I just have just had a question from a very able, sensitive and psychic young student in California about the three Aetts or groups of eight runes that the Futhark or the Rune alphabet is divided into – and the use of Magic.
She wrote that she’d read the information I sent her about the 3 Aetts, and she felt that the first Aett is about the foundation, but the second Aett would be taking one’s insights one gains on a foundational level and bringing them to a more profound level on a spiritual level that would be to actually to deepen one’s understanding. And the last Aett, she says, is for me is about bringing insights from both Aetts and manifesting them in the real world using magic.
She goes on to write that with reference to magic, she’s only really familiar with casting the
circle, calling in four directions, but as far as actually using runes to change a situation, she feels that it would be the use of intention to assist one in helping one to change a negative situation to a positive
one. She feel this may be coming from past lives, and that she hasn’t really looked at any of her past lives pertaining to Wicca as of yet, but magical work seems to sound really familiar to her
Basically, I feel that the three Aetts reflect three steps in progression from being fully human, finding divine meaning in all circumstances, even difficult circumstances, and thirdly: sharing divinity: being one with the Divine; co-creation. In more detail:
1st Aett: Freyja’s Aett of the farmer is concerned with what it is to be a good human being and member of the Tribe: love, happiness, life, and enjoyment.
2nd Aett: Heimdall’s Aett is the Aett of the warrior. It deals with matters of achievement, victory, power, and success.
3rd Aett: Tir’s Aett is the Aett of the priest/king and of the Gods themselves. It is used for matters of justice, spiritual achievement, understanding, establishing order, atonement, and all matters dealing with politics or rulership/authority.
With reference to the use of magic, well Jan Fries book Helrunar and Sideways meant a lot to me when I first started to teach the Runes in the 1990s. If fact the runes are a most powerful form of magic. It is beneficial to work with a rune in order to change one’s self and so change one’s future. Oddly before I started work this morning I saw the rune Fehu in red in front of a Rowan tree outside our back window, and I know this arose from my unconsciousness because a big theme over recent months is that I should value myself, including valuing my rhythms and feelings, expressing myself and doing justice to my knowledge and experience. This I feel is an example of spontaneous rune magic where Fehu calls me to work with it. I have no doubt the Runes are in my heredity. My Mother’s side have lived in Connemara for centuries (according to a genetic study by Galway University) where sadly the West Coast of Ireland was no stranger to Viking raiders a few hundred years ago. My father’s side comes from the Baltic Coast, what was the Danzig Corridor but what was a Baltic state for the Swedish Vikings a thousand years ago, and indeed pre-Roman times. I’m Swedish genetically, not Slavic, as is true for many in this part of now Poland.
And with reference to Wicca, well, I feel I was privileged to have shared time with a Coven in Glastonbury in connection with a five-year ethnographic field study I did studying spiritual forms new to the modern west in the areas of Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism, Shamanism and Utopian Community. I wrote a bit about Wicca in my Backpacker’s Guide to the New Spirituality 2014. An odd thing that struck me about Wicca is that although most Wiccans claim to be holistic, the practice of casting the circle is actually dualistic: a case in fact if not in theory of ‘good inside the circle; bad outside’. I did a really worthwhile piece of work using Levi Strauss most valid theories on dualism or one-ness. Yes the Wiccan cast circle can create psychic focus, but read Starhawk’s words for banishment! The use of the magical tools of Wicca can very much be form not essence: total loss of the big picture in alleged lineage rules. So many Wiccan leaders are full of control issues, full of legalism. Wicca can be like some OBOD Druid rituals I’ve been to which can be a case of a sergeant or traffic warden figure waving a piece of paper with the written out script people have to stick to. Actually disempowering. But if the group can avoid these dangers, there is much beauty and empowerment, and great psychic potential. I wrote about eco-warrior heroines and heroes who find power and beauty through the Wicca path in one of my novels: Sacred Earth available on Amazon as paperback or kindle.
