Meaning of the Rune Kenaz
Name: Kenaz, Kusma, Cen, Kaun.
Sound: k
Symbolic meaning: mastered fire, the fire of creation, cremation burial / release and also the inflammation within.
Kenaz is the rune of fire, controlled lighting, the lantern, which, in several languages, has a meaning that seems contradictory, or that of a light and that of a disease, but do not forget that a rune itself is neutral, neither good nor bad. The torch symbolizes the light, the light more precisely, because suddenly illuminates a dark place, in fact, this rune is linked to that process.
But fire can also be destructive and that is what makes the etymology related to the wound can be an inner fire that consumes, an impotence which results in disease control themselves, but even then there is a double aspect, since the same disease, that fire can awaken the inner and give life to lighting, if you wish, and you will be free to use it and tame it to create. Kenaz, in fact, represents the creativity - the blacksmiths were using up energy - and, in the Nordic tradition, the emblematic figure of the smith Wieland, whose story is somewhat similar to that of Hephaestus of Greek tradition, as their mutilation - comparable shamanic initiation which gives powers - and the rape to which they both leave. The blacksmith is therefore essential to an assistant of the Gods, is the great magician, folklore is a feared character, patron of alchemists since they transmute metals for gold: the transmutation is primarily spiritual and connected again shortly before lighting evoked.
The amount of energy contained in matter is immense, trying to explain it with Einstein's formula E = mc2: look at the fire, where the wood disappears little by little, in its place is a flickering flame, changing in color, which produces light and heat and light that we see later with Sowelo, Dagaz and the sun, the bright day, while we get used to the vision of Kenaz with God, learning to cleanse us from old and harmful habits.
Once again the journey of life relates solely us, every experience allows us to acquire new information to better understand the meaning and direction of our life, in fact, the sense of the journey is transformation, and it occurs through successive identifications and dis-identifications in a continuous process of death and rebirth.
Little Red Riding Hood, representing the menarche or the first revelation of the feminine, she meets the wolf, the dark side of masculinity, to learn what it means to become a woman: the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood, but the child will be safely extracted from the belly of the wolf killed by hunter .. Kenaz is the fire that destroys an old identity and builds a new one.
In Cosmogony Nordic existence starting from an initial state of emptiness, the Ginnungagap, and through constant interaction between fire and ice, opposing but complementary elements, created the cosmos and life, the giant Ymir and the cow Audhumla: the fire is always been regarded as a magical force ambivalent connotations for its beneficial aspect and destructive, since prehistoric man tried to control it using the basin of fire, a kind of hole in the ground with the function of the brazier, then it was used a brazier obtained through a ring of stones collected and stacked around it.
Fire is a dynamic and masculine as it generates transformations, tends to purifying all things by elevating it to a higher level, an energy that flows from it is life itself, to the point that death is perceived as the fire is out, hence the importance of preserving the rites of fire.
Surtr, Black, is in Norse mythology, a giant fire with his sword of flame, which is guarding Muspellsheimr, the fiery kingdom is in the far south of the world, perhaps there have sprung up all stories of hell that the Church has served up.