Catch a Body
~ Ilse Bendorf
[Note: I cannot find an author’s site for her. If you find one, please let me know. Thanks!]

Salinger, I’m sorry, but “Don’t ever tell
anybody anything” is a string of words
I would like to wrap up in canvas and sink
to the bottom of the Hudson, or extract
by laser from the ribcage of all of us
who ever believed it, who felt afraid
to miss someone, to be the last one
standing. “Tell everyone everything” is
not exactly right, but I do believe that if
your mother looks radiant in violet
you should tell her, or when a juvenile
sparrow thrashes its wings in dustpiles
and reminds you of a lover’s eyelashes,
you should say so. We are islands all of us,
but we are also boats, our secrets flares,
pyrotechnic devices by which we signal
there’s someone in here we’re still alive!
So maybe it’s, “don’t be afraid.” We can
rewrite Icarus, flame-resistant feathers,
wax that won’t melt, I mean it, I’ll draw up
a prototype right now, that burning ball
of orange won’t stop us, it’ll be everything
we dream the morning after, even if we fall
into the sea—we are boats, remember?
We are pirates. We move in nautical miles.
Each other’s anchors, each other’s buoys,
the rocket’s red, already the world entire.

If you are new to working with bindrunes, I suggest you read the introductory bindrune post here, then return to this post to read about this specific bindrune. Remember that working with bindrunes, as with working with any kind of magic, does not carry guaranteed results, and may produce results quite different from what you expect.

Perhaps you’re feeling stuck, uncertain what to do or how to move forward. Or you’ve been trying to accomplish something for so long, and feel that you have made no progress. This bindrune can bring you fresh energies and ideas to get back on track, or help you find a new direction and start along that path.

Bindrune for Illumination, Transformation, and Inspiration – Ziu, Dagaz, Ac

Ziu (left tile, yellow in bindrune): Ziu is the lightning bolt, the jolt of a new idea and new possibilities which awaken your interest and raise your energies. It’s associated with Tyr, Zisa, and Zeus, so brings in the qualities of associated with Them, including leadership, responsibility, and justice, as well as great creativity.

Dagaz (center tile, gold in bindrune): Dagaz is the tipping point, where the energies shift from the old to the new, carrying you to a new place and new possibilities. It’s the breakthrough, the moment of transformation from Then to Now. This rune is associated with Loki, and brings in some of His improvisational energies and spur-of-the moment ideas.

Ac (right tile, purple in bindrune): Like the oak tree with roots deep in the earth as it reaches for the sky, you can be grounded in the practical aspects of your life, while aspiring and working towards new goals. Ac brings in the magical and shamanic energies of Angrboda, so you are tapping into both practical and magical sources for your work.

The bindrune on the left was done in colored pencil. The one on the right was done with fine point calligraphy markers. They are shown in two different media to give an idea of how the same bindrune looks different depending on how it is created.

You could put a drop of a mint oil for inspiration, or a drop of cinnamon or other warm, spicy oil to bring in fiery creative energies. You could also use your favorite oil on it to reinforce the energy with your personal scent. You can also use a magical oil, such as a hoodoo oil or other type of specially prepared oil.

Use this bindrune—and all bindrunes—entirely at your own risk.

Nights and Days
~ Adrienne Rich

The stars will come out over and over
the hyacinths rise like flames
from the windswept turf down the middle of upper Broadway
where the desolate take the sun
the days will run together and stream into years
as the rivers freeze and burn
and I ask myself and you, which of our visions will claim us
which will we claim
how will we go on living
how will we touch, what will we know
what will we say to each other

Pictures form and dissolve in my head:
we are walking in a city
you fled, came back to and come back to still
which I saw once through winter frost
years back, before I knew you,
before I knew myself.
We are walking streets you have by heart from childhood
streets you have graven and erased in dreams:
scrolled portals, trees, nineteenth-century statues.
We are holding hands so I can see
everything as you see it
I follow you into your dreams
your past, the places
none of us can explain to anyone.

We are standing in the wind
on an empty beach, the onslaught of the surf
tells me Point Reyes, or maybe some northern
Pacific shoreline neither of us has seen.
In its fine spectral mist our hair
is grey as the sea
someone who saw us far-off would say we were two old women
Norns, perhaps, or sisters of the spray
but our breasts are beginning to sing together
your eyes are on my mouth

I wake early in the morning
in a bed we have shared for years
lie watching the innocent, sacred sleep
as if for the first time.
We have been together so many nights and days
this day is not unusual.
I walk to an eastern window, pull up the blinds:
the city around us is still
on a clear October morning
wrapped in her indestructible light.

The stars will come out over and over
the hyacinths rise like flames
from the windswept turf down the middle of upper Broadway
where the desolate take the sun
the days will run together and stream into years
as the rivers freeze and burn
and I ask myself and you, which of our visions will claim us
which will we claim
how will we go on living
how will we touch, what will we know
what will we say to each other.

Encounter
~ Geraldine Hammond

What cry was that
zeroed rose-color,
bending from great
distance, sudden
like a sun-spoke
straight
and curved to wrap me
in bright light,
blinding my breath?

You were there
and took my eyes deep,
drowning the surfaces
we swam in.

Am I freed or bound
by a cry that dives
back into silence?

Both.

Leda and the Swan