In these nine remarkable essays, Collin
Cleary expands upon the ideas of his path-breaking book
Summoning the Gods and ventures into entirely new
territory:
“What is a Rune?” explores the nature of
mytho-poetic thought and the problem of recovering the
mysteries of runa.
“The Fourfold” uses Martin Heidegger’s
phenomenology of “dwelling” as a means of approaching our
ancestors’ way of being in the world.
“The Ninefold” offers a philosophical
interpretation of the nine worlds of Germanic myth.
“The Gifts of Odin and his Brothers”
unveils the inner meaning of the account of human origins
found in the Eddas.
“The Stones Cry Out” advances the
revolutionary thesis that “openness to Being” explains the
sudden appearance of art in Europe 40,000 years ago.
Cleary’s controversial essay “Ásatrú and
the Political” argues that Ásatrú is inseparable from White
Nationalism.
“Are We Free?” skewers the false
conception of freedom to which Westerners are in
thrall.
“Heidegger: An Introduction for
Anti-Modernists” offers readers the best English-language
introduction to the most important philosopher of the last
century.
“The Prisoner and Ibsen’s Brand” is a
sequel to Cleary’s popular essay on The Prisoner from
Summoning the Gods, exploring this enigmatic television
series in the light of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play about
implacable moralism.
Contents
Introduction by Greg Johnson: The
Philosophy of Collin Cleary
Author’s Preface
1. What is a Rune?
2. The Fourfold
3. The Ninefold
4. The Gifts of Odin & His
Brothers
5. The Stones Cry Out: Cave Art & the
Origin
of the Human Spirit
6. Ásatrú & the Political
7. Are We Free?
8. Heidegger: An Introduction for
Anti-Modernists
9. “All or Nothing”: The Prisoner &
Ibsen’s Brand
Praise for Collin Cleary
“The writings of Collin Cleary are an
excellent example of the way in which old European paganism
continues to question our contemporaries in a
thought-provoking way. Written with elegance, his work
abounds in original points of view.”
—Alain de Benoist, author of On Being a
Pagan
“In What is a Rune? and Other Essays,
Collin Cleary delves headlong into the world of Mystery in
a way that brings clarity and light. An inspired mind
linked to the vehicle of rational thought and profound
memory for the mythic past leads the reader to deep
insight. Cleary has done his homework on all levels, and
with this book gives us a port of entry into a fascinating
world of ideas.”
—Edred Thorsson, author of
Runelore
“With his second book, What is a Rune?,
Collin Cleary makes another powerful contribution to the
intellectual foundations of modern Heathenry. Cleary
approaches a wide range of topics, from the theological to
the political, through his well-developed and cogently
argued Heideggerian brand of Radical Traditionalism. Given
the depth of Cleary’s penetrating analysis of so many
topics relevant to modern Heathenry, What is a Rune?
belongs in the library of every thinking Heathen.”
—Christopher Plaisance, editor of The
Journal of Contemporary Heathen Thought
Collin Cleary, Ph.D. is an independent
scholar living in Sandpoint, Idaho. He is the author of
Summoning the Gods: Essays on Paganism in a God-Forsaken
World (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2011). Cleary is
one of the founders of TYR: Myth-Culture-Tradition, the
first volume of which he co-edited. His essays have
appeared in TYR, Rûna, and at Counter-Currents/North
American New Right. A Master in the Rune-Gild, his work has
been translated into Czech, Danish, French, Portuguese,
Russian, and Swedish.