The Politics of Gift-Giving: Gebo in Action

This is the gifting rune. Gebo is all about the politics of gift-giving, the politics of exchange. It is about those invisible ties of obligation, debt and reciprocity that are inevitably created when a gift is exchanged. It’s also about the expectation that there will be equal exchange. It is an ongoing process initiated by the very first moment of exchange. Gebo is that process and everything that flows from it. It is the creation of an interlocking web of on-going exchange.

This is why Odin had to sacrifice Himself on the Tree, this is why He gave an eye to Mimir for a drink from the well of wisdom: gebo in action. It’s this rune more than any other that speaks to the reality within Northern occultism and the Northern Trad. in general that nothing is given for free: there really aren’t any free lunches, even when on the surface we think there are, most especially when you think there are.

I once had an anthropology teacher describe the process of gift-giving as a martial art. It’s a way of defining hierarchy, enforcing expectations, of bringing someone into a group or of excluding them. There’ s a wonderful text on gifting called, appropriately “The Gift” by Marcel Mauss that goes into some of this in depth.

Kenaz Filan (http://kenazfilan.blogspot.com) connects this rune with tribute. In this he is correct. There is that feel to it, but it’s often overlooked in common interpretations of this rune. As a rune of tribute, it is that formalized hierarchy of exchange that maintains society at a very deep level. It is responsibility and obligation that flows from that hierarchy. It is the warrior lord who takes tribute in taxes and service from his serfs but at the same time maintains the responsibility of seeing to their livelihood and their safety. It is the master magician who maintains an iron tight hold on her apprentice, but at the same time has the obligation to put herself between the apprentice and harm, without question. If either side of that contract is breached, a terrible debt of wyrd is incurred. It is a violation of a very sacred contract.

In fact, gebo might be seen as the rune of contract law! It is all about [sacred] contractual negotiation: I would like this, and in exchange, I must pay this. I have this, but in order to have this, I must provide this. Gebo is just as much about the negotiation preceding agreement as the agreement and final exchange itself. It’s very much about the negotiation inherent in that ongoing process of reciprocity and obligation. Because of its connotations with gift-giving and exchange, this is also the rune of sacrifice, most often in magical or spiritual terms.

I find, as I’m thinking and writing about gebo, that the same words keep coming up: obligation, exchange, reciprocity, etc.  Even politics play there part here: this is not a rune that operates in solitude. It is about interaction on all levels. It is very, very political in that at its heart, it is about the navigation and carefully weighted exchange of power. This is something to take to heart. These words, these concepts lie at the heart of what this rune is all about.

When it shows up in a reading, it marks the crossroads of exchange: it can tell you whether or not your wyrd is balanced; have you paid appropriately or is there debt. Debt is not something smiled upon in the Northern Tradition and with the runes, it can be somewhat unwise to maintain.