tell our daughters
~ besmilr brigham

each is beautiful
a woman’s life
makes it (that awareness)
through her touch

descendants
of strict age
set against vanity

not secure in loveliness

a girl is born
like a little bird opening its wing
she lifts her face
in a down of feathers

a rose,
opens its leaves
with such a natural care
that we give words for
petal deep
in the imagination
a word becomes
a bitter thing
or a word is
an imagination

tell our daughters they are
fragile as a bird
strong as the rose
deep as a word

and let them make
their own growing time
​
big with tenderness

Roses and Clematis

In Blackwater Woods
~Mary Oliver

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

The Stare Down, The Stone Cold Stuff
~ Emily Palermo

sometimes, i still feel the heat
of every hand that’s wandered

across my body. shaking always
shaking, earthquake veins, an

uncertainty in the world,
stepping on the ledge and

looking straight down,
neck tingling at a ninety degree

angle. angels sometimes stare
at me with empty eyes.

i can match them.
i don’t have to blink.

somewhere, some time ago,
my mother is holding my face

between her hands and
crying for a response,

and i still don’t give in.
in the game of girl and god

only one can win.

The Peace of Wild Things
~ Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the
presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
For a time
I rest in the grace of
the world,
and am free.

Milky Way: Incredible Night Landscape Photography by Andre Brandt

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.

When we are young, we are shaped by our family and culture. As we move into adulthood, we develop our own ideas and ways of living, which may be very different from what we were taught as children. As adults, we grow into our authentic selves, and we develop a desire to create a legacy in some way, and to leave the world a better place than we found it.

This bindrune is designed to help you draw on your family and cultural inheritance, and add to it and improve it, to create a better inheritance for those who follow. Even if you do not have children of your own, your actions shape the world that others’ children grow up in, and will be responsible for when they are grown. Although you may not be a parent, you make just as much difference in the lives of the generational descendants as people who raise children. This rune can help you bear that responsibility in a way that is meaningful for you and has positive outcomes for everyone.

Generational Inheritance: Othala, Mannaz, Wendhorn

Othala (left tile, brown in bindrune): This is what we have inherited from our ancestors of all kinds—ideas, experiences, passions, obsessions, successes, and failures. Whether ancestors of blood or ancestors of affiliation, these are the people who have influenced us in countless ways, and caused us to become who we are today.

Mannaz (center tile, blue in bindrune): This is you! This is you as your best self, which filters the inheritance you received, removing what is hurtful, unhealthy, or just plain not good to pass along. As you live your own life and process what was passed down to you, you can make wise and soulful choices about what to pass along to the next generation.

Wendhorn (right tile, gold in bindrune): Wendhorn represents the cycles of time, and the countless souls who follow in your footsteps. Drawn in gold, it represents the brightest possibilities for the future. Think of yourself as refining the ore of your inheritance to produce gold to pass down to those who come next; by removing the imperfections, you have created something beautiful, useful, and strong for them to carry forward in their own lives.

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 and/or a drop of rose oil for love of your ancestors, yourself, and your descendants. 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.