A ground-breaking new book…
Runecentric is the debut book birthed by my new publishing entity Lockdown Boox — which was born when a trip to Buenos Aires was nipped in the bud by the closure of international airports and borders at the beginning of 2020. I had packed up my home to storage in Cape Town and was set on travelling the world to live in a different capital for three months at a time, to afford me the luxury of fully absorbing the local culture and language. Little did I know that my plans were to be runed (sic)!
After compiling notes on runes for two decades, the lockdown in effect provided the perfect ‘space in time’ to finally write my handbook, free of interruptions. The ‘hard lockdown’ in South Africa’s capital city Pretoria, or ‘Prehistoria’, as some friends caricature it due to an erroneously perceived conservatism, was designed to be a short and sweet 3-week ‘clipping of wings’. However, that period segued to 4 weeks, then to two months… and the rest is history. Only now, more than a year later, are we starting to clamber out of our shells, drop our masks and reintegrate into society.
Based on a very ancient protocol…
My original website on runes (1999) — which was one of the first on the Internet to unravel the symbolism and offer free readings — featured a homepage with ancient, crumbling stone pillars, a wheel of runes and animated flames to complete the mysterious look. During lockdown, I completely refreshed the site in hues of light green to revitalise the otherwise dark Gothic overtones carelessly associated with the runes by many practitioners. I chose instead to accentuate visual imagery of roots, moss, lichen and trees (collectively symbolising imagination, creativity, rebirth, renewal and growth) – which are very much what runes are designed to trigger both at an individual and transpersonal level. A name change from Runemagic to Odin’s Runes was warranted since the site is more about divination as a tool for creative problem-solving than for magical endeavours in the classic sense.
Although we temporarily got jaded…
Keep in mind that when the new millennium dawned, there was a consolidated interest in the esoteric fields. However, when a Mayan-predicted 2012 ‘end of times’ didn’t materialise, this enthusiasm fizzled as the world settled into a ‘business-as-usual’ mindset. It would take another two decades, and world lockdown to serve as a catalyst, for a resurgence of interest in systems that help us take stock of where we are, both personally and globally, reflecting ways of being and assisting in creatively solving everyday problems with which we and the world grapple. The Mayan prophecy was actually bang on: It heralded an end of times, in a psychic soul-searching sense. We are going through a complete rethink worldwide, which is totally akin to a new beginning. Not too shabby to think that the prognostication, formulated roughly 2 500 years ago, was only 8 years out!
Why a runic logo for Lockdown Boox?
The Odin’s Runes elliptical website logo groups the following three rune symbols: Peorthro (heeding omens and signals from the multiverse), Teiwaz (focusing on an outcome), plus the archaic symbol for Sowulo (expressing one’s essence of being). The storyline of these chosen runes represents our quest for answers to everyday reality and engages us in a proactive process that facilitates and evolves conscious awareness.
It made good sense to use this same logo (see my previous blog entry) for Lockdown Boox, my newly established publishing entity. The grouped symbols also reflect how a random set of events from the universe offer us choice, and from whatever constraint we feel strait-jacketed by, we are paradoxically presented with the hidden gift of being able to extrude our innate talents or skill set, and bring the same to fruition through the intially perceived ‘harship’.
Calling all budding authors…
This is the spirit in which Lockdown Boox publishing house was created:
We publish non-fiction books incubated through intense reflection, like diamonds compressed by the forces of nature. Lockdown Boox distills an essence that reflects the passion and knowledge of each author — providing intensely personal or deep-rooted cross-cultural wisdom that uplifts and motivates readers for posterity.
If you would like to publish a motivational book that has been germinating in your psyche, based upon a gripping life-changing story and/or your particular specialised field of interest, write to info@lockdownboox.com with a short (300 – 600 word) synopsis of your proposed pitch/content. We would love to hear from you and can help with editing, proof-reading, book formatting, printing and publishing.
For more on the new handbook, Runecentric, visit: http://books2read.com/Runecentric
… and to tease your creative problem-solving abilities through an automated three-rune reading, visit: http://odinsrunes.com
