[Main Blog Post] Thoughts on The Well and the Tree

[jprussell]

I've put together my first stab at talking through what I learned from The Well and the Tree by Paul Bauschatz, but it's a bit long, so I'm only going to post a link. I'm still experimenting with how best to get folks attention, solicit comments, and so forth, but I may have some other approaches in the future.

So, comment here or email me and I'll add it to the post there!

Comments

[deketemoisont]

"I had a realization about a few years back that came as a surprise to no one who knew me but myself: I am most comfortable with intellectualized/abstracted things" - kek!

Reegarding the advice: thank you very much! And I've had quite similar thoughts at all points (except for a lack of urge to skip stages, due to never even considering the hypothesis I might be advanced at this stuff), and therefore do intend to follow exactly some set of instructions, but I don't imagine myself doing it even regarding some occultists I do like, such as Webb (the ones, still, I'm sure I consider being Greer, Miller, Flowers, and Corrigan, as per https://goldensectionforum.boards.net/thread/4/kete-moi-nt ); for now, it looks like I'll go from the Golden Section Fellowship to other John-Gilbert-descended work for some time.

I also think Hodge Rose's work would be useful to me, though I think it *didn't* match my aesthetic preferences (too ... "fluffy" isn't quite the right word) - but still, will read later, see what I can do with it.

Beating you to The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: a challenge!

Regarding the book lists: thanks, I'll have to check more thoroughly later, but it seems they contain great stuff - unfortunately, the 2 interesting sites *not* expected (Mexica Reconstructionism and Polytheist Zoroastrianism) are defunct.

On "Hindu", it started as a geographical expression by pre-Muslim Iranians, and that as self-designation and Hinduism are older than the European arrivals: https://hareesh.org/blog/2015/7/15/what-is-shaivism (note the "turaka dhamma" part, BTW). The previous religions (e.g. Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Buddhism, which had religious conflict between them) had institutions smashed by Islam (though Buddhism was losing ground before), and in that lost distinctiveness, leading to Hinduism (and Shaivism had been becoming less countercultural and converging towards Vaishnavism for some time - as far as my limited knowledge goes, both the Mahabharata and Ramayana are Vaishnava - the former seems to be clearly about (among other things!) the replacement of Vedic worship with Vaishnava bhakti).

"Too late to do that tonight, but I'll try to put that together soon, especially if this is an especial field of interest for you." - please do do it but do not hurry; you've been doing quite enough for me already, and a scale of months won't make things any slower than I can follow anyway in this case!

Arya Akasha: will definitely read more, and - hey, you were already reading nearly-LHP stuff! (The "draconian/ophidian" parts.)

[jprussell]

for now, it looks like I'll go from the Golden Section Fellowship to other John-Gilbert-descended work for some time.

That seems like a solid plan - as I might have mentioned on the forum, I kind of wish I had started there, but it came out about half a year after I got into the Druid Magic Handbook. I think it's a phenomenal place to start, and it's a brief enough starter course that you could do the material in Way of the Golden Section pretty quickly, then decide to pivot into something else related, or else go right into the Occult Philosophy Workbook, so it's nicely flexible.

I also think Hodge Rose's work would be useful to me, though I think it *didn't* match my aesthetic preferences (too ... "fluffy" isn't quite the right word) - but still, will read later, see what I can do with it.

Mostly I've been fascinated by the Germanish "multipart soul" thing since I first ran into it in an Edred Thorsson book (maybe Northern Magic?), so seeing it get a two-volume treatment is really exciting to me. It's also one of the few cases of a Germanish-flavored meditation-based practice I've run across, besides Nine Doors of Midgard.

Beating you to The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: a challenge!

May the race go to the fastest!

Regarding the book lists: thanks, I'll have to check more thoroughly later, but it seems they contain great stuff - unfortunately, the 2 interesting sites *not* expected (Mexica Reconstructionism and Polytheist Zoroastrianism) are defunct.

Ah, that's too bad. If you're looking for stuff on indigenous Mexican religion, open_space might be a good resource.

On "Hindu", it started as a geographical expression by pre-Muslim Iranians, and that as self-designation and Hinduism are older than the European arrivals:[. . .]

Thank you for the correction!

please do do it but do not hurry; you've been doing quite enough for me already, and a scale of months won't make things any slower than I can follow anyway in this case!

Fair enough, but I'm glad I got reminded to put together what I've already got.

Arya Akasha: will definitely read more, and - hey, you were already reading nearly-LHP stuff! (The "draconian/ophidian" parts.)

Hah, yeah, I hadn't been to the site in a month or two and saw those when I went to get the link and thought you might appreciate it. I found out about them from a guest appearance on Survive the Jive Podcast. I haven't fully decided how I feel about their stuff, in part because the main dude makes me look laconic, and so there's a lot to wade through. They seem to take reconstructionism more seriously than I do these days, but they do it from a place of piety, rather than as a substitute for doing what works.

[deketemoisont]

"If you're looking for stuff on indigenous Mexican religion, open_space might be a good resource." - while I've seen him say interesting stuff, I think what he knows in practice is mostly European/Iberian Christian (which is also my impression regarding even mages of purely Amerindian race in the Andes), which can also at least partly be found in Brazil (e.g. Dogma and Ritual of High Magic in Portuguese is sold on some newsstands here). As someone not terribly inclined to the "hylic normie" ( https://violetcabra.dreamwidth.org/381271.html ) magic of most people (not meaning open_space as "hylic normie", but employers of folk magic in general), or to monotheism, the "reconstructionism" part was doing much of the heavy lifting in that description (I'm also not inclined to "Reconstructionism" in the narrow sense criticized by JMG, but I'd have looked into something clearly polytheistic with whatever philosophy the Mesoamericans had that could still be found). (Thanks, and in comments I just noticed open_space intends to write more about Mesoamerican relgion and thought than he did thus far!)

"the main dude makes me look laconic" - true; from a brief look, I thought he overdid it, while you're well-calibrated (for my taste; but then I'm sure you know how to be briefer in other contexts).

[jprussell]

Yeah, I first noticed open_space's Catholic take on things, but some of his comments have referenced Mexican "shamanism" and some other indigenous practices, so I'm not sure where his expertise extends, but he's shown good faith and reasonableness on JMG fora and has *some* exposure/connection to native Mexican polytheism, so I thought he might be helpful. And yeah, I think I understand where you're coming from on ambivalence toward "reconstructionism".

"'the main dude makes me look laconic' - true; from a brief look, I thought he overdid it, while you're well-calibrated (for my taste; but then I'm sure you know how to be briefer in other contexts)."

Hah! Thanks - I sure hope I do, considering "be concise!" is one of the main things I teach my students. That'd be awfully embarrassing if I'm actually terrible at that.

[deketemoisont]

I'll keep an eye on open_space's blog; thanks!

"That'd be awfully embarrassing if I'm actually terrible at that." - quite funny to anyone else, but that wouldn't be of much help to you!