<li>perseverance despite emotional turmoil or pain</li>
<li>resilience</li>
<li>loyalty despite difficulties</li>
<li>courage to ask for help</li>
</ul>
<p>Meanings when inverted:</p>
<ul>
<li>external circumstances restrict freedom</li>
<li>hostile environment</li>
<li>too focused on externalities - turn/look within</li>
</ul>
<p>Nauthiz can be useful for:</p>
<ul>
<li>continuing on despite pain</li>
<li>eliminating hate and strife</li>
<li>recognizing/acknowledging your personal needs</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Anglo-Saxon rune poem:</p>
<blockquote>Nyd byþ nearu on breostan; weorþeþ hi þeah oft niþa bearnum<br>to helpe and to hæle gehwæþre, gif hi his hlystaþ æror.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Trouble is oppressive to the heart;<br>yet often it proves a source of help and salvation<br>to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.</blockquote>
<p>Norwegian rune poem:</p>
<blockquote>Nauðr gerer næppa koste;<br>nøktan kælr í froste.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Constraint gives scant choice;<br>a naked man is chilled by the frost.</blockquote>
<p>A modern poem:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What was once a tiny candle<br/>
now burns brighter<br/>
than the flames of hell.</p>
<p>The blood boils in my veins,<br/>
an altar to nobody set ablaze.<br/>
I'm straining my neck to peer up high<br/>
at the furious one who gave me life.</p>
<p>Or, rather, took it away<br/>
several times, each molded into a different shape,<br/>
and assumes just because she designed the mold<br/>
means she forever has the right to me control.</p>
<p>Ironically, deep down in the dirt<br/>
of the lowest roots of Yewiffe<br/>
is so painfully bright<br/>
that I feel I could go blind<br/>
at any moment, limbs in agreement<br/>
that to even move a twitch is to hurt.<br/>
How nice it would be to lie down and sleep...</p>
<p><strong>Legs stumble, steady arm<br/>
around my shoulders<br/>
keeping me upright.<br/>
"We've come so far,<br/>
Lethe. Just one more time</strong><br/>
I have to ask you to bloody<br/>
your hands, whatever, claws,<br/>
and fight."</p>
<p>Your hand finds mine.<br/>
I don't want to die,<br/>
I think. I don't want to write<br/>
you off as a lost cause<br/>
like you once did yourself,<br/>
you, yourself, me,<br/>
turned your back in abandoning<br/>
that winter cave not too long ago.<br/>
My hand in yours, counting heartbeats<br/>
as you threw yourself into dreamless sleep.<br/>
Hopeless you thought you, yourself.<br/>
Until one day came a change of heart:<br/>
"Lethe, I can't do this alone.<br/>
The living, I mean.<br/>
<strong>Please <em>help me.</em></strong>"</p>
<p>So many shattered souls for which I must atone.<br/>
My weight on your shoulders,<br/>
mountain rising<br/>
to meet the blurry all-sun sky.<br/>
Palm pals, sunny future<br/>
with our fingers intertwined,<br/>
the tree branches of Yewiffe hopelessly reaching high.</p>
<p>"The present feeds off the corpse of the past<br/>
