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| I actually checked the book out of my local library and read it. |
There is a tension that exists between popularization and dilution -- not only in religion. Insiders often object to and resist the popularization of their tradition, whatever it may be.
Should interested newbies be required to cross a high bar by working their way into a tradition through learning, training, and experience? Or should a tradition be made more accessible--simpler, diluted-- so that newbies can more easily enter it?
Back in October, a friend sent me this article from the Daily Telegraph, "How Viking Runes Can Transform Your Life" - a marketing piece for Richard Lister's book "The Book of Runic Astrology." Lister is doing this for Norse Paganism--presenting it in a way that is easily accessible to those who are outside the tradition but intrigued and interested.
This isn't new. Astrology has been part of pop culture forever. But as Norse Paganism has become trendy through shows like Vikings, interest in runic astrology has also grown. A few books have been published (two of which I have written about here and also available here). Even Vogue Scandinavia published an article on "reading your viking birth runes" and you can't get more pop culture than Vogue, right? Great stuff. With his new book and marketing savvy, Lister is making a play to be the popular expert on runic astrology.
And that makes sense. Lister is not a scholar of Old Norse or religious studies. He isn't a Heathen religious leader or gothi (goði). He is a holistic life coach who developed this system to do astrology readings with a Norse flair. His Norse Paganism isn't an artifice -- according to the book he has twenty years of experience doing viking historical re-enactment and a long personal history with Norse religious practice. In fact, Lister opens and closes his book by recounting two personal spiritual experiences he has had with Odin, the God of the runes. Given his Norse Pagan credibility, Lister is also an eclectic spiritual practitioner whose focus is working with people and their problems. And one form of guidance he offers is astrology with a Norse aesthetic.
This is Norse Paganism crafted for the global consumer culture of late-modern individualism. Wyrd is not "fate" in Lister's interpretation. Rather it is a "guideline that we can influence," he writes, that is "always consensual." "You do you boo," he sums up (10). In Lister's approach, runic astrology is a tool that anyone can use to read the energy of the Wyrd, the "pattern and path laid out for us by the Norns," and navigate one's Runic Star Path to "co-create the life you want."
In a sort of media-savvy makeover, Lister engages his niche market by overlaying traditional (Greco-Roman) astrology with aspects of Norse religion. The runic calendar of 24 runes of the Elder Futhark maps onto the astrological calendar of 12 zodiac signs. The names of Norse Gods are substituted for the usual names of planets and heavenly bodies. The elementals are loosely connected with figures from Norse myth. And the houses of the zodiac become Norse Stamme, "branches" of the world tree Yggdrasil.
The power of Lister's approach is its simplicity. Even an astrological idiot like myself could easily get my free astrological birth chart from a website and use Lister's charts to find my birth runes. Lister calls this the "Runic Star Path" - quite catchy, right? : Gebo is both my Sunna soul rune and my Manni emotional rune (Sun and Moon signs respectively.) Raidho is my Jord rune - the rising sign, or "rune of practical purpose" according to Lister. And Tiwaz is my Nordir or luck rune, equivalent to the North Node. Once you have these four runes, Lister provides his own set of descriptions to help you interpret your life journey. This transposition of astrology into a Norse timbre is topped off with a sprinkling of Old Norse neologisms--my favorite is glóa stigr the “Glowing Path Makers” (34), Lister's term for the three main birth runes.
While reading this book, I definitely realized that my understanding of astrology is woefully lacking. I don’t really understand it and haven't spent much time on it. However it is an important dimension of Paganism and Pagan cosmology. Weren’t almost all the elder Pagan cultures in dialogue with the heavens? Tracking its changes, sensitive to its energies, aligned with its powers? There are hints in the Old Norse sources of astrological/astronomical sky lore in Pagan Scandinavia. Beyond Europe, astrology in Hindu religious culture goes back thousands of years. And there are fascinating discoveries regarding MesoAmerican astrology. That said, not all Pagans use astrology. It is simply there as part of the cosmology, available as a spiritual resource. Even among the elder Pagans (arch-Pagans), some cultures and times would have made more of astrology than others. All religions change and consulting the stars undoubtedly would have waxed and waned as a popular practice.
Beyond the historical frame, astrology is congruent with the cosmologies of Pagan religions and the worlds of many powers they describe. Both polytheism and animism involve cosmologies in which many powers operate. Like these ontological systems, astrology is about living in an interconnected world – where all these powers interact and influence each other. These polyvalent interrelationships are sometimes referred to as correspondences in magical practice – things and qualities that are connected, influence each other, represent and resonate with other entities. Astrology is one type of interrelationship – a recognition that the movements and relationships of cosmic bodies influence our lives.
Lister's system is not particularly compatible with earlier presentations of runic astrology. For instance, there are few similarities with Nigel Pennick's book Runic Astrology. Even basic aspects like the God-planet associations are different: Lister associates Neptune with Ran while Pennick went with Aegir. Of course, Pennick's book is so complex to be almost impenetrable by the average person--as Lister mentions in this great interview "Change Your Life With Runic Astrology.". There is no attempt to connect this to archaeo-astronomy or actual Norse cultural knowledge of the heavens. As Lister makes clear, his astrology is about magic more than "maths" - "This is more than just rune maths and planet maths. It's trusting your intuition, your insight and your heart. Trust your feelings as you build Runic Star Paths for yourself, your event or your clients. This is where power is to be found. Right there. In you. Your heart will lead you to victory" (232)For more on MesoAmerican astrology: An old but good article on the complex Mayan cultural relationship to Venus: Aveni, Anthony F. “Venus and the Maya: Interdisciplinary Studies of Maya Myth, Building Orientations, and Written Records Indicate That Astronomers of the Pre-Columbian World Developed a Sophisticated, If Distinctive, Cosmology.” American Scientist 67, no. 3 (1979): 274–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27849219.
Additional Sources:
Claim Your Magic by Magin Rose
S. Kelley Harrell, Runic Book of Days: A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
Nigel Pennick, Runes and Astrology
Harry Holland, Viking Astrology: Unveiling the Secrets of the Norse Runes
Kevin Rowan-Drewitt, Astrology of The Runes
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