jprussell | (Reply)

From:

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