NMR ISSUE 8

Astrological Forecast 8
Book of Troth
Coyote, Flicker & Sturgeon
Editorial
Futhark Edred Thorsson
Gimli
Here We Go Again
Holaf Festival Lammas
Invocation to Artemis
Invocation to the Goddess
Lady of the Moon
Lazaris: A Question on Magick and Wicca
Letters 8
Rune Might Edred Thorsson
Support a Hebrew Pantheon
The Alchemy of Basic Ritual
The Magic of Chocolate
The Oldest Magick
The Witches' God
The Zodiac Star
Was Jesus A Pagan?

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Edred Thorsson's Latest

One of the authors responsible for the recent explosion of rune books is Edred Thorsson. Most rune books seem to concentrate on divination. Thorsson treats this in his early book, Futhark (Weiser, $8.95). However, he focuses on the magickal meanings and uses of runes.

In Rune Might (Llewellyn, $7.95), Thorsson expands greatly upon the magickal side of runes. He delves into the plausible history of runic magick, which stretches all the way back to the depths of 19th century. Most of this history consists of a few German magicians writing books and forming groups for about a century before World War II. It is nearly interesting, and serves to dispel the misleading aura of "Secret Atlantian Teachings" that so many books encourage. The book develops a very strong ceremonial magick character with rune-yoga, songs, mantras and dances. Each is designed to bring in the "energy" of each rune so that the magician can learn to manipulate it. As in most ceremonial magick books, Thorsson is not very clear on what this energy is, or what you do with it once you control it. This seems to be ineffable. Those who do not come to this book with some understanding of these things might find it little more than a curiosity. It requires some initiative on the part of the reader to gain much of substance.

A Book of Troth (Llewellyn, $9.95) departs from ceremonial magick. It outlines a Germanic system of rituals and beliefs. The historical background is even better, the philosophy is in depth and compelling and there are a variety of rituals. There is a slight overlap of information in the rune section; there could be more to the ritual section; but for a $10 book, it is wonderful. It's certainly enough to get one started and its contacts and respectable bibliography can help one move beyond.

Thorsson's books are all well written, coherent and well researched. (I am not qualified to judge his accuracy, but since magick and religion are art, I feel accuracy is not a problem.) Futhark and Rune Might are rather technical; only A Book of Troth is likely to offer much of interest to those outside its field. If you are in the field and looking for a reference or something new, each of these three books is a good buy. Otherwise, I'd recommend thumbing through them to see if you might be interested—and pay particular attention to Troth.