| The ninth rune and first of the Second Aett of the Elder Futhark is called "Hagalaz". It's sound is "H". Like the other two runes at the beginning of this Aett, all three of which are associated with the first part of winter. Hagalaz is icy and constricting, Literally, the name means "hailstone" which is water transformed for a short time from liquid into solid. During this time, the hailstone falls from the sky violently, often destroying crops or property. But once the damage is done, it melts. Transformation is the ruling principle here, like the sudden transformation that a snowstorm brings. Green fields and black roads are transformed rapidly into a sea of whiteness. Equally transformative is the thaw, when the colors of the land are restored. On a personal level, Hagalaz is the rune of the unconscious mind and of the formative process of thought. On an impersonal level, Hagalaz lies at the roots of existence. Hagalaz is one of the major runes of "Orlog", those laws of existence through which the patterns of events in our past shape our present. Hagalaz gives us access to energies originating in the past that are still active in the present. It offers us power of evolution within the framework of present existence. |