Isa

ISA

Isa (EES - ah) - Also known as Iss, Iza, Issa, Isse, Is, Eis

Value - EE however, phonetically Isa my represent EE, Y, J or I and even R (though the use of Isa in this form has largely been abandoned).

Numeric Order - 10

Traditionally Represents - Stillness

Represents - Hardness. Ice. Pursuit. Repentance. Skadi. Guilt. Arctic Fox. Polar Bear. Ptarmigan. Snow Hare. Yew. Juniper. Mugwort. The Middle Earth. Scandinavia. R'skjana (snow goddess in Vilturj). D'miezak'r and Karijiana (Moon and Sun).

'The bark of the rivers,
Sharp rain thorn
Destroys the doomed
But flat and fair
Is but a sweet view of life.'

- Vilturj Rune Poem.

This rune is very close to the gods. In Scandinavia, where the sun is represented by woman and the moon by man, ice is seen as the partnership between the two. Ice is the primordial partnering of the female, who was hidden, and provided light only a small amount of the year. Mani, the moon, lit the ice boldly at night-time, and provided more light than his female counterpart. Ice represented the Thurses, the sexless ice giants who were destructive, asexual and bloody dangerous.

The easiest to carve, but perhaps one of the most complex runes in the traditional Uthark (aren't they all?). Isa, or the ice rune, most easily identifies with the word that it represents, the cold hardness of frozen water, and it's ability to stay frozen for a long time. Isa represents frustration, challenges, psychological blocks, grievances, forced or voluntary stillness, and of course a chance to turn inward if we take it. Isa teaches us not to rail against the stillness which must make itself present from time to time.

On this planet we live in constant threat of ice age, and even now as glaciers move ever closer we skirt a smaller age of increased ice. Ice never truly leaves our planets, or our ice caps. It is crucial to our survival, yet can be detrimental in the form of hail stones, and frost. Even winter and the larger threat of an ice age to Europe and Russia is frightening and of course - very real. Ice moves for us and against us. It is an implacable force, and we both rail against it, and see its beauty in a frozen river or lake - when it is convenient for us to do so.

Isa can be seen as a stave of repentance from guilt and from guilt imagined. It is therefore also the stave of pursuit. This stave will bring events from your past to haunt you, and lets those skeletons in the closet give you all the nightmares that you can bear, fringing your mind like sharp icicles. This stave therefore not only teaches one to see the past, but to look closer and understand the reasons for events and for personal feelings.

Isa encourages you not only to see the snow, but to 'feel' for the deep drifts which are potentially dangerous. It encourages you to pay attention to the icicles of negative memory, and hold the warming light of scrutiny to them. However should you fail, Isa represents enough of stagnancy to keep following you around. Cast Isa once, and there is a high chance that you may cast it again for years to come.

The texture of Isa, and even the sharp shape of the rune are quite important. Ice is more than capable of drawing blood, and causing slips, breaks and dislocations. It may be a time of physical injury, or recovery from physical injury. If Isa has fallen in conjunction with a thought rune or memory rune, you may find that it is your mind that has fallen, or is injured.

Isa is coldly seductive. It forms quietly upon surfaces, rendering them thralled by its chill. It is the traits of seduction in a person who has no intention of starting a long-term relationship, or who seduces for the physical pleasure of sex, and nothing more. This 'seductive' nature of Isa is well reflected in its Merk or negative qualities.

Isa is quite famously known for representing the frozen or static nature of ice. I have always found this interesting, for though ice may appear still, it is never truly static. Glaciers three kilometers thick have been known to move at one hundred and twenty metres a year. Icicles melt. Ice sheets grow and break apart. Icebergs melt, merge, grow and crumble. There is actually no such thing as a truly static state. Isa then, is the slowness and frustration you feel when you know that you may be going forward, but far too slowly for it to be recognisable.

When casting Isa, you are drawing the glacier and the icicle into your life. Sure, they will move and change, but you can't control the weather in your life, and it's the weather which causes ice in the first place. The helplessness your personality feels at the presence of Isa, is also a helplessness which will free your inner soul, and get you back on the right path. Isa may be frustrating, it may be frozen and cold, but it knows what it's doing.

Oh, on a less wonderful note (because it's Isa after all) Isa in a casting can represent the cooling off of a relationship and the cooling off of friendship.

In a casting this rune will strengthen the runes around it. For me it imparts the message 'railing against any of these meanings is useless, they are all glaciers falling upon you when I am near them.'

Merk - Isa doesn't really lie reversed (unless you personally paint or carve it so that you can tell the difference) but does lie in opposition. This is the closest Isa becomes to a Merk-stave.

Isa, being a seductive rune, is the rune of poison, betrayal, lies and deception. Oh what fun! Not only that, but the rune can imply this at any point, because it can never truly lie 'right way up.' Therefore whilst you are being cautioned against physical injury, you are also asked to watch out for deception and betrayal, watch out for the poisons of others, and watch out for the poisons within yourself. Isa freezes your intuition and can leave you open for others to 'get' you. Isa however also freezes your ego, leaving you free to find the source of the poisons within you, and to expel them.

Isa can also represent great egotism, either around you (therefore preventing your realization of your inner voice), or more likely, within you. Ice warns that it is more than happy to trip you up, injure you or make you slip on your ass to get your ego to sit down, shut up and pay attention.

In Ritual - In ritual, Isa can impart a lot of power to those who would seek to understand it, but not manipulate it. It gives you the power to freeze the forces in your life that are moving too quickly, or to even 'freeze' memories and thoughts so that you may objectively review them (if that's what the situation at hand calls for).

Isa, as it freezes the ego, represents hypnosis. All methods where one 'quietens' the noisy mind to access a hidden mind relate back to Isa. Isa is also the magic involved when a hunter inspires a startle effect in its prey, freezing it rather than inspiring flight. This startle is the power in the lion's roar, which if heard closely enough, literally freezes an animal and renders it momentarily powerless. Isa's power may be hard to comprehend or utilise, but if you learn it, you will learn fast, and you will learn patience and strength.

Isa also allows you to focus your soul's will. Thorsson, suggested that it was personal will that was focused with Isa, but I personally believe and feel that Isa often frustrates the ego, allowing you direct access to the deeper you, the subconscious you Here you can examine your 'frozen' thoughts, and focus your intentions into the straight line, the cutting edge, that Isa truly is. Colours for Isa that help with focusing are white, blue and transparent. Its colour on the astral plane is red-violet and white-blue.

Next: Jara