Thursday 12 January 2012

A is for Ansuz.

Ansuz is the fifth of the rune in both the the younger and elder Futharks and in the Anglo Saxon runes. It is probably the most powerful mind rune of all. It is the rune of Odin, the All Father and you can use thisnrune to connect to him to ask for the wisdom of the runes and spiritual and shamanic knowledge. The word Ansuz or As or Os, depending on the tradition, means god or mouth. It is a great rune for writers, like all of us who write blogs, and all creative people.

Ansuz represents consciousness, wisdom, knowledge, speech, poetry and shamanic wisdom.

The Anglo Saxon rune poem says "As is the chieftain of all speech, mainstay of wisdom, comfort to wise ones for evey noble earl hope and happiness.".

Ansuz can be chanted, inscribed or projected to stimulate eloquence and mental activity or to deepen spiritual communication. I often write the runes in the air while chanting them and feel the energy of the rune coming into me. You can also draw the runes over another person like some people do with Reiki symbols, though I find the runes more powerful.

With my hearth we often stand in a circle and stand the shapes of the runes. With Ansuz you stand sideways with both arms pointing downwards. We chant the sound of the runes and send the energy round the circle. So so powerful.

A is also for Ancestors. In heathenry the acknowledgement of the importance of ancestor
spirits in our lives is one of the main parts of our tradition. When we strata ritual or open a circle we welcome the "ancestors that dwell deep in Helheim" the realm of Hela, the guardian goddess of the dead. They walk with us always, particularly our Kin Fylgja, the ancestor who guides us when we journey to the other worlds.

I love being a heathen!

3 comments:

  1. Love the idea of standing as the rune shapes - I hadn't thought of that before and will have to try it. I actually did my post on Algiz it'll be up tomorrow.

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  2. What a fascinating post. I know nothing at all about runes but it sounds really powerful and interesting. Great post.

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  3. Great info about Ansuz here. For me I see Ansuz as the first step of higher consciousness, the place were the primal and experiential energies that came before such as Uruz, Fehu, and Thurs, begin to coalesce into knowledge and foresight, the hallmark of leadership. Very happy to find another heathen blogger in the project.

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