The Wolf’s Hook. Union in the Third
Among the non-alphabetic runes that have special cultural and magical significance, alongside the Swastikas and the Valknut, the Wolfsangel occupies a particular place — the “Wolf’s Hook”, which for centuries served as a symbol of local self-government in the Germanic lands, expressing a spirit of defiance and Robin Hood–style rebellion, and was also widely used as a protective emblem.
The history of the Wolfsangel’s use is varied, yet the very fact that this symbol returned to the political and mythic-social sphere speaks to a significant practical power felt and drawn to various areas of collective consciousness.
Indeed, the Wolf’s Hook, in its abstract form, expresses the principle of uniting binary opposites into an androgyne — that is, the holding of the poles of duality by their joining with a neutral third element. The symbol itself and its “concrete prototype” vividly represent this idea: predator (wolf) and its prey (meat) are artificially or forcibly joined by a third component — the actual “trap” — by which what is naturally drawn together is coupled.
Accordingly, the direct practical application of the Wolfsangel is protection, attracting power, and achieving balance and justice. In this, it resembles the rune Algiz, although, unlike Algiz, it operates not so much in a vertical plane as in a horizontal one, relying not on higher powers but on the user’s activity and the Hook’s vector to draw desired forces to them.
Thus, the Wolfsangel symbolizes a kind of forced emergence of an androgyne — an acceleration and intensification of mutual penetration and the “lower” neutralization of duality.
From this point of view its practical significance becomes clear. A process that might proceed spontaneously is, by means of this symbol, “seized by the horns” and becomes not only faster but also more controllable, and therefore more effective. In other words, the mind “rides” the process of forming the androgyne, thereby opening for itself wider spheres of use than would be possible under the process’s “natural” course. The process itself passes through four stages: first the mind fixes itself in the “center” — that is, the “third” element is actually delineated. Then there occurs the surfacing within oneself and the intensification of opposites, leading to an “inner heating,” which, at the next stage, brings about a new “collapse” of the duality (“the trap snaps shut”). Only after this collapse stage is a new system born, a new element — the actual androgyne — capable of active external manifestations.
A technology of neutralizing dualities like this is, in fact, widespread in various Magical arts: the same principle is reflected in the “Alchemical Wedding” and in many other similar methods of “centralizing” Force. The idea is that the mind firmly fixes itself in a “median,” “neutral” position, into which the force of each pole of the binary is then pumped, creating an “excess” tension that then pours out into a powerful directed action. This technology is most clearly worked out in alchemical approaches, in which the “third” component is the Athanor, the “Vessel of Work,” into which the forces of Salt and Mercury are driven, first annihilating each other in Nigredo, but later emerging in Albedo and Rubedo. The same story applies to the Wolf’s Hook — the trap that joins the Wolf and the Meat first leads to their mutual destruction (the wolf perishes), but then this opens additional possibilities — both in terms of transition to a state of greater protection and in terms of use, for example, of the wolf’s pelt for the trapper’s needs. In the Kole Semargla this idea is also expressed in the highlighting of the Dragon/Pearl duality, whose mutual attraction allows the mind to be moved from a more destructive to a more constructive state.
Thus, it is necessary to remember that both methods of neutralizing binaries are important for the harmonious and effective development of the mind: integration effects the “growth” of the mind, whereas the search for and delineation of androgynes allows the mind to manifest and act. Accordingly, the Wolfsangel, as a “practical guide” to achieving the required tension, found such wide application. For the Magus the symbol serves not only as a Sickle that attracts the energies of “lower neutralization,” but also as a reminder of the importance of such a procedure for the development of his mind.
Thank you. I read that using it as a rune is possible, but using the version of the “vaz” is dangerous. Is that true?