In love
In a relationship, Uruz speaks of a solid presence and a desire to commit fully, to be tempered by listening to the other person.
Rune
Uruz: rune meaning
Uruz is the rune of the aurochs: a lively, patient strength that asks to be directed rather than spent.
- strength
- endurance
- vitality
The essentials
Uruz at a glance
For you, Uruz signals available energy: the moment to aim it at a specific project rather than let it scatter.
A strength
Raw, lasting energy, able to carry a long effort when it has a clear direction.
Something to watch
Strength without direction wears out in successive bursts, or turns against what it wanted to defend.
- Reversed
- Can also be read reversed
- Family
- Fehu’s aett
The meaning of Uruz
Uruz evokes the great wild bovine, powerful, fast, and hard to tame. The rune puts forward a deep energy, one that does not need to be spectacular to be effective: endurance, resilience, the ability to get back up and take the road again.
The strength is there, sometimes without your having sought it. The question then becomes one of use: what do you want to devote this energy to, and at what pace? Steady effort is worth more than a flash of brilliance.
Its shadow is power running away with itself: stubbornness, haste, the surge that crushes everything in its path.
Uruz in your life
At work
On a long-haul project, Uruz underlines endurance, sustained effort, and the energy it takes to see it through.
Draw Uruz or another rune
One rune for advice, three to read a situation: the interpretation starts with what the reading means for you.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
Uruz reversed
Reversed, Uruz is often read as energy that scatters or runs dry: a surge with no direction, a fatigue to listen to, strength misused.
The divinatory meanings of the runes are a modern reading: take them as lines of reflection, not as answers.
What the ancient sources say
The reconstructed name of the rune, *ūruz, is thought to mean the aurochs, a large wild bovine now extinct; this reconstruction remains uncertain, and researchers have proposed other meanings. The divinatory meaning of Uruz is a modern reading, which transposes the animal’s image into strength and endurance. As for the reversal, it is a recent addition, left to each person’s choice.
Reflecting on Uruz
A question
What do you want to devote the energy you have right now to?
A gesture
Choose a single task that matters and give it protected, regular time this week, without adding anything to it.
How is it built?
- Glyph
- ᚢ (U+16A2)
- Reconstructed name
- *ūruz (uncertain reconstruction)
- Meaning of the name
- aurochs
- Sound
- u
- Position
- 2nd rune of the futhark, 2nd in Fehu’s aett
Where the sources disagree
- Reversed reading (merkstave): A modern practice with no basis in the ancient sources: offered as an option, unchecked by default, and presented as modern.
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “Elder Futhark,” read on October 15, 2026: table of the 24 runes, reconstructed Proto-Germanic names (asterisk), meanings, aett.
- Unicode, Runic block (U+16A0–U+16FF), character names (Python’s Unicode database).
- Wikipedia (English), “Rune poem,” read on October 15, 2026: Anglo-Saxon poem (composed around the 7th century, Cotton Otho B.x manuscript destroyed in 1731, Hickes’s copy, 1705), Norwegian poem (17th-century copy of a 13th-century manuscript) and Icelandic poem (manuscripts from around 1500), the last two on the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark.
Frequently asked questions about Uruz
What does the rune Uruz mean?
Uruz means lively strength and endurance: an energy to direct toward a goal. Its ancient name, reconstructed with caution, refers to the aurochs, a large wild bovine.
What does Uruz mean reversed?
Reading runes reversed is a modern, optional practice. In it, Uruz evokes scattered or exhausted energy: a surge with no direction, to set down before starting again.
Nearby runes