Rune Study: Kenaz

Kenaz, pronounced by e: 'Ken- awz'. Otherwise known as Ken, Kano

Kenaz is most widely seen as a light, a torch... It is shaped like a c, only not curved, and some say, its shape represents the flame of a torch. Thus, it has been associated with all the fiery attributes: Creativity, inspiration, new beginnings, spiritual illumination, sudden flashes of realisation... Like a torch which the Norse might have used to guide their way through the night, this torch represents something that is guiding you through the proverbial 'dark tea-time of the soul'... Something you look to, and are relieved to see...

When you are in the darkness, an opening with light is the best and most gracious thing to have bestowed upon you. This is a great time for putting energies into new opportunities. Meditation revolves around seeing out of seemingly dark situations for there is a way out of every situation. Focus on what the action is and invest energies into breaking through.

Over to you, Malachite and Umbrae!

Kiama

PS- I've got a good idea... Instead of just learning about the Runes meanings, we could apply them to our lives... For Kenaz, we could all say what is our leading light.. What is our inspiration, and what has woken us up?

Kenaz:

"kane-awze”
The astute student, will of course notice a variance in pronunciation twixt Kiama, and Umbrae. This is of course due to the boorish yank accent.

The meanings (torch and (if you dig into the rune poems), sore-boil-or swelling, appear at odds to each other.
Early Germanic peoples, left the newly dead in unsealed barrows to rot, so flesh could be separated from bone for proper mound burial. So this rune is about preparation for initiation; having your flesh flayed and bones reforged. The dismemberment (and death), and renewal of the body (for enlightenment) is a commonality that stretches across most cultural mythos.

This rune is about works of knowledge shaped into action; cleansing and transformation, unmaking for the sake of remaking.
It controls emotional powers to shape the feelings of others to help achieve goals.

It is about the ability to take parts, and create whole systems; art, drama, and yes, even disassembled motorcycles in your front room.

It is about kinship; acknowledgment of your ancestors and the knowledge they have passed down.

Analysis (bring into component parts), creativity, shaping things, creative fire. Art, craft. Transformation of current situation (by divine inspiration).

Power to produce your own truth. Consider and know before you effect a decision.

Merkstave
Disease, break-up, instability, lack of creativity. Nakedness, exposure, loss of illusion and false hope.

May indicate a person of the arts and crafts

just a thought.......when i think of a torch, i think of a point of light, that expands outward. the appearance of kenaz, also suggests "expansion", to me. does this fit into any part of kenaz's definition?

Transformation, spiritual expansion, divine influence (only to those who can hear); it is all part of the rebirth within life process.

It is about being able so see though layers of crap, and find the heart of truth; showing it to others, and changing their outlook.

koka - boil

sorry for butting in.
this is one of the passages on my website that i get quite a few upset mails about. copied and pasted here:
"Ken or as I call it in Swedish koka = Boil. The fire in this rune is not the open flame as in a torch but is in a slow cooking heart-fire. The fire of preparing things rather then finding things through illumination. It is energy controlled. A rune of transformation. How you digest knowledge... (as close as a cauldron the Norse will ever get) this is also the rune I see as Frejas rune. A rune of sexuality and lust. "

let me also note that i know very little of the runes but i know a few of them rather well. at least from a personal perspective. i used a few in dreamwork and magic.
still, the little knowledge i do have on the runes are not a scholary one, i have the Edred thorson book - futhark but could never read through the whole thing (yet, i might read more later)

Sexuality and lust?

It is more of a rune of controlled sexuality, control and guiding of sexual power and emotion…Sort of…

It would actually be in the realm of Nerthus who later became Freyja. Nerthus ruled death and fruitfulness (this will be re-visited later under the Rune Berkano). But control versus lust is a crucial point here.

if not controlled, it's destructive, applies to most energies.
but from what i read here, change/transformation/create, it's very dynamic energy, the energy of kenaz.....

kaz

The interpretation of this Rune as a Boil is very interesting! Its the first time I've come across it.. But I can see the similarity in some of the meanings of Torch..

Thanks for that, Umbrae and Jema!

Kiama

Nerthus suddenly got very popular in Sweden after a serie of books by the norwegian author Sandemo - a looooong serie about magic and sex and goody stuff

but she was never really part of the pantheon up here where i live.
for me she is foreign and belongs in Denmark.

as for sexuality and lust versus control, it is about melding things and what better way then some hot sex
sort of like alchemy with the body...
out of control sex would be obsession or rape and not lead to any good results.
so yeah, contol has to be there...

oh, never mind me. i can't write today, it's too hot to think and as i said before my understanding of the runes are just very personal and might be totally off in a scholary way.

I tend to read this rune as a healing rune...like the method of cautery, you have to burn out the sickness to become healthy again. Kinda vigourous treatment i guess, but I wouldn't recommend anyone do it literally.

I can see this rune as the fire of freyja, but i've never found room for that in an interpretation anywhere.