Odin: Now I’ve bled my ABC’s

In the Eddas, a collection of ancient Norse myths many of which were recorded in Iceland, Odin learns the secret of writing:

everything is illuminated...

Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows
For nine long nights,
Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odhinn,
Offered, myself to myself
The wisest know not from whence spring
The roots of that ancient rood
…

alphabet ephemera for the palimpsest of the human eye

 

 

 

Know how to cut them, know how to read them,
Know how to stain them, know how to prove them,
Know how to evoke them, know how to score them,
Know how to send them; know how to send them…

From “Hávamál”– Stanzas 138-144.

Blogging the revolution that won’t be televised?

The Icelandic Government has Collapsed… and then what? – A Letter from Icelandic Anarchists

Riot Police doused in Skyr-- the very Icelandic dairy product Colbert denounced!

Quotes:

“The Icelandic Government has collapsed and some people talk about a revolution. In a way it is true. Ordinary people overthrew this neoliberal government by writing articles, holding speeches, noise demonstrations, bonfires, car horns, direct action, civil disobedience and minor sabotage. A nation that before had hardly put up any resistance to abuse of power for a long time, finally stood up and said: “No thanks! No more shit!”

And yet…

“These ideas [that one of the parties or a coalition of parties more liberal than the recent neo-cons in power can do good]  have one thing in common, they are all based on the idea that reforms inside the current system are steps in the right directions, steps towards a more just society. They do not demand radical changes – revolution. Therefore it is strange to see people standing on Austurvöllur (the square in front of the parliament) shouting slogans like “Long live the revolution!” – no revolution has taken place apart from the fact that the government has collapsed.”

Gil Scott Heron’s words come back to me as I think about the possibility of revolution in the experience economy– what would an electrate revolution look like, anyways?  That Gil Scott Heron’s words are no longer literally true makes me as sad as realizing that about a third of my music collection is electronic–not even a pretense of a human artist in the sense it’s usually meant.

more about “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised-…“, posted with vodpod

Yggdrasill

Humongous Fungus A New Kind Of Individual

ScienceDaily (2003-03-27) — The world’s biggest fungus, discovered in Oregon’s Blue Mountains in 2001, is challenging traditional notions of what constitutes an individual. The underground fungus–estimated to be between 2000 and 8500 years old–is also deepening our understanding of the ecosystem, with possible implications for the management of Canadian forests, according to a paper by the discoverers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030327074535.htm

The Internet

The Masks of Odin by Elsa-Brita Titchenel

Copyright © 1985 by Theosophical University Press. All rights reserved.

“In the Edda, the Tree of Life is named Yggdrasil, apparently for several reasons. This is another of the ingenious puns the bards of the Norsemen used to convey their message. Ygg has been variously translated in conjunction with other words as “eternal,” “awesome” or “terrible,” and also “old” or rather, “ageless.” Odin (4) is called Yggjung — “old-young,” equivalent to the biblical “Ancient of Days” — a concept the mind can grasp only in the wake of intuition. Yggdrasil is Odin’s steed or, with equal logic, his gallows, the implication being of a divine sacrifice, a crucifixion of the silent guardian whose body is a world. In this thinking any Tree of Life, large or small, constitutes a cross whereon its ruling deity remains transfixed for the duration of its material presence. While Yggdrasil may refer to a whole universe with all its worlds, each human being is an Yggdrasil in its own measure, a miniature of the cosmic ash tree. Each is rooted in the divine ground of All-being and bears its Odin — omnipresent spirit which is the root and reason of all living things”