Rune Secrets

“For every gift a curse, for every curse a bind, for every bind an opportunity for freedom from our fetters.”

Gebo - “Gay-boo” - Literally: “Gift” - Esoteric: Fair Exchange, Sacrifice, Sacred Marriage

Rune of the gift – of exchange between two poles. The rune of self to self and self to one’s fellows. Bringing honor to the self. Rune of hospitality and generosity. Rune of the Cosmic Law of Compensation.

Psi: gratitude, forgiveness, appreciation

Energy: Exchanged powers, sacrifice, dissolution of barriers through gifting

Divinations: Generosity, gift, magical exchange, honor, sacrifice, divine vision; or influence buying, greed, loneliness, dependence, over-sacrifice, unbalanced behavior, dishonesty

Mundane: material gifts, thankfulness, trade

Governs:
Sex magic
Mystical union and ‘Sacred Marriage’ between partners
Understanding of the true meaning of gifting and binding
Surrender of the ego to the Higher Self
Harmony between brothers and sisters and lovers
Favours, contracts, obligations, debt and oath-taking

My Notes:

Gebo is perhaps one of the runes which has the most lore. When we say X-mas, the X is representative of this rune. In the Havamal, the Cosmic Law of Compensation is written as ‘Better not to overpledge as a gift demands a gift’, and ‘No man is so generous he will jib at acceptive a gift in return for a gift’.

The exchange of gifts, whether physical or otherwise, is a highly meaningful act, as is the idea of trade. It is associated with magical rings, which give kings the ability to share Megin with their followers, as is expected of leaders. The need for exchanged energies and powers to remain equal in amounts is at the heart of the rune Gebo. In the Havamal it also says ‘A man should be loyal through life to friends, and return gift for gift; Laugh when they laugh, but with lies repay a flase foe who lies.’ Though this might conflict with the New Age morality, it was the ancient way of expressing ‘what goes around, comes around’. Its ideas of wyrd and orlog roughly correspond to eastern karma.

Elswhere in Northern lore we find, ‘Nothing is given for nothing and there is always a price to pay;. Every decision you make requires the acceptance of one thing and simultaneous sacrifice or release of another. For more on that sacrifice, see Inguz. Sacrifice, self-sacrifice (for honor in battle) has most to do with the death of warriors. Odin on the tree sacrifices ‘himself to himself’ in his shamanic initiation to discover the knowledge and wisdom of the runes.

Gebo is also tied deeply to the exchange of sexual energies between male and female, and so it deeply governs mystical union, sacred oaths of marriage and sex magic. For more on sacred marriage, one must uncover the mysteries of Ehwaz.

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