Perthro

“The beginning and end are set. What’s in between is yours. Nothing is in vain, all is remembered.”

Perthro – “Per-throw” – Literally: unknown – Esoteric: The Norns, Fate, Lot-Cup

Rune of fate and the unmanifest. Rune of probability and the role of luck in the evolutionary process of the all things. Universe at play.

ᛈ is the rune denoting the sound p (voiceless bilabial stop) in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem named peorð. It does not appear in the Younger Futhark. In the poem, it is glossed with the enigmatic:

ᛈ peorð byþ symble plega and hlehter / wlancum [on middum], ðar wigan sittaþ / on beorsele bliþe ætsomne

"Peorð is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the beerhall."

The name is not comprehensible from Old English, i.e. no word similar to peorð is known in this language. According to a 9th-century manuscript of Alcuin (Codex Vindobonensis 795), written in Britain, in the Gothic alphabet, the letters 𐍀 p (based on a Greek Π) and 𐌵 q (an inverted Π) are called "pairþra" and "qairþra", respectively. One of these names clearly is derived from the other. However, the names are not comprehensible in Gothic either, and it is not clear which is derived from which, although it is known that the Elder Futhark had a p, but no q rune. In any case, it seems evident that peorð is related to pairþra. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc adopted exactly the same approach for the addition of a labiovelar rune, ᛢ cweorð, in both shape and name based on peorð, but it is not known if the Gothic runes already had a similar variant rune of p, or if the labiovelar letter was a 4th-century creation of Ulfilas.

The Common Germanic name could be referring to a pear-tree (or perhaps generally a fruit-tree). Based on the context of "recreation and amusement" given in the rune poem, a common speculative interpretation[by whom?] is that the intended meaning is "pear-wood" as the material of either a woodwind instrument, or a "game box" or game pieces made from wood.

From peorð, Proto-Germanic form *perðu, *perþō or *perþaz may be reconstructed on purely phonological grounds. The expected Proto-Germanic term for "pear tree" would be *pera-trewô (*pera being, however, a post-Proto-Germanic loan, either West Germanic, or Common Germanic, if Gothic pairþra meant "pear tree", from Vulgar Latin pirum (plural pira), itself of unknown origin). The Ogham letter name Ceirt, glossed as "apple tree", may in turn be a loan from Germanic into Primitive Irish.

The earliest attestation of the rune is in the Kylver Stone futhark row (ca. AD 400). The earliest example in a linguistic context (as opposed to an abecedarium) is already in futhorc, in the Kent II, III and IV coin inscriptions (the personal names pada and æpa/epa), dated to ca. AD 700. On St. Cuthbert's coffin (AD 698), a p rune takes the place of Greek Ρ. The Westeremden yew-stick (ca. AD 750) has op hæmu "at home" and up duna "on the hill".

Looijenga (1997) speculates that the p rune arose as a variant of the b rune, parallel to the secondary nature of Ogham peith. The uncertainty surrounding the rune is a consequence of the rarity of the *p phoneme in Proto-Germanic, itself due to the rarity of its parent-phoneme *b in Proto-Indo-European.

The rune is discontinued in Younger Futhark, which expresses /p/ with the b rune, for example on the Viking Age Skarpåker Stone,

iarþ sal rifna uk ubhimin

Jörð skal rifna ok upphiminn.

"Earth shall be rent, and the heavens above."

Runic Number: 14

Meaning: Mystery. Gamble. Chance. Pot luck. In modern interpretation: Science and Technology.

Translation: There is not certain literal translation. It is usually a name of a dice cup, i.e. a gambling game that includes such a cup.

Gemstone: Aquamarine

Color: Black

Polarity: Female

Element: Water

Gods: Frigg

Astrology correspondence: Saturn

Tree: Aspen

Plant: Aconite

Psi: co-incidence, living with the unknown, the art and magic of guessing, pattern recognition, prophecy

Energy: evolutionary force, luck, nothingness, the unborn, the unmanifest

Mundane: gambling, random occurrences, guessing

Divinations: Good omen, knowledge of örlög, fellowship and joy, evolutionary change; or doom*, psychological or emotional addictions, stagnation, loneliness, delusion, fantasy, unknowability.

*Doom is the way in which the uncontrolled aspects of our self conspire in our destiny. It does not necessarily mean death.

Governs:
Perception of the layers of örlög and wyrd
Manipulation of cause and effect
Placing runic forces in the stream of Nornic law
Alteration of probability and dependence on luck
The creation of favorable circumstances
Chance, gambling, divination and the art of guessing

It is important to remember that the true meaning of Perthro is unknown to scholars, as it is not a recognized word, and though many have agreed that the idea of a ‘lot cup’ seems fitting, I think that this ‘unknown’ or ‘nameless’ quality is extremely significant.

A ‘lot cup’ is an ancient dice box from which ‘lots’ were cast by warriors seeking knowledge of their fate before a battle. Perthro represents orlog, a concept of the larger matrix of the universal law of cause and effect. It encompasses the fixed and unalterable law of action and reaction. Wyrd is the working out of the law of cause and effect on a personal level. It is not unalterably fixed, like orglog is. A person can move about within the web of their wyrd in accordance with their degree of conscious development (and using the rune Nauthiz).

There is a large portion of our unmanifest future that rests on an element of chance. This awareness must be incorporated into the lore of Perthro and divination is a way to discern the parameters of that element of chance. Divination through casting of lots using dice or runes provides conscious indicators of unconscious ‘lay’ or pattern of cause and effect as it pertains to any specific future happening.

Of all the runes, this one is the most mysterious, perhaps next to Eihwaz before it, because Perthro deals with the mysteries within the runes themselves and the birth of the universe. On one hand this allows you to intuit original knowledge about the runes that may have been suppressed, destroyed or incompletely passed on over the centuries. On the other hand, the ‘how to’ techniques are less defined than with other runes, for we are dealing with fundamental mysteries of the universe. Orlog plays out as the consequences of the cosmic and primal laws themselves unfold from beginning of the universe until the end. All patterns are interdependent and interwoven, throughout all existence.

The proper relationship between Perthro and Nauthiz is that Perthro allows you to become aware of the hidden and relatively fixed workings of the deep law of cause and effect, which in turn give us the ability to see into the unmanifest and peer into the unknown. This is wyrd, and lay within our influence if we have knowledge of how our personal fate can be manipulated. Nauthiz helps you get around the workings of orlog, using the forces of resistance to change direction of the flow of wyrd. Together, these two runes govern the magic of ‘the Wyrding Way’.

All the records of all events are stored here, so Perthro’s power helps the recollection of knowledge that is hidden within the collective unconscious of humankind, especially human lore lost over the course of the centuries. The same process is responsible for prophecy. Perthro will assist the birthing of a great idea into your environment by raising awareness of the forces arrayed against its manifestation. Co-incidence and deja vu play an enormous role in the recognition of the fundamentals of this rune.