UPRIGHT
REVERSED
~ LAGU (water) ~l ~
The form of Lagu suggests a broken reed. It means water, particularly
the sea but also rivers, fountains and falls. Water is a complex symbol
with both positive and negative connotations. It stands for fertility
in the form of rain and streams, but also for the underworld of night-
marish monsters when presented as a dark still lake, or for the
capricious destroyer of ships as the roiling ocean. As a general rule
standing pools and brackish water is harmful, while clear, moving
water is beneficial.
Travel by ship was easier in ancient times than land travel. Most
people who had not spent their entire lives in one place were familiar
with the power of the waves, the initial terror of going out of sight of
land, and the sense of utter dependence upon the caprice of fate.
Water was the black realm of the unknown that men crossed fearfully,
having no idea what lay below the surface. It was equivalent to the
depths of the unconscious which the awareness cannot plumb. It
represented the obsessive and perverse side of sexuality when
unalloyed with the solar light.. In Teutonic mythology, the undines
(water spirits) are beautiful maidens who pull men under the surface
to their deaths. Their songs induce madness. Yet water cannot be
shunned, not even its frightful aspects, since it is a necessity of
daily life.
MEANINGS:
UPRIGHT:
Water, lakes, rivers, pools, wells, streams, oceans, mystery, allure,
dreams, fantasies, visions, imagination, creativity, physical and mental
fecundity, a giving and adaptable nature, feelings of romance, sentimentality,
emotion, a loving heart.
REVERSED:
Madness, obsession, mania, nightmares, the submerged, the hidden, the
deep, the underworld, despair, perversity, sickness, suicide by drowning
or blood-letting or drugs, uncontrolled urges, impulses, escape into a
fantasy world, excessive sleep, catatonia, coma.
KEY: UNCONSCIOUS
