Our History
Armanenschaft has been around for many thousands of years, the last thousand of them in total secrecy due to Church persecution. The Armanen priesthood was passed down in several clans in the forest towns of Germany and Austria, in private rituals and initiations. However it was revealed to the wider world in 1907, when the great author and explorer Guido von List was initiated as an Armanen Master by the Armanen Lauterer clan, and published his groundbreaking book The Secret of the Runes.
The true form of the Runes, the 18 Armanen or Odinic Runes, was thus revealed to the wider world, and its deep esoteric meanings reavealed the hidden links between the seemingly isolated meanings of its child-systems ("Elder", Younger, Anglo-Saxon).
Subsequently, Master Guido von List and other Armanen Rune-Masters, such as Rudolf Gorsleben, published further books on Runes and the High-Heathen Armanen tradition of Germany and Austria, retaining the beauty and wisdom of the original priesthood of Wotan.
During the 1910s and 20s, the Armanen path was fully revived in the Guido von List society and in Master Rudolf's Edda Society in Germany, Austria and beyond. Our Way soon grew to many thousands of members including leading literary figures (poets, novelists, journalists), aristocrats, captains of industry, members of parliament, and others.
Siegfried Adolf Kummer was one of several Armanen teachers in the 1920s and 30s who popularized the ancient practice of Stadhagaldr, known popularly as Rune-Yoga.
The 18 Stadhagaldr Postures of the Armanen Runes proved extremely effective in increasing focus and concentration, breaking addictions, and increasing energy, health, and drive to succeed.
Since then, Armanenschaft has survived two World Wars, the Depression, the Cold War, and even the cultural decline of the modern world. Today we are the premier esoteric Runic tradition on the face of the planet. Often imitated, never duplicated.
