Radio Free Runa — The First Nine
This is a message from Edred concerning Radio Free Runa.
The project known as Radio Free Runa is one where I can teach a wide range of topics rapidly and in a lively manner. These form a regular audio-feed from the website edred.net. Each broadcast is between 30 and 50 minutes in length. They cover a range of topics, most of which fall into one of three categories: 1) academic or historical background, 2) esoteric commentary and 3) practical and cultural applications. In fact these categories easily overlap in my presentations of them. This is intentional. I will be attempting to teach the Way of Runa in a deep and complex manner, while endeavoring not to be boring or difficult. For the most part I will talk about what interests me that day or week. But given the range of my interests, do not be surprised if you hear a good deal about Dumezilian Functions one day and Plan Nine from Outer Space the next … also do not be shocked if I find a way to synthesize them. By listening to the broadcasts of Radio Free Runa you will open your mind to the Odian Realm.
–Edred, Woodharrow, February 11, 2009Following is a summary for each of the first nine Radio Free Runa talks. The author is from the Rune-Gild.
You can listen to and download talks at the Edred.net community.
Radio Free Runa #1- Inaugural Broadcast
Nope, Edred’s not talking about the Presidential inauguration here, but rather the beginning of the Radio Free Runa series of lectures.
Simply, “A new year requires new approaches”.
Indeed. And so he lays out his plan and method. Three days a week, with three breaks per year, a systematic approach starting with basic topics building to more advanced. It doesn’t get much better than this, in my opinion. Very timely.
In a nod to the oral tradition and his teacher, Dr. Edgar Polome, Edred revives it here, with the goal making the teachings more accessible. He reviews a wide range of modern persistent, unconscious beliefs/behaviors that come directly from the ancestors and concludes with a direct question to all: “How much better could we be if we reclaimed it consciously?”
What do you think, just how much better?
Radio Free Runa #2- “Become Who You Are”
Edred did not overtly title this one, so find a better one if you can. I pulled this nugget out from a part of the conclusion. Actually, he’s quoting someone else here, though I couldn’t quite catch who…
There’s a great deal of valuable info contained in this broadcast. The concepts of esoteric vs. exoteric are discussed. The two types of Germanic tradition, “arfr” and “sithr” elucidated, a distinction so important to the work of the serious student. Also, and especially for us, the place of the runic tradition in all this is made clear.
We’re offered three more Old Norse words: “odhr”, “hugr” and “minni”, familiar to any seeker who has read much about the Northern tradition.
Much more to the point is, Edred says, is the 3-fold method these terms suggest. Very illuminating, to say the least.
For people cut off from themselves, looking, willy-nilly in every other direction, Edred has these words: “Become who you are”.
Radio Free Runa#3- On Culture
Edred says Friday broadcasts are meant to be a more wide-ranging application of his ideas, and especially as they apply to modern pop-culture.
So with that in mind, this talk lays the groundwork, so to speak, by examining just what is meant by the term “culture”, using the culture grid contained in the article “How to be a Heathen”, the book Blue Runa and elsewhere.
Fascinating stuff, and for me much better heard than read somehow. How is it, as Edred maintains, that we have become, as a culture, alienated from the root idea behind the concept of culture? Thoughts anyone?
Radio Free Runa #4 - Germanic Weekday Names
A remote broadcast done before live audience at the Woodharrow Institute, Edred seems in high spirits here. There’s the ubiquitous cel-phone going off every now and then, periodically a couple of native woodpeckers decide to go nuts on the side of the building, and Edred even takes some audience questions at the end. It’s everything a remote broadcast should be!
I thought I knew this topic but there’s a lot of interesting detail that I had no idea about. Though I knew the names, I never knew the ancestors actually had only 5 days in their week. Well worth a listen, especially for comparative linguists, because this aspect of the weekday names is covered in fascinating detail…
But there was much more… Most intriguing to me was the idea that of all the Germanic-named days surrendered by some of our peoples (Icelanders for example), Wednesday was the easiest to part with since folk were somewhat scared of Woden anyway…
Radio Free Runa #5 and #6 - Runes and Runa (Parts I and II)
Edred immediately says a better title for this lecture pair would be “Runa, the Natural Pathway to Inner Freedom”, but it wouldn’t fit in the header space!
I can’t say much about these talks. In silence I bow my head to them and the wisdom behind them. They are a “must listen”. Vast, wide-ranging, as deep as space. Trying to sum up here would only do them a disservice and anyone reading this. I’ve heard them twice and I’m going to do myself a favor and listen again. Listeners, help me on this one.
Here is a rough list extracted from my notes of some areas covered: Runes and runa as a “way of working” with Odhinn as the originator, Jungs riverbed, ancestral concepts of nature especially as discovered in our etymology, our own nature, ideas of tribal vs. universal religions, the modern idea of spiritual “choice”, ideas of resonance and interlocking forms of morphic resonance, Pan-Indo-European organization of the Gods, loyalty, troth, and the “hyper-body”, especially as repesented by the World-tree.
I really loved the use of the tree as metaphor for the hyper-body. This image alone gave me a whole new understanding of things, and that happened repeatedly in this set. Many areas for discussion.
A truly great pair of lectures. Give them a listen.
Radio Free Runa #7 - Ancient Germanic Tribes and Tribalism
Here is an exoteric topic of great interest as Edred focuses on the ancient Germanic tribes. What does the concept of “tribe” mean really and how did this fit into the Ancients sense of their place in the world? To whom did an individual owe loyalty? How did one become a member of a tribe? What did the idea of “nation” mean to them? There’s plenty of important nuance provided here, as healthy antidote to our modern misconceptions and prejudices…
In broad detail he looks at the various tribal names, their meanings and what this says about how they viewed themselves.
Finally, the three different types of ancient tribal government are examined in some detail, and a look at how tribes were formed…
Promised in the future is a talk about “the way foward”. That is, for us today, what did we lose when we lost our tribal heritage, and what can be regained without giving up modern gains (like this nifty computer I’m banging on)? That should be a good one!
Radio Free Runa #8 - Our Basic Esoteric Principles
Folks, in my poor attempts to describe these broadcasts, the well of superlatives is starting to run dry. I should’ve saved some but I didn’t know I was going to need them so badly. This is particularly true for the esoteric (Wednesday) broadcasts. If I didn’t like them and find them tremendously valuable, then I wouldn’t have this problem, I assure you.
Well, it’s not a bad problem to have.These talks are great gifts, a boon to whoever is ready to hear them.
Edred begins by saying that while this is not a “basic catalogue”, he has never so directly addressed these principles in such a systematic way. They are: Runa, Isolate Intelligence, Hierarchism, Proximity and Geneticism. They underly the work of the Gild, his own work, the Germanic tradition and Indo-European heritage as a whole. “If these principles are grasped in essence, everything else follows,” enigmatically adding that a 6th principle is later to be added.
For me, this broadcast is worth listening to repeatedly, as my sponge can only soak up so much at a time.
Radio Free Runa #9- “How I Heard the Word Runa”
This broadcast has the distinction of being a mostly personal story that the others are not. It’s told in a way that manages to be many things, alternately and sometimes at once: Funny, poignant, inspiring and even instructional…
People have, no doubt, wondered about this incident, alluded to in many writings. Here it is… What I found beautiful about it was how it speaks to the quirky ways in which our destinies sometimes make themselves known, and it does so in completely sincere and personal way.
There’s the Wiccan priestess girlfiend, a pilgrimage in un-air conditioned vehicle to find a Tibetan Lama - somewhere near Houston- in the Texas summer (this heat can be almost deadly I promise you!). The truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction.