# Ior

Traditional meaning: world-serpent

Meanings when upright:

- need for self-boundaries
- androgyny
- see the other side of an issue
- need for protection

Meanings when inverted:

- poor boundaries

Ior can be useful for:

- discovering hidden secrets/fears/anxieties
- warding and protecting
- learning how to navigate the emotional aspect of relationships

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

> Iar byþ eafix and ðeah a bruceþ
> fodres on foldan, hafaþ fægerne eard
> wætre beworpen, ðær he wynnum leofaþ.

> Iar is a river fish and yet it always feeds on land;
> it has a fair abode encompassed by water, where it lives in happiness.

There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Ior.

A modern poem:

> Sealing myself in skin of scales
> means dropping the markings of sex.
> Creature divine that lies truly between
> but sans the blessings of femaleness.

> Nidhogg lies trapped underneath
> the thick roots of Yggdrasil,
> but I cannot allow Yewiffe to create
> a jail for me out of my raging guilt.

> If I allow the gnawing inside
> to render my psyche frail,
> how will I have the strength to maintain this form
> and manage to slip past the Veil?
> It shifts in form and thickness
> like a guard patrolling on duty,
> but I must be quicker, protean,
> in this conflict between us that rages constantly.

> After all, there's a prize,
> a woman I've been yearning to reunite
> with my entire Inside-bound life,
> waiting for me on the other side.