RUNES: TERRESTRIAL AND GLORANTHAN

This is a very incomplete essay.  More than anything else it is the seed of an idea for expanding the use of Gloranthan Runes in HeroQuest, RuneQuest, and 13th Age Glorantha.  Maybe "seed" is the wrong word, "justification" might be better.

WHEN GREG STAFFORD wanted a name for the magical alphabet the mythic world of Glorantha was “written” in, he turned north and borrowed the English word Runes.  This is an Old English word meaning “secret” or “mystery,” but originates with the Proto-Germanic *runo, “a magic sign, a runic character.”  Runes were, of course, the writing system used by the Germanic peoples from the second century CE forwards, but while they did indeed represent linguistic phonemes, their association with magic and deep cosmic forces is undisputed.  In the Hávamál Odin tells us that the 12th Rune can make the dead walk again; on both the Björketorp and Stentoften runestones, dire curses are warned for those who break or mar the Runes; and the Poetic Edda tells us runic inscriptions on spearheads and blades can make the weapons invincible.  Stafford’s use of the term to describe the symbols used in Gloranthan religion and magic thus makes perfect sense.

On the other hand, the Gloranthan Runes show a great deal more sophistication than the Germanic originals.  The Germanic Runes represent things common and or important to the daily lives of the people who used them; “cattle,” “ice,” “horse,” “birch,” “joy,” etc.  Compare this however with the Gloranthan Elemental Runes, each of which represents an elemental force of creation, a metal, a phylum, a season, and personality traits.  These Elemental Runes are the raw “stuff” of creation, but then the Form, Power, and Condition Runes further show how they develop and manifest in reality.  So far as any evidence has ever demonstrated, nothing approaching this complexity exists in the Germanic Runes.  We can speculate a greater system of association and meaning, but we cannot really know.

A model much closer to the Gloranthan Runes exists in Hellenic civilization, however.  The Greek alphabet—which dates back to at least the eighth century BCE and is successor to the even earlier Phoenician and Linear B writing systems—was called by philosophers Stoicheia, or “elements.”  They signified not just the phonemic sounds that comprised the Greek language, but the 24 fundamental forces the kosmos was composed of.  Each of the vowel sounds, for example, related to one of the seven visible planets, while the consonants represented the signs of the zodiac, the four classical elements, and the principle of kaos.  Additionally, each letter of the Greek alphabet carried a numerical value (a principle the Roman alphabet would later simplify as Roman numerals).  This opened them up to Pythagorean associations.  In this way each letter became a treasure house of meaning.

A prime example would be the 22 Trumps of the Tarot.

In the first four centuries of the Common Era, the Roman conquest of Egypt (30 BCE) forced a synthesis between Hellenic and Egyptian culture that had already been happening for centuries.  As two occupied peoples, the fusion between these two cultures accelerated rapidly, creating a school of thought we today refer to as Hermetic.  Egypt’s old magic combined with deep Hellenic philosophy, producing both the technical and practical Greek magical papyri and the coherent system of thought espoused in the Corpus Hermeticum.  The two deities associated with knowledge and magic in their respective cultures, the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Djehuty or “Thoth,” merged into one figure, the so-called Hermes Thrice-Great.  Well into the Renaissance, this Hermes was considered a historical contemporary of Moses.  Because one of the main centers of Hermeticism—the thriving seaport of Alexandria—also became home to a substantial Hebrew population following the Diaspora, their traditions became part of the fusion as well. 

Now I mention all of this because through Hermeticism, the Greek Stoicheia became associated with both the Roman and Hebrew alphabets, the latter two borrowing the images and associations each letter carried.  This actually ended up preserving the Stoicheia as Greek influence waned in the West.  Both the Hebrew and Roman alphabets commonly used 22 letters (J, U, W, and Y were unused by and large in Latin, rendering JULIUS as IVLIVS for example).  Scholars argue which source they likely derived from—Roman or Hebrew—but the emergence of the 22 Tarot Trumps in the early Renaissance (contemporaneous with the re-emergence of the Corpus Hermeticum and renewed interest in Hermetic thought) is not likely coincidence.  When we pick up a modern Tarot deck and look at the Trumps, we are looking at associations that originated with the Stoicheia.

This is tantalizing for another reason, one that brings us right back to the Runes.  

In all the standard arrangements of the Futhark (Anglo-Saxon Futhorc), the sequence the Germanic Runes appear in, the first character is *Fehu, corresponding to Cattle, the god Frey, and the phoneme /f/.  At first this would seem to have little to do with the first letter of the Greek, Hebrew, or Roman alphabets, alpha (Hebrew aleph).  

And yet, the Greek and Roman characters derive from the Phoenician, which itself was a pictogram for the head of a bull.  Take a capital “A” and turn it upside down to see the original for yourself.  In Hebrew, the word “aleph” means “ox.”  In other words, the Greek, Hebrew, and Roman characters make the same association *Fehu does; “cattle.”  More intriguingly, the figure depicted on the first Tarot Trump, “The Fool,” in his manner of dress and the dog always depicted leaping beside him bears some resemblance to the Roman god Mithras, a figure commonly referred to in Hermetic texts and worshipped throughout the Roman Empire but especially in its Northern, Germanic frontiers.  Now, Mithras was himself a solar figure associated with fertility, youth, spring, and innocence…so was the Germanic god Frey.  Mithras is usually depicted in the tauroctony, the sacrifice of the bull*.  The Tarot Trump has no bull…except that the letter it is associated with is tied to “cattle.” 

We could go on like this for ages, but I would like to come back now to Glorantha.

The setting focuses on the Runes in largely their mythic sense—their use in magic and religion especially—and yet to a lesser extent we also see them used as the basic for classification systems (Troll is Darkness and Man, Fungus is Darkness and Plant, Insect is Darkness and Beast, etc) and dating systems (specifically the Theyalan calendar).  Yet it seems impossible to my mind that the Runes do not also carry phonemic values (the Elemental Runes as vowels perhaps, the Form, Power, and Condition Runes as consonants).  It is not a stretch to imagine a sort of Hermetic synthesis occurring under the God Learners (who as we all know could never resist a good Hermetic synthesis), who no doubt would connect the Runes to numerical values.  Like Tarot Trumps, the Runes might then form the basis of divinatory systems as well.  If nothing else, the Runic depictions on pages 194 to 197 of the Glorantha Sourcebook are literally begging us to make further Hermetic connections with them.  Thus I suspect the Runes are not just ubiquitous in forming the underlying reality of Glorantha, but also in the daily lives of Gloranthans (particularly the educated ones).    

* this is the center piece of Mithraism, in the same way the Crucifixion is in Christianity.  This matters because there is some suggestion among those scholars who believe that the Trumps emerge from the Roman, rather than Hebrew alphabets, that the cult of Mithras was essential in shaping these images into their current form.  This might provide an answer to the origination of the word “Tarot,” which in Italian is tarrochi and in German tarok.  The very name of these 22 images might have come to us then from the sacred Mithraic tauroctony.     

LITTLE LECTURES ON MAGICK, PART 2: THE QABALAH AND THE TAROT

...Eliphas Levi declared that by arranging the Tarot cards according to a definite order man could discover all that is knowable concerning his God, his universe, and himself. When the ten numbers which pertain to the globes (Sephiroth) are combined with “22 letters relating to the channels, the resultant sum is 32--the number peculiar to the Qabbalistic Paths of Wisdom. These Paths...are analogous to the first 32 degrees of Freemasonry, which elevate the candidate to the dignity of a Prince of the Royal Secret. Qabbalists also consider it extremely significant that in the original Hebrew Scriptures the name of God should occur 32 times in the first chapter of Genesis...

Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Kabbalah is an esoteric discipline for reading, and discovering, hidden knowledge encoded in the Torah.  This is, at least, it's original purpose.  One of Kabbalah's methodologies is gematria, based on the fact that the Hebrew alphabet--as with the Greek, Roman, and many others--served as numerals as well as sounds.  This means that Hebrew words are themselves all values.  For Jewish mystics, shared values between words indicated deeper connections which demonstrate the hidden construction of the world.  The most common example is that the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, has a value of 26.  26 is also the value of ABHA and AChD, "Love" and "Unity," which the Kabbalists read as insight into God's nature.

To better investigate the hidden meanings of words, Hebrew Kabbalah embraced Pythagorean numerical mysticism, and this more than anything made the discipline attractive to those outside of Judaism.  Aside from gematria, Kabbalists constructed a diagram--based on Pythagorean concepts--called the Etz haChayim or "Tree of Life" after the one in Eden.  This was said to be a blueprint of Creation, showing not only the structure of the Universe and Man, but the mind of God.  Hermetic Kabbalists--commonly referred to as Qabalists to distinguish them from Judaic mystics--adopted gematria and the Tree of Life to build their model of the universe.

The Tree of Life is constructed from the Numbers we discussed in the last chapter.  0, 1-10, and 22 are the most essential.  The entire schema is an attempt to "Square the Circle," or unite Earth and Heaven.  For this reason its skeleton is based on 3 and 4. 

For starters, the Tree of Life is made of four overlapping circles.  These correspond to the letters of the Divine Name, YHVH.  Y is the letter of Fire, the Father, and Atziluth, the Divine Plane.  H is the letter of Water, the Mother, and Briah, the Archangelic Plane.  V is the letter of Air, the Son, and the Angelic Plane of Yetzirah.  The final H is the letter of Earth, the Daughter, and the Elemental Plane of Assiah.  Where these circles or Planes overlap, Ten Spheres or Sephiroth are formed.  These Sephiroth correspond exactly to the values of the Numbers we discussed in the last chapter, so that the highest sphere is "Unity" and the lowest is "Completion."

The four Planes or Worlds are meant to show the process of manifestation.  The best way to understand this is by example.

There is a coffee cup on the table in front of me.  It Atziluth, the highest plane, it isn't really a coffee cup...it's a swirling pattern of atomic particles beyond my senses.  This is the "Divine Fire" that forms the true substance of Creation.  But the next plane, Briah, is the Ideal plane of consciousness.  This is where my idea of "cupness" resides.  It is the repository of all such ideas.  In Yetzirah, Fire and Water (Father and Mother) come together to form Air, the Son.  In this plane my senses read impressions from the cup (its shape, it's color, it's texture) and uses these to marry the phenomena to one of the ideas in my head.  The final result of this process is Assiah, the material world, where the object is not atomic particles but is now--for me--a cup. A coffee cup.  From a Qabalistic view we are all the Creators, using the ideas in our head and our senses to manifest the entire world from Fire.

It is easy to see, at this point, how nicely the ten Numbers fit into this plan.  Where Ultimate Reality (Y) and Ideal Reality (H) meet we have the three numbers of Heaven, Unity, Division, and Space.  Where Ideal Reality (H) meets Sensual Reality (V), we have Matter, Time, and Individual Consciousness.  Sensual Reality (V) meets with Physical Life (H) to generate Individuality, Sensation, Learning, Creation, and Completion. 

Two more things must be noted. Above the Tree is what the Qabalists call Ain, or "Nothing" (the blue curve in the diagram).  The Tree of Life is understand to grow downwards, rooted in Heaven, from the concept of Zero.  It is best then to think of the first Sephiroth as the trunk of the Tree and the tenth as the summit.  Zero, then, exists above the Ideal Plane of Briah. We can have no conception of it.

Between the upper three Sephiroth and the lower seven (the 3 and 7 of Heaven and Earth) is a gap where no Sephiroth exists.  This is the Abyss, the gulf between Heaven and Earth caused (in mythology) by the Fall.  The Tenth sphere at the base of the Tree  replaces this gap.

Before we continue, please note that this arrangement creates three columns of Sephiroth, or "Pillars."  These grow down from and reflect the highest three Sephiroth of Heaven.  The right pillar grows from 2, and reflects Maleness and Force.  The left pillar grows from Space and reflect Femaleness and Form.  The middle pillar grows from Unity and reflects Consciousness.

So far we have seen how the basic framework of the Tree is based on the numbers of 3, 4, and 1-10.  But the number 22 is also crucial here.  As we noted, 22 comes from the three vectors of the Cube, the seven points of the Cube, and the twelves edges of the Cube.  As 3 and 7 are also Heaven and Earth, we see in 22 the sum total of creation.

Hebrew letters are themselves divided up this way.  There are three Mother Letters, seven Double Letters, and twelve Singles.  Since this is not a study in Hebrew, we needn't dwell on what that means.   What is important to us here is that Kabbalists believed the universe was something that Yahweh (YHVH) spoke into existence, using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (again, simultaneously sounds and numbers).  Qabalists have a similar concept, in that the Mind creates the universe from numbers and letters as well.  The 3, 7, and 12 letters of the Hebrew alphabet thus form "paths" between the static Sephiroth.  They may be thought of as bridges or roads between the spheres, or conduits for the Divine Fire.  On the Tree of Life three are horizontal, seven are vertical, and twelve diagonal.  They correspond to the Elements (Fire, Water, and Air...Earth is the final Sephiroth at the base of the Tree), the Planets (Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), and the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

Taken together, this schema give us 32 categories of Creation.  This is again the Union of Heaven and Earth.  Think of One (Unity) doubling six times (the number of the Cube), 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32.  This is the also the number of times God is mentioned in Genesis.  Into these "slots" the Qabalist is encouraged to categorize all phenomena, turning the Tree of Life into an elaborate memory palace.

Let us take as our example the 6th Sephira, called "Tiphareth" (Individual Consciousness in our Pythagorean model).  We know 6 is the faces of the Cube, connecting it to Earth, but it is also the product of 1 and 2 and 3, the  numbers of Heaven.  So we can see it as a sort of mediator or bridge between Heaven and Earth.  This makes sense; looking at the Tree again it is positioned in the Middle Pillar between 9 (the Ego, or Lower Self) and 1 (Unity, the Divine).  Six is then the Word Made Flesh, the Christ described by John.  It is the link between God and Man.  We should not be surprised then that the Cube, flattened out, makes a Cross.

It's Hermetic planet is Sol, the  Sun.  Again, this works; the Sun is the Son.  But the Sun is also our local star, and thus a sort of personal god, a bridge between Earth and the Heavens.  And the Sun rises and sets; in ancient mythologies Sun gods die and are resurrected.  So we assign other deities here, such as Osiris, Ra, and Dionysus.  Solar associations also give us metals like gold, animals like the Phoenix, and gems like the yellow diamond.  The list goes on and on and on.  Apply the same to the 31 other categories and soon we have an entire conceptual model of the universe built up on our Tree.

The Tarot

An imprisoned person with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge, and would be able to speak on all subjects with unequalled learning and inexhaustible eloquence.

Elphias Levi

The Tarot was not created as an esoteric tool; it was a deck of cards for gambling.  The Italian tarocchi and its French cousin, from whom we get the word tarot, was played with four suits and an extra set of Trump cards.  It began to transition from a card game to a divinatory device in the late 18th century.  Antoine Court de Gébelin, a Protestant Freemason, speculated the cards were actually of ancient Egyptian origin.  Elphias Levi later connected them to the Kabbalah.

Even if they were not made as a divinatory tool, they certainly seem made for it.  By chance (?) the cards are built along the exact same Pythagorean principles as the Tree of Life.  To wit, there are 4 suits that correspond exactly to the Four Qabalistic worlds, each with 4 Court Cards that perfectly mirror the formula of the Tetragrammaton (Father, Mother, Son, Daughter) and 10 lower cards that correspond to the Sephiroth or Pythagorean Decade.   The Trumps, with evocative titles and images like the Devil, Death, and the Sun, are 22 in number (like the letters of the Hebrew alphabet or the dimensions of the Cube).  Even better, of the 22 Trumps one, the Fool, is numbered "zero," leaving 21 others...3 sets of 7.  The Tarot couldn't have been better suited to Hermetic purposes if it had been designed by an initiate.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn made the Tarot central to its doctrines (alongside Qabalah and Enochian), and its most infamous graduate, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) made it a centerpiece of his teachings.  In The Book of Lies he wrote;

The Great Wheel of Samsara.

The Wheel of the Law.

The Wheel of the Taro.

The Wheel of the Heavens.

The Wheel of Life.

All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of the TARO alone avails thee consciously.

Meditate long and broad and deep, 0 man, upon this Wheel, revolving it in thy mind!

Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins.

Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny complete, may'st thou perceive THAT Will which moved it first. [There is no first or last.]

And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.

Towards the end of his life Crowley worked with British painter Lady Frieda Harris (1877-1962) to create what must be one of the definitive esoteric Tarots, the Thoth Deck.  His companion volume, the Book of Thoth, is a masterpiece.  In it, he takes the Golden Dawn's encyclopedic correspondences and associations and brings the new Thelemic formula of the New Aeon to them (see the next chapter).  His Tarot, on the Tree of Life, is as follows;

The meanings of the small cards derive directly from the Pythagorean Decade, filtered however though the Element or Plane of each suit.

Wands: Fire, Y-The Father,Will and Action

Cups: Water, H-The Mother, Emotion and Ideals

Swords: Air, V-The Son, Thought and Definition

Discs: Earth, H-The Daughter, Matter and Senses

Thus, the Two of Wands signifies Separation or Polarity in Will, whilst the Two of Swords is the same in Thought.  The Eight of Cups is Learning from an Emotional experience, while the Eight of Discs is learning from Material ones.

The Court Cards, then, show the manifestation of the Tetragrammaton in each World.  The Knights represent the Fiery element, the Queens are Aqueous, the Princes are Airy and the Princesses are Earthy.  So the Knight of Wands is the paternal, Fiery portion of Air.  The Queen of Discs is the Maternal, Aqueous portion of Earth. 

The 22 Trumps are somewhat more complex, deriving their meaning from the Element, Planet, or Zodiacal sign they are associated with (by way of the Hebrew alphabet).  To get the reader started, I provide here Crowley's short poetic descriptions of each from The Heart of the Master;

0. The Fool

Know Naught!

All ways are lawful to Innocence.

Pure folly is the Key to Initiation.

Silence breaks into Rapture.

Be neither man nor woman, but both in one.

Be silent, Babe in the Egg of Blue, that thou mayest grow to bear the Lance and Graal!

Wander alone, and sing! In the King's Palace his daughter awaits thee.

I. The Magus

The True Self is the meaning of the True Will: know Thyself through Thy Way!

Calculate well the Formula of Thy Way!

Create freely; absorb joyously; divide intently; consolidate completely.

Work thou, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, in and for Eternity.

II. The Priestess

Purity is to live only to the Highest; and the Highest is All: be thou as Artemis to Pan!

Read thou in the Book of the Law, and break through the veil of the Virgin!

III. The Empress

This is the Harmony of the Universe, that Love unites the Will to create with the Understanding of that Creation: understand thou thine own Will!

Love and let love! Rejoice in every shape of love, and get thy rapture and thy nourishment thereof!

IV. The Emperor

Pour water on thyself: thus shalt thou be a Fountain to the Universe.

Find thou thyself in every Star!

Achieve thou every possibility!

V. The Hierophant

Offer thyself Virgin to the Knowledge and Conversation of thine Holy Guardian Angel! All else is a snare.

Be thou athlete with the eight limbs of Yoga; for without these thou are not disciplined for any fight.

VI. The Lovers

The Oracle of the Gods is the Child-Voice of Love in thine own Soul! hear thou it!

Heed not the Siren-Voice of Sense, or the Phantom-Voice of Reason: rest in Simplicity, and listen to the Silence!

VII. The Chariot

The issue of the Vulture, Two-in-One, conveyed; this is the chariot of Power.

T R I N C : The last oracle!

VIII. Adjustment

Balance against each thought its exact opposite!

For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of Illusion.

IX. The Hermit

Wander alone; bearing the Light and thy Staff!

And be the Light so bright that no man seeth thee!

Be not moved by aught without or within: keep Silence in all ways!

X. Fortune

Follow thy Fortune, careless where it lead thee!

The axle moveth not: attain thou that!

XI. Lust

Mitigate Energy with Love; but let Love devour all things.

Worship the name _______*, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, and the name of His House 418.

(This Name to be communicated to those worthy of that Initiation.)

XII. The Hanged Man

Let not the waters whereon thou journeyest wet thee! And, being come to shore, plant thou the Vine and rejoice without shame.

XIII. Death

The Universe is Change: every Change is the effect of an Act of Love; all Acts of Love contain Pure Joy. Die daily!

Death is the apex of one curve of the snake Life: behold all opposites as necessary complements, and rejoice!

XIV. Art

Pour thine all freely from the Vase in thy right hand, and lose no drop! Hath not thy left hand a vase?

Transmute all wholly into the Image of thy Will, bringing each to its true token of Perfection!

Dissolve the Pearl in the Wine-cup: drink, and make manifest the Virtue of that Pearl!

XV. The Devil

With thy right Eye create all for thyself, and with the left accept all that be created otherwise!

XVI. The Tower

Break down the fortress of thine Individual Self, that thy Truth may spring free from the ruins!

XVII. The Star

Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: burn up thy thought as the Phoenix!

XVIII. The Moon

Let the Illusion of the World pass over thee, unheeded, as thou goest from the Midnight to the Morning!

XIX. The Sun

Give forth thy light to all without doubt: the clouds and shadows are no matter for thee.

Make Speech and Silence, Energy and Stillness, twin forms of thy play!

XX. The Aeon

Be every Act an Act of Love and Worship!

Be every Act the Fiat of a God!

Be every Act a Source of radiant Glory!

XXI. The Universe

Treat time and all conditions of Event as Servants of thy Will, appointed to present the Universe to thee in the form of thy Plan.

And: blessing and worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!