Diana L. Paxson - Taking Up the Runes

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Copyright 2005, 2021 by Diana L. Paxson

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ISBN: 978-1-57863-729-4

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To the Rider of the Tree

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

These are the runes I drew this morning, as I have done almost every day since we locked down for the COVID-19 pandemic. I post them, with some commentary, to my mailing lists and Facebook page. Sometimes they are shared; often people thank me. We are are all grateful when the forces that move Midgard speak through the runes to give us some perspective on the challenges we face today.

This spring I have been associating Berkano with healing, because birch is an analgesic and because we associate it with the goddess Frigg, among whose ladies we find Eir the healer. Certainly, we need healing, but in which area do we need it most? The second rune drawn is Ansuz, the rune of the god Odin and of communication, which we surely do need to improve. But which communications? A third runeDagaztells me to open my eyes to the new day, to seek and share information about developments in medicine and in politics that will help our nation heal.

As of this writing, it has been fifteen years since Taking up the Runes was first published and more than thirty since I first began to study the runes. This new edition is a recognition that during that time the runes have joined Tarot as a respected method for divination, just as Heathenry has taken its place among contemporary Pagan religions. Unfortunately, today both the runes and the religion are threatened by the attempts of white supremacists to co-opt and corrupt Heathen symbols. The Othala, Tiwaz, and Elhaz runes, in particular, have appeared on neo-Nazi flags and emblems. However, the fact that white supremacists also attach significance to certain numbers does not stop us from doing arithmetic, so I refuse to abandon the runes. Indeed, the neo-Nazi misuse of the runes only makes it more important to reclaim them as positive and inspiring keys to a culture that had no concept of race (for more on this issue, see Our Troth: Heathen History, The Troth, 2020).

The original versions of the materials in this book were developed for my first rune class in 1988. The San Francisco Bay Area has always had a vibrant and diverse Pagan culture, and that first class, sponsored by the Fellowship of the Spiral Path, included people with a variety of backgrounds. Tom Johnson, who was getting his doctorate in Scandinavian Studies at the University of California, taught us to pronounce Old Norse and gave us access to current scholarship. Poets like Paul Edwin Zimmer, Hilary Ayer, and Leigh Ann Hussey helped us to transform what we were learning into verse and song. Everyone in the group knew something about Pagan mythology and ritual, but Heathenry was just emerging as a religion. I had done a fair amount of research into Germanic mythology for my novel, Brisingamen, but did not yet think of myself as Heathen. However, the previous summer I had had an unexpected and transformative encounter with the god Odin, described in my book Odin (Weiser 2017), and as I worked on preparing for each class, I often felt I was getting downloads from the Master of the Runes himself.

By the end of that year, our class had worked its way through all twenty-four runes, discovering that each one opened a doorway into some aspect of Germanic culture and religion. We now had a working group of talented and enthusiastic people with a shared background in the lore. Without quite intending it, we had become a Heathen kindred, which we named Hrafnar, the Ravens, and which is still going strong today. Rune study has continued to be our best way to introduce new members to Germanic religion and culture, and every few years we run another round of the class, gaining new insights each time. Most recently, we focused on the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, including those runes added after the Germanic tribes established kingdoms in Britain.

When we started the very first class, the only easily available sources on the runes were an introduction by R. I. Page that I had bought at the British Museum, and Edred Thorson's first three rune books, published by Weiser. With each round of the class we have discovered more sources. By the time this book was published in 2005, we were able to look at the work of authors such as Freya Aswynn, Kveldulf Gundarsson, and a number of others, whose ideas are discussed under each rune.

In the years since then, even more books on the runes have appeared. Some are works of scholarly runology, which give us more background on where the runes came from and how they were used. Others are more esoteric explorations of how the runes can be interpreted and used today. You will find an annotated list in the Further Reading section in the back of the book.

The successive rune classes also generated their own contributions to the lore. The collection of rituals that form Part II of this book include contributions from several Hrafnar members in addition to my own. I am grateful to Hilary Ayer (*HA) for the Fair Weather spell in the Ansuz/ Thurisaz ritual, to Deborah Bender for letting me include the words to Seasons, to Laurel Mendes for Blossom, to Jennifer Tifft for the Runesong, and to Jim Graham for the original material in the Wolfbinding meditation. Of those members who are now sharing mead in Valhalla I salute Leigh Ann Hussey, who gave us the material marked (*LAH) in the Hagalaz/Naudhiz ritual, the invocation to Odin in the EIhwaz/Perthro ritual, the Runagaldr, the Spindle chant, and the song, Corn that Springeth Green. Paul Edwin Zimmer (*PEZ) wrote the rain spell and blessings in the Ansuz/Thurisaz ritual, material in the Yngvi/Nerthus rites, and parts of some of the meditations.