Runes and Grief 22: Tiwaz

Tonight's Rune is Tiwaz. Tiwaz; Tyr, (self-) sacrifice, duty, justice, victory.

In truth, I pulled this a couple of nights ago and was like, "Uh Oh." I was truly stumped. So I threw it (gently) back into the little bag and here it is again. Now I know what it is about.

Ráðumk þér, Loddfáfnir,

en þú ráð nemir, -

njóta mundu, ef þú nemr, þér munu góð, ef þú getr

hvars þú böl kannt, kveð þú þér bölvi at

ok gef-at þínum fjándum frið.

I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well!

You will use it, if you learn it,

it will get you good if you understand it.

If you know that someone is evil, say so.

Never give friendship to your enemies.*

Grief over what is happening in the world is real. I am not going to recite a litany of woes we are all facing to some degree or another through no fault of our own. We know we are under duress, and we know there are others who have it worse. The sight of the homeless is heartbreaking and terrifying. It is unjust. The stories of people being ill and unable to access care are likewise heartbreaking and terrifying. The wars. The rising prices of food. We mourn a world that, while unfair, still seemed mostly manageable for some of us. Those of us on the lower end of the economic scale have known the danger of slipping over the edge was real for some time. Many more, who felt they were impervious to such a slip into the abyss of hunger or homelessness are not so safe after all. As a society, we are in a collective grief, though many of us might not call it that.

This is a grief that demands action. It is not enough to not offer frith to enemies. We cannot only define and act according to negatives. We need to DO things. That frith we are not offering to enemies needs to be given to the downtrodden. Mutual aid, even in the form of sharing your sandwich with a hungry person, or water with a thirsty person in these times of intense heat waves brings some good into our world. It could be the meal or sip that lets the person continue on in their fight. But we need to do larger things as well. We need to ask questions, demand answers.

Our tears need to turn from grief into energy - like a paddle wheel harnessing the energy of a river. There is a lot of work to be done. It means stepping into trouble - sacrifice your time for the future of the world by helping someone now. We are here now because we have a duty to build a better world - block by block if we have to. We are here now so we can fight for justice - prison reform, funding schools, medical care, treating housing as a human right, ending police violence, calling out racism and bigotry of all kinds.

And we must aim for victory. It will not be easy, but neither is living like this and watching things get worse.

*Havamal 127, translation by Chisholm