Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 7. At the Well of Urð 179
Figure 7.1. The carved FUÞARK
and throw them completely at random onto a white cloth. Then the priest
of the state, if the consultation is a public one, or the father of the family if
it is private, offers a prayer to the Gods, and looking up at the sky picks up
three strips, one at a time, and reads their meaning from the signs scored on
them. If the lots forbid an enterprise, there is no deliberation that day on
the matter in question; if they allow it, confirmation by taking of auspices
is required. Although the familiar method of seeking information from the
flight of birds is known to the Germans, they also have a special method of
their own–to try to obtain omens and warnings from horses.” 9
Although there had been systems created in Germany by secret esoteric groups during
the first part of this century, Blum’s system was the first to become widespread
outside of occult circles and became a very popular item in New Age catalogs.
Blum’s system was not based on the Germanic worldview, however, and another,
a young student at the University of Texas, writing under the pen-name of Edred
Thorsson, sought to correct this and, eventually, wrote a trilogy of books (see the
reading lists at the end of this book) setting the runic system of divination within
the Germanic worldview. He based much of his material on Bauschatz’ material
presented in The Well and the Tree. 10 Although Thorsson presented fairly solid
evidence for a historical precedence of this reconstructed system, it is not known
exactly what was written on the “slips” of wood described in Tacitus. Tacitus was
describing either very early Germanic people or possible even early Celtic, and since
this second hand description came from so early on, it could be argued that “slips”
were actually an early form of dice or lots, or that they were marked with non-runic
symbols. Thorsson and those following in his footsteps used both sagaic and eddaic
material to lend credence to their theories:
“I know that I hung on the windy tree
for nine long nights
pierced by a spear –Óðínn’s pledge–
9 Tacitus, S. A. Handford, tr., Tacitus: the Agricola and the Germania (Penguin Books;
London, UK) 1970, p. 109.
10 See Chap. 2 for a fairly comprehensive overview of Bauschatz’ work.