The Armanen runes (or Armanen Futharkh) are 18 pseudo-runes, invented by Austrian mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List in 1902. Inspired by the historic Younger Futhark runes, they were described in his Das Geheimnis der Runen ('The Secret of the Runes'); this was published as a periodical article in 1906, and as a standalone publication in 1908. The name seeks to associate the runes with the postulated Armanen, whom von List saw as ancient Aryan priest-kings. The runes continue in use today in esotericism and in Germanic neopaganism.
>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
In this Dossier
Armanen runes in the context of Germanic mysticism
Ariosophy and Armanism are esoteric ideological systems that were largely developed by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and Guido von List, respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term 'Ariosophy', which translates to wisdom of the Aryans, was invented by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915, and during the 1920s, it became the name of his doctrine. For research on the topic, such as Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's book The Occult Roots of Nazism, the term 'Ariosophy' is generically used to describe the Aryan/esoteric theories which constituted a subset of the 'Völkische Bewegung'. This broader use of the word is retrospective and it was not generally current among the esotericists themselves. List actually called his doctrine 'Armanism', while Lanz used the terms 'Theozoology' and 'Ario-Christianity' before the First World War.
The ideas of Von List and Lanz von Liebenfels were part of a general occult revival that occurred in Austria and Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; a revival that was loosely inspired by historical Germanic paganism, holistic philosophy, and Christianity, as well as by esoteric concepts that were influenced by German romanticism and Theosophy. The connection between this form of Germanic mysticism and historical Germanic culture is evident in the mystics' fascination with runes, in the form of Guido von List's Armanen runes.
Armanen runes in the context of SS runes
SS runes (German: SS-Runen) is a generic name given to a collection of pseudo-runes used by the Schutzstaffel (SS), from the 1920s to 1945, for Nazi-occultism purposes. SS runes were featured on flags, uniforms and other items as symbols of various aspects of Nazi ideology and Germanic mysticism. They also represented virtues seen as desirable in SS members and were based on völkisch mystic Guido von List's pseudo-runic Armanen runes, which he loosely based on the historical runic alphabets; however, the SS runes also included other esoteric symbols not borrowed from Armanen runes. Post–World War II, these insignia continue to be used by neo-Nazi individuals and groups.