Thurisaz is often called the rune of winter, the rune of giants, and the rune of misfortune. The alternate, more prevalent title, is Thorn, as the usage is generally that of a goad or a sharp point. At best, this rune is useful in a bindrune, generally against ill-fortune or to turn back perceived bad luck upon the source. Thurisaz is an unpredictable, chaotic rune, and is useful in rune divination as a warning against folly or malice.

Translations of the Icelandic kennings have given us the following verses to consider:

The thorn is exceedingly sharp,
an evil thing for any knight to touch,
uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.

torture of women
and cliff-dweller
and husband of a giantess.

Modern pagan literature insists that Thorn may also be a reactive catalyst, useful for clearing boundaries, purging trauma, or other forms of catharsis, mainly due to a fuzzily-defined relationship between Thurisaz and Thor. (Thor is descended from Giant stock.) However, the original symbols from which the modern interpretation of the rune was drawn suggest that Thorn was originally mainly intended as a curse-rune. The above kennings suggest at a sharpness and an origin in the Nordic giants, but also bluntly convey auspices of evil and pain.

As previously mentioned however, Thurisaz is a rune of chaos and sharpness. Common usage of Thorn in rune magic generally involves combining it Tiwaz or Sowelo in order to ameliorate the less pleasant associations.