The Fylfot and Church Bells

I discovered an interesting connection between the pealing of church bells and the sign of the Swastika/hammer of Thunor in Stephen Taylors The Fylfot File. Rev. Taylor states that the Flyfot appears on a number of church bells in the mid-eastern counties of England. He has identified 40 churches that contain such Flyfots in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. Of course these counties are situated in the old Danelaw part of England where Germanic heathenism was reintroduced to a Christianised Anglo-Saxon population by Danish settlers.

He believes that the occurrence of the Flyfot is linked to pre-Christian Germanic tradition. The Fylfot as we know represents the hammer of Thunor/Thor,Donar and in Sweden in Thor`s temples the sound of thunder was imitated by the striking of pieces of metal with a hammer. There may be also an association between this and the presence of cauldrons in myths relating to Thor. Quoting from another author (Ernest J. Eitel) he states: "Perhaps also you remember to have heard that among the German peasantry and in Iceland the same figure is used as a magical charm to dispel thunder." Rev Taylor goes on to refer to the mediaeval custom English custom of ringing church bells to dispel storms and pestilence. Many European bells bore the Latin inscription Fulgura Frango, "I break up the lightning".

He also refers to an Icelandic magical ritual which was intended to deter or punish thieves. First one must find copper which has been taken from a church bell and stolen three times. The hammer must be hardened in human blood. This must take place on a Whitsunday "between the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel." Additionally one must also forge a spike from the same copper and jab the spike against the head of the hammer. Whilst doing so one must say "I drive this in the eye of the Father of War, I drive this in the eye of the Father of the Slain. I drive this in the eye of Thor of the Aesir." If carried out correctly the thief should feel pain in his eyes and this is how the thief may be identified. Failure to return the stolen goods would necessitate the repetition of the spell but it would result in the loss of one of the thief's eyes. If carried out a third time then he would lose the sight in both eyes. (Described in Icelandic Folktales and Legends, Jacqueline Simpson). It is remarkable how such an obvious heathen spell has managed to survive the process of Christianisation in Iceland. We can learn much about our ancient religion by analysing certain aspects of mediaeval church practice which contains many elements of our ancient faith.

Rune Galdr

In my experience I have found that there are 5 elements to rune galdr and these may be summarised as follows: Breathing technique. Intonation of the runic name or mantra. Adopting the runic posture. Visualisation of the rune. Concentration on the essence and meaning of the rune. Although these are specific acts and disciplines which must initially be learned and mastered individually, with time and experience the master will engage in all 5 actions simultaneously. When this occurs one will effectively be engaging in not only a spiritual practice which each of the above mentioned elements constitutes but will be causing real change to occur in both the spiritual(subjective universe) and the physical (objective universe).


Four works by Edred Thorsson (Stephen E. Flowers, PhD]) which are particularly useful for those wishing to master these techniques are: Nine Doors of Midgard. Rune Lore. Futhark. Rune Might. Although Nine Doors of Midgard uses exclusively the 24 rune Elder or Common Germanic Futhark the techniques may be adopted for use with the 33 rune Anglo-Saxon or Northumbrian Futhork, the 16 rune Younger Futhark or the 18 rune Armanen Futhork. It should be noted that Rune Might exclusively focuses on the Armanen Futhorkh. Whilst Edred focuses mainly on the Elder Futhark in most of his runic works he is clearly influenced by the teachings of the great Armanen Rune Masters; in particular Guido von List. He has been instrumental in bringing these vitally important works to the English speaking world with his translation and publication of von List`s Das Geheimnis der Runen (The Secret of the Runes), Die Religion der Ario-Germanen (The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk), Der Unbesiegbar (The Invinceable) and In Rune Might he puts forward the essential teaching and practices of the Armanen. Edred has also published the works of Karl Maria Wiligut in The Secret King: Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler`s Lord of the Runes (2006) and recently updated and added to the text in a later edition: The Secret King: The Myth and Reality of Nazi Occultism (2007).

The Quest of the Aryan Vira-Escape From the Eternal Return

The awakened Aryan realises that he is a vira, a hero-warrior of semi-divine origins who has an obligation to fight in the greater spiritual war that has engulfed the planet and the solar-system. The Aryan initiate is a would-be Sonnenmensch who seeks to escape the damnable Eternal Return, to achieve individuation, the stage of absolute personality so that on physical death the integrated personality survives and travelling up the invisible Irminsul through Iring`s Way reaches the void of the Black Sun, the Schwarze Sonne (SS), the ancient immobile sun, the point of origin for the divyas who arrived on this planet millennia ago prior to their mixing with the "daughters of men". We will have escaped the limitations of our humanity and become as Gods. This is the destiny of the awakened Aryan but only the awakened as this requires effort-not belief or `faith`, which is the great Christian lie.

Charlemagne or Karl the traitor as I prefer to call him may have destroyed the physical Irminsul but the invisible one-the real one remains and one finds its location at the point of the North Pole, the land of the Hyperboreans-the divyas. This Irminsul is the Irminsul in macrocosm. There exists in microcosm in each Aryan an invisible Irminsul which occupies the same space as the spinal column. Through the practice and mastery of the principles of Rune Yoga the initiate can achieve altered states of consciousness and full awakening via the realisation of the Ich-the I as symbolised in the Isa Rune.

We have in this a teacher, a master-Woden, the Lord of the Runes who by His sacrifice of Himself to Himself rediscovered the lost Runes, that body of lore which had been lost by the divine divyas prior to their degeneration. For nine nights He hung upon the world ash-the Irminsul. On each of these nights He visited each of the nine worlds and acquired knowledge. In other words He activated each of the nine chakras, the swastika wheels which represent these worlds and states of consciousness. Each of these swastika wheels is governed by a Rune and its mantra must be mastered. There are five elements involved in Rune Yoga: breathing techniques, visualisation, meditation, the mantra and the Rune form itself. The master is able to engage in all five disciplines simultaneously.

Through this process we are able to achieve personal awakening and the the awakening of the Blood Memory or what Jung called the Racial Collective Unconscious. Most of our people fell asleep long ago and have become little more than robots or cardboard cut-outs destined to keep returning in the Eternal Return and learning nothing each time. They have effectively lost their semi-divine status and will never achieve awakening. Woden knows those who belong to Him and He has called us out to fight in this great war.

The robots are cannon fodder, foot soldiers for the demiurge Jehovah, the evil lord of this world. Scientists are predicting that within a decade or two the polar icecaps will have melted. If this does take place-and it has many times in the past then I predict that archaeologists will make great discoveries as the lost civilisation of the Hyperboreans comes to light.

For those interested in the subject of the polar origins of Aryan man I can recommend Tilak`s Arctic Home in the Vedas, originally published in 1903. Recently his work has been re-examined by Professor M.M. Ninan in Tilak and the Aryan Origins: Are his findings still valid? Not only does the professor support Tilak`s theory but he provides additional evidence via modern scientific techniques not available to Tilak.

It is significant that in the Eddas there is reference to the 12 major Aesir who daily sit in council, the ancient Greeks knew 12 major deities that likewise took council on Olympus. We also know of the 12 knights of the Round Table under the leadership of Arthur or Ar-Thor, an ancient Aryan sun deity. No doubt the 12 signs of the zodiac also represent the houses of these deities. The major Gods have the primary task of offering leadership in the great war and are guardians of the invisible Irminsul and Iring`s Way (the Milky Way). These guardians are prefigured in the 12 Sig runes of the Black Sun. The Irminsul may be imagined to take the form of Gungnir the spear of Woden or the lance of Parsifal, pointing the way towards the swastika constellation, behind which is hidden the Black Sun. Irmin is strongly identified with this column and He is cognate with Aryaman, Airyaman, Ariomanus, Eremon and the Germanic hero Hermann or Arminnius.

Gibor, the Fyrfos and the Phoenicians

Professor L.A. Waddell in his The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons Discovered by Phoenician and Sumerian Inscriptions in Britain by Pre-Roman Coins (1924) states:

"The Hitto-Phoenician origin of this design is evident from the Phoenician coin from Gaza here figured in which darts are also used to show the direction of revolution as in the Scottish Swastika:...."

He is referring to a coin which is also figured on page 878 of Thomas Wilson`s Swastika The Earliest Known Symbol and its Migrations (1894). The Swastika symbol featured on the coin is clearly the same symbol as the Gibor Rune of Guido von List`s Armanen Futhorkh/Futharkh.
Wilson states:

"The Swastika sign is not perfect, only two arms of the cross being turned, and not all four".

I do not for one minute accept that the Phoenicians who Professor Waddell considers to be Aryan and not Semitic would have carelessly produced a sloppy and imperfect Swastika on their coins. This to me is not conceiveable. I believe that this was a deliberate act to conceal the full nature of the Swastika for some reason best known only to them.

The Gibor Rune which is the 18th and last of the Armanen Futhork is clearly a half way stage between the equilateral Aryan Solar Cross and the true Swastika. It visually combines both elements. Of course we have always known that these two solar symbols were linked and scholars speculate which came first. If one considers the Solar Cross which is an equilateral cross in a circle one can see how by a simple adaptation the rounded Thulean Swastika can be made to appear. The Swastika has many variants and meanings. In Das Geheimnis der Runen von List refers to Gibor as signifying God, the All Begetter. This is not Der Gott of the Christians but Das Gott of the ancient Germans. He is the Begetter of the All, Das All which contains Das Ich-The I, the awakened self which is signified by the Is/Iss/Isa Rune, the Rune which is first necessary to master when practicing Runic Yoga for all the other Runic forms stems from this. Regular invocation and meditation in the Is stance focuses concentration and intensifies Self-awareness; it awakens Das Ich-The I which of course is the main task of the Arman, the Sonnenmensch.

From the Is stance the Arman can then simply adopt the cross stance referred to in Siegfried Adolf Kummer`s Heilige Runenmacht. Kummer`s curriculum of Runic Yoga involves 13 Runic forms and full instructions on this curriculum may be found in Edred Thorsson`s Rune Might, probably THE most important book he has published to date. I followed this curriculum many years ago and it assisted in deepening my skills in Rune Magic. Also the astute observer will notice the similarity to the Wolfsangel Rune. The presence of Gibor amongst the Phoenicians in Gaza demonstrates how far Aryan man travelled over the earth in his faustian quest for knowledge and is further evidence to support the theory of the Aryan Phoenician.

The Ar Rune and the Aryan Cyclical Nature of Time

Ar rune of the Armanen Futhorkh.









The Ar rune of the Younger Futhark and the Jera/Ger rune of the Elder and Anglo-Saxon Futhark/Futhorc have the meaning of 'year' in the sense of time being cyclical, not linear which is an alien concept to the Aryan peoples. These terms stem from the PIE *Yer which conveys this meaning and this in part supports my contention that the Aryans and their descendant peoples such as the Teutons thought of time in this way.

Ann Groa Sheffield in her Long Branches. Runes of the Younger Futhark comments that the term has the extended meaning of a "good year, abundant harvest". Our Germanic ancestors who were far more rooted to the soil had a much more intimate connection with the seasons than the majority of us have today. They had a living experience of the cyclical nature of time and this is the essence of the 'year' as we should interpret it. Every year which we experience here in Midgard consists of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter which in a way reminds us of the four ages of gold, silver, bronze and iron which are found in the surviving mythologies of the Indo-European peoples. These ages continue to come around again and again.

Edred Thorsson in his Northern Magic. Rune Mysteries and Shamanism remarks that Ar "is the rune of the eternal return according to the cycles of nature and also those in the metaphysical realm." The Aryan in the sense of the spiritually awakened twice-born continues to incarnate within his racial, tribal and clannic blood-lines until he has reached the level of the Einheriar where he or she no longer needs to incarnate by necessity which is represented by the rune Nauthiz/Nyd/Naudhr/Not, the graphic opposite to the Younger Futhark and Armanen Futhark Ar rune. At this point he or she incarnates at will at a time and place of his or her choosing.

The Aryan is intimately connected with farming and the plough is the product of his ingenuity. Jan Fries in his Helrunar. A Manual of Rune Magick states that the OHG garo and OE gearn stem from the PIE *garwa-z, meaning 'complete, ripe, ready'. The similarity with Garman/German is striking. The conventional interpretation genuine from the Latin germanus, meaning 'genuine' or 'spear man' (Gar-man) but the German being a deendant of the Aryan is also the farmer and cultivator. This is brought out in the fact that one of the meanings of Ar is the 'plough'. The development of agriculture is also bound up with the creation of cities-civilisation. Indeed the Younger Futhark and Armanen Futhorkh/ Futharkh version of the Ar rune as opposed to the Jera/Ger rune is a glyph of the plough.

Thunor's Hammer-a Sign of Protection

The Hammer of Thunor is one of the most powerful symbols that we have in our spiritual arsenal. Naturally it can be worn as an amulet in order to display our faith to others and also as a magical charm. The axe is closely related to it and indeed of greater antiquity and may be worn as an alternative. 

What is lesser known except to those of us who are involved in esoteric practices is that the Hammer of Thunor may be visualised and used as a spiritual weapon of either defence or offence. To those who are new to the practice of visualisation you may wish to start by carefully drawing a hammer with a red felt tip pen on a piece of stiff white card. Ensure that the hammer is between 6 to 8 inches in height. The hammer should be coloured in, again with a red felt tip pen. Place the card approximately 6 feet away from you as you sit crossed legged on the floor. I find that it helps if this is carried out in the dark with one or two candles for illumination. Try to stare at the hammer for at least 5 minutes with only minimal blinking. The use of a stopwatch will help to determine the passing of time. Then after 5 minutes close your eyes and try to visualise the hammer as accurately as you can. You will find that the image of the hammer is imprinted at the back of the eye. The difficult part is maintaining that image and this is an activity in which you must engage the will, ignoring any kind of external or internal distraction. Attempt to visualise the hammer for at least 5 minutes initially. As you become more accustomed to this practice increase the visualisation time gradually to 10 minutes. After doing this everyday for at least 2 weeks you should then dispense with the card and start to visualise the hammer without any aid or introductory exercises.

I always visualise symbols whether they be the hammer, fylfot or runes in red light, the colour of blood. Essentially we are replicating blood astrally. The colour stands out better than any other when practicing in a darkened room. The visualisation of the hammer will help when setting off to engage in any activity which may have an element of danger. It will also help on a daily basis to increase your self confidence for by doing so you are utilising the power of the Thunder God Himself. Armed with your hammer/axe amulet and your spiritual weapon of visualisation it will hep you to face any and all situations.

The Futhark-Order out of Chaos: the Synthesis Between the 'Left' and 'Right' Brains

Frequently we see arguments being made by academics that the origin of the runic Futharks lies in alien alphabetic systems such the Etruscan, Old Italic or Greek. However there is no doubting that the runes are intimately related to the culture of the Germanic peoples and have a distinctive look which makes them readily identifiable like no other writing system. Now it is certainly true that some of the rune staves do closely resemble the letters of the Roman alphabet but the more honest of scholars at least admit that there is great uncertainty. Indeed I would call this uncertainty a mystery which is at the heart of the meaning of the Old Saxon word runa.

R.I. Page in Runes (1987) points out the "obvious similarities with the Roman alphabet" and also discusses the Eastern European origins thesis and the involvement of the Goths in their creation. He also brings to our attention a theory from the 1920s regarding the runes being created by "Romanised Germani" from the "Alpine valleys of southern Switzerland and northern Italy." He also reminds us that an alternative theory put forward by the Danish scholar Erik Moltke that the runes were "the creation of one of the Germanic tribes of Denmark."  He find the latter theory the "most attractive" but concludes that "the matter still remains unproven".

Clearly there is no concensus in the academic world to account for the origins of the Futhark and whatever explanation they may tender it is without doubt a system which has been derived by and derived for the Germanic peoples for the various Rune Poems make clear that within the Futhark there is a clear outline of a cosmology which is unique to the Germanic peoples.
Our mythological texts, most clearly in the Eddas give a spiritual and divine explanation for the origin of the runes:

"139. I ween that I hung | on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, | and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none | may ever know
What root beneath it runs.

 140. None made me happy | with loaf or horn,
And there below I looked;
I took up the runes, | shrieking I took them,
And forthwith back I fell." (Havamal, Elder Edda, Translation by H.A. Bellows)

The Elder Edda thus makes it clear that the runes were discovered by Odin. It does not however state that they were invented by Him and this is an important distinction that my readers must bear in mind. Whilst Odin did not invent the runes I have come to the conclusion that He gave them order! He and He alone created the Futhark, the order in which they fall. I came to this conclusion following my reading of Jan Fries' Helrunar. A Manual of Rune Magick (1993) over 10 years ago. Fries is not a folkish author but his book is worthy of reading for it contains much useful information. There are numerous illustrations of pre-runic symbols from caves in Norway. These Bronze Age carvings are known as Hällristningar and are quite clearly the inspiration for the later runes of the various rune rows. There are literally hundreds of these pre-runic symbols and their study is worthy of merit, something which has been neglected for a very long time. Is it not time that this was rectified?



Somewhere in antiquity there appears to have been a synthesis between Germanic pre-runic symbols and possibly European alphabetical letters and this synthesis has as its product the Futhark. Most students of the runes will be familiar with the Common Germanic/Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Northumbrian Futhorcs, the Younger Futhark and the Armanen Futhorkh/Futharkh but few will realise that there are many more rune rows than these. The standardised Younger Futhark which we are familiar with today has regional variations such as the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Orkney and the Gothenburg Futharks. Furthermore there is a late mediaeval Latin Futhark, twig runes and dot runes. Outside of the known rune rows we also have the Mediaeval or Healing Runes referred to in Nigel Pennick's The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Runes (1999). I believe that there is a case for including these 9 runes with the Northumbrian Futhorc as a 5th aett. This is a project of mine which I will continue with in a few months time once I have retired and have more time to devote to this.
One of the main reasons why we have so many different rune rows is due to dialect changes amongst the various Germanic peoples once the rune staves became used as alphabetical symbols although their original useage was magical. The original rune hoard however is to be found in the Hällristningar. Odin as Lord of the Runes, the great High Lord of magic through a shamanic experience caused the synthesis of some of these pre-runic symbols with alphabetical symbols to form the Futhark and so structured the Futhark that it presents a complete cosmological picture of the Germanic peoples. In this moment of inspiration Odin caused a connection to occur in the left and right hemispheres of the human mind, represented by His ravens Hugin and Munin. Hugin representing analytical thought or the 'left brain' and Munin representing the subjective mind, the Unconscious or the 'right brain'. The fusion of the two parts of the mind caused the Futhark to come into being, order came from chaos. Indeed in Odin Himself we have the unique synthesis of order and chaos, light and darkness which makes Him a deity which is representative of the Germanic mind and soul.

Nigel Pennick writing in his Secret Games of the Gods sums up the experience of Odin's torment upon the world tree in the Havamal perfectly when he says "the two sides of the brain were linked by a unified response to a single sign." Awakening and inspiration is surely the synthesis of rational thought and memory. Indeed Edred Thorsson states "This kind of knowledge (vissa or mannvit) is ultimately facilitated by the spiritual faculty of wode (ON odr: 'inspiration')." (Gildisbok, 1994)

The Armanen Runes-Based on the Younger Futhark?

"Table of Armanen Runes with names and sound values", by Jugydmort, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0  Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armanen_runes This image has not been changed and the image owner does not endorse this blog.
















The Armanen Futhorkh/Futharkh is a curiosity in the sense that unlike the Elder (Common Germanic) Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon (Northumbrian/Anglo-Frisian) Futhorc and the Younger Futhark it is not an historically attested rune row although that does not invalidate its occult and esoteric utility. Indeed the Armanen Futhork was devised for specifically esoteric purposes but Guido von List does not elaborate on these practices in any detail. This work is left for others who came after him. Von List focused on the meanings of the individual rune staves and other such matters. He provided the bedrock for Armanism. It was for other runologists such as Friedrich Bernard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer to devise workable systems such as Runic Yoga and other magical practices.

Interestingly the Armanen Futhorkh closely follows the Younger Futhark in terms of the choice of runes. Some however do differ in form. For instance the Fa rune is truncated at the bottom part of the stave although its branches still fork upwards. The Os rune is reversed with the branches on the left side. Apart from this they are remarkably similiar. He even chooses the Younger Futhark version of the Hagall rune for his Hagal. Hagal is the mother rune of the Armanen Futhorkh and I can see why this version is used rather than Elder and Anglo-Saxon versions which resemble the Roman capital letter H. Two additional runes were used; Eh and Gibor. Eh does not resemble the Ehwaz or Eh equivalents of the Elder and Anglo-Saxon rune rows. Instead it resembles a reversed Nauthiz or Nyd rune. Gibor is unique and does not appear in any of the other rune rows and appears to be based upon the Fylfot and the Wolfshangle rune.

Apart from the similarity in form to the Younger Futhark the Armanen Futhorkh does incorporate quite an eclectic mix of rune names, some taken from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, ie Ur, Thorn, Os, Is, Yr, Man and Eh. From the Younger Futhark we have Ar and Tyr. Fa, Rit, Ka, Hagal, Not, Sig, Bar, Laf and Gibor are unique variants specific to the Armanen Futhorkh, especially the Gibor rune.

People tend to associate the Armanen Futhork with National Socialist Germany but the National Socialists did use other runes as well, most notably the Wolfsangel and Erda mediaeval runes. Even today the Armanen Futhorkh is a very popular rune row in Germany, rivalling the traditional Elder Futhark. Most of the available literature on the Armanen runes remains untranslated from the original German but attempts have been made in recent years to rectify this and a number of works have been published recently in English. Once I have worked through these books I will provide a review on this blog.