Isa as a Birth Rune

Isa people are calm and collected. They can focus on one task without being distracted by bustle and keep their cool where others lose their heads. Their inner world is clear and orderly.

Isa teaches that not everything has to be done right now. Sometimes the best action is to stop and wait. The rune's lesson is to tell a wise pause from a freezing that gets in the way of living.

• Focus. You can give yourself entirely to one task.
• Composure. Emotions don't stop you from seeing a situation clearly.
• Constancy. You are true to your decisions and your people.
• Self-sufficiency. You are at ease in your own company.

The weak spot of Isa is coldness. The person guards their inner calm so closely that they shut people out, and others feel they can't get near.

The second trap is freezing: fear of change holds you in a situation that ran its course long ago. The rune reminds you that after ice there is always a thaw, and you need to let it happen.

In a couple you are a loyal, dependable partner, though you don't open up at once. Your feelings run deep, but you don't like to put them on display.

Allow yourself warmth. Your partner needs not only your constancy but signs of feeling too: words, touch, attention.

People with this rune do well in work that calls for focus and precision: science and research, programming, analysis, accounting and auditing, surgery, jewellery, archives, restoration, any work that needs quiet and concentration.

You shine wherever a clear head and composure matter. Success comes through patience and depth.

Isa's half-month falls at the end of November and the start of December, when rivers and lakes freeze over and nature goes still. It is a time of quiet and rest before the winter solstice. Isa is the third rune of Heimdall's aett.

Before Isa comes Nauthiz: need gives way to a complete standstill. After it comes Jera, the rune of the yearly cycle: under the ice the turn toward light is already ripening.