Thurisaz rising from the deep

July 29th, 2011 |

It is now exactly one year since I started looking at the rune half months! The time has gone so fast and there is so much to explore that I plan to continue this work, albeit looking at new aspects of the runes this year. If you missed any of last year’s entries you can always look at the full listing under my rune calendar.

The runes are much more than a divinatory system, rune casting represents just one aspect of their mysteries. Runes are also gateways into other worlds, emanations of the full spectrum of energy, repositories of wisdom, lore and healing potential. Each one of them can be used for a range of specific purposes and, combined, their potential is limitless. In this year’s series of articles I plan to focus much more on the Rune Crafting aspects of rune work: working with rune energies to restore balance, bring about change and transformation. This is perhaps the less well understood part of the rune mysteries but, in my view, it is the next step on from rune casting – why bother to seek wisdom if you can then do nothing with it? If the exercises and meditations picque your interest please don’t forget that I offer a number of in-person and correspondence courses ranging from beginner to practitioner level, my aim is to open the fabulous mysteries of the runes up to as many people as possible.

Thurisaz – stress management for your thorny side

The beauty of the runes is that they grow with you, each one has a simple shape, a simple set of meanings and a simple sound. As you progress your familiarity with the rune increases, you learn more about its lore, associations and energies – but you can start off with the simple stuff. The Old English rune poem describes Thurisaz as a thorn. Envision a thorn, dark black, with a wicked point; it sits in front of you, menacing, its sharp tip poised for action. On an emotional level Thurisaz represents what we often think of as our negative emotions: anger, jealousy, rage, fear. In the right context these emotions are designed to protect us, they get our adrenalin pumping so we are ready to defend ourselves and our loved ones, but in this day and age we don’t often need to resort to fisticuffs or a quick sprint to our cave so these emotions have become frowned upon and we are taught to supress them - unfortunately the feelings are still there.

Back in the day Odin and his brothers killed the very first being, the giant Ymir, and created the world from his body. When he was slain, his blood gushed out and formed the seas, but it also drowned all of his children apart from two who managed to get away and found the land of the giants ‘Jotunheim’. This set in motion a seemingly unending conflict between Odin’s kind (the gods) and the giants; the myths are full of stories of the gods outwitting and killing the giants so that they might defend their kingdom and the kingdom of mankind. Now, in my view, the giants have a pretty good case for being upset and, one way of looking at them, is as the emotions we are told are unacceptable – even though we darn well feel like they are totally acceptable at the time. Now, I told you that one of the meanings of Thurisaz is ‘thorn’, well, the more common one is ‘giant’ – the rune might therefore be said to represent those primal, instinctive feelings that com about when we feel hurt or wounded.

Imagine that the thorn tilts towards you, ready to thrust at you. You may, like me, feel a sensation within your body as you prepare, even in your imagination, to defend yourself from attack. This is your fight-or-flight response kicking in, it is your own manifestation of Thurisaz – you are bristling with your own thorns, creating a burst of Thurisaz energy to help you at a perceived time of danger. The problem is that, if you don’t then need to run away or give something a good punch, then the Thurisaz energy has not discharged itself. I can be quite a stressed-out person at times and visualising the thorn helps me to pinpoint where I am holding my stress (for me my heart and stomach feel tense and constrained). I see the answering ‘pain’ in my body as a sign that I am holding negative Thurisaz energy inside me; don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a healthy dose of anger or a bit of an outburst every now and then, but if we hold this inside us all the time it will do us harm.

The interesting thing about all the anger, rage, fear and aggression flowing from Thurisaz, is that we wouldn’t have it if we didn’t have something to lose. Ultimately Thurisaz is the force that protects our survival, and the survival of those we love: the giants are angry because Odin killed their great, great granddad and drowned all their other relatives in his blood, the thorn makes you bleed because it is protecting its flowers and berries. Underneath all that dark Thurisaz energy is a flood of pure love, a will to survive.

The You Tube video below provides a short meditation which you can use as a daily exercise (perhaps during the half-month of Thurisaz), or just when you are feeling particularly crazy. The meditation will help you to release excess energy raised as your personal thorny ‘armour’ so that it doesn’t get re-absorbed into your energy body to float around doing damage to you rather than your absent ‘enemy’. If you feel that there is already Thurisaz energy stored inside your body (e.g. if, like me, the imaginary thorn pointing at you provokes a physical response in your body) then you might want to consider getting in contact with me to discuss rune energy healing, shamanic extraction work or a more intensive form of self-healing that we can devise together through one-to-one mentoring (see my practitioner page for further information).

For more experienced runesters

If you are already familiar with Thurisaz then you may well know that this rune is intimately connected with Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor. I see Mjolnir as a container of Thurisaz energy, the great hammer transforms the dark, angry energy into a controlled form which can be used for protection and blessing (as well as to smash things when necessary, of course). In my Hammer of Thor self-study course I include a working for finding your own Hammer which you can then use to connect you more solidly to the Hammer of Thor itself. Instead of grounding the excess Thurisaz energy into the earth (see the You Tube video), you can channel this energy into your own Hammer, storing it for use when you need it. When using the meditation I have given, see your Hammer resting before you on the ground and channel the thorn energy into it. You might want to draw a red Thurisaz rune upon your Hammer before you channel the energy, and then see it change into the Hammer of Thor sigil at the end of the meditation so that your Hammer knows to transform the Thurisaz energy into a more balanced form ready for you to work with at a later date.