Jow has a piece today about finding an enchanted dollar bill which I found fascinating. I’m strongly tempted to do some bill-marking in the near future to extend blessings out to the world, as well as find some new prosperity, too.  But I wanted to tell Jow this, and I couldn’t.  The reCatchPa system doesn’t think I’m a human being anymore, apparently. Or OpenID doesn’t believe I am who I say I am. Or something.

So Jow, I don’t know if you read this or if you’ll care, but here’s my thought:

I think you did the right thing burying the bill, because you’re actually redirecting their magic to the one who can make the magician more successful at having a “less shitty” 2012, to wit:

 Let us sing of well-founded Earth,
Mother of all, Eldest of all:
She feeds all creatures that are in the world,
all that go on the goodly land,
and all that are in the paths of the sea,
and all that fly.

-Homeric Hymn to Mama Gaia

The bill will act like a prayer flag in the ground, I suspect.  As it gets eaten and decomposes, the Panmater will be able to engage her powers on behalf of the suppliant.  Additionally, all the people traveling through the crossroads by car, bike and on foot will energize the work, like hands on a prayer wheel.

You didn’t wash your hands of the work — you repaired it or improved it.  Milman Parry and Albert Lord’s work with Balkan storytellers in the 1920s or and 1950s or so made much of the fact that oral tradition worked on a combination of invention and formulary, and I think you’ve done much the same thing.  The initial work was good and useful, but buzzing and irritating.  You smoothed it out, and brought it to the attention of the right tutelary beings, so that it could be anchored and grounded.  Someone else — me, for instance — is realizing that this is a powerful kind of magic, and is wondering how to carry it forward.  And so the tradition develops and grows — ways to make paper money magic move forward.  It’s a heavy kind of re-enchantment, while being feather-light at the same time — formulary and inspiration in the moment working together.

So even if I’m not actually commenting, it really has more to do with the fact that OpenID is broken and ReCatchPa doesn’t think I’m a human being, than that your ideas aren’t worth commenting on.  I can’t even leave a comment to say that I’m commenting.  How awkward is that?

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