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The summary opposite concerns the reversed interpretation
of the
rune Eihwaz. As this is the same as the upright interpretation,
in practice there is no "reversed" meaning of this rune.
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This is one of those runes for which the "reversed" interpretation
is the same as the "upright" interpretation (for further
explanation of this see the page about reversed
runes).
As appears for Eihwaz (Upright):
This rune is about defence, protection, endurance, powers of aversion,
and sometimes a trying time/experience.
Eihwaz may also be thought of in terms of the active/concious generation
of extreme opposites such as night and day, or life and death. It
carries within it the essence of the latent (hidden) fire from within.
Understand this as the burning fire of spirit within each one of us,
a passion which may be held constrained but is always there.
The rune Eihwaz counsels patience through adversity. Perseverance
and fortitude are virtues - especially in situations in which a certain
time must elapse. The seasons change at their own pace and
sometimes there is great wisdom in awaiting expecting improvements
in circumstances before acting. In particular, do not act in ill-judged
haste.
More about the symbolism of the rune Eihwaz:
Eihwaz is sometimes given the English name "yew" with reference to
the Yew Tree. In ancient Norse mythology the yew was not just any tree, but
the "World-Tree" known as Yggdrasil - the
great tree of life from which Odin hung upside-down when he discovered the
runes. Some texts explain the symbolism of the rune Eihwaz with a description
of the vertical stem of the rune representing the axis of the yew tree and
describing it as a channel along which the "cosmic squirrel" propogates
disharmony between the eagle at the top of the tree and the serpent at its
roots. This "charge" can be thought of as an electrical charge
represented by the half-arrows at the top and bottom of the rune.
The wood of the yew tree was used for making long-bows, hence its association
with protection and defence. It is also associated with a endurance and longevity
as the yew is one of the most long-lived tress (from the regions of origin
of the runes). Other properties of the yew also indicated by the rune Eihwaz
include strength and flexibility.
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Note that each rune may be referred to differently
in different texts. One reason is that some books prefer to use
the traditional meanings as the names/titles
of the runes (as we do here). Other books refer to runes using
the Old English name, their Old (High) German names,
or their modern English letter equivalent. There are also other
sets of symbols that are associated with runes. These are more
difficult to represent electronically because they do not all correspond
to standard alpha-numeric characters. More about the runes as
listed here.
Other terms used to refer to this rune
are mentioned below:
The ninth rune
in the series listed on the left is Defence (Eihwaz).
The name of this rune in English is "eoh". It is associated with
the
modern English character/sound "e (ei)". The Germanic name of this
rune
is "eihwaz".
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