“The mind will trust the body, the body will trust the mind.”
Ehwaz - “eh-was” – Literally: “Horse” – Esoteric: Trust
Rune of harmonious teamwork and trust. Rune of pairs of entities working together for a common goal.
Psi: trust between individual entities, sexuality
Energy: trust, cooperation, the Fetch
Mundane: animals, teamwork, friendship
Divinations: Harmony, teamwork, trust, marriage, loyalty, a friend; or duplication, disharmony, mistrust, betrayal, nightmares, indecision, an enemy.
Governs:
Activating the energies of your inner Fetch
Ability to detect deceit and uncover subtle queues
Facilitates swiftness in every regard
Establishing trust and bonds with animals (ie. horse whisperers)
My Notes:
Ehwaz symbolizes all the various bodies as vehicles for travel and movement. Twins represent the Sacred Marriage of the Inner and the Outer, or mind and body. The horse and rider metaphor is the best way to represent the symbiotic relationship between two individualized, yet harmonious beings. Anyone who has had the least exposure to the value of a horse to a person, family or clan would understand the esoteric code hidden within Ehwaz.
Ehwaz is not force, but persuasion, suggestion and co-operation. Control issues that birth questions such as ‘who is the boss?’ are settled and accepted with assistance of this rune. Making the best of a situation, making the necessary adjustments to a relationship and the finding of means are frequent activities that focus on Ehwaz can assist. In every way it represents flexibility, adaptability, pragmatism. It is the activation and use of instinct, using gut over the analysis or reasoning of MANNAZ or ANSUZ.
The loyalty, trust and dependence build between two partners with each passing day forms a web of emotional and spiritual one-on-one connections which becomes highly resilient as time goes on. Genuine friendship develops, for it’s own sake, the kind of bond we die for. It is the combination of emotional energies with the intellectual spark to produce harmonious partnership represents the friendship with parents blossoming upon adulthood.
Ehwaz is particularly relevant to the energies which bond man and woman together in lawful marriage. Its energies can unify two people in a strong cooperative relationship and attract the right persons for partnership in work, business, teams or service.
Ehwaz is the rune of the psycho-spiritual construct called the Fetch. Your Fetch is the opposite gender as you, inactive in the material plane but still quite accessible within your spirit. Activating the Fetch can assist you in attracting to yourself the right partner as your life mate. It will also refresh an existing marriage or committed relationship by re-energizing the two conscious minds of the partners in the coupling.
Most people do not realize that the answer to the great mysteries of the opposite sex are found within their own mental make-up when a communication link is established between oneself and one’s Fetch. One might imagine the Fetch, in modern terms, as the dormant DNA which is still active on a psychic level, though the physical manifestation has already chosen and developed its gender. Likewise, we are able to create an emotional understanding with any other human being, because within ourselves, we find the Other.
Other topics:
Learning of ourselves through others.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
26 Responses to Ehwaz – Rune Meaning
Leave a Reply
Discover the Secrets
STUDY RUNE MEANINGS
Get the Book Today!
Please elaborate on “Fetch”. I practice Holistic Nursing-am a Hospice Nurse and this term is fascinating to me-unsure why.Also lost a beloved husband to Divorce-via an affair he had?
Are you the same Muncey that worked at ct hospice home care? Send me an email if you are ~ I have a couple questions about work I Maine.
Thanks in advance ~ sorry if this isn’t the muncey I am looking for.
Dear Melissa,Yes, this is Munsey. However I am not living in Maine, now. Hope someone can help with your questions.Munsey
I have seen differing explanations of what a Fetch is. There is general agreements that a fetch is a spirit that attaches to us and reflects aspects of our own spirit growth. The explanation that resonates most for me is that we each have two Fetches. One appearing to us in animal form, and the other in a human form of the opposite sex. The animal will be one that we feel an affinity with and can assist us to cross into other worlds. Our human Fetch has approximately the same spiritual development as we do; however that is manifest to maximum advantage as the Fetch lives in the spirit realm and is not subject to the confusion this life brings to us. Consequently, our Fetch can help us to maximize our spiritual knowledge and growth, especially in understanding our non-dominant male-female self. If we open ourselves up and ask for our Fetches to speak with us and tell us their names they will, but we must be careful not to impose on them characteristics we personally covet. It is possible to establish a close relationship with a Fetch. I think it is possible that our Fetch grown spiritually along with us.
I think that we are all in the process of exploring what these otherworld connections are and would not want to be adamant about any aspect of what it ‘has to be. Perhaps when we are dying our Fetch is close and Munsey has a sense of this at the Hospice?
It may be possible that a Fetch can take on actual presence in this realm. But, I doubt that Munsey’s ‘lost’ love was a Fetch. More likely someone to whom she has a previous (and perhaps future) life link. Some work they need each other to complete? or some past action that needs to be balanced or righted? ….
There are other beings from other worlds with whom we can establish close relationships – a friend refers to them as “her people”. Again, while we have the most to learn, I do think that these spirits also learn about the currents of earth today through us.
This is very much an area of exploration, so readers, please add any thoughts you may have.
Mahryan, thanks so much for your response,I do begin to understand. our explanation has been very helpful.Truly Munsey
[...] Gebo is also tied deeply to the exchange of sexual energies between male and female, and so it deeply governs mystical union, sacred oaths of marriage and sex magic. For more on sacred marriage, one must uncover the mysteries of EHWAZ. [...]
i think the union of ehwaz is very strong indeed because it symbolizes the union of man with nature. the joining of male and female and marriage suggests the ability of the two to act as one. also the energy in this rune is very strong as well it can represent what happens and what can develop in a relationship. recently i asked the tarot cards some questions about relationships hardships partnerships tribulations and trials and why and how they were developing then with a single rune i came up with the rune ehwaz. ehwaz can help us not only realize our goals but find a way for us to achieve them.
On Fetches: a book called – The Runes of Elfland = tells a story about the fetch. There the fetch is described as the side of us that resides in the land of Faerie.
The land of Faerie is the land of nature, the otherworld, the spirit realm, et cetra.
I dreamed I met my fetch and being female my fetch was male and in the dream we worked together to bridge the “two worlds” (this reality and nature).
My friend has what she calls her main spirit guide and he is male and she talks and journeys with him in the otherworld and through trance and meditation, even channeling. She also calls him her Higher Self.
In speculation. I know of a boy who is very feminine even homosexual and in the otherworld his appearance is female. As for me, when I was a young child I wished with all my might I had been borne a boy. And resisted most things associated with girls. Could this be some sort of fetch struggle? Perhaps some way of balancing male and female energies? In more recent years I have worked to unite my masculine and feminine energies and be in balance.
And have sought to see the “fetch” side of other people. I think this has given me better understanding of humanity and the roles of men and women.
Hi, I made the artifacts that you see in the front pages of Runes of Elfland, it’s nice to see it referenced.
There is much power in the female, it is she who gives power to the male,and can easily take it away again . Re ‘the lady of the lake, Excalibur’
or simply a guy chatting you up being rejected or accepted.
Do not shun your femininity, it is the gift of Freyja. Learn to use it.
The balance of the worlds is at stake. .J.
Hel: As a child I too resisted all things female, wishing to be a boy. I guess it could indeed be a sort of Fetch struglle to enlightenment and balance, but until you put that thought out there I had just put it down to not liking the way girls were socialized and pushed into certain limiting roles when I was growing up. I have developed a close relationship with my Fetch and he aids me tremendously in understanding the ‘male’ sid of the balance and thus also the female, which I now celebrate rather than resist.
Yes, I now too celebrate my female form, yet remain masculine balanced :)
I still disagree with the way boys and girls are seperated into catagories and socialized. It seems needless to do such damage anymore. Especially since I met a hermaphrodite. We have become good friends and he/she tells the tale of the confusion and pain she went through as the world around him/her tried to push her to be male. You can tell he/she is neither a man or a woman, yet strangely both. She was born with both genitals and the doctors had the female side sewn shut! On coming of age he bled on a monthly cycle through his male genitals for seven years!
From this I can see how greatly important the idea of a fetch is to allow men and woman to become more human. To understand “the other side” and to be balanced. To allow everyone to just be.
Good evening
I would like to ask if anyone has experienced that his/her Fetch was imprisoned and needed his/her help before being able to set up a channel between them.
A friend lent me her runes yesterday as I am having a tough time with my husband right now.
I drew three and they were Ehwaz, Perthro and Sowilo.
Can you help me with reading them as a set of three?
I too felt that way as a child. It is so good to know that others have felt that too. I am really good with my female self now but am still quite a tomboy and love sports and all that kind of stuff, but I do like many feminine things. I used to talk to my imaginary friends when I was a child. I think I was more connected then, then I am now. I am trying to get back there. I have had a strange relationship with a man that went on for 5 years and he felt to me like he was my other half. I mean that if I was a man, I would be him. We went back and forth for 5 years, but he supposedly said that there is no chemistry (which I don’t know how he could spend 5 years with me if there was not chemistry) I chalk it up to life’s path. But the thing I have had trouble with is I still feel him and dream of him even after a year. Anyway I am comfortable with myself and have met no one else, I always feel that men are afraid of me because I am in touch with both my sides. Guess me and my fetch are close. It is funny because I have a red bear that I have always talked to and his name is henry. Maybe that is my fetch’s name. I really feel like connecting with the runes is good for me. And finding this website has been great.
Mahryan,
So I asked the question about if a certain person and I had a bond and were meant to be together and pulled this rune, then this is a good sign? By looking at this and what the meanings of this rune are it seems to be partnership. I would love your input on this and Tyriel too. :-)
I notice going through the comments on a number of the runes that there are quite a few questions about relationships. I think that the hardest thing of all is for us to be able to clearly see the runic messages when our own personal emotions are involved. The reason is that we are trying to understand our selves by asking about someone else. Hard though it might be to do, we probably need to shift our focus onto what we need to do for personal growth (and I speak from experience!).
Lord Don, in the above comments, notes that Ehwaz is about very strong, higher level unions. I agree, and most of the rest of the discussion previously is about ‘divine’ connections, especially with our Fetch. I have also suggested that past-life relationships or connections may be represented by this rune. A strong past life connection may need to take a different form in this life. Or there might be stuff that needs to be worked out. I don’t think it necessarily represents a union in the present life or world. It might, but only if other partnership and relationship runes were involved.
For example Jo’s runes above suggest to me a union with an unknown future – but healing will be needed whatever the future holds (but I could be totally wrong, because I don’t know jo or any of the context).
A few years back, when I was wallowing around pulling runes to make sense of a relationship, Tyriell suggested I re-focus. He sent me out to look for rune energies in the world around me (natural and human constructed), noting where and how they appeared and concentrating on why they might appear in theat way. He said I woudl gain a better understanding of the energies and how they can manifest in our lives. He was right ( and if he’s got time perhaps he can post something on that exercise?). Meantime, I offer the same suggestion to others bogged down in a focus on an emotional issue. Re-direct your focus and learn more about what the rune energies can do to strenghten who you are and where you are headed.
Thanks so much Mahryan. You are right in that. It is difficult to understand. I have really tried to focus on myself, but find myself sometime falling back into asking questions. Tyriel would like to see the exercise that Mahryan mentioned. I try to pull a rune a day and see how it applies to my life or how I can apply it. It is a journey.
They runes, written on stone or wood (or whatever you use for your set) are most commonly used in divination. I’ve also seen them used as inscriptions for ‘spells’. They were used on large stones, where our evidence comes from.
The exercise I mentioned to Mahryan that time was more or less based on my view that the runes represent a matrix of energies ever-present in our daily lives and in the world.
These energies are especially apparent in what we call our conscious, and unconscious.
So what is important to realize is that the stones, the symbols themselves, represent actual things in the world. They are currents, flows, reactive patterns, associations. Their concepts talk about things ‘out there’ and also things within.
Concentrating too much on the symbols themselves, concentrating too much on using the stones and expecting them to tell us something directly, is sometimes futile… because the stones, even the symbols themselves, have little to no inherent significance. It is the nameless, faceless truth that they point to that is of utmost importance.
And this truth has been talked about in every religion. Every philosophy and every science is a patient and methodical exploration of the truth. That is what I mean about the shift of focus from the runes to the outer world or inner experience. What is mere idea or concept represented by a mere symbol is an actual nameless, faceless reality. Look more at that reality than at the concept and you’ll do fine.
Tyriel,
I think I get what you are saying. I am really trying to use them as guidance for myself. I have my inner voices that help me through life, that I am trying to follow but sometimes they get mixed up with the noise of the outside world. I really am trying to look to the runes to kind of help me know which is which. This is why I pull a rune everyday and see how is applies to my life that day, but I do ask questions sometimes. I don’t want to get caught up in that though. I have been going through a rough patch for over a year now and just trying to figure out the lessons and what to do to move toward better in my life. Thanks tyriel and mahryan for all your input.
Kat, I’ve been reading some of your posts, and your post about drawing Ehwaz and asking if it was a good thing made me think about my own interpretations of this rune.
I am an accomplished horse woman and ‘horse whisperer’ (by this I mean I have utilized the way in which horses communicate with body and emotion to train and rehabilitate them) and I feel that through spending the majority of my life in the company of horses, the strength of my connection and understanding of Ehwaz is intuitive and runs very deep.
The relationship between horse and rider is often viewed as a harmonious, beautiful thing, a true partnership transcending language, a connection of spirits into a single being. This idea is shown time and again in horse films and literature: the perfect partnership, galloping on an open field or a sandy beach, or deep into battle, together, with hearts aflame.
Often in this literature, there is also a ‘taming’ of some wild, unruly horse into a magnificent animal, and the view that the person who tamed him is ‘special’ and has ‘changed’ the animal. This ancient tale goes as far back as the stories of Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus, and probably even further!
All these perceptions can exist in the real horse world, but not nearly as often as portrayed in fiction, and the ‘taming’ is definitely not done by the ‘better’ person who, with the wink of an eye, rides the wild stallion. By thinking on the presence of Ehwaz, I feel, somehow, that the rune is addressing this discrepancy between the real relationship and the perceived fantasy.
In reality, the horse and rider do not work as a harmonious team at all times, nor is there ever a point at which the horse and rider are at a state of permanent connection. There is always the give and take, the dominant and the dominated. The man is but a fraction the size of the horse, and can easily be over-powered and killed. A horse does not have the same ability as man to mask his own intentions, and cannot shield himself from the emotional manipulation of the trainer. There isn’t the same level of ‘thinking outside the box’ that is gifted upon human beings, and as such, the horse is vulnerable to manipulation in this way: man knows the herd ‘rules’ and man is notorious for using rules to his advantage. So, we are faced with the vulnerabilities of the physical lacking in the rider and the horse’s rigid psychology. Between the two there is always an ebb and flow, a give and take. Less harmony and more conflict, more harmony and less conflict, but never stable, never static.
The idea of the perfect, harmonious relationship is just that – a thought, an IDEAL, but it can rarely, if ever, be realized. Even in my most perfect riding moments, in which a horse and I connected so deep as to seemingly know the other within, there was much conflict, MUCH struggle, before reaching that point, and the conflict and struggle would soon return. This, to me, is Ehwaz: Balance, Guidance, but a Trade-Off, an expectation that the other in the partnership does have the power to manipulate your vulnerabilities, but trusting them to the betterment of the union. BUT neither can be ‘changed’ or ‘tamed’, these vulnerabilities and advantages exist as they are, always, and a ‘better’ person will not be able to alter them, only perhaps to accommodate, to understand, and to act in the best way possible. This can be seen in friends, family, lovers, and, of course, between the horse and rider.
I’m very very new to the runes, but I felt extremely compelled to share this with you, Kat.
Amazing interpretation Eleven!
Incredible insights here. Thank you, Elven ;)
Jan. 9th 2009 I wrote my comments re: Ehwaz. tonight-June 25th,2010 I am able to say that Elven has it — the intuition and knowledge of “the whisperings” of Ehwaz. The Dancing and The Prancing between all of creation especially in matters of the Heart! Thank You. Munsey Alston P.S. Tonight my Promised Jera has manifested.
Hi Tyriel and all here,
wow ..This is quite an insightfull site on runes.i am a newbie here and think it is an awesome way of putting on the psychology and all the esoteric elements of runes beautifully linked to gether.May I ask a question on the practical aspect of runes?- First of all let me tell you runes, just like tarot or I ching had helped to guide me effectively.Runes are fast and quick almost like an electric switch.Now the problem I am coming to discuss is about “control” if it is the apt word in the situation.I am an educator, a teacher for the past decade,-2 yrs back I joined a new school teaching children from 10-15 yrs of age.Here the whole lot of kids were unruly as one may have it.However hard I tried the kids were inattentive talkative and moving around (in case od the smaller agegroup).I tried all I can used love,persuasion ,being strict – used more activities,told stories to make the class interesting,only to end up more and more disillusioned .I felt so bad at my innability to hold their undivided attention inspite of all my efforts( it was’nt so before) I asked my children what was wrong only to be answered mam we like you but we are just not interested much in second languages.For the smaller kids in the class who used to run around used Isa the rune of standstill-I dont know if it was because I couldnt focus properly it didnt work.later I tried Ehwas for building more trust and teamwork,Ingwas etc.none of them worked or maybe for a few seconds.1:38 is not an easy dimension to handle.As a teacher with excellent success rate I dont know why I failed here.Can you suggest some other runes I could have used for this particular situation-?-Did I use the wrong ones?The present day teens are so much to handle. The runes have helped me in all the other times I had used them.
I think you should bring your question and story to http://runesecrets.NET the community half of the site. You’ll undoubtably find people to connect with there, maybe someone who’s had a situation close to your own!
Thanks Tyriel- I have posted it