The Origins of Runic Mysticism and Magic - The Kabbalistic Noble Runes of Johannes Bureus
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- Опубликовано: 16 май 2024
- The Runes of Northern Europe strike us as both monumental and mysterious and have developed various mystical and magical practices around them. But, what are the origins of modern runic occultism? Johannes Bureus (d. 1652) was both among the founders of the academic study of Runes but also the founder of Esoteric Runology. Following the philosophy of Gothicism, Bureus would argue that the Runes held ancient mystical secrets preserved from the confusion at the Tower of Babel and encoded in "Runic Kabbalah." He detailed this Esoteric Runology in his Adulruna Rediviva or The Rebirth of the Noble Runes, a work still unpublished to this day.
Check out @NordicAnimism 's episode - • Runes in Modernity: Ac...
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Recommended Readings:
1642 - Latin Manuscript - archive.org/details/NLS13A012...
1652 - Swedish Manuscript - archive.org/details/urn-nbn-s...
Monumenta Sveo-Gothica hactenus exsculpta - www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/vi...
Runa ABC Boken - litteraturbanken.se/f%C3%B6rf...
Håkansson, H. (2012). Alchemy of the Ancient Goths: Johannes Bureus’ Search for the Lost Wisdom of Scandinavia. Early Science and Medicine, 17(5), 500-522
The Gothic Kabbalah: Johannes Bureus, Runic Theosophy and Northern Apocalypticism by Susanna Åkerman in The Expulsion Of The Jews - 1492 and after edited by Raymond B. Waddington and Arthur H. Williamson, 1994 Garland publishing, ISBN 081531681X.
Rose Cross Over The Baltic by Susanna Åkerman, 1998 Brill, ISBN 900411035.
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The "IKEA SEFIRÖT" is the best thing I've seen in a long time. :)
The "heavy metal ümlaut" for the win there, Pontus-Tarantulas.
@@matthewiskra771 It's my dear old swedish native ö. I have to say that I'm post proud of the usage by Lemmy in Motörhead. :)
Up there with Jesus Odin.
@@nasonguy Especially since Odin has been more used as a comparison to the christian devil in nordic folklore. :)
😄🇸🇪🤘❣
Swedish archaeologist here. LOVED this episode.
You work in Sweden? Also, do they talk much about this guy around your parts?
@@TheEsotericaChannel I do. Mostly on early modern sites. Bureus is well known for being the first "riksantikvarie", i.e. head of the National Antiquities Office and of course for his impressive documenting of rune stones and other ancient monuments. But I don't think we talk or think much about him as a mystic. I learned a lot from your episode! And I HATE thas his work is being misused by the nazi racist crowd.
A few points I could have made clearer in this episode:
Pre-modern people primarily related to the Runes as a system for writing, not as a system of symbols. Bureus is the first person for which we have evidence for the use of Runes primarily as mystical symbols. If you primarily relate to the Runes as a system of mystical symbols then you are much more historically and spiritually similar to Bureus than pre-Christian Rune-users. That shouldn’t surprise us: he’s closer to us in virtually every sense - historically, religiously, philosophically, anthropologically, etc. - than he was to the Vikings, etc.
Bureus’ mystical system is profoundly Christian, even if a specific kind of hermetic-kabbalisitic Christianity. Aside from his theological and soteriological interpolations, his text abounds in Biblical prooftexts. Unfortunately, this fact is conspicuously ignored and even distorted in contemporary occult discussion of the Adulruna Rediviva. I suspect this is out of other theological agendas or the unfortunate anti-Christian bias of much of contemporary occultism. However, let’s not commit the genetic fallacy. Neo-Pagan spiritual practices descended genealogically from this very Christian form of mysticism aren’t guilty of some original sin. Spiritual practices evolve and often reach religious escape velocity from their origins.
Before mocking the admittedly outlandish mystical positions that Bureus comes to vis-a-vis surviving old Norse religious texts, recall that he was the best educated person on this topic in his lifetime. He employed the most advanced hermeneutical, linguistic and epigraphic tools anyone had access to. Further, his mystical orientation was underwritten by multiple learned streams that we all praise as part of the intellectually high water mark of the Renaissance and that he brought together with truly deft finesse. All that and he still ended up with positions that strike us - and are, to be honest - astoundly at odds with historical Norse religion. Let that inspire intellectual and spiritual humility in us and lead us to question those who unflinchingly provide The Answers™ when we pose honest questions because the historical evidence is simply inconclusive. Finally, while the spiritual creativity of Bureus can and should be praised, I hope it can also equally inspire us to be comfortable with simply not knowing and thus not rushing to fill in those gaps with our own wishes, biases and spiritual agendas.
Well said my friend.
This whole video was excellent. I think you made those points pretty clear.
“ Bauhaus, Bella Lugosi’s Dead is playing in your head right now“… That’s pretty niche, not to mention Gen X. This guy knows his audience.
Dr. Jackson Crawford has many excellent videos on the runes from the historical and linguistic side.
Yes he does! In fact Dr Crawford was part of the reason why I started this RUclips channel.
I would pay to see a collab between these channels
Would love to see a conversation between Dr. Sledge and Dr. Jackson Crawford on this very topic.
I love how you thread very complex and very skewed ideals, options,notions of magic, esoteric all in one channel and inspire the spirituality of our own unique growth can now begin to bring in all aspects of study and then begin to wipe away much distortions, discriminations, and judgments - thank you for your channel -
The comb labeled "comb" is kind of funny. It made me think of that scene from Big Mouth where Caleb paints "Gym Wall" on the gym wall. I'm now imagining an autistic viking craftsman, having just painstakingly carved the word "comb" into his recently finished comb, giving a satisfied smile and going "Now they will know."
I really appreciate what you said about religious and spiritual practices not needing a direct link to some ancient past in order to be fulfilling or meaningful. People always seem surprised when I say that my own religious beliefs are my own wholesale creation, and that I acknowledge them as my own fabrication with no basis in anything in history or established religious practices, because it seems so common to believe that beliefs need to have some kind of appeal to authority, whether that authority is a person or a historical practice, in order to be legitimate.
Honestly I have to respect that
My favorite academic talking about one of my favorite subjects! I swoon! As part of the Norse heathen community, I can’t thank you enough for this episode. The misinformation that many people have about the actual history of rune use as far as we currently know it and conflating later innovations with The Way The Vikings Did It(tm) is a pet peeve of mine.
I notice that you mentioned Flowers as an esoteric scholar working on this material at the end and I’m supposing that you mean Stephen Flowers. I would be very interested in your opinion of his work. He has been becoming increasingly persona non grata within Heathen circles for awhile due to his problematic associations. I’ve always wondered how esoteric scholars without a dog in the fight analyze his work.
I am highly skeptical of him and his work. But the literature is the literature, for better and for worse. That's partially why I didn't reference any of the occult work on this topic, aside from the fact that it's textually unreliable.
Watching this wearing a Bauhaus shirt- nice coincidence moment.
Undead undead
@@TheEsotericaChannel Clearly Bureus lived in the good old days, when dancing meant exploding.
Even the pagan channels never talk about Johannes Bureus, so I'm glad to see you pulled out a unique topic to discuss, making a very fascinating video about the runes.
It's really bizarre to me given the popularity of rune stuff that he's not more talked about.
Mandatory Adulruna Rediviva song from symphonic metal band Therion playing right now in my mind :) They're Swedish (what a surprise!) and Thomas Karlsson, a head of Dragon Rouge occult order (primarily a form of "Gothic Kabbalah") wrote many if not most/all their lyrics. Gives them a cred or two. Also, a great episode and great collaboration with another scholar whos approach and attitude I admire!
Active practitioner of esoteric runology(😂) of 40 years now love your work and this is by far my favorite episode! Now if you just bring up the Icelandic museum of witchcraft more often it would be incredible.
Actually went there when I was visiting for my honeymoon
Loved the visual gags in this one!
I'm one of those people who has primarily absorbed Jackson Crawford's Norse stuff (extremely exoteric), so I'm glad to get a glimpse of this very early esoteric runology. Incredible that Bureus learned the runes from extant 16th century traditions and didn't even have access to the Codex Regius!
Yep, this is kinda the runic esotericism big bang
The elder futhark changed my whole life! Thanks for another great video.
This'll probably drown in the comments, but nonetheless. I just wanted to thank you for making an episode on Swedish history in the subject here. I find the esoteric subject to be highly fascinating , and being a Swede myself, this is doubly so.
And to drive your point home. I've always been interested in runes, and the viking era (could be because I lived just 10 minutes bike ride from 3 of them when I grew up). I've unfortunately often been accused of being of a member of a mid 20th century German ideology for wearing rings or necklaces with runes on them, when my own ideology is just about the opposite.
It is a shame, indeed. In order to reclaim those runes and that history, it becomes even more important to brutally expose their ridiculous pseudo-history for what it is.
Only when the nationalists are gone will their association with the symbols you enjoy be free of stigma. Unfortunately, it seems the rights of fascists remain highly regarded in the US and Europe.
Thank you for the extended knowledge about Bureus! Love from Sweden
Just started watching - excited for the topic!
Needed this video today! Thank you Dr.
Friday night ESOTERICA. Fantastic.
Another awesome piece of enlightened knowledge. Dr Sledge bravo ❤❤❤. Thank you 🙏
Oh wow! Awesome convergence of streams and meeting of milieus to dive into, Dr Sledge! Esoterica's edifying excellence!
Thank you Dr Sledge. Your take is intuitive, informed, humorous and instructive. I salut your work
Much appreciated video. I use the Runes as an oracle and constantly yearn for more authentic esoteric knowledge about them, which has been slight in my 25 years of study. I feel I have my own beliefs which are built upon practice, but with little foundation. Thank you for your introduction to this, it set my heart ablaze
This was an incredible watch. Wonderful work, thank you.
now this got me wanting to relisten to Therion's "Gothic Kabbalah'
Damn that was quite a journey, there's a whole lot here to stew and chew on, it's kind of incredible, and a little awe-inspiring, to see the kind of syncretization going on in the pursuit of a dubious perennialism.
I know this is more of a query for a livestream, and maybe I'll ask about it again next time round, but I'm curious about the point you initially made in regards to the validity of reconstructionist spirituality. I completely agree that religious innovation is center-stage to the development of religions and an ever-present reality, a desirable one even, but so many of these people put so much stock in these movements solely due to their perceived link, or even direct connection, to these ancient practices; if they themselves only find virtue in their practices because they believe they are historically grounded how can a historically accurate assessment of these traditions, and more specifically these runes, not act as a wrecking ball to their spirituality? Furthermore, are we not patronizing these people for suggesting that their practices are just as legitimate as any other by virtue of being a religious practice when that's not how they're measuring it? For those who believe they are innovating this is all irrelevant and redundant, but for those who are gunning for "true" tradition do we not have an obligation to them on some level to delineate between historical practices and modern ones?
I also felt the whiplash Dr.Justin felt when saying that the "Thor" rune is also for "Torah"
I only just made it to the 25th minute but I'm already mindblown.. If these brilliant men of their time felt so compelled to dig this deep into the knowledge that was ancient to them at the time.... and so on and so forth... there's absolutely no telling what we don't really understand about life... I didn't even recognize that so much happened with runes.. I love the way you framed this topic. Great video.
I love the way runes look like dancing trees
“Yep, trolls. It’s Sweden; it’s troll country. Thanks, Jesus-Odin.” XDDD
Oh, I've been hoping you would cover Bureus. Great video as always.
Doc, holy crap. I've been pondering upon this very topic. Thank you!
peace to all people☮✡✝☪☸🕉
Many thanks !
As a Christian Swede residing in Uppsala and with a deep interest in writing, symbols and magic I think this episode about ticked all the boxes. 😊 Great job, Dr. Sledge!
Thank you for yet AGAIN putting our eyes onto source materials we might never come across otherwise.
Two of my fave channels collaborating? Christmas has come EARLY!
An excellent episode Dr Sledge. I've never heard of Johannes Bareus. Great to hear that he was a scholar and lived in a relatively tolerant society, allowing him to pursue his studies.
Literally being besties with the king didn't hurt
I absolutely love the work you do!
It's great to find the many various occult and esoteric relevant topics finally talked about with some intellectually respectful research of information and under a more linear and succinct source where such topics have been found in the more broad and unorganized recesses of obscurity. Much respect, my friend!
By the by, I would love to see an episode on I-Ching Occultism as well!
You’ve shown a drinking horn with runes in your intro video for so long, I’m so glad you got around to talking about them! 😂
Great video as always
Thank you for mentioning the hijacking of the runes and other symbols of norse and scandinavian heritage! Surely, every culture has experienced this, sadly enough. I think we ought to reclaim the old symbols and use them for neutral and good purposes, to de-evilize them. ☀️
And Christmas in Mithras 🔱We are Titan ⚡⚔️🙃😃
I'm Swedish and I've been following your channel for quite a while now, really enjoying expanding my knowledge in these areas. But I never would have guessed you would one day chose Bureus as a subject! Utterly fantastic! He is barely known in Sweden these days, unless you study archaeology or runology. I had no idea he was so well read on kabbalism ("IKEA Kabbalah" 💀👻). A fascinating person, active during a fascinating period where Sweden was partly becoming more assured as a major power, but still self-conscious about the lack of deep written history and big civilisations in our past. Hence - Gothicism.
14:45 - 100% correct! 😄
Also - many thanks for the recommendation for the channel NordicAnimism. As you say, the worst kind of boring racist idiots have hijacked so much about the topics on ancient Scandinavia that I don't dare search for or click on videos, for fear of what that will do to my psyche and algorithm.
I love ur vids man. I hope ur having a good day today
Thank you for your refined detail
Precise explanation in all your work
Great video Doc...that explanation gave me a headache. 'Ikea Kabala' makes total sense... hodge podge comes to my sore temporal lobe. 🧠
Interesting timing on this video as my archaeology class studied some of the 10+ runestones in Lund today
Thanks for this fascinating presentation
Thank you for sharing all this reseach. You're a hero.
A great deal of, if not all, magickal practice appears to me to be an act of expressing and/or an experiencing of psychologically transformative moments through (potentially complex and obscure) systems of language. Most magical systems appear to be symbolic grammatical structures for facilitating these expressions/experiences (Crowley himself described the framework of the Tree of Life as a "magickal alphabet").
I personally think that the Runes can serve a similar purpose as a rich and convenient language through which to practice and perform magickal acts, in a way that has its own unique texture.
But, just as with any symbols borrowed from history, a clear distinction between historical facts and contemporary spiritual practice should be drawn and understood.
Thanks for this video! It was super informative and interesting!
✌️🫶🦐
Yes, uncle Al is on the same page with me and you also. Though I do think that this (for kind of for a lack of a better term) "neuro-linguistic progamming" is actually much more about creative use of not just mnemonics, but also of feeling, expression, meaning, emotion etc, all projected into simple or complex array of symbols, not unlike sigils from Chaos Magic. To my present understanding, to ancients and pre-modern people this alternative grammars, symbolical languages and devices were about getting objective truths and powers about the universe and through the universe, but our (post)modern sensibilities in information and post-industrial capitalist age are more in direction of these occult devices being not about truths of ontology but creative inventions and innovations to draw further meaning, express and feel/think differently, in short, living differently. To me this doesn't diminish their value, on the contrary. It makes creativity much more awe-inspiring and meaning making becomes a spiritual practice in itself.
This is the most hilarious episode the Dr. has put out yet
Thanks for making this
fascinating! thank you as always 🖤
As a worshiper of odin, gods i know i will need a drink for this, some much 19th century muck to rake through
A must-learn for everyone being seriously interested in the history of esotericism.
My new fav quote from Dr. Sludge. "... It's Troll country, Thanks Jesus-Odin"
😂
such an interesting episode, thank you
Big lol for "Christ was supposed to come back, but all we got was calculus."
So dreadful!! I’m a scot and its the same- those lunatics have taken my heritage and its so terrible. Thanks for your excellent information, detailed research, and great humour!
The origin of runic esotericism is Hávamál which describes the esoteric means by which the Highest god acquired knowledge of them and lists 18 runes and song used by him for specifically magical purposes. There are runic inscriptions which invoke gods and ask them to do things. Bureus and others have tried to assign esoteric and magical meanings to runes because this is an attested use in the earliest sources. Even the word rune itself can be translated as “esoteric”
Recommend the work of Dr Scott Shell on evidence that runes were used in magical contexts in early inscriptions
Hi Tom - I agree with you that there is clearly a relationship of the Runes with numinous power in Havamal - I mention it in this episode. However, my point is that the vast majority of archaeological and literary evidence is that the runes were not primarily identified as 'magical' or 'symbolic' as they have been since Bureus. In fact, I even mention evidence of their magical use in the video - as much as we understand what in the world those instances are. It'd be interesting to chat - feel free to reach out via my website. I know we're on very different positions on a lot of issues, but I'd rather reach out than continue the social fracturing that's very intellectually harmful. Let's chat and see where conversation is possible.
So glad to see this discussed. Have been reading “Nightside of the Runes” by Thomas Karlsson, PH. D. Which discusses the adulrune as well as the Uthark theory made by Agrell. I love the perspective that the Northern spiritual tradition evolves over time as apposed to just being true in its origins. I think and my experiences confirm that Johan Bures is part of this process.
I just waited for "ALU maybe means beer" 😂 And it took only 6 Min. Thats what i love this channel for ❤
Loved this, Justin! I have a set of runes for casting and a book to decipher the meanings. Would be very interesting for you to delve into the "divine" messages of the runes. Thanks for this!
Great video. I'm gonna spread the word about this and Nordic Animism's video on my various platforms.
I did my own Rune video a few months ago. I did a ton of research and still didn't come across a lot of this information 🍻
This is beyond amazing.
Great video, Dr Sledge.⚒️
Keep up the exceptional work 👏
I found the discussion about runes just being more or less a writing system interesting.
Perhaps the best example to me of an alphabet that WAS (in some cases) considered "imbued" with the sacred is the Coptic alphabet.
Just how it was used in the magical papyri and amulets by monks and ritual specialists; i.e.: the Nomina Sacra, Charakteres, decorations of the letters.
However, probably not as "sexy" and mysterious as runes or cuneiform, though 😢
P.S. loved the Bauhaus reference
Seeing the word "comb" etched on the comb makes me think of children learning their words. We see that now in picture books or blocks with words next to their pictures 😊 they knew it was important that the kids learned!
Appreciate it work❤
A fantastic video top to bottom, I also really appreciated the sentiment about spiritual innovation. It feels like in some pagan communities there's that need to feel like you're following in your forebears footsteps, and if you're not then your spirituality is just hollow. But that message how spiritual innovation is what keeps religions relevant is really powerful and very well put so thank you.
Thanks!
Heilung is what got me into Nordic folk music, history, and folk music in general. I feel a strong connection to the music and it creates a feeling that no other music ever did.
I was, like many, exposed to the runes through Tolkien's work as a kid, and was much surprised decades later when I ran across them in my study of Saint Cuthbert, an Anglo Saxon Priest in Northumbria (modern day Northumberland in the UK) who used both Latin and Runes in his Christian writing.
There's a song by Therion about Johannes Bureus called Son of the Staves of Time
That's because the guy behind therion used to be part of dragon rouge which is the occult society Thomas Karlsson runs he's made translations sort of of buerus texts (i say sort of since it's not just a translation but his view on it as a magical system )
Every few seconds in these videos, I hear a phrase or name that Therion have used as a lyric or song title ("Adulruna Redeviva", "The Falling Stone" etc). I had a dim idea that they made a lot of references like this but never looked into it.
@@JM-iu7qx they literally have three Leviathan albums.
Ho drakon ho megas
Sitting in my treehouse in the IKEA TREE OF LIFE enjoying this marvelous lecture
Evil trolls threaten the righteous all the time on social media, seems on-the-level to me.
Appreciate the intricacies.
I am deeply fascinated by this idea of generating the entire runic alphabet through some singular system using simple geometry.
So interesting!
HEHEHEHE Bauhaus reference in the Esoterica vid :3 🦇🦇🦇
Is there any record of the type of conditioner he used on his beard?
Asking the important questions!
Onion, onion, onion, beer sounds like a mystical Friday night pizza order All hail Uber Eats. I wonder if there's a ruin for anchovies. Thank you so much for covering these subjects . Love this channel.
Fun runes fact: In Dalarna, a quite isolated region of Sweden, runes were still commonly in use as late as the early 20th century
At first I heard "Adulruna Rediviva" as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"
I have no knowledge about runes at all, but I think they are the most beautiful writing system.
Oooh I wasn’t expecting you to mention wardruna on this video! I love wardruna!! I don’t know that many people who know that band
Great stuff to hear from you, I always have the impulse to rabbit hole your channel 😂
Less and less frequently do I see "the cards above" when you refer to previous episodes. Am I not swiyching som3thing on that I should or do I have some option turned off or what?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Peace 🙏
🐉🐉
I use a modern method to cast iching and found the question mentioned in the answer to me it's very spiritually potent
Thank you for this.
Not only did I know this (except for the nonsense about classic Greek literature, including the Atlantis story, being about the Nordics), but you brought up something very important at the end. Scandinavian and Icelandic history and mythology and (most of all) its old symbols (mostly from the Viking Age, obviously, even if we have so much more history than just that period) have basically been hijacked by nazis and other racists. Making most decent people avoid them, not wanting to be mistaken for nazis or racists.
Unfortunately this makes the theft unopposed.
There was even a time, during the 90's, when wearing the Swedish flag itself on your body was considered racist, unless it was during a sports event.
I still mostly keep my 'torshammare' (small silver version of Mjölder, the hammer of Tor/Thor, a type of jewelry from Norse Late Iron Age), wich my dad gave me when I was little, hidden under my shirt. Longing for the day when you can be embrace your heritage without thinking less of others for theirs.
Great episode!
I think it is fascinating how the bronze age and iron age peoples in different parts of the world assign magical or spiritual power to letters and numbers.
I wonder if it arises because literacy is class bound. Or because literacy is the domain of the men of god in a lot of cultures.
Or the third option is that they never did and we project our own conceptions onto the proto-Scandinavians/Proto Jews/Proto Buddhists.
This is fascinating. I have many of the bure kinship in my family tree that were my great grandfathers. I was somewhat surprised to learn he was interested in the same thing I have been somewhat obsessed about these last few years since I learned about the bure kinship connection.
I knew the name sparked a memory in me, pretty sure (iirc) that Therion has a song called "Adulruna Rediviva"
As some one that took calculas: " instead we got calculas" had me on the floor😅😅😅
Wait, I was just looking up ‘runes’….and this video is uploaded?? 😮😮 Spooky 😂 Thanks for the great content, as always!
"...but we just got calculus." Ha! I love it!!!
Dropping the 🔥
Are you planning on any more Hildegard von Bingen content? Im in the midst of learning both German and Latin purely to explore von Bingens mysteries. Also, any tips from anyone on learning either of those languages would be very appreciated.
There was this deep inner attraction to the image and word sepheroth(final fantasy) and this image has come up a few times in my mind recently, and now i come accross ikea sefirot and it all makes sense why i was drawn to this word❤ going to watch it next after this video, language is code❤
This was especially fascinating! Do you think it's fair to say that writing systems tend to become esotericized when people no longer generally remember how to read them exoterically and know them only, or mostly, as a patterned system for encoding information that is thus 'esoteric'--b/c we can tell that there's information in there but we don't know what it is?