<title>Thurisaz</title>
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runic_letter_thurisaz.svg"><img src="../img/runes/thurisaz.svg" alt="Thurisaz rune" title="Thurisaz rune"></a></p>
<h1>Thurisaz</h1>

<p>Traditional meaning: giant</p>

<p>Meanings when upright:</p>

<ul>
	<li>destruction of illusions and obstacles</li>
	<li>ferality / wild hunger with moral ambivalence</li>
	<li>creative chaos</li>
	<li>stubborn aggressive endurance</li>
	<li>proteanism</li>
</ul>

<p>Meanings when inverted:</p>

<ul>
	<li>control over one's shifting</li>
	<li>protection from going feral</li>
	<li>need for a change of situation</li>
	<li>self-destructive tendencies</li>
</ul>

<p>Thurisaz can be useful for:</p>

<ul>
	<li>breaking down boundaries</li>
	<li>healing in extreme circumstances</li>
	<li>bringing hidden issues to light</li>
	<li>granting oneself courage</li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>Anglo-Saxon rune poem:</p>

<blockquote>Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehwylcum<br>anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum reþe<br>manna gehwelcum, ðe him mid resteð.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The thorn is exceedingly sharp,<br>an evil thing for any knight to touch,<br>uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.</blockquote>

<p>Norwegian rune poem:</p>

<blockquote>Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu;<br>kátr værðr fár af illu.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Giant causes anguish to women;<br>misfortune makes few men cheerful.</blockquote>

<p>A modern poem:</p>

<blockquote>
	<p>The only language I seem to understand<br/>
	is your fingertips tracing hearts on my hands,<br/>
	ragged fingertips, pincers, claws<br/>
	held in the thrall<br/>
	of forever-now.<br/>
	Staring straightly<br/>
	blankly<br/>
	ahead<br/>
	as falls away the thread<br/>
	of memories episodic.<br/>
	You. I know you.<br/>
	I know you're my wife,<br/>
	a lover, a friendly face,<br/>
	oasis of refuge, unharmful place.<br/>
	That I belong to you, somehow.</p>

	<p>Wearing anything other than my angelic skin<br/>
	shuts off that part of the brain that insists<br/>
	I committed<br/>
	some heinous crime<br/>
	that can never ever ever be forgiven.<br/>
	Nay, the crimes themselves do not exist,<br/>
	and neither do I, eternal now, eternal blue.<br/>
	Computing set with limited instructions.<br/>
	This man I do hate, must tear out his soul.<br/>
	In this place I exhale and turn myself to stone.<br/>
	Spear I must escape lest it tear out my guts whole.<br/>
	This woman I trust, pay my life for her protection.</p>

	<p>Clawed mangled hands open and shut,<br/>
	brought to twisting knees before your altar.<br/>
	Surrender sometimes goes by the name "love".<br/>
	Ribbons wrap tight. I'm a birthday present, flash<br/>
	of a scrapbooking camera, epilepsy, timelapse.<br/>
	Trembling from transition. Antlered head in your lap.<br/>
	One day the Veil will one final time falter,<br/>
	<strong>my claws run ragged through</strong>,<br/>
	memories held as collateral for passport<br/>
	to slink back to the side of you.</p>
</blockquote>