# Eihwaz

Traditional meaning: yew

Meanings when upright:

- Yewiffe
- the truth about oneself
- every ending is a beginning
- take care of yourself
- connection between opposites
- the tide is turning in your favor
- seek independence from the order of the universe
- a mystic or magician

Meanings when inverted:

- stagnation / burnout

Eihwaz can be useful for:

- act with self-knowledge
- self-care
- protection and banishing
- overcoming the fear of death
- communicating between levels of reality
- recovering past-life memories

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

> Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treow,
> heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,
> wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþle.

> The yew is a tree with rough bark,
> hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,
> a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate.

There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Eihwaz.

A modern poem:

> Lethe, my love, is this the ending you sought?
> Hooked up to machines until your final thought,
> dependent on them for all else.
> Is it quiet?
> Is it peaceful at last?
> Or medical cacophony until rings death knell?

> How many dreams I've acted in
> where you've cast yourself as the savior
> that provides means to escape
> while from death or mortal wound you do not waver

> but I'd rather you chose to survive,
> to not force me to say goodbye,
> to slowly heal the impaled wound
> instead of perishing all too soon.

> The cloak is nearly finished now,
> orange, obsidian webbed stitching,
> and I've got to see this through
> to
> the end,
> where lies every beginning.