Getting involved

#Armanen #Futhork Entry 8: #Nod

"The eight one I know is quite useful to hear to all the people in danger and need. When hatred arise between man and man this I settle fast"

This is a continuation of a series of writings on the rune song of Odin as was presented in the Havemal.

The eight rune Nod is often connected with the concept of #karma. Karma is basically the idea that all actions and thoughts continue to have an effect on who we are into the future. Taken to its ultimate influence it implies that what we do in this life will continue in a next life. Many people see karma wrongly as a punishment since every wrong doing has a long term effect on us. However when we put something positive into the universe the principle of Karma applies as well ...whether good or bad what is sown will be reaped. Therefore if we overcome an issue or face our problems till they are conquered then the victory may last more than one life time. One of the most well known Norse myth is of the three old woman weaving the fabric of time,..one the past, the next the present and the other the future. 

Again like in some of the other Armanen runes discussed this Runemaster is here concerned about the practical application of the rune Nod. The rune theory is only valuable if it finds a place in the domain of usefulness. If a rune is not useful then there is not much reason for using and applying that knowledge. We are again faced with a rune that is there to be applied for the collective good of the social fabric of the community in which we live. This rune is useful to people in danger and need for when we rid ourselves from attachment of need and the fear of danger it will have a long term calming effect. 

The rune nod is often called the rune of need. When drawn in a rune reading it is indicative of a need in the person's life. For the rune master need is an opportunity for need gives an opportunity to be of service...and to express himself in a useful manner. The rune Nod council us not just to be aware of our own needs but of the needs of others. By focusing on the rune nod the runemaster becomes sensitive to the call of people for help. It invokes similar emotions than what the Buddhist will associate with compassion. Nod is not just the awareness of need but finding the karma within one's own existence to do something practical to address the need. Nod is taking up the courage to get involved in the problems of others. Nod is the willingness of a warrior to step into the zone of danger in order to make a difference in the outcome of the battle. 

Hatred between man is the worst effect of Karma for it persists at the very core of our being. Hatred prevents our spiritual development more than anything else. The runemaster is a peace maker. Whenever there is strive the runemaster is oblidged to step in to attempt to restore peace. There is no room for prograstination...when hatred arises the rune master must act. But the runemaster does not act in kind. The runemaster finds within himself a center of peace ant the restoration of peace is done from expressing that inner peace.  

If we are committed to a peaceful future, then we can not stand still when there is hatred between man. We need to get involved actively from a point of neutrality that will allow the two parties to reconcile. Nothing has such a powerful karmic effect as having been instrumental in the establishment of peace. 

Peace for the rune aster starts within. The first enemy that must be conquered is our hatred of ourselves. So often we war with who we are, what we have accomplished. We multiply the critique of the people in our lives and they become so ingrained in who we are that we attached them to who we are. Nod is breaking all attachments so that we can become conscious peace makers.  Nod is a call for the runemaster to work through his own emotions, detect the hatred that brews within and dissolve it so that the karmic debt of hatred can no longer draw an interest we will have to pay for. 

Nod, is the rune of need, the call to get involved without waiting.

The rune nod illustrated through posture as per the younger futhark in stav.

Entry 7: Hagal of the Armanen Futhork series can be seen here: Stepping in the fire

Our #ears are not just for hearing

The sense of spacial #orientation

I am continuing to write about the sense of 3hearing. In my previous writings I wrote about the nature of 3sound as energy, covered how the ear process sound and how to listen more effectively.  In this writing I want to explore our ears not just in terms of hearing sound but also in terms of its role to orient us in space.

A common misconception is to look at hearing as a sense. Our ears are far more than receptors and processors of sound waves. Our ears are amazing organs for amplifying soundwaves and interpreting them but when we study the ear physically sound processing is only about 50% of the ears capability. The other 50% is invested into orientating us in space. In addition to housing our hearing organ, our inner ear chamber contains the #vestibular labyrinth, a system that helps us to maintain our sense of balance and gravity.  Near the top of the cochlea are three loops called the semi-circular canals. Litterally these three loops are oriented to the three dimensions of our spatial world by giving us a perception of left, right, forward, backward and up and down. The canals are full of liquid. When you move your head, the liquid moves. It pushes against hairlike nerve endings, which send messages to your brain. From these messages, your brain can tell us our angular motion and our body’s orientation in space. If you have ever felt dizzy after having spun around on a carnival ride, it was probably because the liquid inside the semi-circular canals swirled around inside your ears. This makes the hairs of the sensory cells bend in all different directions, so the cells' signals confuse your brain. The brain is not interested in sound in itself. Sound is the symptom of energy being propagated through the space within which we exists. If you close your eyes and make a sound most people will be very accurate in pinpointing where that sound comes from and how far away the sound it.  Our hearing aparatus therefore plays a crucial role in orienting ourselves relative to the energy and space around us.

Our hearing is closely connected with our spatial awareness….that is awareness of objects and space around us. When we hear a noise the brain can normally interpret from which direction the noise is coming from and how far away we are from that noise. However that interpretation can be inconsistent from person to person. “Space, appears as an area between objects which we perceive and ourselves; it falsely conveys the notion of having a very definite reality. In fact space can be viewed as being an illusion of the objective mind – but yet not to be denied, for its essential. It serves us, but we must always keep  its true nature in mind so that we will not be enslaved by our perceptions.  This is important to remember for even when we cut of all sense perception our consciousness still prevails.

Now as we continue with this discourse, I will begin to write about the meta physical aspects of hearing. On a physical level our ears orient and submerge us into a space filled with energy being propagated as soundwaves. However on a social level our hearing also submerge us into the social fabric of relationships. Once we begin to see how the ears are not just sound processors but also providing us with a sense of balance and orientation we will begin to understand that the sense of hearing plays a crucial role of connecting us to the world around us. This orientation in space and awareness of energy has a far more pshycological influence on our pshychic presence than what we think. Even deaf people without any hearing is using the sense of the ears to orient themselves in space. When we awaken to our senses and we want to understand our physical senses more then we should become observant not just of sounds arround us but how that sound assist to orient us spatially. If you start to take time to observe not just sound but also how we balance as we move our head around...then we will begin to understand something about how we interact with the environment. The environment on a physical level might be an awareness of energy propagated as sound waves but on a pshychic level it is also an awareness of how we integrate into the social fabric of our world.

Rather than speaking of the sense of hearing I would argue to speak about a sense of spacial orientation. That description is much more true to what our senses are about than just hearing.

Next I will start going into silence and the role it plays in one's spiritual development and ultimately show how our physical sense of hearing is connected with the way of the heart.

Effective listening

Hearing

Our objective consciousness concerns the reception, transmission and interpretation of all vibrations emanating from the material world. The hearing sensation transmitted from the ear to the brain is interpreted by the brain into meaning.  Our interpretation of these impressions however varies from one person to the other.  The sound of a whistle blowing at the end of a rugby match means for one person victory and for another a loss.  Our hearing sense has an intensity that fills space. It is for example difficult to imagine a canon firing in a small room.

Our hearing is closely connected with our spatial awareness….that is awareness of objects and space around us. When we hear a noise the brain can normally interpret from which direction the noise is coming from and how far away we are from that noise. However that interpretation can be inconsistent from person to person. 

In the 23 June 2009 issue of Current Biology, a  group of researchers reported that they scanned the brains of 22 subjects -- 13 women, nine men -- as they listened to the voices of actors saying a "pseudosentence," which is a sentence of words that sound real but are actually made up. The actors spoke the words in five ways -- with sadness, anger, joy, relief or a neutral tone. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers tried to see if they could determine what emotion the subjects heard by looking at the reactions of their brains. The researchers discovered that each emotion left a different "signature" in the part of the brain that handles the processing of sound. This shows how our senses are influenced by its perceived emotional content when interpreting messages.

Hearing is important because the ability to interpret emotional signals from others is crucial for successful social interaction. Not being able to hear not only alienates you from your loved ones, but also the world. However it is as important to realise that the way we interpret sound varies from person to person.

Hearing as a sense is crucial to our ability to communicate effectively.  Independent of our illusions, our educational and cultural experience often led us to misinterpret information coming from the outside. To communicate effectively we must learn how to listen effectively. Listening is not passive but active. Often we perceive talking as active and listening as passive. Listening is receptive but it is not passive. When we listen we must listen to truly understand what is being communicated. Through learning how to listen more effectively we optimise the value of our sense of hearing and reduce misinterpretation.

How can we improve our listening?

1. Try to understand before being understood. Suspend your own judgement of what is being said.
2. Ask questions to understand what is being said. Ask for reasons and examples.
3. Confirm that your understanding of what is being said is correct.
4. Stay open to the possibility that you might be wrong or misinformed.
5. Remain tenacious to get to the bottom of things by following cause and effect reasoning.
6. Be aware of body language that supports the message.
7. Connect what is said with that which was said earlier.
8. Convey non-verbally that you are listening to and taking seriously the other person.
9. Look out for things that puzzle you rather than things that you disagree with.
10. Delay as long as possible to come to firm conclusions on what is being said.

Sun City visit

#SAOUG

I  just want to share today three photo's taken at #Sun_City between 12 and 16 November 2011 during the South African Oracle User Group conference.. 

#Dream Journal

1/11/11 - 26/11/11

1/11/11 - I am in the body of my younger self at about the age of eighteen. I am looking for a key. Walking on a rainy day through an old part of the city with a blanket. I stand under a canopy, looking across the dark streets. It is raining. A light and music plays in a nearby cafe and you can hear people laughing.  I can not remember where my friend live and i am lost. I stand on the corner and think how much I will be embarrassed to phone my parents to come and pick me up. I walked away from the house without telling them. I realize that the key might lie in remembering the Tai Chi Forms.

2/11/11 -  I am doing 6 Tai Chi forms to open a lock.

4/11/11 - I am diving into a swimming pool in search of a human hair

6/11/11 - I am preparing to participate in an international martial arts competition

7/11/11 - I am an Egyptian architect, building a temple in the desert to the god of the under world - Anubis 

8/11/11 - I am organizing a spiritual assembly of people in the desert.

9/11/11 - I am a warrior in the jungle, training to manipulate a wild tiger with my thoughts.

10/11/11 - I am initiated by a master, in the use of a Roman broad sword through various movements with the sword.

11/11/11 - I am celebrating a victorious battle holding a Roman broad sword high up in the air.

16/11/11 - I successfully map out all the components needed for an Oracle software solution for the Parliament of South Africa

17/11/11 - I dreamt a specific dream but could not remember it to write it down.

18/11/11 - I am on a moving train armed with a bow and arrow....shooting the arrow in the direction which the train is traveling.

19/11/11 - I am on a moving train sorting documentation in order to identify a process for international peace

20/11/11 - I am on a moving train....searching through the train for something.

21/11/11 - I am hunting down snakelike demons with a bow and arrow

22/11/11 - I am completing my tax forms

23/11/11 - I see myself holding my index fingers to my lips and on the tip of the finger is a small electronic chip ....and my thoughts are that this is the future - Pervasive information for a self aware world.

24/11/11 (1) - I design and implement a domain integration architecture across an individuals whole life cycle from life to death with a single identity management across all systems.

24/11/11 (2) - I use global satelite positioning to develop a software solution that assist people to avoid bumping into other people. For example somebody who is divorced and does not want to bump into the ex. The system will signal a warning that the other person is in the area and then they can avoid each other.

24/11/11 (3) - My car is stolen by a gang of hooligans. I succeed in recovering my car using global satellite positioning technology.

25/11/11 - I am reading through a comic strip while a person's head gets chopped off.

26/11/11 (1) - I am driving a bus full of passengers through dense city traffic. I stop to pick up passengers. I struggle to push the break in to stop the bus and bumps into a truck in front of me driven by a Toastmaster friend of mine. I realize that I took the wrong turn and will have to make a detour.

26/11/11 (2) - I am in a large stadium. My fellow workers are trying to convince me to assist them. I refuse and they get my mother-in-law to try and convince me to help them. 

Dream Journal 7/10/11 - 31/10/11

Knowledge is a reason to smile

Positivity week challenge by @Shining_Garnet

I decided on this picture for my positivity week, day 5 entry. Knowledge may not earn you by default wealth, health or power but the man with #knowledge is closer to being happy. This picture captures symbolically so much of knowledge even though it might be foreign in the information age. We have the Compass showing to the right top which means it indicates the future...a vision. The modern equivalent might be an global positioning satellite device or GPS. But if we have a vision that inspire us we can are more happy because a vision fills us with a sense of purpose. Beneath it all as the basis lies the Bible...which is a symbol of our spirituality. When our life is based on our spiritual beliefs it gives us reason and with reason comes meaning and with meaning purpose and with purpose happiness. Even in our modern age however our spiritual codex must be embedded in the heart and not in the written word alone. On top of the Bible lies keys...or in a modern version it would be the passwords we use to access the web and knowledge sources. Keys enable us access to treasure, the safety of a house etc. Throughout life we acquire some keys to places that makes us happy. Keys may also free our minds from imprisonment.

A compass and keys does not mean much without a map. The map tells us where we are, which terrain to avoid and help us to put a plan behind our vision. Maybe the modern equivalent would be google maps of something similar....We are much more confident if we are not lost....and if we are confident we are more happy. Lastly books, the roads traveled by great people before us. We do not have to learn everything first hand from experience but we can learn about how to deal with situations before we face them. Four books are appropriate for it teaches us about the four elements...earth, air, water and fire and of course the fifth book...the bible is the quintessence of life. Knowledge does not guarantee happiness...but people who acquire knowledge that are practical have a bigger change of living life properly. If you are feeling negative...look for a key, to on an adventure, read a book of enter into a spiritual void of stillness....and some level of positivity will be restored.

So yes, the beauty and symbolism of this picture is not cute babies or smart and witty humor but it makes me smile for it is a symbol for me of living with a positive attitude.  Have a vision (compass), strategy (map), keys (knowledge sources and relations), believes and values (Bible) and a learning attitude (books) and you will find much to be positive about.

Zippo - The Green Cheek Conure

Positivity week by @Shining_Garnet

Conscious living

GI Gurdjieff

Unleash the power of the child within

Positivity Week Blog Challenge by @Shining_Garnet

 Day 3 - A Positive Story From Your Childhood

A wizard principle is that the Wizard has to return to #innocence. Why innocence? Because when we recover innocence we can see the world not as illusion but as it truly is. When we see things without being colored with our education, culture and heritage we can unleash a power. We can find the roots of creativity within us. I often ask how often do we play as adults...what have we lost because we have forgotten to play. This #memory of I have is sitting with my mother paging though a booklet full of ads of furniture. I sat in her lap, feeling protected and safe with no fear. She had a dress on with flowers and smelled like spring. Her eyes were friendly absorbing my every action.

As she page through the booklet, I will point with my little finger to show her what furniture I will one day be buying for her. She showed how impressed she was with my choice encouraging me to be more elaborate and to dream an unlimited dream. I was invincible...all was possible. No piece of furniture was too expensive and nothing impossible. Not even a king's palace would have been able to contain everything I intent to buy....In my mother's lap and with her encouraging smile all was possible. That is the type of innocence we need to recover in order to see again our true self and create a future of magnitude. I did not want to buy everything to show how good I am...not to proof myself.

I wanted it because I wanted to make my mother happy. A total selfless act for another person. In true innocence we recover also a truth about love...a deep love that is seeded in most people. For me that love was build on a trust in the one person that was there for me in everything. The one person who's smile meant everything. Innocence is the recovery of true selfless love. Maybe it is not possible to truly return to that innocence but if only, if only we can remember what that innocence feels like, then we might begin to see our limitless potential once more. We will feel again the power of making another happy and the value of a smile. I close my eyes and remember my mother's hug as I bought her more and more.  

Today the seeds of hope and #possibility my mother planted on that day is still growing into a tree. She unleashed the power of the child within...if only I take time to remember, I will again access the child who find joy in making another happy. That child was not motivated by money, wealth of power but by a simple desire to be the cause of happiness. I was taught by my mother how to #dream.