Eihwaz

Eihwaz is the yew: evergreen, near-immortal, and poisonous in every part. Life and death held in the same tree, which is why it sits at the exact center of the Futhark. Its wood was made into bows and its shade was planted over graves: the thing that kills and the thing that endures, in one trunk.

When it comes up, something is ending so that something else can begin, and the ending is the passage rather than the disaster. The rune makes no promise that the change will be quick or comfortable. What it promises is that you are built to survive it: the yew endures by being deep-rooted and flexible at once, bending through the storm instead of bracing against it.

There is a strong note of protection here, and it is easy to miss under the difficulty. Eihwaz appears at hinge points precisely because the person facing them can take it. When it lands, stop resisting the current you are already in. Let the old phase finish properly instead of keeping it half alive, and trust that endurance is itself a form of shelter.

Eihwaz is the same either way up, so it never lands reversed: a draw shows it upright, always. Where it turns difficult is in excess: endurance that hardens into rigidity, holding on well past the point where letting go was the stronger move.