RUNES, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Yesterday we went to a book signing at Common Good Books. Jeff Hertzberg and Zöe Francois recently released their second book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The bread was delicious, the authors serious about their work, down-to-earth, engaging and fun. In casual conversation, it came out that Zöe knows Latin. I remembered that I had taken two years of Latin in junior high, a curriculum requirement in the 1960’s. That got me to thinking about language and alphabets.
After the signing, Liz and I did a little Christmas shopping and later went to the studio. I was looking at this set of Runes I made from clay a number of years ago. For a period of time in my life, I consulted with different oracles on a daily basis: the I Ching, the Runes, Tarot, Medicine Cards. I have a passion for learning about symbols in different systems of mysticism.
Symbols are used to create structure within a system, to help us understand complicated ideas with a simple visual. Over time, color has been organized into systems like Goethe’s Triangle and subsequent Colour Wheel, while chakras are symbolized by certain colors. Logos and brands (like red Ravine or ybonesy’s new logo) take their lead from symbols of yore. Graphic designers are always trying to create innovative new fonts with which to drape old symbols in more imaginative cloaks. (Yet people still like an old standby because Helvetica remains one of the most widely used fonts around.)
I couldn’t find my Runes book last night or I would have drawn the Runes. But I did find an odd book I’d snapped up at a sale, an old Readers Digest Book of Facts. According to the Languages section of the book, all the alphabets around the world can be traced to a North Semitic alphabet that emerged around 1700 B.C. at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. From the Semitic alphabet developed Hebrew, Arabic, and Phoenician. Then Phoenician alphabet was adopted and adapted by the Greeks who in 1000 B.C. introduced a modified form into Europe.
The Greeks standardized the reading of written lines from left to right, added symbols for vowels, and gave rise to the Roman alphabet (used for modern Western languages) and the Cyrillic alphabet (named after Saint Cyril and used in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union). The North Semitic alphabet spawned the Aramaic alphabet which eventually developed into Asian alphabets, such as Hindi.
The earliest forms of writing are picture writings found on clay tablets in parts of the Middle East and southeastern Europe. Some of the oldest found in Iraq and Iran recorded land sales and business deals.
Where do the Runes fit into all this? They are a mystery. The Runic alphabet is one of the oldest in northern Europe with early examples dating to the 3rd century A.D. They have been found in 4000 inscriptions in Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland but nobody knows for sure where they originated.
For some reason, the Runes remind me of the ancient celebration of Winter Solstice. Some scholars believe the Runes were derived from the Etruscan alphabet of southern Europe and brought north by the Goths after their invasion of the Roman Empire. To me, they are an oracle of mystery. And that’s what draws me to them.
Post Script: The bread baked by Jeff Hertzberg and Zöe Francois was delicious. Their new book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day looks like a winner with many whole wheat and gluten-free recipes. There’s a recipe for their whole wheat Christmas Stollen Bread in the post of their video interview at KARE 11. Or you can visit their website Artisan Bread In Five with fabulous photographs of mouthwatering baked goods. You will come away hungry for more!
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, December 13th, 2009
QM, fascinating post. I think of writing as a sacred art which has deteriorated over time into a mundane activity. Your post reminded me that the characters I use to write whatever I write were once used to consult the spirits or to obtain information from the Universe. That falls in with my belief that all writing is sacred.
We take the symbols of the mysterious or universal and use them to communicate. My sacred message to you or yb or to anyone who reads the posts. Magic, the magic of writing.
Thanks.
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Thank you for the inspiring post. While thinking about the Runes, I put my story between the lines.
Thus I address you as my co-author now. Thank you for the keys. Our dreams are patiently waiting for the explorers which maybe discover http://arthiker.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/transform-complaints-into-the-greetings/ one day.
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QM, your clay runes are so beautiful. I love the shape and the fact that they’re multiples. It would be lovely to be able to see them all the time. Perhaps you could mount them onto a panel where they could be removed, because I imagine they’re fun to touch. But then enclosed in a shadowbox. They are a piece of art.
Bob, your comment intrigued me. This line……the characters I use to write whatever I write were once used to consult the spirits or to obtain information from the Universe. I’d love to hear more.
QM, I used to consult I Ching, when in my mid-20s and living in Spain. I had an I Ching coloring book. I wonder if I still have it. I haven’t seen it around for a while. Perhaps I left it there when I moved back to NM.
I love fonts, love calligraphy. My favorite font site is dafont.com [LINK]. I go through there about once a month and download new fonts. I now have such a rich collection of fonts that I can now use. There’s a whole Graffiti font section. I love Graffiti, too.
Lots to chew on in this post.
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yb, the runes are the forerunners of the alphabet we use to communicate with one another through writing. Ancient peoples used the runes to consult the spirits or see what the Universe had in store. They were sacred to the priests and priestesses who had been taught how to “read” them.
Now that the majority of people can read and write, the sacredness of the letters has vanished for most people, but they were used for sacred purposes. That’s what I want to do as a writer: return to the sacredness of writing. A dream of mine is to explore the idea through writing and other art forms.
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Yes, Bob, I see what you mean. You’re right. The letters are not sacred any longer. What other art forms have you thought of for exploring this idea?
Hey, that reminds me, I got the Upaya newsletter today. In February, I think it is, there is a calligraphy workshop. Well, there are several throughout 2010, but that one caught my eye because it’s coming up. Here is the link to the schedule [LINK]. I would love to take a class at Upaya.
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Thanks, Bob, yb, and Tomas. And thanks about the clay Runes, yb. I used to hole up alone in my apartment on weekends and read and do art. These Runes were one of my art projects along the lines of the clay work I used to do. I’m glad I’m not that isolated anymore. But I did get a lot of artwork done!
I’ve always loved the Runes. Mostly for their mystery. And I did used to pull them on a daily basis for a period of time. The one closest to the right side bottom of the page is the blank Rune — the Rune of wholeness and emptiness. Also a mystery. I used to be baffled when I pulled that one. Now I know more about emptiness and the balance with the Tree of Life.
Bob, the point about the sacredness of the ancient symbols, I think it’s happened in almost every aspect of our culture. Things that once held great meaning become commercialized or utilitarian. That’s why I love history so much, remembering the past, remembering where we came from.
Not that I’d want to go back and live during the time when they were using Rune symbols to communicate. But to honor a time when things moved a little slower. It’s hard to imagine in the computer age how slow communication must have been at one time. How there wasn’t even a written language, everything was passed down orally. Fascinating stuff.
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yb & QM, as I was lying in bed this morning deciding whether to get up to the 10 degree weather or wait until the sun rises at 8 a.m. or so, the importance of hand writing words struck me. We are actually involved in a direct way of the creation of sacred symbols (letters) and perhaps in that creation comes the connection between our inner and outer selves.
When we type we don’t go through the creation of every letter and lose most of the connection to the sacred. How’s that for a thought at 5:30 a.m.?
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Bob, as I’m gathering steam to go out into the -4 air temps and head to work, I have to admit, I’m happy I can type these words quickly and communicate almost instantly with you, yb, all of our red Ravine readers across the world, wherever they may be. But there is nothing like when I sit down in Taos, or with you and the Midwest writing group, or with ybonesy when I see her, and we do Writing Practice by hand. It does connect us to the physical aspect of writing — ancient, vibrant, full.
When I go see writers, they often talk about writing by hand versus the computer. Stephen King said at first he couldn’t imagine using the computer. Then that’s all he used for a while. He went back and wrote a book by hand after that but wasn’t as happy with it. He likes the computer for editing, too.
I like the “idea” of writing a book by hand or by typewriter. But can I actually have the patience to do it? Or give myself that kind of time? I also like the way the computer keeps up with my brain when I type. It’s a tough one in this day and age.
For art though, or imagining connecting through slow writing practice when I can, I love slowing down and writing each letter or carving them out in a Rune. Food for thought. Got to fly!
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Interesting questions, QM. I would say that writing a book by hand might yield a totally different book than typing it. I don’t know that for sure. The computer is a whole lot easier.
Natalie hand writes her books, doesn’t she?
The first time I participated in NaNoWriMo I wrote 50,000 words by hand and then had to type them into the computer for verification purposes.
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Bob, that’s amazing. You did NaNoWriMo by hand the first time? Impressive. What was it like to then type your handwritten words into the computer. Did you learn things about your writing you didn’t know before? I guess that’s what you’d have to do with a book, too, if you wrote it by hand. (Or have an assistant or someone else type it in by hand.)
Yes, I believe Natalie has written all of her books by hand. But, honestly, I don’t know about the one she’s currently working on. I wonder if she will ever transition to the computer for writing. I guess it remains to be seen.
I do think it’s a totally different experience writing on the computer or writing by hand. The way you have to slow down. The way the pen or pencil feels in the hand and against the paper. Something I kind of like with the computer is the way my eyes kind of half follow what I’m typing. It keeps my critical brain busy (Monkey Mind) while the rest of me types. The typing speed does the same thing. I kind of like that.
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QM, I edited as I typed in the words which added about a third more words.
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Your runes just beg to be touched. I love art that is tactile – that can be touched, arranged, pocketed and examined at leisure. I do love the idea of the ancient runes.
I once had a cheap plastic set of runes, and always planned on making a set that would be of my creation. Wonder where those runes are?
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Bo, I must have missed your comment in the busy fly-by week. Thank you! I remember creating these Runes by hand from the red clay I used to get from the leftovers at a clay outlet in Minneapolis. I’ve always been drawn to red clay because I grew up with so much of it in Georgia and South Carolina.
I remember that I added a little Georgia clay that I had gathered with my sister and my mother one year when we were Down South together into these Runes. I need to find my Rune book so I can pull them again.
It’s fun to make your own Runes but labor intensive. Set aside enough time to shape them and carve the Runic letters. You’ll need a big chunk, depending on the medium you create them in. It’s a labor of love though. Hope you find your Runes. If I find my book, I’ll draw a few and post on what it says.
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Oh, ybonesy, I forgot to mention, I like your idea of displaying the Runes in a shadow box or something similar on a wall where they can be touched and removed. I’ve always been a tactile person. It’s so hard for me to walk by art and not want to touch it.
Last year, these Runes were out in the May Art-A-Whirl we had at the Casket Arts Building and I discovered that two or three sets of mothers and daughters were drawn to the Runes. The teenage daughters in particular loved to pick them up and turn them over in their hands. I got so much pleasure out of watching people touch the Runes. They carry that energy.
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