Standing stones on a peninsula
The end of the journey approaches
The mystery of your origin is revealed
Your ancestors found
Bless you
And seal their legacy within you
The Union of Heaven and Earth
In the distance, thunder rumbles
and draws nearer.
In Othalaz, the mystery of our origin is revealed and embodied, the design that brought us into Being and charted our path. In it, human and divine ancestry merge, origin and end come together, the Meaning of our destiny manifests, and fulfillment is revealed.
The upper diamond represents the enclosed space of the hearth, and the legs represent the anchoring in the land of the ancestors. It is the glyph of possession and lineage. We recognize the glyph of Ingwaz, but the two upper antennae have disappeared: there is internalization, stabilization of what has been acquired.
In Mannaz, we achieved our fulfillment as human beings, children of Heaven and Earth; then we purified ourselves by plunging into the great sea of Laguz without losing ourselves there, and emerged regenerated, freed from the outdated attachments of the previous cycle. This creates in Ingwaz the radiant form resulting from the profound metamorphosis wrought within us; the legacy of this first cycle is now firmly established: the seeds sown in Fehu have sprouted, revealing the form that lay latent within them.
Fire is now protected: the essence and inner legacy of the cycle that is ending are in a dynamic relationship with ice (the formal legacy). Ice has taken the form necessary to receive the Fire, preserving its quality and essence: ice is the setting and fire the diamond. After the fiery expansion of Ingwaz comes the coagulation of Othalaz.
The penultimate rune of the cycle, Othalaz represents both what we have made of the previous legacy—the innate qualities transmitted through our lineages—and the acquired knowledge resulting from the experiences lived in this cycle. The weaving of the luminous fabric is complete. We have played the role assigned to us on this journey, and now comes the time for reflection.
Stability has been achieved, but we must understand that we will only truly come into possession of this legacy at the end of a transformation whose ultimate purpose still eludes us. A new structure is taking shape, both a consolidation of past achievements and the foundation of a mysterious project.
Every legacy entails a clear awareness of the implications of accepting it: nothing will ever be the same again, and we must accept the responsibility not only to preserve but also to revitalize what it contains. Such a legacy is a reminiscence, resulting from an anamnesis, the dissolution of the aggregates that prevented us from being aware of our true nature, of the chaotic forces that dragged us into the torpor of oblivion: a new relationship with time emerges. More than ever, unwavering lucidity must recognize and dispel the spectres of the past.