Ramblings of a Roving Runes Caster
By Allan T. Perkins
The rune Ansuz is the fourth rune in the Elder
Futhark. It is the rune of messages, signals, and the god Loki. There are several
things you should know about Loki. Yes, he is the messenger god of the Norse. Kind of a
cold weather Mercury. But, like Mercury, and like the Coyote of the Native-Americans of
the Southwest, Loki is also trickster. It is not often suggested, but I suspect Loki is
not as mean and cruel as he is made out to be. For example, in the earliest myths he
helped the other gods. By some accounts, he helped Odinn and his brothers in the creation
of the world. You might say Loki did the gods’ "dirty work" for them. It is
only in later myths, when the members of the Nordic pantheon settled in their ways —
often shunning and ridiculing him — that Loki is accused of the more spiteful acts he
is credited with.
One early example of Loki’s helpfulness occurred when Odinn and the other gods made a
stupid deal with a giant. He agreed to build a protective wall around Asgard. The
agreement the gods made with the giant stated that he could marry Freya if he could
complete the task in one winter. With the help of his fantastic horse, the giant was
coming alarmingly close to success. So, the gods asked Loki to intervene. On the last day
allotted to the project, Loki sent an incredibly sexy mare out past where the giant and
his stud were working. As Loki’s mare swished her tail, the giant’s horse
decided she was infinitely more interesting than the work.
Odinn killed the giant. For this act, and many similar ones, he is called brave. But, for
lesser evils, Loki is often reviled. The same is true in love and marriage. Odinn took
many wives and lovers. As we noted in a earlier column, he even wed all nine wave maidens
at once. Odinn was know as a prolific lover. However, Loki, who had only three wives, was
known as promiscuous. His marriages were not always happy, either. For his second
marriage, Loki married the giant maiden, Angrboda. Remember, the gods and the giants were
not good friends. In fact, most were mortal enemies. When Loki married the giantess, their
off-spring were three of the most despicable monsters known in Norse mythology. They were
Fenris (the wolf who took Tyr’s hand), Jormungand (the giant serpent who circled the
world), and Hel (the goddess of death). So, yes. While Ansuz is the rune of messages and
signals, you can’t expect straight answers. Loki is too intelligent and has been
mistreated and abused by the other gods too many times, to reveal his secrets in plain
text.
So, look around you and note the clues from your surroundings. Expect a riddle before a
set of step-by-step instructions. Ansuz is also related to Othila, the rune of
inheritance. Remember, when we looked at Othila last time we spoke of the our-part
relationship we have with the gods through our inheritance. We receive the knowledge, hold
it in ourselves, thereby becoming the knowledge, finally we transform it and pass it on to
others. This is the mystic relationship of Odinn and the knowledge of the runes. When we
looked at Othila last time we said it works on the mundane and spiritual levels. Well, the
power Loki brings to Ansuz is tempered with Odinn’s, so that in Ansuz we see the same
four-part magical relationship on the emotional level. This makes sense. Loki is nothing
if he is not emotional. If he were not, he’d never let the other gods get to him as
often or as thoroughly as they did. The gifts of Ansuz are more then mere signals from a
friend. Odinn and his two brothers Vili and Ve represent three of the most significant
gifts the gods ever gave mankind. Respectively, they were the breath of life, the emotions
and feelings, and free will. These are the gifts which make us uniquely human, and which
make us the prodigy of the gods. These are gifts which we recognize in the magic of this
rune glyph.
When we draw Ansuz reversed, we still look for a signal or message from the gods. But, we
should suspect that the signal concerns evil tidings, or that we are just plan missing the
point. The message is there, and we can’t see it. It is like a butterfly camouflaged
in a field of flowers.
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