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Ing was a god of the Danes. The Old English word Ingwine means friends of Ing, and is applied to the Danes in Beowolf. Tacitus mentions a tribe lining near the Baltic Sea called the Ynglingar. The Old English Rune Poem reads:

Ing among the East-Danes was first beheld by men, until that later time when to the east he made his departure over the waves, followed by his chariot; that was the name those stern warriors gave the hero. The god Frey, who was the Teutonic male fertility deity, is said to have had another name, Yngvi. His descendants were called Ynglingar. Since Frey was the son of Nerthus, the earth mother, and traveled in a chariot, Ing is supposed to have been a fertility god, but this is only supposition. The Old English Rune Poem describes him as a hero.

It is interesting that his departure across the seas to the east is said to be in front of his chariot. One would assume that he would ride inside it. Perhaps he was the invisible traveler in a physical model of the sacred car, like Nerthus. Something may have caused him to remove himself across the sea-the coming of Christianity?-and his sacred chariot may have been shipped after him.

When Ing is viewed paired with Lagu, it should be noted that the god crosses the water. The crossing of water was a common euphemism for the passage into the underworld. Ing is a god who has gone away, like the great heroes whose bodies were pushed into the sea after their departed souls on burning warships. The chariot of Ing which follows after him is the lifeless, hollow vessel of the god.

Ing may have been a god of the hearth, a protector of the family and house, an insurer of good catches of fish and good crops. He would represent the healthy and productive side of sexuality. Lagu is the power and influence of waters-Ing the power and influence of the earth.

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MEANINGS:

UPRIGHT:

Simple strengths, common virtues, good sense, stability, increase, honest work, happy family life, successful career, loving and nurturing environment, human warmth, compassion, children, the home hearth.

REVERSED:

Toil, need to produce, responsibilities, dependents, stress, preoccupation with career, obsession with bettering lifestyle, rising up social ladder, buying a bigger house, moving to a more affluent neighborhood, worry about the future, dissatisfaction with present blessings.

KEY: GROWTH