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Rune
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The aett of Heimdall is the aett of guardian, combat, and right. This is the aett of the soldier, the police officer, the fire fighter, the lawyer, and the social worker. Its virtues are courage, loyalty, and sacrifice. Its vices are petty detail, being self-serving, and falsehood. The last aett, that of Tiwaz, is the aett of the priest-king. It is the aett of the governing and contact with the divine. It is the aett of the cleric (of whatever religion), the legislator, the mayor, the Governor, the President, the seeker, the teacher, the professor, and the judge. Its virtues are foresight, honesty, and perception. Its vices are decadence, aggrandizing, and secrecy. For each job we have there is an aett that applies. Within that aett are the runes which describe the travails and needs of that aett. It gives the strengths, opportunities, pitfalls, and failings of the job and the class of people in that job. These runes are a special guide to those people in these positions and those dealing with people in these positions. For example, let's take a quick and impressionistic look at the factory worker. They can make a living (feoh, the cattle, symbol of money) but to succeed big in life, they have to take risks (ur, the wild ox, symbol of risky success). Simple enough, but notice that necessity (nyd, the power to do whatever it takes)is not located here, it is located in Heimdall's aett, the aett of the fire fighter, the soldier, the person who has to confront great danger no matter what. In other words, the risk to get wealthy does not come from necessity and does not have the kind of power that rune provides. Instead, it's something we seek for our own purposes. Not also the gifu (the gift, the exchange) is here. Only in this area of life is a gift for a gift appropriate. Well, do you think it's appropriate for police and politicians to work on that level? There's a great deal of wisdom - particularly practical, homespun wisdom - to be drawn from the runes in just this fashion. The other main magical alphabets turn their attention resolutely upward. They seek abstraction and high spiritual values. This is fine, but the runes take a different path in that they seek concrete application and high spiritual values. The runes are not only an occult device, they are also a social science tool. That's something other magical alphabets, fine as they are, cannot claim. D.
Jason
Cooper,
author
of
Using
the
Runes
and
Esoteric
Rune
Magic,
has
two
novels
forthcoming,
Slums
of
Paradise
(from
Twilight
Times
Books)
and
The
Astral
Grail
(from
Spilled
Candy
Publications).
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