Now I'll relate nine book-thumbing (and one book-fingering) divination incidents, which perhaps some may relate to the celtic story of Finn sticking his thumb in the salmon and getting it burned and later sucking on his thumb to gain wisdom.
First, in 1994 or 1995, I went into Banyen Books in Vancouver and picked up a book of women goddesses and randomly thumbed to a page. It came open at the Helen page. This moved me deeply since my mother's name was Ellen (or Nell). Also I was doing yoga at Helen's Court Coop.
Second, last February I went to a local FPI store and bought a whole salmon to bake stuffed with wild rice for my sister Anne's birthday. Later that day I went to Wordplay bookstore and while there picked up a book of Native American folk tales. Again, I randomly thumbed to a page, and it came open at the native tale of the Salmon youth, so I had to buy it. But I didn't look into the story until much later since I was busy cooking and other things, last year (1996). This book is North American Indians(:?) Myths & Legends, ISBN 1-85958-015-7, compiled by Lewis Spence, Senate Books, paperback, 1994, 393 pages, where the "(:?)" means try a blank instead of a colon if the colon produces no match, and leave out the parentheses in either case. That book is a reprint of the 1914 edition. The story I discuss in more detail in my section of parallels in world religions entitled North American Native Spirituality. But though the book I saw it in says it is a Dakota (Lakota, also sometimes improperly called Sioux) story it doesn't turn up in any Lakota books I have skimmed so far. It is a tale from the Iowa tribe of the Dakota.
The third thumb occurred early in 1997, not long after I had posted to alt.islam.sufism about the blue rose vision, but got no response. At Branwen Books, a local pagan-friendly bookstore, I thumbed randomly in an abridged version of the Koran, and it came open at the end of the section entitled Daybreak, which ends with the two lines
Join the company of My servants,
and enter into My Garden.
That was from p. 141 of The Essential Koran -- The Heart of Islam -- An Introductory Selection of Readings from the Qur'an, translated and presented by Thomas Cleary, HarperCollins paperback edition 1994, ISBN 0-06-250196-8 (cloth), ISBN 0-06-250198-4 (paberback).
A fourth thumb occurred also in Branwen Books this year (1997) at the anniversary of the salmon thumb incident, when I was purchasing the new novel entitled Gaff Topsails by Newfoundland-born (spent much time in Beijing, now in Ottawa) writer Patrick Kavanagh, entitled Gaff Topsails, a celtic-rooted magic realism book. Before buying it I thumbed at random and came out to the page where the mad nun is hung at the cove analogous to Gallows Cove. The book is centred around the midsummer or summer solstice bonfire night/feast of St. John the Baptist and has some pagan elements. It is published by Cormorant Books, Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada ISBN 0-920953-95-6 . This Patrick Kavanagh is from my home town/parish (but I am no longer Roman Catholic, I am not in any religious organization and will not start one and will not join one) of Harbour Main/Chapel's Cove/Lakeview, Newfoundland, and should not be confused with the Irish writer of the same name.
A fifth thumb occurred when I thumbed an edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and it came out to a page where there is a line about swan down on the crest of a wave. Then I noticed on the bed next to the book there was a piece of down from the lining of my winter coat. From this I took Swan to be one of my minor SSOSOSS deities and also Bird4 to be one of my minor SSOSOSS deities if the down is from a bird species other than swan. I don't remember the exact Shakespeare quote, I think it was comparing a woman's indecision to a piece of swan down on the crest of the wave. But I taped the down to the page I thumbed and I'll check that the next time I'm in Lake View and will then put the exact quote and the play name here.
Once in 1996 or 1997 I thumbed at random a book on Scottish folklore called The Silver Bough Vol. 1 by F. Marian McNeill. It came out to a page with this poem on it:
Ri faicinn domh na gealaich uir,
Is duth domh mo shuil a thogail.
Is duth domh ma ghlun a leagail,
Is duth domh mo cheann a bhogadh,
Toir cliu dhuit fein, a re nan iul,
Gum faca mi thu a rithist,
Gum faca mi a ghealach ur,
Ailleagan iuil na slighe.
Is iomadh neach a chaidh a null
Eadar uine an da ghealaich,
Ged tha mise a' mealtainn fuinn,
A re nan re 's nam beannachd!
which translates as:
When I see the new moon,
It becomes me to lift mine eye,
It becomes me to bend my knee,
It becomes me to bow my head.
Giving thee praise, thou moon of guidance,
That I have seen thee again,
That I have seen the new moon,
The lovely leader of the way.
Many a one has passed beyond
In the time between the two moons,
Though I am still enjoying earth,
Thou moon of moons and of blessings!
Now in that I think new moon refers not to the modern new moon or dark of moon but the early waxing crescent moon or first horn of moon. For a while I thought that significant to me since I thought a new age would begin in early waxing moon or I would be released from my low years in early waxing moon (and that could still be true since I am not, March 2005, yet out of the low years). Another interpretation is that it could be about having gone through an intense waning crescent high and now being back to normalcy for early waxing crescent. But really I just found it interesting and plan to research its signifance and Scottish lunar traditions further in future and take the thumbing as a sign I should do so. I would also like to know who the author was and if the author was similar to me at all.
On June 12, 1997, in Wordplay bookstore in downtown St. John's, I thumbed at random an edition of Shelley, and on the page with Ozymandias was a poem with a rose in it. But that day I didn't buy the book. The next day, forgetting the name of the poem, I decided to walk back to the bookstore to check it again. As I walked west on Water Street in St. John's, Newfoundland. Radio station Magic 97 (FM)'s van was playing the song CONSTANCE by Ron and Connie Hynes from Ron Hynes's CD Face to the Gale. Shortly after that I went into Wordplay bookstore to buy a card and also while there glanced in the paperback The Works of P.B.Shelley; Wordsworth Editions, Cumberland House, England, ISBN 1-85326-408-3. The poem was just before Ozymandias and was To CONSTANTIA. I wasn't meaning to buy the book, but had to, from the owner James Baird..
Now here is the poem:
TO CONSTANTIA
The rose that drinks the fountain dew
In the pleasant air of noon
Grows pale and blue with altered hue---
In the gaze of the nightly moon;
For the planet of frost, so cold and bright,
Makes is wan with her borrowed light.
Such is my heart---roses are fair,
And that at best a withered blossom;
But thy false care did idly wear
Its withered leaves in a faithless bosom!
And fed with love, like air and dew,
Its growth----
But I also noted much later that also on that same page, other than the first half of Ozymandius and To Constantia, is the poem To Constantia Singing which reminds me of Sarah McLachlan and my amiration for her music and for her. Some lines from To Constantia Singing are
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie,
Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn
Between thy lips, are laid to sleep;
Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour, it is yet,
And from thy touch like fire doth leap. ...
and
the blood and life within those snowy fingers
teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings
and
I have no life, Constantia, now, but thee,
Whilst, like the world-surrounding air, thy song
Flows on, and fills all things with melody.---
Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong,
On which, like one in trance upborne,
Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep...
This series I think refers to an original human figure Quetzalcoatl.
Once I thumbed at random D.H. Lawrence's The Complete Poems and came out at a page with some poems relating Jesus and Quetzalcoatl, from the section Poems From the Plumed Serpent. On that page was the short poem
My name is Jesus, I am Mary's son,
I am coming home,
My mother the Moon is dark
Brother, Quetzalcoatl,
Hold back the wild hot sun.
Bind him with shadow while I pass.
Let me come home.
From that I interpret the dark moon as being new moon, so related to my waning crescent to new moon highs, and the hold back the wild hot sun to my sun stare of Sept. 5, 1991, 2.5 days before the exact time of new moon.
Some other relevant quotes from those poems are:
In the cave which is called Dark Eye
Behind the sun, looking through him as a window
Is the place. There the waters rise,
There the winds are born
Those last four lines are about Quetzalcoatl than Jesus though, but they again indicate to me my sun stare and in it the tunneling beyond the sun.
Some more lines, from a poem called Quetzalcoatl looks down on Mexico, are:
Jesus had gone far up the dark slope, when he looked back.
Quetzalcoatl, my brother! he called. Send me my images,
And the images of my mother, and the images of my saints.
Send me them by the swift way, the way of the sparks,
That I may hold them like memories in my arms when I go to sleep
In that I interpret the sparks to be like my own mystic spark experiences.
Feb. 25, 2004: Last night in my room I grabbed my "The Essential Koran" (an abridged Koran, but I am not Muslim) and flipped to a page at random (completely random, but without thumbing this time, i.e. instead of a thumb on the long side I used my right index finger on the top) and read out
"Yaa Siin
By the Recital, rich in wisdom,
you are surely one of the Messengers,
on a straight path.
It is a revelation sent down by the Mighty, the Merciful,
so you may warn a people whose ancestors had not been warned and so they were heedless"
etc., including
"Alas for the servants: whenever a Messenger comes to them, they mock him."
I am a big fan of Ursula K. Leguin, and especially like her books Always Coming Home and Tehanu (which is about healing including healing The Earth in my opinion). I got her book Changing Planes for Christmas 2004. On Dec. 29, 2004 I just thumbed it softly not intending to seek for anything, and on the pages it opened to, 56--57, was "The salmon spawn and die when they reach their goal..." I thought that an interesting coincidence due to the title of this web page, Salmon on the Thorns.
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