I had 3 weeks of holidays over Summer, but strangely didn't do any study during that time. I had plenty of time, but just couldn't get into the right mindset for it. It wasn't until I went back to work in the new year that I've been enthusiastic about studying again. I guess that's just the way my brain works!
I finished off my final essay for Core Energy Practices 101, discussing my experiences with the class. I'm amazed to find that I've gone from being someone who "just can't meditate", to looking forward to meditating every week!
I enrolled in Core Energy Practices 102, which covers cleansing and shielding. I've started the written component of the first assignment, but, being very busy right now, I won't be able to do the practical activity for a few weeks. I'd like to get further into this class before I enrol in any more, but that doesn't stop me from perusing the class list, trying to decide which one to do next. There are so many!
Classes Completed:
✷ Core Energy Practices 101
✷ Magickal Ettiquette
Assignments Completed:
✷ Final Essay: Your Experiences (Core Energy Practices 101)
Classes In Progress:
✷ Core Energy Practices 102
Credits:
✷ This month: 3 Total: 7
T.O.R.C.H. Award Progress:
✷ Classes completed: 3 of 4
✷ Forum Monthly Check-Ins: 1 of 2
✷ Forum Conversations Participated in: 1 of 1 (more than 1!)
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
The Grey School of Wizardry T.O.R.C.H. Award
As one of my goals for 2018, I've committed myself to earning the T.O.R.C.H. Award (Level 1). Each of the four houses in the Grey School has its own award. As a member of the Flames Lodge, I'm eligible to earn the TORCH award. I really think that this will help kickstart my studies which, I have to admit, have been languishing for a while.
So what do I have to do? Here's the list of tasks from the Grey School of Wizardry forums:
1. Completion of the class "Writing and Citing: How to Not Plagiarise".
2. Completion of at least one Level One required class.
3. Check in to the monthly Flames Lodge roll call for at least two months in a row (within the last six months)
4. Complete 4 classes within one semester and report on the appropriate forum thread.
5. Participate in at least one forum conversation within the past 3 months.
6. Take the initiation Oath for the Order of the Dancing Flames
And here's my progress on each of these requirements:
1. Completion of "Writing and Citing" class -- DONE!
2. Completion of at least one Level One required class -- DONE!
3. Check in to the monthly roll call -- I don't think I checked in for December, but I checked in for January, so half done!
4. Complete 4 classes within one semester -- I've completed 1 class this semester.
5. Participate in at least one forum conversation within the past 3 months -- not in any significant way.
6. Take the initiation Oath for the Order of the Dancing Flames -- not yet!
The most challenging requirement is completing 4 classes within one semester. Classes vary on the amount of work -- from reading the material and doing a multiple-choice test, to three or more essays and practical activities. This semester, I've completed one class, with a second almost finished, and a third just started. Semesters run from equinox to equinox, so that means I would have until 21st March if I wanted to fulfill the requirement this semester. That's just under two months away, but it doesn't seem very long to me!
At the moment, all my efforts are focussed on the annual Zine Fair, which is on the 11th February. I was unexpectedly offered a stall in the fair, and I want to take advantage of the opportunity. I also work 6 days a week, so I don't have as much time for my studies as as I'd like. Nevertheless I want to try!
Even if I'm not able to finish four classes this semester, at least I will have made some progress on them, and then I'll have 6 months once next semester rolls around to finish them. I will still have completed my goal of earning the award by the end of 2018.
At least, that's the plan!
So what do I have to do? Here's the list of tasks from the Grey School of Wizardry forums:
1. Completion of the class "Writing and Citing: How to Not Plagiarise".
2. Completion of at least one Level One required class.
3. Check in to the monthly Flames Lodge roll call for at least two months in a row (within the last six months)
4. Complete 4 classes within one semester and report on the appropriate forum thread.
5. Participate in at least one forum conversation within the past 3 months.
6. Take the initiation Oath for the Order of the Dancing Flames
And here's my progress on each of these requirements:
1. Completion of "Writing and Citing" class -- DONE!
2. Completion of at least one Level One required class -- DONE!
3. Check in to the monthly roll call -- I don't think I checked in for December, but I checked in for January, so half done!
4. Complete 4 classes within one semester -- I've completed 1 class this semester.
5. Participate in at least one forum conversation within the past 3 months -- not in any significant way.
6. Take the initiation Oath for the Order of the Dancing Flames -- not yet!
The most challenging requirement is completing 4 classes within one semester. Classes vary on the amount of work -- from reading the material and doing a multiple-choice test, to three or more essays and practical activities. This semester, I've completed one class, with a second almost finished, and a third just started. Semesters run from equinox to equinox, so that means I would have until 21st March if I wanted to fulfill the requirement this semester. That's just under two months away, but it doesn't seem very long to me!
At the moment, all my efforts are focussed on the annual Zine Fair, which is on the 11th February. I was unexpectedly offered a stall in the fair, and I want to take advantage of the opportunity. I also work 6 days a week, so I don't have as much time for my studies as as I'd like. Nevertheless I want to try!
Even if I'm not able to finish four classes this semester, at least I will have made some progress on them, and then I'll have 6 months once next semester rolls around to finish them. I will still have completed my goal of earning the award by the end of 2018.
At least, that's the plan!
Saturday, 20 January 2018
Uncle Fester's Magick by the Month Parcel : January
Here in Australia, Summer has hit with full force, so this month's surprise parcel is all about the Fire element.
The charm for this month is a snake (though its head looks a little like a dragon!). The crystal is a mahogany obsidian. Its red and black colouring is reminiscent of fire. There are also some beautiful tealight candles in the shape of flowers. They're just too beautiful to burn, so I'll use them as decorations.
The herbal pack contains Andrographis, Gypsy Wort, Mistletoe, Passionflower and red Rose petals. The information doesn't say what the herbs should be used for, but they smell wonderful, so I would use them as a potpourri or incense. Certainly an incense would suit the fiery season!
The biggest and best gift this month was a Zen garden. I've been wanting a tabletop Zen garden for years, and suddenly one landed on my doorstep! Right now I don't have anywhere to put it, but one of my goals for this year is to create my own home working space, with a desk and places to store my stationery, etc. This surprise seems to strongly say: yes, do it!
The charm for this month is a snake (though its head looks a little like a dragon!). The crystal is a mahogany obsidian. Its red and black colouring is reminiscent of fire. There are also some beautiful tealight candles in the shape of flowers. They're just too beautiful to burn, so I'll use them as decorations.
The herbal pack contains Andrographis, Gypsy Wort, Mistletoe, Passionflower and red Rose petals. The information doesn't say what the herbs should be used for, but they smell wonderful, so I would use them as a potpourri or incense. Certainly an incense would suit the fiery season!
The biggest and best gift this month was a Zen garden. I've been wanting a tabletop Zen garden for years, and suddenly one landed on my doorstep! Right now I don't have anywhere to put it, but one of my goals for this year is to create my own home working space, with a desk and places to store my stationery, etc. This surprise seems to strongly say: yes, do it!
Saturday, 13 January 2018
What is Geomancy?
I thought I knew quite a bit about the different forms of divination, but until a few months ago, I'd never heard of Geomancy. It's not surprising, as this method of divination is associated with Renaissance-era astrology and Hermeticism, and those are things I don't know much about yet. All forms of divination pique my interest though, so I decided to find out more about it.
Picture Source.
First of all, to give credit where it's due, I heard about Geomancy on the Rune Soup podcast: episode 94. The episode gives a very good description of what it is and how it works, but I'm more of a visual person, so it didn't really click for me until I read the Wikipedia page and saw the images.
To learn more about Geomancy, I purchased this book: The Art and Practice of Geomancy: Divination, Magic, and Earth Wisdom of the Renaissance by John Michael Greer. Several sources I read said that this book was one of the best, and I do think it gives a comprehensive and clear explanation of the system.
But let's start at the beginning. Geomancy is unfortunately a bit of a misnomer. The name implies divination using earth, and can sometimes be confused with dowsing or with fung shui. It is thought that it originated in either Africa or India, then spread to the Arabic world, and on to Europe during the Renaissance. Originally, it was performed by making marks in the sand or dirt, hence why it became associated with the earth. However, as I will explain, it can be done in many ways that don't involve earth at all.
There are 16 figures in the Geomantic system:
Picture Source.
The figures have Latin names and complex meanings which I won't go into right now -- the Geomantic Figures Wikipedia page explains each figure in detail. During divination, the figures are generated randomly line by line. Each figure has four lines, and each line has either one dot or two. This is a binary system (odds and evens). They can be generated in many ways: by making random marks in sand, flipping coins, rolling dice, using marked sticks, a random number generator, etc. In Mediaeval and Renaissance times there were even specialised tools and machines which generated the figures. So the system is more about randomness than about anything from the natural world.
Four figures are generated in this way and are entered into a Shield Chart (so called because in the traditional shape it resembles a shield as in the first picture above). These four figures are known as the Mothers. The lines from the Mothers are then re-arranged to form four Daughters. The Daughters are combined to create Nieces, the Nieces combined to make Witnesses and finally a single Judge. By the time this process is finished, there are 15 figures in total. This is called a recursive process, as the original figures are re-combined and whittled down to create a single final figure. For a simple reading, the Judge is taken as the final result. For a complex reading, all of the figures in the chart (plus sometimes an extra sixteenth figure) are read. An extra-quick reading would be to generate just one figure, but that really isn't in the spirit of Geomancy, and I think might be frowned upon!
Picture Source.
When Geomancy was taken up in Europe during the Renaissance, astrological principles were applied to it to create a very complex system. As well as the shield chart, the figures were inserted into a chart representing the twelve astrological houses, and additional interpretation was made according to the qualities of each house. A geomantic reading could only be done by a professional geomancer, and the rich and powerful would often consult with them. While this historical detail is interesting, I haven't researched too much into this yet because, as I mentioned before, astrology doesn't fit very well with my worldview. Plus, I have to admit, it makes the system so complicated that my intuition just seems to switch off. However, there's a thorough explanation of this, with examples, in the book in case I want to delve deeper into it in future.
Of course I wanted to try Geomancy for myself, and decided on dice as a good way to generate the figures, because I love dice! Another layer applied to the system during the Renaissance was the four elements. Each line of the figure was assigned to one of the four classical elements (top: fire, second: air, third: water, bottom: earth). I thought it would be interesting to have dice in four different colours corresponding to the elements. Having all the dice the same colour would mean that it would be my responsibility to decide which die should correspond to which line of the figure, and that would take some of the randomness out of it.
It was actually surprisingly difficult to find dice in the primary colours! All of the usual dice shops that Husband gets his dice from (he's a huge gamer) were either sold out or didn't have all four colours. In the end, he had to buy a set of 10 gamer sets in order to get the right ones. A gamer set has 7 dice in it, so that's 70 dice just so I can have 4! The rest weren't wasted though -- Husband just added them to his extensive collection.
I found a box lid to roll the dice in, and the book also fits perfectly into the lid for ease of storage. I love these kinds of little coincidences -- it makes it seem like it was meant to be. I've rolled the dice a few times now, but I haven't generated a full shield chart yet. I will be sure to post about it as soon as I do, though. There are so many other aspects of Geomancy to explore, such as the role of the four elements, stronger or weaker lines, or adding up the number of points in the figures to divine additional meaning.
First of all, to give credit where it's due, I heard about Geomancy on the Rune Soup podcast: episode 94. The episode gives a very good description of what it is and how it works, but I'm more of a visual person, so it didn't really click for me until I read the Wikipedia page and saw the images.
To learn more about Geomancy, I purchased this book: The Art and Practice of Geomancy: Divination, Magic, and Earth Wisdom of the Renaissance by John Michael Greer. Several sources I read said that this book was one of the best, and I do think it gives a comprehensive and clear explanation of the system.
But let's start at the beginning. Geomancy is unfortunately a bit of a misnomer. The name implies divination using earth, and can sometimes be confused with dowsing or with fung shui. It is thought that it originated in either Africa or India, then spread to the Arabic world, and on to Europe during the Renaissance. Originally, it was performed by making marks in the sand or dirt, hence why it became associated with the earth. However, as I will explain, it can be done in many ways that don't involve earth at all.
There are 16 figures in the Geomantic system:
The figures have Latin names and complex meanings which I won't go into right now -- the Geomantic Figures Wikipedia page explains each figure in detail. During divination, the figures are generated randomly line by line. Each figure has four lines, and each line has either one dot or two. This is a binary system (odds and evens). They can be generated in many ways: by making random marks in sand, flipping coins, rolling dice, using marked sticks, a random number generator, etc. In Mediaeval and Renaissance times there were even specialised tools and machines which generated the figures. So the system is more about randomness than about anything from the natural world.
Four figures are generated in this way and are entered into a Shield Chart (so called because in the traditional shape it resembles a shield as in the first picture above). These four figures are known as the Mothers. The lines from the Mothers are then re-arranged to form four Daughters. The Daughters are combined to create Nieces, the Nieces combined to make Witnesses and finally a single Judge. By the time this process is finished, there are 15 figures in total. This is called a recursive process, as the original figures are re-combined and whittled down to create a single final figure. For a simple reading, the Judge is taken as the final result. For a complex reading, all of the figures in the chart (plus sometimes an extra sixteenth figure) are read. An extra-quick reading would be to generate just one figure, but that really isn't in the spirit of Geomancy, and I think might be frowned upon!
When Geomancy was taken up in Europe during the Renaissance, astrological principles were applied to it to create a very complex system. As well as the shield chart, the figures were inserted into a chart representing the twelve astrological houses, and additional interpretation was made according to the qualities of each house. A geomantic reading could only be done by a professional geomancer, and the rich and powerful would often consult with them. While this historical detail is interesting, I haven't researched too much into this yet because, as I mentioned before, astrology doesn't fit very well with my worldview. Plus, I have to admit, it makes the system so complicated that my intuition just seems to switch off. However, there's a thorough explanation of this, with examples, in the book in case I want to delve deeper into it in future.
Of course I wanted to try Geomancy for myself, and decided on dice as a good way to generate the figures, because I love dice! Another layer applied to the system during the Renaissance was the four elements. Each line of the figure was assigned to one of the four classical elements (top: fire, second: air, third: water, bottom: earth). I thought it would be interesting to have dice in four different colours corresponding to the elements. Having all the dice the same colour would mean that it would be my responsibility to decide which die should correspond to which line of the figure, and that would take some of the randomness out of it.
It was actually surprisingly difficult to find dice in the primary colours! All of the usual dice shops that Husband gets his dice from (he's a huge gamer) were either sold out or didn't have all four colours. In the end, he had to buy a set of 10 gamer sets in order to get the right ones. A gamer set has 7 dice in it, so that's 70 dice just so I can have 4! The rest weren't wasted though -- Husband just added them to his extensive collection.
I found a box lid to roll the dice in, and the book also fits perfectly into the lid for ease of storage. I love these kinds of little coincidences -- it makes it seem like it was meant to be. I've rolled the dice a few times now, but I haven't generated a full shield chart yet. I will be sure to post about it as soon as I do, though. There are so many other aspects of Geomancy to explore, such as the role of the four elements, stronger or weaker lines, or adding up the number of points in the figures to divine additional meaning.
Monday, 1 January 2018
New Year Divination: My First Rune Cast
I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year and you are looking forward to what 2018 holds. I know I am!
Every year at this time, I sit down and plan out my goals for the coming year. For the last 3 years, I've planned my goals around what I call my Life Square. This helps me to think about all the areas of my life and how I want to change or improve them:
This year, I decided to use divination to help me decide on my goals for the year. It struck me that the grid layout of the Life Square would be perfect for casting onto, so I decided to do a Rune cast, even though I've never done one before. I didn't have time to make up a proper surface with a lined grid large enough to do the cast, so I laid out a blanket on my bed (it has a board underneath for stability). I had a vague idea of where the grid lines were in my head, and hoped it would be enough to figure out which part of the grid the Runes corresponded to when they fell. I had already removed any Runes that landed upside down before I took the below photo.
Well, as you can see, most of them landed in the middle! They just fell straight down and didn't bounce at all. That was something I wasn't expecting. I wasn't sure what to expect, to be honest. Some were obviously meant to be in certain sections, but most of the others were clumped together. I separated them out a little bit and the grid formation became clearer. I decided to read all runes upright no matter what orientation they were in when they landed. Here is the casting after I clarified it:
As you can see, some of the sections have no Runes in them, which again was something I didn't anticipate. However, it makes sense as they fall randomly. The rest of the sections have between one and three Runes in them. My initial interpretations are as follows (I did take the time to think about them more deeply later):
CREATIVITY -- No message. Do whatever you like.
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING -- Things will be out of your control, but there will be an unexpected gain or win.
RECREATION -- Do new things.
RELATIONSHIP -- Things will change, but in a good way: your relationship will be stronger.
SPIRITUALITY -- Be patient, develop your intuition, you will travel steadily.
FRIENDS, FAMILY & COMMUNITY -- You will be protected in your time of need ... or you will be called on to protect others.
HOME -- No message. You are on the right track already.
HEALTH -- There will be delays at times but you will win in the end.
JOB, FINANCIAL & ART BUSINESS -- You will be amazing at everything you do.
The most relevant goals for this blog are, of course, the spiritual ones. These are the three goals I chose for 2018:
✧ earn the Grey School of Wizardry Torch Award, Level 1 (I'll write a separate post explaining what this is later!)
✧ learn Rune casting
✧ meditate 3 times a week
It's exciting that I've already started on my goals by doing this Rune casting reading! If you'd like to see the goals I chose for the rest of the sections, check out my other blog here.
Every year at this time, I sit down and plan out my goals for the coming year. For the last 3 years, I've planned my goals around what I call my Life Square. This helps me to think about all the areas of my life and how I want to change or improve them:
This year, I decided to use divination to help me decide on my goals for the year. It struck me that the grid layout of the Life Square would be perfect for casting onto, so I decided to do a Rune cast, even though I've never done one before. I didn't have time to make up a proper surface with a lined grid large enough to do the cast, so I laid out a blanket on my bed (it has a board underneath for stability). I had a vague idea of where the grid lines were in my head, and hoped it would be enough to figure out which part of the grid the Runes corresponded to when they fell. I had already removed any Runes that landed upside down before I took the below photo.
Well, as you can see, most of them landed in the middle! They just fell straight down and didn't bounce at all. That was something I wasn't expecting. I wasn't sure what to expect, to be honest. Some were obviously meant to be in certain sections, but most of the others were clumped together. I separated them out a little bit and the grid formation became clearer. I decided to read all runes upright no matter what orientation they were in when they landed. Here is the casting after I clarified it:
As you can see, some of the sections have no Runes in them, which again was something I didn't anticipate. However, it makes sense as they fall randomly. The rest of the sections have between one and three Runes in them. My initial interpretations are as follows (I did take the time to think about them more deeply later):
CREATIVITY -- No message. Do whatever you like.
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING -- Things will be out of your control, but there will be an unexpected gain or win.
RECREATION -- Do new things.
RELATIONSHIP -- Things will change, but in a good way: your relationship will be stronger.
SPIRITUALITY -- Be patient, develop your intuition, you will travel steadily.
FRIENDS, FAMILY & COMMUNITY -- You will be protected in your time of need ... or you will be called on to protect others.
HOME -- No message. You are on the right track already.
HEALTH -- There will be delays at times but you will win in the end.
JOB, FINANCIAL & ART BUSINESS -- You will be amazing at everything you do.
The most relevant goals for this blog are, of course, the spiritual ones. These are the three goals I chose for 2018:
✧ earn the Grey School of Wizardry Torch Award, Level 1 (I'll write a separate post explaining what this is later!)
✧ learn Rune casting
✧ meditate 3 times a week
It's exciting that I've already started on my goals by doing this Rune casting reading! If you'd like to see the goals I chose for the rest of the sections, check out my other blog here.
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