Tag Archives: Jorge Luis Borges

Twist

The answer to this stanza riddle is the word eolhx, meaning unclear. We know this is the name of the rune because this word appears in the only copy we have of the Rune Poem, printed in 1705 from the only surviving manuscript copy, which burned to ashes in a fire 26 years later. Was the word eolhx included in the burnt manuscript? We’ll never know.

Eolhx appears nowhere else in Old English writing, so whatever it means, we have no clues apart from its Rune Poem stanza riddle. What is this word eolhx? There are two compound words that begin with the same letters as eolhx, eolh, we can look at them: eolhsand (amber) and eolhstede (a shelter or a temple). Sand means sand or gravel and stede is a place, a site for something, or to stand, a stand. Eolh must be something valuable; amber was … More

Battle

 

 

Twigs for Divination

䷼ Hexagram 61

Name: Zhong Fu. Innermost Sincerity, Inner Truth, Inward Confidence

Image: An arrow hits the target dead center, passes right through. The target doesn’t wobble. A hen hatching chicks, they trust her. A broody hen on an egg, small, holds life within, anticipating.

Structure: Wind above, Lake below. Wind blowing over water. Energy, invisible. Sincerity is felt but not seen.

Decision: When you lie to yourself, you are not in possession of inner sincerity. Inward trustworthiness will enable you to develop your true nature. Do that, and you influence the inner natures of the people near you, then near them, radiating outward with force and influence, a mirror within a mirror hey presto.

Changing lines:

Line 3: The drum beats: charge! The drum stops. Stop. It beats! It stops. Confusion. You cry, you sing, you cry again. Phenomenal flux: energy and exhaustion. You have been taken prisoner. You hold enemy captives.

 

Changes … More

Rune Casting: Ger

You are coming out of it. It’s been a long time coming. What you’ve been missing, if you have been missing out, will return soon enough. This will be a rebirth of new life. The signs are already here that you will benefit from a rich kingdom awakening to plenitude. Fruits will dangle off of vines replete with abundance, but they won’t fall into your mouth just like that chickadee, you will have to take steps and get busy.

 

ᛄ

Ger is a little small. Look at it so teeny: ᛄ. You might not be able to see. It’s bigger now, it grew over time, but the poor thing was only half sized once. Sometimes Ger is carved to look like the rune for Beaver, Ior, ᛡ, making for redundancy and a real identity crisis for sweet little ᛄ, though ᛄ did stand up a little taller to claim a space in manuscripts at least. ᛄ’s got other problems too. It once made a J sound before shifting into a softer palatal G and then ultimately a Y sound represented by Ge, where it seems to have landed, unfortunately sharing the same initial sound of the ᛡ rune as well as its look sometimes. This does lend to a bit of an identity crisis. ᛄ was here first, I’ll have you know, and it’s hard for a small rune like ᛄ to … More

X≠Y≠Z: Y

Life is about to change for Y. The herd has been dwindling, with Z already exiled in wretchedness. X is on edge, chin elevated, ears pinned back, and has decided that Y’s days in the family are numbered. Y is about to be banished. Y makes an attempt at self protection by avoiding the subject and by holding up a mirror to others which proves rather a good surface to hide behind, but it is not going to help. X lunges forward, mouth open and ears flattened. X spins around and lands a series of rapid kicks. Y is not wanted. X has iced Y out.

As a matter of simple instinct, Y would rather run than fight. Y runs a short distance then stops to look back and see if X is a threat worth fleeing from. Watching forlornly from a safe distance, leaderless, Y has no other source of direction and … More

Life and Death

The Rune Poem stanzas Wealth and Human have so much in common they ought to be a matched set, except they already have their own partners, The Grave, and Need. Here are Wealth and Human repeating themselves:

Wealth: Sceal ðeah manna gehwylc (though each of us must).
Human: Sceal þeah anra gehwylc (though each and every one must).

And look at how many words they share: byþ, gehwylcum/gehwylc, sceal, wile/wyle, ðeah/þeah, drihtne/dryhten, dome/domes, 7 not counting pronouns. The name of the Human rune, manna, appears in the Wealth stanza so let’s count that one too: 8 words in common is a large number, especially when you consider that the Wealth stanza has only 18 words and the Human stanza has 23 if you include ꝥ, which isn’t a whole word but a grammalogue for the … More

How to Hold it Together

You look happy on the outside but I can still see you coming apart. It’s your whole vibe: you’ve got no zip, zero, nada, and look at you. Loved by your family, yes some of them love you very deep down in kind of a fuzzy way, but they are there holding strong nevertheless. They especially love you when you’re happy. Well, they like you more. Picture yourself out of the picture. Can you do that? Find a remove from which to stand and fulcrum yourself out, look at what that looks like. Not in a wonderful christmas carol life kind of way, I see what you want so stop it. You’ve been in the world, a messy person like you, yes? Messes leave stains. There’s going to be smears of you all over the place. Getting all up in everything. You’ve always been the red sock in the laundry, bleeding. So look now. … More

L is for Letters for Titles

What do you do?

I am a writer.

What are you writing?

A blank period of time. Wilderness. I don’t even know. Say something. It’s too long to say. Damnit say something you’re a writer use your words spit it out and for christssakes not a dissertation exam ted talk.

An alphabet book.

Al·pha·bet book (ælfəbɪt bʊk) /ˈalfəˌbet bo͝ok/ n.

 1. A book for teaching the alphabet. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 49 One of the alphabet books you were going to write.

Let·ters for Ti·tles (ˈlɛtə(r)s fɔː(r),fə(r) ˈtaɪt(ə)ls) /ˈledərs fôr,fər ˈtīdls/ n.

1. A translation of the Old English Rune Poem. See Rune Poem, Old English.

2.a. A book written forward in real time while linking backward in a retrospective arrangement, a mirror within a mirror (hey presto!).

b. A collection of interconnected compositions with captioned illustrations arranged into chapters based on runic pairs including but not limited to: an instruction manual, a … More

H is for Hægl

Good lord, you call me a god! O my dear,

I’ve a secret to tell you, it’s that I’m not here.

 

X≠Y≠Z: No Z

X: Z left.

Y: It was your fault. You did this. I mean, I support you and whatever, but Z left because of you.

X: Because of Z. Z left, Z left us, Z abandoned us and why? We have such a blissful situation here, it’s a fortress of comfort, plenty of anything, Z just had to stay in with us. Was that so hard?

Y: You got rid of Z, thinking Z’d come right back, you said don’t come back and Z won’t now. Z’s gone.

X: Z will need us. We’ll never be rid of Z.

Z: You banished Z, it’s permanent, you did that.

X: We can’t tell people that, we can’t say that to the nosey, the truth is it has to have been Z’s idea to go or how will it reflect on us? How can we say we just got rid Z, said Z get out, never

… More

Œ is for Œdipean Riddle


You live in the house of two mothers immersed:

One births the other and the other births the first.

 

Rune Casting: Gifu

Shoved out of the nest. Exiled in wretchedness. You have nothing else. You are not alone though, you’ll survive. Just. You have help coming to sustain you, a mercy, a gift. Help is the gift, and what a gift. Nothing more precious than generosity. Accept it now, you’ll use it later.

Translating Ac

The Ac stanza is a bad riddle because the answer to the riddle is right there in the wording. Since when does an Old English riddle include its answer? I’ll tell you when. Never. That’s when.

The Ac stanza is a good riddle because if it’s not Ac, then what is it? Hwæt? And if it does mean oak why does this riddle get to be so transparent? Let’s see if we can shine a light on it.

Clue: A line of Old English poetry starts with three alliterating stresses, three words that start with the same letter, and ends with a fourth stress that does not alliterate. The answer to the Rune Poem’s riddles is always the missing first word, so the first clue is always to be found in the beginnings of the next two stressed words: eorþan (earth) and elda (age). The answer to this riddle must be a word … More

How to Talk to God

First of all shush! Shh. You talk too much. You need to listen more. Who do you think you are? You’re not God. You are about to talk to somebody who is God and who is not chatty. So shush. Listen. What.

Before beginning a conversation with divinity, choose which divine being you wish to communicate with. Or beings. Perhaps your deity is multiple. Will you be talking to all of them? A select group? Maybe your divine one is not a one, but one of those many contained into the one deals? This can happen very easily. From the one to the infinite is but a step. Ascertain if your God is a two for one special, a throuple, or some sort of n = (n+1) arrangement, or perhaps more likely: 0*∞ = (0*∞)+1. Or if you prefer: 0/∞ = (0/∞)+ 1, it’s all one to me.

Determine as well if your God … More

How to Look Joyful

Look at yourself in a mirror or other reflective surface such as shiny metal or a pond. Be careful with ponds, you could fall in or get stuck there staring at yourself forever, wasting away until you become a flower or some such. This is to be avoided.

Note the current state of your appearance. Do you look moody? Do you look terrible? Ascertain if you must ask yourself if you look terrible or if you already know the answer.

Begin with your posture. You must hold yourself in a relaxed manner without thinking about it. If you are thinking about your posture, you won’t be able to shape yourself naturally into a joyful position and may appear wooden and flat.

Try to relax your shoulders. Hold them too close to your ears and you look stressed, too far forward and you look defeated. Try to pull your shoulders down and back. Not … More

Axaxaxas mlö

 

Rune Casting: Ur

I hope you’re ready for a fight because you are about to be flattened so badly you’ll be famous for it. Something is howling in from the wilderness, sent to blow your life down and not in a subtle way. This will be a wolf in wolf’s clothing with a one track mind, eyes locked on you, and your sad little piggy house is made of nothing.

How to prevent? Don’t make eye contact and stay out of the wilderness.

How to Move a Cow

Get acquainted with the cow. Make friends. This is a collaboration, not a battle, so you must find a way to join forces despite the cow’s opinion of you. Ascertain the cow’s opinion of you.

Ascertain as well the cow’s motivations. Why will this cow not move? Is it stuck? Is this a choice? If so, perhaps make the surroundings less comfortable for the cow. Introduce flies or possibly a beehive or two within kicking distance.

If the cow simply will not move, you must move relative to the cow. Change your frame of reference. Run past the cow and the cow will appear to be moving.

The cow’s acceleration is equal to the total force you provide it divided by its mass. Do not allow the cow to have infinite mass.

If the cow seems un-acceleratable, you must assume it has willed itself into a state of infinite inertia.

Get acquainted with your own … More