Symbols

I've been going through a number of books on symbols, and one of them had a small final chapter on 'Wiccan and Neopagan symbols'. The first symbol displayed was a 'Norse shield knot'-- a square with loops at the four corners made by extending the lines there to join as a loop. And it has knotwork over-and-under at the corners. It's supposed to be protective, invoking the four corners of the Earth. I knew nothing of this shield-knot but I liked its simplicity. To my eye it looked like a keep with four towers, or 'four-hyrned borg', a 'halidom hall', a 'helgihold', or a 'frith-garth' for Nature. It could also be called an 'Alf-knot', although that already refers to the tangled elflocks (dreads) that Shaggy Alfar are wont to sport. It could be a cumbol of warning as well as warding-- no doubt it has been. It could also be a cumbol of the Edhli-menning, methinks, but I prefer the one I already devised for that, which is a reclining hexagon, wider than tall, inscribed with an oval, and with a snaking ray narrowing to a tail-point that radiates out from each corner. The rays imply outreach rather than defence, a connectedness with the environment (umrun). But the Ecologo, the classic ecology symbol, could just as well signify the Menning. I love the Ecologo.

Since it's Yule Eve, you might draw these and other oeko-cumbols to then color, cut-out and hang on your Yule-tree. It's just a thought, for a happy, holy Yule.

The Oekomensch

Oekomensch is Eormanz for 'Eco-man', who sports a pair of hornbuds atop his head, visible to those who have the Sight ('seeth').

Oeko- (oe is actually o-umlaut, with a pair of dots atop the o, reminiscent of hornbuds), is from German Oekologie, or 'ecology'. But also it is from Old Icelandic oekkr= lump, heavy clod; tumor, protuberance; apt because the hornbuds are usually like round knobs. They function somewhat like a receiver/transmitter, but are non-technological, of course. There is perhaps a slight relation to O.Ice. Oeku-thorr, a name of Thor whose first part derives apparently from the Finnish thunder-god Ukko.

The Oekomensch is a type of Eco-alf; that is, an agent for the gathering Edhli-menning, the Ecological Civilization which will bend the Evil of the Searuvel, the Evil Machine, to Good, and preserve the Edhli, the Biosphere, from the Dilgoth, the Annihilation of Life on Earth. The hornbuds are just a visible sign of the many wields he holds to bend the Evil, and send forth Good to all life-kinds of the Earth, to bring everlasting Edhli-frith.

And he wishes you to have a happy, holy Yule-tide! Special greets to all you fellow Oekomenschen!

Wallowing

Most humans don't want to evolve to higher civilization. They want to continue to wallow in cultural stagnation and decadence. The system they've built around themselves is stultifying, keeps them from bettering their selves, in fact brings out the worse in them. And they don't care, don't even care enough to look deep, and so there's no vision abroad, just willful blindness. So they just wallow in vulgarity and worthless entertainments as much as they can as a diversion from the reality of their lives, which is: they have smothered that which aspires. Humans have evolved, but stopped short of finding their proper niche in the Biosphere-- that is what's wrong with them and everything they do. They must move on, or it's all over.