The Heathen Cabala: The Meaning of Names (rough draft)

 

The Heathen Cabala: The Meaning of Names

 

 

 

 

As we delve more deeply into the Runes, it becomes obvious that there are more and more layers of meaning the farther we dig. Have you wondered why in the LBRP each of the divine names has four letters? This is not without purpose. In European cabala, four letter divine names have great power. So much so, that the name for a four letter name in Greek, “Tetragrammaton” is itself a word of great power. These four letters show a hidden structure of the cosmos. The first letter represents the initial push, the second represents the pause after, the third represents the swing away, and the fourth represents the next after-pause. We can also see the first letter as the initiating, positive letter, the second as the reactive, receptive letter, the third as the union of the two movements, and the fourth as the outcome. The great nineteenth century French occultist Eliphas Levi describes it thus: “Affirmation, negation, discussion, solution, these are the four philosophical operations of the human spirit.” (Levi, The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, pg. 56 tr. Greer and Mikituk) You can see this pattern in your breath as you breath in, pause, breath out, and pause. You can see this same pattern working in politics, in popular culture, and in many other areas of life. We can use the knowledge of this hidden structure to analyze the divine names and gain even more knowledge, especially if we have a sacred, magical alphabet, such as the Futhark.

There are many Tetragrammatons, and while the Hebrews use יהוה, or YHVH, a name for Yahweh, and the Christians use INRI, or IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, the Greeks might use JOVE. We, as heathens, have many four-letter names of power to work with. Let's explore some from the different heathen traditions.

In the Old English tradition, we can look at FREA, ᚠᚱᛖᚪ, (Anglo-Saxon’s Ingui-Freyr), which means “Lord”. Feoh (wealth) is the first, active letter of the FUTHORC, as well as his name. Rad is a journey that’s taken, or a wagon, (which is interesting given the lore of Frey the lord of wealth being carried/ridden around Sweden in a wagon, and a wagon running after Ing in the OE rune poem) these are reconciled in Eh, the horse, which is a symbol of wealth, and what actually pulls the wagon or is ridden on a journey, it also has a modern meaning of “partnership” and “balance”. The fourth, is Ac, the oak tree. The oak tree is known for it's sturdiness in building, especially boats, and it's abundant acorns which are great fodder for pigs, which then humans eat. Ing is known to ride a boar, and is the god of abundance and fertility, he is also said to have sailed east over the waves, probably in an oaken boat, so having Ac as the outcome of his name is quite appropriate. This name is full of wealth, and we go from movable wealth, to movement itself, to the engine of movement, to strength and abundance. No wonder Ing is invoked for matters of wealth!

Odin, now, is also kind of interesting. We can use either the Younger Futhark or the Elder to understand the meaning of his Name. Using the Younger Futhark, we have Ur, Thurs, Is, Naudr… Ur is, in the Younger, rain or slag, substance that is driven out by force. Thurses are the forces of chaos that cause torment. Ice is the solid bridge between force and chaos, and Need is the necessity of the world, the doom. This is very appropriate for a dark age god, the deity of war-band leaders and battle poets, who loved discord and strife as much as he did knowledge and wisdom. We see his name in this context as the divine force driving out centuries of war bands and vikings, which creates torment in the “civilized” world, then leading to the slippery bridge of ice that brings wealth, but also Christianity to the North lands, with the necessary outcome of doom, just as in Ragnarök.

Using the modern understanding of the name ODIN, with Elder Futhark, we have Othala, Dagaz, Isa, Nauthis. The last two letters are basically the same staves: “Ice” and “Need”, and thus a similar ending, but the primary duality is between the last two runes-staves; Othala: Ancestral Wealth/Heritage, and Dagaz: the Light of Day. Many modern heathens come to this path as a way to access their Othala, their ancient heritage. This causes an awakening of sorts, a whole new world is opened. To access this world though, the broad, slippery ice-bridge must be crossed. The outcome is realizing the necessity of kindling a need-fire to bring the wholeness of this heritage into the post-industrial world. It is not as simple as exchanging Jesus for Odin, it requires a complete shift in world-view. This task is as difficult as starting a friction fire, but that isn't so difficult when one has had the necessary training. Odin then is the deity behind this revival of Heathenry, he is the path from Othala to kindling the sacred Need-fire and beginning a new cycle.

We might look at his name from the Old English perspective, as WODN. Here, Joy and Estate are married by the Day, but in order to keep this blissful order, to avert constriction in the heart we Need to be proactive and alert to any dangers, for one can only lose in suffering what is dear to the heart.

This way of looking at the hidden meanings of words need not only be restricted to names with four letters. Let's now look at the runic formula for Thor's famous hammer, MJOLNIR. In the Old Norse, that “O” is pronounced as an “A”, and thus spelled with an ᛅ-stave, not an ᚬ-stave, thus the runic formula reads: ᛘᛁᛅᛚᚾᛁᛦ, forming something like a palindrome, where the staves on either side of the ᛚ mirror each other. “Mjolnir” means, basically, “lightning”, coming from a Proto-Indo-European word that means something like “crush.”¹ This weapon has parallels with Zeus's thunderbolts, as well as Indra's Vajra. There are seven staves in the runic spelling of this name, a very meaningful number. The first stave is the rune for Man, human-kind. Thor protects the human world with this powerful weapon.

The second stave is the Ice rune, that broad, but dangerous bridge on which the blind must be led. Most humans are blind to the non-physical worlds, and this can be a dangerous place, so we call on Thor and his hammer to protect us in these realms. By walking the bridge under the guidance and protection of Thor, we find ourselves with the third rune in this formula, ᛅ, or, good harvest.

Then we come to the stave on which this whole runic formula hinges, ᛚ, the life giving substance of water. Thor was not just called on for protection, but for fertility. The good harvest is predicated on a good rain. Mjolnir brings that necessary, invigorating rain to the children of men. The Icelandic Rune Poem stanza for this stave reads “Water is that which falls from a mountain/ but gold is a treasure.” Water is life, it is as important a treasure as gold.

The next rune, mirroring the harvest rune, is the ᚾ-stave, in the opposite position to the ᛅ-stave, also has an opposite meaning. Harvest is plenty, abundance. Need, is necessity, scarcity, the absence of choice. The next stave is the same as it's mirror, the Ice rune again, a bridge that brings us to the last stave, ᛦ, Yew. This is the tree of life and death, green in winter, planted on graves. It also “crackles when burned”. Stephen Flowers (as Edred Thorsson) posits that the Yggdrasil can also be seen as a yew tree, and says that Yew is the “vertical axis that penetrates into the world above and the world below and connects the human realm to the heavenly and chthonic regions” (Thorsson, The Big Book of Runes and Rune Magic, p. 186) We can see this stave as the opposite of Man, but also the same as Man. The fire that crackles is the fire of transformation, the fires of Ragnarök, the fires of death, both cosmic and personal. The winter greenness shows the secret that life is eternal, the awakening of the eternal essence.

The formula ᛘᛁᛅᛚᚾᛁᛦ demonstrates how man is linked to the greater cosmos, how abundance and need are balanced, hinging on the life-giving power of water. Water is the life-force, the blood in our veins. Water is the fluid necessary for the growth of crops. Water that forms ice, and comes from ice, cyclically, just as the waters of Hvergelmir bubble up, turns to ice in the void of Ginnungagap and melts again into the water that nurtures life in Middlegard. Water that comes from the heavens as rain, from the realm of the gods, from the striking of Thor's powerful weapon, lightening.

Now, an exercise for you. First, analyze the divine name FRIG, in any of the Futharks. Then, write out your own name in runes, and discover what message is hidden therein.

 

1Crawford, Jackson, “Thor's Hammer: Old Norse Pronunciation and Spelling

” April 12, 2018, https://youtu.be/v3Mv8B1qmM4