Eihwaz
Eihwaz is the 13th rune in the Elder Futhark. It is also another of the runes that is not included in the Younger Futhark, meaning it is not present in the Old Norwegian or Old Icelandic rune poems. Like other runes in the alphabet, the rune's modern name is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the rune, coming from a word for "yew". Yew and its properties form the content of the surviving stanza in the Old English Rune Poem. From Wikipedia:
The yew is a tree with rough bark,
hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,
a guardian of flame and a joy on native land.
In the stanza, yew is presented as a sturdy tree, a source of protection, but one that thrives in the proper place. As a witch, yew is traditionally associated with both death and rebirth. Those themes are not really present in this stanza, but the practical usage of yew wood, I think, provides a good bridge between the rune's historical meaning and modern craft meanings. Yew is a hardy tree, and it was able to provide wood for weapons, such as longbows, as well as wood for instruments. It was also poisonous, particularly to livestock. And for that usefulness, versatility, and potential for harm, yew was heavily depleted in parts of Europe. Now, it is mostly a decorative tree, as it grows too slowly to sustain much of its former uses. Yet it's that practical usage that I come back to in more modern contexts for rune reading.
Building on that practical use of yew wood, it's easier to see how Eihwaz can translate into a modern context. Yew could protect, or it could wound. It could form the foundation for an instrument, or it could poison the livestock. Native wildlife had some immunity to yew's natural toxins that foreign species typically didn't. Yew is also a very long-lived tree, with some living over a thousand years. Practical, useful, long-lived, and toxic. That can describe a number of aspects of modern life. But Eihwaz's meanings are less about those aspects of life than about how we respond to them.
Eihwaz's bright meanings center on how we respond to life's inevitable troubles. At its best, Eihwaz endures. It learns from hardship, adapts, and turns experience into something useful—sometimes even something that can protect others.
Eihwaz's murk meanings emerge when that process breaks down. We repeat mistakes instead of learning from them. We allow fear to dictate our response. Or, like yew's poison, something potentially useful becomes destructive because we fail to understand or respect it.
When I encounter Eihwaz in a reading, I treat it as a gut check for how I'm responding to events in my life. I ask: What events am I responding to? And is my response going to help me grow from the experience? That focus on response shapes how I approach the reading as a whole. As with most readings, I also give extra weight to runes in the aett as Eihwaz if they appear in a reading: Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Pertho, Algiz, and Sowilo. Within my reading practice, I also give extra weight to the runes in the same position on the first and third aettir, Raidho and Laguz. These relationships can help understand Eihwaz's troubles and how to respond. Raidho's call to act may point to a need to respond more energetically to the challenge Eihwaz represents. Laguz's fearful shadow may suggest that the current response to Eihwaz is rooted in toxic fear.
Eihwaz isn't a warning that trouble is on the horizon. Eihwaz says it's here, and what are you doing about it?
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