MANNAZ

(Man)

Power of human intelligence, seeing our lives as part of a wider pattern, compassion and acceptance of the weaknesses and strengths of self and others

Man was seen in the ancient world of the North as a reflection of the divinity in his three functions, as warrior, farmer and ruler/magician.

In Norse legend the first man and woman were formed from trees. Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve were walking along the edge of the land where earth met sea and came upon two uprooted trees, an ash and an elm. These they used to create the first man and woman. Odin gave them the breath of life, Vili intelligence and a loving heart and Ve their natural senses. Ask and Embla the woman were given Midgard, Mid - Earth as their home and so began the human race.

At the destruction of the existing order at Ragnarok their descendants Lif and Lifthrasir sheltered in the world tree and survived the holocaust to re-populate the new world. Mannaz says that although individuals may cease to be, they live on in their deeds and their descendants. This rune therefore is a celebration of the strengths and potentials of the individual and his or her connection to the human race in all times and places, Jung’s two million years old man that is said to be within us all, the `increase’ quickening of dust into life, according to the old poems.