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2013-04-16-a

As an exercise in Chaos magic, I developed my own personal system for producing magical readings based on Tolkien's Elvish writing, the Tengwar. (Tolkien has had deep personal meaning for me for most of my life – and I'm over 45 years old now – so I felt there would be personal significance in choosing the Tengwar as my "magical alphabet.") My system for reading takes some getting used to. I am not versed in tarot readings, and this gives me both an advantage and a disadvantage in that these readings are not influenced by the tarot. However, they also take a while to produce, as I am still familiarizing myself with this system. It's not the type of system where I can sit down with a person and produce an immediate reading; one reading seems to take a while.

Chaos magic stems from the subconscious, so I decided to ask the "collective subconscious" (if it exists) a question about the Boston Marathon bombing. The actual question shall remain a secret. Based upon the translation of the question into the Tengwar, and its distribution into the kuru tekele reading system, the following result occurred:

{nd} Dark {t} Light {s} Dark
{th} Light {hw} Neutral{r} Light
{m} Dark {mb} Light {n} Dark

This translates to:

Self:

{hw} hwesta (breeze): Light: A light wind can be refreshing, as it blows across one's face and cools a hard worker. It may bring scents and sounds of pleasure, drawing us into further delights. Dark: A breeze could also be the first sign of an ill wind to come, an omen of change.

Present:

{r} ore (heart): Also defined as one's "inner mind," the heart is the center of caring, compassion, and thoughts about the world outside of oneself. Love springs from the heart, and many deeds of Men have been accomplished by following the guidance of one's heart.

{th} thule (spirit): The soul, the inner being, that which gives us our sense of self. Strength and durability of spirit can help a person overcome adversity, difficulty, and strife.

Past:

{n} numen (west): …but the West was open only for the Elves, and it was taken away from the reach and sight of Men. The West can be a sign of an unfulfilled goal or purpose, something one can strive for during their entire life but never reach or accomplish.

{mb} umbar (fate): Destiny, that which controls and guides us, and which shapes our future. The appearance of Destiny as a sign is certainly a portent of an important event, something memorable and possibly life-changing.

{m} malta (gold): Desire for gold is seen as the epitome of greed, miserliness, and selfishness. It is a lust for possession, the amassing of precious things, or the seizure of something one cannot have but desires above all else…even illicit desire and lust.

Future:

{s} silme (starlight): Stars, comets, and the distant glow of the planets (as opposed to the twinkle of stars) can indeed be omens of things to come, meaning that a time of strife and difficulty may be approaching.

{t} tinco (metal): The mark of civilization is when Man first began producing metal tools, moving from the Stone Age into more sophisticated metals, progressing to higher levels of technology. Metal is "processed," the result of civilized metal processing. Foundations are made of metal. Metal can be seen as "building a structure" or "embarking on a project."

{nd} ando (gate): A gate can be opened (by friend or foe) to allow the world access into a private place, revealing secrets and weaknesses one is trying to hide from the world. It can also be a barrier to discovery, a sign that the seeker cannot enter and finds his way blocked.

From this, my reading of the Boston Marathon bombing seemed to produce the following:

The first part of the reading applies to the Self, namely to the subject of this reading. The winds of change are definitely blowing, for we know the Marathon will never be the same after yesterday's tragedy. (There will certainly be a strong military presence there next year.) But there's a suggestion here that even in spite of this tragedy, something positive may come from this – a change that will caause everyone to move forward in a manner even better than before. There's a lot of patriotism involved here, and the usual message would be "we will return even stronger than before;" though there's a suggestion that there's something even more than this here. I hope there is indeed a positive aspect to this, though I (and everyone else) certainly wish people didn't have to be killed and hurt for this change to happen. This positive aspect is reinforced by the fact that random selection also produced the symbols for "heart" in the East, and "spirit" in the West. Both of these, of course, are positive aspects for caring and openness.

However, upon examining the Past, the reading is less friendly and more menacing, especially when we take yesterday's events into account. We start with the sign of an unfulfilled goal or purpose, something one can strive for during their entire life but never reach or accomplish; and we move to Destiny, that which controls and guides us, and which shapes our future. This moves on to lust for possession, the amassing of precious things, or the seizure of something one cannot have but desires above all else…even illicit desire and lust. This, I think, can be applied to the person who accomplish this despicable deed. It suggests that this person could think he has been chosen by Destiny – maybe by his religious faith – to commit this horrible act, maybe out of frustration or hatred. I don't want to stereotype and state that it's the mind of a typical "foreign terrorist," because it could also apply to someone who grew up here in the USA – think of Timothy McVeigh and his supposed "strike" against the Powers that Be when he blew up that building in Oklahoma.

From here, we move on to the Future. Here we see omens of things to come, meaning that a time of strife and difficulty may be approaching. However, the positive aspect of the Future is "tinco," the Elvish word for "metal," and this can apply to the building of a foundation; giving strength and durability to one's creation; or even providing reinforcement and strength. The final aspect of the Future is curious: it suggests the opening of a gate to allow the world access into a private place, revealing secrets and weaknesses one is trying to hide from the world. This could be applied to the other aspects of the future, meaning that it will be difficult to locate the person who did this. Expect the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber to last for a long time, possibly in the same manner of the time it took to hunt down Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber. Curiously, Eric Rudolph also seems to match the profile given in this reading. Perhaps the person who did this may have his own selfish and hate-ridden motives, in much the same manner as what happened in Atlanta.

This system for magical readings can be seen on my Web site under the title of Reading the Tengwar. I'm also starting a Facebook group for this, if anyone is interested: www.facebook.com/KuruTekele