Inguz

Traditional meaning: Ing/Frey

Meanings when upright:

• doorway home
• completion & beginning of new cycle
• repressed memories
• things you need to improve on
• fertility and renewal
• sacrifice of the self to further self-growth
• pregnancy
• a period of isolated rest

Meanings when inverted:

• infertility
• a project still underway

Inguz can be useful for:

• warding/protecting children
• keeping out negative energy
• casting glamours
• scrying and astral journeying
• storing magical power for later use

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

Ing wæs ærest mid East-Denum
gesewen secgun, oþ he siððan est
ofer wæg gewat; wæn æfter ran;
ðus Heardingas ðone hæle nemdun.

Ing was first seen by men among the East-Danes,
till, followed by his chariot,
he departed eastwards over the waves.
So the Heardingas named the hero.

There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Inguz.

A modern poem:

"Why are you crying?
We are going to be reunited
before the sun rises.
Before twelve more hours pass
I will be in your steady arms at last."

Because I must ask you, dear friend,
to return to the Inside
because there is a task for you yet.

This swampy murky place
has done a number on your psyche.
I know that you carried some guilt
at Rainroom's last painful parting,
but here it's turned up to twenty-eight.
I don't for the life of me understand
why you agonize
over something that happened in fourth grade
or why you feel things would have turned out better
had you to certain individuals been able to say goodbye.
Isn't this what you wanted, Lethe?
To disappear from their gaze
without a trace?

This guilt is a rock in your hands.
Hold it, feel its heft,
every jagged edge.
You carry this around everywhere.
For what purposes? To what end?
A bludgeon to hold at arm's
length
to try to ensure you can't ever be harmed
again?

There is nothing that can be done
for most of these,
and for those that can, attempts to appease
would just reopen old wounds and make matters worse.
Please,
Lethe,
just accept that
some people will dislike you no matter what.

And some people love you despite all that you've done.

Some know your entire herstory,
even the parts they themselves did not see,
and choose to love you anyway.

If they can do so knowing no motives,
then I see no reason you must
with the heavy weight of guilt live.

You can set
the rock
down. You can shed
the burden.
This paradox
of a task:
to not act,
to not harm
yourself any longer.

And so I too must set you down
back into your body on the bloodstrewn ground,
alive and healed and undead.
I'll keep my promise eventually, I swear;
the end is within sight.
I just need you
to do
this one thing
before your vessel will let itself die.