THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | OCCULTISM | DIVINATION | RUNES

Othala article for my rune book

To: , "Volmarr Wyrd" 
From: "Ingeborg S. Nordén" 
Subject: Othala article for my rune book
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 18:24:49 -0500

Greetings, everyone!

Here's that article I promised to send; I'm also sharing it with a few other
rune-minded Heathens.  Enjoy and gods bless!


========================

OTHALA

Many rune scholars have debated whether this rune or dagaz should be counted
as the twenty-fourth.  Historical evidence exists for both versions,
actually:  the Anglo-Saxon rune poem places dagaz there, but the oldest
known futhark inscription (the Kylver runestone in Sweden) has othala last.
With no way to know which ordering was originally right, the decision seems
to be up to us…and I do personally favor placing othala last, for several
reasons.

First, the name of the rune literally means “inheritance” or “ancestral
 land”:  it makes good sense for the futhark to end as it began, with
another rune that symbolizes wealth and property. “Land and personal
property” were often mentioned together –but still contrasted—in the old
laws of Germanic countries; that would support the idea of fehu and othala
standing at opposite ends of the rune row.  Cattle and money (fehu) could be
easily transferred between people, but the family farm (othala) was harder
to lose.  Even now,  Scandinavian laws allow a family to redeem land that
they have owned for at least twenty years—if one of them buys it back within
that same amount of time.

The Scandinavian languages, by the way, are the only ones that still use a
form of this rune’s name with its original meaning:  Swedish _odal_, Danish
and Norwegian _odel_, Icelandic _óðal_.  Swedish also has a verb _odla_, “to
cultivate”:  raising crops was something done on the home soil, but the word
also suggests a connection between “cultivation” and “culture”, as in the
traditions that a group of people share and pass down.  (Swedes can talk
metaphorically about “cultivating one’s soul” using that same word!)

Second, placing a rune of the dead last (because death is the end of at
least one lifetime) sounds logical:  an inheritance can’t change hands until
someone dies.   Ancestral spirits were part of ancient Germanic religion as
well:  people sometimes sat on a relative’s grave overnight, to speak with
and learn from him.  Several pagan texts also mention a festival dedicated
to the Disir (female ancestral spirits), though different areas must have
celebrated it at different times of year judging by the evidence.  (Some
tribes held their Disir-sacrifice in mid-October by the modern calendar;
others held theirs in early February.)

 Third,  othala can be seen as a boundary marker or enclosure (think of
property lines or a fence around someone’s yard):  beyond that line is
unknown, unfamiliar  territory.  (It’s no accident that “familiar” is
derived from “family”…or that a person “feels at home” with something he
knows well.)   The very end of the futhark seems like the most logical place
for a rune with those aspects.

The rune doesn’t always refer to an actual home or family, though:  it can
allude to any place, or group of people, to which someone feels strongly
attached.  (In readings I’ve done for myself, othala frequently turns up to
symbolize Sweden or people living there…not an interpretation I’d use for
just anyone!)  The idea of “kindred spirits” and “home is where the heart
 is” fit this aspect.

So far, you’ve probably gotten the impression that my favorite rune is all
positive—but that’s no truer for othala than for the other twenty-three.
Prejudice--especially racism and rabid flag-waving--is a manifestation of
this rune; one Nazi troop stationed in the Netherlands actually used it as
part of their insignia.  (Because of that, some European governments have
classed the othala-rune as a hate symbol and forbidden people to display it
in public!)

Even a less violent aspect of othala (as with any other rune) can still be
bad:  it can warn that a person needs to pay attention to his family or
social conventions, that he has crossed a boundary that shouldn’t be crossed
even if no “crime” was committed in the legal sense.  On the other hand, one
extreme is as harmful as the other; othala might appear in a reading for
someone who worried too much about conforming and following tradition for
its own sake.



========================


Ingeborg S. Nordén
(runelady@chorus.net)

The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races