Jeff Russell

Fair enough on wanting to wait to do it "right" - there's value in "good enough" and value in "get it right," and when/where to go with each can be a tough call, so I think you're right to go with what feels right.

As for a "Heathen Druid" approach, I kind of stumbled into it. When I first gave JMG's "magical tripod" a try, I used the Heathen LBRP+MP, meditated on the Poetic Edda, and divined with the Runes. After getting some startlingly positive results to my experiment, I decided I needed to get serious and follow a complete system start to end. Well, the Heathen Golden Dawn book hadn't been completed yet, and I knew I wanted to stick with a JMG book, so that left me the DMH or the Celtic Golden Dawn. I had also found the GD rituals very congenial, and I wasn't all that interested in Revival Druidry as a religious path, but I got some nudges that GD might be "too solar" for my own development, and that the balance of solar and telluric energies as well as flexibility with deities provided by the SOP might serve me well, so I went with that and was pleasantly surprised to find druidry growing on me quite a bit. All that being said, it seems to be a very personal process, and considering I would have taken up the Heathen GD in a heartbeat if it were already available at that stage in my practice, I certainly can't fault you for going that way!

JMG has said that many folks find that either the Ogham or the Runes work better for them, but not both. Luckily, that hasn't seemed to be the case for me. I speculated a bit on why that might be in my recent conversation with Luke Dodson. The short version is that I call upon Woden (Odin), Frige (Freyja), and the Wyrds whether I'm using the Ogham or the Runes, and when I was learning Ogham, I made a lot of connections between Runic and Oghamic symbolism. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

So, the short answer is that I do invoke them as a collective, but with a slight caveat. Throughout the day, I try to have opportunities to pray, and these are usually to specific Gods, Goddesses, or other wights. For example, when I start meditation, I pray to Woden and Frige, when I put on my Thunor's Hammer necklace, I pray to Thunor, and when I go to sleep, I pray to a handful of deities for specific things (and obviously the Heathen Rosary prayers are more targeted). For my "daily prayer" at my altar, I say the "Hammer Token," call upon Thunor to hallow the drink offering, and upon "the Gods, Goddesses, Well-Wights, Holy Forebears, and Holy Warding Wight (Holy Guardian Angel)" as I light the candle. Then I call upon "Frigg, Hearthmother" to open the altar by passing the candle around it three times clockwise. I then kneel and say the "Tree Deeming," then say a more involved prayer to the collective positive entities I mentioned for lighting the candle. If I have any specific prayers I'm currently saying daily (usually 2-3 focusing on things like healing for those who have asked for it and anything I'm trying to work on personally), then I toast the "holy forebears" and take a sip of the drink offering and put it back on the altar. For the past couple of weeks, I've been saying the (nearly) full Heathen Rosary at this point. Then I again call upon the collective positive spiritual beings and try to "open my heart" to whatever they might have to share with me for at least 9 slow, deep breaths, but for as long as it feels right. I close by saying the "Mark of the Wells" and leave the candle burning for a bit (usually around an hour), then I come back, say the "Hammer Token," call upon Frigg, Hearthmother to close the space as I move the candle three times counter-clockwise. I ask for the leave of the collective beings to take the drink offering, and if I feel it's given (which is pretty much always), I say the "Mark of the Wells" and then go pour out the drink, giving what's left of it to the House and Land Wights.

All of which is to say I try to strike a balance between "targeted" and more general prayers.

For your last couple of questions, I haven't given either a try, but at first glance, they sound like they make sense. As I mentioned above, I've mostly been trying to say the Heathen Rosary in a sacred space, but not a magically sanctified space, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't work. Vibrating ALU seems sensible (and doesn't at least one of the later rituals in the HGD do that?), with the caveat that I'm not sure about vibrating words of power outside of explicit rituals, whether it's helpful, harmful, or neutral. Might make for a good "Magic Monday" question.

Anyhow, sorry for the extremely long answer, but hope it's helpful!
Jeff