There's a genre of writing passed around social media that is things that sound profound but came from really mundane sources. It started, I think, in a thread about writing that sounds like it came from classic fiction or a classic play but came from fanfic or anime or some other non-traditional source. 

Once in a while, I run across an old piece of my own social media writing that strikes me as belonging in this genre. They are small pieces of writing, and they also exist only as 1s and 0s on the worldwide computer network, both of which can be called bits. So forgive the pun, and please enjoy this collection of my social media posts.

From the Official Names of the Gods Discussion Thread in the Asatru Facebook Forum:

The gods' "original" names are in languages that no one speaks, that have been forgotten, or which no human ever used.

That was part of my intro to posting a link to my video advocating for the validity of modern versions of the names of the gods. 

Link: https://youtu.be/N0hy-IYL-FY?si=6ly3MkN42lZwb9AU 

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On Xitter, I ran across a Xit advocating that American students studying Eastern philosophy should start with a broad beginner curriculum, not start by reading the Tao Te Ching. In my RT I said:

This is the exact same advice I give to newbies studying heathenry / Asatru / Norse paganism: don't start with the Poetic Edda. That's literally the reason I wrote a beginner's book. Because starting with a translation of archaic poetry is the wrong approach for a beginner. 

(That was the original reason I wrote Asatru For Beginners over a couple of decades ago. The new, longer, updated version of my book is Asatru: A Beginner's Guide to the Heathen Path.)

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From my introduction to the Official Zisa Discussion Thread on the Asatru Facebook Forum:

In the Old Norse and Old Iceland lore, the name of Tyr's wife is unrecorded. However, in Germanic sources in which Tyr's name is Ziu, his wife's name is Zisa. These sources have much lore of her, so those who wish to honor Zisa go with this lore even if most of their other practice draws from the ON sources. 

Zisa is a major goddess in Urglaawe, the heathen religion of the Pennsylvania Deitsch. They honor her on September 28th. I've adopted this holiday into my personal practice and raise a toast to her on that date with pine liquor. 

Zisa's symbols are the pine cone and the act of undoing a knot. According to modern Urglaawe, she is also associated with the rune Kenaz, the fire rune, the same rune as Loki. In ON lore, Loki is said to have had a child with Zisa, but there is no elaboration and it is a puzzle many scholars of ON stories have puzzled over. With the information in the Germanic sources, the puzzle is solved: fire releases the seeds from the pine cone. Just as with primitive agriculture needing fire as part of the agricultural cycle, in addition to the earth and the water, thus needing Loki (fire) as well as Jord (earth), Thor (rain), and Sif (wheat), the pine forest cannot reproduce without fire. Thus Zisa (pine) and Loki (fire) are in a cycle of reproduction together.

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From a post reacting to a bad book review:

" [I]t's always the Nokeans who do whatever it is they say Loki does, whether it's trickery or being an egomaniac. They see traits they don't like in themselves and rather than go inside and deal with it and come out better people, they flee from the journey to the underworld, never learn what the darkness can teach, and spend the rest of their lives pointing fingers at others, gods or humans, saying, "There, there is the evil, it is certainly not within!" and gibbering in terror before the strawman they have made of their own fears." 

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 I was asked to recommend a rune book. Here is my response.

Most rune books use the same system, the one pioneered by Edred Thorsson. Lots of people don't want to buy his books though because he's a Setian. So the same system from a heathen outlook with some bonus goddess content is the rune book Freya Aswynn wrote. There are many other rune books by modern authors but they all fall into one of 4 categories: 1. the Edred Thorsson system (which almost everyone uses but most heathens hate the inventor) 2. the Ralph Blum system (which is universally hated and mocked by heathens) 3. the Armanen system (which is literally Nazi) 4. a unique system which is not proven to work because it's unique and brand new.

You know whether a new rune book by a modern author is following one of these systems by these tells: 1. Thorsson system: Elder Futhark, 24 runes, Othala is the last rune, system includes casting onto a cloth for fortune telling and carving runes for other kinds of magic; 2. Blum system: includes a blank rune; 3. Armanen system: 18 runes, not one of the historical runic alphabets but similar shapes; usually books using this system will tell you they are about the Armanen system; 4. Unique system: something else. (There are also books on Icelandic Magic symbols which are not runes but grew out of the culture that used runes.)

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Bits of Wisdom 2 is coming. (When? Before this universe dies. Before the wolf swallows the sun, and the boundary serpent opens its maw and releases its tail, churning the oceans to a devastating wave, erasing the line between the earth and the sky. Probably within my human lifetime, even, although given that I can preschedule these posts it's possible one may hit after I am gone. My digital doppleganger, surviving on the network of the world.)