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From Cunnian comes this topic:
“Control, or lack thereof, of the creative process in devotional or inspired work.”
I have been writing here on WordPress for about 15 years now, and the creative process is, as with a lot of vættirverk (spiritswork), a back and forth process. What is in my control and out of it can change depending on the devotional or inspirational source, the format, and what tools I have to hand to see it through. Some mediums allow for more wiggle room in execution than others. The parameters of what I can do with the tools at hand depend on my background, education, experiences, understanding of the Ginnreginn, and experiences, both in terms of life and in terms of the tools at hand. My ability to put together devotional poetry is far more experienced than my carving, leatherwork, or woodburning, and this affects what devotional or inspirational work I can make in terms of the practicality of what I can express through a given art form.
For example: I have made bindrunes I call Rúnhjól, a compound of the words Rún, for Rune, and hjól which means wheel. I call these Rúnhjól instead of mandalas in part because Rúnhjól and mandalas are different from one another in culture. They also tend to differ in function. While I do incorporate the shape of circles and repeating geometric patterns with the Runes in a way reminiscent of mandalas, the way the bindrunes are structured, the underlying assumptions governing their use, and what they aim to do are very often different. When I construct bindrunes, they start as scratches on paper or little lines in an art program. From there, they grow. The Rúnvættir might bring guidance as I work, whether through the intersecting of lines in my mind’s eye, or a bit of song or words. Sometimes it is my relationships with the Rúnvættir that guides my hands as I make the initial outline and lines of the bindrune. Whatever it ends up being, it emerges because something clicks, feels right, or I am directed in the work as it unfolds. The control here is my own hands, my knowledge of the Rúnvættir, and the knowledge of using the tools I have to hand. Part of it, which is also partly inspiration, are the relationships we are enmeshed in.
Anyone who has listened to me spontaneously make prayers, like I did in many episodes of Around Grandfather Fire, has heard me loosen my control so the words can rise up from inside or through me and out of my mouth. With spoken, spontaneous prayers like these, I do not need to retain control even of my hands to bring the words forward. It is incredibly freeing, and a powerful thing to be in the thrall or enrapture of. Sometimes I can feel the Ginnreginn rise up into me, working my lungs and jaw like a puppet. Sometimes I can feel the Ginnreginn settle into me, and the words flow from us. Sometimes words beget words and more words flow out of me, in a fury of inspiration that I have to say until the flow is over. If I want to tap in more, I give up more control.
There is a tradeoff, though. When I give up control, I can lose coherence. Sometimes, my voice has dropped so low in the trance during a prayer that poor Jason had to boost my volume incredibly loud to be heard on the track. When I give up control I have a harder time adhering to poetic structure, and beat, rhythm, or alliteration might lose bearing as I lean into the hearing and speaking rather than construction and delivery. When you lose all control and give it over to Someone else, sometimes They make you sound brilliant. Sometimes, They make you sound completely disconnected.
For me, a lot of this control or lack thereof plays a lot with how a given Ginnreginn wants a poem, prayer, or song fashioned. I have had Ginnreginn ask me to change a poem’s style completely, even after I have finished, because it was not written in the way They wanted. I remember something like this happening with Garmr, where I had started off in a very rhyming kind of way, He had me rewrite the thing in a very strict ljóðhattr style. Sometimes, when inspired, I have to let go of my control and give in to Another’s to do it well and right. Without Garmr’s input I could not have made the poem for Him. Without letting go of my control over the work and putting myself into His for that poem, it would not have come out right. I was fully in control of my body for the writing of that poem, so rather than being the vessel for Garmr in the writing of that poem, Garmr shaped the vessel of the poem in His challenge to me to write the poem in the ljóðhattr style. From there, inspiration flowed in the waterways that Garmr shaped through having to adhere to the poetic style.
Whether I am writing, speaking, singing, dancing, or crafting, I find myself weaving in and out of different forms of control as divine inspiration hits me or the process of getting into creating hits me. Sometimes a poem, prayer, or song is an expression of Óðr, pouring out of my mouth or hands onto the page or screen. Sometimes they are, themselves a container of relationship and the control they are bound in are the bounds of my relationship, and the particular way the words express themselves in the moment of creation. When crafting a physical object, I tend to be much more deliberate in my control so that I craft the bindrune well and bring the taufr forward in good Megin and Gebo. Sometimes I am hollow and words pour out of me without control, save what the Ginnreginn at hand want. Sometimes I am full, and my hands are the tool of the Ginnreginn. Sometimes, we are dancing, and the words are the steps between us. Sometimes, I am a shaper and sometimes I am shaped.
So much of how much control I retain depends on the relationship of the Ginnreginn in the work I am putting myself to. So much of it is dependent on where I need to be for the work to be done well. Sometimes what does not scan right to me pleases the Ginnreginn I am making it for, so I have to let go of my desire to be perfect so I can let the work be good for the Ginnreginn. Sometimes I get led down blind alleys as I am putting together a piece so that as I untangle my brain the work can emerge. Control, as such, comes and goes as it needs to for the work at hand to get done.
Sarenth Odinsson 
