves. In the north,
the oceans come from the blood of the giant Ymir also known as Brimir. In older stories,
the blood would not have come from her veins. Brimo is one of the names of the earth
mothers, Demeter and Thrace's Hecate. The watching eye of Helice helped Demeter
retrieve her child from the Underworld.
Tethys being source of all sea storms, knowing the proper runes can recall the
storm to her womb. Hel's cave is the northern source of the waters. "Wave-runes
(Brimrúnar) learn, I if well thou wouldst shelter the sail steeds out on the sea; On the
stem shalt thou write, and the steering blade, And burn them into the oars; Though high
be the breakers, and black the waves, Thou shalt safe the harbor seek." (Sigrdrifumal)

In Scandinavia, stone labyrinths kept the womb's coiling power over the winds
and sea. Fishermen walked through them in procession before setting off "in the hope of
controlling the weather, obtaining a good catch, and ensuring a safe return. They would
build a stone labyrinth if the weather was too rough to venture forth in the hopes of

190
Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (1899), 1992, 377: The sheep born on St. Brigit's Day "was
much sought for this purpose but still more sought was a lamb born on this day."
191
wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_verum
192
Davidson, Roles of the Northern Goddess, 155.
 73

containing the force of the storm within the coils."193

The source of Scandinavian waters, noisy bubbling Hvergelmir, was located
within Hel's realm. Using the flood-drying knots of the third charm also returned raging
rivers to Hel's womb: "I sing you the third spell, in case mighty rivers threaten you with
death, then may Horn and Rud [river names] revert to Hel, and ever dwindle for you."
(Svipdagsmal)

9. Haegl (Hail) is the whitest of grains. It swirls from the heights of heaven, And gusts of
wind toss it about. Then it turns to water. (OERP)

After the destruction of the world of the northern gods (Ragnarok), after the
floodwaters and brimstone of Hel covering the land recede, a new world will appear. The
virtuous will be welcomed into a new hall called Brimnir.194 (Gylfaginning, ch. 52) In
this new green world, the whitest of the gods Balder returns from Hel's keeping. Freya
alone of the gods survives.

193
Fisher, The Labyrinth, 1990, 144.
194
At "Eleusis, when performing the great, unspeakable mysteries amid great fire, [the
hierophant calls out]: ‘the reverend goddess has given birth to a sacred boy, Brimo to Brimos,
that is the strong one has born a strong child." Jan Bremmer,
academia.edu/1517225/Initiation_into_the_Eleusinian_Mysteries
 74

TEN - Naudiz, Nyd (Need or Need Sticks)

Decimate: Choosing one in ten (by lottery) for a sacrificial offering.

Ten is a spinning letter of fate, fire, and judgment. Her stories correspond to
summer's end. Halloween is celebrated on our tenth month. Yom Kippur, Day of
Atonement and Judgment, occurs ten days after the Jewish New Year in Fall. Ten's magic
contains the compulsion of time, retribution for past deeds, and dissolution of the
manifest body before a coming rebirth.
We now stand in the Hand of God, hand (yod) being tenth Hebrew letter, waiting
for our soul to be judged. In the Tenth Hall of the North sits a judge: "The tenth is Glitnir
(The Shining); its pillars are gold, and its roof with silver is set; There most of his days
does Forseti dwell And sets all strife at end." (Grimnismal)
Forseti means 'the presiding one' or 'judge'. “All those who come to him with hard
cases to settle go away satisfied; he is the best judge among gods and men."
(Gylfaginning) But "Grimm took Forseti, "praeses", to be the older form of the name,
first postulating an unattested Old High German equivalent *forasizo (cf. modern
German Vorsitzender "one who presides") but later preferring a derivation from fors, a
"whirling stream."195 Included among Ten's attributes are both judgments and the
spinning magic of the Mill of Fate slowly grinding.
Originally Northern gods had no fatal judgments, only gold and pleasure until
Three Giant Women arrived. Then, "Laws they made there, and life was allotted to the
sons of men and set their fates."196 Although northern warriors might still sail off to enjoy
battle, although their dead heroes might still be rewarded by a heaven filled with games,
drink, and war, they must now worry their actions will be judged.

195
wikipedia.org/wiki/Forseti
196
Voluspo, Hollander, trans, The Poetic Edda (c. 1200 CE), 9.
 75

Triple Goddess, Gaul197

Scandinavians knew the Three Fates as Norns: "Weird [Urd] they called the first
of them. The second, Becoming [Verandi] they carved on a tablet...Should [Skold/Debt]
the Third."198 In many depictions of the triple women, the middle goddess is shown
holding her book. Her moving finger writes (or carves) her measurements and judgments.
The payment will be collected by the eleventh hour, debts coming due before midnight.
Classic fates were known as Nonna (9), Decima (10), and Morta (11 as Death). The third
Fate will cut the spun and (recorded) measurements of the thread of life.
The association of three with deities assigning fate has old roots. In ancient
Sumer, thousands of years before the Classical Fates, three stars (the Mul sign) were
written before all words signifying a celestial object. Each star in that tradition
represented a god. The three have an "innate association with fate assigning destiny."199

The spinning Mill of Fate grinds slowly but exceedingly fine as the gold of
summer blood-reddens with the coming winter. One must share Earth's blessings to avoid
a fatal Retribution. What goes around Ten's Wheel comes around:

10/8. Naud is the grief of the bondmaid and state of oppression and toilsome work
GLOSSES: opera (Work) niflungr (Descendant of the Niflings/ Nibelungs) (OIRP)

King Frode once acquired two giant women as bondmaids and set them to
spinning a great millstone. At first, they ground gold, peace, and good harvests. He
refused to let them rest despite their pleading fatigue. Daughters of ancient mountain

197
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_deity, photo by Urban, Public Domain
198
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, Voluspa, 184ff.
199
White, Babylonian Star Lore (2004), 2014, 26.
 76

giants, they then ground out an army to slaughter the king. Carried over the sea by the
victor, they were forced to continue grinding. This time they ground out salt, sinking their
boat and creating a spinning whirlpool. (Grottisongr.) The poem warns against both
against greed and against treating The Other with a callous disregard.
The source of all Earth's swirling waters lies in Hel's realm: the cloud world of
Niflheim. This may explain niflungr as a gloss on the giant maidens. The story of the
Niflungr (Nibelungs), descendants of the mist people, contains the same greed for gold
that destroyed Frode. The gold had been acquired to pay a vergelt for killing a man. The
river gold and its ring, cursed when it was stolen from a dwarf, brought death to all who
possessed it. The gold caused brother to kill brother, mother to kill her sons, and lovers to
be betrayed.
Sigfried/Sigurd who won the gold from a dragon was among the victims. "I
counsel thee tenthly: Trust thou never the oath of an outlaw's son, if thou hast slain his
brother, or felled his father. There is a wolf in a young son, though he be comforted with
gold.” (Sigrdrifumal). After Brynhild's [Sigrdrifa] death, two pyres were made, one was
for Sigurd and that was kindled first, and Brynhild was burnt on the second one, and she
was in a wagon" 200 After death, she set out by wagon to join her lover in Hel. Hel,
remember welcomes all those who do not die in battle.

Nyd constricts the heart, but it often serves as a help and salvation to the sons of man if
they heed it in time. (OERP) Ten's judgments are determined by the sharing of fortune,
not by the hording of gold: Tithe - the one out of ten parts given in charity.

"TEN WILL BE A DANCE"

Lost rituals can often be found in children's stories and games. A variant Mother
Goose counting rhyme remembers "Nine for a burial, Ten will be a dance." Winter's
goddess now dances, shaking apart a dying world. The center no longer holds. Crone
aspect of Time, she is strongest of the goddesses for all are consumed in her fires. This
season belongs to nine's elder sister: wolfish Nemesis as Divine Retribution and to Kali,
black goddess of time ('kala') whose decimations are celebrated in late October.
200
Brynhild's Ride to Hell, Poetic Edda, Larrington, trans., 2014, 187.
 77

"Nemesis [... chases the sacred king as] he goes through his seasonal
transformations [...] indicated on the spokes of Nemesis' wheel."201 Nemesis means 'to
give what is due'. Due as Debt names the third Norn. It is the fire-eyed Goddess of
Retribution whose eye burns at the center of the stars revolving over the World Tree.
Aging Fortune, not light-hearted Lady Luck, spins this Wheel. In the agricultural
calendar, seed grain is judged, measured, parched, and ground along with dying souls by
the whirling fire-magic of this letter.

FAR TRAVEL AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY

The calendar has brought us to the dying of the year. The tombs of the dead stand
open, the Veil between the worlds grows thin. Having been culled and judged, the dead
discard their physical form and travel further into the Underworld. Those who have not
yet found passage into a new life emerge briefly to visit their kin. At Halloween, shape-
shifting goblins go dancing around their bone fires or travel from house to house with
their bags of tricks or treats.
While most people travel the Otherworld only after death, witches, magicians, and
eventually Odin learned to leave their mortal coil. To avoid losing their way home,
dreaming witches created a silver thread spun out from their navel. The ball of yarn of
ninth letter (Teth) tethers the shaman to her body. If broken, she is lost, her soul wanders
aimlessly, unable to return home. Having lost its way may explain this custom: A
whirling finger pointed at one's head indicates one gone berserk, gone out of body, out of
mind. "The tenth I know: If I see witches [hedge-riders] dancing in the air, I prevail so
that they go astray and cannot find their own skins and their own haunts." (Havamal)
Hulda, also known as Frau Holle or Holda, is another ancient Germanic goddess.
Associated with spinning and agriculture, her festivals were winter festivals. Her "women
would leave their houses in spirit, going out through closed doors in the silence of the
night, leaving their sleeping husbands behind. They would travel vast distances through
the sky, to great feasts, or to battles amongst the clouds."202
Seidr, the practice of Norse visionary magic may have included spinning charms:

201
Robert Graves, Greek Myths, vol. 1 (32 2-3) 126.
202
wikipedia.org/wiki/Holda
 78

"if seiðr involved 'spinning charms', that would explain the distaff, a tool used in spinning
flax or sometimes wool, that appears to be associated with seiðr practice [...] In the] Saga
of Eric the Red, there was a seiðkona or vǫlva in Greenland named Thorbjǫrg. She wore
a blue cloak and a headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white ermine, carried the
symbolic distaff [buried] with her."203

FIRE MAGIC
10/8. Nauðr (Constraint/Need) gives scant choice; a naked man is chilled by the frost.
(ONRP) Nyd sticks are wooden sticks twirled together to start ritual fires.
In a rare description of a Viking burial (Ibn Fadlan, 10th century) the dead man
was buried for nine days ('Nine's for a burial'). On the tenth he was dug up and, after
sacrifice and ritual, was burned in his boat. Unfortunately, the Arab historian did not
describe the method used to start the fire.
There are many ways to travel the nine nights to Hel: sailing along the World
Stream, riding in a wagon, or walking long weary miles to reach her gate. One might
even be wheeled about the country to say goodbye to kinfolk before being gently heeled
into Earth's womb. Eventually, the secrets of fire carried the soul lightly into the sky.
Only a few could far travel before Death released the soul from the mortal body.
Most wait for the loosening of death to open the way. Later people were too impatient to
wait for the slow alchemy of a body dissolving into black earth. They discovered the
magic of fire in speeding the rotting body's dissolution. Smoke had the power to carry
souls, prayers, and astral travelers up the chimney into the waiting heavens.
In India, Yama was ruler of a Golden Age. He was the first man to die, marking
out the path for others to follow. His sister, the River Yamuna, preceded him into the
Otherworld. Like Norse Forsetti living in the Tenth Hall of Norse gods, Yama also judges
souls entering the realm of death. At first, humans had to walk the long miles to the land
of the dead, but Yama, like other Indo-European gods, learned to release the soul more
quickly. 204 His priest is the god Agni. Literally 'fire' himself, Agni was born "of friction
between [...] a male and a female fire-stick."205

203
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiðr
204
Ions, Indian Mythology (1967), 1973, 32-33.
 79

Having risen on the flames of the burning pyre, we must now pause to get our
bearings and to let the smoke clear. Following is Eleven's rune of Icy stasis:

"I have become like a bottle in the smoke [...] how much longer must I wait?" (11th
Hebrew letter, Kapf, Alphabet Psalm 119)

205
Ions, Indian Mythology, 18.
 80

ELEVEN - Isaz, Is, Iss (Ice)

Eleventh Phoenician letter 'Kaph' translates the 'palm of the hand'. Originally

written like 11th English letter K. Among the 22 letters of the Hebrew/Phoenician
alphabet, we are now exactly halfway. 11 being twin to 1, represents both 1+1 as 2, and
1+1 as 11. "K is the angle of reflection equal to the angle of incidence."206 That is, a twin
and his shadow are identical. In Hebrew grammar, 11th letter 'kaph' (ka) prefacing a word
signifies likeness. Runes represent eleventh symbol by the reflective gem Ice.
The shadow of the bright sun, having passed through the gate of 1-1, now travels
deeper into the dark. In Egypt, the upraised palms of Kaph represents the shadow soul
known as Ka. Breasted "believed [...] the ka was a kind of superior genius intended
to guide the fortunes of the individual in the hereafter, or it was in the world of the
hereafter that ka chiefly if not exclusively had his abode."207

Crete, c. 1500 BCE Crow shaped like the later Hebrew Alpha: ‫א‬.
Time's darkening spirit is a magician travelling as a black crow ('ka'), slipping
through the gap between one breath and the next. As an ember of time, he will be
polished bright with the sunrise. Adam, the first man, is made of red earth (adam). The
pressure of his passage through the blue Underworld creates the adamantine diamond.
Forming from hardened ice (11th rune), crystals are 'unripe diamonds.208 Like
letter K, crystals are reflective gems; "Ice is very cold and exceedingly slippery; it
glistens, clear as glass, very much like gems." (11th rune, OERP), As a proper twin, the
reflective Ice Rune is written like our numeral 1.
Returning to the sky (and ultimately to the rune tradition), Need (Nydud) killed
Old King Coal. Black Coal's daughter Saint Helen found the true cross promising

206
Victor Hugo, Travel Notebooks, quoted George Jeans, Writing. 1992.
207
Mostafa Elshamy, 1 ((from Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt,
1912, Breasted, 52-53). academia.edu/7377563/
208
John Hershey (b. 1876), Book of Diamonds, 1940, 10.
 81

resurrection. The fable spinner "Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154) claimed she was of
British origin and the daughter of Coel."209 She returned the cross to Jerusalem, world
center of their world.
The cross of the ecliptic intersects the Milky Way near the Twins of Gemini and
Orion, and then near Sagittarius/Scorpio. Sagittarius now rises in our eleventh month of
November. A River of Stars flows between the constellations of Orion/Gemini and those
of Scorpio/Sagittarius. The River splits into a broad and narrow path near the Galactic
womb in this area, necessitating a choice: "The road [...] divides and they must choose
which to take. Forked ways in the Land of the Death are to be found in the Mystery
Religions and were known to the Pythagoreans."210

11/9. Is (Ice) we call the broad bridge; the blind man must be led. (ONRP)
Note: It is a broad road that leads to Hel.

The shimmering quartz crystals as unripe diamonds were, according to Pliny the
Elder (23-79 CE), formed from ice; Like the chiming of ice cracking in the sun, crystals
both sing like chiming bells and create shimmering rainbows. Diamonds are the most
indestructible stones: in the Tarot tradition, Strength is traditionally eleventh card. "The
eleventh I know: If I am to lead my old friends to battle, I chant under the shields, so that
they go in their might hale to the battle, hale from the battle, hale wherever they go."
(Havamal)
Crystals held up to light or rubbed together produce rainbows leading to the
Otherworld. Crystal radios help communicate between the worlds. "The use of quartz as a
device to communicate with nonhuman or nonliving things extends around the globe and
seems to form part of an essentially animistic attitude to the experienced world."211

BOARS, PROTECTION, & UNDERWORLD TRAVEL

11/9. Ice: bark of rivers and roof of the wave and destruction of the doomed. (OIRP)

209
Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints (1983), 1991, 201-202.
210
Rutherford, Celtic Mythology (1987), 1990, 117.
211
www.academia.edu/8611054/Regenerating_Substances_Quartz
 82

GLOSSES: glacies (Ice) jöfurr (Jofurr 'prince' originally meant 'wild boar')

Children of Earth, twins Freya and Freyr rode boars. Boars, like light emitting,
singing ice crystals, could access the Otherworld. Boars also helped avoid death.
Describing a German tribe: "They worship the Mother of the gods, and wear, as an
emblem of this cult, the device of a wild boar, which stands them instead of armour or
human protection and gives the worshipper a sense of security even among his enemies."
(Tacitus, Ch. 45) The Boar Helm was one of Freyr's treasures.
Beowulf implies that hewing off the boar crest is likely to lead to the death of the
wearer: 'When the savagely-bound, hammer-forged sword, slathered in blood, strong of
edge, shears off the boar from the top of the helmet.'" (Line 1286)212
Greeks also valued fierce boar helms: "I gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a
sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a
strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside
was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the
tusks running in alternate directions in each row."  (Homer, Iliad 10.260–5)

Mycenaean boar tusk helmet, 14th century BCE213

PAYMENT OF DEBTS BY THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The eleventh hour brings us closer to the hour of the wolf, the destruction of the
doomed, the dying of the Year. Both Nemesis and wolfish Var demand debts be paid
before moving on, Debt being third Germanic Norn. Death (Morta as third Greek Fate
following Nona/9 and Decima/10), of course, is the ultimate fee paid by the living.

212
http://thethegns.blogspot.com/2012/04/boar.html
213
National Museum, Athens, photo by jebulon, wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar's_tusk_helmet CC
 83

"I counsel thee eleventhly ... For thee I can forecast no long life. Mighty feuds have
arisen which will cause thy death." (Sigrdrifumal) The old German calendar recognized
the 11th month of November as Slaughter Month. 11/11 is when we remember the dead
of war (Armistice Day) with the blood red poppies this priestess wears on her crown.
Poppy juice offers another way to travel the Otherworld.

Crete, c. 1350 BCE, she raises her palms (11th Hebrew letter).214

Now is the time Earth briefly pauses before winter whitens her land. St Martins
Day, 11/11, is the day he spreads his red coat over a beggared Earth. With its warmth,
there is a brief stay of good weather before the coming snow. It is also the time of the
final culling and slaughtering of mortal animals. (Martin's Danish name is Mortin).
Mora, according to Isidore of Spain (7th century) meant 'time out'. "The Remora
[eel] gets its name because it holds a ship fast... Oh, the ocean wave may roll, and the
stormy winds may blow ... but nevertheless the ship is seen to stand stock still in the sea.
The Latins call this fish by the name of Mora because it compels vessels to stay
motionless."215

SLEEP APPLES, SAILING MAGIC & SHIP'S REST

Sagittarius rising our 11th month of November since c. 2000 BCE provides yet
another passage to the Underworld after death. For those that don't want to ride, travel by
smoke or wagon, walk or fly, a ship can sail the River of Stars. Many of the Saints of
early winter relate to sailing. "Catt'n and Clement comes year by year, some of your
apples and some of your beer." St. Clement (November 23) and St Catherine (November

214
Image by Jebulon, creative commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_goddess#/media/File:Minoan_praying_women_archmus_He
raklion_Crete_Greece.jpg
215
T.H. White, trans, Book of Beasts, (12th century), 1954, 208.
 84

25) are celebrated with fall's apples. Catherine's star is the ship's star Canopus. When she
died, a river of milk flowed from her severed head.
Clement is patron of both Vulcans and anchor makers. Anchors, of course, hold a
boat at ship's rest in the water. It is probably an accidental finding, but quays (K's) are
where ships dock to rest. "Noatun (Ship's Rest) is eleventh. There, Njord has built him a
hall" (Grimnismal). Originally from Anatolia, Njord (Earth) like the sailor Noah, has
been identified as another aspect of Saturn, Ruler of the lost Golden Age

The anchor is shaped by Vulcans into the shape of Sagittarius' arrow

The fateful Morta (11) as icy Death gets her name." from 'morsu' that bite of the
first man when munching fruit from the forbidden tree, he merited death."216 After being
expelled from Eden in the Fall of Man, Adam stood weeping in the river 40 days before
his sun was reborn. Adam's apple remains forever lodged in his throat.
The association of apples with the pause mandated by number eleven may even
contain memories of calendar rectification. The lunar calendar of 354 days is 11 days
shorter than the solar calendar of 365. According to E.C. Krupp, the race of the huntress
Atalanta, reflects this rectification: She lost the race by stopping to pick up three apples
dropped by her opponent. Every 8 years, 3 additional months must be added to equate the
lunar and solar calendars (8+3=11). Mercury and Venus also re-align on 8-year cycles.
"Reconciliation of the sun and moon is more than just an affair of the heart. It's a
ritual requirement for seasonal ceremonies and festivals."217 Atalanta being one of
Artemis' hunter virgins joined in the hunt for the Calydonian boar. The hunt was fought
in the land of king Oeneus (Wine). She also sailed with the Argonauts in search of the
Golden Fleece, another story of an astral journey.
Nemesis, who lives behind the right ear whispering morality along with mortality,
carried an apple bough. Her younger avatar, Artemis/Diana, has a home among the arrow

216
White, trans., Book of Beasts, 225.
217
Krupp, Beyond the Blue Horizon, 1991,150.
 85

stars of Sagittarius. "In Gaul she was Diana Nemetona and was represented with an apple
bough." The word 'apple' has also been linked to her twin Apollo's name.218

Watermark219 Boar with apple in mouth, bearing a K upon his back.

We are now moving toward Twelfth Night. The boar's head with apple in mouth
will be carried into the feast-hall with ceremony. The boar sacrifice, the sonarblot
originally to Frey, was on the Winter Solstice, our twelfth month.

218
Graves, The White Goddess, 255-257.
219
Bayley, Lost Language of Symbolism (1912), 1968, 89.
 86

TWELVE - Ger, Ar (Harvest, Plenty, or Year) or

Having discarded his mortal coil, the journeyman continues his travels through
the eight runes of Hel's Underworld. Travel through the dark is taken yearly by John
Barleycorn, nightly (12 hours), and over 12 months by the sun.
While most people travel the Underworld only after the thread of life is cut,
witches and magicians might take the journey at will. Eventually learning the secrets of
Otherworld travel, kings as well as poets sat on burial mounds or between the gates of
their High Seat Pillars to commune with the dead: "The twelfth I know: If I see a halter-
corpse swinging high on the tree, I can so grave and paint in signs, that the man shall
come down and talk with me." (Havamal)
Whether dead or alive and dreaming by the tombs of his ancestors, kings made
the journey both for inspiration and to feed their winter-hungry people. The ruler as sun,
barley, or vine king dies symbolically or literally, turned upside down on the stroke of
midnight. But the dying ember of time as Cinderella, lady Elle, and twelfth letter L's
ruling king, will eventually rejoin the dance.

12/10. Plenty (Ar) is a boon to men; I say Frodi was generous. (ONRP)

Frodi meaning 'lord' may have originally been called Yngvi-Freyr, Freyr (Frodi)
being his title. The Boar sacrifice described above was in hope of his generous favors.
Presiding over fertility, sunlight, and rain, he was the husband of the frost giantess Gerd.
Described at the sixth rune, Gerd was one of the Brides of the Land northern kings
married to gain legitimacy. Seeding her moist dark furrows resulted in the gold of
summer to feed his people.

12. Ger is a joy to men, when God, the holy King of Heaven, suffers the earth to bring
forth shining fruits for rich and poor alike. (12th rune, OERP)
 87

Twelfth rune is 'ar' or 'year. Ar is "early used for the dead patriarchs who are
supposed to give good seasons."220 Sometimes the king's trip to the Otherworld included
a physical sacrifice, the king being ultimately responsible for the wealth of his land. The
little death of sexuality enacted when he married his Land became a physical death as his
power faded. As sacrificed Boar, mouth stuffed with apples, Lord El (L as 12th English
letter) is consumed along with other spirits over the Twelve Days of Christmas.
"All agreed that the times of scarcity were on account of their king, and they
resolved to offer him for good seasons, and to assault and kill him, and sprinkle the stalls
of the gods with his blood." (Ynlinga Saga, Ch. 18). Other Yngvis died by pitchfork,
frost, or drowned in vats of ale. "The Great Dag [Day] fell by the hayfork of a base
thrall." His son rode a wooden horse to Hel, hanging on a gallows horse like other
impotent High Kings (Ynglinga Saga, Ch. 21-22)
By the twelfth charm El, potent sower of the seed of the third charm, has been

harvested and hung upside down: Old Hebrew/Phoenician's third letter (Gimel)

becomes twelve's ruler: (Lamed). Runes use: . Reversed at the 12th hour, his
world turned upside-down, the Sun now begins travelling backwards through time and
space. Note: After the twelfth month's Winter Solstice, after a brief standstill, the sun
literally reverses, moving north toward Summer. Then after summer's prime, he again
dies south, moving back toward the darkening days of winter.

(12/10) Plenty (Ár) boon to men and good summer and thriving crops.
GLOSSES: annus (Year) allvaldr ('mighty ruler') (OIRP)

ALE, WINE, & RISING SPIRITS

The Twelfth (and last) House of Astrology belongs to Pisces, a house of martyrs,
drinkers, healers, and psychic travelers. "Another aspect of Pisces must be understood: It
is both an end and a beginning. The zodiac is [a helix], each time one goes around, one

220
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 418. King David, while still alive, passed his throne to
Solomon when he could no longer mount his wives. (I Kings: 28)
 88

has also moved up."221

Neptune now rules Pisces, his symbol the psychic Ψ. This Bull and Earth Shaker
was once husband of Earth. Winning a new domain by lottery, Neptune, like the earth
god Njiord, became a sea god. Replaced by a High King on the land, some claim Jupiter
is still the true ruler of Pisces. Jupiter takes 12 years to circle the Zodiac. Mysteries draw
from Earth as well as Heaven. Ruler of each human, the brain has 12 cranial nerves.

Hospitality along with mead is served travelers sailing the River to World's End.
"Along the road of the sun he went [...where Gilgamesh] meets Siduri, the divine barmaid
who dwells by the edge of the sea. [In short] she has the ritual intoxicating beverages
which comfort the dreary souls who are denied the drink of immortality."222

In numerous traditions, the god of the sea owns the cauldron in which the merry
brew was prepared. Norse Aegir (Hler, like Celtic Sea King Lir), and his wife Ran lived
at the bottom of the sea. Known for their hospitality, they served drinks to drowned
sailors and visiting gods. Their mile-wide cauldron, obtained from a giant, brewed beer
for the thirsty. Twelfth card of a Tarot deck is the (upside-down) Hanged Man. Another
name for this card is The Drowned Phoenician Sailor.223

Ember (OE, Ymbren) is defined as both the dying coal and a 'period of time'.
Earlier I described the story of Nidud killing Koll (coal). Merry Old King Coel, according
to an English tradition, was the father of St. Helen. History claims the English story is in
error. The 'true' Helen was the daughter of a drink-serving innkeeper in Asia Minor. I
found no record of St. Helen and a sea god, but in the tale of the Golden Fleece, Helle

221
Hand, Horoscope Symbols, 1981, 239.
222
DeSantillana & von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill (1977) 1992, 294.
223
Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, 1980, 90.
 89

married Poseidon (Neptune) after falling off the golden ram on the way to Colchis.
Poseidon, remember, is ruler of the wine of Pisces.

"The weapon-blessed Odin lives on wine alone." (Twelfth Hall of the Gods,
Havamal). Wine literally preserves from death: The effect of wine is "truly bactericidal,
not bacteriostatic." That is, it kills off bacteria. The property is specific to wine and
vinegar, rather than to alcohol.224 In Odin's 12th Hall, a boar is roasted and revived daily.
Here too lives a goat continually filling "the pitcher with fair, clear spirits."

Greeks, integrating new and old festivals, celebrated the month of Poseidon
(Neptune) in our 12th month of December with a wine festival in honor of the Vine King.
A grandson of Cadmus, Dionysus travelled from India to Britain to transmit the mysteries
of the spirits. Eventually, he "possessed himself of the festivals of Demeter, took over her
threshing floor and compelled the anomaly of a winter threshing festival."225

"There was three men come out o' the west their fortunes for to try. And these
three men made a solemn vow John Barleycorn must die." John Barleycorn also
sacrificed his seed to assist the rising spirits. "Tell me, then Allwise [...] How is the seed
which the sons of men so called in each of the worlds: Big among men, Bear (barley)
among Gods [...] In Hell they call it Hnipinn [hanging]." (Allivisimal)

Yngvi (Freyr) was ancestor of numerous peoples including those of Yng-land.

Like many High Kings, his descendants were sacrificed for good seasons: His son
drowned in a cauldron of ale; his grandson died after marrying the daughter of Snow.
Others were sacrificed after bad harvests, hung until dead by the daughter of Froste,
killed by a nightmare or by peasants wielding hayforks. (Ynglinga Saga)226 But as High
King, Freyr will return as each new king of the land.

"Apres moi le Deluge." spoken by a sun king.

224
Manjo, Healing Hand, 1975, 186-188.
225
Harrison, Prologomena (1901), 1991, 146-150.
226
Sturlason, Heimskringla, Samael Laing, trans., 1991, 14ff
 90

THIRTEEN - Ihwaz (Yew Tree)

Tree growing by Earth's Healing Well, Yugoslavia, c. 5200 BCE227

The foolishness of the Twelve Days of Christmas past, the dying ember of time
winks out on the darkest day of a dying year The Wheel has carried us to Mother's Night
to await the rebirth of her winter son. Out of the waters of Earth's womb will sail yet
again an arc carrying the returning son. The Star Child is reborn, time without end, the
star of hope rising over the World Tree.

13. Eoh (The yew) is a tree with rough bark, hard and fast in the earth, supported by its
roots, a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate. (OERP)

Thirteen contains a promise both of death and of rebirth. Planted by graveyards,

Yew keeper of the flame was also the coffin of the vine. That is, yew barrels once stored
the spirits of wine until their release in the spring. In Greece, Hermes released the wine-
blue spirits in the second month of February: the opening allowed spirits to reenter the
world.228 Yew was replaced to store wine. By "Pliny's time, [Yew vats] had lost their
repute from the poisonous nature of the wood, by which some had lost their lives." 229

Vinegar is brewed by adding a 'mother' to wine (another Aqua Vita). When

vinegar is used in making felted shirts, produced by boiling wool in water, the result was
a fabric that resisted the blow of a sword and was even some defense against fire
according to Pliny. "Thirteenth I know; If I sprinkle water on a young lord, He shall
never fall, though he go in battle, He will be proof against the swords." (Havamal)

The Younger Futhark changed the number and sometimes the order of the Elder

227
Gimbutas, Language of the Goddess, 103.
228
Harrison, Prologomena (1903) 1991, 42-55,
229
Logan, The Scotish Gael, vol. 2, 1831, 208.
 91

Futhark runes. The Old Norse Poem placed Yew as last (16th) rune. I am keeping with
the order of the Elder Futhark runes: Yew Tree as 13th symbol, a number both of finality
and rebirth of the Sun King out of the rising waters of Mem's watery Deluge: "I will
pluck the gracious yew [...] Against drowning, against danger, against fear." (Carmina
Gadelica)

In the circling helix of our 12-month year, the 13th month returns us to January's
waters of Aquarius: Thirteenth Phoenician letter is Mem/water. Hebrew script eventually
developed two forms of letter Mem: An open form and a closed one. "What is Mem. Do
not read Mem, but Mayim (water). Just like water is wet, so is the belly always wet. Why

does open Mem ‫ מ‬include both male and female, while the closed Mem ‫ ם‬is male [...]
The opening was then added to it for the sake of the female [...] the female has an
opening with which to give birth, so can the open Mem give birth."230

Death may come by fire and water or come riding in the moonlight on a pale
horse. Freya sometimes wore a horse mask. Her Celtic sister is the Great Mare Epona
whose festival was celebrated in January. Epona waited near water, by cemeteries, or
went riding past the tumuli of the sleeping dead. Carrying returning souls back to the
tumescent wombs of hopeful mothers, the sounds of her galloping horse can be heard
(and felt) after the fifth month of pregnancy: "Riding, joy of the horsemen and speedy
journey and toil of the steed." (OIRP, 5th rune)

ASTRONOMY & SYMBOLS - MOVING TOWARD THE RETURN OF THE KING

The sun makes a twelve-month journey (365 days) through the sky. The moon's
cycle takes 254 days to circle the sky. The spirit-blue moon is the 13th moon of the solar
calendar.

230
Kaplan, The Bahir, 31. Square Hebrew has some dual shaped letters. Closed Mem is always a
final letter. No other letters can follow. Open Mem engenders offspring.
 92

The Nebra sky disc, from Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (c. 1600 BCE), apparently
depicts a crescent moon, sun, and Pleiades. It may have determined when a thirteenth
month should be added to a to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the seasons.
“According to the ancient Babylonian rule, a thirteenth month should be added to the
lunar calendar only when one sees the constellation of the moon and the Pleiades exactly
as they appear on the Nebra sky disc." 231

Along with the 13-month moon cycle, the star of Freya (Venus) has a cycle
involving 13. Venus circles between earth and sun. Spending 236 as a morning star, the
morning star is often seen as either male or Venus in her fierce aspect. After hiding for 90
days, she reappears as the gentle evening star for 250 days, the 9 months of human
pregnancy, then disappears for 8 days.
Venus takes 1.6 years between each morning rising. Five such heliacal risings,
each in a different zodiac sign, draw a pentacle over 8 years. Each arc is 72 degrees
(360/5=72), another important number in mythology. During the 8 years winsome
Freya/Venus (Wynn) orbits earth 13 times. As horned moon, she circles 13 times per 12-
month solar year.232 Planetary and solar-lunar calendars are important sources of mythic
numbers.
The goddess of life and death is shown in this vase from Boeotia, the land where
Phoenician Cadmus founded his city after leaving Egypt. Here she is Potnia Theron: An
Untamed Lady. One of Venus' (many) aspects lies among the stars of Virgo.

231
bibliotecapleyades.netarqueologia/nebra_disk.htm
232
The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit Earth, but from new Moon to new Moon is 29.5 days.
 93

Potnia Theron, Boeotia, Greece, c. 700 BCE233

The Lady's arms reflect the shape of 13th Phoenician/Old Hebrew letter Mem

('water') or the symbol for watery Aquarius . In the salty waters of her belly
swims the fish of Pisces, directly across the sky and rising 6 months away from Virgo's
Virgin. Above and under her arms are Aquarius' peacocks and the lions of Leo, also
opposite each other in the sky. When one rises, the other sinks into the west.
The Bull of spring is under her right arm. The leg under her left may recall the
story of Gilgamesh who travelled to the end of the world seeking immortality. Venus
wanted him as a husband. Because her husbands died with the seasons, he refused tearing
a leg off a bull and throwing it in her face. The constellation of Taurus has no hind legs,
only an upper torso.
India, another source of early sky watchers and mythic geometry, contains
forgotten sciences of early cultures. They divided twelve ecliptic constellations into 27/28
homes (Nakshastras) visited by the wandering moon. Number 14 belongs to Chitra, the
shining star Spica in Virgo. Chitra lies directly across from Pisces. The Fish, which now
rises in February, signaled the New Year of the Winter Solstice around 6000 BCE; the
Virgin then rising as the Queen of Midsummer. We will meet the Virgin's fish-child as
fourteenth Phoenician letter: Nun/'fish'.
Last Zodiac home the Vedic moon visits belongs to Revati. Her symbol a fish,
Revati ‘the ability to transcend’ is the brightest star of Pisces. The need to adjust the
changing stories of stars marking the seasons caused by the Precession leaves shadows,
but a path endures. Revati (last and 27th mansion of the Vedic zodiac] ‘returns’ to her
beginning place after 27 units of time. Her story "demonstrates an early knowledge of the

233
permission American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Alison Frantz Photograph
Collection
 94

Precession of Equinoxes."234 There are 27 Maha yugas (Great eons), each composed four
Chatur yugas (4 eons).
Four Yugas are the number of years of one Precession of the Equinoxes (24000
years). 27 catur-yugas (108 eons) passed while Revati was visiting Brahma to find a
suitable husband. Note: We have now entered the Black Age, the Kali Yuga. At each end,
this world dies; a new Age emerges. Last being first, last always returning to first in the
spiral of manifestation. Like the Help offered by the first rune symbol, the god of safe
travel and conductor of souls between the worlds lives among the stars of Revati.
After the northern gods die on the Day of the Wolf, only the goddess Freya
survived. The ancient Mother may have lost her power, but even in the Black Age, the
Goddess' death was inconceivable: "Freya alone remained of the gods and she became on
this account celebrated that all women of distinction were called by her name whence
they have the title Frue" (Heimskringla) 235

234
http://ancientindians.wordpress.com/indiancalendars/manvantaras-revati-and-yugas/
Note: 108 is the number of beads on a Hindu rosary.
235
Snorri Sturlason, Heimskringla, Chapter XIII-XIV
 95

FOURTEEN - Perth (Lot or Dice Box)

After the thirteenth blue moon, out of the waters of ending, emerges a Messiah.
With his return over the Waters of the Deluge, we must now allot his inheritance.

Hag with Fish child in her belly waters, France c. 600 CE

The waters of 13th letter Mem (water) now deliver a fish as14th symbol:

Phoenician letter: 'nun' ('fish' or 'serpent'). The birth is aided by the Celtic Ogham
choice for this position: Pethboc (Guelder Rose). This rose Viburnum Opulus also known
as 'cramp bark' “was part of their repertory of drugs to ease the pain of childbirth." 236
Having circled the 12 signs of the Zodiac past thirteen's watery Aquarius, we return to the
Fish of Pisces ruling February.

Draco Yugoslavia c. 4000 BCE So. Iberian letter 'N'

One source for 'nun' may be the horned dragon/fish once circling the North Star.
Deposed by the Precession of the Equinoxes, a new ruler now controls the circle. Cadmus
killed a dragon when he arrived in Greece carrying an alphabet and his Mysteries. Cast
from heaven, Draco "was the monster killed by Cadmus [...] the crooked serpent."
Draco's stars still circumpolar about 5000 BCE by 1100 BCE, control after passing
through an empty 'mouth', was moving toward the Wagon stars.237

236
Readers Digest, Magic and Medicine of Plants, 1986, 84. Ogham hides the Duece, Pethboc
being physically #13, is mythically #14.
237
Allen, Star Names, 204-215. See letter 17: pe/mouth for North Star myths.
 96

Cadmus slew the dragon of Thebes, Apollo, the serpent of Delphi. Odin and
Saints George and Patrick followed suit in dispersing serpents. Jason, although descended
of 'dragon seed', sailed off to kill a dragon guarding a Golden Fleece, Hercules killed the
dragon guarding golden apples of the Hesperides. Alchemists warned "So in the Art, you
can have no success if you do not purify the Serpent born of the Slime of the earth."238
Odin singing his 18 rune songs taunts Lodfafnir, a defeated stray-stinger. By his
late time, dragons were being killed, thrown from heaven, or driven underground to lurk
in caverns under castles and churches. However, they were still important enough that
some rulers continued to identify with them. King Arthur, for instance, claimed descent
from a dragon family (the Pendragons).

Jason killing dragon of Colchis, Black Sea area239

Arthur's magician Merlin owned a glass castle with 70 windows (5x14=70) from
where he watched "by night the stars wheeling in the firmament." (Vita Merlini, 12th
century) Star watching and measurements were important skills of ancient scholar-
magicians. Another Celtic shape changer, Taliesin was born of a virgin and set sailing
over the waters. Like other early scholars, he knew the names of all the stars "from the
North to the South." Taliesin hints at arcane alphabet secrets of reincarnation: "Johannes
the Diviner I was called by Merddin. At length every king will call me Taliesin [...] I was
in the ark with Noah and Alpha."240
The divining John the Baptist was reborn after his immersion in water during the
period the stars of Pisces were moving toward control of the spring skies. Pisces is 'the
'fish of Ea', Sumerian god of the water. Johannes' intertwines with stories about Oannes,
Chaldean fish god descended from Ea, "In the first year a beast named Oannes appeared
[... in a place adjacent to Babylonia. This fish god] taught them how to found cities,
establish temples, introduce laws, and measure land. It also revealed to them seeds and

238
Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy, 506. also: http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/eudoxus.htm
239
Euobia, c. 550 BCE, Louvre, uploaded Bibi Saint-Pol, public domain
240
The History of Taliesin, quoted in Robert Graves, The White Goddess, 91.
 97

the gathering of fruits, and in general it gave men everything … connected with the
civilized life."241

"We know enough that the Oannes [...] is Ea, i.e., Saturn whose town is
Eridu/Canopus." Canopus is the ship star, is in the belly of Heaven's sea. Eridu, the oldest
city of Sumer, was built above the waters of this Abyss. King of this city was Enki, also
known as Ea. Ea, like other hero-gods, helped a man escape the Flood.

After getting him drunk, Enki's daughter Inanna (Venus) stole his knowledge of
measurements (the Me). Escaping down the river in her boat, she transferred power to her
own city. "A fourteenth I know: if needs must number the Powers to the people of men, I
know all the nature of gods and of elves which none can know untaught." (Havamal)

FESTIVAL OF ALLOTMENTS
In time, Noah's descendant became the Piscean Messiah as Jesus, arriving 14
generations after King David. "Thus, there were fourteen generations in all from
Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the
exile to the Messiah." (Matthew 1:17) Apparently the biblical author had to fudge a bit
to make Jesus the 14th. When he hung on a cross, soldiers cast lots for his robe.
After each Deluge, the art of measurements must be passed on, must be allotted to
a new generation. The early spring Festival of Lots (Purim) celebrating escape from death
now approaches. When each new world rises from the waters of the Deluge, the
inheritance of fortune must be redistributed, land re-allotted. "Your decrees are my
inheritance forever." (#14 Nun, Psalm 119)

Pisces and game board - Zodiac of Dendera, Egypt

In addition to his ship star, Enki/Ea inhabits the Pegasus Square in Pisces.242
Celestial gamblers used the Square for gambling, for playing at lots. "The draught-board

241
Berossus, Fragment 1: quote from Amar Anus,
www.academia.edu/4570714/On_the_Origin_of_Watchers, 283.
 98

which seems to have been introduced into Egypt from Babylonia, was used in connection
with astrology, and later the dead made use of it when playing against [...] the serpent
god."243 Gambling and lotteries often passed on the inheritance to another generation.
Both Pisces and numeral 14 are associated with this allotment. Gambling was one
way to divide an inheritance. Fourteenth OE rune is 'Peorth', a dice box for casting lots.
"Peorð is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely
together in the banqueting-hall." (OERP)
The gods of ancient Greece, having overthrown an older rule of giants, also
divided their world by gambling: Neptune (Poseidon) ruling Pisces, won the sea; Jupiter
the sky. When a Christian Zodiac was created to replace the pagan ruler of Pisces, St.
Mattias was given ownership. He was selected by lottery.
Egypt's Thoth, another deity associated with the gift of writing and measures,
created a 365-day (improving the 360-day) calendar by gambling. He won 5 extra days
by winning from the moon 1/72nd of its light (360/72=5). Each extra day contained
1/14th of her light. Egypt's Festival of Lots, like those of the Jews, was celebrated in
February.
Dice casting and board games include the allotment of fate. Chess, probably
originating in India, reflects a "Celestial War, or Astrologer's Game [the] chessboard
shows the Milky Way dividing the two camps."244 Chess games, like the divination of the
64 hexagrams of China's I-Ching or the casting of the six-sided dice offer 64 possible
fates. This is the number allotted to the DNA of the returning child. This is the number of
fairy helpers (dakinis) black Kali of India has in attendance. "Kali: The game of dice
personified."245
In northern lands the gods also played games of chance. "In their dwellings at
peace they played at tables, Of gold no lack did the gods then know, Til thither came up
giant-maids three, Huge of might, out of Jotunheim." (Voluspo) After their appearance in

242
DeSantillana, Hamlets Mill, 419.
243
Budge, From Fetish to God, (1934), 1988, 42.
244
DeSantillana, Hamlets Mill, 161-162.
245
Benfey, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1866), 1991, 168.
 99

the north, fate is meted out to both gods and men. "Laws they made there and life was
allotted to the sons of men and set their fates."246
"The exact nature of the game, and whether it more closely resembled chess or
checkers, has been made the subject of 400-page theses, Willard Fiske's Chess in
Iceland."247 Chessboards have 64 black and white squares and a 'hex' of 6 players: King,
Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook and Pawn.

248

246
Voluspo, Hollander, trans, The Poetic Edda (c. 1200 CE), 9.
247
sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm
248
Photo Alan Light, CC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess#/media/File:ChessSet.jpg
 100

FIFTEEN - Algiz - (Horned Deity), Protection or Elk-Sedge

Sedge grass

In the mysteries of mathematics, there is a relationship between the 3rd, 5th, and
15th symbols (3x5=15). The triangular shape of the sedge's stem echoes the triangular

Thorn rune: . Sedge spikes, unlike reeds and grasses, emerge in whirls of three. Three's
myths belong to Mars and to his avatar, the seed-sowing arrow of Orion/Saturnus. Like
Mars' iron weapons, the razer-sharp leaves of the sedge (also known as saw grass) draw
blood from the unwary traveler.
"The Eolh-sedge is mostly to be found in a marsh; it grows in the water and
makes a ghastly wound, covering with blood every warrior who touches it." (15th rune,
OERP) "The primary meaning of [this] rune is protection."249
The cycles of the planets enrich 15's story. The potent bull of the moon takes 30
days to travel around the sky, becoming brightest the 3 days flanking the 15th. The three
days around the middle of a woman's monthly moon cycle are also the days she is most
likely to be impregnated. Saturn and Mars among the various names for the god
responsible for Earth's fertility. The journey of red Mars around the Zodiac "takes 15
years and once every 15 years the planet is particularly bright." Saturn, Lord of the Rings
and king of a lost Golden Age, is also brilliant every 15 years, halfway through a journey
of 30 years around the sky.250 Saturn owns the Fool's finger, the third finger; Mars rules
our third month of March.
Long before they became devils, many ancient gods, like the sedge illustrated
above, wore horns. The fifteenth rune is 'Algiz' (or Elhaz) translated Elk sedge. 'Elk' has
additional meanings. The word 'elk' derives from Latin 'Alces', the name of ancient

249
Aswynn, Leaves of Ygdrassil, 1990, 70.
250
Davidson, Astronomy, 130-134.
 101

Germanic twin gods251 Twins like wild Apollo and Artemis they once traveled as horned
stags. In northern myths, when the Riders of Wild Hunt thunder through the sky they
chase the Elk. Alternately, a Horned One leads the Hunt.

Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark252

Horned Gods have offered protection and fertility to the land since Paleolithic

times. Eventually agriculture developed. The symbol depicting the fifteenth rune
came to represent the horned barley. Like the Elk, Barley dies for his people. As shield
for protection, he offered a way of making 'peace': "Barley, a term used in games of
children when a truce is demanded."253 Derived from a wilder magic, the civilized
journey of John Barleycorn is a path followed by older shamans towards the light.

The grave symbol giving peace and food shows barley sacrificed and hung upside
down. This shield is now the modern peace symbol.254 "You are my refuge and shield [...]
Hold me up and I shall be safe." (Samekh, 15th Hebrew letter, Psalm 119)
We have almost finished our journey through the dark Underworld. After fifteen
steps into the heart of the Mystery, we have been measured, judged, and settled our debts.
Only the pure of heart can finish the path but with the power of the coming rune we

251
Oxford Universal Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Priests of the Alcis, remnants of a Mother Goddess
tradition, wore women's clothing.
252
National Museum of Denmark, GNU free document, wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos
253
Opie, Lore and Language of School Children, 1959,148.
254
Designed by Gerald Holtom, 1958, it was a symbol of Death within a Circle.
http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/PeaceSymbolArticle.html
 102

finally emerge into the light of day. We now stand at the gates of dawning day (Delling).
"The fifteenth I know: How Great Sage (Thiodrearer) the dwarf chanted before Delling's
doors; he chanted strength into the Anses, and victory to the Elves, wisdom to the God of
Counsel. (Hropta-tyr)" (Havamal)
"They assemble [...] on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this
they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of business. Instead of
reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by nights, and in this manner fix both their
ordinary and their legal appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day."255 We meet
Day's victory as the 16th rune.

255
Tacitus, Germania, Ch. 11
 103

SIXTEEN - Sowilo, Sol, Sig, Sigel (Sun or Victory) or

"Men do not live once in order to vanish forever. They live several lives in different
places but not always in this world, and between each life there is a veil of shadows."
(Papryus of Ani)256

"Sigel id est velum." (16th Century)257 A velum is a thin veil. The author of this rune
description may have been referring to the veil between the worlds. It now parts to let
Mystery's Child hidden 15 deep steps into the Underworld emerge.258

"In alchemy, the ouroboros is a sigel."259

Sixteenth Phoenician letter is Ain (eye) , the eye through which the returning
sun slips back into the (material) world of his Mother. I have used this Egyptian image
several times to illustrate the alphabet's hidden number magic. Spitting out 16 charms, the
serpent emerges from the eye of the sun. Studying ancient images, the scholar must learn
to count every dot and line to uncover their number magic hidden in the open.

Serpent emerging from eye of the Sun. Note 16 dots.

came to represent the zero, the secretive cipher. Originally the ancient world
avoided zeros since a god could never create a 'no thing'. Finally arriving in the west from
India via the Muslims, the Ouroboros as Zero began to cycle endlessly through the

256
Seleem, trans., Illustrated Egyptian Book of the Dead, 2001, 10.
257
Derolez, on Cotton Domitian A-9, Saec XI, gloss on Sigel rune, 7.
258
Fifteen steps into the Mystery; fifteen small mysteries of the rosary celebrate the greater
Mystery of Redemption. "Mystery: an incident in the life of Our Lord regarded as having a
mystical significance; Hence, each of the 15 divisions of the Rosary corresponding to the
mysteries of Redemption." (Oxford Universal Dictionary)
259
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros Image Cleopatra the Alchemist, Greco Roman period.
 104

opening eye. Each time this pupil of his Mother's eye returns, he brings increase to the
mortal world: 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc. Denying the usual diminution of division, zero rather
than being a 'no thing' always promises his Mother's wealth: 1/0 = infinity.
Ancient earth magic promised peace and wealth still measured into 16 golden
(Troy) ounces, but O is also the eye of the needle through which the serpent-camel can
slip only after sharing his wealth. Jews, like ancient Vikings, recognized there is more to
life than hoarding gold: "More than gold and precious stones [...] I love thy
commandments above gold, yea above fine gold." (#16 Ayin, Psalm 119) Gold, of
course, loves only itself.
Sixteen is the proper age for young Virgins to bear their golden children.
Ain/Ayin is an Eye of the Hebrew sun. The Celtic sun goddess "Aine as mother-to-be
appears in the word ain, meaning in my womb."260 She sits on Ireland's birth chair in
August to give birth to the gold of summer grain. Anna Purna of India means 'full of
wealth' and Anna mothered Mary who delivered her sun when she was sixteen. Lovely
goddess Tara, a tear fallen from the eye of the Buddha of Compassion, is yet another
maiden of 16. Eye/Aine being 16th Hebrew letter, Tara carries her eyes in her hands.

YEW TREE
Both the Old Norse and the Old Icelandic Rune Poems moved the Yew rune from
13th to 16th (and last) position. I described the Norse poem along with the 13th Elder
Futhark rune. Thirteen is another number of endings and beginnings. As 16th rune, the
Yew may reflect memories of the Tree of Life symbolism bestowed on the fire light
returning to the world ("Yew is the keeper of the flame"). As with all myths, there are
multiple origins. The placental tree of life grows between the navel of each returning
child and the watery well of his mother's womb.
There is another World Tree belonging to each newly delivered child. The spinal
column has 24 vertebrae, the number of the hours of the turning dark and bright
fortnights of each year, and of the Elder Futhark runes. Inside this tree is the spinal cord.
Two nerves branch from each vertebra. At the head is an opening in the skull for
illumination to enter and the enlightened soul to exit. At the base, the nerves form a
260
Damas, Mythic Ireland, 100.
 105

tangle of roots travelling down to well-planted feet: "Yew is on the outside a rough tree
guardian of fire; supported with roots, a joy in the native land" (OERP)

A RETURN FROM DEATH

16/11. Sól (Sun) shield of the cloud sand shining ray and destroyer of ice
(Note: Ice is the EF's 11th rune, Sol being YF's 11th)261
GLOSSES: rota Wheel siklingr King (OIRP)
The victorious sun is 16th EF rune but by Germanic times alphabet magic had
been adapted to the needs of warriors. This Victory rune implied a sigel of war rather
than the Wheel of rebirth: "Sigrúnar (Victory-runes) learn if you long to
win."(Sigrdrifumal)

Sixteen's promise of a warrior's victory also might promise love. This charm
apparently uses the sun to warm a young maid: "The sixteenth I know: If I would win a
goodly lady's whole heart and love; I can change the white-armed lady's heart and turn all
her love to me." (Havamal)
Reincarnation on the Wheel (Rota/gloss) returning the soul, was not completely
lost. There is the story of a maiden named Sig Rune. "Sigrun [sun-rune] was short-lived
for the sorrow and woe [she had]. It was the belief in the old days that men were born
again, but that is now called an old wife's tale. Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been
born again; he was then called Helgi Harding's Scathe, and she Cara Halfdan's daughter
as it is said in the Lay of Cara and she was a Walcrie."262

SNAKE IN THE EYE (Sigurðr ormr í auga)

The story of the son of Ragnar Hairy Britches (Lodbrok) contains many of the
themes of the Sig rune. We met many of the characters among the earlier rune poems.
The Valkyrie Sigrdrifa (Brynhildr) who joined her lover in Hel after death was Snake-in-
the-Eye's grandmother. Her daughter was Aslaug. Raised by peasants after her mother's
death, Aslaug was blackened by tar and renamed 'Crow' to hide her beauty.
261
Both the OIRP and ONRP moved the shining sun to 11th position. As 11, Ice promised the
victory of Strength (11th Tarot card, another divination tradition)
262
Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, p. lxxx.
 106

Her radiance discovered while she was bathing, Ragnar Lodbrok married her. To
prove she was indeed the noble granddaughter of Sigurd the dragon slayer, she said her
son would be born with the snake in his eye. Sigurd Snake in the Eye's "name denoted the
fact that that he was born with a mark in his left eye, described as the image of the
Ouroboros [a snake biting its own tail] encircling the pupil of his eye."263

VICTORY RUNES & SEA TRAVEL

In addition to the alchemical secrets of illumination, runes hide technical
information among their number magic. Travel when the sun is hidden from view is one
secret: "Sigel (sun) is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers when they journey away over
the fishes' bath, until the courser of the deep bears them to land." (OERP)
In the days before the magnetic compass, when travelling over the sea or steppes
you might travel by rope. This involved trailing a long rope behind and trying to keep it
straight to maintain the ship or wagon on a constant course. Safer was to follow the
direction of the sun by day, the stars by night. When hidden by fog or clouds, this was
difficult if not impossible. For years, reports of 'sunstones' (solarsteinn) making
navigation possible even on cloudy days were considered myths. Recently archeologists
came across a sunstone from a ship (Alderney) shipwrecked in 1592. It contained the
Icelandic calcite spar, thought to be the crystal used for navigation.

One description of calcite's use in navigation: "a dot can be placed on top of
crystal so that when you look at it from below, two dots appear, because the light is
depolarized and fractured along different axes. The crystal can then be rotated until the
two points have the same luminosity. The angle of the top face now gives the direction of
the sun."264 "In particular, at twilight when the sun is no longer observable being below
the horizon, and the stars still not [yet] observable, this optical device could provide the
mariners with an absolute reference in such situation."265 The Younger Futhark
eventually moved the Sun Rune to reflective eleventh letter (1-1).

263
wiki/Sigurd_Snake-in-the-Eye Story in the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok.
264
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(medieval)
265
http://news.discovery.com/earth/rocks-fossils/viking-sunstone-shipwreck-130311.htm
 107

Yew became their final letter. This new Yew rune marked the date of death on early
documents but in earth magic, death is never truly final. The Sun Wheel continues to
turn.

16. YR (Yew bow) bent bow and brittle iron and giant of the arrow (farbauti).
GLOSSES: arcus Bow ynglingr. Descendent of Yng/Young Yng (OIRP)

Snaptun Stone, Denmark c. 1000 CE 266

Like the deadly Yew, a bent bow and brittle iron bring death to a warrior. The
trickster Loki was another source of death. Arrow giant Farbauti (Cruel Stricker) fathered
wildfire (Loki). Fire's mother is Laufey (Full of Leaves). Lightning hitting leaves
generates Loki's fire. This stone shows a possible image of Loki on a hearthstone used to
protect the bellows. "The stone may point to a connection between [Loki, smithing, and
flames]." 267 He had his lips sewn together after losing a bet with magician smiths. 268
One of Loki's children is a giant worm, an Ouroboros encircling the Norse world
with its tail in its mouth. When the Midgard serpent lets go of his tail, this world will end.
"Then the ocean will surge up on to the lands because the Midgard serpent will fly into a
giant rage and make its way ashore [...] The sun will go dark, earth sink into the sea."
(Gyfaginning) The sixteenth charm is a place one can step off the Wheel or like Sigrun
(Sun-rune) return. The circling serpent holding its tail implies the continual cycle back
into the world; when it lets go, the Wheel can no longer roll.

266
Bloodofox, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki#/media/File:Lokistone.jpg
267
Moesgard Museum, Denmark, Photo by Bloodofox. public domain
wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki#Snaptun_Stone
268
Skaldskaramal, XXXV, Brodeur trans.
 108

The actions of Loki and his fierce children ultimately end in the destruction of the
northern world. But ancient earth magic offered a return from death. Out of this
destruction, a new green world rises; a new generation will emerge. An Irish alphabet
(Ogham) like the Younger Futhark ended their letters with Yew but as is said: "Ireland
and grey-green Islay may sink below the great tide before the Day of Judgment. But the
island of Columba [Iona/island of the yew] will swim above the waves." (Yew/Ioho)
Anyone who has ever labored to birth a child knows enough not to prolong the
effort. There is a need to rest from the labor of delivering a sun before continuing the
journey: "In many languages, there is a break after sixteen."269

269
Schimmel, Mystery of Numbers, 1993, 216.
 109

PART THREE - THIRD AETTIR - TIR'S FAMILY

SEVENTEEN - Tir, Tiuwaz, Tyr (God of the North Star)

EIGHTEEN - Berkan, Beorc, Bjarkan (Birch)
NINETEEN - Ehwaz - (Horse)
TWENTY - Mannaz (Man)
TWENTY-ONE - Laguz, Logr (Lake or Leek)
TWENTY-TWO - Ingwaz - an Earth god (also known as Ingvi-Frey)
TWENTY-THREE - Dagaz (Day, sometimes placed at #24)
TWENTY-FOUR - Othala (Homeland or Inheritance) A Return Home

We now end our travels through the second family of runes, Hel's Underworld.
For those who journeyed past Seven's ending and entered the labyrinth through the Gate
of the bright eighth rune, the sixteenth rune returns us again to the light. This last family
seems to concentrate on astronomical and mathematical measurements. It begins with
Tir, ruler of the stars turning around the north; 18 and 19th runes have references to sun
and moon cycles. After their orbits reconcile every 19 years (Metonic cycle), the 20th
heads a new cycle ('rosh'/head, 20th Phoenician letter).
To understand the attributes underlying the number magic of ancient alphabets
(each position in a series containing similar qualities) I investigated numerous patterns:
palmistry, astrology, and children’s rhymes containing memories of older rituals. I
included the Hebrew alphabet, runes and Celtic oghams. While there are numerous
patterns describing the early symbols, palmistry gives up after 5 fingers; astrology after
12 star groups; the Phoenician alphabet after 22. And then there is the problem of the
Younger Futhark diminishing from 24 to 16 runes. I indicate the original number of both
the Elder Futhark and the rune's position in the decreased Younger Futhark (e.g., 17/12)

Last 4 letters of the 24 of the Greek alphabet offer some clues to understanding
the final rune symbols. Because there are fewer patterns helping illustrate the rune
choices, I now include some pictures from the Wheel of Tarot, divination cards. The
oldest deck was a set of 'unnamed and unnumbered cards that included 22 illustrated
 110

cards known as the triumphs’ [Major Arcana].270 They were painted for the
Visconti/Sforza family of Milan in the 1440's. About 1460, the same period the Tarot
cards were commissioned, another book of occult sciences known as the Corpus
Hermeticum, authored by Hermes Trismegistus, was found in Macedonia and presented
to Cosimo de'Medici of Florence.271

Although neither the family nor the artist, Bonifacio Bembo, are known to have
any association with occult groups, images on the cards, including the upside down
Hanged Man later numbered as 12th card, hint at alchemical secrets. It was not openly
used for occult practices until the 1700's when the Tarot's Wheel was considered to
illustrate the teachings of Hermes/Thoth

By the Twelfth Century, alchemical books reputed to have been written by

Egypt's Thoth, also known as the Thrice Great Hermes, had been translated into Latin
from Arabic (e.g., The Emerald Tablet). Once secretive Kabbalah secrets were also
appearing in print during this period. (Bahir, 12th & Zohar, 13th Centuries)

270
Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, vol. I, 1980, 7
271
Smoley, Forbidden Faith, 2006, 31.
 111

SEVENTEEN -Tir, Tiuwaz - (God of order identified with Mars)

We entered the wealth of Freyr's material earth via the first 8 runes. Passing
through the white (wynn) Gate of the 8th letter, we then travelled the Underworld of
Hel's family. Returning to the light through the victorious 16th rune (Sig), this last family
describes the heavens and further mathematical secrets.

17. "Tir is a guiding star; well does it keep faith with princes; it is ever on its course over
the mists of night and never fails." (OERP)

As guide for sailors or travelers over the flat steppes, height of the star indicates the
latitude. Keeping it at the same height over the shoulder sends one marching in the same
east-west direction. The North Star is almost directly overhead in the northern latitudes.

Circle of stars under command the Pole Star 272 "I opened my mouth and
panted. For I longed for thy commandments." (#17 Pe, Psalm 119)

The 17th Hebrew letter is Pe meaning 'mouth' or 'command'. All stars

circling the pole star, Greeks, adapting the earlier alphabet used 17th letter Pi π to
command the circumference their circles.

Secrets passing along with trade objects, China's Pi (or Bi) is a jade circle
symbolizing the Mandate of Heaven. Belonging to the celestial emperor. "It was used as
a device to communicate with the heavens [...] In later dynasties, the Pi was symbolic of
power and authority."273 After losing a battle, the defeated leader relinquished his Pi to
the victor.

272
Time exposure, Ugo Kuel, public domain, wiki/Pole_star#/media/File:Sterneamwalberla2.jpg
273
http://masonkay.com/jade/pi.php
 112

Chinese Pi disc Some Chinese Pi's are pierced with an arrow.

"In the Bible the number 17 symbolizes "overcoming the enemy" and 'complete
victory'. God overcame the [...] rebellious humans when he [flooded] the earth] on the
17th of the second Hebrew month. Noah's ark [...] rested on the mountains of Ararat on
the 17th of the seventh month [...] Daniel's 7 beasts have seven heads and ten horns, for a
total number of 17. They represent world-ruling powers."274 Rust red Mars (Tir) ruling
the Iron Age: "In classical antiquity [number 17] appears in connection with warfare and
heroism."275

Tyr (Tir), owner of the 17th rune, is associated with law, the North Star, and
Mars. His north-pointing arrow also appears among the stars of Sirius/Orion. Discussed
at the third charm, the world of Time began on Tuesday named after various arrow gods:
Tyr (Tiuwaz) or Mars (Mardi). War arrived in China's world during the reign of the Third
Mythic Emperor Huang Ti. The third charm being associated with the pricks of various
arrow gods, the Third Mythic Emperor also invented acupuncture.

Clock with Time's arrow

Although we are moving away from the circular order of clocks toward a digital
world, Tyr's arrow still measures time.276 On maps, his arrow points directly north toward
the pole star once under his command.

The Star, also known as The Navigator, is 17th Tarot card277 "In the hands of
Freemasons, Protestant clerics, and the nobility of the day the Tarot became nothing less

274
biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/17.
275
Schimmel, Mystery of Numbers, 1993, 219.
276
See Third letter: Pole stars act as a celestial clock, measuring both seasons and hours of night.
277
Rider Waite deck (Waite was a member of the Golden Dawn occult group).
 113

than "bible of bibles", an esoteric repository of all the significant truths of creation."278

Tir (Tiwaz) was the Germanic High God before Thor and Odin replaced him as
war leaders. Odin still uses his name: Hanga-tyr or Hropta-tyr. Tiwaz cognate with Zeus
and Deus, was the son of Earth, 'tir' meaning earth in Celtic. The ONRP and OIRP (24
runes reduced to 16) Tyr is 12th rune, still commanding as High King 'ruler'.

To understand his downfall, we must again consider the Precession of the

Equinoxes. The slight wobble of Earth on her axis results in the pole stars slowly shifting
from their original position. The removal of the Dragon from his position of power,
replaced by the Wagon Stars (Dipper), is one result. As the deposed star slips away, a
ravenous mouth opens until a new star captures the pole. The stars rising in spring also
slowly shift eastwards. Passing through the ages of Taurus and Aries, we are now in
Pisces moving toward the Age of Aquarius.

17/12 Týr god with one hand and leavings of the wolf and prince of temples.
GLOSSES: Mars tiggi. MARS (OIRP)

Tyr was a righteous god, a just god who never broke his word. When a violent
wolf threatened the stability of the Norse world, the gods convinced the wolf to submit to
being bound as a test of his power. Promising to release him, Tyr held his hand in the
wolf's mouth as guarantee. When he broke his word, the wolf bit off his hand at the 'wolf
joint'. Escaping his bonds on the day of Ragnarok, the wolf will kill the 'oath breaker'
Odin. Garm, the dog of Hel will kill Tyr. "Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir/ The
fetters will burst, and the wolf run free." (Voluspa, verse 44)

278
wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Arcana
 114

Tyr with hand in Fenrir wolf's mouth, Trollhattan, Sweden279

17/12 Týr is a one-handed god; often has the smith to blow. (ONRP)

A few final notes on the mouth of the Pole Star: After death, Egypt had a ritual of
Opening the Mouth so the dead could enjoy eating and talking after ascending to the
stars: "Sometimes shaped like our number seven [...] the little gadgets used for the
Opening the Mouth were given the celestial shape of the Big Dipper [pole stars]."280
The tool was made of star iron thrown from the sky. "My mouth is opened by
Ptah, with that chisel of metal with which he opened the mouth of the gods."281 Iron is
under the rule of Mars. One power of Iron is that some ores are magnetic. Magnetic iron
(magnetite) is a lodestone, which when suspended to turn freely act as compasses,
faithfully pointing north. Like the North Star, it guides travelers. It is a faithful guide
even when the stars are obscured.
This magnetism would empower Odin's seventeenth rune charm keeping his lover
attracted: "The seventeenth I know: That the young maid shall never forsake me."
(Havamal) Made of the same iron running through a red-blooded lover's veins, the love
stone was carried by prostitutes in ancient Europe, fed water and iron on Fridays by
Mexicans, and formed into statues of lovers. In Greece, a lodestone goddess was set free
once a year to rush toward her lover made of iron.282 Gifted with a magnet's powers of
attraction, it could not help but re-direct a traveler's wandering footsteps or recall woman
to man by stirring her red blood.

279
wiki/Týr#/media/File:Tyr-brakteaten, author Gunnar Cruetz, CC
280
Manjo, Healing Hand, 1975, 88-89.
281
Book of the Dead This same ceremony loosens the Bonds of Set. Red Set (Seth) is another
Mars. Associated with the third day (belonging to Try and Mars) the Bonds and bolts of Time is
imposed when the world is impregnated (seeded, third day of Genesis 1).
282
Walker, Woman's Dictionary, 1988, 516.
 115

EIGHTEEN - Berkan, Beorc, Bjarkan (Birch)

"Berc id est cortex" (16th Century gloss)283

Cortex: From Proto-Indo-European 'ker' 'sker'; Cognate with Ancient Greek

(keírō, “I cut off”), English shear, German scheren, Albanian harr (“to cut, to mow”),
Lithuanian skirti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”), Old Armenian kʿerem, “to
scrape, scratch” 284

Russian Birch-bark letter no. 497, c. 1340-90285

Writing is not usually associated with the 18th position, but the gloss was added
when the old knowledge of runes was disappearing. Paper Birch has long been used for
writing. Marks scratched on the bark's white surface show as nicely as on a modern sheet
of paper. In an Irish script known as Ogham, the first message was scratched onto a birch
bark. In that script Birch is first letter, a position that is associated with the origins of
writing. The message warned the queen might be carried off to the Underworld.

Eighteen is a number usually associated with birth and midwife moons. Birch,
Lady of the Woods, represents new beginnings; baby's cradles were made from its wood.
(Bjargrúnar) Birch/Birth-runes "learn if help you will lend, the babe from the mother to
bring. Write them on your palm and around your joints and ask the Fates [Disir] to help."
(Sigfridumal) As an aid to the midwife, 18, like 13, reflects one of the moon's cycles, the
moon having a long connection with midwives. In the Greek story, the moon goddess
midwifed Apollo's sun.

The Younger Futhark moved Birch to the lunar 13th position:

18/13 (Bjarkan) Birch leafy twig and little tree and fresh young shrub

283
Cotton Ms, Domitian A9, saec XI, Derolex, Runica Manuscripta (1954), 10.
284
wiktionary.org/wiki/cortex
285
Veliky Novgorod, wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_bark_manuscript
 116

GLOSSES: abies FIR buðlungr (OIRP)

The OIRP poem is glossed with 'fir', another tree of life. Firs needles were burned
at childbirth to bless and protect the mother and baby"286 As 13th rune of the Younger
Futhark, Birch still appears at a position associated with childbirth, Mother's Night,
Venus, and moon cycles.

Our wandering moon has an 18-year cycle. The Saros Cycle describes a period
occurring every 18 years 11 days when the sun and moon nodes (where the moon crosses
the ecliptic) line up and an eclipse can occur. Every 3 cycles (54 years) the eclipse occurs
in the same zodiac sign. There is another lunar cycle of 18.6 years when the moon is
closest to earth, appearing especially large in the sky. The appearance of this glowing
moon is especially impressive.

The Moon, 18th Tarot card, Rider-Waite deck

HERMAPHRODITES & MOON MAGIC

18. Beorc bears no fruit; yet without seed it brings forth suckers, for it is generated from
its leaves. Splendid are its branches and gloriously adorned its lofty crown which reaches
to the skies. (OERP)

Like the hermaphrodite Loki generated from Laufey (Full of Leaves), Birch is
thought to generate from leaves. (Actually, birches do produce seed). Like Loki, the birch
is a hermaphrodite, containing both sexes in one tree. These beliefs may explain the
association of the young trickster Loki with the birch in this rune poem: 18/13 Bjarkan
(Birch) has the greenest leaves of any shrub. Loki was fortunate in his deceit. (ONRP)
Multi-sexual Loki both fathered and mothered his children among whom are Hel,
the Fenir wolf, and Midgarm serpent. As a female, he gave birth to Odin's eight-legged

286
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/treelore.htm
 117

horse.287 In that story, Loki became a mare to seduce a giant's stallion away from helping
build the walls of Asgaard. In addition to his stallion, the giant mason lost both his wages
and his life.

287
8 is another number associated with the cycles of Venus, a star associated with Otherworld
travel as is Odin's 8-legged horse.
 118

NINETEEN - Ehwaz, Eh (Horse)

"Norfi or Narfi ... had a daughter called Night. Her husband was called Delling [Dawn]
and together they had a son called Day. Odin took Night and Day and gave them a horse and chariot
each to ride through the sky with."288 (Gylfaginning)

Sun chariot, Solvognen, Denmark, c. 1400 BCE289

In the northern sky, Horse as 19th rune pulls the chariot carrying the sun through
the sky. Of this Sun Disk: "This figure is of a horse drawing a solar disc in a chariot. One
side of the disc is gold and light and the other side is bronze and dark. [...] ornamental
units on each side, has led them to the conclusion that the light side depicts a 366 day
solar calendar, and the dark side depicts a 354 day lunar calendar"290

The Sun, 19th card

19. (Horse) is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors. A steed in the pride of its
hoofs, when rich men on horseback bandy words about it; and it is ever a source of
comfort to the restless. (OERP)
The great Wheel might also sail the sky in a boat.

Sun boat, New Grange, Ireland, c. 3100 BCE

289
Photo, Malene Thyssen,, wikimedia.org/wiki/User-Marlene Permission for use.
290
Christian Etheridge, www.academia.edu/7733632/A_Systematic_re-
evaluation_of_the_Sources_of_Old_Norse_Astronomy, 4.
 119

Sun boat, Bronze Age Scandinavia

Note: 19 prongs on these boats carrying the sun Wheel (Rota)291

Nineteen is a Golden Number associated with a sun cycle: The Metonic Cycle. I
believe some Bronze Age people may have been aware of the 19-year Metonic cycle at
an early period. 19 prongs appear on these boats transporting the sun wheel. There are,
however, other sun boat images with various numbers of projections.
Every 19 years, the cycles of the sun, moon, and Mercury realign. The 20th year
then heads ('ros'/head as 20th Hebrew letter) a new cycle. Nineteenth Phoenician/Hebrew
letter is Qof, translated 'monkey'. The alphabet arose in Egypt celebrating the returning
sun with the monkey. At the Creation, eight Egyptian baboons were formed to praise
each rising sun: "I have sung and praised the sun disc, I have joined the baboons." (Book
of the Dead, Ch. 100)

Egyptian amulet bead, ca. 1300 BCE292 (Palm as midwife, see #18)
A runic calendar was developed based on the 19-year-long Metonic cycle. "Also
known as a Rune staff or Runic Almanac [...] it is set at the beginning of each year by
observing the first full moon after the winter solstice. The oldest one known [Nykoping
staff] is believed to date from the 13th century. [...] The first full moon also marked the
date of the Disting a pagan feast and a fair day. [...] In early calendars [a rune represented
each of the 19 years]; the first 16 were the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark, plus special
runes for the remaining three years [...] The new moon would fall on that day during that

291
Rota is one of the translations of the 5th rune another number associated with the circle of a
sun sign.
292
wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm branch_(symbol), Monkey next to a palm, symbolizing the sun god's

daily rising.
 120

year of the cycle. For example, in the 18th year of the cycle, the new moons would fall on
all the dates marked with Tvimadur, the symbol for year 18." 293 The symbol for the

nineteenth is the 19th Phoenician letter: Qop .

Arlaug (17) Tvimdur (18) Belgthor (Golden Number 19) 294

A final note of the Sun comes from a manual for poets: "How should one
periphrase the sun? By calling her Daughter of Mundilfari, Sister of the Moon, Wife of
Glenr, Fire of Heaven and of the Air. Even as Skúli Thorsteinsson sang Glenr's god-
blithe Bed-Mate wadeth Into the Goddess's mansion with rays; then the good light
cometh Of gray-sarked Máni downward." (Skaldskarpamal, XXVI)

The Sun's husband, Glenr is literally 'an opening in the clouds' and Mundilfari,
father of the Sun and Moon, literally moves as a 'period of time'. Although couched in
myth and poetry, it is obvious these far-ranging Norsemen were aware of the cycles of
the sun, moon, and stars.

293
wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_calendar
294
wiki/Runic calendar, public domain, uploaded Bencoland
 121

TWENTY- Mannaz, Mathr (Man) or

20. Man in his mirth is beloved by his kindred, though shall everyone far depart, for by
his decree the Lord determines that the pitiful flesh is given to the earth. (OERP)

20/14 (Man) delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships.
GLOSSES: homo MAN mildingr GENEROUS ONE (OIRP)

Note: As 14th symbol in this YF poem, Man is placed in the position of the returning
Messiah emerging from his ark over the waters of Letter 13 (Mem/water). When the YF
reduced the 24 runes to 16, the symbolic placement of the runes was maintained.

The Last Judgement, 20th Tarot card

The Tarot card shows the dead emerging from their graves on Judgment Day. As
'dust to dust,' they had augmented the earth until their return. After the finality of the 19-
year sun cycle, a new beginning arrives with each 20th year. I believe it is the reason the
20th Phoenician letter is 'ros' meaning literally the 'head' of each new cycle.
Although runes chose their letter shapes from their own hoard of images, 20th

Phoenician letter (Ros/head) is , similar in shape used for the 'thorn', the 'prick' of the
third rune. With Three's charm the world of Time begins when arrows of lightning seeded
Earth, drying her red waters with impregnation. In what is now our third month of Mars,
the Vernal Equinox began each New Year in ancient Mesopotamia. The zodiac cycle still
begins with the archer Aries in March.

20/14 Maðr (Man) is an augmentation of the dust; Great is the claw of the hawk. (ONRP)
 122

Once Man enters the world of Time, he enters the world of Death. The Man rune
like the Barley is turned upside down and to indicate the date of death on early

documents. (Note: the shape has also depicted the deadly Yew). But as oft repeated,
the Earth Mysteries transmitted by the Phoenicians once promised a return: The rising up
when twenty begins a new cycle.
 123

TWENTY ONE - Laguz, Logr Laukaz (Water, Lake or Leek)

The Lake/Leek rune is shaped like the third Phoenician letter: . Note: While it
is unlikely Runes developed directly from ancient Phoenician, the qualities of the 21st
symbol seem to reflect those of the third: 2+1 = 3. I found this very confusing until I
discovered triangular numbers.
As a number, 21 is the sum of the first six natural numbers (1+2+3+4+5+6=21),
making it a triangular number. "A triangular number [...] counts the objects that can form
an equilateral triangle. That is: The triangular number is a figurate number that can be
represented in the form of a triangular grid of points where the first row contains a single
element, and each subsequent row contains one more element than the previous one."295

The Futhark's use of a Sedge as 15th rune may also result from 15's association
with triangles. 15, like 3 and 21, is another triangular number. The horned Elk-sedge, #15
of the Elder Futhark, has a triangular stem; reed stems being round. Measurements of
5+5+5 =15 also create equilateral triangles. The 3rd, 6th, and 15th symbols all carry
attributes of fertility. Third rune is a thorn with all a prick's phallic connotations. Six is
the marriage of midsummer's honeymoon producing kin. Fifteenth Phoenician letter is
Samekh, that Old Devil some stories claim impregnated Eve with her first son, Cain.

295
https://www.google.com/search?q=triangular+numbers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Note: the 21st
Phoenician letter is Shin, both a 'tooth' and the potent Moon god of Mesopotamia.
 124

Rider-Waite Tarot Card #15: The Devil

This would seem to explain 21's association with the phallus. The Lake rune is
sometimes translated as 'leek'. "The 'leek' hypothesis is based not on the rune poems, but
rather on early inscriptions where the rune has been hypothesized to abbreviate laukaz, a
symbol of fertility (The Bulach fibula)."296 The rather phallic leek is a member of the
onion family. The fibula, written in Elder Futhark runes begs: "[I, your] lover with the
penis, you with the vulva: receive me; leek! penis! leek! penis!"297 In India, another
civilization sharing traditions with the west, pious Brahmins do not eat onions or their
relatives due to their sexually stimulating nature.

Bulbous Leek emerging from its hairy nest298

Greeks eventually placed the phallic Phi as 21st out of their 24 letters rather than
leaving it in its original 19th position (which became their Q). The last 4 Greek letters
became: phi Φ, chi X, psi Ψ, and omega Ω. As a symbol: Phi stands in philosophy as
shorthand for a 'generic act', which like all proper phalluses, produces a family. "In
Lacanian algebra Φ stands for the imaginary phallus and also represents phallic
signification. -Φ stands in for castration."299
The existing rune poems seem to bypass the potency of the leek's symbolism and
remember only the obvious translation as a watery symbol. But the ONRP and OIRP
moved phallic Leek to the triangular 15th position. Obviously, they were aware of the
mathematical connection between 15 and 21.
296
wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguz
297
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bülach_fibula
298 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leek.jpg Bjorn Konig, CC.
299
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi
 125

21/15 Lǫgr (Waterfall) is a River which falls from a mountain-side but ornaments are of
gold (ONRP)

21. Lagu (The ocean) seems interminable to men, if they venture on the rolling bark and
the waves of the sea terrify them and the courser of the deep heed not its bridle. (OERP)

21/15 Lögr (Water) is eddying stream and broad geysir and land of the fish
GLOSSES: lacus LAKE lofðungr KING (OIRP)
King may refer to the earlier potency of the phallic symbol. Kings are notorious for
passing on copies of their genes among multiple families.
 126

TWENTY-TWO - Ingwaz (Earth god, also Ingvi-Frey)

The rune representing Ingvi is an alchemy symbol for lead. Like Saturn,
'sower of the seed' before he aged into blackened lead, Ingvi-Frey was responsible for his
Earth's fertility. Like Precessed Orion, also known as Saturnus, he went "east over the
waves.” Again, like Saturn, Frey is a son of Earth (Njord). Like an earlier Jacob (Israel)
he fathered a people named after him.
The Greeks placed the cross of Χ (Chi) as 22nd alphabet letter. The path of the
ecliptic, along which the planets, sun, and moon travel, crosses the Milky Way near
Orion (Saturnus)/Gemini and near Scorpio/Sagittarius. "In Plato's Timaeus, it is
explained that the two bands that form the soul of the world cross each other like the
letter Χ."300 The Zodiac Light of the circling planets crossing the milky River of Stars is
an X, offering a stairway to Heaven where angels once descended and ascended.

Zodiac Light X-crossing Milky Way 301

22. (Ing) was first seen by men among the East-Danes, til
followed by his chariot, he departed eastwards over the waves. So the Heardingas named
the hero. (OERP)

Modern scholars, unlikely to derive the idea from this rune poem, believe
Hadding is modeled on the Vanir god Njord, father of Ingvi-Freyr. This poem overtly
links Ingvi and Hadding. Hadding being first Danish king, Ing was "first seen by men
among the East-Danes."

Harding is a name still used for people from west Norway. "The Harding name
[may be linked to two areas] one from Norway - the Hardanger Fjord, where people are

300
wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_(letter)
301
Brocken Inaglory, GNU Free Document http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orionid12n.jpg
 127

still called "Hardings" or “Hardinger” [...] The other as Danish/Angle hordes [recorded in
the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem as the] Germanic tribe Heardingas. Both groups may have
originated from [...] the Jutland peninsula, who under pressure of expanding groups
around them moved [to the Horderland-Hardanger area]. In Icelandic literature they are
the "Haddings" and their legendary leader Hadding is protected by both Thor and
Odin."302

Giants fostered Hadding, first king of Denmark. His foster sister Harthgrepa
asked him to be her lover. "Hadingus put forward that the big size of the giantess
hindered this project. Harthgrepa replied that she had the ability to change size at will: I
become huge to fright the fierce, but small to lie with men." When he returned home, she
came with him.

Spending a night in a house whose host had just died Harthgrepa, practicing rune
magic, made Hadding put a stick carved with spells under the corpse's tongue. Compelled
to speak, the corpse cursed them, predicting their deaths.303 Under Odin's patronage,
Hadding won back his father’s kingdom. Years later, after the drowning of a friend in a
vat of ale "he ends his life by suicide, and hangs himself publicly, as if making a
voluntary sacrifice to Odin."304

302
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/Harding.htm
303
wikipedia.org/wiki/Harðgreipr (information from Gesta Danorum)
304
Saxo Gramaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book I, c. 1200 CE, Peter Fisher trans., commentary by
Hilda Ellis Davidson, 12
 128

TWENTY-THREE - Dagaz - Day

23. Dæg (Day} the glorious light of the Creator, is sent by the Lord; it is beloved of men,
a source of hope and happiness to rich and poor, and of service to all. (OERP)

Day's rune is written with a butterfly shape. The Greeks place the psychic symbol
Psi Ψ as 23rd letter. In Greek, psi writes 'butterfly': Psyche. In her tale, Psyche must
never see her lover by day. Like a sleeping butterfly, she entered the dark cocoon of the
Underworld to perform tasks before returning to the light of Day and to her Cupid. A late
tale, it is associated with the Mystery tradition of Underworld descent and return to Day.

Psyche with butterfly wings, Antakya Museum, Antakya, Turkey305

"Who are Psyche’s parents? Answer: She was the youngest of three daughters of
an unidentified king of Miletus." 306 Anatolian Miletus claimed the Phoenician Cadmus
who bestowed both Mysteries and the alphabet to the Greeks as ancestor. Milesians were
the first to use alphabet letters in place of numbers, a technique necessary for the later
development of Kabbalah and other numbered mysteries.

305 https://www.theoi.com/contact.php Free reference:

https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/Z31.1.html
306
http://www.rwaag.org/psyche
 129

TWENTY-FOUR - Othala, Ethel (Homeland, Inheritance)

Classical Greek, expanding their alphabet to 24 letters, ends with the womb of
Omega derived from the 16th letter Omicron ('little O'). The Greek alphabet is now
bookended by the Alpha and Omega Ω. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last." (Revelations 22:13)

The Elder Futhark ended with the promise of a material, an earthy homeland:
24. Ethel (homeland) is highly beloved by every man if right and proper he may have
prosperity in his blood

Sheela na gig's earthy welcome to the seed of a new generation.307

The Old English Runes, developed after Christian times, were expanded from the
24 of the Elder Futhark. In time, their rune list ended with the finality of the Grave. The
promise of resurrection has been lost; the covenant once given by ancient Earth Mothers
to her seed was broken. (29.The grave) is horrible to every knight, when the corpse
quickly begins to cool and is laid in the bosom of the dark earth Prosperity declines,
happiness passes away and covenants are broken. (OERP)

307
Photo by John Harding, Sheela na gig project, .wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SheelaWiki.jpg from
church at Kilpeck Herefordshire, England, 12th Century
 130

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