[Main Blog Post] [Book] Thoughts on The Book of the New Sun

[jprussell]

I'm continuing to make progress on the massive second chapter of Kvilhaug's The Seed of Yggdrasill, but I've not finished it, and there hasn't really been a satisfying break point to divide the chapter up into multiple posts. So, instead, I've shared my thoughts on Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, which I just finished reading the other night. The short version is that it's very good and has a heck of a lot going on there. If you like epic, sweeping speculative fiction with great scope that is nevertheless well-written and full of well-realized characters who grapple with genuine moral issues, you'll like this book. Strongly recommended.

Comments

[thinking_turtle]

Thanks for the book review. My pile of books to read is growing to epic proportions!

[jprussell]

You're most welcome, and I know the feeling!

[betwixttheworlds]

Hi Jeff,

You mentioned over at the Magic Monday forum that you have a relation with the elements through scrying.

Would you be interested in talking about your scrying technique sometime? To be honest, scrying looks very confusing.

Thanks,
Jon

[jprussell]

Hi Jon,

Sure, I'll add that to the list of stuff to write at about at some point, but I can give you the short version now. First, the term "scrying" gets used to mean a few different things in occult writing and teaching. When I say "scrying," I'm using it as JMG does in his books, which is where I learned the method I use. Basically, it boils down to what a Jungian might call "active imagination" - you focus on some symbol or concept, try to "go" somewhere relevant to it in your imagination, and then see what happens while you're there.

Here's a basic rundown based on what I'm working on now (scrying the Stations of the Wheel of Life from the JMG's Druid Magic Handbook:

1. Establish a sacred space somehow (I use the Grove ritual with an SOP from the DMH) - this is not strictly required, but is recommended to minimize your chance of anything nasty hijacking your session, and also helps with getting you into the right frame of mind for the work.
2. Sit down and do whatever preliminaries you normally do for meditation (for me, this is progressive relaxation, fourfold breath with color breathing, and a short prayer).
3. When you get to the point where you'd start thinking about the theme if doing regular discursive meditation, instead visualize yourself at some starting point (I have an imaginary Druid Grove where I start all my scryings, that I first established by scrying my Grove). I start by visualizing myself sitting at the center of my grove. I find it helpful to close my eyes for everything from this point forward, but apparently, some folks don't. Note that it's hard to do right when you're very sleepy!
4. In your starting place, "rise" (in your imaginary body), go to the appropriate place (either the central altar or the relevant cardinal direction) and trace a symbol relevant to what you're scrying (if scrying an Ogham Few, for example, you might trace the Few itself, if something else, maybe the appropriate invoking pentagram, depending on your magical tradition). For the Wheel of Life, I'm using the Heather and Oak pentagrams from the DMH, depending on which station I'm scrying and what the current time of year is (that's a bit too complicated to explain here).
5. You then visualize a gate opening that you step through into some "place" representative of the thing you're scrying (so, for me right now, a place associated with each station of the Wheel of Life - luckily, these are given in the DMH. So, for Belteinne, I found myself next to a spring with a tree growing next to it).
6. This is the tricky part - from here you want to just... see what happens. It's kind of like daydreaming, but with a bit more focus. I try to avoid "steering" as much as I can, focusing on being receptive to what "comes up." When I do this, sometimes I find myself journeying along (such as on a boat down a river out to the ocean), but other times I just sit there and talk with one or more Beings that show up. Sometimes a blend.
7. If you meet any Beings, make an invoking symbol relevant to where you are (if through one of the elemental gates, the elemental symbol, and I've been using the symbol of Spirit for the Wheel) and saying something like "May the might of Spirit Bless and Ward You". The Being ought to return the symbol (if you did clockwise, it should go counter clockwise), and return your blessing, saying something like "And also you." This, again, is to protect against malevolent beings.
8. Sometimes its helpful to ask questions, sometimes just to listen, and sometimes to answer what they ask you.
9. After a time, you'll feel like it's time to go. I have an intention to do the scrying for about 20 minutes, including preliminaries, and I've gotten pretty good at just sensing when it's about time. But sometimes my guides take me back to the gate early, or sometimes it runs long.
10. When leaving, it's good to do the same sign you did to greet any Being, but now counter clockwise, again blessing them and asking for the protection of the relevant spiritual force, which again, they will return. It's also a good idea to ask the place where you are "permission" to leave. This will always be granted, but sometimes you get a parting thought of some kind.
11. Step back through the gate to your starting place, then close the gate, and return to your "body" and sit back down into it. Then open your eyes to where your material body is.
12. Do anything to close you need to (post-meditation stuff, closing your Grove, etc)

I'm hardly an expert, but hopefully this helps!

Cheers,
Jeff

[betwixttheworlds]

Thanks, Jeff! That makes a lot of sense. It's identical to Pathworking where a tarot card is used as the doorway onto the Cabalistic Path. Comparing it to Jung's Active Imagination also makes a great deal of sense.

I'll certainly use your technique. I had made some crazy assumptions that I needed to buy a mirror, or to stare into a crystal or a bowl of water.

Thank you very much.

[jprussell]

Exactly! Tarot/Cabala pathworking is one flavor of the kind of scrying that JMG teaches. Again, to be clear, it's not "my" technique, it's JMG's :)

As for the mirror/bowl of water, that's one of those other things called "scrying" (W.E. Butler in How to Read the Aura and Practice Psychometry, Telepathy, and Clairvoyance gives a technique using a "black mirror" (a piece of convex glass painted black on the back). From what I can tell, some people have an easier time seeing things astrally (visualizing) with their eyes open, looking at a suggestive surface of some kind (mirror, crystal ball, bowl of water, etc), whereas others do better closing their eyes. The end result seems to be "learn to perceive things astrally" either way, so experimentation might be in order.

I made a black mirror but haven't had much chance to practice with it, being up to my eyeballs with exercises to do already with DMH, The Dolmen Arch, and The Modern Order of Essenes!

[betwixttheworlds]

Many thanks. I'm going to get Butler's book and learn his techniques.