1) on a prior MM I asked about whether there were pitfalls to meditating my way through the elemental correspondences of the Ogham fews and coming up with my own interpretations (Answer: no, but crosscheck results with reality). This week I'm contemplating water. In the DMH you mention that Druidry has its own interpretation of water's meanings compared to other systems, so I wonder if it's problematic if my meditations lead me toward the more common ways water is understood (if it turns out that most of what I've subconsciously picked up about water comes from those other traditions) or if, in the context of Ogham, I need to more closely adhere to "druidly" understandings.
2) as I was honing my affirmation sentence, it occurred to me that a useful step (maybe?) is the "packing" of the terms I'm using, by which I mean that I carefully explored and explicated what I meant by every word in the affirmation. This allowed me to keep a pithier sentence than would've otherwise been possible had I tried to verbalize the more extensive meaning of what I'm trying to affirm. Is this an accurate take on it? So long as I KNOW what the words mean, is that what's important?
It also made me think of the mantrayana practice of using "seed syllables" that appear nonsensical but that are imbued with layers of deep meaning that practitioners "unpack" as they work with them. Someone at some point had to pack them up though, and while English is nowhere near as elegant as Sanskrit and Tibetan (it certainly doesn't lend itself to sonorous chanting in the same way), maybe we'll get there someday! Maybe that's what my prayer beads are hoping for anyway (since I'm using them for my affirmation rather than for Om mani pedme hung).
3) Can you (and other readers) point me in a direction for how to go about searching for origin and creation stories and theories that do NOT rely on the universe being created from nothing. You'd conversed with Lady Cutekitten about the Judeo-Christian belief that God created all from nothing and said not every tradition supposes the same thing - is there a term I can use to do some googling? Is this a discipline of study? I'm curious to know what's at the beginning of other traditions' beginnings.
and 4) for more research-direction assistance. Is there a Western occult tradition that works with (or considers, or philosophizes about) time? I've got a story with a main character who needs to learn the mystic or occult ways of working with time and if I don't have to invent all of such traditions out of my little newbie brain, I'd be more likely to get the story a little closer to being finished. I'm good at springboarding off of details, so if there's even just the merest hint of concepts of time in a tradition somewhere, that'd be helpful.
Likewise, is there a Western analog for Feng Shui or place/placement 'divination'? Obviously geomancy isn't the term (though some use it), but I don't know if we have such a term or practice. Do we?
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branchandroot
water, affirmations, "in the beginning," and time
Date: 2019-12-09 06:26 am (UTC)I have a few questions this week, if that's ok.
1) on a prior MM I asked about whether there were pitfalls to meditating my way through the elemental correspondences of the Ogham fews and coming up with my own interpretations (Answer: no, but crosscheck results with reality). This week I'm contemplating water. In the DMH you mention that Druidry has its own interpretation of water's meanings compared to other systems, so I wonder if it's problematic if my meditations lead me toward the more common ways water is understood (if it turns out that most of what I've subconsciously picked up about water comes from those other traditions) or if, in the context of Ogham, I need to more closely adhere to "druidly" understandings.
2) as I was honing my affirmation sentence, it occurred to me that a useful step (maybe?) is the "packing" of the terms I'm using, by which I mean that I carefully explored and explicated what I meant by every word in the affirmation. This allowed me to keep a pithier sentence than would've otherwise been possible had I tried to verbalize the more extensive meaning of what I'm trying to affirm. Is this an accurate take on it? So long as I KNOW what the words mean, is that what's important?
It also made me think of the mantrayana practice of using "seed syllables" that appear nonsensical but that are imbued with layers of deep meaning that practitioners "unpack" as they work with them. Someone at some point had to pack them up though, and while English is nowhere near as elegant as Sanskrit and Tibetan (it certainly doesn't lend itself to sonorous chanting in the same way), maybe we'll get there someday! Maybe that's what my prayer beads are hoping for anyway (since I'm using them for my affirmation rather than for Om mani pedme hung).
3) Can you (and other readers) point me in a direction for how to go about searching for origin and creation stories and theories that do NOT rely on the universe being created from nothing. You'd conversed with Lady Cutekitten about the Judeo-Christian belief that God created all from nothing and said not every tradition supposes the same thing - is there a term I can use to do some googling? Is this a discipline of study? I'm curious to know what's at the beginning of other traditions' beginnings.
and 4) for more research-direction assistance. Is there a Western occult tradition that works with (or considers, or philosophizes about) time? I've got a story with a main character who needs to learn the mystic or occult ways of working with time and if I don't have to invent all of such traditions out of my little newbie brain, I'd be more likely to get the story a little closer to being finished. I'm good at springboarding off of details, so if there's even just the merest hint of concepts of time in a tradition somewhere, that'd be helpful.
Likewise, is there a Western analog for Feng Shui or place/placement 'divination'? Obviously geomancy isn't the term (though some use it), but I don't know if we have such a term or practice. Do we?
Many thanks, as always.