Where Have I Separated My Sex From The Gods? - Mannaz

all the holy races 
stand connected 
at the bridge 
where have I separated joy 
my sex 
from the gods 
my body 
from the divine 
Ask and Embla 
join together 
Mannaz 
breathes as one

The Mannaz poem is one of the 33 original rune poems by Ingrid Kincaid.  They were first published in March 2014 in her limited edition, completely handmade book (un) familiar.

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Mannaz

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We live in a world that isn’t just about us, wasn’t created for us, a world that can and just might continue on without us.  It’s a world that’s more-than-human.  Everything is unique but nothing is uniquely unique.  Everything is individual and we humans don’t hold some special place. There is no line that divides the gods from the humans, or the humans from the rest of the world.
This is our home.  We’re not aliens here.  We live entirely within the great realm of all things.  There’s no place to go and there’s no place we’re from.  Such imaginings cause a sense of hierarchy and separation.  When people talk about being from the stars or other galaxies, it’s often in that rather hushed tone of specialness. 
I smile and say, “That’s great!  Then we must be related.  I’m from the stars too.  I’m from earth and in case you haven’t noticed, it hangs right in the middle of the cosmos, surrounded by stars”.
We all exist in the void and the void has been there from the beginning and the beginning is also the ending because it’s a cycle, a circle, a repeat.
That’s how all the holy races stand connected at the bridge.  That’s how Mannaz breathes as one.  
We come from the great void, Ginnungagap, and the chaos caused by the coming together of Niflheim and Muspelheim.  
We come from that famed tree Yggdrasil in whose roots exist all Nine Worlds.  
We come from Audhumla, the reindeer cow who birthed and suckled the giant Ymir.  
We come from the places that were formed from the parts of his dismembered body.  
We come from the wood the gods found on the sandy shore when they formed Ask and Embla.  
We come from Heimdall who fathered the social order of men and who guards the Bifrost Bridge.  
And we’re all joined together as one.  We must face and touch each other just as the two Wunjo runes do when they form Mannaz.  This is the doubling of the joy.
It has become quite common and popular to write about the runes and discuss them using pretentious New Age jargon.  There are several online rune study communities that speak about them in the language of the self-actualized evolved perfected human universal mind Christ consciousness Buddhist enlightenment Sanskrit Akashic records inner transcending Higher Self Enlightened Being.  
Breathe.
The runes stand alone.  They’re sentient, independent spirits who don’t need to be constantly compared to other traditions or beings.
So much that is written about Mannaz focuses only on the human mind with endless references to our inner Christus, our Higher Self and the need to constantly strive to become an Enlightened.
The spirit of Mannaz teaches us about what it means to be a human and humanness isn’t just about the mind and intellect.  We cannot separate our minds from our beautiful, perfect human bodies, from the magic and power of our sex and sexuality, from our cravings for food and pleasure, from our connection to the earth.  When we try to separate the physical from the spiritual we separate ourselves from the joy.
An underlying sense of dissatisfaction, depression and discontent is fed by ideas that there’s always something wrong with being human.  That we’re only here to learn some lesson on our way to enlightenment, or ascension, as if there’s someplace to go that’s better or more real.
Our physical bodies aren’t sinful and imperfect, corrupt and defective.  We don’t need to shed them so we can evolve, ascend or become divinely enlightened.
Mannaz connects us to our wholeness as humans, our sexuality, our spirituality, our creativity and our perfection. 
What do you believe?