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A journey on horseback. In the Old English Rune Poem the journey is said to be strenuous, the horse powerful, the road long. All three elements are laden with significance. For the ancient Germans, travel where the roads were few and bad was of epic proportions. Moderate journeys required weeks-longer journeys months or even years. Physical endurance was tested to the limit. The journey became a metaphor for life itself.

Complete dependence was placed on the horse. Without it the traveler would be left on foot in the wilderness at the mercy of wolves and other things less natural. The horse became transportation itself, equivalent to the ship at sea. It has been suggested that Rad acted as a charm for travelers. The rune possessed a mystical association with journeying of all kinds. Perhaps it was given tot he dead to guide and assist them on their road to the underworld.

In the abstract, Rad means a seeking and striving. A quest. A search for fulfillment, perhaps a search for spiritual wisdom. On the material level: physical travel, change in address. forced relocation.

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MEANINGS:

UPRIGHT:

A promotion, relocation, change of residence, vacation, business trip, search; transportation by car, bus, train, ship or plane; personal evolution, seeking after fulfillment, alteration of circumstance, escape.

REVERSED:

Disruption, dislocation, upheaval, demotion, disillusion, aimless wandering, flight from responsibility, chasing rainbows, lack of fufilliment, long illness, possibly death.

KEY: JOURNEY