TEUTONIC MAGIC - Awaken Video

EIHWAZ
Galdr-sound: ei (pronounced as i in “ride”-prolonged, steady, and powerful, at once stabilizing and
uplifting)
Letter: This stave can be used for EI but generally appears as a magical symbol rather than a letter; the
phonetic value is not certain.
(Yew) is on the outside
a rough tree and hard, firm in the earth,
keeper of the fire
supported by roots
a joy on the estate.”
Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
(Yew) is the greenest wood in the winter;
there is usually, when it burns, singeing.”
Old Norwegian Rune Rhyme
(Yew) is a strung bow
and brittle iron
and Farbauti of the arrow.
Old Icelandic Rune Poem
Yew holds all
Abcedarium Nordmanicum
The rune eihwaz, “yew,” is the rune holding the powers of the most mysterious of the magical trees
known to the Germanic peoples. The evergreen that played such a great part in the world-view of the
Germanics was, it has been well argued, a yew tree; the magical wand or talisman, when made out of
wood, was most often carved of yew. As the all-holding cosmic structure of Yggdrasill, the yew is indeed
the tree of magic, for there is no rune whose being it does not hold within itself. Seen in this setting, you
may understand one level of Odhinn’s runic initiation on Yggdrasill: only through the power of the yew
tree could Odhinn learn the runes which are the keys to all of being in their completeness. As the turning
point of the runic circle, eihwaz holds the entire futhark hidden within itself. A “rough tree” on the
outside, and perhaps the hardest of all the runes to fully understand, eihwaz is the “keeper of the fire”: the
hidden, but all-holding might of runic wisdom. As jera embodies the interaction of opposites and the
gradual growth of understanding, so does eihwaz embody the melding of opposites and the lightning flash
of revealing at the completion of initiation. The yew is known to the folk as the tree of death, having been
planted in cemeteries until this day. According to popular belief, the yew tree can “trap” the souls of the
dead. This is the simple shape of a much mightier mystery-the central mystery of the rune eihwaz and, it
may be argued, the final unspoken secret of Odhinn.
On the simplest level, the yew is understood to be a tree of death because it is very poisonous. It can
literally be death to eat of it and even lying beneath it can be dangerous because of the gaseous toxins it
emits. As the alchemist and the magician know, however, poison is a sign of power. Alchemy purges the
subject of the physical poison to create a healing agent; magic renders the poison, properly prepared, into
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