Relationships Between Runes: The Job and the wealth

In previous posts I wrote about the relationships between:

	<—>
and
	<—>
and
	and

In this article, we’ll discuss the relationship between:

and

Lets look at the Anglo Saxon Rune poem for each of these runes:

Wealth is a comfort to all men;
yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord.

Here we see advice that wealth is not a bad thing, it brings us comfort.   But it’s also advising us that if we have wealth, we should share it.

If we turn to the Icelandic Rune poem, we have further warning regarding not sharing:

Source of discord among kinsmen
and fire of the sea
and path of the serpent

and the Old Norse rune poem provides the same warning;

Wealth is a source of discord among kinsmen;

the wolf lives in the forest.

Now lets look at the next rune:

The Anglo Saxon run poem advises us:

Summer is a joy to men, when God, the holy King of Heaven,
suffers the earth to bring forth shining fruits
for rich and poor alike.

This is telling us that when the harvest comes, it comes for all, and it brings us joy.

So  Fehu is the rune of wealth, and Jera is the rune of the harvest.   As I consider these two runes, I think of as the paycheck we get on each Friday (or every other friday, or once a month) whereas  doesn’t have an ongoing payoff.   It pay’s off when we complete a project.

However both of them give us a warning.   Wealth is to be shared, not hoarded.  In the Icelandic Rune poem, we see the line “Source of discord among kinsmen” for  and “for rich and poor alike” in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem for .