While the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of this rune is Thurisaz, which is an appropriate name for a rune from the Elder Futhark, it has different names and meanings in descendant alphabets.

In Younger Futhark, it's "Þurs" (Thurs), and it means "giant". In the Icelandic rune poem, there is a reference to the Roman god Saturn, who, as we know, was born of Terra (Mother Earth) and Caelus (Father Sky). Such parents make a lot of sense from a Runic Alchemy perspective:

As you see, the Thurs rune consists of a vertical bar and two diagonal bars that start on the Air (Sky) and the Earth levels. They meet in the Emptiness, which is the separation line between Sky and Earth and the source of order.

According to Greek myth, Cronos (Greek version of Saturn) separated his father Uranus (god of Sky) from his mother Gaia (goddess of Earth) in a bloody way, using a scythe and causing a flood of blood that turned into oceans. Roman mythology adopted this story as well, since Saturn was directly associated with Cronos.

In Norse myth, something similar to the story of Saturn happened, but in a bit of a reverse direction.

The first ever living being, proto-giant Ymir, emerged from the interaction between Water and Fire, and he had no particular father or mother and killed nobody, which is not surprising considering he was always sleeping. Instead, he was killed by his grandchildren - Odin and his brothers. Again, the blood of Ymir turned into the sea, similar to the story about Saturn.

This is the first time in Norse myth when someone is mentioned to be killed or dead. As suggested by scholars, the name Ymir can be traced down to Proto-Indo-European *ym̥H-yo- "twin" and then to Yama, the first man who died and subsequently became the Hindu god of death. His name, Yama, also means "twin" and he has a twin sister, Yami, the Hindu goddess of Life. Another name for Yama is Kala - it means "time" which reinforces the connection with Saturn, because both Saturn and Yama (Kala) are considered gods of time, and ideas of time and death/mortality are closely connected.

In the Old English version, the name for this rune deviated from the original "Þurs" (giant) to "Þorn" (Thorn). It's hard to tell why this change happened, but new meaning also sounds meaningful and relevant, representing danger, pain, breakthrough, and sharpness. Back in Norse mythology, according to the Völsunga saga, Odin used "sleeping-thorn" to put Brunhild to sleep. By the way, according to Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic rune poems, Þurs is the torture/anguish of women. It's interesting to compare it with the description of Ymir, whose only explicitly described type of activity was sleeping and breeding other giants at the same time. So, somehow, a semantic cluster of proto-life, death and violence, sleeping potential and pro-creating forms around the Thurisaz rune, despite its meaning, is ambiguous.

Inside Philosopher's Stone, Thurisaz takes the rightmost position, and the thorn points to the third crossing point on the level of emptiness:

• The first was the starting tip of Kenaz, the initial separation of Water from Fire, so Emptiness emerged in between, causing the first degree of order: "here" vs "there". Interestingly, Kenaz and Thurisaz runes share the idea of wound, separation. Kenaz represents the initial separation of primordial Fire and Water. And Thurisaz refers to the final separation between Air(Sky) and Earth.

• The second was the center of the entire Stone, the point of the Dawn, where Earth evolves into Crystal and Light, the spirit of the Fire, is filtered through the Earth-Crystal and ascends to the Air. Again, this point was an act of order. Chaotic dark Earth, through ordering, became transparent and hard Crystal, and the rising Sun brought clarity to the dark world. The Sowilo rune describes the ascendance of the Light from the Fire, and look how neatly this process passes to the Thurisaz phase:

By the way, Sowilo is part of the Berkana rune, and we associated Berkana with a primeval cow, Auðumbla, who fed Ymir. And from the geometry perspective, we see the Thurisaz rune to be a perfect continuation of the Berkana rune:

Another perfect transition we can see with another divine bovine energy, but masculine this time, the Uruz rune, which we explored in the previous chapter. We already saw the "UruTh" combination in the chapter about Air:

• The third point is where Thurs is pointing to. It's not mentioned in the Norse myth, but accepting the parallel drawn with Roman/Greek myth, this point is the beginning of Time as we mortals experience it, the moment of the first death ever.

When working with the Sowilo rune, we found the Light, the spirit of the Fire, as a power of True Will, but True Will is a vector.

From math, we know the vector is some amount that has a direction and a point where it's applied:

• The starting point of True Will is your true self, which you can find in the very center. We learned from Algiz how to find and stand on your center point using Faith.
• True direction we found with the help of the guiding northern star by doing the Tiwaz rune.
• And the "length" of your Will, its intensity, and intention are determined by the amount of the Light you can conduct from your Fire through your Crystal. The clearer and "bigger" your crystal is, the more Light with higher efficiency you can extract from your Fire and use.

True Will is not just our arbitrary desire.
To be true, it should come from the true self, and it should be directed in the true direction. In actual daily life, the direction can be very different depending on the situation and your current position.

And now, by doing the Thurisaz rune, the True Will can finally awaken. Thurisaz, as a choice, is a sprout of the new world which grows with every one of our decisions.

But at the same time, every decision is a sacrifice of endless possibilities. Every time we make a choice, we choose to give birth to a new hard single reality, but at the same time, we kill a sleeping potential of the entire multiverse that was not chosen. We do it always, even without knowing. Even when we refuse to make a decision, the decision is still made.

Thurisaz helps us accept the power of Will and make every sacrifice worth it. If your will is awakened, you may make the same steps, but each step will be true, it will be yours, because you want it or not, you pay for every step with your own life, because every step makes death one step closer.

It's difficult look forward that far, and easier to sleep until it's over, and to move like in a fog. But spending life with closed eyes won't help in the end.

The Thurisaz rune makes life sharp and intense in its every moment, boring, usual, or special.