The Galdr Invocation of IAO

Postby Shinichi Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:57 am

I was on another forum recently where someone commented that the "Spell Sharing"
forum should be renamed "Spell Begging," since that is what tends to happen. No
ticing a similar pattern here on OF, I decided to share something that I have be
en working on for a while.
Now, most of the people on this forum will have seen IAO at some point in their
studies, and may be familiar with its roots as a Greek Formulae. The "Greek Tetr
agammaton," specifically, since the Greeks favored a Three-Fold World over a Fou
r-Fold World as in the Abrahamic Tradition. It is most famously described by Cro
wley as a transmutation formulae, via his Isis, Apophis, and Osiris description
of "Life," "Death," and "Rebirth." Well, with all of this knowledge in my back p
ocket, yet focusing mostly on Rune Magick for my "Formulae" practice, I decided
one day to translate IAO into a Runic Galdr so that it can be utilized as Isa, A
nsuz, and Othala.
Then I had to figure out what to do with it. So, I constructed a meditation and
a ritual from scratch and I started experimenting. Now I'm sharing what came out
of this little project so far, so that others may benefit from it and perhaps t
ake it further while I work more on other things for a while. Hopefully a few of
our more experienced members here will be able to use these practice effectivel
y, since it is a bit more advanced than my previous writing.
Prerequisites:
1) Meditation experience. In particular, the ability to relax the mind to a stat
e of Center or Mental Silence, where there is a state of inner peace and the "mo
nkey mind" is conquered. I describe how to do this effectively in Fundamental De
velopment, and there are tons of other methods too.
2) Attunement to The Futhark Runes, particularly Isa, Ansuz, and Othala for this
operation. It doesn't matter if you use Elder, Anglo-Saxon, Armanen, or whateve
r. All that's necessary is that you are attuned to the I, A, and O vibrations, a
nd if you do not know what "Attunement" or "Activation" is then you need to work
on your Runic Initiations a bit longer before you will enjoy the following exer
cises fully.
3) Ability to Vibrate a Formula mentally, energetically, and physically simultan
eously. In short, a basic and complete Vibration in conventional Western occult
style. If too few people understand how to perform a Complete Magical Vibration,
let me know and I'll see if I can make a post on that too. It's very simple, it
just takes a bit of skill to pull off. Like a roundhouse kick, practice makes p
erfect.
4) Basic understanding of the nature and effect of the IAO Formula. There are ma
ny symbolic explanations for IAO, but they all do the same essential thing. I'll
try to offer a Runic explanation at the end of this, but prior knowledge of wha
t IAO actually is and does will be useful, if only so that you will know if you
actually want to practice these exercises or not.
The Galdr Invocation of IAO

1) Clear the mind to Mental Silence.

2) Take up your favorite meditation posture and breathe in a comfortable, but de
ep pattern until you are relaxed physically and you have no distractions.
3) Turn your Awareness entirely upon the I Rune, so that little else has room to
exist in your mind. Inhale deeply, feeling the energy of the I Rune invoked int
o your entire being. Do not imagine anything. Once you have invoked the I Rune s
uccessfully, exhale slowly and vibrate the I sound for the entirety of your exha
le. Feel the vibration exert itself upon your mind, your soul, and your body.
4) With the I Rune vibrated completely, turn your Awareness entirely upon the A
Rune, so that little else has room to exist in your mind. Inhale deeply, feeling
the A Rune invoked into your entire being. Do not imagine anything. Once you ha
ve invoked the A Rune successfully, exhale slowly and vibrate the A sound for th
e entirety of your exhale. Feel the vibration exert itself upon your mind, your
soul, and your body.
5) With the A Rune vibrated completely, turn your Awareness entirely upon the O
Rune, so that little else has room to exist in your mind. Inhale deeply, feeling
the O Rune invoked into your entire being. Do not imagine anything. Once you ha
ve invoked the O Rune successfully, exhale slowly and vibrate the O sound for th
e entirety of your exhale. Feel the vibration exert itself upon your mind, your
soul, and your body.
6) Repeat steps 3-5 up to nine times. Excessive practice is not useful, so do no
t push for quantity. Rather, work on making the quality of each vibration better
in future sessions.
7) Once the nine repetitions are complete, sit and meditate on the feelings indu
ced by the invocation for a while. Meditate on your spiritual nature, or just ba
sk in the after-glow of this kind of spell work. How long is up to you. When you
're finished meditating, Center your mind and Ground any excess buzz via exhale
and return to other activities.
Benefits
I'm not yet sure what long term benefits are for this exercise, which is part of
why I have decided to share it: feedback. I can note that upon completion of th
is meditation, I am usually left with strong feelings of ecstasy and similar fee
ly-goods because it directly raises the vibrations of the users energy and consc
iousness - which is not as New Agey as it sounds, since vibration is a perfectly
natural principle with higher and lower frequencies. So it has a very strong ef
fect on consciousness and also tends to bring me back into a sense of equilibriu
m when I am "off" for some reason. I would like to hear what other effects pop u
p, should anyone decide to experiment with this meditation.
Notes
Do not visualize any specific tactile feelings or visual colors or movements, do
not imagine anything at all. This is not a visualization exercise, and you do n
ot need to imagine anything - imagination in fact hinders the work the spell is
trying to do. Simply focus on the Rune and Vibrate the Sound. The Vibration will
do all the work, so all you have to focus on is the Vibration. Not even what it
means, just the Sound and its Vibration. This is why Mental Discipline is extre
mely important to Galdr practice. Working with vibration is extremely simple, an
d if your mind is active it will find a million ways to over complicate things a
nd prevent the vibrations from doing their work. Do not imagine anything, do not
think anything. Focus entirely on the sound and vibrations.

The Stadhagaldr Invocation of IAO

1) Clear the mind to Mental Silence.

2) Stand in the Stadhagaldr of Isa. Turn the mind to the Rune of Isa, observing
Isa within and without. Microcosm and Macrocosm. Inhale slowly as Macrocosm ente
rs Microcosm. Exhale slowly while vibrating Isa through the whole Being. When th
e breath and the vibration end, return the mind to Silence.
3) Raise the arms to the Stadhagaldr of Ansuz. Turn the mind to the Rune of Ansu
z, observing Ansuz within and without. Microcosm and Macrocosm. Inhale slowly as
Macrocosm enters Microcosm. Exhale slowly while vibrating Ansuz through the who
le Being. When the breath and the vibration end, return the mind to Silence.
4) Raise the arms and place the palms together for the Stadhagaldr of Othala. Tu
rn the mind to the Rune of Othala, observing Othala within and without. Microcos
m and Macrocosm. Inhale slowly as Macrocosm enters Microcosm. Exhale slowly whil
e vibrating Othala through the whole Being. When the breath and the vibration en
d, return the mind to Silence.
5) Keeping the hands together, bring them down to the solar plexus in a prayer p
osition. Keep the mind in Silence. Inhale slowly, focusing only on the feelings
that the previous vibrations have left you with. Exhale slowly, vibrating slowly
the complete formula of IAO through the whole Being through one breath. As the
breath and the vibration end, return the mind to Silence.
6) Lower the hands, returning to the Stadhagaldr of Isa. Keep the mind in Silenc
e. Breathe casually and passively observe the effects of the complete operation.
From here the entire operation may be repeated, but no more than nine times.
7) When the repetitions are done, stand in the Stadhagaldr or Isa and maintain M
ental Silence. Meditate on your spiritual nature, or bask in the after-glow of t
he ritual, observing and taking note of how you feel or simply trance out and en
joying it. How long you meditate like this is up to you. Once you are finished,
Center the mind and Ground out any excess buzz via exhale and return to other ac
tivities.
Benefits
The core benefits of this ritual are identical to the previous meditative form,
though I have found that exercising the physical postures can make it easier to
invoke the Runes and Vibrate them through the whole body. For those still gettin
g the hang of this sort of work, then, this may be notable, and one may use the
Stadhagaldr ritual as a preparation for the Meditation. It is easy enough to sta
rt with the easier physical ritual and move into the more meditative form as you
r skills advance.
Notes
As with the Meditation exercise, take note that this is not a visualization prac
tice. The vibrations and energies involved in this are very objective, and you e
ither have command of them or you don't. If you in fact do not, then refer to th
e prerequisites list and work on your training a bit more before you work with G
aldr like this. Also, a notable alternative to this Stadhagaldr Ritual is to uti
lize the Hand Gestures, which come from the same Armanen source. Simply utilize
the hand positions for the I, A and O Runes in sequence, and it will play out si
milarly to the Stadhagaldr. I did not feel the need to write this up as a third

exercise partly because it is very close to the Stadhagaldr Ritual in structure,

and also because I simply have done more work on the Stadhagaldr Ritual than th
e Hand Gestures. As one final note, the "within and without" instruction means t
hat you should use the external expression of the posture to connect to the exte
rnal energy of the Rune in Nature, so that you can feel and activate it internal
ly. Your Mind, Soul, and Body should be all focused on the same thing: the Rune.
For when you stand in Stadhagaldr properly, you are the Rune, and thus it is in
voked.
Notes on The Runic IAO

Isa is often used as a freezing or binding energy, but the vibration of Isa is m
ore than that. It is the vibration of Niflheim, the Womb-World from which all li
fe spawned upon Muspelheim's giving warmth. Because of this, Isa's energy in thi
s formulae takes on a role of "potential unrealized." It is a frozen, mostly sta
tic energy, but there is something in the ice that can be thawed out.
Ansuz is often called "Odin's Rune," or "The Rune of The Aesir," because it carr
ies the vibration of higher spiritual authority and power. It is the vibration o
f Asgard, with all the gentle warmth and light and power that this entails. Beca
use of this, Ansuz in this formulae plays the role of breaking loose Isa's poten
tial, though not in a violent manner. Destruction, or "death" going by Crowley's
interpretation of A, need not be violent and chaotic. It is simply a transition
. The light and warmth of Ansuz can thus thaw out the "unrealized potential" fou
nd one's inner Isa, and not only free that energy up to flow, but also leave a d
istinct "spiritual" impression on that energy - to raise the potential found in
Isa not only from the ice, but further up unto the Aesir.
Othala is often called the "Inheritance Rune." Whereas Fehu is a sort of wealth
that is generated and created by one's own heart work, Othala is the wealth and
luck and fortune of the ancestors passed down to you. Because of this, Othala ca
rries the vibration of solidifying a work, but not in the sense of freezing and
binding like Isa. Rather, it is a grounding force, a sealing force, an energy th
at says "although I have what I have from this source or that, I am in the here
and now." This allows Othala to play the most important role in the Runic IAO. A
s Crowley considered the O to carry the vibration of "rebirth," so does it here,
but not quite in a literal sense. Whereas Isa is the "unrealized potential," an
d Ansuz frees up the "unrealized potential" and raises its vibration towards The
Aesir, Othala has the most important role of locking in that freed up "potentia
l" so that "unrealized" becomes "realized," so that the potential that was freed
up and raised up via Ansuz does not sink back down into the arms of Isa again.
When these are combined into the IAO formula, you thus have this effect: Isa inv
okes your unrealized potential and true spiritual nature, Ansuz thaws out Isa an
d raises up your unrealized potential closer to the surface, and Othala locks in
the work done by Isa and Ansuz so that you will be closer to realizing your tru
e potential.
Or in other words: Isa contains the inheritance, Ansuz unlocks the inheritance,
and Othala receives the inheritance and makes it a permanent part of you.
Of all the Magick Formulae floating around out there, this is one of the most po
werful, done via European Runes or not. There is a reason it has been around for
thousands of years. There are of course many other formulae and many other expe
riments to be done, but this is an important part of my recent work. It is my ho
pe that experienced readers of this take away not only a couple of practical exe
rcises, but also an understanding of what it takes to construct a Galdr Spell ei

ther using personal formulae or other ancient spells like ALU. Dissect, study, l
earn, and experiment. Nothing is infallible, least of all me and my experiments,
so I encourage further experimentation on the subject so that more learning can
be gained and spread.
I would ask, however, that if any of you do give the exercises a go as they are,
feedback would be much appreciated. They may not be infallible, but a great dea
l of work did go into their construction, and I am sharing this freely as a bles
sing to be received where it may.

~:Shin:~
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