TEUTONIC MAGIC - Awaken Video

greedy devourer of ships and men (Ran) which only one skilled in magic could protect against. Although
the rivers and streams were, quite literally, the waters of life for those who dwelt near them and could not
live without them, the Germanic people have more tales of ill-meaning wights in the waterways they
depended on than any other people.
The most famous of these, of course1 is die Lorelei on the Rhine, lurmg sailors to their deaths;
but her sisters inhabit almost every stream and marsh of the North.
Standing water where venom collects and ferments was thought of as much more dangerous than
running water, which was active, life-holding, and holy. Grendel and his mother are good examples of the
woe-working powers of laguz as it represents the festering subconscious, Grendel is the chronic symptom
of the monster-brood hidden beneath the waters of the pool. When he is slain above water (the symptom
is suppressed), his mother wreaks a slaughter several times worse than his had been. Only when Beowulf,
whose heroic reputation has been grounded on his abilities as a swimmer, goes down into the pond and
slays Grendel’s dam in her home do the killings cease. This tale shows the need for the mage to be able to
find hidden sources of woe and deal with them in the layer at which the woe was written-able to fare
through the lightless waters of the subconscious and the hidden worlds in which magic works alike.
Laguz is the rune by which you may search back through the layers of that-which-is and move through its
structure at will to read orlog.
As well as being a rune of concealment and the unknown, laguz is a rune by which life is brought
forth from darkness and the hidden is brought forth into the light. It is the “waters of life” which are
sprinkled on the newborn child if it was not to be left to die, in order to show its acceptance in the circle
of the living. It is also a rune which shows and/or combats poison. The alternate form of the rune’s name,
laukaz, means “leek,” and this is the rune to which Sigrdrifa refers when she tells Sigurdhr, “You shall
sign a blessed drink with these to ward against danger, / and put a leek in the brew. / Then, I know, your
mead will never be blent with harm.”‘ The working of the rune in this manner is shown in the saga of
Egill Skallagrimsson who, suspecting poison in a drink that had been given to him, scratched a rune
several times on his horn, stabbed the palm of his hand, and reddened the runes with blood, whereupon
the horn burst asunder-as a result of the sudden inflowing of life- force and yeast acting on the venom-and
the drink fell out onto the straw. All the plants of the allium family, including onion and garlic, show the
working and nature of laguz: while the bulb stays hidden, the great life-force in it shows itself by the swift
upward growth of the green stalk, and all of these plants are powerful strengtheners in both the physical
world and the hidden realms.
Laguz is a rune of the transitions between life and death-the awakener at life’s beginning and the
water to be crossed at its end. You should remember that Odhinn often appears as a ferryman to claim the
dead.
Laguz is used to fill yourself with life-force and to send that force from world to world. It makes
your sensitivity to shifts in the flows of power around you greater, especially when hints of danger may
be felt. This sensitivity may also be applied to the magnetic fields of the earth.
Laguz is used to probe the subconscious and the unknown, and mastery of this rune is needed to
deal with the problems you find in the realms it governs.
In workings of woe, laguz is the rune of seduction, deception, illness, and poison. It may be used
to worsen chronic health problems and cause longstanding problems of all kinds to surface.
Ritually, laguz represents the mead or ale used in rites. It rules all magics of brewing and
drinking. It is also seen in the magical use of spittle and blood, the body fluids which carry the life-force.
In the personal sphere, laguz may be called upon for physical and magical strength and
psychological insight. It is the complement of the conscious mind, mannaz.
Laguz brings out the effects of past workings.
Used with other runes, laguz is a strengthener; it may be used in sending runes between worlds. If
you wish, you can use it either to set runes to work in secret or to bring them up from their root in the
hidden realms of being.
A stone that works well with laguz is malachite, whose alternating bands of dark and light green
show the twofold being of this rune. Malachite is filled with powerful life-force, a healer with might that
flows like the wave. Its layered structure also shows its nature within the Well of Wyrd, a hint towards the
use of this rune for sinking to the point of origin and claiming the power flowing from your roots.
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