Moira
Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 9:39 pm
Douglas Mercer
November 14 2024
In all Aryan mythologies the Fates are always depicted as spinning, sewing, or weaving threads, thus the concept of strings, whether it be a loom, a ball of yarn, or musical instruments, are associated with fate; weird (or word) means fate or destiny, we have a vestige of that meaning in our word toward, as when one goes in a specific direction one is said to go toward that place.
Destiny : Density
***
NORNS
The Norns (Old Norse) are deities in Norse Mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies (they make the shape of things to come). In Voluspa (the Prophetess Volva was a seeress who asks Odin if she wants him to recount ancient Lore from memory, she said she recalls the Nine Worlds who gave her birth, she then recounts the story of creation which emanated from a magical void) the three primary Norns Uror (Wyrd), Veroandi and Skuld draw water from a sacred river called Uroardbrunnr to give life to a sacred tree situated at the very heart of the Cosmos. These three Norns are described as awesome women (maidens) whose advent puts an end to the Ur or Primal Golden Age Of The Gods (Titans in the Greek mythos). In the workshop of the god the Norns visit the soul of each newborn to ordain their portion or lot in life which could be benign or malevolent or, more usually, an entwining of the two.
The origin of the name Norn derives from a word meaning twine which refers to the twining or entangling of the thread of fate (fate is always seen as being related to a string as in a ball of yarn or a musical instrument such as a lyre). The word Norn has multiple related valences one of which is a Swedish dialect word nyrna meaning to communicate secretly. This meaning suggests that the Norns are fogbound creatures who lurk in shadows who withhold their fated secrets from human being until just before the destiny comes to pass (sudden event).
The name Uror, ie Furor (Old English word Wyrd or weird) itself means fate, betokening that which when the strands of time are disclosed will seem strange indeed. Wryd (or weird or word) and Uror are etymological cognates and they share the same semantic qualities of fate over time. Both Uror and Veroandi are derived from the Old Norse verb veroa which means to become which in turn derives from the Proto-Germanic wurdiz (word); wurdiz itself decends from the Proto Indo European word wrti which is a verbal construct of the root wert which means to turn
Thus the cognate concepts of strange, turn, word, weird and fate are constellated as one travels farther back along the songs from the mouth of the river.
Uror derives from the past tense, ie, that which became or that which appeared and that which happened; whereas veroandi stems from the present tense meaning that which is currently occurring. Skuld (ie, skald poet or seer) comes to us from the Old Norse verb skulu meaning that which should come or needs to come or ought to come, so it is not a prediction of the future but a proclamation or prescription (supernatural soliciting).
There is no clear distinction between norns and Valkyries. In some legendary sagas norns appear to have been synonymous with volvas, witches and this is the reference in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In other legends they simply arrive at the birth of the hero and are described as weaving the web of his fate or destiny.
Theories have been proposed that there is no foundation in Norse mythology for the notion that the three main norns should each be associated exclusively with the past, the present, and the future; rather, all three represent destiny as it is caught up in the flow of time, seemingly the past, present future occur at once. Moreover, theories have been proposed that the idea that there are three main norns may be due to a late influence from Greek and Roman mythology, where there are also spinning fate goddessed such as Moira.
***
THE THREE WERID SISTERS
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters, Weyward (wayward or far afield) Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1603). The witches bear a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology (moira). Their origin lies in Hollinshed’s Chronicles (1587) which is a history of England and Scotland. Other sources are speculated to be British Folklore and a treatise on witchcraft by King James 6, or the norns of Norse Mythology. Shakespeare's witches are prophetesses who unlike Cassandra are believed but misinterpreted. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their filthy trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play which play acts or prefigures the final time or last syllable of recorded time
In later scenes in the First Folio, the witches are described as "weyward", but never "weird". The modern appellation weird sisters derives from Hollinshed’s original Chronicles. The word weird (descended from the Old English word wyrd or fate) was a borrowing from Scottish and had different meanings besides the modern common meaning eerie or uncanny. The Holinshed Chronicles has the sisters aid in this search for the wayward in those who have trusted their prophecies to unfold.
They are described as being three women in strange and wild apparel who resemble creations from an elder world who hail men with glowing prophecies and then immediately vanish out of sight. Holinshed reported that the common opinion was that these women were either the Weird Sisters, that is the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies endued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science. The concept of the Three Witches was influenced by an Old Norse skaldic poem in which Valkyries weave the fates of men.
Coleridge proposed that the three weird sisters should be seen as ambiguous figures, never actually calling themselves witches, nor are they called witches by other characters in the play. Moreover, they were depicted as more fair than foul both in Holinshed's account and in the description of a contemporary play-goer Simon Forman. The Three Witches represent evil, darkness, chaos, and conflict, and wildness while their role is as agents and witnesses. They appear to have a warped sense of morality, deeming seemingly terrible acts to be moral, kind or right, such as helping one another to ruin the journey of a sailor. Their presence communicates treason and impending doom. Much of the confusion that springs from them comes from their ability to straddle the play's borders between reality and the supernatural and between good and evil. They are so deeply entrenched in both worlds that it is unclear whether they control fate, or whether they are merely its agents. They defy logic, not being subject to the rules of the real world
***
ERINYES
The Erinyes (eyrie or eerie) are also known as Eumenides or simply fates. The are represented in myth and iconography as harbingers of revenge called the Gracious Ones and they perform vengeance by blood and through law. Related to Shakespeare’s late notion of the “grand decider” who cures the earth of the pleurisy of it peoples (time brings in its revenges).
Erinyes, also known as Eumenides (English: Furies) are chthonic goddess committed to vengeance in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath invokes them as the Erinyes who on the earth take vengeance of men who have sworn a false oath and so are the very embodiment of truth. The correspond to the Dirae of Roman Mythology. The Erinyes sprang from drops of blood which fell to earth (Gaia) After Cronos (Time) overthrew the primal Olympian God Uranus. The number of Erinyes is described as being three and they are fair maidens who nevertheless have endless anger and jealous rage and are bent on vengeful destruction. The etymology of the word Erinyes stems from the verb orinein which means to raise of stir agitation or excitement and the noun eris which means strife; ie, to bring war about.
The Erinyes live in Erebus and are more ancient than any of the Olympian deities. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of hosts to guests, and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The appearance of the Erinyes differs between sources, though they are frequently described as wearing black and their monstrosity was compared by poets to gorgons or harpies or banshees with hatred dripping form their eyes like the blood from which they were born. The Erinyes are commonly associated with night and darkness.
***
MOIRA
In Ancient Greek religion and mythology the Moria (or Moirai), often known in English simply as the fates, were the personification of destiny. They were three sisters Clotho (the spinner on distaff or spindle, her roman equivalent is nona or Nine), Lachesis (the allotter, drawer of lots or measuring rods, gauge) and Atropos (the inexorable, the unturning, the unerring, inevitable, the cutter of life, death itself). The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate, although in some representations, Zeus the chief of the gods, is able to command them.
The word Moirai, also spelled Moirae or Moera or Moiria comes from the Ancient Greek uoipa which means lots, destinies, or apportions. It also means portion or lot of the whole. It is related to meros which means part or lot and moros which means fate or doom. It can be a portion of share in conquest, lot in life (the immortals fixed the destiny), death itself, a parcel of land. Something is said to be mete or right or correct if it happens according to fate.
The three Moirai are known in English as the Fates. This derives from the Roman Mythology in which the fata or fatum, meaning prophetic declaration, oracle or destiny said by the “sparing ones” or their equivalent in Proto Indo European culture.
The Three Moirai sing together in unison with the music of the spheres, some of the things that were, some of what is, and the last of what should be. Pindar held them in high honor bestowing on them to send their sisters Hours Eunomia, the goddesses of right and peace. One such belief regarding them is their ability to created unexpected occurrences.
In particular, the most important parts of the natural order were birth and death. Eventually, the concept of one's destined portion in life began to be personified as a spirit or daemon, referred to as Aisa or Moira, who would determine the appropriate time for one's death at the moment of their birth. In this sense, Moira is a power that governs even the gods. Often they are depicted in art an iconography as having their thumb on a set of scale.
In one Greek Cosmogony first came Thetis (disposer, creation), and then simultaneously Poros (path) and Tekmore (end post ordinance). Poros is related with the beginning of all things, and Tekmor is related with the end of all things. Later in the Orphic cosmogony, first came Thesis, whose ineffable nature is unexpressed. Anake (necessity) is the primeval goddess of inevitability who is entwined with the time-god Chronos, at the very beginning of time. They represented the cosmic forces of Fate and Time, and they were called sometimes to control the fates of the gods. The three Moirai are daughters of Ananke.
Clotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand; Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life; and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair of scissors.
Despite their forbidding reputation, the Moirai could be placated as goddesses. Brides in Athens offered them locks of hair, and women swore by them. They may have originated as birth goddesses and only later acquired their reputation as the agents of destiny.
The Moirai were also credited to be inventors of the Greek letters
Even the gods feared the Moirai or Fates, which according to Herodotus a god could not escape. The Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted that Zeus was also subject to their power, though no recorded classical writing clarifies to what exact extent the lives of immortals were affected by the whims of the Fates. It is to be expected that the relationship of Zeus and the Moirai was not immutable over the centuries. In either case in antiquity we can see a feeling towards a notion of an order to which even the gods have to conform. Ananke (necessity and the mother of the Moirai in Orphic cosmogony) says that even the gods don't fight against it.
***
The word let can mean to allow or to make; let it be can mean permit it to be or to make it so. I remain undecided if having have two meanings of a phrase mean exactly the opposite of each other is a good or bad thing.
The distinction between creation and discovery is paper thin almost to the vanishing point, almost as if it were a false dichotomy brought about by the limits of our language to describe reality.
Moira was said by the Greeks to be a fate that even the gods must obey; that is whatever will be will not be; fate is not set but made; and with enough supernatural soliciting one can make it happen; that is with enough obedience one must obey nothing; but have an unbounded will to impose one’s fantasy life on the world. Don’t ask me to explain it, I just figured out the rules of the game and followed them, and I’ve been told that this is a law which even the gods must obey.
Life has the meaning we give it and we will make it up as we go along, in the same way that words mean exactly what we say they mean, neither more nor less--to be the master that is all. And if it isn't it aint--that's logic.
November 14 2024
In all Aryan mythologies the Fates are always depicted as spinning, sewing, or weaving threads, thus the concept of strings, whether it be a loom, a ball of yarn, or musical instruments, are associated with fate; weird (or word) means fate or destiny, we have a vestige of that meaning in our word toward, as when one goes in a specific direction one is said to go toward that place.
Destiny : Density
***
NORNS
The Norns (Old Norse) are deities in Norse Mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies (they make the shape of things to come). In Voluspa (the Prophetess Volva was a seeress who asks Odin if she wants him to recount ancient Lore from memory, she said she recalls the Nine Worlds who gave her birth, she then recounts the story of creation which emanated from a magical void) the three primary Norns Uror (Wyrd), Veroandi and Skuld draw water from a sacred river called Uroardbrunnr to give life to a sacred tree situated at the very heart of the Cosmos. These three Norns are described as awesome women (maidens) whose advent puts an end to the Ur or Primal Golden Age Of The Gods (Titans in the Greek mythos). In the workshop of the god the Norns visit the soul of each newborn to ordain their portion or lot in life which could be benign or malevolent or, more usually, an entwining of the two.
The origin of the name Norn derives from a word meaning twine which refers to the twining or entangling of the thread of fate (fate is always seen as being related to a string as in a ball of yarn or a musical instrument such as a lyre). The word Norn has multiple related valences one of which is a Swedish dialect word nyrna meaning to communicate secretly. This meaning suggests that the Norns are fogbound creatures who lurk in shadows who withhold their fated secrets from human being until just before the destiny comes to pass (sudden event).
The name Uror, ie Furor (Old English word Wyrd or weird) itself means fate, betokening that which when the strands of time are disclosed will seem strange indeed. Wryd (or weird or word) and Uror are etymological cognates and they share the same semantic qualities of fate over time. Both Uror and Veroandi are derived from the Old Norse verb veroa which means to become which in turn derives from the Proto-Germanic wurdiz (word); wurdiz itself decends from the Proto Indo European word wrti which is a verbal construct of the root wert which means to turn
Thus the cognate concepts of strange, turn, word, weird and fate are constellated as one travels farther back along the songs from the mouth of the river.
Uror derives from the past tense, ie, that which became or that which appeared and that which happened; whereas veroandi stems from the present tense meaning that which is currently occurring. Skuld (ie, skald poet or seer) comes to us from the Old Norse verb skulu meaning that which should come or needs to come or ought to come, so it is not a prediction of the future but a proclamation or prescription (supernatural soliciting).
There is no clear distinction between norns and Valkyries. In some legendary sagas norns appear to have been synonymous with volvas, witches and this is the reference in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In other legends they simply arrive at the birth of the hero and are described as weaving the web of his fate or destiny.
Theories have been proposed that there is no foundation in Norse mythology for the notion that the three main norns should each be associated exclusively with the past, the present, and the future; rather, all three represent destiny as it is caught up in the flow of time, seemingly the past, present future occur at once. Moreover, theories have been proposed that the idea that there are three main norns may be due to a late influence from Greek and Roman mythology, where there are also spinning fate goddessed such as Moira.
***
THE THREE WERID SISTERS
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters, Weyward (wayward or far afield) Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1603). The witches bear a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology (moira). Their origin lies in Hollinshed’s Chronicles (1587) which is a history of England and Scotland. Other sources are speculated to be British Folklore and a treatise on witchcraft by King James 6, or the norns of Norse Mythology. Shakespeare's witches are prophetesses who unlike Cassandra are believed but misinterpreted. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their filthy trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play which play acts or prefigures the final time or last syllable of recorded time
In later scenes in the First Folio, the witches are described as "weyward", but never "weird". The modern appellation weird sisters derives from Hollinshed’s original Chronicles. The word weird (descended from the Old English word wyrd or fate) was a borrowing from Scottish and had different meanings besides the modern common meaning eerie or uncanny. The Holinshed Chronicles has the sisters aid in this search for the wayward in those who have trusted their prophecies to unfold.
They are described as being three women in strange and wild apparel who resemble creations from an elder world who hail men with glowing prophecies and then immediately vanish out of sight. Holinshed reported that the common opinion was that these women were either the Weird Sisters, that is the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies endued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science. The concept of the Three Witches was influenced by an Old Norse skaldic poem in which Valkyries weave the fates of men.
Coleridge proposed that the three weird sisters should be seen as ambiguous figures, never actually calling themselves witches, nor are they called witches by other characters in the play. Moreover, they were depicted as more fair than foul both in Holinshed's account and in the description of a contemporary play-goer Simon Forman. The Three Witches represent evil, darkness, chaos, and conflict, and wildness while their role is as agents and witnesses. They appear to have a warped sense of morality, deeming seemingly terrible acts to be moral, kind or right, such as helping one another to ruin the journey of a sailor. Their presence communicates treason and impending doom. Much of the confusion that springs from them comes from their ability to straddle the play's borders between reality and the supernatural and between good and evil. They are so deeply entrenched in both worlds that it is unclear whether they control fate, or whether they are merely its agents. They defy logic, not being subject to the rules of the real world
***
ERINYES
The Erinyes (eyrie or eerie) are also known as Eumenides or simply fates. The are represented in myth and iconography as harbingers of revenge called the Gracious Ones and they perform vengeance by blood and through law. Related to Shakespeare’s late notion of the “grand decider” who cures the earth of the pleurisy of it peoples (time brings in its revenges).
Erinyes, also known as Eumenides (English: Furies) are chthonic goddess committed to vengeance in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath invokes them as the Erinyes who on the earth take vengeance of men who have sworn a false oath and so are the very embodiment of truth. The correspond to the Dirae of Roman Mythology. The Erinyes sprang from drops of blood which fell to earth (Gaia) After Cronos (Time) overthrew the primal Olympian God Uranus. The number of Erinyes is described as being three and they are fair maidens who nevertheless have endless anger and jealous rage and are bent on vengeful destruction. The etymology of the word Erinyes stems from the verb orinein which means to raise of stir agitation or excitement and the noun eris which means strife; ie, to bring war about.
The Erinyes live in Erebus and are more ancient than any of the Olympian deities. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of hosts to guests, and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The appearance of the Erinyes differs between sources, though they are frequently described as wearing black and their monstrosity was compared by poets to gorgons or harpies or banshees with hatred dripping form their eyes like the blood from which they were born. The Erinyes are commonly associated with night and darkness.
***
MOIRA
In Ancient Greek religion and mythology the Moria (or Moirai), often known in English simply as the fates, were the personification of destiny. They were three sisters Clotho (the spinner on distaff or spindle, her roman equivalent is nona or Nine), Lachesis (the allotter, drawer of lots or measuring rods, gauge) and Atropos (the inexorable, the unturning, the unerring, inevitable, the cutter of life, death itself). The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate, although in some representations, Zeus the chief of the gods, is able to command them.
The word Moirai, also spelled Moirae or Moera or Moiria comes from the Ancient Greek uoipa which means lots, destinies, or apportions. It also means portion or lot of the whole. It is related to meros which means part or lot and moros which means fate or doom. It can be a portion of share in conquest, lot in life (the immortals fixed the destiny), death itself, a parcel of land. Something is said to be mete or right or correct if it happens according to fate.
The three Moirai are known in English as the Fates. This derives from the Roman Mythology in which the fata or fatum, meaning prophetic declaration, oracle or destiny said by the “sparing ones” or their equivalent in Proto Indo European culture.
The Three Moirai sing together in unison with the music of the spheres, some of the things that were, some of what is, and the last of what should be. Pindar held them in high honor bestowing on them to send their sisters Hours Eunomia, the goddesses of right and peace. One such belief regarding them is their ability to created unexpected occurrences.
In particular, the most important parts of the natural order were birth and death. Eventually, the concept of one's destined portion in life began to be personified as a spirit or daemon, referred to as Aisa or Moira, who would determine the appropriate time for one's death at the moment of their birth. In this sense, Moira is a power that governs even the gods. Often they are depicted in art an iconography as having their thumb on a set of scale.
In one Greek Cosmogony first came Thetis (disposer, creation), and then simultaneously Poros (path) and Tekmore (end post ordinance). Poros is related with the beginning of all things, and Tekmor is related with the end of all things. Later in the Orphic cosmogony, first came Thesis, whose ineffable nature is unexpressed. Anake (necessity) is the primeval goddess of inevitability who is entwined with the time-god Chronos, at the very beginning of time. They represented the cosmic forces of Fate and Time, and they were called sometimes to control the fates of the gods. The three Moirai are daughters of Ananke.
Clotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand; Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life; and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair of scissors.
Despite their forbidding reputation, the Moirai could be placated as goddesses. Brides in Athens offered them locks of hair, and women swore by them. They may have originated as birth goddesses and only later acquired their reputation as the agents of destiny.
The Moirai were also credited to be inventors of the Greek letters
Even the gods feared the Moirai or Fates, which according to Herodotus a god could not escape. The Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted that Zeus was also subject to their power, though no recorded classical writing clarifies to what exact extent the lives of immortals were affected by the whims of the Fates. It is to be expected that the relationship of Zeus and the Moirai was not immutable over the centuries. In either case in antiquity we can see a feeling towards a notion of an order to which even the gods have to conform. Ananke (necessity and the mother of the Moirai in Orphic cosmogony) says that even the gods don't fight against it.
***
The word let can mean to allow or to make; let it be can mean permit it to be or to make it so. I remain undecided if having have two meanings of a phrase mean exactly the opposite of each other is a good or bad thing.
The distinction between creation and discovery is paper thin almost to the vanishing point, almost as if it were a false dichotomy brought about by the limits of our language to describe reality.
Moira was said by the Greeks to be a fate that even the gods must obey; that is whatever will be will not be; fate is not set but made; and with enough supernatural soliciting one can make it happen; that is with enough obedience one must obey nothing; but have an unbounded will to impose one’s fantasy life on the world. Don’t ask me to explain it, I just figured out the rules of the game and followed them, and I’ve been told that this is a law which even the gods must obey.
Life has the meaning we give it and we will make it up as we go along, in the same way that words mean exactly what we say they mean, neither more nor less--to be the master that is all. And if it isn't it aint--that's logic.
