Sincerely, The Sky
~ David Hernandez

Yes, I see you down there
looking up into my vastness.

What are you hoping
to find on my vacant face,

there within the margins
of telephone wires?

You should know I am only
bright blue now because of physics:

molecules break and scatter
my light from the sun

more than any other color.
You know my variations—

azure at noon, navy by midnight.
How often I find you

then on your patio, pajamaed
and distressed, head thrown

back so your eyes can pick apart
not the darker version of myself

but the carousel of stars.
To you I am merely background.

You barely hear my voice.
Remember I am most vibrant

when air breaks my light.
Do something with your brokenness.

Milky Way
Incredible Night Landscape Photography by Andre Brandt

A Different Reason
~ Anastasia Haysler

Dear God:
“Because I said so”
works as well on me
when You say it
as it does on my
three-year-old
when I say it.
So, with all due respect,
I am going to need
a different reason.

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.

No matter how much self-confidence you have, there are times when having a boundary booster is helpful—dealing with a difficult person, going into an unfamiliar and possibly threatening situation, or simply dealing with a crowd of people. (Each person’s definition of crowd will vary. I dislike crowds intensely, so the bar falls pretty low for me.) This bindrune will strengthen your boundaries and provide defense against others’ energies, so you can move through your day in a more centered and focused state.

Boundaries and Protection – Ior and Algiz

Ior (right tile, green in bindrune): Ior is linked with Jormundgand, the World Serpent, whose job is to keep Midgard safe from those who do not belong here. You can call on Ior, and Jormundgand, to create a protective circle around you.

Algiz (left tile, brown in bindrune): Algiz represents the protective powers of the elk’s horns, creating a clear space around you that suits your personal comfort. Algiz also calls in the elk-sedge, a razor-sharp grass that inflicts painful cuts on bare hands. Algiz emits a definite “thus far, and no closer” feel. Combined with the boundaries set by Ior, this rune can give you the physical and psychological space you need to deal with whatever the day may bring.

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 rosemary oil for strength and/or sage oil for clearing. 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.

In July
~ Edward Dowden

Why do I make no poems? Good my friend

Now is there silence through the summer woods,

In whose green depths and lawny solitudes

The light is dreaming; voicings clear ascend

Now from no hollow where glad rivulets wend,

But murmurings low of inarticulate moods,

Softer than stir of unfledged cushat broods,

Breathe, till o’er drowsed the heavy flower-heads bend.

Now sleep the crystal and heart-charmed waves

Round white, sunstricken rocks the noontide long,

Or ‘mid the coolness of dim lighted caves

Sway in a trance of vague deliciousness;

And I,–I am too deep in joy’s excess

For the imperfect impulse of a song.

Hermitage
~ Joseph Fasano

It’s true there were times when it was too much
and I slipped off in the first light or its last hour
and drove up through the crooked way of the valley

and swam out to those ruins on an island.
Blackbirds were the only music in the spruces,
and the stars, as they faded out, offered themselves to me

like glasses of water ringing by the empty linens of the dead.
When Delilah watched the dark hair of her lover
tumble, she did not shatter. When Abraham

relented, he did not relent.
Still, I would tell you of the humbling and the waking.
I would tell you of the wild hours of surrender,

when the river stripped the cove’s stones
from the margin and the blackbirds built
their strict songs in the high

pines, when the great nests swayed the lattice
of the branches, the moon’s brute music
touching them with fire.

And you, there, stranger in the sway
of it, what would you have done
there, in the ruins, when they rose

from you, when the burning wings
ascended, when the old ghosts
shook the music from your branches and the great lie

of your one sweet life was lifted?