FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you use the Armanen Runes? Weren't they made up by Guido von List in the 1900s?

No, the 18 Armanen Runes are not “made up” - no more than any other Runes - as they are all found among the other three major Futharks or Rune-rows (“Elder”, “Younger”, and Anglo-Saxon), in one form or another. Armanen Runes simply have greater depth of meaning. They match up exactly with the 18 Runes described in the Hávamál, the sacred poem of Wotan's wisdom in the Elder Edda. Master Guido von List did not invent them - he rediscovered them, inspired by Wotan, and they were independently confirmed as the original sacred Runes of Wotan by clans Lauterer, Fischbach, and other surviving Runic lineages – who initiated Guido von List himself as an Armanen Master.

We accept all 4 Futharks - we just regard the Armanen Runes as the original.While Armanen Rune-row may seem “new” to those who only know of the Norse or Anglo-Saxon branches of Rune-magick, its native Germania was in fact the ancient Root of all Europe's Runic paths.

"Other than the oldest Runic Futhark, which has 18 runes and corresponds to the "Rune Poem" of the "Hávamál," there are various other Rune-rows. Primarily the oldest, the 18-Rune Futharkh comes into consideration, for penetrating into higher Rune-wisdom, into the Runic mysteries, with the initiations they provide. The cosmic and magickal legitimacy of this Futhark cannot be supplanted by any other Rune-row." - Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Rune-Magick

Isn't your religion/spirituality racist?

Not at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. Armanenschaft is a path of evolution through honor and nobility – and there's nothing noble about humiliating another person based on their racial appearance. Our interest is in improving people who naturally resonate with the values, ethics, and energies of Wotan and the Runes – without needing a coercive morality based on commandments or divine threats. In our experience, these have mostly been people of Indo-European ancestry, though not always Germanic. We respect ancestry as a link with the Old Ways – though it's often a complex, nuanced one. We have no interest at all in making life miserable for others because of their racial stock. We evaluate members for natural character and cultural honesty to the Runic way. We are idealists, not identitarians.

"Nobody claims that the other races are “bad”; they are “good”, of Gods, because they exist, because they are by necessity in the [same] ascent from that which is below to that which is above." - Master Rudolf J. Gorsleben, High-Age of Mankind

Weren't Armanen Runes used by the Nazis?

No. Actually the Armanen Rune-row was suppressed by the National Socialists (not “Nazis”) in the Third Reich. The Runes used by the National Socialists were instead taken from the personal Rune-row of Heinrich Himmler's personal psychic, Karl Maria Wiligut – which had 24 runes like the Elder Futhark (though with some different symbols; more were added by the SS). Wiligut stole his runes from the Elder and Younger Futharks, medieval Runes, even Greek letters. His personal religion (which Himmler followed devoutly) was loosely based on Christianity; it was not Heathen, did not acknowledge the Armanen, and even rejected Wotan and the Old Gods.

In fact, Armanenschaft was heavily persecuted in the Third Reich. Many Armanen like Master Tarnhari (Ernst Lauterer) and Siegfried Kummer were arrested and tortured to death by the SS in concentration camps. Himmler personally gave the order, at Wiligut's urging. Wiligut and Himmler despised our path, and tried to kill off any authentic Runic religion, or indeed, any religion that opposed their views.

How about your other symbols like the Fylfot and Sonnenrad? Aren't those “Nazi” symbols?

Actually both are far older than any 20th-century regime. The Fylfot (Swastika) is a solar sign sacred to ancient Germans, Celts, Greeks, Persians, Slavs, Indo-Aryans, and other Indo-European folk. The oldest example, in Ukraine, dates to 15,000 BCE. The Sonnenrad or “sun-wheel” is a related symbol with more arms, found on Bronze Age Germanic brooches. The Slavic Kolovrat is a similar symbol.

The National Socialists obviously did not invent the Swastika. Less obviously, they didn't invent any form of the Sonnenrad either – not even the symmetric-spoked version visible today at Wewelsburg Castle, which Himmler had once leased. It was an ancient Armanen symbol, secret until the early 1900s; one was installed in the Hamburg Bismarck memorial in 1906. The green stone Sonnenrad mosaic at Wewelsburg Castle was not mentioned in any Third Reich or SS documents; it was actually commissioned in the 1970s by the castle's private owners, and installed by the postwar Bartels Marble & Granite Works (still in business today) - not by the Third Reich. Today the castle, and by extension the mosaic, are the property of the local secular city government of Paderborn, which has kept them intact as a historical site of German cultural heritage - unlike Third Reich monuments, which have been demolished or dismantled.

Why can't you just let those tainted symbols go, and make up new ones?

How strange that we are attacked for using Armanen Runes under the false accusation that they are “made up”, and yet we are expected to abandon our ancient Runes and solar symbols and just make up new ones!

There's no such thing as a “tainted” symbol. If we discard every ancient symbol copied by controversial modern movements, we will be forever at the mercy of the latest irrational herd panic. Should all Christians throw away their crosses because the KKK has used the Christian cross since the 1870s? Most people would be appalled by that idea. But that is essentially what the “give up your symbols” crowd is asking us to do. That is no way to build a legacy worthy to last across generations. The Fylfot (Swastika), the Sonnenrad, and the Runes were never owned by the Third Reich or the modern world. Calling these ancient holy symbols “tainted” is a sign of brainwashed collective guilt - it does a huge disservice to the true legacy of these holy symbols, which at least some of your ancestors likely saw as sacred.

“The murmuring Runes of the universe, the sacred symbols of salvation of the Cosmos are deeply buried within ourselves in our soul as inherited memories. They call, murmur and rush within us, and we could not get them from outside us by imitation, if they were not built into us since eternity.” - Master Rudolf J. Gorsleben, High-Age of Mankind

Wait, doesn't Indo-European mean “white people” only?

No, Indo-European actually refers to several things – language, culture, religion, and ancestry. The English you are reading is an Indo-European language. Most nations between Iceland and India have been shaped by Indo-European culture. Indo-European religions include the ancient Druidism, Jainism, pre-Vedic Hinduism, Mazadaism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, early Buddhism, Slavic Rodnovery, Norse Heathenry, and of course Armanenschaft. Indo-European ancestry is likewise already diverse.

Indo-European or Aryan people (neolithic farmers) spread their culture and way of life over a massive geographical area from the Scandinavia to Greece, and east to Iran and northern India, even to the Tocharians in western China. The lands of their successor races span several latitudes, with varied shades of skin tone. Furthermore, there are also millions of "whites" who are mostly not Indo-European – but rather, Cro-Magnon or Finno-Ugric. Ancestry is based on ordered clusters of multiple traits – not a single trait like skin color. That said, even a particular phenotype cluster isn't the "be-all, end-all" for us. Ancestral memory is far more complex than the merely external.

"An instructive example is offered by the heraldic eagle... the hieroglyph or device of Aryandom and of the later German empire, a hieroglyph which was already being borne by the Aryans in Asia, for example, Cyrus the Achaemenian, as well as the Pharaohs, the Greeks, and the Romans." - Master Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, p. 43

You must be secretly promoting a racist ideology.

Totally false. We only promote the practice of Germanic religion, its traditional Indo-European values, and its rites of solar farmer culture, in harmony with nature - instead of fear-based herder religions which see nature as 'fallen' or 'evil'. It is they who are plagued by paranoia over skin color, not us (one only needs look at all the segregated Christian churches organized along racial or color lines).

We are not racists, as we believe in improvement of noble traits, not the arrogant nihilism of “identitarian” racial stasis. Our members include a wide range of nationalities, as mentioned above; in addition, while Indo-European ancestry usually has a far smoother time of it, the cultural process of Armanism is not closed off to those of all other backgrounds. Acceptance into Armanenschaft was always based on practice, loyalty, merit, and hard work to uphold the culture of the Old Gods. There was no “free pass” for people of a certain bloodline. We are not secretive about this at all. Likewise we do not dilute our culture to please anyone. This isn't racism; it's respect for ancient wisdom.

"We must work in the direction of steering the folk to fulfill higher, and even the highest of accomplishments in a future, and at the same time strive for the goal of reaching the ennobling of the folk, all of which is attainable." - Master Guido von List, The Invincible

So what happens to people of color in your society?

We do not divide people into an overly simplistic media dichotomy of “whites” and “people of color”. Indo-European peoples often don't even see the world that way. These politically charged terms are not accurate labels for the natural genetic races known to science, and there is often a fair bit of color variation within genetic races, not just between them. We have no desire to force people of radically different ancestries to be the same, nor do we tolerate pointless division against related ones to whom our Way and völk (folk) calls.

We have Armanists from various heritages in our Path besides Germanics, honoring Wotan, Ingwi-Freyr, Freyja, Thunarr, Tiwaz-Tyr, Zisa, etc. We have Slavs, Celts, Greeks, Italians, some Hispanics who heard the Old Gods through a strong Spanish (and ultimately Visigothic) ancestry, as well as Iranians – possibly the most despised race on the planet in modern times – whose neolithic Aryan ancestors honored many of the same gods, only with different pronunciations (Vayu-Vata, Agni-Fravhar, Feriya, Tondarr, Tivash-Tir, Tiza). What “happens to you” in Armanenschaft does not depend on your color, but rather on whether your own inherited spiritual and cultural instincts match up with the values of the Armanen way. Our völk is for those who want improvement of noble traits. This cannot be forced.

What happens to LGBTQ+ people in your society?

We are upfront about the priority we put on passing our culture to future generations. While there is more than one way to do this, the main way is through children and family. Bonds of kinship are far more sacred to our völk than to herder religions where strangers are called “brother” and “sister” merely by professing belief in a god with a couple of sentences. Family (sippa) is a sacred root-law of our Path.

This means that procreation, family, and child-care will always be integral to our culture. A family in the traditional Indo-European form of man as the breadwinner and woman as the keeper of the home is our ideal, based on millennia of practice. What others do in their own bedrooms is of little concern to us. We have no intention of forcing our beliefs on others, and reciprocal respect is expected. If a traditional Indo-European view of masculinity, femininity, and family as harmoniously different and symbiotic, appeals to you, we welcome you to take a new look at the spiritual legacy of the Old Gods. If not, by all means seek out the faith most suited to your social values.

You promote family values? But patriarchal societies lead to oppression of women!

Unfortunately, since the only “patriarchy” that most of the West has known for the past thousand years has been a Judeo-Christian one, that stereotype is all too common. However, an Indo-European patriarchy bears almost no resemblance to the coercive morality of the nomadic desert tribes of the Bible. Indeed, it is a travesty that they even have to be mentioned in the same sentence. Patriarchy in an Indo-European context simply means that fathers should lead (not oppress). The interests of children require a wise father.

Of course, any society can become oppressive when people of weak character are in charge. But when a culture is led by, and favors, men who are devoted to becoming living icons of strength and wisdom, these men are naturally looked up to by women, and value the intuitive gifts of the women around them. In an Indo-European völk, men revere mothers like goddesses capable of the miracle of bringing life into the world. Likewise, the decisive leadership strengths of men are valued for the success of the völk. A culture is only as good as the men it who lead it, and the values they pass on. It can be cruel and dogmatic, or it can be noble and wondrous. By preventing the latter from existing, the reactionary misandry of sterile modernity can only perpetuate the return of the former. We offer a natural alternative.

“Now, because men of our contemporary age are caught up in the ascetic view of a life-denying religious system, but in spite of this cannot deny the primal laws of nature, a distorted morality had to be developed, which spreads hypocritical appearances over hidden actions. This has brought to a head all those outward forms of modern life, whose vacuousness and corruption are now beginning to disgust us.”

– Master Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes , p. 56

Being Völkisch just creates division and strife instead of bringing people together in diversity.

Actually, the opposite is true. A völk is simply a group of people with a common destination and culture for getting there. Thus, völkisch means people returning to a similar völk (folk) ideal through ancient traditions which stood the test of time. A world which honors such traditions, is more diverse than a world with no distinct cultures. We prefer Indo-European culture to the empty consumerism of the “modern world”, which rejects true diversity to pursue sameness, or “everyone being a rootless sell-out to everyone else”.

We believe maintaining our culture is vital for diversity. For example, if we brought thousands of LSD-addicted hippies into our Path, in the name of “diversity”, we would have to either push them to renounce their lifestyle (a move doomed to failure), or dilute our culture beyond recognition to accommodate them – it would degrade to a group of drug-addled hippies and cease to be Armanenschaft - a tragedy for true diversity. To preserve diversity, cultures should hold their unique traditions close - not let them die. In fact, we regard the modern tendency to abolish cultural differences and make everybody the same (rootless, sexless, empty robots), as the true enemy of diversity.

“This return to our well-springs portends a strengthening, and a future, it is not an idle rummaging in the dead past, in that which has been, no more than the [physical] well-spring is any sort of “has-been” for the large flowing river, but something that is present and necessary (for its existence).” - Master Rudolf J. Gorsleben, High-Age of Mankind

Isn't this just an excuse for radical political activity?

Absolutely not. We reject the false dichotomy of modern politics and instead focus on culture. Armanenschaft existed long before the herd politics of the modern world, and, Norns willing, it will continue to exist long after the modern world has passed away. You will not find Armanists picketing a business or protesting an election because at the end of the day, we realize that the modern politics of material circumstances is largely governed by the control of money; it does not produce better people, and nobility and wisdom do not drop out of the sky as a result of a vote; they must be practiced privately and among those who are willing to embrace them and cannot be commoditized with a few shallow false promises. Our path is for those of a traditional Indo-European and Odinic mentality; those who willingly wish to participate in a higher culture, where the material and spiritual are not divided and at war. As a result, we are not the stooges of any political party, as parties by nature focus on material things, and (sometimes) the dogmatic husk of what passes for 'spirituality' among dry, empty herder religions. Rather, we seek a willing return to the wiser culture which said religions tried to kill.

Whereas modern politics operates on the misguided belief that a change in the ownership of material circumstances ("assets" and "means of production") will make the world better and more ethical, we recognize that no good can ever come out of such a naive view; the world will not become more just through a transfer of circumstances - it will only become so through a qualitative improvement in people. Without a culture of nobility and improvement, the mass-psychosis of material carrots will only create more mutual abuse and blood feuds between factions, until the entire edifice of the post-industrial world implodes. We prefer to teach people how to fish - frugally.