| The eleventh rune and third of the Second Aett of the Elder Futhark is called "Isa". It's sound is "EE" as in "east". Literally, Isa means "ice", and its form is an icicle, straight, vertical, and unmoving. "Ice is too cold", says the Anglo-Saxon rune poem. "it shines likes glass, just like a jewel...fair to see". The Isa rune symbolizes static existence, the present time. Ice is beautiful to look at, but it does nothing, and it was of no use to the ancients. Symbolically, Isa is a rune that stops all activity. Ice forms because of the loss of energy that turns a liquid to a solid. The static resistance of ice replaces the fluidity of water. Isa signifies delay or a halt in the progress of something, or the termination of a relationship. Although ice is static, it sometimes moves in a mass. When it does so, as in a glacier, it flows with irresistable force. In this form, Isa represents inexorable processes against which we can do nothing. Also, when it is in the form of an iceberg, the depth of floating ice is deceptive, for we can see only one-ninth of the true mass above the surface. So the effects of Isa, which may seem significant, contain unsuspected implications and dimensions. |