Johannes Bureus (1568-1652)
Not a Freemason nor really a heathen, but I think Johannes Thomae Agrivillensis Bureus (latinisation of Johan Bure, 1568-1652) has some interest for readers of this website.
Bureus was the first to study rune-stones in his native land Sweden. He visited, catalogued, drew and transcribed rune-stones and eventually started to translate them. He wrote a few books about runes.
Bureus was ‘esoterically inclined’. Also his interpretation of the runes is very esoteric and a bit ‘wild’. He was interested in the mythology of his ancestors in the time (the Renaissance) in which antiquity most leaned towards ancient Greece. He had almost none of the sources that we have today and this is obvious in his information.
He build an elaborate esoteric system around his “noble runes” (“Adulrunar”), which includes a cubic stone that fell from the sky on which the 15 runes were carved.
Also Bureus had an interest in Rosicrucianism and it is highly likely that this is one of the sources for the esoteric side of Freemasonry. Would Bureus have had enough influence to inspire early Freemasonry in the direction of ‘heathenry’ and Rosicrucianism? Probably not, but he remains an enigmatic person with a system that may interest (heathen) Freemasons.
I wrote about Bureus before: