2023 Call for Symbel Toasts

[jprussell]

I originally posted this to JMG's January 2nd, 2023 Magic Monday, but I had a request to re-post as my own entry, so that folks could contribute after JMG closes that post. I've lightly modified the below to make it work better as a stand-alone post rather than a comment on Magic Monday.

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As last year, when I set my goal of reading books only by those dead for the year (accomplished!), I'd like to invite anyone willing to join me in a virtual symbel. Symbel is a Heathen ritual where those participating share rounds of toasts. During each round, anyone so moved may raise a glass and propose a toast, to which all participating drink. Drinking to a toast indicates your support of it's intent, whether or not you'll do anything concrete toward it.

Traditionally, the first round of toasts is directed to the Gods, the second to the ancestors (or other divine beings like elves, dwarves, or the like), and the third is a chance to either share something accomplished, or pledge to do something. This last is called a "boast," but if it is empty bragging, you're doing it wrong. The goal is to acknowledge and call upon the role your community, human and divine, plays in helping you get things done. Composing poetry for the toast is traditional and appreciated, but definitely not required (I followed the rules for the Old Norse form ljóðaháttr as modified for modern English). It is an opportunity to either share something you're proud of or to pledge to do something in the future - anyone who drinks to it lends their spiritual and social support to your accomplishing it.

For each round, anyone participating may propose their own toast(s) and/or drink to other folks' toasts. So, for example, below I boast that I will blog each week - if you decide to drink to that, you're helping me out in that goal. But then you can propose a toast to your own goal, and I'll return the favor.

So here's my ask: will anyone willing please share in any of the three toasts below you can get behind with the beverage of your choice (alcohol is traditional, but whatever your beliefs or post-New Year's Eve feelings allow will work just great), and reply with any toasts you'd like others to join you in.

Hail to Gods
and Goddesses fair,
bright bringers of weal.
Drink I raise
to drightens* with whom
Daily we are glad to deal.

Hail to Ash
and holy Elm**,
forebearers far-sung.
Glass I lift
to that glad line
from which we are sprung.

May coming year
kindly yield
blissful blessings to all
Blithely will I
blog each week
wielding words to enthrall.

Cheers and happy New Year!

*drighten is a modernized form of an Old English word for a lord or ruler
** In Norse Myth, Ask (Ash) and Embla (Elm?) were two trees that Odhinn and his brothers made into the first humans by giving them spirit, wits, and blood/healthy color. I've Anglicized them here.

Comments

Toast!

[tunesmyth]

My toast in Japanese Waka form. Waka doesn't normally rhyme, but then again Japanese doesn't rhyme in general. Still, I enjoy attempting to rhyme in English, so I figured, what the heck, why not give it a try.

I will toast with both your fine ljóðaháttr and my little waka this evening, and of course anyone else's if anyone happens to put one up over the next few days.

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Gods of earth and sky
we give you thanks, low and high.
Gods within, without
life bringers all, this we shout
and raise cups tall: "Kampai!"

Yosei and yokai
we feel your dance, hear your cry.
Spirits all around
together share, cups resound
in joyful prayer: "Kampai!"

New year's urge to try
bold new things fills you and I.
Worthy lines each day
I will compose, if I may
a boast propose: "Kampai!"

Re: Toast!

[jprussell]

Kampai!

I didn't have any sake or Japanese whisky in the house (I should at least remedy the latter, given my tastes), but I hope that a fine scotch is fitting.

I didn't know about the waka form either (basically the extent of my Japanese poetic knowledge is a grade school version of haiku) - but it looks like 5-7-5-7-6 with the first two lines making one sense unit, and the last three another?

Incidentally, some Old Norse poetic forms included rhyme, but not typically the ljodhahatt - I kind of stumbled onto the rhyming long lines in one stanza, saw it came easily to the another, and then decided to make all three fit.

Best of luck with your boast, and thank you kindly for sharing!
Jeff

Re: Toast!

[tunesmyth]

Well analyzed! Waka is actually 5-7 5-7-7 (the last 7 is optionally its own sense unit), but I didn't strictly follow the official Japanese syllable counts (techically, "Kampai" is KA-M-PA-I, "Yosei" is YO-O-SE-I, and "Yokai" is YO-O-KA-I), instead treating them the way their syllables sound to me, from my English native perspective, especially when they are spoken alongside English words and compared with how those words get their syllables counted. The way that "Kampai" actually gets said in practice nearly always sounds like KAM-PA-I to me, and so it works as a three syllable word for me, for the purposes of rhythmic poetry in English.

Good luck with your boast as well, I look forward to your weekly blogs!

Re: Toast!

[jprussell]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I have a very rudimentary understanding of how to pronounce Japanese words, and barely more than zero experience listening to native speakers say them outside of films/anime.

Re: Toast!

[tunesmyth]

I would have been surprised to hear anything else! I have a similar level of knowledge of Old Norse. :-)

[tunesmyth]

Amusingly, with a hint of disturbingly, after I gave my toasts this evening, I took out my iPhone to glance at it and noticed a little green dot at the top. I recalled it might mean it was recording me in some way, so I did a quick search of "iPhone green light at top of screen" which took me to a link confirming that meant it had been taking video. The ad running at the top of the page? A video podcast with two restauranteurs talking shop. I am not normally targeted by ads from the hospitality industry, but I noticed that the sponsor for the podcast had its logo covering the video when it was minimized-- a stylized slice of bread. The sponsor's name? "Toast".

Well, I did invoke "spirits all around" in my toast-- who knew that would include AI algorithms gathering my data for directed marketing!

[jprussell]

Yeesh, as you said, let's hope the AI algorithm was trying to find its way toward the joy you asked for. Yet another reason to add to the pile to go for at least a dumb phone, if not drop cellular altogether.

[tunesmyth]

I am not sure whether it was the spirit associated with AI, or the yosei I called on (who are often playful with wordplay coincidences). Either way, I take it in a positive way-- what/whoever it was, they heard my toast, and arranged for me to know that they joined it too! Considering the inoffensive-- and (deliberately?) completely wrong analysis by the advertising algorithm, I think it was meant as a bit of fun... accompanied by a nudge to be more mindful of my lack of privacy!

[jprussell]

Ah, well, I'll defer to your having been there and be glad for something fun to come through - I'm just primed to be hyper-suspicious of anything to do with social media and advertising algorithms.