This article is to be the first in a series of posts pertaining to and focusing on the Runes of the Elder Futhark. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this system, the Futhark is a divinatory tool derived from (or some might argue, preceding) the Norse alphabet. It consists of 24 letters, or Runes, each with a phonetic value, but also each possessing their own set of individual associations, meanings and symbolic correspondences. The runes would be carved into small pieces of wood or painted onto pebbles, then cast onto a cloth to be interpreted based upon the state of each Rune (right way up or upside down) and their relative positions to one another; in this way the reader, or Galdrmann, could discern messages and/or prophesies for the querent in a similar manner to a Tarot reader.
I have been using the Runes for some time in this manner, but until recently I have only possessed a surface knowledge of their various meanings; so to remedy this, I have embarked upon a voyage of understanding, spanning across nine days in the same fashion as the Norse All-Father, Odin (though I will not be hanging upside down from a tree to achieve this). Each day, I will contemplate three Runes, and do this for eight days (the Runes are grouped into three columns of eight, known as Aetts, each related to one of the Aesir, Freyr, Hagalr and Tyr), and on the ninth day I will contemplate the Futhark as a whole. So far, I have completed writing down my thoughts on the first of the Runes, which is Fehu. My notes are as follows.
Fehu, ᚠ, Pronounced "Fae-Hoo". Other variants include "Feoh", "Fe", and "Feh".
The phonetic value of this Rune is 'F', and its symbolic meaning is 'Cattle'. The tree that is associated with this Rune is the Elder tree.
The elemental associations of this Rune are Earth and Fire, and its gender is typically regarded as Female.
ᚠ relates to wealth, possessions, property, nourishment, abundance, divination, prophesy, expansive energy, new beginnings, control, generosity, success, travel, reputation, power and sexual energy.
I then engaged in some free association in which I listed every word that came to mind in a stream of unbroken thought:
Cattle, property, land, home, family, inheritance, children, fertility, sex, love, relationships, friendships, cooperation, society, reputation, self-image, judgement, exclusion, prejudice, hoarding, greed, laziness, stagnation, loss, poverty, hardship, struggle, challenge, willpower, drive, breakthrough, success, rebirth, growth, self-mastery, greatness, respect, loyalty, leadership, authority, law, justice, Hamingja (karma), divinity, gods, kings, royalty, wealth, power, destiny, fate, Wyrd, Norns, Volva, prophesy, inevitability, death, afterlife, legacy, legend, stories, lessons, mysteries, initiation, maturity, magick, manifestation, creation, creativity, artistry, music, poetry, culture, tradition, folk, family, farm, cattle, continuity, eternity.
Fehu's association to the Elder tree indicates that it represents fruitfulness, even in the face of adversity, for the Elder tree bears fruit in the autumn, after all other summer trees have begun to drop their fruits and hibernate. This to me attributes ᚠ to the autumn and thus to transitions between the realms of light and shadow, life and death, strength, endurance, resourcefulness and competitiveness. Its corresponding direction would thus be West, and its time of day would be sunset (at least by medieval systems of magickal correspondence), both of which are related to the afterlife, the Otherworld and the sea, as well as the primordial abyss. This tie to the abyss, Chaos or Ginnungargapp, links ᚠ to the unconscious mind and shadow aspects of nature, from which issue the first stirrings of creation and artistic tendency. This one reason why ᚠ is the first Rune in the Futhark. However, it is correspondent with the elements of Earth and Fire rather than water; perhaps a reason for this is that, although all life originated in the sea, it only came into being as a result of a mixture of the minerals of the Earth, energised and imbued with life from the light of the fiery sun. Subsequently, life left the oceans behind and evolved on the land, and exposed to the fire of the sun, thus ᚠ's association with power, success, evolution, fertility and growth etc.
The natural progression of a species from parent to child is premised upon the genetic traits of each generation being passed along, changing with each new emanation; thus ᚠ represents the importance of selective breeding (in humans as well as in cattle), and what each generation passes on to the next whilst working with what it has received from the former. This relates to property and reputation, as well as skills, inclinations, habits, thought patterns and behaviours etc. Whilst we each make the most of what we have, playing the hands we are dealt, as it were, these inheritances can relate to or result from Hamingja (or ancestral Karma, in other traditions), which can be accumulated from past lives as well as from one's ancestors. This begs the question, are we in fact reincarnations of our forebears? Are they different from us or are we the same people in a perpetual process of learning. This idea, in the context of the Old Kings, is the source of the phrase "The King is dead, long live the King!", as the spirit of a previous ruler would pass into the body of their newborn heir; and so in this sense, ᚠ relates to reincarnation and the passage of kingship. When considering the ancestors, it becomes apparent that there is also a cultural link to the Celtic idea of the Otherworld, or the "Thin Place", where the spirits of the ancestors journey to after death. This harkens back to the Norse Disir and Alfar, spirits of ancestors who have achieved different states of divinity. The denizens of the Otherworld in Celtic folklore are known as the Fae or Faeries, who are the equivalent of the Norse Alfar from which we derive the word 'Elf', and so it is likely no coincidence that ᚠ is pronounced "Fae-hu", possibly connecting to the same concept of ancestral nature spirits. Also, to corroborate this idea, the Elder tree, to the Celts, was seen as the gateway to the Faerie Kingdom, the bridge to the Otherworld and the conduit for communication with the Fae or Alfar. It is through our communication with these beings that people learn the secrets of nature and the workings of the Universe, and are thus able to earn magick to manipulate and change physical reality as they see fit, beginning the path of the healer, the shaman, the wandering wise man, and eventually the hero or perpetrator of great deeds. Also, through these interactions, people learned to understand the workings of fate, or the Wyrd, and so they became prophets, seers, Volvas and Sudrsaers.
Elderberries were (and still are) used to make wine and mead, so ᚠ would also represent the abundance of the Earth, joy, and celebration, wealth, prosperity, status and respectability etc. Elderberry also possesses aphrodisiac qualities, tying ᚠ to sexual energy and lust. In Eastern traditions (and some would argue in western European tradition also, albeit in a slightly different form), sexual energy is generated in the Sacral Chakra and is synonymous with creative energy in general which, when directed into artistic pursuits, becomes divine inspiration.
Visually, ᚠ has the general appearance of a branch of a tree, possibly representing one section of the World tree, Yggdrasil, and by extension, the paths between Midgard and its immediate neighbours. In another sense, ᚠ also resembles a primitive farming tool or plough, evoking the idea of the sowing of seeds, the preparing of the earth to be made fertile, planning and preparation of new ideas of ventures. The sound of ᚠ when spoken is similar to the sound of leaves in a breeze or the motion of waves, linking the spoken word to the "breath of God" or the "breath of creation", the embodiment of the primordial essence of life that begins all things. It is interesting to note that ᚠ seems to embody within itself, the essences of all of the other Runes of the Futhark; it is also interesting to note that, in the same way, the wisdom of the Major Arcana in the Tarot is encompassed within The Fool, which is the first card in the sequence, and furthermore, the book of Genesis contains all of the symbolic wisdom of the entire biblical Old Testament. I feel that this is because each of them pertains to creation, and the first point of creation contains within it, the limitless potential, and therefore essence, of everything that comes afterwards; thus, ᚠ represents the multiplicity within the singularity, and accurately demonstrates the initial spark of ordered growth, of a tree from within a seed, or of an entire world from within a single human soul. It empitomises the individual as their own God among Gods at the centre of their own reality from which issues the limitless potential for creation into the eternal web of Wyrd.
I will be journaling about my ruminations and meditations upon the rest of the Runes of the Elder Futhark over the next week, so until my next installment, I wish you all much love, many blessings, and may your Gods be with you!
Visually, ᚠ has the general appearance of a branch of a tree, possibly representing one section of the World tree, Yggdrasil, and by extension, the paths between Midgard and its immediate neighbours. In another sense, ᚠ also resembles a primitive farming tool or plough, evoking the idea of the sowing of seeds, the preparing of the earth to be made fertile, planning and preparation of new ideas of ventures. The sound of ᚠ when spoken is similar to the sound of leaves in a breeze or the motion of waves, linking the spoken word to the "breath of God" or the "breath of creation", the embodiment of the primordial essence of life that begins all things. It is interesting to note that ᚠ seems to embody within itself, the essences of all of the other Runes of the Futhark; it is also interesting to note that, in the same way, the wisdom of the Major Arcana in the Tarot is encompassed within The Fool, which is the first card in the sequence, and furthermore, the book of Genesis contains all of the symbolic wisdom of the entire biblical Old Testament. I feel that this is because each of them pertains to creation, and the first point of creation contains within it, the limitless potential, and therefore essence, of everything that comes afterwards; thus, ᚠ represents the multiplicity within the singularity, and accurately demonstrates the initial spark of ordered growth, of a tree from within a seed, or of an entire world from within a single human soul. It empitomises the individual as their own God among Gods at the centre of their own reality from which issues the limitless potential for creation into the eternal web of Wyrd.
I will be journaling about my ruminations and meditations upon the rest of the Runes of the Elder Futhark over the next week, so until my next installment, I wish you all much love, many blessings, and may your Gods be with you!
Enki Endymion O(
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