Runes: Theory & Practice

1 Odin: The First Rune-Master

Odin is the high God in the Northern Tradition. In both the surviving sources and in modern Heathenry, He is referred to variously as the All-Father, Victory Father, Hanging God, Old Man, or Old One-Eye.¹ One of the defining aspects of His nature, as attested to in the Norse myths, is His insatiable thirst for knowledge and wisdom. This thirst for knowledge led Odin to seek out the runes, and He did so by sacrificing Himself on the Norse World-Tree: Yggdrasil. Modern Northern Tradition Shamans such as Raven Kaldera refer to Odin as the God of the Ordeal. The Ordeal Path as practiced by modern Northern Tradition Shamans (and others) involves the “intentional and careful use of pain in order to put the body into an ...