THE SACRED TRIAD

 

 

The Aettir, or families, are three groups of eight runes in which the ancient runic alphabet of 24 letters is divided. The order of the Runes in ancient Futhark is not a fruit of chance, but instead is a path that crosses the various archetypical stages of evolutive growth of every human being, from childhood, to adult age, until maturity/old age. In its given position, every Rune is related with any other else, in particular with the one which preceeds and succeeds it.
 

 

FREYA'S AETT

  

Freya's Aett contains the most ancient symbols, related with the existance of the very first breeders and cultivators; the first group of three (Fehu, Uruz and Thurisaz) is linked with the theme of survival, the second group of three (Ansuz, Raido and Kenaz) stands for the quest of the Sense through intellect and experience; the last group of two (Gebo and Wunjo) express the realization into the world and the pursuit of happiness.

During this phase, a sort of apprentice, we must – above all – build a primitive identity (the social mask) and to learn how to mantain us safe and sound, understanding how the world runs. Freya's Aett is a kind of “Preparation for the Journey of Life” which awaits us whenever we'll decide – if we want to – to leave the security of the world we built for ourselves.

Into the Freya's Aett we can find a sort of inner joy and peace, of satisfaction and real wellness. We can have friends, a family, a job and be appreciated for our social engagement. But, nevertheless, we'll never feel fully complete and authentic. We will always have the perception of something lacking in our happiness, until we won't finally leave for our personal Journey.

If we let that our questions about life take more and more space inside of us, we will inevitably face something that could perturbate our existance. A disease, an accident, a grief, or more simply a crisis that upsets at the basis our usual way of life, or maybe the end of a relationship or a new job which would force us to leave places and situations we know.
The Journey calls with signs, harbingers, apparition of Guides and unexpected help. One fine day we'll wake up and  realize that we need a horse, a sword, a dragon to defeat, a treasure to find, a maiden to set free.

And the Journey begins.
 

 

 

  Preparations for the Trip

 

 

The symbol (from ancient greek symbàllo, 'I put together') is a powerful instrument of communication. Runes are letters of an alphabet, but each of them is also a precise symbol; Runes are not a mere graphic reference to a sound and a meaning, they are also a bridge to an imagine, to a precise condition of existance, a meaning which trascends individuality that links one another common experiences of people, of nations, of all humankind.

From sound to sign, from sign to meaning, from meaning to symbol, from symbol to archetype, from archetype to the Holy, this is the journey that can be run also backwards; the energy passes through our mind (and our life) when we get in touch with the Runes.

“A word or an image is symbolical when it implies something that goes beyond its letteral or usual meaning. It has a wider aspect, 'unconscious' that is never precisely defined or fully explained. Anyone couldn't hope to define it. When mind explores the symbol, it is getting in touch with ideas that overcome its rational capability.”

Carl Gustav Jung - 'The man and his symbols'

It seems really difficult to describe or define archetypes because of the impossibility (if not through art or mythology) of using words to depict something that eludes any definition. They belong to life, are images integrally connected with the individual thanks to emotions.

In his researches, Jung explored a peculiar dimension of conscience spreading from the union of rational intellect (left cerebral emisphere) with intuitive mind (right cerebral one). Our mind has the precise skill to recognize archetypes, that is the primary models of human evolution. That's why Odin, the god of inspiration and poetry, finds the runes and gives them to men.

Art is the straightest instrument to spoil reality from stereotypes that don't allow us to see the ultimate essence of things; the archetype therefore becomes the principal means to understand the very nature of the whole, to express the inexpressible, and reveal the most intimate secret of all.
As Erich Neumann underlines in his book 'History of the origins of conscience' the evolutive stages of conscience are archetypical:

“The stages are the costitutive elements of the psychical development since they are archetypes in the structure of psyche, though they are also the result and the sedimentation of an inner growth in the history of humankind.”
 

 

 

Freya's Aett

 

 

Freya's Aett evolutive stages

 

 

 

FEHU: THE GIFT OF LIFE
Gratitude and Generosity
Gestation, nourishing, dependency, vulnerability
 

URUZ: PRIMEVAL ENERGY
Istinct of Survival
Aggressivity, separation
 

 

THURISAZ: DEFEND THE BORDERS
Face the Enemy
Self-preservation instinct, istinct of defence, of order, control

 

ANSUZ: LISTENING TO THE CALL
The Voice of the Spirit
Superior faculties, intellect, feelings, intuition
 

 

RAIDO: THE HERO'S JOURNEY
The Dragon, the Treasure, the Maiden
Autonomy, independence, research, experience

 

KENAZ: THE FIRE OF TRANSFORMATION
Purification, change, transformation, purification

 

GEBO: THE BALANCE OF EXCHANGE
The Relationship
Interdependence, relation, exchange, communion

 

WUNJO: THE DIVINE CHILD
Healing
Success, realization, trust, happiness

 

 

 

HEIMDALL'S AETT

 

Heimdall's Aett is referred to the “Great Trials of Life”, necessary to forge the man's attitude, to get in contact with a deep sense of existance: the relationship with death (Hagalaz); with the grief of loss (Nauthiz); with the void (Isa); with the capability to re-born from the ashes of past (Jera); the strength to follow the depths of unconscious (Eiwhaz); to penetrate the mysteries of love (Perth); to keep in touch with the spiritual dimension (Algiz); and to finally face the fullness of choice (Sowelu) the last part of the path, the Tyr's Aett, that is the last phase of life.

We keep spending most part of our life in this dimension of conscience, or evolutive stage, and whenever we're able to defeat a demon or to go over a crisis, then we'll meet new, harder challenges under our way. We could be caught by the temptation of giving all up, of dying, of getting back; many people do it, it's understandable. But every choice has a price. Every single one of them.

Some, on the other hand, keeps on going, starting to understand the essence of the Journey of the Hero.
The word 'hero' derives from sanscrit 'vir-e', that means 'man'; then we have the Latin 'vir', that means a man full of virtue and strength, not a common man, not a simple 'homo', but 'vir'; a man who measured himself against the tests of life, developing a sense of nobleness and inner strength from difficulties and fears.

We must exit from the Heimdall's Aett with some simple but strong ideas about life and death, about love and sexuality, power and devotion to someting superior.
 

 

 

 

Eros and Thanatos' Dance

 

Heimdall's Aett stands for the great trials of life, as we just said. They are an ineluctable step towards the inner strength of individual, if we really want to know the deep sense of destiny and existance.

Within Heimdall's Aett we leave home and the familiar sense of security, endevouring into a new mysteric world dominated by Eros and Thanatos, by Fate and the forces of unconscious, represented by the hostile aspects of nature, or embodied by divinities or heroes, test to overpass, maiden to save, enemies, dragons and demons to defeat, treasures and realms to conquer.

It's not by chance that Heimdall is the divinity that settles this Aett; he is the protective deity of Asgard, the Realm of Gods, called also the White God, because he rays out an intense and glaring light.
Heimdall watches over Bifrost, the Raimbow Bridge, or Trembling Way, the only access for the realm of heavens, that only seldom appears before human eyes.

The Rainbow, the Path of Light, doors to the highest regions of Spirit, light that breaks against the sky and divides itself into the seven levels of conscience that Indians call Chakras, or Wheels of Life.

Heimdall is the divine keeper of good, of beauty, the great warden of the cosmic balance, the strongest foe of Loki, a divine 'Scallywag', an unpredictable Trikster, a sort of Lucifer which threatens constantly the order of the world.

While Odin reigns upon the world of men and gods, and Thor watches over the Giants, Heimdall looks after the ordered cosmic course and he knows exactly when Death would come over, presaging the End of the World-as-we-know-it.
In that dramatic leap of time, he will stand and will blow into the “Gjallarhorn”, whose sound will be heared into all the nine worlds of the nordic cosmology, calling gods and men to the ultimate battle.

That day, maybe, the Wagner's spirit will join in, modulating the famous notes of Gotterdammerung, the Twilight of The Gods.

Therefore, let's evoke Heimdall, and he could help us into the Journey and recall within ourselves the spiritual energies against evil and obscurity taht threaten us.

Aware of the coming death, ready to capture us in every moment, how couldn't we feel deeply every single second of our life?

This is the Journey of the Hero, with trials to overcross, enemies to defeat, dragons to face, because that's life, that's the way for the highest conquest: ourselves. Our destiny.
 

 

Heimdall's Aett

 

 

Heimdall's Aett
 

 

 

HAGALAZ: THE BREAK OF SCHEMES
Setting free from the Known
Death as dissolution of forms

 

NAUTHIZ: FACING WITH PAIN
The Extreme Test
the loss and the separation

 

ISA: THE VOID OF MIND
The Separation
the grief, taking conscience of solitude and separation
 

 

JERA: THE COSMIC LAW
Cyclicity of Existance
the return within the cycle of existance, the rebirth

 

 

EHIWAZ: THE SCIAMANIC TRIP
To cross the Worlds
the sciamanic trip, the descent to hell, the hunt of the soul

 

PERTH: MYSTERY OF REGENERATION
The Sacred Game of Life
the mystery of initiation
 

 

 

ALGIZ: THE SACRED SPACE
Praying
acceptance and experience of spirituality

 

SOWELU: THE POWER
Choice between Good and Evil
reunion with the Cosmic Mind

 

 

TYR'S AETT 

 

At this stage of our path we have become stronger and wise enough to continue; we passed through the central mysteries of existance, we're together with the dance of Eros and Thanatos, penetrating the Mystery of Love and Death.

We are ready to dedicate our life to the service for the planet and humanity, thanks to the consciousness derived from the way we made; now we can help others to make it. Since we have learned to recognize our wounds, we can heal theirs.

When we will give back to our parents and our ancestors the entire weight of their sufference we brought for them on and on; when we will contemplate all our previous incarnations, deeply aware of all the knowledge we acquired through them, we will be ready to the realization of Self, to see life in its pure essence.

The Runes of the last Aett, Tyr's one, represent the tangible realization of the previous Aettir.
Individuality is overcome in order to access to the transpersonal dimension of family, society and human community, of power according to the cosmic laws (Tyr); love, intimacy and balance into the relationship of the couple (Berkana); collaboration with other people (Ehwaz); universal brotherhood (Mannaz); the responsability towards society and civilization (Laguz); contribution to the planet through sons, family, community and society (Inguz); self-purification, purification of the planet and humanity from negative influences from our genetic heritage and our past lives (Othila); illumination through the comprehension of God and the fulfillment of Spirit (Dagaz).
 

 

 

The Return, the Realm, the Self

 

Runes of the last Aett, the Tyr's one, from the name of the god Tyr that holds it, or from Teiwaz, the first rune of it, are the results we achieved in our growth and evolution into the world of reality. What we achieved about power managing, relationships, about family and society, order and belonging, about community, the planet, about nature and spirit, about intellect and knowledge.

After we reinforced our basis structure with the Freya's Aett, and we met the various challenges of the Heimdall's one, now we come to the last runic family, the Tyr's Aett, the god who makes sacrifice of himself for the common good.
The path of aknownledgment of Runes must be taken as a teach which will bring us within our inner divinity. We are a vibrant part of the Universe and of the forces which set it. Now we have the possibility to awaken these powerful resources inside of us, in order to to use them.

From an archetypical point of view the Tyr's Aett runes represent the Upper Self, as the Sovereign, the Judge, the Wizard, the Old Sage, the Master, the Fool.

 

 

 

Tyr's Aett

 

 

 

Tyr's Aett Archetypical evolutive stages

 

 

TYR: THE UNIVERSAL ORDER
The Warrior of the Light
Male principle, Animus, Logos, Sword, Phallus, Father
Sacrifice, Order, Law, Justice

 

BERKANA: ANIMA MUNDI (“SOUL OF THE WORLD”)
The Mystery of Feminine
Female Principle, Aenima, Breast, Womb, Uterus, Birth
Rebirth, Mother, Eros, Mystery

 

 

EIHWAZ: REUNION OF OPPOSITES
The Journey of the Soul
Reunion of the Opposites, Aenima and Animus, Hierogamy, Alchemical Wedding, Evolution and Growth of the Relation
 

 

MANNAZ: THE COSMIC MAN
Planetary Conscience
The Cosmic Man, the Society, Humanity, the Cosmic Brotherhood
The Buddha, the Christ
 

 

LAGUZ: THE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE
The Collective Unconscious
Intuition, Cosmic Conscience, Collective Unconscious, Symbols, Archetypes

 

INGUZ: THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
The Sacred Fire of Breed
The Sons, the Family, the Offspring, the Planet, the Ecology

 

OTHILA: HONOURING THE ANCESTORS
Setting free from Karma
The Ancestors, Goods and Benefits, the Home, the Inheritance

 

 

DAGAZ: THE NEW GOLD AGE
The Supreme Realization
Illumination, Awareness, New Cycle, Universal Religion

 

 

Il materiale pubblicato su queste pagine è stato preso dal libro "Runemal, Il Grande Libro delle Rune" di prossima pubblicazione con la casa editrice L'Età dell'Acquario. Per informazioni e prenotazioni scrivere a info@runemal.org