{LIVE REMOTE ONLINE OFFERING} RUNE MAGIC: HISTORY & PRACTICE- RUNES, WHITE SUPREMACY & THE MODERN LEGACY

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ZOOM CLASSES OPERATE THE SAME AS IN PERSON CLASSES. WE DO NOT RECORD CLASSES TO PROTECT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF OUR TEACHERS.

PLEASE NOTE: This class is not an in-person class. This class is being offered as a LIVE ONLINE-ONLY OFFERING. The zoom link will be attached to your receipt. Please check your junk folder in your email if you do not receive a receipt. If you have not received one please email learn@ritualcravt.com. Please register ahead of time to ensure that you make it to the online session on time! (Class times are in MDT time zone)

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Lecture 5: Runes, white supremacy, and the modern legacy
This final portion of the lecture series treats the invention of modern rune magic and its origins in racist ideology. The legacy of the early modern scholars is that they paved the way for 19th century racism in the interpretation of the Northern European past through bogus theories about how Scandinavians were the chosen people and the original inhabitants of the Garden of Eden. The runes were used as evidence for this. In the 19th century, with the introduction of Darwinism and the genocidal European expansion around the world, this became a theory of Aryan superiority, which was picked up by the Austrian amateur historian Guido von List and mixed with his own theory of rune magic as a means to cultivate the Aryan spirit. Guido von List was a German-speaking Austrian who sought to rid Austria of its non-German populations, and he became influential in the Germanist movements in Germany and Austria, and ultimately had some influence on the development of Nazi ideology. He is most likely the reason that the Nazis adopted the Swastika as their symbol. You will learn about how most modern runic divination and meditation systems are direct descendants of Guido’s racist fantasies, and how to avoid reproducing them now by being intimately familiar with the real history of rune magic.
Practical instruction: runes and modern divination.

This lecture series by Dr. Mathias Nordvig (Nordic studies, CU Boulder) surveys the history of rune magic and how historical practices from Scandinavia and Northern Europe can be applied by modern practitioners today. The runes are a popular divination tool and medium for meditation and shadow work for many today. There are many books available on the subject, but few of them take the historical tradition of rune magic seriously. Mostly, the modern presentations of rune magic apply a layer of contemporary interpretation that ignores the role that runes as script and magical symbols had traditionally. In many cases, much of this modern interpretation is either directly or indirectly derived from late 19th century white supremacist ideology, and early 20th century National Socialist theories on rune magic. This means that a serious modern practitioner of rune magic runs the risk of manifesting problematic elements rather than working genuinely with runes. With this lecture series, rune practitioners will be better furnished to approaching the runes as a genuine tool in a contemporary spiritual tradition that enables us to undo past injustices and brings Nordic-Germanic spirituality into the 21st century with the right intentions. In every lecture you will learn aspects of both the historical, theoretical, and practical side of rune magic based in the instructor’s personal experience and professional training.

Dr. Mathias Nordvig is a teaching professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he teaches Old Norse mythology, Viking history, Arctic cultures, and Scandinavian witchcraft and magic. He has published extensively on Old Norse literature and early Icelandic culture in articles and books. He has done research on land-connectedness in early Iceland and how Old Norse mythology reflects this in narratives about volcanic activity in his book Volcanoes in Old Norse mythology. He has also written the introductory book on Nordic spirituality Ásatrú for Beginners and a children’s book on Old Norse mythology, Norse Mythology for Kids. Aside from his publishing and teaching, Dr. Nordvig cohosts the podcast Nordic Mythology Podcast with the owner of Horns of Odin, Daniel Farrand (UK). Dr. Nordvig was raised in the tradition of Nordic spirituality known in Scandinavia as Ásatrú and is an initiate (ástvinr) of the god Óðinn.

PHOTO CREDIT: myrkyr photography.