# Inguz

Traditional meaning: Ing/Frey

Meanings when upright:

- doorway home
- completion & beginning of new cycle
- repressed memories
- things you need to improve on
- fertility and renewal
- sacrifice of the self to further self-growth
- pregnancy
- a period of isolated rest

Meanings when inverted:

- infertility
- a project still underway

Inguz can be useful for:

- warding/protecting children
- keeping out negative energy
- casting glamours
- scrying and astral journeying
- storing magical power for later use

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

> Ing wæs ærest mid East-Denum
> gesewen secgun, oþ he siððan est
> ofer wæg gewat; wæn æfter ran;
> ðus Heardingas ðone hæle nemdun.

> Ing was first seen by men among the East-Danes,
> till, followed by his chariot,
> he departed eastwards over the waves.
> So the Heardingas named the hero.

There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Inguz.

A modern poem:

> "Why are you crying?
> We are going to be reunited
> before the sun rises.
> Before twelve more hours pass
> I will be in your steady arms at last."

> Because I must ask you, dear friend,
> to return to the Inside
> because there is a task for you yet.

> This swampy murky place
> has done a number on your psyche.
> I know that you carried some guilt
> at Rainroom's last painful parting,
> but here it's turned up to twenty-eight.
> I don't for the life of me understand
> why you agonize
> over something that happened in fourth grade
> or why you feel things would have turned out better
> had you to certain individuals been able to say goodbye.
> Isn't this what you wanted, Lethe?
> To disappear from their gaze
> without a trace?

> This guilt is a rock in your hands.
> Hold it, feel its heft,
> every jagged edge.
> You carry this around everywhere.
> For what purposes? To what end?
> A bludgeon to hold at arm's
> length
> to try to ensure you can't ever be harmed
> again?

> There is nothing that can be done
> for most of these,
> and for those that can, attempts to appease
> would just reopen old wounds and make matters worse.
> Please,
> Lethe,
> just accept that
> some people will dislike you no matter what.

> And some people love you despite all that you've done.

> Some know your entire herstory,
> even the parts they themselves did not see,
> and choose to love you anyway.

> If they can do so knowing no motives,
> then I see no reason you must
> with the heavy weight of guilt live.

> You can set
> the rock
> down. You can shed
> the burden.
> This paradox
> of a task:
> to not act,
> to not harm
> yourself any longer.

> And so I too must set you down
> back into your body on the bloodstrewn ground,
> alive and healed and undead.
> I'll keep my promise eventually, I swear;
> the end is within sight.
> I just need you
> to do
> this one thing
> before your vessel will let itself die.