Your Rune for Today
September 1, 2015
Mannaz
Additional information about today’s rune, Mannaz….
mannaz : man, humankind
Phonetic equivalent: m
- DIVINATORY MEANINGS:
- significator, self, family, community, relationships, social concerns
- MAGICAL USES:
- to represent a specific person or group of people; to establish social relationships
- ASSOCIATED MYTHS & DEITIES:
- Ask and Embla, Midgard
- ANALYSIS:
- In its broadest sense, mannaz represents all of humanity, and therefore the entire realm of Midgard. In more practical terms, though, it is those with whom we have personal connections, from our immediate circle of family and friends to the wider community around us, reminding us of our nature as social animals. It also represents our connection with the Gods and with nature, through the two Norse myths of the creation of humans; the first where they sprang from Ymir’s body, and the second in which they were created from two logs by a river. It takes the raw energy of ehwaz and controls it through our social conscience, reminding us of those we affect with our deeds both magical and mundane.
The rune itself resembles gebo with its joining of masculine and feminine elements, but is much more complete. It is the entire web of human relationships, with the self at the centre, which mirrors the web of fate explored through rai̡o. But while that web was more or less fixed, this one is mutable and alive. Past and present, male and female, self and other Рall opposites are joined here and made whole. Mannaz is our home, and speaks for all those whose lives we touch when we use the gifts we have been given through the runes
