Strength
Manhood Womanhood
A Wild Ox

The Rune of termination and new beginnings, drawing URUZ indicates that the life you have been living has outgrown its form. That form must die so that life energy can be released in a new birth, a new form. This is a Rune of passage and ,as such, part of the Cycle of Initiation.

Growth and change, however, may involve passage into darkness as part of the cycle of perpetual renewal. As in Nature, the progression consists of five parts: death, decay, fertilization, gestation, rebirth. Events occurring now may well prompt you to undergo a death within yourself. Since self change is never coerced -- we are always free to resist -- remain mindful that the new form, the new life, is always greater than the old.

  Prepare then, for opportunity disguised as loss. It could involve the loss of someone or something to which there is an intense emotional bond, and  through which you are living a part of your life, a part that must now be retrieved so you can live it out for yourself. In some way, that bond is being severed, a relationship radically changed, a death experienced. Seek among the ashes and discover a new perspective and new strength. The original symbol for URUZ was the aurochs, a wild ox. When the wild ox was domesticated -- a nearly impossible task -- it could transport heavy loads. Learn to adapt yourself to the demands of such a creative time.  Firm principles attach to this Rune, and at the same time humility is called for, since in order to rule you must learn how to serve.  This Rune puts you on notice that your soul and the universe support the new growth.

REVERSED: Without ears to hear and eyes to see, you may fail to take advantage of the moment.  The result could well be an opportunity missed or the weakening of your position.  It may seem that your own strength is being used against you. For some, URUZ REVERSED will serve to alert, providing clues in the form of minor failures and disappointments.  For others, those more deeply unconscious or unaware, it may provide a hard jolt.

REVERSED, this Rune calls for some serious thoughts about the quality of your relationship to your Self. But take heart. Consider the constant cycling of death and rebirth, the endless going and return. Everything we experience has a beginning, a middle, an end, and is followed by a new beginning. Therefore do not draw back from the passage into darkness. When in deep water, become a diver.

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