Fehu

Fehu is the raw archetypal energy of motion and expansion in the mul­tiverse. It is the force that flows from Muspellsheimr, the source of cos­mic fire, from which Midhgardhr was produced (see I-rune). The F-rune is the all-encompassing and omnipresent power symbolized by the charging bovine herd and by wildfire. The cosmic fire of Muspellsheimr is instrumental in the creation of the world, but it is also the principal agent in its destruction of Ragnarök. The firegiant, Surtr, spreads the flames of destruction over the world, thus destroying all but those gods and men who are to survive or to be reborn in the renewed world on the Idha plain (the shining plain). It must be remembered that fehu is not the undifferentiated power of the cosmic fire of Muspellsheimr but rather the mystery of its eternal working eminently throughout the multiverse.

Raidho

Raidho is the cosmic law of right and archetypal order in the multiverse. This is expressed by such natural phenomena as the daily path of the sun and the cycles of nature and humanity. The R-rune is the mystery of divine law, manifest in both the multiverse and in humanity.

Raidho came to be a symbol for organized religion, or better said, of Ásatrú, the ancient form of Germanic religion. In ancient times the external, self -conscious order of religion was much less fixed because of the internal, unconscious, and instinctual order of holiness. This internal order found expression in institutions that were a balanced blend of religion, magic, and law (politics). Today the R-rune is a symbol of the “way back to right,” through the conscious efforts of ásatrúarfólk to recover the essence of the primal order.

This rune represents the right order of the initiate’s journey through the paths of the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasill.

Naudhiz

Naudhiz is the cosmic force used by the powers that form the “fates” of mankind and the world. For an analysis of the Germanic concept of “fate” (ϕrlög) and these “shaping powers” (Nornir), see the P-rune. The N-rune does not represent ϕrlög; rather it embodies a cosmic force nec­essary to its formulation, that of resistance. It is a synthesis of an implicit thesis and antithesis that is expressed throughout the rune row. Naudhiz. is a two-pronged concept. It contains the idea of distress but also deliv­erance from that distress. This idea is well expressed in the pertinent stanza in the Old English Rune Poem:

(Need) constricts the heart,

tho to the bairns of men it often becomes

help and health nevertheless,

if they heed it in time.

The N-rune is the self-created fire, the need-fire, created by friction/resistance to serve the needs of man in the material as well as spiritual realms.