Ehwaz is the Rune of the Horse, the Fylgja and the ability to travel to other realms.
Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
Eh byþ for eorlum æþelinga wyn,
hors hofum wlanc, ðær him hæleþ ymb[e]
welege on wicgum wrixlaþ spræce
and biþ unstyllum æfre frofur.
Horse is, in front of the earls the joy of athlings,
a charger proud on its hooves; when concerning it,
heroes – wealthy men -on warhorses exchange speech,
and it is always a comfort to the restless.
The Rune Poem Stanza relating to Ehwaz might be the most cryptic one. One thing that becomes clear though is that it is all about the horse. Taming the horse was an achievement that changed the world as fundamentally as humanity learning to control fire or inventing the internet. Far-off places that people couldn’t even have dreamt of reaching before were suddenly reachable. It seems that the conquest and settlement of Eurasia by the Indo-Europeans was closely tied to the domestication of the horse and we already know from Tacitus that horses were held in high regard by the Germanic Peoples and were thought to have a connection to the Divine.
The horse also plays an important role in Norse Mythology, the most famous one being Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse that allows him to travel to other worlds. Sleipnir was actually the son of Loki and the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki having lured the stallion away from its master in the shape of a mare, so he couldn’t finish the wall around Asgard in time and marry Freya but that’s a different story…
In the lore we find several links between the horse and the Fylgja. The Fylgja was a kind of protective Spirit of an individual, something that also could offer guidance and even allow someone to catch glimpses of future events. If a person was able to interact and actually “see” the Fylgja it would usually present itself in animal form.
Ehwaz is a Rune that can help to connect to the divine and especially to the Fylgja. The link between the horse and the Fylgja as well as other hints that can be found in the lore, suggest that the Fylgja was seen as the part of the soul that would enable a person to travel the nine worlds and offer guidance as well as protection on these journeys. In the Norse system, a close relationship to one’s Fylgja is essential in order to get access to esoteric knowledge as well as deeper insights into the nature of one’s Self.