Sigil of Odium 109

[darkemeralds]

We, the ordinary people,
Call on the Power of the good green earth,
Power of wind and storms,
Power of flowing waters,
Power of the hearthfire,
To hear us.

We are beset by self-crowned monsters
Of greed and hubris, of evil stupidity,
And it is our will
That those monsters feel our odium,
Our righteous hatred
Of their inhuman designs.

You know who they are.
You know what they mean to do.
You know that they do not know you, O Great Powers.

So hate them with us!
They are rotting from their radioactive core
And burning the world with it.

We are nothing to them.
They do not think of us at all.
They simply want us to hate each other.
BUT WE HATE THEM.
And our plea to you is simple:
Shut them down.

Crack the foundations of their inhuman edifice with our deep-rooted hate.
Scour away their plans with the whirlwind of our rage.
Let their greed and lust burn them up inside.
Wash them away in the noisy flood of our saying no:
Four times, no.
Throw sand in the gears of their evil machine
So that its own soulless grinding destroys it.

Let them end in ignominy
Before this fateful year is out.
Let their names be trampled in the dust of history's forgetting.
Let the last thing they hear be our ridicule.
Let the last thing they see be us, the ordinary people,
Walking away in scorn,
As the molten, impenetrable glass of our odium
Encases their poison,
And closes around them,
Sealing them in with their own evil for a thousand years.

It is our will that the Great Universal Powers hear us.
Direct our hate.
Destroy these monsters and their evil plans.
VITRIFY THEM.

And in this way let us, the ordinary people,
Live and love and thrive together on the good green earth,
In your sacred names.
So say we all. So mote it be.

---

Background: On the Big River Wimal (the Columbia), upstream of Portland by a couple hundred miles, is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where fissile materials and radioactive waste are held. Engineers have devised a plan to safely store the materials for a thousand years by encasing them in large volumes of molten glass, which, when it cools, is so chaotically organized at the molecular level that it is impenetrable to radiation.

The Hanford vitrification project is one of the programs being cut from the US government.

Comments

[dine]

oh hi! it's grand to see you

this is cool, and definitely something I agree with wholeheartedly.
I hadn't heard that the Cheeto's cutting the vitrification project (in addition to so many other essential programs); their stupidity and short-sightedness is endless

[darkemeralds]

Hi Dine! I was just thinking about you the other day. I ran across an old journal where I mentioned meeting you for lunch on...was it Mississippi somewhere? How are you

And yes, it is depressing and constantly overwhelming what's happening to our country these day. I hope you're keeping your spirits up.

[dine]

yeah, it was on Mississippi, across from my office on Skidmore.

I'm not doing great - had a year+ of health issues, hospitalizations & rehab centers and months at home trying to build up strength again. hopefully I can get back to work next month, though it'd be part-time to start. I'd retire, if there was any way I could afford it

I'm doing my best to maintain equilibrium, though it's hard and made harder by the fact I'm a lifelong news junkie, and cannot bear *not* to know what's going on. but I am trying to be hopeful that our society can course correct, and get back to something closer approaching normality

[darkemeralds]

I am so sorry to hear it! Do you have any help and support? Are you handling this all on your own?

I'm a bit of a news junkie too, and never have I been so torn between the urgent need to be aware of the growing storm, and the equally urgent need to take care of my mental health by staying present in the moment. I haven't found the right compromise yet. Just, every few days or so it gets to be too overwhelming and I tune out for a while.

Normality feels like a lovely dream. I hope for it too.

[dine]

a lot is on my own - my sister lives a couple hours away (as does my 90 yr old mom), and much of my social circle has thinned over the years through moves, deaths, just plain vanished. I've got two friends known for over 20 years who have been a lot of help in the past year+, though one sold her car and now lives downtown, and the other is out off N Lombard, so neither is really convenient. but until recently the teen across the way would help haul trash & recycling - haven't seen him for a month, so no clue what's up. but he's 15, and if I knock his folks will insist on helping and won't even take the $5

I'm trying to stay on top of things, but my leg muscles & joints are worsening, and so I have troubles standing; stuff like sweeping & mopping has to go by the wayside.

I'm just lucky ACME has been patient and I'm still on medical insurance! money is an issue, but my nest egg isn't completely gone, though I've no real retirement savings. another reason to try to go back to work if I can.

I'm trying to find pleasant distractions through reading, music and animal stuff videos. sadly my old man Olivier died December '23 - I'm glad that I'd not looked for another cat as that would have been ungood with not being home for several periods of weeks/months

[darkemeralds]

I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot I can do here, with no car and limited time myself (I have an elderly mother I'm partly responsible for too), but if there's something I can offer that a little money can buy, I would be happy to take care of it for you.

I don't mean to offend, but I mean it, and would be honored to help out.

I'm sorry things are so very difficult for you.

[dine]

thank you so much! I truly appreciate your kind offer. if I were closer in to town, it'd be cool to see you after so long, but that's not too likely.

I'm not in dire straits, and don't *need* anything, much as your offer means. I'm trying to curtain my spending on extras - fewer amazon purchases and grubhub deliveries, but I've not had to cut out every little treat just yet.

[darkemeralds]

I'm glad you can still get Grubhub. That whole thing is problematic, but damn, it's a boon to those of us who can't always cook, or pop out to pick up a meal.

The offer stands. I'm wishing you well from over here in Sabin.

[tehomet]

This is a good prayer.

[darkemeralds]

Thank you! That means a lot coming from you.

[tabaqui]

Wow. Fucking hell.
That is a good fucking poem. So mote it be.

[darkemeralds]

Hi Tabaqui! Thank you. I created the invocation and the sigil (the image) back in March, and sent it to a select handful of friends I thought would at least get where I was coming from. No small percentage of them let me know that they didn't approve of hate, and would not participate in the magic. I appreciate your appreciation!

[tabaqui]

Hrmmmmmm. Well, everyone has their own set of morals, lines, and borders, which is fine.
I didn't see any hate in that, though. I mean, the word is there, but to me it's just a scream of utter, fury and desperation.
<3

[darkemeralds]

Heh. Yeah.

I knew some in my wider circle—those who practice positive thinking, New Agey good vibes, and/or Christlike loving-kindness (and don't get me wrong: I'm a fan of these things)—would be ruffled by it.

So, searching for a bit of cover, I googled "hate in the Bible," and lookee-here, Psalm 109 is structured almost exactly like this. I referenced it in the title, and footnoted it in the version I distributed to friends.

It...didn't help. At least, it seemed not to help anyone but me.

[tabaqui]

Heeeeeeeee!!
Oh, well. Me, i'm all for some righteous rage against people who are literally murdering, torturing, kidnapping, starving, and jailing my fellow humans for no reason other than because they can.

[darkemeralds]

Exactly!

(To be fair, I wrote this and sent it out before the kidnapping and starving really got started.)

Also, I had 3" vinyl stickers made of the sigil itself, with the words "VITRIFY BILLIONAIRES" on them, and have been vandalizing poles and bike racks and the backs of stop signs all over NE Portland with them for the past few weeks, like a damn punk teenager.

[tabaqui]

HOMG, i freaking love that.

Do you have extra? I'm happy to pay for a couple of them. That's too cool. :D

[darkemeralds]

Hee! Sure. Message me where to send 'em. I got 100 of them and there are only so many poles and stop signs I can get to on my walking routes. Happy to pass some along.

[ravurian]

You googled it, did you?

[darkemeralds]

Of course. It's not like I was gonna get out of my chair, go to my least-accessed bookcase, haul out my Revised Standard Version Bible and hunt for "hate".

[ravurian]

So, no friend said to you in WhatsApp 'I'm reminded of Psalm 109' and that's how you heard of it? Interesting.

[darkemeralds]

Sigh.