Wordplay, Secret Language, and Magic in the Orphic Hymns
An excerpt from my forthcoming book!
How does magical language actually work?
What’s its relationship to poetry, wordplay, and puns?
What does it mean when we say that a text (the Orphic Hymns, for example) is “esoteric?”
And how does one read something “esoterically,” anyway?
These are questions I tackle in the introduction to my forthcoming book, and I’d like to offer this preview for my dedicated subscribers. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you all provide me with invaluable support while I dedicate myself not just to translating the Orphic Hymns, but to unearthing the Mystery teachings of the early Orphics as encoded in the polyvalent, pluralistic language of the original Greek.
There are a lot of days when I feel like an oracle, with these Mystery teachings moving through me almost with a life of their own. And like many oracles past and present, it takes a toll on my body-mind. So thank you thank you thank you for providing me with this much-needed support while my chronically ill body moves in “crip time” through this enormous, unwieldy project.
One caveat: Before diving in, if you haven’t already, you may want to read this post on what I’ve termed “fractal animism.” What follows below presumes that you have at least a passing familiarity with this idea as I’ve outlined it. (If you prefer an audio version of the post, you can access it at the link below.)
Enjoy!
✨✨ Kristin