22. Gebo Rune

We found how Freyja is closely connected to the Wunjo rune.

But she has many names and one of them is Gef - "the giver". The etymology of this name can be directly traced down to the proto-germanic name *gebô - 'gift' and here is a rune with the same name, Gebo:

Runic Philosopher's Stone - Gebo

As you see it is the largest rune if seen from Runic Alchemy's perspective. It spans across all the five levels and does it twice in parallel: descending from the Water to the Fire and ascending from the Fire to the Water, meeting in the central point of Emptiness.

Gebo is a connection. The bi-directional connection between the Water and Fire.

Connection is a change.

Through connection you become open to something outside, so it can come and change you and you can come and change it, even if just to get to know. Without a connection to something else, there is no reference point. You need to relate to something to make any sense. Even isolation is impossible without having something to isolate from.

We saw how Kenaz rune starts everything from separation. The Emptiness, the creative force of separation, keeps everything apart, as we saw in Isa rune. A thin and flat layer of Emptiness was locally stretched into the bubble, the cavity of Ingwaz, so it was filled with a small and precisely balanced amount of opposites. And Eihwaz rune sealed this bubble into double static-dynamic equilibrium.

The cell preserves itself thanks to the membrane separating its fine-tuned local contents from the rest of the world.

Runic Philosopher's Stone - Rhombus

But it's not alive if there is no exchange with the outer world. Life needs to let external resources in and byproducts out.
Life needs an inflow of energy and information.
Life produces energy and information and it's changing the environment around. It not only protects itself but also projects its internal law outside. The world is dangerous. But closing into full defense is even more dangerous.
If you don't trust the world, not open and connected enough - you'll miss resources, opportunities, and signs of upcoming danger.

Runic Philosopher's Stone - Rhombus Gebo

Small whirlpools floating down the river, that are born on the water's surface, live for a while and dissolve back into the river - are they connected to the water around? They are made of it.

Tongues of flame in bonfire: some of them stay in the same place for some time, and some appear here and there briefly and fly to the night sky. They are small shapes of fire.

We have a deep connection with the world outside and inside, we are made of wood with senses and thoughts breathed into us.

A long, or short, optic fiber lies on the ground twisted into spirals, stretched over the place or clumped into the pile - the trajectory of life. Things are going one after another, events causing other events - this is a human being if seen from a four-dimensional perspective. It is like a chaotic tunnel or snake drawn by the body, that moves in space and time. A pulse of light runs through this optic fiber like through the tunnel - a spark of consciousness running fast and watching the movie, does it have time to feel itself along all this connection from the beginning to the end? It's rather the opposite - the time is only a narrow slice of "now" with a quickly fading out bit of memory behind and expectations ahead.

Can we change something in our journey or we are only running in this tunnel bouncing from the inner edges, following the previous direction, and reacting to circumstances?

Let's do the Gebo rune and see what will happen.

We will cross our arms in front of the chest, elbows down, and hands up:

Runic Alchemy - Gebo gesture

  • The right hand points to the top left direction with the palm turned up, touching the Water and letting it pool before overflowing down the wrist.
  • Rivulets of veins suddenly turn into bluish lightning, because Fire is rising from the bottom-left elbow and it vaporizes the Water into stormy clouds of steam and smoke.
  • The Fire itself cools down in contact with the Water, gives its power to the Air, and turns into dark stones of the left forearm.
  • Left hand, with palm imperatively turned down, points to the top right direction, showing the Light the path of ascendance from the Fire trapped beneath the dark Earth.
  • Wrists are crossing in the center of the Gebo, on the level of Emptiness, where Air and Earth are touching each other along the horizon.
  • The tip of Crystal, the higher state of the Earth, who learned transparency from the Water, pierces the Horizon to let the Sun rise to the clear sky.
  • The gift of Light propagates upward to the Water from the Sun held below the left palm turned down.
  • And the gift of transparency, of the hard order, comes from the Earth Crystal down to the Fire, turning it into red gems.

This is how the Water and Fire, once divided, reunion and give gifts to each other, change each other.

The Gebo is a promise.
You give and you receive in response and you hope the next time it will work again, and it works, until it doesn't. And if it doesn't, maybe it's because you forgot to be open, so you will find the strength to trust and open yourself to the world again.

Gebo rune teaches that in the very center, there is a gap between before and after, between perception and reaction. On the very edge between external and internal there is still a thin layer of Emptiness, and if we focused enough - we can slow the time down and catch this moment between before and after, the moment when nothing is yet and already happening, a slit between time frames.

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