Image by Thunderchild

A Note on Using the ‘Blank Rune’

The rune meaning of Perthro includes Wyrd, Fate, the mysteries of the unknown and unknowable. Most agree that it represents a ‘lot-cup’. It is the rune of the runes. Because this is so, we can immediately see why a ‘blank rune’ is an unnecessary addition to the 24 elder futhark runes. Typically, the ‘blank rune’ represents exactly those things that can be discovered and explored through Perthro — adding a blank rune into the strictly ordered futhark is at best redundant, and at worst a confusing impediment to genuine understanding (at least in the context of the system described by Rune Secrets.)

The Power of Guessing

Though on the scale of everyday life we tend not to think about it, we live in a multiverse of unknowns and unknowables. We live by certain axioms — we can depend on gravity, on sunlight, that we are in a primarily physical world. Often, we possess unexamined, if pragmatic assumptions. In the end, these are simply our best guesses. Perthro is the ‘guessing’ rune, something we constantly do, but that is a remarkable ability, in both psychological and magical contexts.

Guessing is an unbelievably extensive component of our interactions with the universe. The cosmos forces us to make such guesses constantly: we cannot ever stop guessing, barring a perfectly silent mind or perfect enlightenment. The mystery perpetuates itself! Science has never come close to running out of questions — there will always be more questions than answers, in any form of knowledge.

A guess, especially an unexamined one, is really a bid for certainty in a chaotic world. Perthro is the rune of questions, doubt and guessing, so it makes sense that it was inscribed on ‘lot-cups’ and used for luck in gambling and other games of chance and/or strategy.

The Game of Life

The ‘guessing game’ that this playful universe invites us to celebrate is infinitely complex, spontaneous and beautiful — the stakes can sometimes be high, but for better or for worse, Perthro frames the makeup of the universe as uncompromisingly playful. Remember that the second Aett is composed of Orlog: the elements of reality that are inimical to human life, that continue on despite our wishes and designs. The universe is unapologetically playful even when we do not feel like playing.

The biggest game, with the highest stakes, is our life and death. This is where the idea of Fate comes into play. Fate is a tricky subject — it is a word often used but perhaps mostly misunderstood. It represents the things and events chosen for us, instead of by us. Examples include parents, date of birth, birthplace and all the initial conditions of our lives. Fate represents the patterns of your thought and behavior which attract people, events and environments into your life. It is the unchangeable, or unchallenged factors that someday will lead to your death. The idea of ‘doom’ is when fate has become like a curse.

Fate and Wyrd

Fate is governed by the Norns, who must be negotiated with if things are to change. Wyrd, or the ‘Wyrding Way’, is the magic we all possess (and often unknowingly use) that we can learn to use in order to change or guide our fate, where necessary, or alternatively discover it and work with our Fates instead of against them. One such application is discovering certainty over your purpose in life, and how you can transform your patterns to align yourself to that purpose. This is perhaps the highest function of Wyrd: the removal of fetters which hold us to our negative patterns and the perfection of our positive patterns so that we can accomplish, in this lifetime, what we are meant to do, what we chose to come to this world for. Part of the game is that we have to guess and gamble, taking risks even with these highest of stakes.

Fate is the study and manipulation of consequences. There are innumerable factors within our lives, both conscious and unconscious, within ourselves or our environment, which we may or may not have any awareness of. These causes (and effects, which then in turn became causes) form our patterns, our ‘primal cause’. The laws of cause and effect play themselves out and lead us into our future selves. Whatever control and awareness we can gain over these consequences, that that extend we can guide our fates, use Wyrd, or work with the unchangeable rather than toiling in futility against it. This magical working is at the core of Wyrd, and it allows us to shape our destinies and often the destinies of those who depend on us in some way.

Perthro in Divination

Much is hidden and unkowable. Perthro can represent the void from which all things manifest, itself being the unmanifest, the unknowable in the sense that it is yet to exist. If it once existed, it may be accessed through our collective unconscious with LAGUZ, or our memories via MANNAZ.) In a rune lay, Perthro will often mean just that. The runes sometimes say: “Your guess is as good as mine.”

For a more basic metaphysical interpretation, see the entry on Perthro – Rune Meaning.

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The Laguz rune meaning is “Water”.

Image by Cristian Bortes

Water is the ancient mirror — the first surface that the evolving ego had to identify itself was the calm surface of a body of water.

We all have this surface identity of conceptual associations, this “I” or “Me” experience. While ISA is concerned with the totality of that ego experience, Laguz is concerned with transcending the ego in order to experience the unity of all Life and the collective unconscious.

In exploring LAGUZ, the intellectual, mind level of MANNAZ is but the very surface of things. In order to pierce the veil and see past our thoughts of ourselves, we must delve deeper.

Ego is an academic term that obfuscates what Freud was getting at. He himself never used the abstract term “ego”, it was added in translations. Freud said ‘the I’ and ‘the it’ (id), a duality which the principles of Laguz suggest we can transcend.

Laguz teaches us to look into the darkness of our unconscious, at what the reflection — our constructed identity — is leaving out. Jung calls this evasive body of self-ignorance the “Shadow”: what we fail to see about ourselves, baggage we often refuse to claim as ours and often project onto the world and those around us. The occult process of embracing our dark side as well as our light and thereby growing in wholeness and power, is very natural part of Laguz.

The reflection is also an apt metaphor, because “reflection” can be interpreted as thinking or analysing, the domain of Mannaz. As the next rune in the Ordering, Laguz suggests that the unconscious is much vaster, that beyond thought is depth, and that our ideas and thoughts of reality are mirror images. The reflection is not so much a property of the water as the observer — it does not actually exist on the surface of the water at all. In this way it is ultimately an illusion.

The true nature of water is that it is the great unifier of all Life. Laguz represents life “as it is” and the challenges of transcending our ideas about living so that we may truly live. I would argue that this rune is less about survival and all about life’s overwhelming cry to be lived. Laguz magic is not merely a ward against physical poison, but can free us from our toxic psychic fetters that hold us back from fully living. One of these fetters is our fear of Death.

In Norse mythology, those who fail to fully live, consistently over many lives, become sleepy and remove their weary spirits from the cycles of rebirth. They are ferried across the river to the shores of Hel, (which is largely agreed to be associated most strongly with the HAGALAZ rune meaning,) there to wait until Ragnorak, when the unconscious forces (Loki, Fenris and the “giants”) bring a final battle upon the gods (ie. the evolution of consciousness). Hel is not the burning torturous place that the Catholics threaten us with. Laguz’ place in the Ordering suggests that it represents Hel, as it is beneath IHWAZ (the cosmic axis of Yggdrassil, the world tree). Therefor by association, Laguz could refer to the unconscious, the collective unconscious, sleep, dreams and certain aspects of the Death experience.

However, because water is the essential unifier of all Life, Laguz teaches us that Death is an illusion created by our fearful ego, that our fear of death is ultimately just a pathological fear of losing our ego identity. This begs elaboration.

Most of our bodies are composed of water, which upon physical death will return to the great cycle of the world’s waters once again. It has passed through and been recycled by our atmosphere and all other life, since the very beginning, and will continue to do this until the very end. Even as we live, our fluids are only with us a short time before being traded anew, and rejuvenated.

Our mineral composition, too, follows the same principles, as does our energy (as energy cannot be created from nothing nor ever cease to exist). It follows that aspects of our consciousness too are borrowed from the universe for the sake of this temporary ego, and are permanent, eternal components of the cosmos.

So what is there to lose upon death save that very self-reflection that prevents us from seeing into the depth and unity of all things? Laguz holds the key to unlocking such secrets, if we dare to reach into its well to seek our true selves. We have tale that Odin magically did just this when he removed one of his eyes to plunge it into Mimir’s Well, thus revealing all things past and present to him. The psychic powers of clairvoyance and clairaudience are thus clearly governed by Laguz.

The 5th axis of the Ordering tells us of Life’s Journey (RAIDHO), the initiation into the runic mysteries and knowledge of the mysteries of Life and Death (IHWAZ) and finally of the ultimate illusion of death as the ego is surrendered (to begin a new journey). The three runes represent a closed cycle of life, death and reincarnation, particularly the experiences of such as a journey into our eternal selves.

Related Material:

Basic rune meaning of Laguz

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