On the Generative Power of Words

A Preamble to the Pearlsong Refounding Magic System

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. — Proverbs 18:21

Listen to me riff on today’s entry…

Hello, friends and fellow seekers of the Good True Beautiful. It's Mike here.

Initially, today I wanted to talk about the magic system that I use within the Pearlsong Refounding books. But as I thought more about it, I realized I needed to back the truck up and first talk about words. See, there's a reason I use a magic system in the books that is based upon the power of words. It really goes back to a particular verse in the Bible that I read when I was a teenager. So today I want to share how that exploration of the power of words when I was young so deeply impacted me and shaped my life in many ways, even leading to me becoming a writer, and leading to me creating a magic system based on words.

So let me start with the passage, the Scripture that had such an impact on me as a kid. Then I'll share a number of other Scripture passages as well, just because this was part of what and why I explored this so much as a kid.

The verse comes out of Proverbs 18:21.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

That just blew me away when I first read it. It opened up all kinds of questions for me. Death and life are in the power of the tongue? You can kill with your tongue? You can bring life with your tongue? And what does it mean to love that? What does it mean to eat its fruit? There were a ton of questions that came to mind for me around that.

Over time, though, I began to understand a little bit better what the verse meant. I think anyone of you who's ever had someone who loves you (or someone you love) say something hurtful to you at a tender moment, you understand the power that words can wield. All of us have probably had some moment when our parents — probably in a moment of unconsciousness — said something that just struck to the core of our young hearts and killed something inside us, or at least knocked it into a coma. So we understand the notion that words carry a capacity to maim and kill.

Likewise, some of us have had an experience where someone has said something  that has been like water in the desert for us, a moment when we desperately needed a lifeline or needed sustenance and someone's words filled us with life. They were the right words at the right time.

I learned over time, as I grew up, that there are some people who love words of life, people who love to uncover what it means to bring life-giving words to other people and to bear the fruit of those words in their lives. People like this are a gift and a blessing to everyone around them.

But the reverse of that is also true. There are also people who love bringing words of death. Man, we see that everywhere today, don't we? Just hop on social media, and go to almost any post, on almost any platform, and look at the comments. You'll find people there throwing out barbs and cuts and jabs, just being hurtful for its own sake. And they're gleeful about it. They take delight in the ability to slice. They know that the power of their words to cut is real. They love the rush of that power. They, too, will eat the fruit of their love for words that harm.

This notion that words have this creative and destructive power was fascinating to me growing up. It was especially fascinating growing up in the Christian faith tradition that I did. For in my faith studies, I came to the book of John, which is one of the four gospels that tell the story of Jesus’s life. At the very beginning of the gospel of John, it actually describes Jesus Christ as a word.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him, not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. — John 1: 1-4

There is so much in there to unpack, which I won't do right now; but just consider this one part, this picture of Jesus Christ — the figure within my faith tradition who is the Messiah, the Savior, the one who redeems the world — being described as a word that God uttered. In fact, he is often referred to as the Word Incarnate, the Word made flesh, the Word that became a human being.

That, in turn, took me back to the book of Genesis, because in the book of Genesis, we see in those creation stories that God created the world by speaking. I point this out because he could have just as easily done something else to create everything. I mean, he could have waved his hand. He could have winked. He could have tapped his feet, and the world would be created. But it says very clearly that God spoke. God spoke.

One of the questions I had about this passage when I was writing the books was this: When God spoke the universe into existence, what language was he speaking? It wasn’t likely a human language, as we weren’t even on the scene yet. Maybe it was a language of angels? But as I pondered it, the answer sprang clear. It’s actually kind of obvious in hindsight.

The language God was speaking is Jesus.

OK, maybe your head just exploded a little. I mean, how can Jesus be a language, right?

Well, how can Jesus be a Word? But he is.

The point is, as I see it, Jesus is God’s native tongue. When God speaks, it’s Jesus that comes out. It follows, of course, that the Spirit is the breath that carries the Words. So, just like that, you’ve got an elegant picture of the Trinity.

I know this is beyond our comprehension. What I'm speaking of is in many senses, just a metaphor, a way of describing something that cannot be explained. But even as a metaphor, it speaks volumes about the vital importance of words in the world, and especially to their generative power.

There’s another passage that also impacted me when I was growing up. It’s in the story of Samuel. Samuel was a prophet that grew up in a really interesting way, because he was given over to the priests as a baby. He was dedicated to God, and grew up in the in the temple. As he grew, God called him as a prophet. And there's this one passage where it says something really interesting about him. We find it in 1 Samuel 3:19-21.

Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him, and he [God] let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground, and all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

There's something about this idea of God not letting any of his words fall to the ground. In other words, God let none of his words fail. That just stuck with me. I wondered, what does that look like? What does that mean? What I’ve come to believe it means, to me at least, is that Samuel’s words had a particular gravity to them. When he spoke, God listened. It also implies that God spoke through him.

A variation on this very phrase happens in my books: Speak true and you will not fail. That phrase comes directly from this idea that as long as you speak the truth of who you are, and of what you are here to say, your words will not fall to the ground.

All of this pointed me to this basic truth: that words are deeply generative, and that they have this creative quality that is as palpable as it is difficult to quantify. I believe this is partly why Jesus said in Matthew 15 that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person. And it's also, I think, why so much is made all the way through the Bible about the vital importance of blessing and cursing, because words have this generative quality.

Words don't just name what is. They aren't just about sorting reality or naming what you're feeling. They call forth. They create. There are some words that have been spoken over me at key moments that have literally saved my life. There have been times when I have felt like I was drowning in a sea of my own lack of significance or lack of direction and a voice — maybe from God, but through a friend, through a counselor — came in and spoke over me, and it was like a lifeline or a hand reaching down that pulled me up and called forth something. It pulled me out of the depths. It was enough to save me

The reverse is also true. You can speak a word that can literally cut the legs off out from someone. Anyone in a marriage or a close friendship understands this. You know you have the power to deeply wound another human soul. Once you know a person well enough, you know where the chinks in their armor are. You know how to say a thing that can actually cut them really deeply.

In the Pearlsong Refounding series, I wanted to amplify this principle by creating a world where words could kill and words could create in a very literal way. That's why the magic system is based around literal languages that can instantly do these things — create, or destroy. Then, from within that world, to ask the question, what is it to speak true? What does it mean to speak true in a world like that, where your words can kill and your words can bring life? Which is, of course, really just a way of asking, what is it to speak true in our world? Because everything I describe in the world of the Pearlsong Refounding is actually true in our world too, even if it's more veiled and subtle.

But the truth is clear. Words have power. They have a lot of power.

So that's the big why behind the word-based magic system in Gideon's Dawn, Waymaker, The Song That Shatters, and The Word That Prevails. I'll close with this quote from the great poet William Stafford, This is a quote from one of his poems that comes from his book Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation. I love this quote, and what it has to say about the power of our voices and our words.

“The things you do not have to say make you rich.
Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk.
Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing.
And things you know before you hear them—those are you,
Those are why you are in the world.”

Beautiful.

I'll leave you there. Hope you have a beautiful week. Pay attention to your words this week. They matter.

Until next time,

Michael