Tracks in Space

[ecosophia]

One of the interesting concepts you'll find in the writings of occultist Dion Fortune is the concept that every action leaves a "track in space" that tends to pull other actions along its own course. Usually that doesn't accomplish much, but when an action is repeated over and over again, the "track in space" becomes very deeply rutted and begins to exert an appreciable influence on any action moving in more or less the same notional direction.

(Yes, this is another way of talking about the concept of morphogenetic fields that Rupert Sheldrake introduced in his book A New Science of Life. The parallels are exact enough that I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that Sheldrake had studied Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine -- though it may instead just have been a matter of her concepts forming a track in space that he followed...) 

At any rate, the concept we're discussing has highly practical applications in occultism, and I've recently had the pleasant experience of encountering one of them. 

Longtime readers of mine know that several years back, as a result of one of those absurd series of chance discoveries you couldn't get away with in a novel. I finally located a 19th-century Welsh book that gave the symbolic meanings of the Coelbren of the Bards, the quasi-runic magical alphabet created by eccentric Welsh genius Iolo Morganwg for his revival of Welsh Bardic and Druid traditions. Of course I turned that discovery into a book, The Coelbren Alphabet -- that's what writers do, you know ;-) -- but in the process I made myself a set of Coelbren sticks and spent a while casting divinations with them, to make sure I understood the Coelbren oracle and could explain it to readers. My experience with the Coelbren at that time was that it made a decent divination system, fairly clear and accurate, but not really exceptional -- for example, I got about the same level of clarity and accuracy from it that I got from Ogham divinations. (Admittedly I've done a lot of Ogham and get good results with it.) 

Fast forward three years. Earlier this month, I finished up a cycle of work with my forthcoming Sacred Geometry Oracle and the spiritual practices connected with it, and returned to the Coelbren and the system of Druidical magic I introduced in The Celtic Golden Dawn. (I've got some serious projects in process for that system -- more on this later.) That involved using the Coelbren again for daily divinations -- and I ended up blinking in surprise, because every morning's divination was crisp, instantly readable, accurate, and relevant, more so than just about any oracle I've worked with. Mileages vary, of course, but that's been my experience. 

Obviously this didn't happen because I'd been doing lots of practice with it. Instead, I think it's a matter of tracks in space. During the time I spent doing Coelbren divinations earlier, the Coelbren was practically forgotten, and as far as I can tell nobody anywhere was using the old meanings John Williams ab Ithel put in the rare book of his that I found. Since then, my book has come out, and it's had modest but decent sales -- so there have been some thousands of people casting and interpreting Coelbren readings, laying down tracks in space. Chalk one up for Dion Fortune and Rupert Sheldrake, and for morphogenetic fields...

Comments

Fortune & Sheldrake

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't be surprised if the name of C.H. Waddington needed to be included as a possible path of influence: ie from Fortune to Sheldrake via Waddington. Waddington's concept of "canalization" was published (or surfaced) around 1942 along with his concept of the "creode" and evolutionary landscapes. I hope I've gotten that right. It's not meant to detract from Fortune or Sheldrake. I hope your hiatus is going well and am looking forward to a new installment on CosDoc next month.

Re: Fortune & Sheldrake

[ecosophia]

Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long while. Waddington's work was discussed in the classes I took back in the early 1980s at Huxley College of Environmental Studies; clearly I need to revisit him.

As for the hiatus, yes, it's been extremely productive; I've finished one novel and one nonfiction book, done page proofs on three other projects, and am piling into some new and (at least to me) fascinating projects.

Very interesting.

[(Anonymous)]

That is fascinating. I hope as time goes on that my Ogham readings will start to make more sense. Do more people practice Ogham than Coelbren?

Does the same idea apply to egregors? I'm thinking of how you emphasize doing the SOP to the letter, so a beginner can tap into the larger body of practice already built up by others.

Tracks in space could also describe how certain ideas can be so infectious, even if they aren't in the media. So far I'm only at the beginning of CosDoc, but I hate the idea of someone being able to focus on me and send their potentially cruel thought bubble over to stick on me.

Re: Very interesting.

[ecosophia]

Ogham is very widely practiced, but there's a fair amount of disagreement on what the fews mean. One advantage Coelbren has is that nearly all of the people who are using it are using the same book.

Yes, this is also a way of talking about egregors!

It's a very unsettling idea -- and the thing that makes it most unsettling is that people do exactly that all the time. That's one of the reasons why the regular practice of a banishing ritual such as the SoP is so important for basic psychic hygiene.

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations JMG!

By the way, it seems that Sheldrake has some acquaintance with Theosophical theories: https://www.theosophy.world/resource/morphogenetic-fields-and-akasha

I guess both Fortune and Sheldrake were influenced by the same source.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this! I hadn't encountered any documented links before. Yes, it could be a matter of common sources, of course.

[robertmathiesen]

Sheldrake himself says that the French philosopher Henri Bergson was an early influence on his line of thinking that led to his theory of morphic resonance. Bergson's philosophy of science always rejected a purely mechanistic, materialistic causality as its foundation for understanding the world and how it came about.

It is probably worth noting that Henri Bergson's sister Mina (later, Moina) was the wife of Samuel Liddell MacGeregor Mathers, one of the founders of the Golden Dawn.

[mchangeling]

JMG,

Glad to hear that your work is going well.

Coincidentally, I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about tracks in space, because I was reading books by Jeffrey Kripal, one of few academics that is very open and candid about the fact that mystical experiences happen all the time, even today (he is scholar of religion with tenure).

He write about fact that even reading mystical literature has effect of producing such experiences and that his book also appear to be inducing those. He got hundreds of stories about this happening around his books and in the introduction to the book "Changed in a Flash" he is saying that he is explicitly writing books to serve as catalysts to "super-states".

And from perspective of tracks-in-space metaphor reading, even more so writing a long book - months or even years of focused effort - does seem like an excellent way to build potent track.

Gods of magic are also scribe gods, gods of writing. Another bit of wisdom from old myths.

I am starting to wonder if I should get systematic about writing, because I do scribble some thoughts and notes from time to time, but I didn't write anything longer since high school.

--changeling

[ecosophia]

I'm glad to hear that Kripal is still writing! I read some of his early things and thought highly of them.

Which gods?

[(Anonymous)]

I know Odin was both a god of writing and a god of magic; the runes *were* a tool for magic. Inanna was given both in when she won the *me* (pronounced "may?" from her grandfather, but then that packet included all the civilized arts, including those the Romans attributed to Minerva. I can't think of a tradition in the Greek or Roman religion made gave Hermes/Mercury a scribe, but they'd been literate a long, long time.

Thoth was the scribe god in Egypt, but I think magic belonged to Isis and Osiris. Of course, the Egyptian pantheon was as eclectic as the Hindu.

Pat, thinking, thinking.... would love more data on that!

[grandswamperman]

Definitely looking forward to seeing what's in the works for the CGD system. I see that Llewellyn has a new book of yours scheduled for a May release; is there any connection there?

[ecosophia]

I'll be making an announcement about that shortly. Yes, the new book works with the CGD system.

[kylec]

I bought the Coelbren book right away, made my wands, and had the same experience. It was a fun oracle, I got some good results, but ultimately it was too much to juggle it with my daily geomancy reading, and I wasn't versed in geomancy to the point that I felt comfortable setting that one aside. So the Coelbren is the one gathering dust.

But based on this, I might have to work in a few questions here and there and see if the relationship has changed. I always loved the notion that all the letters are movements. It felt very well-suited to describing the future.

Kyle

[ecosophia]

My suggestion is to focus on one oracle at a time, but switch from one to another every six months or a year or so. Once you're confident in your geomantic readings, consider putting some months into daily Coelbren readings. Eventually there will also be Tarot material that ties into the DOGD system -- in fact, a DOGD deck, if I can find an artist.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for sharing this, that is exciting! I can provide a data point: I purchased my copy of your book approximately a year ago & since then, I've done a daily divination with the Coelbren, and also with Druid Wands (as instructed by the CGD). The daily readings have been quite helpful many times. I'm still new to it &, like geomancy, the meanings of letters or figures are abstract. So, it can be hard to see how they'll come out in one's life when interpreting a reading in the morning. However by the end of each day, I can usually see clearly how the meaning did convey the most significant events of that day, i.e., there is no other combination of three other letters that would have better described what happened!

In tandem with the Druid Wands, my daily readings sometime include information about different events from each oracle. Sometimes though, both readings will be about the same thing! This can feel like triangulation, or like talking over the same situation with two, very different friends. I'm so glad to hear that this is a part of a group of people or community and its tracks in space, which increases these effects.

Good to hear from you & thanks again for this post,

Mateo

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear this! That's a very productive way of going about it.

Recently picked the book up

[davidtrammel]

I recently came across a copy of your book at a used books store. I haven't studied it but a brief look through it seemed interesting. I need to get back into the daily habit of a divination, though I'm more inclined to use a modified deck of tarot card and a supplemental set of animal spirit cards to do it by.

Violet's "Geomantic Tuesday" posts on her own Dreamwidth blog (which use Ogham I believe) has produced some interesting results for people, include one for me that helped clear up a difficult personal situation.

https://violetcabra.dreamwidth.org/

I like working with my hands and crafting things with intention, perhaps I'll make a set of the Coelbren sticks myself and try it for fit.

Coelbren

[(Anonymous)]

What a weird coincidence! I just picked up a copy of your Coelbren book on a whim last week. Sounds like now's the time to get into it.

Re: Coelbren

[ecosophia]

Speaking of tracks in space... ;-)

Geometry oracle and the math-track

[(Anonymous)]

I've been looking forward to your sacred geometry Oracle. Just pre-ordered a set. 😁

I remember you saying you got very clear results using sacred geometry as an oracle, would this 'tracks in space' phenomenon be part of the reason why? That mathematics has been used for a very long time to understand and make predictions about the world and using geometry as an oracle takes advantage of this very deep 'track'?

Re: Geometry oracle and the math-track

[ecosophia]

Very likely, yes, that's one of the reasons it works so well.

copyright infringement?

[(Anonymous)]

Speaking of the Coelbren, I saw a divination set on sale recently: https://www.magicaldruid.com/store/p155/Coelbren_Alphabet_%28Welsh_Oracle%29.html . I was waiting for the next Magic Monday to ask if it was kosher or not.

Re: copyright infringement?

[ecosophia]

It's completely kosher -- or whatever the Druidical equivalent of that might be. The Coelbren was invented by Iolo Morganwg at the end of the 18th century, so it's a couple of centuries out of copyright; the material in my book is based on a book published in the 1850s, likewise long out of copyright; and the shop did me the courtesy of citing my book in the blurb, which is pleasantly gracious.

More generally, I want to encourage people to make Coelbren sets for sale -- that's how the Coelbren is going to get back into common use, after all. If you or someone you know is making Coelbren sets for sale, let me know via a comment to this or another Dreamwidth post and I'll see if I can toss some publicity your way.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to have to buy a new copy of your book before long; the pages are falling out of mine from being turned back and forth so much! I don't entirely agree with your divination methods, so I'm working with my own, and the meaning of each tile still needs much meditation - but you've done a real service by re-introducing the Coelbren to the world. Diolch o galon!

Bogatyr

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it -- and especially that you've come up with your own divination methods. Divination is always essentially personal.

OT - the results of trying to conquer nature

[(Anonymous)]

Speaking of tracks in space ... long, long ago there was a classic science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, about what happened when a set of space colonists set out to conquer nature on their new homeworld. Our hero comes in where the resulting arms race has just about reached its climax. The name of the novel is Deathworld. IMO, it should be required reading right alone with Arthur C. Clarke's Superiority.

Except that the worst offenders have no such ideology driving them, but merely a shark's desire to gobble up everything in sight for a quick profit.