UR: A Fresh Perspective


Fresh perspectives are a necessary ingredient for the healing of old hurts and wounds.

Written on 1/11/2025. 

*********

Last night, while reading the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), the influential Indian philosopher, a new perspective on the Rune UR and its meaning emerged for me. While Krishnamurti did not comment on the Runes in his extensive writings and talks, he did frequently consider the topics of memory and truth. In his essay, “On Immediate Realization,”[1] he discusses the challenge of responding to an issue without the baggage of memory. He argues that residual memories result in a type of self-conditioning which limits our ability to tackle new challenges in a fresh way. He also emphasizes that, as he puts it, "[each] challenge is always new, is it not?” Therefore, we face new challenges through old methods filled with old baggage and scars. He explains his idea this way:

“Let me put it in a different way. I met you yesterday. In the meantime you have changed. You have undergone a modification but I still have yesterday’s picture of you. I meet you to-day with my picture of you and therefore I do not understand you-I understand only the picture of you which I acquired yesterday. If I want to understand you, who are modified, changed, I must remove, I must be free of the picture of yesterday. In other words to understand a challenge, which is always new, I must also meet it anew, there must be no residue of yesterday; so I must say adieu to yesterday.”[2]

Let us consider Hávamál 146, the verse associated with UR in light of Krishnamurti’s idea.

“A second I know: It is useful for people Who practice the healing hand. It chases disease and all pain. It cures hurts and all wounds.”[3]

While this verse is often considered and applied to physical healing, we should also recognize its effectiveness with psychological healing. Freeing ourselves from painful memories and scars of the past indeed chases away pain. Many hurts and wounds are of this variety, and UR may be used magically to free oneself of such memories.

Is such an interpretation consistent with what else we know of this Rune? Many authors and Rune magicians have associated UR with Urda - the Norn of fate and the past. The present, represented by the Norn Verðandi and the future represented by Skuld are deeply shaped by that which was —that which is forever woven into the web of wyrd.

The traditional Rune Poems present —on the exoteric level—very varied explanations. The Norwegian Rune Poem reveals:

“UR (slag) is from bad iron; The reindeer often runs Over frozen snow.”[4]

Here the smelting process which results in iron may be a metaphor for our lives. If so, the slag is that unwanted by-product resulting from the process which is life itself. Are our old painful memories the slag of our refining? Note how the image of slag stands in contradiction to the reindeer prancing over fresh fallen snow. If we are able to address fresh challenges in a fresh way, we are no longer burdened and dragged down by the past.

The Old English Rune Poem may have the most commonly thought of imagery.

“UR (Aurochs) is fierce and high-horned The courageous beast fights with its horns A well-known moor-treader, It is a brave creature.”[5]

Here UR is the fierce Aurochs, a now extinct wild ox with huge horns and significant stature. Are our memories fierce and even high horned? Like a beast, our memories fight with their "horns" and become a difficult adversary to overcome.

UR is the root of "Urd" or "Urda," the name of the Norn of that which was. It is representative, not only of the past, but of our memory and perspectives of the past. While not all memories are painful, some no doubt may drag us down — they are the unwanted slag resulting from the refinement of our lives. In certain situations, such memory becomes a fierce and dangerous challenge to us— confronting us with its sharp and impressive horns.

As we work to cure old hurts and pains, we turn to UR. As Krishnamurti observed, we fail to embrace new challenges or heal relationships with old friends and family when we approach them from the perspective of the past.

Healing requires new and fresh perspectives. Only then can we, like the reindeer, prance over the freshly fallen snow.

Notes:

1. J. Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom (Boston: HarperOne, 1975), 267-270.

2. Krishnamurti, 268. 

3. Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions #2: The Rune UR, https://knightsofrunes.godaddysites.com/lesson-2:-ur

4. Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore (Cambridgeshire, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011), 52.  

5. Pollington, 45.

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