Karl Spiesberger - Rune Magic

Rune Magic

Spiesberger is well known as the single most important person to revive Germanic mysticism after the second world war, including the Armanen Runes and the Pendulum.

Due to the Nazi suppression and imprisonment of "non-authorised" or "non-officially sanctioned" runic/Germanic mystics and revivalists and their respective organisations during the Third Reich (see Nazi mysticism) the runes were so closely associated with the Nazis that the use and discussion of them in academic as well as esoteric circles was hampered by adverse public opinion. Those of the old rune magicians and occultists who had survived the war in Germany, slowly began to make their way back to their work, and new voices were also heard. The best known of these new voices was Spiesberger.

After the war the Armanen system was revived, and "reformed" by Spiesberger. Spiesberger was a widely qualified, "eclectic" occultist who has authored books in the hermetic as well as the runic tradition. His two principle works on runic topics are Runenmagie: Handbuch der Runenkunde (1955) and Runenexerzitien für Jedermann (1958). In these books he synthesises the work of all the German runic magicians and experts who preceded him, within a pansophical framework. Although he eliminates all the racist and völkisch elements, he retains the Armanen system of runes, which by 1955 had become almost traditional in German circles.