Algiz
protection·instinct·vigilance
Algiz comes when your instinct is asking you to protect yourself.
The meaning
Algiz is the elk with antlers raised and the hand opened toward the sky. It is protection and the alertness that comes before it: the quiet feeling that lifts your head a moment before you understand why. It marks the shielding you give and the shielding you receive, and the thin cord that ties you to something larger and steadier than the noise of the day. Fear flinches from everything. Algiz simply watches, calm and awake. It asks you to guard what matters and to trust the small prickle at the back of your neck that knows before your mind does.
Where it comes from
The rune is named for the elk: its spread antlers make even a wolf think twice. And for the sharp sedge grass that cuts the hand of anyone who grabs it carelessly. Defense written straight into the shapes of nature. Its own shape is one of the oldest gestures humans have: a figure standing with both arms raised toward the sky, reaching up, warding off, giving thanks. People carved it onto charms and amulets for century after century, long past when anyone remembered why. The body still knows the posture. Algiz is that knowing.