Yew is outwardly / A smooth tree / Hard and fast in the earth / the sheperd of fire / Twisted beneath with roots / A pleasure on the land. II
Firm in the earth, the yew / burns well in the fire, the joy / of the land long in the hearth. I
Defence, avertive powers, the Yew tree
The yew tree was used (heartwood) to make the best bows for the Medieval longbow. This served to keep protective distance between them and their enemy. To avert war the warning was put out to discourage either side.
This counsels patience, a delay may prove benifical currently. Nothing hectic, needy or rushing a desired outcome.
Announces a time of waiting before the begining of a new life. Perciverance and foresight are called for here. The ability to see consequences before you act is the mark of the thinking person.
To foresee the action of the opposition and to stop a blow before they have even though about throwing it.
Use your divertive powers to overcome the last small obstacle before your new life begins. III
Very little grows under a yew tree. It keeps space under its branches for itself. To divert the danger before it affects you.
Denial
A call to take control of your life. This is a time of seperating paths. We where not born to live in pain, but rather to transform our lives through a greater understanding of our lives and ourselves.
This encourages you to admit to yourself or to another the true nature of your pain. If you are still avoiding the truth, take this opportunity to remember that it requires time, hard work and understanding to come out of hiding.
If denial no longer plays a part in your life, you are perhaps being asked to show compassion to those around you. Look within and take stock, make a fearless and personal and moral inventory of your life.
When something is disowned, that which is disowned wreaks havoc. IV
Name Eoh
Sound between E and I
Number 5
Colour Green
Origin Hallristingor carving
The image presented may well be a yew tree, which was sacred to runecraft. As conifers they bear male and female cones and are symbols of hermaphrodism and immortality. Being evergreens adds to their symbolic importance, as is the fact that humans are barred from immortality by the fact the needles are poisonous.
This rune is the embodiment of 'better not to pledge than to pledge overmuch'. It is a symbol of our natural limits, it is the static limits of the natural laws of the natural universe. It always carries the connotation of great achievement that can be had eventually. V
Yew was the most important wood to the ancient Northern peoples. The mother of the longbow which brought them food and protection in times of war. Also held significance as a symbol of death and ressurection - still found in many churchyards.
You are within striking distance of your target and will achieve it with a steady aim.
On another level, represents the ability to put yourself into stronger and safer territories.
The yew tree is evergreen, flexible and strong and is excellent for making staffs, an image of inner strength.
The yew tree in a churchyard exists symbolically to direct souls onward to the other side. There is a way out of any difficulty as long as the situation is approached in the correct manner. II
Germanic name: Eihwaz
Anglo Saxon: Eoh
5 of 2
Norse - none
Phonetic value: E
Traditional meaning: Yew
The human spine which supports the body. Yggdrasil which supported the Norse world. The spines 24 vertebrae relate to the 24 runes. Hunting and daring are associated with this rune. Longbows made of yew. Uller is associated with this rune as he is identified with hunting. Bows were made of yew and Uller dwells in Ydallr, or the Valley of Yews VI
Letter Y
Name Yr
Meaning: A yew tree
Planetary rulerships: Jupiter and the South Node.
This rune has several names in Norse and Germanic dialects but they all come to the same concept of defence against danger. Yew was the best wood for the manufacture of longbows - the Engish prime defence. Jupiter is a protective planet and also rules Sagitarius, the archer.
The yew was a symbol of ressurection and one can be found in many graveyards.
In Teutonic mythology the invisible point on the moons orbit was associated with two wolves who where supposed to persue the sun and moon endevouring to swallow them. Whenever there was solar or lunar eclipse (Which can only take place when the sun and moon are in alignment with the North and South nodes.) The Teutons would say one of these wolves had caught it. This was a very dangerous time and is still counted so in modern astrology.
Soon the wolf would be forced to disgorge it's prize by Thor (the equivalent of Jupiter) and danger would pass. Thus the second interpretation is a hindrance or minor problem which seems more of a problem than it is. It could turn out to have been an advantage instead. VII
EIhwaz - the Yew Tree. The most important to the Nordic people, as they made their longbows from it and also Yggdrasil, the great Tree, was a yew. Associations with protection.
Can achieve your goals although there may be minor setbacks or delays which may even turn in your favour. Anticipate problems. The solving of a problem which has remained hidden. VIII
- To avert, divert and neutralise
- The yew tree
- To create defensive space
- Hermaphrodism and immortality
Meaning A yew tree
Divinatory: Transformation
A time of transformation, let go the old and embrace the new. Learn to embrace change, not resist it. The only constant is change.
As a yew tree grows, it's central trunk becomes soft and starts to decay. While this occurs a new sapling begins to grow qithin the tree, When the tree matures the same process continues to occur until the tree is made up of many trees rgowing from the centre outwards.
This enables a yew tree to grow to a great size and age. XI
The first of the trees which appear in the Rune Poem. Traces of the character of the yew remain in its association with death and use in 19th century graveyards. Originally it was somewhat different. They yew is an evergreen - it does not radically alter with the winter months, perhaps a hopeful sign that the world is not totally dead and the season will turn again. The verse reiterates this symbolic interpretation in a different metaphor. The yew is an unsmooth tree, just as winter is an unsmooth season, promising nothing but harshness and rough weather.
However that rugged nature is the yews great strength. It survives and becomes a guardian of fire, which then keeps the household warm through winter.
The last three words are 'wyn on ethle' - joy in home. This phrase contains two rune words 'joy' and 'home'. Joy casts attention back to the first aett, home forward to the third. Being also in the middle of the second aett and thus in the middle of the poem. IX
The thirteenth rune of the Futhark. A stave cut from a yew tree. The yew is the longest lived of all european trees and is green throughout the year, but its bark, leaves, roots, fruits and resin are extremely toxic. Because of this and the numerology, this rune is unlucky thirteen.
As it combines a remarkable longevity and toxicity the yew is also thought to be the tree of eternal life.
Certain yews have never healing wounds. These are the'bleeding yews' from which red resin flows in an unceasing stream like blood. The yew has a number of related powers, it's wood is a protector in it's own right.
In former times the main use of yew wood was used for bow making. As a killer of animals in hunting and of humans in combat, the bow was a death bringer. A potent way to ward off any assailant.
Northern tradition alphabets such as Runic, Ogham and Gaelic all ecognise this in the qualities ascribed to yew letters.
In the Anglo Saxon and Northumbrian rune rows, the yew bow has it's own special stave. Gaelic has two yew letters, the Gothic letter Waer has the same meaning.
Bows made of yew wood from a sacred grove such as Uetliberg near Zurich were considered to have special virtues. Yew is the primary domain of the God Uller, dweller in Ydalir, the Valley of Yews. It is also ruled by Skadi, the destroyer goddess, her skates, like Ullers skis and bow, are made of Yew wood.
Ancient frisian runecraft has left us several rune staves made of yew wood. They use yew for banishing all harm. Yew protects the dead, hence it's use in churchyards.
Druidic tradition speaks of yew staffs which are written with powerful oghams.
With the yew, death does not hold fear. Mythologically is refers to Odin on the tree and Christ on the cross. XII
The hunting God Ull built his hall in Ydalir, Yew dale, and the bow was his sacred weapon. In Christian times, Ull's place was taken by St Hubert, the Hunter, patron of the first monuth of the year. Ull was regarded as a winter God and the first month began, appropriately, on 22nd of November when the sun passes into the sign of Sagittarius the Archer.
In Chrsitian myth the yew was both a help and a hindrance to witches. According to some it was of assistance because it was planted near churches, thus offering some sacreligious benefit. According to others it protected churchyards from the 'demonic arts' of witchcraft.
Certainly it was of some use to the third witch in Shakespeares Macbeth, who employed, amongst other charm ingredients "slips of yew, silv'rd in the moons eclipse"
In German folklore, yew ground to a powder and baked was the remedy against the bite of a mad dog. XIV
The graveyard yew is a symbol of immortality. An old Norman adage says that "The yew contains everything."
Connected to the male mythos hunter, the Green Man, Herne, Kcrununnoss and the Lord of the Hunt.
Yew berries are poisonous and are used by modern witches in witch bottles to keep stalkers and abusers at bay.
The rune of endings and closure. Use toughness and flexibility. It may entail suffering and sacrifice, an ordeal must be weathered to arrive at wisdom. A challenge to be met and a game to be won.
A guard against self destructive behaviour. XVII
Represents the Yew tree (Taxus baccata) Early rune magicians cut double ended staves on rods from yew trees. Because it combines longevity with tixicity, the yew possesses the powers of death and regeneration.
It is the longest lived of the european trees and is green throughout the year, the yew is a tree of life.
The so called 'bleeding yews' have never healing wounds. Red resin flows from these wounds but the tree is unaffected. Bleeding yews are considered to be sacred, healing trees.
The yew has another side, for its bark, leaves, roots, fruits and resin are extremely poisonous. Thus this rune is sometimes known as the 'death' rune. It is also the 13th rune in the sequence, a number synonymous with being unlucky. XVI
The yew bow is flexible enough to adapt itself into a new shape without breaking, therefore this suggests a recoiling or stepping out of the way of difficulty. Take a flexible approach to life, adapt to new situations. Pitfalls will be avoided, inconvenient situations will turn out advantageus in the end. Use the strength of others against them.
FInd another way around a problem. Lateral thinking. XVIII