Runes 403 - Rune Interpretations - Family, Friends, and Life

It's been a whirlwind summer for me and I don't expect to have much a weekly routine until early September.  However, until then (and over the past week), my life is going to be filled with family and old friends.  My family and friends are spread out all over the country (and some even around the world), so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of family and friends and the life they bring to my life.  I asked the Runes how they would summarize this important aspect of our lives.

Their response gave me pause, but answered my inquiry perfectly.  In fact, each Rune seemed to align with a different part the question.

Ehwaz in the first position represents many great aspects of family.  Although we saw Ehwaz just a couple of months ago at the solstice, Ehwaz has four main meanings, each of which relates easily to family - loyalty, relationships, journeys, and the ways in which we make those journeys.  Perhaps these speak to me especially now as I just spent the weekend at a family reunion, but if we think about these words, we can see how easily family fits into these characteristics.  Family is there for you; that's the loyalty.  It's also a comfort I carry with me, knowing that, no matter what happens, my family will always be there for me.  That ties directly into the idea of relationships; for better or worse, family creates the first relationships we have and, most likely, the longest and last.  They travel life's journey with us (whether we want them to or not sometimes) and, I think they are the ones we are most willing to travel for, especially in times of emergencies and celebrations.

I liked drawing Jera to represent friends.  Not only is it the Rune I consider to be mine - my guiding Rune - but it represents cycles, symbolizing the changes that can happen within the span of a year.  In other words, we know that, with friends (just as with family sometimes), our relationships depend on the cycle of our lives.  Sometimes we are so involved in things that are happening in our own lives, we "forget" about our friends for a while.  Other times, it's the reverse and we don't hear from our friends, because they get busy with their own lives.  But the magic of true friendship is that, no matter how much time we spend away from each other, when we cycle back together, that time of separation dissolves and it is as if we have been together continuously.

Sowilo symbolizing life... well, I am not sure I need to explain this one.  Sowilo is the sun Rune, light and life, and the feminine energies of caring for others, creativity, and compassion.  This Rune is energy in all its forms.  Not only is it the basic necessity for life, but through the feminine aspect, it brings those things which make us human, the attributes that give us the capacity to care and create, to life.

If we consider all three Runes together, it paints a picture of hope and reminds us not only of the importance of the relationships we form with family and friends, but of the energy that we bring to them and they bring to us.