Customer Reviews

Rune Magic (Llewellyn's Practical Magick)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'll admit there is some information of use here, but... I think Mr. Tyson has a problem discerning his personal views from real tradition. He approaches rune magic with a very strict ceremonial viewpoint. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with using runes along with other systems, but I think he takes it a little far when he treats the Norse pantheon like they are some type of lesser spirit to be commanded. Anyone who has studied Norse deities should be able to conjure the amusing image of a human trying to order a god like Odin around.

A quote here should illustrate his off key, over complication. "An hour or so before ritual, bathe, drain the water from the tub and refill it with fresh water. Kneel before the tub and speak a prayer of cleansing over the water. As you pray, drop several grains of salt that have been previously consecrated into the water and bathe again. Dry yourself and don the ritual robe--a plain white garment that allows comfort and ease of movement." Only after this are you allowed to do the simplest of rituals. No doubt these are NOT in any way related to Old Norse traditional practices... sounds more like an obsessive-compulsive bather than a rune magician to me.

He also seems to feel a need to bleed on almost anything he makes. If he were a truly skilled occultist it would be understood that a sacrifice of magical energy and life force could be made just as well without continual self-mutilation. I'm not completely against using your own blood in magic, but this guy goes, once again, a little too far. I think he may be a masochist as well, who claims you can't get very far in magic if you don't make his suggested sacrifices. His instruction for making a rune wand come strait out of old ceremonial gremoires and includes 9 days of fasting, abstinence, and avoid of excess. After his elaborate, and self-damaging, instructions to create this item he instructs you to destroy it after one use... after a while you'd become anemic if you practiced this much. Further more, in most case people believe the runes to become stronger with time, not corrupt. I honestly think he should stick to the old school ceremonial magic he takes his intricacies from.

The main point of interest in his book lies with the rune worlds, where you astral travel into a rune symbol. However this could be done in a variety of ways. You don't need this book, by any means, to do runic meditations. He even goes so far as to tell you what each world is like. The rune worlds will be perceived differently for each person. There will be similarities and guidelines, but the worlds will appear as they wish to whoever visits them. It's a matter of understanding and personal perception. My suggestion... if you want true Norse Rune magic buy a book by Edred Thorsson or Freya Asswyn.

Yet another example of the drivel put out by the Llewellyn pulp-mill. Ceremonial magicians should stick to the Kaballa, and Christians (which this guy obviously is) probably should not be dabbling in Runic magic, anyway. The item I found most offensive in this book was the assertion that since Isa is "treacherous and deceptive" it therefore MUST be feminine. Sorry dude, WRONG MYTHOLOGY!!!

Unfortunately, there are very few decent books available on the subject of runelore . . . even more unfortunately, this happens to be one of the better ones. Judging from the reviews, a lotta folks will be in disagreement with my charitable decision to bestow three stars upon this book (the hardcore Odinists all gave it 1, and the New Agers all gave it 5), but I have my reasons. Although his interpretations of the runes comprises a mish-mash of several different systems, and although he makes a number of technical errors (trying to impose rigid Western Ceremonial ritualisation upon the runes -- and hey! Where did that pentagram come from???), I still kinda liked this book. A long time ago, this was the book which originally got me started on the Path I now walk. This was the book which really got me interested in runelore, and encouraged me to seek out other (and better) books on the subject (like Futhark by Thorsson). Please note that this book is heavy on divination practices, which I am personally opposed to using the runes for. Please further note that Mister Tyson has oversimplified the concept of bindrunes -- a very dangerous practice best left to those who really know what they're doing. One thing I liked about this book was in Appendix 2, where Mister Tyson attempted to get a better understanding of the runes through meditation and automatism -- this resulted in a seperate poem for each individual rune, some of which are actually quite good. Take his interpretations of the runes lightly, as they are his personal interpretations and it is good to see them from different perspectives now and again; however, know that I -- and apparently many others -- are in disagreement with much of what this book has to say.

I guess this book could be useful if you are a ceremonial magician but if you are a serious student in the Northern Traditions your money would be best spent elsewhere. There is really not a whole lot I can say about this book but it left me wondering why a person into ceremonial magic would delve into the Norse Pantheon instead of writing about something he actually knew about and practiced. It's kinda like me, an Odinist, writing a book on how to practice catholocism or a book on the Qaballah.

The first three chapters would be quite a reasonable introduction to an esoteric book on runes for casual reading. From there on it becomes a strange monotheistic parody of Northern lore. Drawing heavily from a Judeo-Christian religious perspective, and 19th century style ceremonial magic, itself of mainly Hebrew origin, it is easy to see how it offends many Asatruar. There is little of the Northern Heathen flavour left.

Some have asked how Thorsson could recommend it to his followers on the back cover. Apart from the obvious Llewellyn connection, Western ceremonial is a large part of the basis of Thorsson's own neo-satanic or Setian training. The two systems are two sides of the same coin.

The book may be useful as an easy introduction to runes for those who are only familiar with ceremonial magic, but as a Heathen, I would prefer them to make the effort to look at the runes without the Judeo-Christian indoctrination.

Sweyn
The Rune Primer

This book is not a good book on runes. First off the gods and gossesses do not need some christian lord to rule over them. They are not unpredictable demons. You cant just go bossing Odin around. Plus he shows very little wisdom on the runes. There are better books out there on the runes.

I agree with several of the other folks here that Tyson is much to strict on ritual and cerimony. This was my first book as an introduction to runes and it was a wonderful learning tool. The best parts of this book are his poetry references, the alphabet, meanings, and as a good building point to base your own rituals and practices off of.

This book is basically another one of those books written solely to "Pay the Bills": while this book does provide some historical background on the Runes, it has been largely hijacked from other modern sources written in the English tongue. The Lore itself is not even treated from a Northern European Magical Mindset, rather from the perspective of a practitioner of Western Ceremonial Magic, with little focus upon the System from the cultural perspective of those that actually utilized the Runes for Magical and divinatory practices. While lore concerning some of the Norse Deities associated with the Runes is included, it should be noted that the author has a less than favorable opinion towards these Gods, as noted in his works on Ceremonial Magic: the deities have been label as "Demonic" in at least one of his other works. While I offer no opinion on Mr. Tyson's other works, I can with a bit of authority (the perspective of a Rune Magician within the Northern Tradition) state that this work is unworthy of a serious student's time and hard-earned coin. Look elsewhere

I've seen a lot of rune books but I've never seen one where you 'banished' Odin in the ritual in the name of the nameless one.

What's the nameless one exactly? Is it the Christian Diety or Cthulu?

What's a wiccan pentacle doing in norse ritual work?

And 7 planets spread with runes? What's that about?

I was really pleased at how good a condition it was in and that it came in faster than they told me it would. I would oder again andf tell all my friends. Thank You so much