Words

Greetings all,

Bittersweet has been this week as I close in on achieving one of the major goals of my life.  My book is ready for publication. I'm just getting with a photographer and graphic designer to create the cover.  Almost two years in the making for a book that is 70 or so pages seems like a lot.  Drumming Down the Runes, was more than a book though, it was an epic journey.  It also served as a reminder to me about the power in our words.

Marketing, love it or hate it, is omnipresent in our culture.  For myself, it is one of those necessary evils.  Still I try to make even my marketing align with some form of service.  This blog could be seen as a form of marketing, but I also try to go deeper with it and hopefully provide some insights for my readers to ponder. Still at the base of it all, marketing to me seems to be about the devaluing of the power in words.  It is glamour without substance more often than not.

In the beginning there was the word.  Some of you probably recognize that phrase from one translation of Genesis. Our use of language has evolved quite a bit in the past few thousand years. A man's word (or woman's word just so as we aren't being sexist) used to carry a lot more weight.  The breaking of one's word carried a heavy toll.  These days we toss words around carelessly, sometimes not even sure of their true meaning. We use words that hurt in order to sound clever or superior.  We may have become desensitized to our words, but there is power in them still.  We see this in rise of teen suicides affected by cyber bullying.  Just words on a screen someone might say, but those words carried a death sentence to the intended readers.

I myself have been lax in my use of words.  I have at various times been told by spirit to "stop gossiping".  It is a detrimental habit, one that I have taken a great deal of effort to reduce or eliminate in my life.  I have a gift of words and influence.  I can even imbue words with subtextual meanings to say a lot without saying anything.  This can be useful, and it can also be manipulative and cruel if done without a lot of self reflection as to my motives.  So my blog you see can be useful for things other than marketing.  I think it helps me stop myself from idly doling out power on things that are beneath the line of integrity…I still fail.  My words can be petty, spiteful, and brash.  With a book on the way, I just hope I have used my words in a constructive and healing manner.

Words shape the framework of the perception of our lives and world. World is only one letter more than word. Ponder that one. Experiencing and writing about the power of letters for the past two years has been eye opening.  A single letter can have a multitude of associations tied to it.  It can be maddening to think of how much unconsciousness we tolerate in our words.  Maybe this is why so many spiritual traditions talk about listening more than talking.

 You might be thinking, "So what Mooneagle what does this mean to me?" Well how conscious are you of the ways in which you use language?  Are you given to exaggeration? Is false flattery and flowery verbiage camouflaging your true feelings? Are you precise in your questions to one another? How about the words you use to describe your life? Self talk can make the difference between a positive self image and self loathing. Do your words have weight, or are they just pushing air around? What would happen if considered your words more carefully? How would your words shape your world?  Let that idea gestate for a time within yourself, and then see what is brought forth.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle