The Twenty-Seventh

Going towards the Sun

Chapter 43 · Rune Laf · the practice

Of everything he ever dated, this is the only practice that comes round every month. Not a feast, not an anniversary — an appointment, twelve times a year, kept at the one hour that cannot be moved to suit you.

The practice which corresponds to this Rune consists of going towards the Sun in the morning. In the moments of sunrise, adopt a mystical attitude, that is, lift the hands as shown by the Rune. In this way one implores unto HE (the Sun, Christ) for esoteric help. This practice must be performed on the 27th of each month.

Magic Runes, chapter 43

Three things are fixed in those four sentences: the hour, the direction and the day. The hour is sunrise, and sunrise is not a clock time — it moves through the year, which is why the twelve are set out at the end of this card. The direction is towards the Sun. The day is the twenty-seventh, no matter what else the twenty-seventh happens to be.

Whose meaning is Saviour

Chapter 43 · what the rune is

It becomes tremendously significant that as much in the north of America as well as in the same whole continent, we can find engraved on the stones the LAFTAR, or RUNE LAF, whose meaning is SAVIOUR.

Magic Runes, chapter 43

And a line further on, which is the whole reason the rune sits where it does in the book:

If we join two LAFs by its arms, then we have the letter M of Matrimony.

Magic Runes, chapter 43

☞ Two Lafs joined at the arms make an M. That is his own geometry, and it is the answer to how the rune is held: the arm is a diagonal, lifted, not a bar. Everything else about the posture he leaves alone.

Five words, and no more

What he does not say

He tells you to lift the hands as shown by the Rune, and stops. It is tempting to fill that in. It is worth knowing first that when he wants to be exact about a posture, he is — eighteen chapters earlier, for the runes Dorn and Torn:

In the military position, on our feet, firm, and facing towards the east, place your right arm in such a way that your hand will remain resting upon your waist or hips, thus, performing the form of this Rune.

Magic Runes, chapter 25

Military position, feet, east, right arm, hand at the waist. He could do that, and for Laf he did not. He gives no mantram for it either, where most of the runes have one. So the card gives you the rune drawn, and his five words, and leaves the rest where he left it.

The order of the sixteen

Final Salutations

Practice these Runes in order, you should start your Runic exercises the 21st of March [read Chapter 3]. Dedicate the time that you wish to each Rune.

Magic Runes, Final Salutations

Fifteen chapters carry the sixteen runes — Dorn and Torn share one. Laf is the fourteenth of those chapters, next to last, arriving after the whole ladder has been climbed.

Fah · Is · Ara · Sig · Tyr · Bar · Ur · Dorn and Torn · Os · Rita · Kaum · Hagal · Not · Laf · Gibur

He also calls the exercises as a whole by a name worth keeping:

A Judo of the Spirit exists; we are referring to the Runic exercises. These are formidable in order to attain the awakening of the consciousness.

Magic Runes, chapter 2

The sequence begins on the 21st of March and each rune takes as long as you give it. The twenty-seventh is the exception to that: it does not wait its turn.

Two other twenty-sevenths

Days the path keeps

Twice a year the twenty-seventh already carries something. Neither of these is in his books — he could hardly have written the second — so they are printed apart, and sourced.

The rune is unaffected by either. On those two mornings there is simply more in the room.