Snow and Ice
A difficult and dangerous journey
You stand still and invoke the origin
Then thunder roars
Mjöllnir emerges and the storm subsides.
You continue on your way
And climb the ridge
To the two standing stones
Once you reach the space between them, you turn around
Reflect on and give thanks for your past
Struggles, failures, and victories.
Confident, you cross the threshold
And discover what
the Future reveals to you.
In the face of obstacles that hinder our progress, stillness reveals the power of Silence. The Hammer signifies the manifestation of inner Strength; the lightning bolt, the clarity that freezes reactive forces. Progress becomes possible and brings us to the threshold of the Present, where we see what has brought us here through difficult trials and we bless this journey, which signifies a release of our memories without remorse or regret. Thus freed from obsolete forms, we contemplate what the Future reveals.
The pointed shape represents both a thorn and a weapon. Here we find the vertical of Fehu, but the fire folds in on itself, generating a slag, an outgrowth that is also a fruitful breakthrough calling for new perceptions in a new universe.
We are approaching a first critical point. The expansive Force of Fire within us—both instinctual fire and the fire of our spiritual motivation—seeks to escape the constraint of form (the ice): our psychosomatic complex (spatial form) and our becoming (temporal form), within which it feels imprisoned. There is an eruption of Force within Form.
Fehu and Uruz have breathed new strength into us, the Energy of Manifestation. Here, the residual components of Uruz’s thrust, seeking an outlet, produce aggregates—reactive elements, vestiges of the past that delay transformation; this is the thorn.
Here, the initial inertia of Uruz concentrates into the obstacle, a densification of the ice. After an inevitable phase of struggle, we understand the necessity of combining the perseverance of Uruz with the initial aspiration of Fehu. The ambivalence of the obstacle, both as a stopping point and a focal point, becomes apparent. While our ardent desire for change may justify a form of violence, this is ineffective: the determination born of trust in the fire that animates us allows us to overcome obstacles. Thurisaz teaches us to remain focused on the goal, despite inevitable difficulties. If we persevere, it is these two forces, by combining, that open the way for us: Thor’s Hammer, dispelling opposing forces, combines here the mass of Ice and the impulse of Fire.
By recognizing within ourselves the reactive forces rooted in memory, they coalesce. Then, the thorn drained of its sap breaks free, and a new world can emerge. Thus, at the end of this first triad, a “crossroads” appears,