Ice and hail
destroy my enemies
yet my shelter does not fail
The second aett (set), which is ruled over by Heimdall, the Watcher of the Gods, begins with Hagal or Hagalaz, the ninth rune. The three runes at the beginning of this aett are icy and binding runes, expressing their place at the first part of winter in the year-circle. Hagal represents the most powerful sacred number of the Northern Tradition, 'by the power of three times three'. Because of this, it is sometimes called the Mother Rune. Literally, the name Hagal means hailstone. Hailstones are water transformed for a short while from its liquid into it solid phase, during which time it falls from the sky, sometimes so violently that it destroys crops or property. But when the damage is done, it melts, changing back into harmless, even beneficial, liquid water. More generally, Hagal represents all aspects of frozen water that falls from the sky -- sleet and snow as well as hail. Everyone who has experienced a bad winter will know the sudden transformation that a snowstorm brings. Green fields and black roads are transformed rapidly into a sea of whiteness. Equally transormative is the thaw, when the colors of the landscape are restored. The Hagal rune has a number of forms. The Elder Futhark forms is like the letter H, whilst the Younger Futhark and more modern Germanic rune rows use a form like a six-branched 'star'. Symbolically, the Hagal rune is thecrystalline primal seed, the basic geometry which determines the structure of the material universe. This is the basis of Guido von List's Armanen runic system of eighteen runes. Basically, Hagal represents the processes which have to take place for a project to be successful. Because of its icy nature, Hagal can be used in Vardlokkur - warding and binding magic, But Hagal is not the primary rune of magical binding - thta is the role of the next rune Nyd. Magically, thought, Hagal can bring disruption, confusion and chaos, but it is more than that; it is one of the major runes of Wyrd. It expresses those patterns of events in our past life which make the present what it is today. The Hagal rune gives us access to those patterns of energy originating in the past which are active in and affect the present time. It represents the power of evolution within the framework of present existence, whose direction can be altered by the magical action of Hagal.
Some seem to thing that Hagal is the rune of the unconscious mind. Some even call it the Hag Rune. It is the rune at the root of things, both on the physical, between the upper world and Middle Earth. Hagal is ruled by the deities who guard the passages linking the world of the human consciousness with other planes. They include Heimdall, the watcher god who protects Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge which links Middle Earth with the upperworld. The goddess Mordgud, who guards the icy bridge to the underworld, is also a ruler of Hagal. So are the Celtic guardians of the underworld entrance in Britain, Gwynn ap Nudd and Midir. This rune is also associated with Urd, the elder Norn, 'that which was'.
In folk magic, this run is the protective sigil called the lucky star. This is drawn as a six-petalled flower formed of arcs within a circle. It can be seen on many old buildings, still protecting them magically against bad weather. Hagal's element if ice, the fifth element in the Northern Tradition, ruled by Rinda, goddess of the frozen earth. Its magic tree is the Yew, the oldest lived European species and it herb is the Bryony. Both have been used magically for access to the underworld and upperworld throught the arts of shamanry and, more permanently, death. Its sexual polarity is female. Its sound is 'H'. http://members.fortunecity.com/cosmicqueen/runes/runes3.html
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