Rune Post #20: Ehwaz

Happy Wednesday! Today's focus will be on Ehwaz, the nineteenth rune of the Elder Futhark, and third rune in the third aett.

Ehwaz translates to "horse," and connects to themes of partnership, trust, friendship, connection between two entities, and forward movement. It can also connect to topics involving animals, and is often correlated with Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged steed.

An Anglo Saxon rune poem reads:

The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors.

A steed in the pride of its hoofs,

when rich men on horseback bandy words about it;

and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless.

I have so many funny stories with Ehwaz..... every time I draw it in the morning, I automatically think: "Two cars." In my personal experience this rune always means that I will be traveling with someone in tandem.

For example, I pulled this rune on a day my family was planning to go to a barbecue. I couldn't imagine why we would go in two cars, but sure enough in the afternoon my husband told me that our friend requested he come early to help set up, so we ended up driving separately.

Another day I pulled this rune when my daughter had a school concert, and my husband was running late, and so met us there after work.

Once I pulled this rune when my sister helped me take the car into the shop - she drove behind me so that we could leave together after dropping mine off for servicing.

Now my husband is in Sweden, and yet I pulled this rune last Saturday. I thought "this should be interesting!" My daughter had a volunteer project at a park that morning, so the kids and I dropped her off in my car. Later we decided to pick her up and head straight out to a park by a big lake nearby. Since the highway is the fasted route, I swapped cars to take my husband's as it has the SunPass (for toll routes) in the front windshield.

Even this morning, on the day I am posting about Ehwaz, I pulled Ehwaz. ;) On my way to work I thought I'd like a coffee, but decided to wait until getting to campus, and then I'd walk over to the cafe. In the end I walked over there with a colleague so that we could have a "walking meeting." Not car related, but certainly connected to partnership and movement!

Questions:

1) What other meanings do you attribute to Ehwaz?

2) How do you utilize this rune in your practice?

3) If Ehwaz has presented itself in your rune work or castings, how have you seen its energy manifested, or experienced its impact?

Ceridwen, Fylgja, and the Golden Horse

Last weekend I had one of those dreams that feels more like a visitation than a true dream:

I was standing in what appeared to be the back yard area of my parents' house (though it was nothing like their home in real life), and I was alone. The back edge of the yard was lined with forest, and suddenly out of the trees came a golden horse. He walked down into the yard, right up to me. I stood there (probably gawking a bit) and thought, "How did you get here?" And the horse said (our communication was entirely telepathic, so these were thought-forms as opposed to actual words): 

"You summoned me." 

He seemed to ask me to climb onto his back which made me feel slightly awkward - the idea of riding a talking horse felt wrong somehow. But he encouraged me, and so I did. Once I was there I felt a bit self-conscious, and worried that I was too heavy for him, but he "told" me that he was perfectly able to carry me. We rode around a bit, and I recall that at one point we went into the house. I remember thinking that my parents would be quite shocked to see me riding a horse inside! We departed again. And that was it. 

Throughout the rest of that night, throughout all of the other dreamscapes, I kept repeating to myself, "The golden horse." And when I woke up, I was still feeling deeply moved by the experience. As with dreams of other messengers that I've had - particularly ravens - I felt like the golden horse was a palpable consciousness dwelling within me. I looked up horse symbolism online but nothing felt quite right. The rune Ehwaz came to my mind, as it literally translates to "horse," and represents a harmonious bond between two beings (horse and rider, married couple, etc.) as well as movement and progress. A resource I consulted also mentioned the connection that Ehwaz has to the fylgja, a Norse concept of the fetch, or a sort of animal manifestation/aspect of the soul. This immediately resonated in that though the horse in my dream was obviously separate from me physically, I "felt" him within me. I was mesmerized by his telling me that I had called him. 

This morning's draw from the Celtic Shaman's deck (John Matthews and Chesca Potter)

Later that afternoon we packed our things and headed to the coast to spend the afternoon at the beach. As I was searching for a sack to put my relatively new Celtic Shaman's Oracle in, I saw my Magical Menagerie deck that I rarely work with. Since it is full of animals I decided to bring it along. Later, while lounging by the ocean waves, I took the Magical Menagerie deck out and began to shuffle it, while thinking about the identity of the golden horse. A card flipped out and landed face down in the sand. I picked it up and blew the sand off, and when I saw what it was I laughed aloud: Fetch. Hmm! 

In the week or so leading up to my dream I had done a few readings with the Celtic Shaman's oracle, and the Lady of the Cauldron (Ceridwen) had appeared for me numerous times. I knew she carried an important message for me, but I was struggling to dig into what it meant beyond themes of "inspiration, wisdom, transformation, magic." I haven't studied Celtic or Welsh mythology much, and don't have a firm or profound grasp on this powerful goddess. The morning after my dream I pulled some cards about it and there was Ceridwen again. 

I've done a couple of Tarot readings on this topic as well, but I still feel like I'm groping around in the dark for the answer. The cards made some sense, and yet I can't shake the sensation of skirting around the heart of the matter. And so I've been "sitting in it" for days. 

This morning I chose to pull a couple of "cards of the day" from the Celtic Shaman's deck, and nearly choked when I flipped over Ceridwen and the Horse. "The golden horse!" I practically shouted out in surprise. My daughter looked at me questioningly, and I explained my little saga. 

I'm clearly not "done" with Ceridwen or my golden horse just yet. I wish I could end this post with a dose of deep and insightful wisdom about the significance of my experience, but I don't have the answer. What I can say is that I have a lot more work to do!

Do you have any thoughts about it? If so, please feel free to share them in the comments!

Ehwaz and the 4 of Wands: A Breath of Fresh Air

This morning I pulled a rune for the general energy of my day, and a card from my Thoth deck to give me some advice about embracing it. I pulled Ehwaz and the 4 of Wands.

Ehwaz literally means "horse" and symbolizes Sleipnir, Odin's 8-legged steed (which has been a recurring theme for me lately, it seems!). This is the 19th rune in the Elder Futhark, and in simple terms deals with partnership and trust between people, positive change, and modes of transportation. Horses and humans had a deeply symbiotic relationship for so many thousands of years, and the bond between them was (and I suppose still is) sacred. Ehwaz can represent the bond of friends or romantic partners, and can indicate marriage. It can also signify movement, or travel that is necessary to achieve a goal (horse = transportation!). 

The 4 of Wands can also represent celebratory times such as weddings or marriage (or in my case, the joy of simply being at home!). This card embraces the feeling of relief - relief from everyday challenges, a positive event or shift that brings refreshing change. The wheel on this card highlights this sense of forward movement that gives wholeness to the way we experience our world. Remembering to enjoy ourselves is critical to living a rich life, and weddings and vacations certainly help us to do that. In my line of work, so do field trips!

Today a colleague and I are partnering up to take our respective classes via car and train to a major sports and entertainment venue in the downtown area. We try to build these experiences into the curriculum to give the students access to the outside world (many stay on or near campus), to give them opportunities to engage the English-speaking populace (they're all international students), and to give them a break from the typical lecture/project-based classroom routine. Ehwaz is certainly apt both in terms of partnership and travel, and the 4 of Wands encourages me to embrace the day and the breath of fresh air that it provides. Hey, even teachers need to get out of the building once in a while!