| The sixth rune of the Elder Futhark is called "Kenaz" the rune of knowledge, as in the northern British dialect word "ken". It's sound is "K". Literally, Kenaz denotes a flaming brand, a fiery chip of resinous pine wood that in former times provided light. The Anglo-Saxon rune poem describes it thus: "The torch is living fire, bright and shining. Most often, it burns where noble people are at rest indoors". Because Kenaz gives us light in the darkness that surrounds us, it equally, on a symbolic level, brings the inner light of knowledge. Kenaz is a rune of teaching and learning, empowering all positive actions. It can be written in several different ways. Its most common form is a chevron like above, and also a branch coming from a straight stem. The upright form is the shape of the ancient means of lightning, known in Germany as the "Kienspanhalter", a floor-standing holder of the flaming pine-wood sliver. As the hearth fire, this rune represents the power of the forge in which material is transformed through the smith's skill into something new and useful, just as disordered raw materials are rearranged into an ordered form by the human consciousness. Kenaz can be used in meditations of personal illumination. |