Wordlore
In an age of exclusionary jargon, slanted journalese and doctored spin, it’s not always easy to understand what's going on. In an age of verbal and visual deception, the facts of the matter are hard to establish. Politically-correct euphemisms mask hidden agendas, and everyday language is deliberately distorted. To understand what is truly being said, to be certain where we and others really stand, we need an unequivocal arbiter.
To check the sense and the validity of any statement, we consult the rules of grammar and those of symbolic logic. They enable us to analyse the structure of a sentence. We can check the equation or formula for rational meaning. As long as the statement in question meets the rules, it is accepted. Yet many media soundbites, whilst making absolute grammatical sense, are blatant lies. The problem lies in the detail … with the misuse of individual words.
Few of us automatically resort to the dictionary when we encounter new words. If we don’t immediately grasp the normal meaning of a new word, we either ask for it on the spot, or wait until we encounter it again. After all, it might be so rare that we may never come across it again.
For the most part we make considered guesses. It is therefore easy to surround and reinforce our understanding of such words with distorted connotations. Since the ideas lying behind words are the construction pieces of our world view, the result of serious distortion is a very dysfunctional being.
Such bias, partly deliberate, partly through ignorance, can seriously tangle our vocabularies. By gaining a clearer understanding of the true value of corewords, we can begin the process of disentanglement and our comprehension of reality grows by leaps and bounds.
There are myriads of words in our language. All of them have magic power. Some are strong, some are weak. Some are creative, some are destructive. They come in many colours, shapes and sizes. There are however a number of corewords which highlight key concepts. They preserve enchanetd stories in their etymologies. They are the words and ideas by which the nature of truth is realised.
The more words we know, the more clearly and powerfully we are able to think, and the more notions we can invite into our imaginations.
When Words Fail, Wars begin.
Without advertising glamour, capitalism would virtually collapse. Without doctors-of-spin, the politicians would be muttering. Without words we would be dumb animals.
When wars end, we settle them with words. The accumulated wisdom of the ages could not have been passed on except through their magic.
Words are defined by other words. We can pin down definitions with a good etymological dictionary and bring out subtleties with the aid of a thesaurus and other reference books. Words are further defined by proverbs, figures of speech and quotations.
But we need more. We need a cosmic perspective. We need a true guide.
Words have both root and branch meanings. The vast majority are multi-valued. They are all magic.
No Word Stands Alone.
They are interwoven. Indeed they form a universal network like a multi-dimensional Wordweb – a Web which can be mapped in part.
There can be no totally definitive maps. The multi-dimensional nature of the Wordweb cannot readily be depicted. Nonetheless the Wordweb can be charted – word-by-word – even if only in a two-dimensional manner . So each Textmap we construct is only ever a partial one. However it takes us to the heart of the matter. We can establish corewords and key concepts clearly.
Individual textmaps provide us with a new perspective, as they highlight a firm context for any word or concept. In following a series of carefully developed techniques, we encounter astounding developments: there are ancient truths embedded in the language. Thus, step by step, we can untangle knots, grasp the extent of The Tangled Web of Deception and outwit the dissemblers. Our knowledge of words is what enables us to understand each other. Fot it is only by words that we can convey ideas with any clarity … or command them to do our wishes.
We will concentrate therefore on the corewords and key concepts which are the wellsprings of our language. Every such word or idea we unlock illuminates dozens of simpler words and ideas.
“There is such an intimate connection between ideas and words that whatever deficiency or fault there may be in the one necessarily affects the other.” Thomas Sheridan, actor.
More importantly, we think with words:
“Thought is impossible without words” Dr John Dewey, educator.
In The Beginning … was the Word
In the beginning was The Word
Wordlore is unique. Using Textmaps it highlights the concepts and terminology lying at the at the heart of real magic. Corewords, hinted at as ‘words of power’ in esoteric literature, are indeed keys to power in the real world.
Quite obviously our first coreword must be Word itself.
· A Word is a unit of Spoken language: Word literally means ‘a thing spoken’.
Speak is therefore the basic root meaning.
· A Word is also a Written sign representing such an utterance.
· A Word is also something we Think.
· A Word is a Name.
· A Word is also a Saying, Rumour, Hint, Message, Promise, Declaration.
What is Spoken
· Speak = Say, Utter, Talk, Tell, Declare
The first equivalent of speak is Say. So a word is what is Said. Hence we find it in the beginning:
“In the Beginning was the Word, …” John 1.1.
“In the Beginning God Created …” Genesis 1.1.
“and God Said … and there was …” Genesis 1.3.
The Word Creates – Through being Spoken
“So is my Word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it …” Isaiah 55.11
Word also means Name
“Whatever the man Called each living creature, that was it’s Name …”Genesis 2.19
WordLore
Lore that which is Learned, Teaching, Doctrine … originally meant ‘that Found out’
Learn to find out; to teach: to be informed: to get to Know: to gain knowledge, skill or ability in:
Teach to show how to do: to direct: to impart knowledge or art to: to guide the studies of: to exhibit so as to impress upon the mind: to accustom: to counsel
Doctrine lore, learning, a teaching: aa thing taught: a principle of belief
Find allied to seek: to come upon or meet with: to discover or arrive at: to come to perceive: to experience: to supply: to determine after judicial inquiry: to succeed in getting
Know be assured of, perceive with certainty
Knowledge a clear and certain perception of that which exists, cognition, learning
Ledge from leche, leke, lac a Game, Fun, Sport, Play, Gift, Lark
Language – the overall context
Language … that Spoken by the tongue …
“The tongue has the power of life and death”
“The tongue of the wise brings healing”
“The tongue of the wise commends knowledge”
The foregoing Biblical proverbs emphasize the fact that it is well worth understanding the omnipotence of language from the Biblical viewpoint. Others have had equally revealing things to say …
“Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved. It has arrested ten thousand lightning flashes of genius” Richard Chevenix Trench
“Each language is a special tool, with a particular capability. It is a system of thought. When people speak different languages, their minds work differently and they act differently. No language is neutral. Each language imposes a certain world view on the mind” Jack Vance, The Languages of Pao
“We sift reality through screens composed of ideas. These systems are
limited by language. Language cuts the grooves in which our thoughts move”
Frank Herbert, The Santaroga Barrier
Following the Clues
Clue [Clew] a ball of Thread
Following the Threads
Thread a very thin line of any substance twisted or drawn out, a fibre, Yarn
Thread of Life the thread imagined to be spun and cut by the Fates
Our language is woven from three main threads, Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Greek. It also includes a number of words from other languages. Key concepts have equivalenta in each root language. For example …
Although each word is related to its equivalents, they each have subtler shades of meaning …
Rune song, conference, incise, symbol, character, letter, spell, alphabet, sentence
Letter character, culture, learning, literal, mark, message, meaning, print, smear
Gramma alphabet, book, charm, element, enchantment, fascination, influence, language, letter, science, teach
Some words above appear more than once. Letter, Alphabet, Character & Write occur twice
Such connections enable us to produce ‘feedback loops’ in mapping the Wordweb
So much is, after all, obvious. But these self-same ‘loops’ are the key to some startling revelations.
The Wordweb
The Wordweb is the web/weave of all words, indicating their contextual locations, meanings and inter-relationships. It is a multi-dimensional network of interconnecting pathways. Our Wordweb is Brian Bates ‘Web of Wyrd’ which he describes as follows …
“A way of being which transcends our conventional notions of free will and determinism. All aspects of the world were seen as being in constant flux and motion … a vision of the universe from the gods to the underworld, as being connected by an enormous all-reaching system of fibres rather like a three-dimensional spider’s web. Any event, anywhere, resulted in reverberations and repercussions throughout the web.”
As Word and Wyrd are so tightly locked together, they must originally have been doublets – two words from the same root. The Anglo-Saxon ‘Web of Wyrd’ is our Wordweb.
Textmaps
Wordlore makes prime use of textmaps, for they depict a word’s main contextualo neighborhood with the simple clarity of a conventional map. Using ‘wordbubbles’ and a variety of arrows, we can produce maps of varying complexity – plotting the junctions in an area of the giant web. For this latter reason, textmapping is also known aas wordwebbing or wordweaving.
Textmap symbols fall into two categories – words and connecting lines. Words are enclosed in boxes or bubbles for the sake of visual distinction. Lines vary from simple connections to directional arrows.
The mapping process cannot begin until a thorough analysis of a series of linked words has been made. We begin with conventional dictionary definitions. We need all the main meanings as they have grown through the passage of time, root and branches.
Every coreword has a story to tell. Words have magic power, for every word is the key to a treasure-chest of meaning. Some are Pandora’s Boxes, while others are Hope Chests. All have meaning. All have power.
The Growth of Language
There is a general mantra that words change their meanings because the language is a living thing. Therefore, it is assumed, the meanings of words cannot be pinned down with any certainty. This is an inaccurate argument. Change implies that new usage given to a word replaces some, if not all, prior meanings. This is clearly false. It is more accurate to say that some words gain new meanings. They grow – or are blighted. We find many metaphors equating words and language with trees, roots and branches. So, like the garden they resemble, words too can suffer blight.
Further Clues
Lost Proverbs
To bring to light special uses of certain corewords, we can call to our aid common folk wisdom. This is often encapsulated in proverbs. By bringing together two or more proverbs with the same corewords, a hidden story will often begin to appear. Consider the word Idle.
Most of us are aware of the proverb that states:
“The Devil finds work for Idle hands”
Quite obviously the main contrast here is that Idleness is the very opposite of Work. None of us is likely to disagree. So far, so good. However, on the Work side of the scales, we can add the following:
“All Work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”
In this instance Work is contrasted with Play. But we get the additional information that Work Dulls. The implication being that Play Brightens. The implications of both proverbs combined is that Idleness and Play have some equality and therefore that Idleness also Brightens.
This is a trifle disconcerting when we’ve been taught to look on idleness with disdain. Even a first glance at our dictionary will not dispel our distaste, as it gives Vain and Empty as the main modern meaning of the word Idle. However if we consult Walter W Skeat’s Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, we find, with some delight, that the original root meanings of Idle were Clear, Bright.
This allows us to make sense of a couple of proverbs which have fallen out of favour – because they are no longer understood. The first is:
“Love is the Fruit of Idleness”
Before we even consider the nature of work, we have already gathered quite a few complimentary connections to the word Idle: Play, Bright, Clear, Love, Fruit.
But we mustn’t neglect the modern meanings of Idle: Vain, Empty. These terms appear to run counter to the foregoing. However …
Vain means Empty and is allied to Vacation, which means Leisure
Empty literally means ‘full of Leisure’.
Leisure means ‘freedom from employment’, originally ‘to be permitted’.
Our second ‘lost proverb’ is …
“There is Luck in Leisure”
In sum the multiplex value of the coreword Idle is absolutely alive with positive connotations.
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Doublets & Other Multiples
We have thus far given first weight to the etymological root meaning of given words. Some of these roots have additional branches. We find the following doublets (two words of variant spelling from the same root), just as there are many multiples:
Doublets Evil/Ill Travel/Travail Weave/Web Word/Wyrd – this doublet will not be found in dictionaries – thus far. The full argument will be found further on.
Triplets Pain/Penalty/Punishment
Just a moments thought on the very first doublet demonstrates that evil must exist, for illness certainly does. The causes and cures for the latter will also be found later …
Families
In all three languages, root words often give birth to large families. Some of these families are of special interest to us.
LATIN provides such examples as: Fable/Faerie/Fame/Fate, stemming from the root, fari, meaning ‘to speak’.
GREEK gives us this example: Grammar/Gramarye/Grimoire/Glamour, from gramma, meaning ‘a letter’.
In ANGLO-SAXON, large word families have names beginning with the same consonants.Two related families are shown.
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Descent
Some words make strange journeys. So it doesn’t pay to overlook any everyday word. For it might be full of surprises. The history of the word ‘SILLY’ is a good example:
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The Genius Of Language
Genius … the special inborn faculty of any individual: special taste or natural disposition: consummate intellectual, creative or other power, more exalted than talent: one so endowed: a good or evil Spirit, presiding over every person, place and thing, and especially to preside over a man’s destiny from his birth: prevailing Spirit or tendency … the tutelar Spirit of anyone: also Wit. Literally ‘inborn nature’.
The corewords here are Spirit and Wit. See also djinn, jinn, genie.
“A dynamic and pervasive world of Spirits co-existed with the material world in Anglo-Saxon culture. The Spirits, manifestations of forces pertaining to Wyrd, were invisible to most humans, although they played a prominent and superstitious role in the everyday lives of Anglo-Saxons.” Brian Bates, ‘The Way of Wyrd’
Spin
Every story has a ‘spin’ to it – for every story is spun. But when it comes to ‘doctoring’ we have a different tale. Spin is today what ‘slant’ and ‘angle’ were yesterday – a deviation from straight talk. We face a war of words – where many people cheat!
How then do we discern the truth? How do we remove the tampering and straighten the story? Only by fully understanding the meaning of every word used. Just as there are ways to restore lost paintings by the careful removal of overlays, so there are ways to strip the emperor of all layers of false clothing. – and ways to reveal the deceptions that would blind us. Although the requisite techniques are easy, some of the consequences are traumatic. But they do have the advantage of outwitting the dissemblers.
The English word Spin means ‘to draw out threads as Spiders do’. It further means hurtle; twist, twirl, whirl; revolve, rotate. It is directly connected to the Latin-rooted Space, which means ‘that which is drawn out’. It is also allied to Span, which means grasp, clasp; bind, connect; stretch, extend.
A Spider is a Spinner. A spider spins a Web, from the same stem as Weave.
Thread or Yarn what is drawn out, twisted and used for weaving.
To lose the thread, lose track of the connected sequence in a tale.
See also lose the Plot.
Thread of Life thread [life story] imagined to be spun and cut by the Fates.
Thread is Yarn a sailor’s Tale or Story.
All stories depend on positive spin. If we simply run through the list of root meanings and spin-off terms we have collected thus far, and weigh each word in our mental scales, it will be seen that, with the possible exception of Twist, they all carry positive connotations.
Doctoring
Doctor a Teacher, a learned father of the church, a cleric skilled In theology and ecclesiastical law, a physician or medical practitioner, dentist, druggist
Only when spin is Doctored in a negative way, does mischief enter the scene:
Doctor to Sophisicate, Tamper with, Falsify
Sophisticate Adulterated, Falsify
Tamper have secret or Corrupt Dealings, to Interfere, Meddle, by-form of temper
Spin-Doctoring is the terminology applied mainly to the speech of politicians and their spokesmen. In journalism the terminology used is “What Slant or Angle do we give this story?”
Slant ... Incline, Slope, Slip
Angle ... Diverge
What we Say is what we Get
Quoted by Richard Chenevix Trench: ‘On the Study of Words’
‘Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.’
“The Egyptians held that ‘the word creates all things’, but that it depended on a ‘clear voice’ and ‘exact delivery’. In their ‘House of Life’, rhythm and melody were studied, for intonation was critical. In the magic incantations of the Egyptians not only the name but every spoken word had its supernatural effect. Nothing could come into being before its name had been uttered. ‘The word’ the hieroglyphics tell us, ‘creates all things’: everything we love and hate, the totality of being: nothing is before it has been uttered in a clear voice. To accomplish its full effect the word must be spoken correctly.”
“In Anglo-Saxon magic prime importance was attached to the spoken word. Expressing a command vocally was regarded as a direct means of obtaining one’s purpose. In the non-literate world of Norse magic, as with Anglo-Saxons, words were believed to strengthen the power which made magic work. The form in which they were spoken would, in turn, either reinforce or weaken that power. Sung or chanted words added a strength to the spell and the role of poetry was one of the most powerful vocal forms of all, both because of the special verbal and memory skills it required and because of the dramatic effect created when it was spoken. The word ‘song’ and its equivalents have been used in Indo-European and other language groups to denote magical practices. The Lapps, the arch sorcerers of Viking times, used the word ‘runo’ to denote song or even incantation.” Bernard King ‘The Runes’.
“He who speaks much says ill-chosen words; a tongue unreined speaks its own undoing.For every word he speaks a man will pay in kind.” Edda - Hávamál
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