Runes

Ehwaz

Also known as: ᛖEhwaz rune*ehwazEoh

Ehwaz (ᛖ) is rune 19 of the Elder Futhark; its modern keywords are cooperation, trust and movement.

Ehwaz is rune 19 of the Elder Futhark — the runic alphabet used roughly from the 2nd to the 8th century — and rune 3 of Tyr's ætt (an ætt is one of three groups of eight runes). It writes the sound "e", and in the Unicode block "Runic" it is ᛖ. The shape is like the letter M: two staves joined at the top by an angle.

The name *ehwaz means "horse". The Old English poem (eoh) says the horse is the joy of nobles and a comfort to the restless; the rune is absent from the Younger Futhark. The names of the Elder Futhark runes are reconstructions by linguists, and the rune poems — Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic — were written many centuries later and describe later alphabets. They tell us about a tradition, not about a certain original meaning.

In modern reflective practice Ehwaz is linked above all with cooperation, trust and movement. Today Ehwaz is read as the rune of horse and rider: cooperation built on trust. Together you can go further when each knows their part.

As the rune of the day in Cards of the day, Ehwaz has two short texts. The first: "Ehwaz is horse and rider moving as one. Notice today with whom cooperation feels easy, and value that trust." The second: "Good cooperation is a shared rhythm. Ehwaz invites you to say clearly what you need and to ask what the other side needs." A question worth staying with: "Who do I want to move forward with today?"

In AstroSensus runes are a tool for reflection, not a prediction. There are no reversed runes and no "blank rune" — the latter is a 20th-century idea, not part of history. In a spread of three or five runes, Ehwaz is always read together with its position and the other runes. The rune can also be your avatar on social media, with the bio line "ᛖ Ehwaz — I trust and I cooperate" as a reminder of your own intention.

RUNE OF THE DAY