Tiwaz - Day 1 of Journeying with the Rune of Tyr

 

Those of you new to my 72-day Uthark journey for tapping into magickal will, start HERE. The meaning of the runes shifts slightly in this 'nightside' system of reading them. And, in my experience, their magick becomes more potent. 

So, today we're looking at the meaning of Tiwaz (aka Teiwaz/Tyr), the rune of the Norse God Tyr, after whom Tuesday has been named. The keywords remain the same across both systems. It's still a rune of victory, courage and justice. However, this is what Thomas Karlsson has to say about this rune in his book 'Nightside of the Runes': 

The Power rises up through the world tree or the magician's spine. The word tyr means "god," and the Tyr rune embodies the new nature of the magician, as a god. The magician formulates his law and creates a new order.

I meditated for a while and took the shape of the rune with my whole body before taking it to the altar of Holy Death to ask for deeper insights. Rather ironically, I pulled card 7, The Feminine, from the Santa Muerte Oracle. The text in the guidebook reads, 

"While the masculine card presented us with a primordial, active and creative impulse that still has no form or direction, this card is complementary to it: a receptive and feminine basis, which, like a womb or cocoon, envelops the primitive energy, disciplines it and stabilises it by giving it a shape. This shape will consent its growth and evolution, but will inevitably give it mortality."

I was blown away by this response from the oracle because it describes how Tyr was disciplined by Fenrir, the brother of Holy Death (Hel). Fenrir is an agent of the divine feminine, who will ultimately participate in the destruction of the Aesir (gods of order).

The next card I pulled, The Magician from the Santa Muerte Colors Tarot, is a decisive nod to Karlsson's take on this rune as "the new nature of the magician, as a god." Tales of Ragnarök is proof that my Norse ancestors always knew that even the gods have a limited time span. To know this and to still have the courage to do what is right and for the greatest good is to be godlike, just like the Tarot Magician when upright/positively aspected. 

When a person, whether male or female, embodies Tiwaz fully and in alignment with Ma'at, they act responsibly, putting the Highest Good before personal comfort or preference. They use their magick to rebalance what is out of whack and acting as a poison, to restore order, harmony and vitality. A witch, sorcerer or magician who acts purely out of self-interest brings premature death and destruction to Midgård.

Tiwaz is good medicine. It reminds me of the scales of Anubis, and the sword of truth that cuts away egoic falsehood and self-deception. It is a rune that acts as a symbol of the True North of humanity, reminding us to honour the learning journey in Earth School, treating every moment and every other living being as sacred because we know they are part of us.

Love,
Lisa

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