To: alt.magick
From: Sean Jeffers Mc Nair
Subj: Runes and Language (0000.runlang.sjm)
Date: unknown


        Try translating the Old English _Rune Poem_ before attempting to use 
the Rune Stones. There is a nice little kit authored by Ralph Blum which has 
the Rune Stones and a book. The book is largely worthless, it's a largely 
new age, cosmic crap kind of thing. The _Rune Poem_, in conjunction with the 
Norwegian version of this, written in Old Norse, should give you a nice 
start in being able to cast them. The book by Blum is _worthless_, don't 
even read it. This guy is no scholar, and is just out to make a buck. I must 
admit that Al is right, it takes awhile to learn to cast them, I'm in the 
process of tranlating the Old Norse lesser Edda, and I still don't feel as 
if I've learned all I need to know.
        In a related vein, I posted to this newsgroup about six or seven 
months ago about relating the Runic symbols to the Qabbalah, in an attempt 
to map the Runic symbols on the tree of life. I recieved several comments 
from this newsgroup regarding this, most of them involving manipulation of 
the Yggsdrasil tree. Please, if you feel so inclined, don't post or mail me 
any of this junk!
        Recently, I have continued this work, started in Spring of 91 in my 
Old English class at the University of Maine, in a seminal paper. What I did 
was to trace the Runes back to their origins using Ralph Eliot as a guide, (
_Runes_) which brought me to North Italic and Etruscan. Etruscan, it is well 
accepted, originates in the Greek, which in turn originates from North 
Semitic, also a progenitor of Hebrew. This works out very nicely, as it is 
generally accepted, (at least by Thelemites) that the paths on the tree of 
life between the Sephiroth each have hebrew character assocated with them, 
and with the exception of Lamed, all hebrew characters appear on the tree of 
life, and have a Tarot card of the Major Arcana related to them. (See the 
Book of Thoth for the attributions. I think they might also be in 777, but 
for those of you familiar with 777, its really overkill, in my opinion.)
        I have finished these attributions in rough form, Tarot card to Rune 
stone, but the problem is that their are not enough of the Etruscan letters 
to provide adequate links to all the letters, Runic to Etruscan. As a 
result, many Tarot cards have no Rune that can be attributed to them.
        On a more tenuous side of the research, I have tried to find origins 
for the North Semitic alphabet in the Egyptian, as propounded by Taylor. (
See the two volume set _The Alphabet_ by David D. for more on this.) I have 
been abel, through Taylor' theory, to find Hieroglyphic syllabary. This is 
purely speculation on my part, based on readings done on the Hieratic 
syllabary and the Sinaitic theory.

Sean Jeffers Mc Nair