One of the members of  the Ice and Fire Stav facebook group asked if the Ethical Bind Rune was relevant to the present situation. Here is my answer to the question.  For those not familiar with this particular symbol you can see it here. It is a progressive bind rune which means that you will read it clockwise from the top. Thus it begins with Thor which means protection, initially of the self. Mann means protection of loved ones, immediate family and blood kin. Bjork relates to the wider community or perhaps a tribe. Tyr will mean a country or nation united under the same laws. Ur means defence of life itself, even if it means defying legal statutes through acts of civil disobedience. Rei, which means death reminds us that some things are worth dying for. Which brings us back to Thor and the conclusion that if something is really worth protecting it may also be worth dying for. I have written a detailed analysis of the ethical bind rune elsewhere which I will link below.

Is it our responsibility to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our community from illness? Yes, obviously we want us and them to keep safe and well. We should also obey laws and regulations which will genuinely help protect against disease. However, taking action to protect is all well and good when we genuinely understand the threat and know what response is appropriate. Taking action to protect based on incorrect information will lead to inappropriate responses, which undermines trust at best and may do great harm at worst.

A long time ago I heard Emma Restall-Orr (aka ‘Bobcat’) give a talk on ‘Druid Ethics’ and her main point was that the crucial ethical issues are ignorance and collusion. On one level we cannot be blamed for colluding with what we don’t know is a problem. On the other hand it is our responsibility to find out what we can, accept that often we don’t know the reality of a situation, and be discerning in what we collude with in our actions and words.

So, what might the Ethical Bind Rune suggest for our present situation? The key principle is protection represented by Thor. Who do we most want to protect? Our loved ones, spouses, children and those very close and dear to us. I have heard people say that as soon as they held their baby in their arms they knew that they would willingly die to protect that child. I felt the same way when I held our baby Iduna for the first time. (That is us to the right there). Sometimes I get frightened for her too as she is so helpless, dependent and innocent. We can’t ignore though that the other side of Thor is death represented by Rei. Thankfully, most of us will never have to find out whether or not we would actually be willing die to protect our child. I like to think I would and maybe that is true. What we should come to terms with is accepting death at the end of a life well lived.

Although death is unavoidable two popular motifs in modern culture are the zombie and the vampire. Both are the dead who will not die. The zombie represents the mindless mob which will destroy anything and anyone to satisfy their insatiable hunger. The vampire is the sophisticated aristocrat who is so divorced from any notion of real life that he can only feed of the life blood of the living. In both cases a failure to die creates a terrifying threat to the living. I believe these fictional monsters symbolise our modern failure to accept death and the price we pay for clinging to life at any cost. The mindless mob mentality of consumerism, the exploitative billionaire bleeding the rest of us into poverty.

We are currently living in a time of great fear and this is resulting in a desire for protection. We are told to huddle in isolation with our loved ones in order to protect communities. The forces of law and order are massively restricting our fundamental rights of free movement, peaceful association, and even to earn a living in order to protect the national health service. We are told that if we do not restrict the normal activities of life the health service will not be able to protect us from death. And so we now live in a society where loving grandparents must be protected from their own grandchildren.

The truth that no one seems to want to face is that we are all going to die anyway. The Rei rune reminds us that since death is inevitable we need to protect everything which is truly precious. Freedom, creativity, friendship, extended family, community activities and celebrations, property, businesses and wealth creation are all very precious things and no one is going to live for ever, even if we allow ourselves to be deprived of these things.

In Beverley there is a garden of remembrance next to St Mary’s church. In the centre of this space is a rather fine war memorial. The gates of this garden are currently chained and locked shut. I think this may be appropriate as the inscription reads: ‘To the memory of the Beverley men who made the supreme sacrifice in the great wars of 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945.’ I have not counted all the names on the memorial but it is a lot. Perhaps it is just as well we can’t get close to the memorial and read the inscriptions and see that list of names. It might just make us wonder why so many people died apparently fighting for freedom when all that was really needed to break the liberty loving spirit of Western society was the fear of flu.

We seem to be colluding with our own imprisonment of both mind and body out of fear of our own mortality.

The ethical bind rune teaches us that there are many different aspects of life which need protection, ourselves and loved ones yes, but also flourishing communities, a strong and prosperous country, life itself in all its wonderful forms and the freedom to live our lives to the full knowing that one day we all die and all we can leave behind is the legacy of a full life well lived.

Two quotes to leave you with:

“The foolish man thinks he will live for ever if he avoids battle,

But old age will give him no peace even if the spears don’t get him.” Havamal Stanza 16

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?” New Testament, Mark 8 v 36

Regards

Graham

PS I gave a talk at the 2016 Mercian Gathering which explored the Ethical Bind Rune in some detail, you can find it here.