EIHWAZ: and my Hamingja.

"Since then I go I follow the pathways the pathways and roads beyond the sea and even farther, beyond the sea and beyond the beyond; And whenever I approach the wicked, the Men with black hearts, whenever I approach the envious, the Men with black hearts before me moves the Breath of the Ancestors." (By: Birago Diop from 'Viaticum')

Eihwaz signifies Yggdrasil, the "world tree" on which it is said Odin sacrificed himself to himself. This event manifests itself on the mental plane as a symbolic death of the old self to the new self. Unlike the Christian rebirth, this is not a surrender of the self to the power of a god. It is not the abdication of responsibility of one's past or present actions, or lack thereof. It is an intense, honest evaluation of who you have become, and an absolute commitment to the death of any part of your person you find lacking in honor, integrity and dignity. Lacking in any of these fundamental qualities is a cancer that rots the soul and undermines the value of life. The measure on which this sacrifice is made can't be found in a book, it must be sought out within the heart of the seeker. This is not a sacrifice in the religious sense, it is a sacrifice of the self to the self. Inspiration can be drawn from the old vanguard of both gods and men, but in the end you must do it for yourself, no one can do it for you. What Odin reveals to us in this myth of the mighty is that the gods are guides to a deep naturally flowing well at the root of our own inner being. We see that it was in this state of self searching that Odin discovered the runes and it is in this same state that he calls us to discover them with him. Eihwaz is the rune that describes this journey. It carries in itself the death and transformation from one state into another. This is the rune of facing oneself; the symbolic descent into the unconscious realm. The heroic life is found in living an authentic, individual manifestation. The death of the old is also the birth of the new and yes, it can be a frightening place, this stepping into undiscovered country, but this is a vast continent of the potential-self and is rich in historical resources. We see a correlation in the iconography of the story of Odin's ordeal on Yggdrasil with The Hanged Man of the Tarot. Like Odin, The Hanged Man is hung upside down; this is how it always is at these times of change in our lives. Our worlds feel as if they have been turned upside down as we hang in the the balance, suspended between the new and the old, what has gone before and what is yet to come. In the image of The Hanged Man, we see some coinage scattered on the ground. This is a medium of exchange; coins are capital and like all capital it represents the power to achieve an end. These coins are not there by chance, they have been earned. This is the price that has been paid.This is the sweat, blood and tears of hard labor, the work that goes into the everyday struggles of life. In the case of Odin we see that the coins are the runes and they, too, are a medium of exchange. The blood of every battle, of every victory, of every defeat. The

passion of romance and the heart ache of both love and lost love. This is the multiplex experience that bleeds from the body of the slain god. Cycling back into the roots of the tree. All the life blood of the icon is poored back into it self. Odin is the archetype of the wise one, and he seeks out this wisdom through experience. The runes are tools of self discovery and their true power is found in their ability to exchange ignorance for knowledge. Eihwaz is closely aligned with the idea of the fylgja and in particular the hamingja. There are two way to look at hamingja one is the shape shifting character of an individual and the other is the shifting fortune of a family or clan. The most basic meaning of hamingja is luck. Luck can be described in various ways. For example, you might hear a phrase like "luck of the dice" or "luck of the cards." This is the idea that there is luck either in the object or in your relationship to that object. That same idea is also seen in tarot cards which are perceived as having their own brand of hamingja. Objects are conceived to be empowered with a resonance of the owner's hamingja. However, the phrase "luck of the Irish" would be closer to the definition we are seeking here, as in this sense the hamingja is related not only to the person, but also extends to the family of the individual. Such great significance is placed on the fylgja that in ancient times midwives would actually read the placenta and divine the shape that one's hamingja would take throughout one's life.The placenta was thought to be the berthing body of the the hamingja and was often spoken of as simply "That which follows." This circulatory motion is seen in the shape of Eihwaz, The straight line is the Rune Isa. rigid, frozen immovable. Discerning the shape of your personal luck is a part of what is meant by hamingja. In parsing the word hamingja, we see the term ham in ham-ingja, meaning "shape," or "hide." The ham as a concept occupies a place somewhere between the "physical" and the "spiritual." The existence of an astral body is a concept found in a number of systems of occultism. In this way we see that the astral body has a physical reality in the actual fleshly body and a spiritual reality in the energy body, who's shape is predetermined by the focused practitioner. Hence we say the astral body is a controlled projection. In this sense, the hamingja is said to be akin to shape shifting because we are determining our destiny as much as destiny is impinging on us. It is here in this extent that the individual meets the world and what we call our life; that we once again see the symbol of Eihwaz drawing our attention to the space between what is and what is becoming. Eihwaz is a rune that focuses the mind on this space, teaching us who we are by directing our mind first to our historical selves then drawing us to compare our currant self image. It calls us to look at our roots, our personal tree, drawing our attention here to this point were the past and the present converge to meet the future. This is were Odin can be found hanging in the balance. It is here, on your personal Yggdrasil, that you find the runes that define you. It has been suggested that the Hamengja is akin to the Raven Miunin, and this makes a good allegory in any event as Miunin means memory. The lower arm of the Eihwaz rune is a metaphor of memory. The great black raven travels the world of the shadows and illusions, of partial truths, stories, legends and myths. This mystical bird is a totem of wisdom and second sight. Our history is distorted and so are our own memories. What we remember is our version of the events. This memory can be deceptive at times, as can be seen in the case of deep trauma and also in many forms of denial. It is important to keep this in mind as we follow our hamingja

down into the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree. Looking into our deeper selves and our deeper history; traveling back into to a time beyond time, we follow our hamingja into the deep roots of Yggdrasil. We suffer in this life if we fail to meet the challenge of self knowledge. We literally live in a perpetual identity crisis seeking every new fad, bouncing from one religion to the next. We see these kids, they go to extremes to be differant with their nose rings and purple hair. All this to be accepted into the out crowd. Only to find them selves to once again be like everyone else and longing again for a sense of individuality. We can't find our uniqueness by attempting to be different, we fine our unique qualities when we look at our similarity to those in our collective. It is in this deep concept of Eihwaz that we not only discover who we are now, but also who we have always been, and it is in this knowledge that we find the power of resurrection. This is our sociological mirror, it is the well of self and it is where we will ultimately find our way home. How can Hugin and Munin lead us to a deeper understanding of the Eihwaz Rune? In the iconography of Odin we find these two great ravens who served as Odin's familiars Hugin; thought and Munin.: memory. It is Odin's ravens, who give us a glimpse into the answer. Like the two hooked ends of Eihwaz, these two birds represent two worlds that are interdependent. Ravens are carrion-eaters and are dependent on the death and misfortune of others. They are skilled scavengers, noted as amongst the smartest of the winged world. They could always be found on the battlefield feeding on the corpses of the fallen. In this grim imagery is were we see how Hugin and Munin pick through the dead and forgotten valleys of the mind. In our society there is a lot of false bravado given to the accomplishment of individuals while disregarding that others had struggled to make small inroads yet had devastating failures. There is nothing wrong in honoring the winners, and they deserve their praise, but all these fallen in battle served to pave the way for those who have succeeded. Hugin and Munin scavenge these forgotten bones of the fallen; picking over them for missed insights, lost or incomplete ideas, undiscovered revaluations.. In the following poem we see that Odin fears the loss of Munin even more then the loss of Hugin.
Benjamin Thorpe translation:

Hugin and Munin fly each day over the spacious earth. I fear for Hugin, that he come not back, yet more anxious am I for Munin. Odin sees that the preservation of our story is more intagrel to the self identity, then is the capacity to ad to that story with new layers of meaning.When we have lost sight of our personal Munin (memory) we also lose sight of our historical self, the personal story becomes disconnected and the emotional psyche breaks down; devolving into fragmented impulses and disjointed obsessions. Feelings of loss. Loss of purpose, loss of soul, loss of destiny. we develop low self-esteem and suffer from an identity crisis. With no guide, Hugin (thought) is left with no direction. It is Munin that seeks out and finds the right shape and projecting it into the outer world of self expression. These two modes of contemplation can be seen in inductive and deductive reasoning. Like Munin the process of inductive reasoning is moving from specific observations to broader set of

generalizations and theories. In inductive reasoning, we begin with a set of specific observations and measures and then begin to detect patterns and regularities, formulate some tentative hypotheses that we can explore, and finally end up developing some general conclusions or theories. Memory seen as a form of history, fallows this form of reasoning. In this way Munin is seen as akin with the hamingja. The oak tree is not free to be an elm..where we are invited to grasp the runes and co-create the 1 world that meets us This idea of putting on the hide is the art of glamour and is very potent in our modern world and people shape shift all the time. To glamour is to cast illusion, this is the core of marketing in fashion and in the cosmetics industry. In personal development, acting through the ham or putting on the hide is a powerful psychological tool. In AA and other co-addictive programs you will often hear the phrase "fake it till you make it" as a means of obtaining sobriety. Personal trainers push their clients to put on the "hide" of success. In job training seminars you are taught to practice going on job interviews. All of these techniques have the potential to work as well for the individual today as they did for our ancestors. While this is a very potent form of magic, it is not nearly as mystical as one might be lead to believe. Every cosmopolitan magazine on the counter is selling the latest in shape shifting technology, there are potions of every shade, hue and color, all to be had for a fistful of dollars. Every aspect of our daily life has been assigned a market value in some form of glamour, and luck plays no role save to bolster the confidence by having a deity by your side.

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The term fylgja is thought to be related to the Old Norse verb fylgja, which means 'to follow'. The fylgja normally takes on two distinct forms. The first, which for the purposes of this article, I'll label as the animal fylgja, (as opposed to fylgja which for this article will signify the fylgja that is in the form of a woman) is normally in the form of an animal. This animal usually conforms to the person's personality, i.e. a sly person might have a fox for an animal fylgja. The life and well being of the person the animal fylgja is attached to depends on the well being of his or her animal fylgja. There is no evidence of the animal fylgja surviving the death of the person it is attached to. The fylgja, on the other hand, is normally in the form of a female who attends to the individual until death and survives him, at which time the individual is able to enter her abode and she is able to attach herself to another, often someone in the same family. Although both of these are labeled under the same name (fylgja and fetch) we can be fairly certain that they are indeed two different beings, for lack of a better word. Furthermore it's my contention that the fylgja is actually dsir. According to Jochens, fylgjur were always considered female, whether animal or human. In animal form it always represented the person it was attached to. She also states that women and men could have animal fylgjur but only men had fylgjur. It is her contention that the two kinds of fylgjur were unconnected in their origin. The animal form came from ancient roots in primitive thinking, and the female form probably is linked with ancestor worship. Like dsir and valkyries fylgjur were involved with battle. In Ljsvetninga Saga (XXX) The misfortunes of Eyjlfr are attributed to the fact that the fylgjur of their enemies were more powerful than the fylgjur of their own. To see ones fylgja many times meant that one was fey, or destined to die soon. Again here is another common trait shared with the dsir. In Scandinavian paganism the presence of the guardian spirit often went unnoticed until the time of ones death: in the Eddaic poem Helgaqvia Hjrvarzsonar, for instance, the hero Helgi's female guardian spirit (fylgior) appears in the form of a woman riding a wolf with snakes for reins. (38) It is interesting to note here that this description of fylgjur is almost exactly the same as early descriptions of valkyries. Another name for fylgjur what was used is fylgjukona, which could be translated as following woman. Jochen's tells us that fylgjukona
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Methinks der is sumpin' missin' heah!

became visible to others only when the one she was attached to was going to die in order to attach herself to another. (39) It's very easy to see here the similarities between fylgjur and dsir. Here I would like to quote a section from Gsli's Saga: In his dreams he visits the hall of someone he calls his better dream-woman and there finds many others who welcome him. There are fires burning in the hall and he is told the number of fires in the hall is equal to the number of years he has to live. His guide gives him moral counsels. Later on his dreams become worse as another women comes to him covered in men's blood' and washes him in it. The first women comes to him after this and she is called his bride and carries him away with her on a gray steed, and takes him to a hall in which there is a soft bed and pillows of down. She tells him that he will come her after he dies, saying, Here shall you certainly come when you die then shall the chieftain possess these riches and the woman also The other woman gets angry with this and swears it will not be so. She is the last to visit Gsli before his death and when she finally appears she covers him in blood and wraps him in blood-stained garments. Ref: Old Norse Images of Women by Jenny Jochens 1996. The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature by Hilda Roderick Ellis (Davidson) 1968, Best Rig

~~~~~ It is through the power of Eihwaz that we can discover our hamingja. We see in its shape the straight line of the rune Isa embodied into the shape of Eihwaz. This ice rune whose meaning is rigid, frozen, unmovable in its resistance to change and yet here, at the two ends, we see that the rune is acted on by the energetic rune Kenaz. This bifurcated form of the Kenaz rune is showing us the action of the energies that are manifested in Eihwaz. This bifurcated structure shows us that there is but one arm of Kenaz at each axis and that the angles of bifurcation are juxtaposed. This, when looked upon, gives the impression of spin and indeed it is spin, both the past and the future are converging to animate the present. The tree is a metaphor of this multidimensional conceptualization. It is here in the metaphorical allegory of the tree trunk that we find our present life being manifested. As long as we see ourselves in an isolated and fractured form that retards the view of a larger reality of the dynamic self we run the risk of living an unfulfilled life. Eihwaz is a rune that evokes the ancestor. It asks us to travel downward and inward to discover the nature of our soul, but it does not leave us there to wander the endless caverns of the underworld. Instead, it invites us to draw up nutrients; to pull the strength of our ancestral past up through the roots and feed this present life. And, like any tree, this rich nutrient is not meant to make us fat and happy, but rather it is to give new life, to ever new and reaching branches. These branches show the upper function of the Eihwaz rune. In this top half of the rune we see the power of Kenaz as it now takes us into new and unknown manifestations of the self, as we branch out to meet new challenges and achieve new goals, ever returning to the deep inner well of our souls for yet more for the rich sap of the ancestor. Eihwaz is that bridge between worlds, the doorway to the unknown country. As we dig deeper we find that this idea that there is a magical spirit that walks through life with us is also not so unbelievable. Contrary to popular thought we are not born as individuals, we are the product of a collective, and this collective is always with us, it is in every aspect of our daily life. Our DNA is a "soup of probabilities," from the first spark of life to the first complex cell that gave rise to the handful of ingredients each of your parents tossed into the pot of soup that

became the person you are today. It is your parents, or caretakers, who form the beginnings of your personage. The individual begins to emerge at about two years old and the first real signs 3 of an autonomous person are seen at around five years of age. But who then is this emerging person? The world is projected onto us by its standards, its ideals, its version of truth. In the playground of our youth we learn how to fit in, not how to be individuals. Difference is shunned, individuality is scorned, now we learn to emulate, to follow, to mirror, to be a part of the collective. Our survival depends on our ability to converge as one unit working together to solve problems. This collective patterning is, in itself, not a bad thing, and indeed is very important to our discussion here. In a multicultural society such as ours, these collective patterns engage each other in a social stew, all the various flavors seeking balance through a war of ideals. Finding ourselves in this soup is a part of what Eihwaz teaches us. Eihwaz is the rune that teaches us who we are, and it asks us to value the collective that worked and struggled to bring us to this day. At
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I found it again! Here is the very long sentence that, in my mind, needs to be divided somehow. I'm focusing on this soup of probabilities, then to what is considered the first spark of life (which in itself is a complex and varied discussion), to complex cells that gave rise to a handful of ingredients that my folks tossed into the soup that became the house that Jack built. Think about it first, but there are a lot of places to lose a person in that sentence. :)
3

This one is a mild warning on criticism. I understand this

concept of the individual emerging at about two years old, and an autonomous person at around five years old. That being said, I've also seen a virtual feast of anger with this concept on Gather. Someone had delighted in putting up pictures of the precious child/grandchild/nephew/whatever and one person made the comment that they don't consider them as an actual person until they are around five years old. BOOM! I think that woman is STILL shaking from the repercussions of that comment and that was quite a while ago. I just thought I should mention that singular experience!

its core, Eihwaz says that to find your self you must look at the whole of your self, take into account the full pattern that has given rise to you, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It has been suggested that the Hamengja is akin to the Raven Miunin, and this makes a good allegory in any event as Miunin means memory. The lower arm of the Eihwaz rune is a metaphor of memory. The great black raven travels the world of the shadows and illusions, of partial truths, stories, legends and myths. This mystical bird is a totem of wisdom and second sight. Our history is distorted and so are our own memories. What we remember is our version of the events. This memory can be deceptive at times, as can be seen in the case of deep trauma and also in many forms of denial. It is important to keep this in mind as we follow our hamingja down into the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree. Looking into our deeper selves and our deeper history; traveling back into to a time beyond time, we follow our hamingja into the deep roots of Yggdrasil. We suffer in this life if we fail to meet the challenge of self knowledge. We literally live in a perpetual identity crisis seeking every new fad, bouncing from one religion to the next. We see these kids, they go to extremes to be differant with their nose rings and purple hair. All this to be accepted into the out crowd. Only to find them selves to once again be like everyone else and longing again for a sense of individuality. We can't find our uniqueness by attempting to be different, we fine our unique qualities when we look at our similarity to those in our collective. It is in this deep concept of Eihwaz that we not only discover who we are now, but also who we have always been, and it is in this knowledge that we find the power of resurrection. This is our sociological mirror, it is the well of self and it is where we will ultimately find our way home. Yew Tree (Taxus baccata) is often found in churchyards, as it was the common practice of the early church to build over preexisting holly sites. There is a yew tree in Fortingall Perthshire, Scotland. It is estimated as being between 3,000 and 5,000 years old. Yew is a poisonous wood. Arrows were often dipped in a yew poison and the wood was used to make the classic long bows. Recently Taxol has been extracted from yew bark and has formed a base of treatment to fight off cancer.

Working with the Rune:

Resurrection is a weighty term, but it is the right term in many ways for this highly symbolic rune. The old shamanic teacher would climb up a poll or tree as a symbolic act of gaining union with the world axis mundi. In this same way, as a form of meditation, we can actively work with the rune on a number of planes of thought. When this rune is selected it points to all three realities at once: the past, present and future. This can be a bit intimidating so to begin with slow down and approach the rune from the present first. Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight, close your eyes and take the image of the rune into your mind, hold it there, and mentally spin it around. As you hold it in your mind, begin a slow steady breathing pattern. As you breath, imagine the straight arm of Eihwaz pulsating with your breath, like waves rolling in and out of an ocean beach on a warm sunny day. Or imagine sitting in the center of a professional orchestra listening while they play a tranquil and lyrical nocturne, and you feel throughout your entire body the expressive swelling of the crescendos and decrescendos of each stanza, all of the instruments blending together, melodic harmony bringing life to the notes on the page, just as your meditation is bringing life to the straight arm of Eihwaz.

Now lets begin to travel back into our deepest memory, starting with those around you, those closest to you, and those who are at the edges of your daily world. Make an active effort to extend your respect and love to them. Actively think "I respect you as a living being, I love you as a human being." Now move back through all the people you can remember, even those you dislike. If you can't love these people's persona, then love there being, those qualities we all share as a people. Keep moving back, extending your mind as broadly as you can. As faces emerge in your mind's eye, continually ask, "How has this person contributed to who I am?" As you develop this meditation you will find that some folks had tremendous impact on your life both good and bad. Make a note of these impactive people and the moments of their influence. In what way do these roots of the past feed your present daily life? Ask yourself what kind of branch is growing from this well? Is my life manifesting doubt, anger, pettiness? Conversely look for the good roots, too. What are my most valued qualities? How can I nurture these more effectively? This is a mapping of the self, a critical look at the collective that animates your persona. You may find many things you don't like about yourself. Don't be a coward! This rune challenges the self to look squarely at the ego, not to condemn or reject, but rather to embrace and accept. Yes accept! Self sacrifice is a serender of the ego, a laying down of the will. It is an end to struggle, you are no longer living for the image that others have set for you. You are now embracing your own vision of you, making your own law, building a standard that you, yourself, value for yourself. It is not the imposition of a god, or of mom and dad. No, you have come face to face with your true self, and a relationship can now begin to foster. It is at this point we see why Odin stabbed himself with his magical spear, Gungnir. This spear has a large body of lore, but for our purposes we will look at its relation to the god Tyr. Gungnir is said to be true in that it can not miss its mark, it always kills its mark. Why would Odin stab himself with such a deadly weapon? While Tyr is a rune often associated with war, nothing could be further from the truth. Tyr is a standard of justice that must be upheld with the highest penalty, i.e., death. What Odin teaches us in this act is that he is committed to the death of that which is found to be unworthy of life within himself. He has had enough of groveling in ignorance. He climbs on this tree with a deep resolve and a true commitment to find what he needs. In the story we read that he hung for nine day's and nights. There are only nine numbers and a zero, which is not a number. All other numbers are a combination of the first nine. This says that Odin went the distance, he did not take this on in a halfhearted way.
In this same way we take up Eihwaz with a resolve to look into the mirror of ourselves. Digging into the depths of our tree we look back through time, weaving together a new pattern that will manifest the life we seek. It is hard work. If you are finding it easy then you are not looking hard enough. Life does not give up its jewels with ease, you must dig them out of the hard ground. Judgment is a quality the heart seeks this is not the judgment of

religion or of some tyrannical god seeking the groveling of worship. This is the judgment of honor, of truth, of respect for work well done and a life well lived. sir and the Vanir, we see Odin throws his spear over the Vanir and they all die, yet as soon as he does so, Freyja kicks the soil and they are all resurrected. This shows us that the judgment of Tyr is committed to truth it can't over come Freyja's power to resurrect the the gods of the Vanir. Thes gods are self standing principals they are as much a
In the story of the war of the

standard of life as the standard Tyr itself upholds. Odin is aware that what he values in himself is perfectly safe, it can not be killed by the judgment of Tyr as represented in the spear of Gungnir. He knows that what is slated for death will be made known by the active power of Tyr. He knows that the spear is true to its mark, not in the rampant violence of war, but true to the valiant standerds of truth that is embodied in the archetype of Tyr. It is a weapon of judgment, not war, as some have wrongly believed.