The articles below where originally printed in an Chilean Magazine entitled “ALMANAQUE ASTROLOGICO PARA 1936”. The translation of the full title was: “ASTROLOGICAL ALMANAC FOR 1936 – Daily Practical Guide [to] Astrology, [the] Sciences, Hermeticism, Literature, [and] Agriculture”. They are available in the English translation of Huiracocha’s Runic Course: Gnostic Rosicrucian Runology.
THE RUNES
In all the Continents, be it in Europe, Asia, Africa, and above all, in America we find inscriptions carved upon rocks which we know by the name of rock inscriptions. With primitive instruments, men (who lived thousands of years ago) engraved certain signs on the cliffs, which for them represented something sacred and they wanted to preserve them.
In spanish, we have a curious word: “CALAR”, which we use commonly, in order to express the act of marking products (for example, to mark fabrics or metals). We also call the action of cutting into a watermelons or another melon in order to verify maturity “CALAR”. And we say the same word “CALAR”, when we put the bayonets into position with the intention to injure the enemy. In short, ‘to penetrate the motive, the reason or the secret’ of a thing, we call “CALAR”.
Among the ancient peoples of the North, “CALAR” OR “CABALAR” was said for the act of tracing or carving inscriptions on stones. Today, translating this term, we find the root of the word “CABALA” or “KABBALAH” which means “TRADITION”. Thus we can see that the KABBALAH is not Hebraic, but Nordic.
The two main Runic systems, received from the Germans and Scandinavians, were called “FUTHORK”. In them, each runic letter represented a God and although much of our mythological knowledge has been lost, some was preserved, like the God TYR, Tins, etc.
Tacitus has already acknowledged that these runic characters had a certain magical disposition, and we can assert the same, that the knowledge of the Runes was a privilege of the initiate priests, above all in that which refers to Runic Magic as prophecy.
The degeneration of our civilizations has led to the Anthropomorphic idea of Divinities, which does not invalidate that ancient peoples recognized that behind these names of Gods were hidden cosmic-magical forces, and that since human language was the exponent of the Logos, of the Mediator, of God, thus the characters written or engraved upon those rocks were the magical manifestations of the Logos itself.
If a man can act upon the cosmic forces through the tone or word (Mantrams), then he can also conjure or exorcise through the Runes. Just as the language of Light preceded ordinary language, the origin of the Runes is divine.
(In this engraving you can see the various Runic signs
preserved up to now in many coats of arms.)
Dusty books from the libraries of Sweden, Norway, and other Nordic countries allowed us to access, in part, the key to this high magic; until in the archives of the Rose-Cross Fraternity manuscripts were found, which confirmed and complemented the truths conveyed by those works. In this way it was possible to translate and interpret works of Magic superior to everything known from the East, confirming the old Latin sentence: “EX-SEPTENTRIONE LUX”, that is to say, the Light comes to us from the North.
By theoretically discovering the power of the Runes as magical agents, we lacked the connection with ourselves, as an organism. But the Dr. Calligari, of Rome, discovered that man is a kind of Radio antenna, whose centers of reception and emission are located on the skin; he experimented with receiving and sending messages more than 100 km away. With this he saw that to mentally form pictures of objects, geometric figures and letters of the alphabet regularly presented difficulties. He tried several processes, such as the Morse system (in telegraphy), but with no better results. Calligari did everything in his power, but he obtained nothing. A celebrated Runist, who took over the same system of the Italian doctor, and, since he knew the matter, found the key, by making use of the Runes.
The Runes, in themselves, have enlivening forces, that even if these forces are only accessible in a rudimentary manner (through the Rose-Cross runic practices or exercises), one still becomes capable of handling High Magic in a way that even Eliphas Levi could not do himself. The Rose-Cross has discovered in the Runes the key to the highest powers.
Dr. KRUMM-HELLER.
Berlin, September of 1935.
– paraphrase from the article ‘THE RUNES’ in ASTROLOGICAL ALMANAC FOR 1936 – Daily Practical Guide [to] Astrology, Sciences, Hermeticism, Literature, Agriculture (1936)
published in Santiago, Chile.
available in Gnostic-Rosicrucian Runology
MAGICAL POWER OF THE RUNES
Otto Hauser, in his work “Germanischer Glaube” (Germanic Creed) and in his translation of the “EDDA”, shows that many cosmic events, which were related to the annual course of the Sun, were personified in figures of German legends. All the original worship of the Nordic peoples was a “veneration to the Holy-Sun“, like a great celestial power, that always woke up again in the land of its death (winter sleep). The Nordic man loved the Sun as an eternal vital force and as the image of all LIGHT (both physical and spiritual).
The RUNES originally came from this source, and were always considered as cosmic signs. They served for the denomination of the ORTHO (Rising) and the setting of the Sun in its annual course; and for this reason, they were also used as signs in the Calendars. These Calendars of RUNIC RODS [or STAFFS] were used in Sweden until 300 years ago. We can still see them today in the Nordic Museum of Stockholm.
Many explorers believe that the RUNES are the oldest writing in the world. And it is proven that the RUNES were not only signs indicative of the course of the Sun, and simple signs according to our current sense, but even more, they were also MAGIC SIGNS.
Let’s occupy ourselves with them: FUTHORK, which is the name of the RUNIC ALPHABET. This word is composed of the first letters, that consists of 24 signs, which are conserved in 5 monuments. In the EDDA, there appears a FUTHORK of 18 signs, which we will observe more closely: each RUNE has (like each letter of our alphabet) a name, which represents both a root word and a numerical value, as they are found in the song of the HAVAMAL.
The simplest and most popular use of the RUNES was for predictions. To this object, the RUNES were engraved on branches or rods of beech and then cut out. These beech rods (note that letters, in German, are called Buchstaben; Buche or beech + stab or rod/staff), were thrown at random onto a white cloth, then picked up with their heads up and handed over to a man or woman knowledgeable for its interpretation. Said Oracle was received as coming from superior forces. Even now, the custom is still preserved in some places.
Tristan Kurtzahn revealed the procedure to us some years ago:
“The RUNIC consultation should be carried out in a beech or oak forest, and only at certain times, at sunrise, at 6 or 9 in the morning, at midday, or even at 3 or 6 in the afternoon, as well as at the setting of the Sun, preferring Wednesdays or Sundays. The consultant should be completely alone and in his best suit, and another important detail was not to talk to anyone about it. Silently cut the RUNES of beech, oak or hazel rods/sticks, tying them up slowly with fibers. There were 4 different methods known: Druid, Dordon, Stonehenge, and that of Halgadom; it was up to the consultant to choose the one that seems the most appropriate.”
In the aforementioned Song of the HAVAMAL, of the EDDA, the RUNES are presented for us as ancient Magical Signs. In this song, ODIN OR WOTAN describes how he invented the RUNES and the magical significance that they enclose.
Even today the use of the RUNES lives on in villages, which is demonstrated by Siegfried Kummer in his book «Heilige Runenmacht» (Holy Runic-Power). “The TYR RUNE”, he says, “served as a magic formula against the Jettatura (the evil eye)”.
The RUNES were used in short inscriptions on weapons, jewels and coins (figure 1), as well as in various shields that still survive. (See drawing page 150 of this Almanac see the shields above). In the North these inscriptions are customary engraved on tomb stones. One of them is that of UPLAND, which dates from the year 1,200 after J.C.
To whosoever has good eyes in order to observe, is still saluted today by benevolent signs in houses of old German cities and villages, speaking of its former inhabitants who knew how to appreciate, through tradition, their primordial knowledge. It is possible that the current inhabitants may have no idea of the deep significance of the timber of their houses.
In this regard, says Siegfried Kummer:
“It was in the Erzgebirge (mountains between Saxony and Bohemia), where I found an old house, which invited me (through its RUNES in the timber) to rest in it. I told the owner that I already saw from afar what his house told me, he answered me, that he had never understood why his father gave so much value to these beams; for he always said to him: “In these beams our great-great-grandparents already believed and they never went wrong”. I showed the owner, at the entrance of the house, a beam with three TYR RUNES, and then he remembered that his grandfather said: “These Magic Signs reject all demons, witches and pestilence in animals”, adding, that in reality never have his animals suffered pestilence and he was convinced of the power of these signs, although the priest laughed at it” (figure 2).
The use of the RUNES in the timber houses probably dates from the times of the persecutions of the church; the persecuted (in order to recognize each other) opted for this method, and thus the tradition was perpetuated.
It is clear that this quick story does not leave the RUNIC mysteries exposed. Many of these Signs are found in the Indo-American countries, and nonetheless, it has accommodated the ROSE-CROSS FRATERNITY OF THE SUMMUM SUPREMUM-SANCTUARIUM IN BERLIN, to be the first to reveal them to the Latin world.
– paraphrase from the article ‘MAGICAL POWER OF THE RUNES’ in ASTROLOGICAL ALMANAC FOR 1936 – Daily Practical Guide [to] Astrology, Sciences, Hermeticism, Literature, Agriculture (1936)
published in Santiago, Chile.
available in Gnostic-Rosicrucian Runology
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