Description
by Nigel Pennick
ISBN 979 8 888501597
published by Destiny/Simon & Schuster
Originating in Scandinavia, the ancient Goths viewed runes as mystical symbols from the spirit realms, using them to read the cycles of fate, known as Orlog. As the Goths migrated across Europe into North Africa, they adapted a new alphabet to mask their Pagan origins. Yet the staves, or characters of the Gothic alphabet, were rooted in the sacred runes and still used for divining, leading the Roman Catholic Church to declare the Gothic alphabet “heretical” 1,400 years ago.
Revealing here for the first time the system of seership embedded in the Gothic alphabet, Nigel Pennick examines the 25 Gothic staves and compares their divinatory insights with those of the traditional Futhark of the 24 Norse runes. Pennick considers each stave alone and as part of its aett, the three divisions of the runic alphabet. He provides rune spreads and reading techniques, including the Raed Waen divinatory rite, and explores how new meanings arise as staves are combined in dyads or triads.
Distributed by David Westnedge Ltd., London.
