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Thurisaz speaks about the thorn how it can be used as means of defense for an individual or group of individuals. In times past those who were not wealthy, and needed a means of defense for their family would build hedges of thorn bushes about their homes, to keep the harmful things at bay. This allowed them some layer of defense, before the wolf was directly at their door so to speak.. The family had a way of then coming together and fighting as a unit, or at least supporting the person most qualified to do so.
In the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty we see the function of the hedge of thorns at it's most potent. Here all those who are not supposed to have access to the Princess Aurora and try to breech the hedge become caught in the thorns and die gristly deaths. The prince who comes at just the right time, walks right through, because the hedge is in full bloom, roses are everywhere and it magically parts just to let him pass and have access to her. Allowing him to break the spell she has lain under.
Thurisaz is seen as the bane of women, because of it's highly phallic shape, but this is inaccurate, it is only that women must bleed each month and thus be pricked by the sharpness of the thorn so to speak, whether they would bear children or not. At least until that stage of life is over for them..It does in fact give to women a great gift, allowing them to carry many secrets of how to focus the life energy if they can master the sharp pains both of monthly cramping and of giving birth. Childbearing has always been inherently dangerous, in the past moreso than it is today, though it is still possible for a woman to die in the act of giving birth. It is easy to see how this could be interpretted as a bane to women when so many sacrified their lives in the act of childbearing.
Those Vanes who are most associated with Thurisaz are those who have taken Jotynja as mates(Njord,Ullr,Freyr, ) finding a way to bridge new ways in being. The Vanir themselves are about fighting primarily from a defensive standpoint, the Jotunar are about fighting as a means of resolution, which we see when Skadi confronts the AEsir as well as from a more aggressive stance if need be. It should be noted, that in the story of The Ragnarok no Vanes are really noted as dying other than Freyr who takes part in the fighting. There is a kind of unspoken agreement on the part of the Jotunar, that if the Vanir don't take aggressive action against Them neither will They harm the Vanir. Of course having bonds of marriage between the two tribes is bound to be helpful here.
In the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty we see the function of the hedge of thorns at it's most potent. Here all those who are not supposed to have access to the Princess Aurora and try to breech the hedge become caught in the thorns and die gristly deaths. The prince who comes at just the right time, walks right through, because the hedge is in full bloom, roses are everywhere and it magically parts just to let him pass and have access to her. Allowing him to break the spell she has lain under.
Thurisaz is seen as the bane of women, because of it's highly phallic shape, but this is inaccurate, it is only that women must bleed each month and thus be pricked by the sharpness of the thorn so to speak, whether they would bear children or not. At least until that stage of life is over for them..It does in fact give to women a great gift, allowing them to carry many secrets of how to focus the life energy if they can master the sharp pains both of monthly cramping and of giving birth. Childbearing has always been inherently dangerous, in the past moreso than it is today, though it is still possible for a woman to die in the act of giving birth. It is easy to see how this could be interpretted as a bane to women when so many sacrified their lives in the act of childbearing.
Those Vanes who are most associated with Thurisaz are those who have taken Jotynja as mates(Njord,Ullr,Freyr, ) finding a way to bridge new ways in being. The Vanir themselves are about fighting primarily from a defensive standpoint, the Jotunar are about fighting as a means of resolution, which we see when Skadi confronts the AEsir as well as from a more aggressive stance if need be. It should be noted, that in the story of The Ragnarok no Vanes are really noted as dying other than Freyr who takes part in the fighting. There is a kind of unspoken agreement on the part of the Jotunar, that if the Vanir don't take aggressive action against Them neither will They harm the Vanir. Of course having bonds of marriage between the two tribes is bound to be helpful here.
contemplative