A couple united on a journey into the unknown
Riding a horse of Fire.
In the distance, the Rune appears
On a mysterious cloud
In perfect unity
You enter the Cloud
This stage shows an initial harmony between our active and receptive sides, obeying the impulse given in Ansuz and leading to a dynamic journey, traversing a supernatural cloud.
In this glyph we find both the spike of Thurisaz and the downward-pointing leg of Ansuz. The spike of Thurisaz has become a command, and the direction, the impulse that will be set in motion by the leg of Ansuz, the form in motion: this is the journey.
In Uruz we encountered the strength of the buffalo and the need to integrate it. In Thurisaz, the Force sought to overwhelm the Form, then the messenger of Ansuz enabled an initial synthesis, an osmosis of Force and Form in a new awareness.
Thus the divine message was perceived, not as a concept or a disembodied idea but as a call to set out on a journey in order to bring into being the Synthesis glimpsed in all that we are and experience. Simultaneously, we understood that we must find a balance between our active and receptive sides. To do this, we must journey, for this Synthesis requires a break with the layers of the past and the adoption of new behaviors. To discover what the Messenger desires, we must abandon reassuring landmarks, certainties, and comfort to ride toward the unknown and traverse the cloud, a subtle aspect of the divine Presence.
Here, the uncontrolled fire of the initial runes becomes a force of dynamism and profound transformation—the engine, the ice the vehicle that will carry us to our goal.
While the metamorphosis brought about by the Futhark runes concerns who we are at our deepest level, this transformation also affects everything that shapes our world of perception and representation. We will perceive the changes in our inner world—in who we are as consciousness—only through the changes in everything that constitutes our outer reality, whether it be our relational world or the representations that populate our inner universe.
On this journey into the unknown, we do not set out without resources: the inner work carried out in the preceding runes has taught us to balance within ourselves the active and receptive forces, the celestial and the terrestrial; we possess the energy and conviction that will lead us to our goal.
It will be necessary to find the right pace, to regulate the horse’s stride to adapt it to the vicissitudes of the path, for “He who wishes to go far must spare his mount.” The inner sense awakened in Ansuz must allow us to avoid taking wrong turns, to avoid being swept away into dangerous gallops or indolent strides, if we trust it.
A successful journey requires both a stable vehicle, capable of adapting to the vicissitudes of the path, and the ability to question oneself in order to fully experience the new experiences it engenders. There is a search for balance in movement, this balance being both a preservation of the initial direction, formalized by the messenger, and a form of homeostasis, of continuity amidst the disruptions of the journey.
Immersion in the cloud expresses how the emergence within us of a new form of consciousness is accompanied by an encounter with the “Wholly Other,” confirming and putting into action the impulse given by Ansuz.