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First, non-DMH related, I haven't gotten much farther into The Well-Trained Mind, having sort of just jumped into finding my first reading materials for the actual study-project.

I just put a library hold on Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (thanks to an ecosophia commenter's suggestion). I also found a text version of Hesiod's Theogony and turned it into an epub file so I can read it on my ereader instead of spending more time on my computer. It's an inelegantly formatted epub file as it stands, but I may decide to clean it up and reformat it for no good reason other than to practice my ebook formatting for when I can return to helping [personal profile] dfr1973 with her W. W. Atkinson project or actually write something myself (Hello works in progress, yes, I see you looking at me!).

I suppose in the end, these are all loosely DMH-related in that they all tie in to the effort I'm making at "self-betterment."

Relative to the cosmogony topic, I'm continuing to slowly work my way through The Cosmic Doctrine. To be honest though, I'm not a great meditator. Today, for instance, I was instantly drowsy; and while it's true that I didn't get enough sleep last night, I still caved in and called the session off. I feel like I sort of hit the point in all my practices where I can do the basic motions but some of the "oomph" needs development. That usually indicates that I need to go back and read the instructions and figure out what I've forgotten or ignored.*

At least there's one thing showing good signs: I've been getting some very accurate readings from my "invented"** divination system. The results these last few weeks have been more accurate than Ogham ever wanted to be with me and so I'm starting to feel a little hopeful that something can be made with it. 

As for the SOP, I've added two deities so far and so far neither of them has complained!

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* Though I do have to be careful to not exacerbate a tendency to always dawdle at the beginning-stages of things. This is a tightly-wrapped thread around a tangled issue that I'm working on (and that in no small way is part of the "why" behind my doing the DMH practices).

** Truly "invented" isn't the right word, I hope, because what I also hope is that it's a system tapping into something real and beyond me.
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I'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] 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.
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*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.

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