# Sowelo

Traditional meaning: sun

Meanings when upright:

- impending challenging surprise
- rapid spiritual awakening
- restorative vitality
- blessings
- courage
- unpleasant unexpected change
- you will be cared for in the end
- escape from stagnation
- there is reason for hope

Meanings when inverted:

- arrogance
- cruelty
- overreliance on external validation/guidance

Sowelo can be useful for:

- making one's mark on the world
- restoring one's energy
- victory through individual will

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

> Sigel semannum symble biþ on hihte,
> ðonne hi hine feriaþ ofer fisces beþ,
> oþ hi brimhengest bringeþ to lande.

> The sun is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers
> when they journey away over the fishes' bath,
> until the courser of the deep bears them to land.

Norwegian rune poem:

> Sól er landa ljóme;
> lúti ek helgum dóme.

> Sun is the light of the world;
> I bow to the divine decree.

A modern poem:

> What comes after
> disaster?
> What follows
> the worst possible outcome?

> The wind in its wealth carries your words:
> keep going, get a move on.

> I was told the Eschaton
> was but a cleansing that stretched out long
> to destroy all that prevented me
> from accepting
> my title as Solstice and my being as Lethe,
> but I've achieved both
> and all still grows worse
> and I know not how much longer I can drag
> this body of mine writing verses in red
> before I end up lifeless, drained, inert
> in the back of a hearse.

> You said we were palm pals, that you'd spend your life
> keeping me non-feral, safe, happy at your side.
> But my hand
> stands
> empty, cold, bleeding out
> and held up to the sky to catch the sun before in clouds
> it drowns.

> How much longer to go? How much more time to wait
> until the tragedy leaves me and the sorrow abates?
> You promised I'd be dead by May,
> assured me in the dead of night
> as from anxiety I could not stifle a weep.
> And I know it's not your fault
> it was a promise you could not keep.
> Not all in the future you can see clearly enough to tell
> and even if plans are made, ever-shifting is the Veil.

> Blanketed by thunder at four forty-four,
> arm around my waist to hold me secure.
> The moon reflects the rays of the sun,
> but it cannot do so all of the time.
> So when plumbs on the dark, my love,
> grant me the light to survive.