I walked past this utility pole and then stopped and went back to be with it. I thought, yes, this is the condition of the news we are getting today. It's tattered, sun-faded, rain-soaked, partly torn away, pollution-coated, unreadable, wrinkled, misleading and outdated and often the phone number posted no longer works. So who do you call for more information? And once in a while some new piece of paper is tacked or stapled on top of all that has gone before, is yet to come or may never happen and you only get one chance to read it before the weather changes. 

Innsaei is a multi-layered Icelandic word meaning the sea within, to see within, to know your self and to see from the inside out. 
There is a thought-provoking documentary on Netflix of the same name, InnSaei. In it, Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir speaks about the noise that surrounds us, this distraction we call entertainment, as blocking our connection with the earth and our connection with each other. The noise of the outer mutes the sound of our internal intuition. ​Not only have we lost silence. We have lost our appreciation of the necessity of silence. We are afraid to be to be alone without noise. Perhaps Innsaei can best be experienced through silence.

In reading Gylfaginning I’m intrigued by the combining of the words yeasty and venom.  So I scry the internet and learn that the word yeast is Germanic in origin and of course it is the word for the thing that is used in brewing beer and making bread dough rise and it also means spume, foam, ferment, agitation, to be covered with froth.  Gylfaginning tells us that there are eleven streams that collectively make up Elivagar (Ice Waves) that finds it source in the wellspring Hvergelmir which is one of the three wells hidden in the roots of the world tree.
It also says that yeasty venom hardened upon these streams and became ice that played a part in the origin of the giant Ymir and the filling of the great Void, Ginnungagap.
Continuing to follow the trail, I discovered that the word venom has its roots in the word venerate, which finds it way back to Venus, which is more than a planet and a goddess.  Venus originally meant physical desire and sexual appetite.
Venom is also a word with connection to the Latin venenum and it doesn’t just mean a poison.  It can also be a magical herb or potion. 
In another place Gylfaginning says, “So many serpents are in Hvergelmir with Nidhogg that no tongue can tell them.”  Is it possible that these serpents are the source of the venom spoken of as being yeasty?  They all dwell in the roots of Yggdrasil, down there where the wells are.
So why do we automatically think that the yeasty venom is poison?  Could it be instead a foaming, frothing, agitated, fermenting magical potion that played a part in what emerged from the coming together of the fires of Muspelheim and the ice of Niflheim?
Fire and ice are joining hands again at this rhythmic time of global warming.  What magical event will occur this time when the yeasty venom is activated? 

Crazy:  Unsound.  Unbalanced.  Cracked or flawed.  Insane.
Craze:  Crack, break, crackle or shatter.
Craze and crazy are words with origins in Middle English/Old Norse.  Crasen.  It means literally to crack, break or shatter.
Julia Cameron makes the statement in her book, The Artist's Way:  Going sane looks like going crazy.
You know the feeling.  You're trying to shatter the illusions, break down the walls, crack open the shell to find yourself and set yourself free.
Maybe you've been living in a glass jar or behind glass.  You could see out but didn't realize you were trapped inside or behind and were living life as an observer but not being able to feel or touch.
For a long time I have quoted the above saying, going sane looks like going crazy, but lately it just didn't feel right, didn't feel accurate somehow.  So I did what I always do, I asked the question, why?  
What does the word sane really mean?
It's origins are Latin, sanus, healthy.
Showing or having reason.
Sound judgment or good sense.
Free from mental derangement.
Sensible, practical, realistic, rational.
Level headed, balanced, NORMAL.
Wow and whoa.
With a list of words like that defining sane and sanity, my next question was, 
Do I really want to go sane?  
Aren't these the very things that create the illusions, the walls, the barriers, the glass that keep me from being my amazing, unique, irreverent self?
I WANT TO GO CRAZY SO I CAN GO REAL AND AUTHENTIC.  I DON'T WANT TO GO SANE!
What about you?

Ingrid the Rune Woman
Wise and Irreverent
Awaken Your Hunger
IngridKincaid.com

Powdered Milk and Head Lice

The last day I was beautiful
I forgot the rules and walked across the grass with the 'do not walk' sign
Reflecting light so bright I couldn't see

The last year I was beautiful
I started smoking cigarettes at dawn and told my mother what I really thought
About powdered milk and head lice and removed the bars of soap
From all the bathrooms so I could swear

The last time I was beautiful
I stopped pretending that I liked
Tidy drawers and I wore socks instead
That didn’t match and underwear with holes
So they’d all be shocked when I wrecked my marriage
Instead of my car

And all the holy congregation of Brothers Righteous and Sisters Uptight
Gasped and gossiped and crawled away from me like slugs
Hiding themselves under rocks that were the shattered Ten Commandments
I laughed out loud at my own funeral to celebrate my death
I danced naked on my grave of should and shouldn’t
And sinful and imperfect

The last time I was beautiful ended and began with the moment
I stuck a pin in the illusion and released the hot air
Which escaped with a hiss and a backward movement
Out of control around the room that was made
With lines I’d already colored outside of

Ingrid Kincaid / August 2014
I wrote this to honor the courage it took for me to leave, the religion, the marriage, the lie.

Well who am I and who are you?  
It's the endless question begging to be answered on these web sites and blogs and networking platforms., like a job interview or a personal ad or a resume, where we must look for and find the list, the endless lineup of credentials, all the letters and titles after our names.
Credential has it root in the word creed and creed at its root means belief in or acceptance that something is true.  
So who are the credentials for, really?
The reader, the seeker? 
Or do I/we need the credentials to believe in ourselves?
Just what is it that makes me or anyone else belief-worthy?  
Is it the school or university that someone graduated from that lends credibility?  
Is someone belief-worthy because they're certified or approved and if so, by whom?  
And then how does someone determine the credibility of the institution or the certification upon which the credentials are based?
Is it by personal experience or is it anecdotal?
Is trust in someone based upon popular belief in the credibility of their credentials?
There are unscrupulous lawyers and dangerous doctors with credentials from prestigious universities.
And certified financial planners whose finances are a disaster.
If we always look for the credentials does it somehow discourage us from trusting our intuition or override our inner sense of knowing? 
Are we discouraged from trusting our own sense of knowing?
Have we been convinced that we're not capable of knowing what is true and who to trust? 
When we put our trust only in the credentials do we step away from personal accountability and responsibility for the choices we make about the credibility of the individual?
Who am I?  Do I have any credentials?  Can you believe in me?  Can I believe in myself?
Who are you?  What makes you believable? 
What are you hungry for?
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Wise and Irreverent

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In the process of merging and consolidating my business and personal profiles and my web presence  (see previous post),  I began to realize that there were some things that I needed to eliminate.  You know, like we're constantly being told to eliminate salt and fat from our diets, or eliminate cravings or desires.
Then how is this word any different from expressions such as throw away, let go or get rid of?

Eliminate
From Latin:  ex/e meaning out
From Latin:  limen/limin meaning threshold
From Latin:  eliminate meaning turned out of doors
So interestingly, eliminate literally means to be drive out across the threshold.
In teaching I often talk about liminal space, the threshold, where we can cross from one place, realm, experience, or state-of-being into another.  There are liminal occurrences such as sunrise and sunset and the solstices and equinoxes and liminal places on the earth like vortexes and sacred sites where it's possible to slip back and forth into other realms and times easily and quickly.  Birth and death, sex, menstruation and religious ecstasy are also liminal.  When Odin offered himself in sacrifice, he 'tore a hole in Ginnungagap',  the great Void; he reached across the threshold and 'runes rushed in, and out'.*
When we eliminate something, when we drive something out across the threshold, where does it go?  
Can we cause something to exist in another dimension by virtue of our own choice? 
Whether something is in or out is completely dependent upon perspective.  
When we cross a threshold are we coming or going?
What happens to those things we say we eliminate?
What do you hunger for?
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Wise and Irreverent
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*this is taken from the book (un) familiar
"Gar
gift of Ing
you are the one
who brought them forth
tore a hole
in Ginnungagap
runes rushed
in and out
with piercing wail
the high one
sacrificed himself
ending the beginning"

I love words.  I love the meaning of words.  I love to explore why one word is more appropriate to use than another, or why a word feels a certain way or doesn't seem to belong where it's been placed.
Words are names and naming and because of that, they have power.
I have a presence on the world wide web in many different places, with various write ups and bios and domain names and tag lines and descriptions and it's become just too much.  Too much to remember and too much to attend to.
In my decision to streamline and simplify  I felt around to find a word that best describes what I want to do.
One webinar spoke about merging, using the analogy of a freeway, where many roads feed into one.
A business colleague used the word consolidate to describe what she had done with her various business identities.
Consolidate
From Latin:  Con meaning together
From Latin:  Solidus/solidare meaning to make solid or firm
From Latin:  Consolidare meaning to combine into a single whole or make solid by combining into one
Merge
From Latin:  Mergere meaning to dip, immerse, plunge into water, to cause to become combined, absorbed, swallowed up, united into a single enterprise
One word is solid, the other watery, by definition.  So which one is it?  How would you decide?  Or would you use a different word?
And in the meantime, I just need to get on with making things more simple.
What are you hungry for?
Ingrid 
Wise and Irreverent