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    Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice
    Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice
    Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice
    Ebook103 pages55 minutes

    Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice

    By Robert Hughes

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    About this ebook

    Cord-Reading is the most ancient of all arts, its practice stretching back to the very origins of Homo sapiens. Part game, part divination, part art, the cord has fascinated societies around the globe. In this manual, Hughes updates the practice for the modern reader, describing how cord-reading can connect us with the creativity of our unconscious brain. Providing a step-by-step guide with illustrations, charts, and explanations, Hughes gives a thorough grounding for anyone interested in pursuing this art. As with yoga and ting jing, cord-reading calms consciousness, gradually allowing the whole person to enter into awareness. Hughes writes, "Creativity is not necessarily accurate. It is adaptive. Its answers require testing. If they prove ineffective, what other recourse does a person have other than to give up or create again?" Cord-reading is thus not offered as a panacea, but rather as a creative discipline that can enrich one's self-understanding. (www.bodywisdom.press)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMakete House Publishing
    Release dateOct 30, 2018
    ISBN9780993805974
    Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice
    Author

    Robert Hughes

    Robert Hughes has been teaching Literature and Composition for 30 years. The interest which informs his work involves identity in relation to the environment. As Hughes says, words, also, make up much of our environment, as do our own actions. The creating of worded works effects (not affects) our environmental identity. Indeed (Hughes notes) McLuhan makes the point that our environment remains for the most part invisible and inaccessible. Hughes tries to make it audible. This effort to investigate and embody identity itself frequently expresses itself in humour and whimsy, but is no less sincere for that. For more about Robert Hughes, visit bodywisdom.press.

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      Book preview

      Cord-Reading, A Bodying Practice - Robert Hughes

      Cord-Reading

      A Bodying Practice

      ––––––––

      Robert Hughes

      Published 2018

      Makete House Publishing

      ISBN 978-0-9938059-7-4

      ––––––––

      Copyright© 2018 by Robert Hughes

      www.bodywisdom.press

      pogonipmyn@outlook.com

      ––––––––

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the Author.

      Contents

      Introduction

      Reading the Cords

      The Reader

      The Disposition to Listen

      Cord Materials

      Cord Arrangement

      Cord Basics

      Cord Action Variations

      Cord Domains (Colours)

      Cord Domains (Actions)

      Swelling

      Transparency

      Congestion

      The Difficult Way to Enlightenment

      Tempo

      Texture

      Shrinking

      Hunger

      Cessation

      Openness

      Pollen

      Illustration of Eleven Relations out of Countless Possibilities

      The Eleventh

      The Twelfth

      The Chord Scanning Format

      The Fringe Scanning Format

      The Balled or Knotted Scanning Format

      Personal Knotting Methods

      Impersonal Knotting Methods

      In Response to Sceptics

      The Reading & the Renderer

      The Easy Way to Enlightenment

      Deep History

      Being Natural

      Advanced Cord-Rendering: Two Tricks, I Forget, & Traits

      Get any piece of string, yarn, or cord and begin knotting. Here are a couple of starter-knots traditionally used in the quipu of the Runakuna (the people ruled by the Inca).

      C:\Users\Robert\Pictures\plain knot.jpg

      Cord-reading involves tactility and texture, a touch-practice which you can exercise while you continue to read.

      C:\Users\Robert\Pictures\figure 8.jpg

      Introduction

      The cord is ‘that which runs through’, originally intestine[1] in the Proto-Indo-European tongue of some 6,000 years past, subsequently of any string-like organic structure. In Old English the term was hropp (rope). As time passed, cord became synonymous with both the Proto-Indo-European sai- (sinew) ‘to bind together’, and the PIE ten-on (tendon) ‘to stretch’. Later, words such as vein extended the meaning to leaves, rock, metal, and in particular, the tendency of nature (again, Proto-Indo-European ten), including a person’s nature: that which runs through somebody’s way-of-being. ‘Nature’ derives from PIE gene- meaning ‘making it what it is’. And so, cord is the making of our making, on ongoing creativity rooted from our neuronal cells to our muscle fibres to our actions.

      The word read roots in the Proto-Indo-European word re- which indicates ‘attend’ (PIE ad- toward + PIE ten stretch), and by extension, listen (hlysnan attend to something) and so ‘stretching one’s attention to something’.

      Together they are cord-reading: attending to the making.

      Reading the Cords

      In ancient times in the Old World, the haruspex would ‘read the intestines’ of sacrificed bulls in order to prognosticate the causes and the exigencies of events (distinct from the bull). In the New World, on the other hand, the sukya was a type of healer who ‘listened to song’. The song formed the cord, that is, an ongoing structure of sound, such as chanting, which did not necessarily consist of reasoned discourse, but rather of intuitive connection, guiding the sukya to smoke treatments of the patient’s complaint. (In contrast to the sukya, the curandero specialized in herbal treatments.)

      Cord-reading differs both from tarot, a procedure derived from a medieval Italian card-game, and astrology, which infers information from externalities (stars) and applies it to internalities (personality). While some might compare cord-reading to palm-reading, the differences are profound. For one, cord-reading is creatively active whereas palmistry is passive. In palmistry, existing hand-lines are your life-indicators, while in cord-reading, you yourself sculpt the cord-forms. Further, astrology and palmistry purport to reveal a fate in which outward circumstances entangle you, whereas cord-reading expresses your unique personhood – including your freedom – in action.

      Cord-tying is an art. Reading the cords is in itself a misnomer, because the cords must first be produced. The cords are plaited, interlaced, and knotted by an artisan on the spot. They are fashioned by a maker rather than merely scanned by a viewer. Due to this dynamic relationship of artisan and matter, the art of cord-tying-and-reading might be better understood as a form of discipline, such as yoga or tai chi.

      The Reader

      String-figures have been a common practice in many cultures around the world. In Papua New Guinea the islanders called string-figures ninikula. Such figures have mainly been recognized as cat’s cradles in children’s games. In fact, however, ninikula played much more serious social roles. They were made by people of all ages, and had a critical influence in organizing hunts, preparing ceremonies, arranging funerals, choosing marital partners, and so forth. They were also considered to have spiritual properties. A string or cord, having formed a figure, was considered to be ‘immersed’ in the life of its representation, and could influence human beings. Across the world from New Guinea, the Inuktitut word for string-figures was

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