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Ogham Reading Sanity Check
Apr. 20th, 2022 12:27 pmUPDATE 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:
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.
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.
