Struggle for Existence
Tyr — a star,
it strengthens the faith of the Atlings,
it will not stray from the path,
the mists of night
are no hindrance to it.
As mentioned, the First aett of the Elder Futhark describes the cycle of the birth of Being, the Second the affirmation of its Laws, and the Third the outward forms of its existence.
Therefore it is not surprising that the most active Rune of the Third Futhark, which determines all its movement, is the Rune that asserts “every victory is bought at the cost of sacrifice“.
The rune Teiwaz (Tyr, Tiwaz) describes the primary mode of life — life in a world of predators.
It is no accident that the mythological correlate of this Rune is the just Aesir Tyr, who lost his hand as a result of the Aesir breaking an oath. Tyr, as the guardian of martial law and warrior honor, had to make a sacrifice to restore balance and justice after Fenrir was tricked. Accordingly, a central category of Teiwaz is responsibility in the sense of recognizing one’s actions as one’s own, of standing face to face with one’s enemies (including inner ones) and with impasses.
Thus Teiwaz is the rune of moral justice founded on maintaining balance, on fair contest, and on a pure striving toward a goal. The spirit of competition, of honest rivalry in general, is characteristic of Teiwaz’s power; yet victory achieved within Teiwaz is the result of total self-sacrifice, of pushing beyond 100% of one’s limits. The Teiwaz Warrior moves toward his goal, sweeping aside all obstacles in his path; his vision of the goal is clear and the path pure, and that gives him the strength to prevail.
Once more note that the victory of Teiwaz does not “fall from the sky” as it did, for example, as with Sowilo, but is won by hard labour, sweat, severe discipline, and self-sacrifice.
It is precisely the stern self-discipline of Teiwaz that gives the Warrior honour and dignity, and also renders him detached from the outcome of his actions.
Moreover, active Teiwaz is the Rune of Man, as the embodied principle of Expansiveness, the Power of Penetration. However, the principle of masculinity in Teiwaz appears not only as intelligence (in its pure form), but also as the principle of will (in a partially neutralized form), since this Rune deals with the power of effective action in a world of material objects, where the pure principles no longer appear separately.
It is clear that the magical applications of such an active Rune were very broad: Teiwaz was used not only for protection, to impart firmness and strengthen the will, but also as a healing Rune. Sigrdrifa, apparently, assigned Tyr to the “Runes of victory”, and Mimir’s Head testified that this Rune adorned the “Iron of Gungnir” (Odin’s spear, on the one hand a weapon that knows no defeat, and on the other the instrument of the Allfather’s Sacrifice).
Visually, Teiwaz is linked to Ansuz (in the aspect of the mind that illuminates the warrior’s way) and Laguz (Tyr, having lost his hand — i.e., in the aspect of sacrifice).
At the same time, clumsy use of Teiwaz turns the Warrior into a soldier who marches unable to see or understand the goal, and is therefore doomed to failure.
In this aspect the Rune corresponds to the blind Hodr, who, though unintentionally, caused the death of Baldr. Thus, a lack of clear understanding of one’s actions (“the sight” of the soul) can have dangerous, even fatal, consequences.
Dear Enmerkar, I would like to ask what is understood as clumsy/careless use of the rune? And in general, what options for using the rune can be implied at the initial stages of the path? I would at least like to get some minimal understanding of practical work with the runes, say, a brief guide for a beginner, precisely practical, with safety techniques and specific instructions on which runes, how, and for what to apply. In every article you write about a particular rune, there is information on the purposes of its application, but there are no explanations about the methods of applying that rune. Moreover, there is a clear need to “get closer” to the runes, to learn about them better, to get acquainted with them, so to speak. So much enthusiasm within me, and so many questions. Who can I ask to get at least some information about working with the runes?
Using the Vector of Force, which is what the Rune is, requires a clear understanding of the characteristics of this vector – its direction and length. In other words, applying the Rune requires a maximally clear awareness of the field of action of this Rune. Moreover, this awareness can be both logical and intuitive. In any case, even Odin had to sacrifice himself to gain the wisdom of the Runes, so it is at least naive to think that one can open them for oneself by reading some book or article. Magic requires inspiration, determination, and selflessness. And regarding the use of Runes – there is quite enough literature. I like the understanding of Runes by O.A. Synko. But one can find many other sources. It’s just important that working with literature is not about copying someone else’s approaches, but about building one’s own on their basis.
I briefly familiarized myself with your interpretation and only a few runes. The overall impression is that you reduce runes to some moral principles. But Runes are just flows of energy of a certain quality. So the Teyvaz Rune consists of the Isa rune – structure – Yin and the Kano rune – cosmic fire – Yang, and here we are talking about the effect of Yang energy on the Yin structure. I understand people’s general strive for moralizing when interpreting Runes, but cosmic energies are utterly indifferent to these sentiments and if we do talk about sacrifice, then only from the perspective of transforming outdated Yin structures for the better and there is no morality involved!
Hello Master! What are the original colors of the power streams described by the runes? When meditating on the reflected Teiwaz, I saw blue. In the upright position, I encountered descriptions of it as fiery-red. Is it not one and the same stream?
Hello. First of all, the perception of the ‘colors’ of vector flows is quite individual, as it is an interpretation of the nature of the flow and not the nature itself. Secondly, blue and red are always manifestations of the same nature – on one side, like the boundaries of the spectrum (and, as we know, Ouroboros bites its tail), and, on the other, as two forms of the manifestation of the power of the Sky: the fire of the Sun and the blue of Space.