Ogham Reading Sanity Check

[jprussell]

UPDATE 4/22/22: See bottom of entry for some further thoughts

Well, I suppose this is my first actual post to my own journal here. I mostly maintain it to participate in other communities and comment on others' posts, but I'm noodling over something and thought I might see if anyone has thoughts. I very well might post this to the next Magic Monday, but I thought I'd solicit thoughts ahead of time.

My wife and I are expecting our second daughter in October (hooray!), and because of that, I'm going to need to put any progression in ceremonial magic on hold. I was considering the Dolmen Arch as an alternative to the Druid Magic Handbook I've been working my way through, as it sounded like a good way to build on the lore and symbolism I've already learned and maintain a rigorous practice without (much) ceremonial magic.

So, I did an Ogham spread for the question "Should I take up the Dolmen Arch course while I put the DMH on pause?" and got the following:

• Situation: Quert
• Work: Ailm (Reversed)
• Outcome: Tinne (Reversed)

Whatever else this is, it seems like a pretty clear "no". I read it as "I've got what I need, but I'm missing it and need to pay more attention and work out a better way forward with what I've got to hand, very possibly because I'm misunderstanding what my true goal is/ought to be."

As such, I'm thinking I might be better off meditating my way through all of the Ogham correspondences, pathworking the wheel of the year, and otherwise exploring the non-ceremonial parts of the DMH, while keeping up with the Earth and Sun path stuff in the Druidry Handbook.

Obviously, I'll have to work this one out for myself with thinking, meditation, and divination, but if anything from the above jumps out at you as an especially good or bad idea, or if I've gotten the reading entirely wrong, I'd appreciate hearing so.

Any and all thoughts decidedly welcome!

Update 4/22/22

Thanks to sdi and aelric for your comments, and if anyone has further thoughts, those would still be helpful. I ended up casting more readings throughout the week, each building on the previous results:

Question 1 (4/20/22): "Should I set aside the DMH and its work while my kids are too young for advanced magic?"
- Setting: Ur
- Work: Huath (Reversed)
- Outcome: Saille

My Take: I've got a strong spiritual base, and moving forward I'll need flexibility, but it would be rash to set aside the DMH entirely.

Question 2 (4/21/22): "Should I keep up with the safe work from the DMH while my kids are too young for advanced magic?"
- Setting: Nuin
- Work: Ur
- Outcome: Coll (Reversed)

My Take: There is a wider world of context and connection around me I need to be paying attention to, and doing the work of the DMH will provide plenty of spiritual richness (note the repetition of Ur, here), but if this is all that I do, I'll run into creative blockages, perhaps holding myself back through fear of failure.


Question 3 (4/22/22): "Should I combine the Dolmen Arch with my DMH study while my kids are too young to safely do ceremonial magic?"
- Setting: Koad
- Work: Duir
- Outcome: Tinne

My Take: There is great possibility and capacity for freedom around me, and I have the strength needed to follow this path. Doing so might result in some challenges/conflicts, but if I am decisive and bold, those can go my way.

Commentary on the process: This might look like nitpicking or asking the same question in slightly different ways, but for me, at least, I've found the Ogham to be pretty well suited to these kinds of narrowing-down/circling around the main point kind of questions. It does seem to be important to take each answer seriously, and for any subsequent questions to build on previous ones, but or lack of a better way to put it, the Ogham seems to "like" exploring the same general idea from different angles, especially if it's a question of spiritual relevance.

In this case, I began with an overloaded question: "Should I take up the Dolmen Arch course while I put the DMH on pause?" This 1) assumed I should put the DMH on pause and replace it with something else, and 2) assumed that replacement ought to be the Dolmen Arch. Realizing it was overloaded (with some help from commenters!) led me to test those assumptions. First, "should I put the DMH on pause?" and then when I got a seeming "no" to that question, just to be extra clear "so, I should keep up with the DMH, then?" which got me a "yes, but. . ." And then, based on Aelric's comment, I got back to specifics and asked "Okay, so is the thing I should combine with it the DA?" and got what looks like almost as close to an unqualified "yes" as I know to look for from a 3-card spread in Ogham.

Anyhow, again, if anyone sees any glaring errors in the above, I'd love to hear about them, and even if not, I hope that explaining my process gives some helpful insight to someone.

Comments

[sdi]

Please take this with the caveat that I don't know anything about either you or the Ogham, and so I am not trying to criticize you or re-interpret your reading but merely speaking what came to mind! It seems to me that you should maybe spend the time focusing on your family and take the opportunity to reflect upon what those experiences mean in terms of the occult training you've had.

If I may put a spiritual spin on this, Sallustius says "one may call the World a Myth," and what is the purpose of myths? "That we have to search and do not have our minds idle." So perhaps you should be taking your meditation themes from your everyday life, for the moment, rather than digging into anything exotic.

I'm on something of a Tao Te Ching kick today, I suppose, and I'm reminded of chapter 8:

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

That is to say, maybe you're overthinking it!

Once again, please accept my wishes that you and your household be blessed!

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for your kind wishes!

And huh, you may be onto something there. One theme that has been coming up in the past year of spiritual work has been how to better incorporate what I'm learning with how I live my life and what I bring to my family interactions, so it might be that I need to put more focus on that aspect.

Given the reading I did yesterday after posting this (given in my reply to aelric below), there might have been an unproductive assumption buried in my first question that I'm now working on unpacking.

[causticus]

First off, congratulations!

Secondly, here is my two cents. I recall JMG saying something along the lines of not making major life decisions based off amateur-level divination readings; that the whole point of doing divinations at beginning levels is to develop general intuition skills in addition to technical competence for the divination system in question. So by that, it seems it might be rather easy to overthink a simple Ogham reading.

On the question itself, ""Should I take up the Dolmen Arch course while I put the DMH on pause?" .. it appears to be two questions loaded into one. (1) "Should I take up the Dolmen Arch course," and (2) "Should I put the DMH on pause?"

Thirdly, these two courses are really branches of the same system. My own amateur take here: I don't see why you can't develop your meditation and pathworking of the Ogham while exploring the rich philosophy and mental exercises of the DA. Though if you want to do the whole DA course, the meditations will be focusing on the branches of the Mabinogian instead of the Ogham. Also, nothing within the entirety of the DA involves doing any ceremonial magic, whereas you can't really progress that far in DMH without doing the Grove rituals, which of course is full-blown ceremonial magic. So logic would dictate that IF your goal is to complete a system of instruction within the next several years, that of the two books, DA is the only viable choice given your family situation. Of course, if you don't mind putting off progression in DMH for the next 5-7 years, then you can just stick to the meditation parts. But in that time you could have gotten through all of DA.

tl;dr in a nutshell I think a vague, amateur-level divination should not override simple logic. But honestly, I'd ask a condensed/concise inquiry on all of this on MM, as my own lack of experience might be shining through here.

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for your thoughts!

1. Point well-taken on amateur divination readings. I am at a point in my readings (~11 months of daily Ogham readings) where I usually feel pretty good about my interpretation, but for weightier decisions, I get a bit of cold feet. Luckily, when it comes to "what should my spiritual practice be for the next few years?", the factors are mostly within my control, as long as I stick to some basic magical safety the risks are pretty low, and I can always course correct as I learn more, so it's not quite as dire as deciding whether to move across the country or something!

2. Excellent point! After posting this, I realized that I had buried some assumptions in there, so yesterday afternoon, I did a reading asking "Should I set aside the DMH and its work while our daughter is too young for me to do magic?" and got the following:
- Setting: Ur
- Work: Huath (Reversed)
- Outcome: Saille

I took this one to mean that I have a strong spiritual base to start from, and that I need to be flexible moving forward, but that it would be rash to totally set aside the DMH. Which leads me to your third point.

3. Here is the assumption I've been working from that I don't think I conveyed above: one of the reasons I took up the DMH, rather than keeping on with a cobbled together set of practices (Heathen LBRP+MP, Daily Rune Reading, Meditation themes taken from Norse myth), was that for a variety of reasons it would be valuable for me to take JMG's advice to pick a published system, and follow it to the letter beginning to end before trying to move on to any kind of customization or the like. As such, I have been assuming that after it is safe to do so, I will come back to DMH and complete it as written, and I've worried that jumping to a completely new system would be undermining my resolution to do DMH front to back (even if it takes a pause in the middle).

Given those assumptions, I was a bit leery of deciding "Eh, DA and DMH are pretty much the same, except for the ceremonial magic, it should count", hence the divinations. That being said, something very much like your logic is what led me to ask the question I did (I had already started reading DA and thinking "how should I start fitting this into my daily practice?")

So, in closing, you've got some good points I'm definitely going to consider, and yes, I think I'll ask a condensed version on MM, unless any comments here and/or further divination and meditation make the right way forward clearer!

[open_space]

For what is worth, your writings and suggestions would be welcome. I've seen you've got a wealth of information on several subjects ranging from self-help books to abstruse knowledge.

The Dolmen Arch is amazing, or so it looks to prying eyes. Got me copy, waiting a few years or more than that to be undusted and opened. Have you considered also using this "down-time" to build perspective into several corners of the magical literature? I'm pretty sure, scrying, divining and meditating can get you busy for years on end.

(I don't read the Ogham but I can draw a Tarot card, or more, should you like to.)

[jprussell]

1. First, thanks very much! Writing is something I'm trying to build some good habits around, but I'm not sure that I'll use Dreamwidth as my main outlet. In the past, I've blogged rather a lot about RPGs (mostly old school D&D) at Blessings of the Dice Gods and about management/business coaching at Jeff Russell Coaching. I hope that by combining all of my varied interests at My Webstead, I'll be able to be more consistent and more interesting, but we'll see!

2a. Secondly, yes, Dolmen Arch is definitely blowing me away. Everything in it is consistent with the DMH and Way of the Golden Section, but wow, it does not stay in the shallow end for long at all. If you want to follow it "as is", you'd have to adopt an SOP practice rather than a CGD practice, but I imagine you could adapt it pretty readily if you subsituted the LBRP wherever it says "SOP" and "Middle Pillar Exercise" wherever it says "Grail Working", but there might be some more advanced stuff that is more dependent on the DMH-style foundations than I know about so far. If nothing else, you could meditate on the Mabinogion and the Druid Philosophy papers in each grade.

2b. I have thought about this some! One option I considered was using this time to begin the training for the Golden Section Fellowship in WotGS, including picking up the Sacred Geometry Oracle. I also thought about learning the Tarot, and/or some astrology fundamentals. When I actually plotted out what I could do in the DMH + DA, though, I realized I've got rather a lot to get going on! I can scry (and then meditate on the scrying for a few days) all 25 of the Ogham Fews, which ought to keep me busy for at least ~4-6 months, and then I have the pathworkings of the Wheel of Life (another ~4-6 months, as each path corresponds to one of the Fews). If I spend ~4 days a week on scrying/meditating on the scrying, and the other 3 meditating on Dolmen Arch themes, that's at least a year all by itself.

Currently, I have a non-fiction, non-occult book that is my "main" reading (right now, Spengler's The Decline of the West, Volume 2), an occult book or group of books that I'm studying in more depth (mostly DA volume 1, but jumping back to DH, DMH, and WotGS sometimes), an occult book that I read in bits and snatches when I have spare time (just started Fortune's Aspects of Occultism), and a fiction book I read before bed (just finished That Hideous Strength last night). Obviously this is a lot, and that's an ideal - very many days I end up skipping reading one or more of those. All of which is to say that I could certainly tweak my reading/study habits to go into a lot more depth on something targeted if I decided to (I'm certainly welcome to suggestions!)

3. Lastly, Thanks very much! I suppose I might ask for a single card response on something like "What do I most need to understand about following this course of study and practice?"

Thanks very much for your response,
Jeff

[open_space]

Welcome!

I am aware of the Dolmen Arch's requirements and would certainly do the Sphere of Protection related workings along with the course. There is an odd fascination with doing things as they were intended. I feel it gets you inside the mind of it's creator. That is still, very, very much in the future as I intend to finish the CGD and play with it a little, as soon as I can manage to not want to squirrel away from magical practice, it's been like that this week.

As for your card, you drew The Two of Cups reversed. Be careful with balance, as it is, you should consider where you might be falling for passions or imbalances. It doesn't seem to be telling me anything specific about the details of the program you've chosen aside from that but rather on the things that your training has uncovered, both good and that you have to work on. Your path doesn't change with the shoes that choose to walk it with.

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for your reply!

1. Fair enough, and yes, despite a lifelong habit of tweaking things to my own tastes and proclivities (I have an Aquarius sun sign and a Leo ascendant and my birth number is a 1, so I have some very definite personal preferences!), I have found an unexpected satisfaction in shutting up and following the program laid out by someone else. I also sympathize with having topics of great interest that have to be put on hold for finishing up the current program.

2. Thank you for the reading! That is most interesting. In terms of the practice, that seems like further confirmation that I ought neither to stick only to a limited version of the DMH nor switch entirely to the DA (or soemthing else), but instead try to find a balanced approach. More personally, hmmm. I suspect it says something about keeping my family, work, and personal study balanced, and not to go chasing after one to the expense of the others. I'll have to think more on this, and perhaps even meditate on it (convincing myself that I have a lifetime (or more) to meditate, and so don't have to be tight-fisted with meditation "slots" is an ongoing battle).

Thanks again for your help,
Jeff

[open_space]

It can certainly be taken in the sense of marriage too, which should be obvious by looking at a picture. (it's the Rider-Waite).

[jprussell]

Oh, hah! I am not familiar enough with the Tarot to have immediately gotten that, but looking at the card, yes, it certainly seems like the give-and-take of a relationship is reflected in the image. It especially looks to me like the guy is tentatively trying to figure out how interact with the gal, and so far, she's not exactly seeing what she wants to see, but isn't rejecting him either. As for the winged lion head over the caduceus-like symbol, I've got nothing, other than that those are Solar/Mercurial symbols, which suggests further that it's on the masculine figure to figure out what he's screwing up here, rather than on counting on the feminine to be receptive.

I may be speculating wildly, since, as I said, I'm not very knowledgeable on the Tarot, but the idea of "balance, in the form of the masculine finding a better way to relate to the feminine" is helpful and a bit more specific than just "find balance".

Thanks again for the further insight!

[open_space]

Some people see it that way! And some other times the same reluctance appears as solemnity, as if they were a couple of magicians performing polarity magic or what not. Some others see it as Ida and Pingala, the energetic polars of the human system, some other times just a couple. Balance. Reversed of course it tends to circle around imbalance, or too much balancing, or the need for imbalance (thing tai chi movements of intentional imbalance). The Red Lion is the alchemical red lion which also reinforces the notion of control.