The Magic of the Runes: Their Origins and Occult Power--The Secret Alphabet of the Ancients

by Michael Howard

The Norse and Saxon runic alphabet is an ancient form of writing which is shrouded in historical and occult mystery. in this book, the secrets of the rune masters are revealed which is both a history of the origin and development of the runes as well as a guide to the practical use of runic magic in healing and divination.

Genres: Divination

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael Howard (United Kingdom) was the editor of The Cauldron magazine from 1976 to his death in 2015. He has written numerous articles for other occult and neo-pagan magazines and since the 1970s has had over thirty-five books published on the runes, witchcraft, angelic magic, folklore, herbal remedies, and occult parapolitics.

Reviews

[Liz Craye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read Sep 2020
Reviewed Sep 2020

Not worth reading for beginners or otherwise. The fact it was published in the 80s, which is when the runes first came into public eye via Ralph Blum's guesswork-based interpretation, is a red flag first of all. Further, this book is full of things we know to be inaccurate. For example:

- Uses Ralph Blum's order of the runes, which is incorrect. If the rune order in the book you're reading doesn't begin with Fehu, ditch it. The order of the runes has a specific pattern and meaning to it.
- Uses the so-called Druidic/Celtic tree correspondences to months, when there was no such thing.
- Inaccurate correspondences: for example, associates the goddess Freja to "intuition clairvoyance and psychism", the moon and Monday.

(In reality Freja is associated with sorcery (she taught Odin), the sun, love, war, and fertility. We associate her with Friday and Venus. She is also associated with sorcery (she taught Odin), but for specifically seeking insight, psychism and clairvoyance you would probably go to Odin or the Norns.

If you're wondering, the norse god Mani was the god of the moon.)

It only gets worse from there.

While it does contains some well-corroborated statements, you can get those anywhere else.

No references or further reading is cited for the reader's edification, meaning the author was either trying to portray himself as a secret authority, made things up out of whole cloth, or believes his readers are too dumb to understand.

Translations are not credited in text or in the publishing information, thus they may be the author's own or he has stolen them. Either way, unable to determine if accurate.

These known inaccuracies call any other information given in the book into question. It's not worth it anyway, you can find anything you're looking for in more up-to-date, trustworthy books or online. If this is the only place you can find a particular piece of information, I wouldn't be so quick to believe it.

Verdict: the author was smoking the same blunt as Ralph Blum. Treat with suspicion and if you want to use any info you find in this book, make sure it is corroborated by a REPUTABLE source.

Note: If you find any inaccuracies in this review please comment. I would rather be correct than retain pride in stupidity.

[Tom Fordham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some small amounts of semi-useful knowledge but the lack of academic references, further reading and bibliography is concerning and stops it being credible because it's unsubstantiated. It can come across as esoteric and closed off. Thankfully my prior knowledge helped me understand what Howard was on about but there are possibly a few inaccuracies. Although I did like the references to the Celtic equivalents of the Germanic runes, it is mostly inaccurate from what I've learnt before.

I went in from an academic perspective and for research purposes it is useful for understanding the esoteric and subjective argument.