Toward Ecosophy

I'm delighted to announce that another version of the Sacred Geometry Oracle, my 33-card divination deck, is now available for sale. It's the creation of longtime reader Frank Hartman, who (as you can see from the photo) is a dab hand at graphic design; it's the same geometric patterns in the same order as in the "official" deck, and it appears with my enthusiastic approval and that of the publisher of the original deck.

There's a bit of a backstory here. Frank contacted me a while ago, asking a little tentatively if I minded that he'd made his own version of the deck. I let him know that I was thrilled that he'd put that kind of work into the system, and after looking at the images, asked him if he'd considered making it available for sale. A little genial three-way negotiation involving me, Frank, and the publisher settled the details, and it's now available from GameCrafters, an online print-on-demand firm that does card decks and games.

So there you have it! The new deck can be used for all the same purposes as the old one, and is entirely suitable for the work of the Golden Section Fellowship.  If you're interested, you can order a copy here.

In the late 1990s -- how long ago that seems now! -- I first had the idea of creating an oracle deck based on the core concepts and relationships of sacred geometry. I'd discovered the tradition of sacred geometry earlier in that same decade, first in books on Renaissance occultism and then in the pages of Robert Lawlor's fine book Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice, which I found in the Seattle Public Library by what we like to call pure chance.  I'd incorporated it in my studies and meditations, learned to pay close attention to its roles in the Golden Dawn tradition and in Druidry, and finally let all that crystallize out into a set of 33 images and concepts that could be used for divination, meditation, and other modes of practce. As I worked with them, I ended up sketching out a detailed course of occult study based on them, and when I took the project to the publisher I worked with in those days, I was prepared to make the Sacred Geometry Oracle the first in a sequence of books setting out a complete curriculum of occultism. 

Then, as the ten-year-old wrote on the history test, some other stuff happened. The publisher had a brain fart and decided that the deck ought to be done in a postmodern style full of corroded metal, crumbling concrete, and vaguely radioactive backgrounds, yielding cards I still can't look at without feeling nauseated. When I tried to point out that the deck would find its largest market among Druids, earth-mysteries students, and the like, who wouldn't find that art congenial, I was told "Shut up, we know what we're doing." So it appeared and sank without a trace, and I shelved the whole project until the last few copies gathering dust in the publisher's warehouse got remaindered and I was able to pick things up again. 

This time I had better luck, or a less clueless publisher.  The Sacred Geometry Oracle is now being shipped, though given current conditions, it probably won't reach purchasers until after the upcoming solstice. The first book of the system of occult training that accompanies it, The Way of the Golden Section: A Manual of Occult Training, is also being shipped now, and I've already heard from people who've received their copies. So the project is under way at las. 

Readers of my other books will want to know that this system is not primarily a system of magic -- to draw on a distinction I'm finding very useful just now, occultism works with wisdom the way magic works with power and mysticism with love. (In terms borrowed from Hindu spirituality, these are jnana yoga, raja yoga, and bhakti yoga respectively.) It uses the Sphere of Protection as a basic ritual practice and has a ritual for opening and closing your personal lodge, but its main focus is meditation and study, backed up with ritual, divination, and a range of other standard occult exercises, and building up to a ritual of self-initiation. You'll need a copy of The Sacred Geometry Oracle to follow the system given in The Way of the Golden Section. 

There will be other books in the same system -- quite a few of them, in fact. One, The Occult Philosophy Workbook, is already in production and will be released next year; it's a one-year course of study, meditation, and practice in occult philosophy. Another, The Way of the Four Elements, is being written now; it's a sequel to The Way of the Golden Section, providing a set of further initiatory experiences linked with the four seasons and the four elements. There will be one further volume of training -- the working title is The Way of the Sacred Cord -- and at least two more workbooks, one on astrology and one on sacred geometry. When it's finished, anyone who wants to do so can get the close equivalent of the kind of occult training you got a century ago from old-fashioned occult correspondence schools, just by picking up copies of the books and doing the work. 

Oh, and everything in these books is compatible with the material in my books The Druid Magic Handbook and The Dolmen Arch, in case that's of interest. The Way of the Four Elements, The Way of the Sacred Cord, and the workbooks will also be compatible with a very wide range of other occult systems -- so long as a system contains a basic ritual working and some form of divination, and can make room for discursive meditation, they'll play well together. 

So, yes, I'm delighted and relieved to see these books finally in print. Ask me anything you like about them, and I'll probably chatter on at more length than you really wanted to hear. If you're in the United States, you can get them via my Bookshop page here; elsewhere, you can find them here and here on the publisher's website.