Wheel of Heaven,
Wheel of Time,
The wait was not in vain.
In the splendor of dawn
The birds sing of the coming Harvest,
Fertilized by the interplay of Fire and Ice, now reconciled
The Haystack shines like the Sun
Such is the Harvest.
Here the two polarities that define us are at work together, feminine receptivity and masculine generation: the conjunction becomes fruitful: this is the Harvest.
After the still simplicity of Isa, which reconstituted a vertical axis—the axis of our inner world stripped of all artifice—the glyph very clearly expresses a circular, radiant movement. This radiant and solar character is confirmed by the implementation of the doubling of Ken, the fire of the first cycle. If Ken expressed the fire of creativity, here this fire becomes harvest, expansive production.
The glyph very clearly expresses a notion of the dynamic conjunction of the two forces, a fruitful conjunction that generates within the void that separates them and in which the harvest can take place. The energy of Fire has awakened the seed that found its nourishment in the ice: fire is the energy and ice is the fuel. The fire burns in the central void and sets the two lateral arms in motion.
In this twelfth rune of the Futhark, we have reached the halfway point, the seeds sown in Fehu have sprouted during the first phase of the cycle, and the precautions taken thus far guarantee an abundant and healthy harvest, free from parasites and impurities.
Harmful sprouts were identified in Hagalaz and Nauthiz and eradicated by the cold in Isa, whose verticality preserved the quality of the seeds: the concentration of forces in Isa has now triggered germination and then the harvest. After the contraction and stillness of Isa, a new cycle begins, expressed by the Wheel of Jera.
If in Isa time stood still, as if “frozen,” in a form of hibernation, here the clockwise movement of the glyph indicates the circular path of the sun, marking the rhythm of the seasons.
The establishment within us of Isa’s verticality proves indispensable: if the axis is not solid or properly oriented, the wheel will seize up, hindered by dross; the wheat will be choked by brambles; the harvest will be marred by inclement weather. Brambles and bad weather are reactive elements, remnants of Hagalaz and Nauthiz capable of distorting the purity of the original intention.
On the contrary, the proper integration of the previous Rune has stabilized our inner universe around the vertical axis that connects “heaven and earth” before the wheel of Jera begins to turn.
Just as the time of harvest approaches, we must attune ourselves to the rhythm of this abundance. This wheel signifies the wheel of time, creating tension between our efforts and their outcome. While it is our duty to work the land and watch over its growth, there are “external” conditions beyond our control. This means that this rune embodies both the notion of work and that of waiting: every action must be in harmony with what time demands. We must act, harvest, and separate the wheat from the chaff while heeding what our inner voice tells us.
Once the harvest has begun, we must not lose ourselves in the intoxication of abundance, forgetting the lessons of Nauthiz and Isa, which taught us to distinguish the essential from the incidental.