Eihwaz

Traditional meaning: yew

Meanings when upright:

• Yewiffe
• the truth about oneself
• every ending is a beginning
• take care of yourself
• connection between opposites
• the tide is turning in your favor
• seek independence from the order of the universe
• a mystic or magician

Meanings when inverted:

• stagnation / burnout

Eihwaz can be useful for:

• act with self-knowledge
• self-care
• protection and banishing
• overcoming the fear of death
• communicating between levels of reality
• recovering past-life memories

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treow,
heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,
wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþle.

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 upon an estate.

There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Eihwaz.

A modern poem:

Lethe, my love, is this the ending you sought?
Hooked up to machines until your final thought,
dependent on them for all else.
Is it quiet?
Is it peaceful at last?
Or medical cacophony until rings death knell?

How many dreams I've acted in
where you've cast yourself as the savior
that provides means to escape
while from death or mortal wound you do not waver

but I'd rather you chose to survive,
to not force me to say goodbye,
to slowly heal the impaled wound
instead of perishing all too soon.

The cloak is nearly finished now,
orange, obsidian webbed stitching,
and I've got to see this through
to
the end,
where lies every beginning.