Note: This is very long essay, compiled from several shorter ones. Since runes fell under the category of divinition, and this essay is not about divination, I put it here. I also placed it here because it refers to runes as one example of toning vibrations. I could have easily used Hebrew letters, Sumerian or Sanskrit. I've posted this because there was some query as to information on rune magic in terms of a course. Instead of waiting who knows how long for a course to come, I will place this general information for the convenience of those interested.
Warning: this is probably not an easy read, and it is a lot of material. Questions and discussion are welcome.
I. Introduction and Theory
This is an extensive topic and I cannot complete it in one post. The following is an outline of some fundamental principles the underly the method descriptions. Even
then my descriptions are only brief summaries of what could be said about this topic, so I will post the topic in installments, each a separate thread so as to allow room for discussion (if any) and to answer questions (if any). Be that as it may, these installments are preliminary explorations of potential "advanced" course material I
plan to organize.
Runes of sorts are found in many traditions. Galdr is, furthermore, a Norse term but the meaning isn't restricted to Asatru. Every culture with a sacred alphabet uses
methods that can be called galdr: mantras, spells, incantations, holy names and letters, all these constitute part of the mysteries of galdr. I am posing this discussion in terms of Runes and using the Norse terminology because the Norse Viking row of runes is condensed, conscise and easy to work with. As such, it presents a good example to convey the often difficult to understand concepts surrounding the magics of projective harmonic vibration such as those of the letter and the word.
The meanings of the Norse runes are deep, but the symbols are direct and nononsense, reflecting a rather practical metaphysics. The principles of the metaphysical art of galdr, however, transcend any one culture, and are rooted in our own human nature. The art and science of magic involves what is commonly called manifesting, or
altering reality through the power of our conscious psychophysiological expression, which may or may not be ritualized. Essentially this involves an interactive relationship between the workings of the subjective and the workings of the objective frames of reference.
I call this lensing because it is as if light from one end passes through to the other end so that the subjective image and objective image the light describes become identical. The lens is that which exists in both worlds, subjective and objective although it takes on different names in each. In the objective it is called body and in the subjective it is called by names such as mind, soul, spirit etc, all of which may be different entities but also facets of the same whole. Thus, the lens of manifesting or magic can be conveniently termed body/mind or human psychophysiology.
Now that we have a sense of the two poles involved in magical manifesting (objective and subjective realities) and the fulcrum of their interface (human psychopysiology), we can examine the conveyance of manifestation or what corresponds to light in our lens metaphore. Some might say this is consciousness, but this conveyance needs to be common to both realms and consciousness is a subjective dynamic, which is not tangible, and cannot be objectified. The conveyance, on the other hand, needs to be present in both realms in some form or other, tangible in the objective and internally present in the subjective. This conveyance is vibration.
The vibration must be felt and ideally our connecting our three basic senses (seeing, hearing, touch) as well as the more abstract feeling sense bridges subjective to
objective through the psychophysiological lens of what amounts to our self. When these criteria are met the conveyance of vibration can transfer a pattern from
subjective to objective manifestation and vice versa. Psychic information beyond the five sense is the most common manifestation of the objective to subjective conveyance, whereas creating or precipitating events is the most common manifestation in the other direction.
Under that category of Subjective-to-Objective conveyance, projective galdr is one of the most advanced magics there is. Much of the work here involves structuring the
patterns of vibration conveyance in order for internal patterns to be coherently carried into precipitating external situations. What I will discuss in the next installement is
the fundamental magical act to accomplish this.
II. Toning
In this section I will describe principles of vibration manifesting in general terms so as to lend the reader a perspective that somewhat expands beyond the way these
topics are usually put forth. Whether the reader fully understands or not doesn't matter as the principles will be expressed in terms of galdr practice and things will
make more sense, albeit with the added perspective. Toning is the backbone of all lensing. This is true because everything in manifestation has a vibratory nature, even what seems to be solid or chaotic.
In the last installment we mentioned the basic requirements for conscious lensing to work. These are:
1)Poles of cause/effect.
2)The lens fulcrum between the poles.
3)The medium of conveyance through the above.
To this we can add toning as the means to activate the lensing dynamic via the vibration of the medium of conveyance. I use the word “toning” to show that not only
is the vibration consciously intended, but that it reflects a certain structure of harmony and resonance that actually underlies the dynamic of cause and effect in
manifestation. The magician's or lenser's skill comes into choosing how to tone and to make the best of the available of chosen media of toning. In terms of magic this involves using symbols as a primary resource of tonal representation.
The lenser's creative skill also determines how symbolism, vibration, and meaning are to be weaved together so that consciousness and the sensate and emotive elements of our nature, based on our biology, can come into focus so that the thread of the conveyance of lensing can pass through the eye of the lens without friction or distortion. It's convenient to speak in abstract and allegoric terms to make sure only those who have experience of what manifestation is about can connect the dots. At the same time, describing principles beyond ordinary experience with ordinary concepts is a challenge.
The good news is that in various traditions such as mantras and galdr, chanting, spell craft etc, we find examples of toning, and indeed realize that toning or at least the
attempt at it not only comes naturally to human beings, but is part of what makes life meaningful for us, tied intimately to culture, religion and artistic expression as well as play and romantic love. We hum we sing, we croon, we make sounds, we think emotively, we are magnetized to beauty, good food, wonderful aromas, feelings, touchings, and generally experiences of the five senses and beyond. All of these experience are vibratory in nature mainly because that is how they feel. So toning is not just done with voice or sound.
It utilizes all the senses and sensings, emotings and the way or creativity connects patterns into meaningful to it structures. Toning is not just chanting although chanting can be toning. For toning to result in lensing, however, the two poles must be coherent in the lenser's experience, his/her own nature as the lens and being sensitive to the conveyance, meaning being able to clearly sense vibration without tension and to identify with it are necessary for successful lensing.
Toning on its own only activates lensing when the vibration is one with the lensing dynamic as I described it, and for this to happen the tone needs to become one with
the consciousness and identity of the one lensing. This identification is what I called passing the thread of vibration conveyance through eye of the lens. When this happens the vibration tends to expand in the individual, through their heart, energy centers, up their spines and every channel and radiate out their aura. The saturation of the psycho-biological lens that we are leads to the continuity of conveyance to link the poles of cause and effect that we call subjective and objective realities so the pattern from one end manifests at the other.
This manifestation most of the time does not occur all at once, given material inertia and conflicting forces that may act against our influence, but if our receptivity to the
pattern as one with our identity and will is both subjective and objective (our physical body does not tense or resist) and can be sustained either continuously or periodically, then objective reality will conform in one way or another to the pattern our toning represents.
Like any skill lens toning is perfected through practice, and such practice includes the development of our energy conductance capacity, our will, our vibratory receptivity,
our continuity of identity (through confronting and healing trauma and psychic fragmentation), activating nodes within the body where harmonics of experience are
centered (such as the chakras of Indian traditions) etc., all of which are expressed partially, with distortion or clearly in many different traditions, usually with emphasis
on one thing over another regarding the possibilities.
To apply skilled toning to lensing in a general way, could involve using one tradition as a foundation of approach and complementing it with principles from other traditions not emphasized in the first. Without symbol references creative tonal organization is impractical. It could in principle be done instinctively, but weaving
cause to effect in a planned way requires some structure, just as artists and musicians gain from learning principles of harmony and composition.
Given we are conditioned toward psychosomatic distortion, we need these principles and the benefits of symbols that concentrate our will and intent harmonically or we
will end up resorting to brute force of active will instead of coupling magnetic desire, intention and sensed vibrations that carry meaning in a smoother and healthier
manner. Active will is not enough, and because of this we tense to compensate. Tension is a signal that we need to defend ourselves from something or that something is resisting us. Tension is the last thing you want in lensing because it gets weaved into both the patterns of cause/effect and in one's identity that centers them.
The message tension sends then gets weaved into everyone one wills and can actually corrupt the identity matrix of a person over time. Most of us are already corrupt in one way or another this way, because most sustain chronic tension in one way or another, at one level of being or another. Thus learning to tone/lens also amounts learning to unravel tension in one's being. All of this constitutes part of the complexity of actually mastering something that would have been alot more natural if humanity indivudally and collectively wasn't so conflicted with itself and environment, but that is where we stand and what we have on our plate.
I have attempted to lay out concepts the encompass a relatively wide spectrum in this installment to give an idea of what I mean by toning and how toning is related to
lensing. These abstractions will make more sense in the next installment when I put the expressed theme in terms of projective rune galdr. I need to emphasize that there are many different kinds of runes. Any simple glyph with occult meaning is technically a rune.
You can indeed use the actual (aka Norse) runes by using the pronunciations as a veral spell, although what I will be describing is for bind runes where the order of
each sound is irrelevant. In a spell you are using words with a specific order. Here I want to focus on galdr to create a vibration without specific semantic meaning, but
with a very powerful occult vibration nevertheless. In projective galdr you can use a seal or sigil as reference by the real work is done through visualizing the rune or rune combination. What you do is image it with multiple senses, hear it, see it, touch it, feel it vibrate in your inner being and around your aura, and hence make it real.
Most people of the western persuasion are in favour of doing a spell and forgetting about it. This is like launching a missle, which may be knocked off target or not hit
the target in the way we want. My focus is, therefore, on practicing with the tones so that when you do want to launch them you are strongly conditioned to the energies
already, and even to call them up at will or keep them vibrating indefinitely. Making order out of chaos and vice versa is energy manipulation. What symbolic vibrations do is act like a grain of sand that stimulates the formation of a pearl, only in accordance to the grain's structure and purpose.
An important point is that there is no such thing as a bad vibration, and hence no such thing as a bad symbol. Every meaning is multilayered and death in one sense is transformation in another. Even annhilation in one context is simply saying no in another. This truth is not easy to apply in complex situation such as trying to see the good in disaster. That is because we lack vision and depth of penetration in things. But we can start exercising this potential for transmutation by realizing that symbols
themselves are simply aspects of reality, and choose what layer of that reality we choose as our symbol's primary source of meaning. A bleeding dagger may be
horrendous and also may be an example where we do not choose to do this.
That is because a bleeding dagger is a multi-symbol construct, establishing a relationship of dagger (which can easily be a symbol for will) and blood (a symbol
for life). However their relationship has negative connotations. Runes, however and elements of symbolism in general are basic building blocks, and if we tune into them
in a way that is constructive for us, then we can even transform the relationships. A dagger with blood on the tip is sending a message and to try to pretend the message
is other than violent would be hypcritical. A rune is a stick figure and a rune of will with a rune of life need not imply violence. A goddess with bloody teeth and a necklace of skulls because she is a goddess and essentially represents a living conscious vibration can also be taken in many ways. Such a goddess challenges us to
penetrate the obvious nature of her symbols and discover a deeper layer of mystery, thus expelling the negative connotations completely. You can do this with the dagger, but the dagger is inanimate and represents our own will.
With both the goddess and the dagger, however, the key to manifesting the layer of power you want is vibration and experience, not form and appearance. To be more
specific and put it simpler: take a rune and vibrate not its name such as fehu, but its fundamental sound, which is ffff. In this case add a minimal vowel such as a very
short a-sound (as in "put") or maybe a nasal zhhh or mmm sound (with closed mouth and feeling the air going out the nose). Then you would have Fffffffffazzhhh or FffffffaMMMM. The resulting feelings and sensations would give you an idea of the energy of the symbol. The extra vowel and last consant (which I call the "resonator" consonant) adds meaning, but the meaning is to convey the energy of the first letter. You could modify the energy by using a longer a such as aaaaa or a u or uuuu sound.
The idea here (which I will more develop in the next installment) is to take the verbal experience and make it subvocal and then completely internal and nonvocal so that
thinking a sound creates a more powerful effect than vocalizing it. When your thinking of a sound is more potent than your physical vocalizing in your experience, then you are toning. This internal toning generates the pure energy of the vibration and one of its advantages is that you can tone several sounds all at once by simply thinking them at together and at the same time as if a chorus where toning them for you. Here you don't just imagine hearing, but duplicate all the tactile and inner sensations a verbal vibration causes. This inner sensate duplication is the key to success.
All that has been described includes developing our psychophysical potential, (healing and aligning our body/mind) as well as learning to be receptive to vibrations.
In practice, it is also important to pronounce each sound right to get the energy of it as it affects your body and mind. You are essentially learning to reproduce vibrations
at will without verablizing them. The letter is not a sound anymore, but a feeling although you still think of it in terms of "sound". Correct pronounciation is what makes your body resonate a certain way and gives you the sense of the energy corresponding to the symbol and its meaning. There are indeed pronunciations that vibrate us more than others. English for example is a language with chewed up pronounciations, where vibrations get jumpled and slam into each other.
Most modern languages are like that, in trying to express the most number of abstract concepts in the least amount of time. Ancient languages were simpler but each element really hit home as a vibration. That's where we want to go to recalaim the power of internalized vibration, the key to lensing. Right pronunciation will give you an energy carrier, and meaning is the piggy back energy that guides it toward the manifesting goal. The more meaning the more the energy holds together and goes where you want it to go. So everything is needed here: Body/mind alignment, pronunciation and depth of meaning.
Rune Galdr
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