I am not a person who is unfamiliar with runes, to say the least. I am a Runemaster in the Rune-Gild, recognised and named as such by my peers, and I have been a member of that initiatory school for eighteen years now.
In 2010 I wrote the book Ægishjálmur: The Book of Dragon Runes. This book not only added flesh to the Apophis initiatory system in terms of specific mythic symbolism and praxis, it also proved a huge step forward in the development of the philosophy underlying the curriculum, to the extent that I consider Ægishjálmur one of the essential core Apophis Club titles, valuable even to those who do not work directly with runes purely for the ideas and powerful revelations it contains.
So the writing of Ægishjálmur added so much depth and nuance and flesh to the bones of the Apophis curriculum. It was an extraordinarily powerful process to undergo, and a very exciting book to write, and marked my transformation into a Runemaster.
On 1st January 2022 I commenced the Year in Runes programme of work. I would work solidly with two runes each month, covering all twenty-four over the course of the year.
The work would follow a set pattern. Each day would have its focus, and this pattern would repeat for every rune in sequence. This new book, A Year in Runes, is my record of that year's work, a profound revisitation of the runes, digging more deeply into their meanings, with a powerful and transformative new rune poem, divinations, deep dives and autobiographical notes. This is my unexpurgated record of a year's rune work which cut much deeper than I have anticipated.
This book isn't presented as a way of saying, "Hey, here's all you need to know about the runes!" Quite the contrary; although it is indeed almost embarrassingly rich in content, if I repeat this work in another ten years' time, I will have experienced and learned so much more again that this will be outdated ... at least for me.
Instead, it is intended to encourage YOU to take up YOUR staves and follow through on your own adventure, beginning your year in runes. I can guarantee you, knowledge will come to the surface from deep down, seeking expression, things you didn't know you knew, now taking shape and form and transforming you in an accelerated manner.
But don't take my word for it ... do it!
- Michael Kelly, Runemaster, January 2023
