Laguz (ᛚ)
Pronunciation: LAH-gooz · Latin equivalent: L · Týr’s ætt, fifth rune
Name and meaning
Proto-Germanic laguz, “water; lake” — the sea-road and the depth beneath it. Water in the Norse mind is passage and peril at once: the way to everywhere, obedient to no one. Inwardly, it is the tide under thought — intuition, dream, the unconscious current.
In the rune poems
Attested in all three (lögr). The poems are sailors’ verses: the sea seems endless to those who must dare it, and the sea-steed ignores the bridle — respect for a power that carries and drowns with the same indifference.
Upright
Flow, intuition, the fruitful deep. Trusting the current when the chart runs out; imagination, dreams, the arts of the seer. Favorable for matters that must be felt through rather than forced — and for literal voyages.
Merkstave
The flood or the undertow: overwhelm, poor judgment in deep water, fear of the depths, intuition ignored — or, as dangerous, followed without any keel of reason. Time to make for shore and take soundings.
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