learning season
Aug. 6th, 2019 04:57 pmI'm a freelancer, currently between jobs and not actively looking for the next. Thanks to my husband, whose more intensive work brings in more income, I have a bit of luxury at this time to engage in several courses of self-study plus some continuing education in my field and in other subjects.
The continuing education is related to gardening, animal husbandry, and editing. This last weekend I took a one-day course on the basics of beekeeping (I hope to have a honeybee colony at some point) - it included hands-on work, which was a thrill.
Starting next month, I've got an editing course and fall tends to be a time when clients start contacting me to edit manuscripts, so that work will probably pick up.
I'm also hoping to take an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) course in October as well - offered in conjunction with the local university extension that organizes the master gardener program I'm affiliated with.
Meanwhile, on the self-study front, I'm working on the Order of Essenes introductory lessons. I decided to do that course of study in an effort to sort out my motivation/approach to of my "pastime" of choice, which is writing. I'm in a slump, or a quagmire-ish moment that's a result of old habits of thought that I somehow picked up while young and that do me no good. They've dogged me for decades and they need to change or I risk being irretrievably pulled into this soul--sucking glop of blah and letting oblivion win the day.
Additionally, I'm a bit more than one year into baby-steps Druidry practice. (seriously, small-steps seems to be my cosmic middle name). Thus far, I've committed to (as in, I successfully practice) a daily banishing ritual, the Sphere of Protection. One version is found online, beginning here (subsequent sections of the ritual can be found by clicking on the "sphere of protection" tag at the bottom of the first post). The other two parts that constitute a practice in this tradition are meditation and divination. I did a daily divination for the first six months of my initial year and the results were a spectacular, echoing silence. Somehow at that time, the Ogham and I did not connect. As I've mentioned before, I've had really good results (and developed a trustworthy relationship) with the Yijing (I Ching) - so the Ogham bellyflop into nothingness led me to suspect I'd not learned its language on an imaginal level. So I pared everything back to just the SOP - because at least THAT was working.*
I've had the whole ritual memorized for a few months, but not being ready to face the Ogham, I only started introducing meditation into the mix. It was do-able while I had two weeks to myself (with family traveling I could indulge my inner hermit) but as soon as the "hermitage" reverted to real life, I found it really difficult to continue.
Frankly, I have an untrained mind and am challenged with some aspects of concentration. To that end, I'm following![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dfr1973 's lead and looking into William Walker Atkinson's The Power of Concentration. I want to consistently meditate my way through the SOP and as four of the gates of the SOP (the cardinal directions) relate to the Ogham fews, I want to use the meditations as a path to re-enter the Ogham realm.
That, in addition to journal explorations about sums up the various aspects of my practical-life and my inner-life curricula.
Looks like I've got plenty of work ahead of me.
---
*by working, I mean - I like it, it uplifts my day, it makes me feel good, and my life has improved in the time I've been doing it.
The continuing education is related to gardening, animal husbandry, and editing. This last weekend I took a one-day course on the basics of beekeeping (I hope to have a honeybee colony at some point) - it included hands-on work, which was a thrill.
Starting next month, I've got an editing course and fall tends to be a time when clients start contacting me to edit manuscripts, so that work will probably pick up.
I'm also hoping to take an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) course in October as well - offered in conjunction with the local university extension that organizes the master gardener program I'm affiliated with.
Meanwhile, on the self-study front, I'm working on the Order of Essenes introductory lessons. I decided to do that course of study in an effort to sort out my motivation/approach to of my "pastime" of choice, which is writing. I'm in a slump, or a quagmire-ish moment that's a result of old habits of thought that I somehow picked up while young and that do me no good. They've dogged me for decades and they need to change or I risk being irretrievably pulled into this soul--sucking glop of blah and letting oblivion win the day.
Additionally, I'm a bit more than one year into baby-steps Druidry practice. (seriously, small-steps seems to be my cosmic middle name). Thus far, I've committed to (as in, I successfully practice) a daily banishing ritual, the Sphere of Protection. One version is found online, beginning here (subsequent sections of the ritual can be found by clicking on the "sphere of protection" tag at the bottom of the first post). The other two parts that constitute a practice in this tradition are meditation and divination. I did a daily divination for the first six months of my initial year and the results were a spectacular, echoing silence. Somehow at that time, the Ogham and I did not connect. As I've mentioned before, I've had really good results (and developed a trustworthy relationship) with the Yijing (I Ching) - so the Ogham bellyflop into nothingness led me to suspect I'd not learned its language on an imaginal level. So I pared everything back to just the SOP - because at least THAT was working.*
I've had the whole ritual memorized for a few months, but not being ready to face the Ogham, I only started introducing meditation into the mix. It was do-able while I had two weeks to myself (with family traveling I could indulge my inner hermit) but as soon as the "hermitage" reverted to real life, I found it really difficult to continue.
Frankly, I have an untrained mind and am challenged with some aspects of concentration. To that end, I'm following
dfr1973 's lead and looking into William Walker Atkinson's The Power of Concentration. I want to consistently meditate my way through the SOP and as four of the gates of the SOP (the cardinal directions) relate to the Ogham fews, I want to use the meditations as a path to re-enter the Ogham realm.That, in addition to journal explorations about sums up the various aspects of my practical-life and my inner-life curricula.
Looks like I've got plenty of work ahead of me.
---
*by working, I mean - I like it, it uplifts my day, it makes me feel good, and my life has improved in the time I've been doing it.
