Ior, the Rune of Boundaries

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Meaning: unknown   Phonetic Equivalent: 'io'

Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

Iar is a river fish and yet it always feeds on land;

it has a fair abode encompassed by water,

where it lives in happiness.

There are no Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems.

Ior

Cala Gobraith, 2014

Ior, World Serpent, guardian of

inner and outer realms both, the keeper of thresholds.

Ior is the boundary warden that keeps us safe or

incarcerates us behind impenetrable walls of

imagination and illusions formed by our own

intent or ignorance, influencing our social and emotional

interactions with self and others.

Krasskova notes that Ior is a Northumbrian rune. She considers it a rune of boundaries, as well as the knowing of when to defend boundaries or to let people through. To her, Ior is a rune that teaches one how to challenge assumptions and to churn up the things we have buried deep within and that it can be used for warding.

Raven Kaldera sees Ior as being the rune of Jormungander, the World-Serpent of Norse mythology. He considers it a rune of boundaries and of the liminal space that a boundary represents, part of two things at the same time.

For me, Ior is a rune of boundaries, warding, warning, contemplation, especially dispassionate contemplation, and control of fear. I associate it with snakes, especially rattlesnakes. These snakes are shy, but territorial. They will give warning before striking.

Meditation associations: sound of rattlesnake rattle, coiled and content serpents, sense of cool efficiency, the limbless dragon-kin known as wurms, hissing and growling of cats warning others away.

*Kaldera, R. The Futhork Runes (webpage) http://www.churchofasphodel.org/articles/Futhork_Runes.html

*Krasskova, G. Runes: Theory and Practice. New Page, 2010.