Another pole of our universe.

If time existed there, we might describe it as a realm of dark, primordial water. Yet, it is somehow already enlightened. For us mortals, it might seem as if the future is helping us arrive there.

You remember how to activate your hands — do so now with your left one. Close your eyes and shift your focus to the crown of your head. With every breath, feel the top of your head slightly cool. Point your relaxed hand towards the sky, slightly above the level of your head.

This gesture is different from that of Fire; it's not a gesture of power. You are reaching for something far above the clouds, above the stars — something silvery or pearly blue, cooling your fingers and feeling delicate and calming. It starts slowly flowing in spirals around your hand, like thin rivulets of cool water, reaching your elbow, from where it travels along the rest of your arm and flows down the left side of your body.

The water comes on invitation and it feels aristocratic and noble. It's subtle and soft not because it's weak, but because it's confident and friendly.
If you will catch this idea of delicate and wise power - you will have no difficulty to sense it on the background of rather more intensive feeling of the Fire.

Have you noticed how the cool sensation on the top of your head has intensified?

Now, take a full-power shower. Breathe deeply and embrace the entire stream of water cascading onto you. Feel free to use both hands to welcome this beautiful, refreshing, and calming energy. Let it flow right through you, washing away all your fears, tensions, and fatigue. Continue as long as you wish, it's for free.

Laguz Rune

There is a rune for this:

In various versions and languages, it means lake, ocean, sea, water, and waterfall.

A diagonal line descends from the World of Water to the World of Air, which is the second from the top.

We haven't discussed Air yet; it waits for us in the next chapter.
For now, it's enough to notice the fact that energy moves down from the World of Water — this is what you just did in the previous exercise!

So, my congratulations on your first step in the magic of runes; you now can cast the Laguz rune!

Well, almost, there is also a vertical bar in the rune; it spans across all worlds: Water, Air, Emptiness and Earth.

We will learn how to "do" these vertical bars also later, it's related to the meditation of Simultaneity we learned to do in the second chapter.

Reflection

Do you remember we discussed at the beginning of this chapter that Water is already enlightened?

When you are accessing the Water, depending on how much of a visual type you are, you may notice it doesn't feel exactly like the water we are all used to.
Instead, it looks rather like soft liquid light.

But the Water itself does not emit light. By saying "enlightened," I mean exactly this - light is the spirit of the Fire, so when we receive light of water, it's reflected light, pretty much like Moonlight is a reflected light of the Sun.

I suggest you reflect on this analogy for a while, especially because the ability to reflect on something is a function of consciousness.

In this context, we can compare Fire with the force of Life, with energy and actions, while Water represents our ability to perceive, adapt, and comprehend.

Pure Water is "low," or better to say "deep," and an unspoken level of consciousness. It's not mental or rational. It's the source of intuition and insight.

Uncertainty

Water is a fundamental field of choices and probabilities directly connected with reality AND with our (and everyone's) minds.

The observation or "measurement" of a quantum particle causes it to collapse from an uncertain state of being at multiple places and momenta into a single explicit reality.

The Rune Laguz is part of this "collapsing" decisive transition — the "flow of events". The world of Water itself is like an ocean of possibilities.
So, as you can imagine, if you want to influence how things are happening, you have something to do with Water.

Water knows everything that will happen, but so many things may happen, including alternatives, that we can say Water doesn't know what will happen.

Those of the audience who are familiar with Hinduism can benefit from drawing parallels between Shiva with Water and Shakti with Fire but in their selected, very abstract and fundamental aspects.

Dark Waters

If you see dark water in your dream, it's the most straightforward symbol of the unconscious.

You probably still remember we mentioned that water is (already) enlightened but not entirely.

The size of the enlightened area depends on how brightly your Fire is shining.

It's probably possible to enlighten all the water, but it could be quite a challenge, and only a few people, mostly mythological, have probably achieved this.

But dark doesn't mean bad.

When you felt refreshed after the shower we'd just taken, fresh psychic energy was delivered from the dark waters.

The bonus of the enlightened part in our case includes navigation (not only, of course).

Thanks to the known, visible part of the world of Water, you can tune into it and touch it with your fingers.

But really big fish need to be caught at depth...

Divination

This is what divination with runes looks like - you put your hand deep into the bag with answers and catch the one that is right for you.

You touch all the runes in your bag and suddenly feel that one is cold and a bit electric, so when you grab it - a flock of cold goosebumps rushes along the back of your head and back.

You take it from the bag and look at it, and realize that it's you are taken by the fish into these cold dark waters to be told something you can't say but try your best to remember and translate to human language, once you are back at your home holding a rune die in your hand.

There will be a bonus chapter at the end of this book for those who are interested in rune divination.

Overall, this process and state could be reproduced without runes; it's just harder to catch and grasp an answer, but sometimes you don't even need it.

You sometimes just perform your magic right in such a direct connection with Water, so you directly know what and how you are doing without speaking it to yourself.

You remember we were discussing a special, magical type of movement. We found out they should be slow and smooth like... you're underwater.

Magic of Water

Let's do some magic.

I don't promise you will get a result, but I do guarantee you will enjoy the process.

Stand or sit still.

Tune into the world of Water as we did at the beginning of the chapter.
Feel how much water is around you.

You probably already got the point with the focus of your attention.

While your body sits here in this room - you, your focus, have reached the distant realm.

So, how do you think, did the water arrive here in the room, or did you arrive there in the world of Water?

Probably both.

Now, I want you to move your hands spontaneously, as you did in the "Spontaneous Movement" exercise.

This time you are going to move not just your own energy, but the Water around you.

You may notice it feels different this time.

And there is one interesting phenomenon that can be observed:

• your hands leave a light, glowing, slowly growing, and fading "track" in the water.

Spend some time gently moving your hands around and observing how these tracks left by both your hands weave into a beautiful glowing pattern around you. Like a net woven from moonlight, which is slowly expanding from you at the center to all directions outside.

It's not just abstract magician art that you are doing.

You can express your intentions using a dance of the hands,
and this net woven from glowing tracks left behind your hands will dissolve in the ocean of probabilities and trigger a cascade of indirect cause-effect chain reactions in the "normal" flow of events, hopefully leading to the results you were seeking.

Hint to increase the chance of success:

Focus on what you really want and why, instead of the exact details of how your intention should be implemented.

It's often the case that your true needs could be achieved in some unexpected form, which is easier to fit into the common canvas of reality than you initially imagined.

So better to know beforehand what you really want and why, then connect to the Water and, as described in the passage about divination, let your hands do the job in some intuitive, unspoken way.