“Patience up to a point. Know your time, but work your wyrd always.”
Jera - “Yehr-ah” - Literally: “Year” - Esoteric: Harvest
Rune of harvest and reward for, or reaction to, right actions in a horizontal (naturally ordered) cyclical process. Rune of peace on the land and in the heart.
Psi: psychological time, biorhythms, patience
Energy: time, good harvest, orbits, cycles, progress
Mundane: waiting, gardening, farming, the seasons
Divinations: Reward for positive action, plenty, peace, proper timing; or repetition, bad timing, poverty, conflict, regression.
Governs:
Fertility, creativity and harmony with the land
Peace, prosperity and plenty
Realization of the cyclical nature of the multiverse, invoking the power of time and cycles
Realization of the mystery of the omnipresent circumference
Bringing other concepts gently into material manifestation
Initiating gradual and lasting change in flow of life
My Notes:
The summer harvest was winter food, the seeds from the harvest became next summer’s crop. So while attentiveness to cultivation of the present moment is paramount, within the present moment lay the wisdom for future planning. The Havamal warily counsels: “Trust not an acre early sown, Nor praise a son too soon: Weather rules the acre, wit the son, Both are exposed to peril.”
The cycle of the seasons is not so much associated with time, but the inflow and outflow of the land’s breath. The rhythms of sleep, dusk and dawn, the heartbeat, the breath, all these are keys into unlocking Jera’s subtle nature. Like Isa, Jera is has an unstoppable energy, gradual but unrelenting, unhurried but persistent. Nature has a way of persistently marching on. Jera’s changes are not sudden or explosive, and cannot be forced. The key is making small, gradual changes every day, for the better. Taken alone these events may seem trivial, but they are cumulative and proceed forward with all the inevitability of earth’s journey around the sun.
Jera is a rune of patience and movement with the harmony with natural tides of life. Moving with such life rhythms brings abundance and plenty. The cyclical recurrences in the biosphere and of the astronomical procession spirals through time, and contains many more profound secrets than does our common involvement with linear time and the clock.
Jera has to do with right timing. In Ecclesiastes it is said “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…” Jera is in the maxim “This too shall pass”, the proverb, “As you sow, so shall you reap”, and in the modern adage, “time heals all wounds.” Using this rune is the key to understanding the mysteries of time and the psychological importance of dividing and managing time. In the hands of the skilled practitioner, time is not the restrictive element but a tool of power. Deadlines bring out the best in us and motivate us to grow to levels beyond our present ability. It also moves us to take advantage of taking action when the time is right. Take advantage of the ups and coast through the downs.
Jera can magically speed things up or slow things down, and manipulation of subjective time in this manner is governed by this rune. In this rune we see the most stark western counter-point to the maxim ‘time is an illusion’. If a person sows no seeds, does no work, plants no goals and desire in his or her thoughts, Jera will bring about situations which reflect that lack. The ultimate consequences of past human action unfold into the future.
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