Weekly Write 13: Hidden spirits
This writing exercise emerged from thinking about the Harry Potter exhibition at the British Library in November 2017.
Every culture recognises the magic power in words. There is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ language; there are sacred and forbidden words. Britain has its spells and its spelling – ‘please’ is sometimes called ‘the magic word’. In Japan ‘kotodama’ refers to the belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. In Sanskrit ‘mantra’ combines words for ‘thinking’ and ‘tools’ – it might literally be translated as ‘instrument of thought’. West Africa gives us the word ‘voodoo’ a kind of spiritual folkway whereby everything in the world has its spiritual (and immortal) identity.
And every culture imagines such forces are more or less embodied in the real world, existing in some parallel universe, maybe even appearing as named creatures – gods, ghosts, goblins, unicorns et al.
Not only the Romans had their household gods. Imagine that, external to yourself – beyond your control - there are distinct spirits in every room of your house, or place that you’ve been to, invisibly demanding behaviours and determining the fortunes of those who enter. What are they and what did they make you do? What really helped you find your keys? What really nudged your arm and made you drop that glass? What really made you forget that appointment – or fall in love?
WEEKLY WRITE 13
Here are some such spirits invented and written about by teachers on 18.11.2017:
Simon Wrigley
27.11.2017
Every culture recognises the magic power in words. There is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ language; there are sacred and forbidden words. Britain has its spells and its spelling – ‘please’ is sometimes called ‘the magic word’. In Japan ‘kotodama’ refers to the belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. In Sanskrit ‘mantra’ combines words for ‘thinking’ and ‘tools’ – it might literally be translated as ‘instrument of thought’. West Africa gives us the word ‘voodoo’ a kind of spiritual folkway whereby everything in the world has its spiritual (and immortal) identity.
And every culture imagines such forces are more or less embodied in the real world, existing in some parallel universe, maybe even appearing as named creatures – gods, ghosts, goblins, unicorns et al.
Not only the Romans had their household gods. Imagine that, external to yourself – beyond your control - there are distinct spirits in every room of your house, or place that you’ve been to, invisibly demanding behaviours and determining the fortunes of those who enter. What are they and what did they make you do? What really helped you find your keys? What really nudged your arm and made you drop that glass? What really made you forget that appointment – or fall in love?
WEEKLY WRITE 13
- Make your own inventory of 4 or 5 such spirits.
- Locate them and describe them.
- Relate a story in which such a spirit – or other presence – seems to play a part.
Here are some such spirits invented and written about by teachers on 18.11.2017:
- The force that will not let you enter a shop without buying something.
- The god of all lost things.
- Delirium, the god of drunken evenings.
- The tweeded Mogg – a parliamentary daemon.
- The spirit of the playground.
- The tricksy spirit of creativity.
- Mnemosyne, growing in the dark, creating nightmares.
- The spirit of lost socks.
- The spirit of the place – Chesil Beach.
- The compulsive force to collect things.
- The ghost of an earlier or later self.
- Books with the power to come alive in the library without readers.
Simon Wrigley
27.11.2017