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The Barbelith Elder Futhark library - Uruz

20:44 / 03.02.02

Uruz
(proto-germanic: uruz; Gothic: urus; Old English: ur; Old Norse: ur)

Go for it.

Rune index

11:40 / 04.02.02

Pure animal vitality and strength. A test of one's mettle; reminiscent of the time when young warriors had to go out and fight the Aurochs, which this rune resembles.

Interesting how the first two runes in the Futhark deal with bovines, in the first case domesticated and the second case wild.

16:02 / 04.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Ierne:
A test of one's mettle;

An ill-kept country outhouse!

17:02 / 04.02.02

Strength, vital energy, the mad rush of life to eat and fuck and swarm over any obstical like kudzu. Life continues moving forward, always finding a way, like the dandilion through a crack in the asphalt, or the new shoots peeking through the soot of a forest fire. Organic Earth energies, vitality, healing.

There may be an obstical in your way, but rather than smashing through it as with Thurisaz, you will change to move around or grow over it. It is overcoming by growing until you are strong enough to surpass what blocks you. Water builds up at the dam until it finds another course, or flows over the top. It is change, as growing is to move on to a new state and form. Positive change and growth. Also, recovery and healing if you are currently in a bad place.

The strength is that of the unconscious mind, the unshaped and unfocused will. Raw primal stuff, power unharnessed by intellect. Follow your instincts.

11:05 / 05.02.02

Get on the wrong side of this one when it fires up and you're toast: ride it, flow with it, never oppose it unless you're willing to go down under a stampede of flashing razorhooves. Dealing with the energies in this rune requires a light touch and total commitment to your process.

This rune can also embody powerful latent energies, and balanced systems that contain great energies but appear still and silent until someone pushes the wrong (or the right) button. Wildness at rest is still wildness.

18:06 / 05.02.02

Uruz: the fire of initiation, primal forces, and raw energy. A refining process: getting rid of the useless, and uncovering the core.

Old Norse Rune Poem
Ur
Dross comes from bad iron;
the reindeer often races over the frozen snow.

Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
Ur
The aurochs is proud and has great horns;
it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns;
a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.

Icelandic Rune Poem
Shower
Lamentation of the clouds
and ruin of the hay-harvest
and abomination of the shepherd.

Ground Zero

09:41 / 06.02.02

If we are all cattle then this is the mother of them all...Uruz is identified with the original divine cosmic bovine Audhumla or as Pink Floyd called her The Atom Heart Mother (Ever wonder why it is called the Milky Way???) Penned up cattle need role models/heroes and this is it.Associated with the aurochs,a white shaggy beast that was hunted to extinction by european hunters.
I call this one the fictionsuit rune...the author rune,if you will.Like I said even cattle have dreams...if you were a cow wouldn't you dream of being "the superman of cattle"?? Where the cattle are enslaved,the aurochs were free...

Also,this rune was the inspiration for Hitler's idea of a super race...true.We'll get into that more as we go along...

Fire blended with the waters of life...it removes all weakness...but if misdirected it becomes destructive to the individual and society.
Again...the fictionrune: The ability to penetrate into other dimensions by the force of will.The consecrated will to form...

More to come...

16:38 / 06.02.02

Upon ingestion I saw the rune marked out in bones, it suggested to me strength and support from within.

The dream of confronting and pursuing dangerous activities. Such as hanging precariously and not waking at the point of fear, but continuing and passing the test.

In waking life I lost my necklace/talisman for a day, and it became a task to replace the leather thong holding it. I pursue and stalk my goals and find that I have the energy and ability.

Persistence is a key to this rune, sticking with it, with your 'guts' guiding your actions. Power from energy within the soul, fusing with the material body, manifest in all 'doings'.

Confidence on tasks accomplished, esteem and ability raise a flag, but no time to linger. Acknowledge and continue. Do not waste a thing/opportunity. Each minute detail can be used to achieve a goal, don't overlook what you may discard, it all has use.

Life sets goals, stalking and hunting completes tasks and one achieves goal.

Perception>Application>Action>Accomplishment

Fear generated by doubt, doubt makes an error. Do not doubt/underestimate your ability, you are as big as life

I harness the explosive power of my DNA

16:55 / 06.02.02

Primal forces that can manifest as a storm of war and destruction or as transformation and growth.

The first principle of shaping may also be the final dissolving principle in the end.

Transformation and change that wielded properly can turn defeat and despair into hope and victory. The opposite is also true when wielded improperly.

A container and director for other aggressive runic energies.

17:33 / 06.02.02

Would Uruz be associated with the Magus or the High Priestess???

You know me,I love my Tarot...

17:51 / 06.02.02

I put it pretty squarely in Strength/Lust, personally.

Wrecks City-Zen

18:37 / 13.03.02

See, again I was studying The Magicians Companion and they associate this with High Priestess <<< which I can understand >>> but I do like the strength idea.

14:14 / 14.03.02

Aah, I see. I looked over Whittcomb's correspondances last night (gods, I love that book. <plug>his new one rocks, too</plug> ), since you mentioned it, and I'll have to say intuitively I disagreed with most of them. I'm sure there are reasons for all of them, but they are not the ones I would have chosen. I tend to consider the runes as more forthcoming in their interpretations than escoteric, as per their nature and the forces behind them.

Wrecks City-Zen

17:56 / 14.03.02

Agreed.

I dislike the associations as well. I still stick with High Priestess as Uruz though...

Thanks cusm.

01:10 / 20.03.02

I was looking at the different rune poems for this, and not getting how the elder fit to the meaning. Then I saw one translation of the rune poems sum it up as "drizzle", and it made sense. Looking at the Islandic poem especially, this fits.

A drizzling rain would be a light rain (the Navaho would call this a "female rain"), commonly seen as a blessing for crops. Thus does a drizzle stimulate vital energies and growth.

The rune poems are like koans, often their meanings require a bit of decyphering to understand.

04:20 / 20.03.02

BTW cusm- what is the title of the new book?

14:12 / 20.03.02

They're all in Edred Thorsson's Runelore, which I've been digesting lately. He includes a couple additional sources beyond the classic three rune poems Wyrd has been good enough to include for us.

12:40 / 07.01.05

A test of the individual. Single combat against a powerful opponent. A challenge. A difficult initiation, through which the spirit is refined as baser components are detroyed.

Uruz makes me think of the Minotaur; a ferocious, cunning, man-eating beast, the terror at the heart of the labyrinth. The mystery of fear and power.

Fight fire with fire.

13:55 / 20.06.05

According to this "odinic-rite-vinland.org" site, this rune is associated with my favorite Norse god, Honir, the god of indecision. He was a diplomat, used to forge treaties, but had a lot of trouble answering any question when wise Mimir isn't around to prompt him.

Here's one story about Honir getting held for ransom with Odin and Loki after Loki accidentally killed this dude's shapeshifting son.

It's the foundation of the Ring saga -- the ransom gets paid with gold stolen from and cursed by the dwarves, including the magic ring.

I wonder if anyone knows of any tellings that give more insight into Honir's role -- or any reason why he'd be linked to uruz.

14:04 / 20.06.05

Weird. Timothy Truman's site (the comics dude who did Scout and Hawkworld) has a story about Odin and Honir, in which Honir is described as the best hunter of the Aesir. I don't know if that's a fiction from Truman or something he read about elsewhere, but it could be a link.

He's also almost always seen traveling with Loki & Odin, as a sort of component of a trinity.

Together, the three created humankind, according to one saga:
Oithin, Hönir, and Lothur then made the race of men: Ask and Embla were the names of the first pair made; the Gods made them out of the ash and the elm-tree. Oithin gave them soul and motion, Hönir gave them sense and feeling, Lothur gave them warmth and colour.

The sense and feeling seems like it might have uruz-ish overtones. Something id-like there.

Unlike the other two, Honir survives Ragnarok.