I did some research on Mayan books and there are pictures in them of gods coming out of an open book. Yes, indeed. Who’s to say their perception of spirits in words was wrong? It seems pretty miraculous that anyone would just make up words and characters in the first place, don’t you think? Some ancient hunter sitting around after a meal and supposedly thinking, “I will just draw scribbles in the sand and tell people they mean something.”

The Gods: Tyr, Thor, Ing

Socrates bemoans that written language will be the death of memory. Oh indeed, the original skalds retained their cultures history and lore through poems which weren’t for entertainment so much as a memory device.

Runemal was reserved for their wise people which were very often women though runemal may have been more predominantly practiced by males. The reason it wasn’t taught to everyone in the tribe was it was believed the runes held spirits, were the spirit, and their misuse could bring disaster on the tribe. Contemplation of runes was communion with the spirits, and this contemplation wasn’t confined to the casting of lots, but involved ritual sites with markers bearing runic script as well as the recordings on tribal relics. So to speak the name of a rune was to summon that spirit as well, and to sing in the ancient way was to shape reality, and thus bless or condemn those mentioned in the song to the described outcome.

So you could sing a curse on someone? Yes.

I think some rappers do that. Oh yes, and sometimes, though rarely, blessings.

There is a complimentary practice to runemal called seider, translated roughly as fate weaving, and is where we get the imagery of the three fates. The original tribal chants of Africa were more blessings than not, blessings and placation of the spirits. The idea behind weaving was that by making a depiction of a thing, you could create that event or condition. So if you made a tapestry of a successful hunter, your villages hunters would have more success.

Like a voodoo doll? Yes. It did include a large element of image magick. It also showed up in their woodwork, the elaborate carvings that were in their long houses, things like that.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Originally, they hadn’t assumed the seemingly abstract form we see today, and displayed a more obvious resemblance to the concepts behind them. They were originally pictographic and continued to follow that logic even if not the strict resemblance.

I’m reminded how an Inukshuk resembles a roughly formed man. That is an apt comparison, and there may even be cultural links.

Runes Script

So the evolution of the runes followed a progression perhaps not unlike the Asian characters, and had a spiritual connection perhaps rather much like Egyptian hieroglyphs to the point of being the singular province of a caste of shaman, or wise folk, before the information began to be spread more widely.

Are humans the only ones to leave runes? According to the lore, the runes existed before the human use of them. They weren’t created by humans so much as discovered.

Maybe a bear or cat scratching a tree is a rune? That is what inspired the runes and similar runic type script.

Did they also have a more mundane application, perhaps like a regular alphabet? They would come to have a mundane application later in their history as the native users sought ways to record names and stories.

But yes, the rune figures were found to show up all around nature, and many of the characters have apparently obvious connections to their conceptual meaning. The rune for elk looks like an elks horn, and the rune for yew looks like a tree. Some of the runes no longer bear an obvious connection to the original visual symbolism. An arch representing an ox and symbolizing strength, things like that, and the order of runes in a line of script was more conceptual than our own alphabet. The most common rune alphabet is called the Futhark, which isn’t a word but the sequence of initial characters, kind of like we call the alphabet the ABC’s.

Runes were the first language? They were one of the first languages yes, and the oldest languages on the planet do all have a pictographic origin. The other origin for alphabetic characters was in the cultures system of mathematics.

So a line of conceptual runes could be spoken, and thus could create a new word? Indeed. It’s how they came to use the runes as an alphabet, and why they can’t translate many of the oldest runic scripts.

Was Ogham later? Ogham was almost parallel to the runic. Ogham was based on their tree based symbolism. They even assigned a tree to the various moons of the year. This is how people got named sometimes, and is why we have names like Ash even today. It is possible to become literate in the Ogham script, at least in a sense. We don’t know for certain if we are keeping to the original intent of the script, but we may be very close.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

In tai chi, an empty step is one that does not bear your full weight. Yes. Leaves it light, and free, and open.

In Taoism, they say that something is valuable for what it is, but useful for what it isn’t. You are valuable for what you are, and you are able to take action, make choices, and explore your self expression for what you are not, and what you are not is an object. You are not a product of any event. You have existed always and will continue to exist.

But our bodies are products of events? Yes, and they will change as their relationship to other causes changes. You are not the cause. You are the source of all causes.

Our bodies are part of our experiences? We experience the body. We even experience the brain. The brain also is an event. As much as a sound or a smell, thoughts are events. We are not our thoughts. Actions are events. We are not our actions.

I am often gauging the status of my brain function, so that I don’t take important actions when I am impaired. That is a good practice.

I even will not think on important things when my brain is impaired. That is best.

So we are empty of fixed states, because emptiness is the condition of having no fixed state, including the fixed state of perceived absence. Any space in my home might at any time be occupied, by me, by my wife, by our cat, and if not it’s occupied by air. I like the basic concept behind the Occupy movement. So I say, occupy all the things!

I am currently occupying my computer. Yes, but not attach yourself to your computer. You will have to relieve yourself sometime soon. Don’t attach yourself to your problems or problem solving, live, and to live is to permit existence.

Occupy your life. Occupy all of your life, every moment, every movement, every word spoken. Witness that, as it is the start of all of the rest of your life.

Emptiness is a flow? Yes. Emptiness is a flow. Emptiness is the space under your feet while you are dancing, the space between notes that makes sound into music.

How do you know when you’re doing too much of one thing? You know you are doing too much of one thing when you feel it is a rule. When you think a thing is absolute, it has become excessive.

It is the negative space that defines the beauty. Exactly. When you “have to” that is when you should stop. When you no longer remember why you chose to, you should stop. But that stopping can be just for a moment, just a minute to reflect until you do remember, till you return to your senses.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Now could you understand this falling problem by looking at the event of falling, and understanding falling in an abstract sense? Can understanding falling like it’s a law help you figure out your falling problem? You have to be aware of the circumstances that have been permitting your personal falling, because the reason you fall down is not the reason someone else is necessarily.

For me, falling is a given, but I know why so I do not focus on the fall itself, but rather its causes which in themselves are events with their own sources. Yes, focus on the fall and you keep falling. The same thing applies to all other problems. Look everywhere because you are trying to avoid all problems, and you will collide with a street sign.

So many people walk with heads down and only see their toes. True.

A set of circumstances contributes to the fall that is not always present. Yes, and can be altered, but that set of circumstances is altered through the thing they all have in common, which is you.

What I permit? Yes. What you try to make happen often fails.

So I should move my husbands’ shoes instead of tripping on them? Indeed. What you let happen can become a part of your daily experience, because what causes all of the causative factors to come together will persist if you don’t interfere, and you interfere every time you make a pattern, be that pattern a word, a habit, or an attitude.

So we should interfere with each other to change patterns? We interfere with each other regardless. We should be aware of our footprint in this expression of energy. Explore what sort of effect we are having and modify that. If we are both singing, my voice will interfere with yours, no choice in that matter, but that interference can manifest in one of two ways.

In harmony or disharmony. Yes. Constructive interference helps support and sustain an occurrence. Destructive interference prevents it. But destructive interference prevents not only the intended thing, but other things that could be occurring then and there. It creates a field of noise that doesn’t allow for anything much at all. What do you think friends?

You can be skilful or unskilful. Yes. That’s why I speak of what you permit rather than what you forbid, because there is no constructive use of forbiddance. Knowing what you don’t want, what you won’t do, and what you are against, well… Is that useful?

It can keep you out of trouble. In time that will fail.

Some actions you don’t want to do. I am not endorsing negative action. What I am saying is that restriction doesn’t prevent negative action.

Things need borders to define them. Borders can be crossed. It’s what allows for some other event to take place instead. Otherwise, you would be stuck in the event you fear to let happen.

When you are clear on what you want and intend to do, you won’t remain in the circumstances of the bad event. You won’t remain in the pig paddock if you have a clear intention to go in the house, but if you are under the idea that you cannot move… How would that help?

I will curse the pigs! Doing something out of the ordinary can start a new pattern or at least alter the old one. Yes. You will eventually anyway, the personal spirit refuses stasis.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

You lose the perception of a difference between the so called real problem and an imagined one, but that mindset is still too narrow. It is an attempt to break things down when they can’t be. Everything is interdependent. Reality is seamless. So the special case that any analytical thought requires, in order to retain its integrity, is automatically lost. Then we try to fix and focus on the problem when it occurred from a larger cause than what the problem would appear to be.

So problems are created when we break the world into parts and have to put it back together instead of seeing it as a co-arising whole? We can never fix it because the so called cause we’re looking for isn’t there? The cause both is and isn’t there. That’s a strange paradox, but I can explain. The reason we lose our grip on problem events is because we think the event is the source. Events are never sources. They are just halos of energy.

It seems the experiences humanity seeks right now break down the world. Why do we wish to experience the breaking apart of the world? Because we have decided we want to experience control, and the controlled heart is dead, doesn’t beat, doesn’t change. We want to experience control because it is currently what we define as prosperity.

But if the universal sea experiences this all, through us, why does it wish to experience this? Through us and as us. Because there are factors beyond the confines of our own world that also learn from this and will respond to it, and by beyond I don’t necessarily mean alien.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Well, our conventional thinking doesn’t inform us on how to perceive the relationship between these seeds clearly. Desires and feelings and impulses that by themselves seem harmless, even innocent, when combined with the right set of other factors will reliably produce bad outcomes no matter how pure the original intention might have been. Compassion is one seed, but compassion combined with other attitudes that lead to forbearance can leave a violent person to feed a pattern of violent behaviour not only in their own lives, but spark violence in others as well.

So we all interact or experience differently? Yes. Though the seeds of our experience are universal in and of their selves, it’s like events have their own spirits. This is perhaps the intuition behind the word zeitgeist. It’s German and means roughly spirit of the age.

If we are all of the universal sea, are the varied experiences being truly experienced by the sea? They are, and we serve as the event horizon that allows that variation of the experience to occur. We are a unique voice in a grand chorus, having a depth and range that is powerful enough to echo throughout infinity itself.

Now we can change the notes we sing, the tone we strike. Our current note may be shattering the fragile matrix of events that we otherwise deeply desire. We may be defeating our most cherished hopes and dreams, because we believe that causes are the same as origination. We try to solve problems, but we cannot solve problems in the same state that we perceive problems. So how do we get into whatever our current state is?

Free will. Oh indeed, and the ideas that would lead us to believe our free will is restricted.

Aren’t limitations to our free will set by the belief of ourselves and others? Restrictions to your free will arise from the recognition of conditions in which this restriction is permissible.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Energy. Anything expressed or only potential?

Expressed. Pattern. Do you know yourself outside of expression? I don’t.

Your consciousness can transcend this pattern? It can transcend the pattern and it caused the pattern.

What elements incorporate themselves into your pattern? What colors are there in your aura or spirit? You could apply any sensory descriptor, they would all have the same meaning.

Remember earlier, I spoke of coincidence? The third factor that arises between any two causes? When you have cake and want to eat it, can you have your cake and eat it too?

I lose the cake when I eat it. It appears that you lose the cake when you eat it, and that you cannot eat the cake while you leave it in its original form. Yet the cake exists in your sphere of experience because you can both have and eat the cake. When you eat it, you still have it, as it only returns to its point of origin. When you have the cake you have already eaten it, as that was the purpose for your creating it in the first place. I guess it’s sort of like the uncertainty principle. There appears to be linear cause and effect because we focus our attention either on the apparent cause or the apparent effect.

Don’t we change the pattern of the cake when we eat it into something else? We do change the pattern of the matter that was involved in the cake, but we do not change the pattern that originates cake.

The pattern is there to be used again? Yes, as are all patterns.

Like a mold for clay? Yes, exactly.

And don’t we constantly make new patterns? I would argue that we do not constantly make new patterns. We instead redefine or recombine originating forces or seeds of potential. What we work with, that shows up as a pattern, isn’t restricted to what the pattern looks like when it manifests. Every event, whether we judge it a successful intention or not, is still the manifestation of this process.

So the end results aren’t the pattern? No. The pattern is a transitory state.

Would the end results be creation? That which is created? The end result could be divine expression, or the song of consciousness.

Are archetypes a form of these patterns? Archetypes are a meta-pattern, a protoform pattern that gives rise to other more specific patterns.

Is a person a pattern changing with time and the progression of the pattern? No. A person is not a pattern. They express patterns. The events in their life are the by-product of the disposition of the person’s awareness. Where your attention is at, that is what defines what patterns you will experience, why things seem mysterious, why good intentions seem to lead to bad outcomes. It is actually not a huge mystery.

Is the pattern the experience? It is, yes.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~