Comments for Dreaming the Future Closer

Comment on Divining as Tuning by Ian

Ian — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:31:25 +0000

I don’t really use reversals (though maybe I should start–there are some interesting possibilities there), but the first thing that comes to my mind (so take with the appropriate grain of salt, this ain’t gospel, and all that rot):

The Deluge is about the loss of the material trappings but the survival of the spirit. Reversed, it suggests clinging to the material trappings, possibly at the expense of spirit. It feels a little like “the spirit has moved on, but you still cling to the body.”

As an object of contemplaton, it seems to be asking, “where is the spirit now?”

Comment on Divining as Tuning by Oli

Oli — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:02:39 +0000

Okay, well dig this: I just pulled a card about how I should proceed with this grad school shit, and I got Deluge, reversed. I’m still not intimate enough with the deck to really get what that might mean right now, but I’m curious to see what soaks in.

Comment on Divining as Tuning by Ian

Ian — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:34:32 +0000

I’m willing to say, too, that the devotional element enhances the predictive, making it easier to transform the reading from the merely predictive to the prescriptive, from description to diagnosis, if you will. Which, I think, is a lot of what goes on with questions like “what energies should I be accessing now.”

I quite like Glassman’s deck–it was my first ‘real’ tarot deck and has remained a real touchstone for a lot of divination.

Comment on Divining as Tuning by Oli

Oli — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:20:09 +0000

these days my divination question is likely to be,
What energies should I be accessing now?

I’ve been working my way though the Faery oracle, placing a card on my altar and taking a day or two to soak in some of its meaning before going on to the next. also, concurrently, I’ve been working with Glassman’s Vodou deck— primarily by blessing the deck, sitting with it, asking questions like the above. I do still think divination can be used to extend our vision of what’s going to happen if things stay their course, but it’s funny that we’ve both been on this more (?) devotional use lately.

Comment on Burning Bush Redux by Oli

Oli — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:59:22 +0000

Neither make them something to be sought at all costs nor something to be avoided and feared. Let wisdom, practice, and the reverie of mystery coexist and feed each other without excessive, overthought, interference.

___Yes___.
And oh, I’ve been wanting to read Kearney’s book! You know he teaches at UCD, where I studied abroad a couple years ago? Unfortunately, didn’t get to check out any of his classes…

Comment on Prayer, Ritual, Magick by Oli

Oli — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:29:08 +0000

Yes. In fact, so much of my work these days has been leading me to crash up against the limitations of my little ego self (what Jay Michaelson calls “yetzer hara,” in an interesting interpretation of the term– “evil inclination” as the small-mindedness that takes the ego/Talker/personality as the self) in an attempt to be in better alignment. I wish you’d posted this article in yr livejournal so I could put it in my “memories” section!

Comment on Prayer, Ritual, Magick by Ian

Ian — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:02:24 +0000

I think we’re pretty much on the same page about this. My biggest thing is just that the Will/Godself/Ori/etc. isn’t usually identical with the daily sense of self we walk around with, so there are a lot of ways in which aligning ourselves with our Will/Godself/Ori is very much akin to aligning ourselves with the divine in the form of Freya/Star Goddess/Yemaya.

We begin by shifting our attention away from what we want (little self, ego) toward the ways we can invite the intervention of our higher Self and nurture them. I think so long as we aren’t entirely off-center spiritually, most of those things are actually going to match up with things our little self wants, although perhaps in a slightly different form. It’s, as you say, a shift in how we appreciate them.

Comment on Prayer, Ritual, Magick by Oli

Oli — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:12:14 +0000

Uck, I love this article.
At least in Feri, this question of Will is, as you hinted at above, linked to the question of aligning your will with the divine. This ‘higher will’ is what we refer to as “the work of this god,” the work or Will of our Godself. (Interestingly, some branches of Feri call the Godsoul “Ori.”) Soo, I think that in this sense aligning and sharpening your will is a crucial part of devotional work. Finding your self both human and divine, finding your work, and also realizing that it’s okay to do magick for mundane things that help you *enjoy this blessed, embodied existence.

At the same time, I get what you’re saying about ‘asking for things.’ And I think you hit the nail on the head about “[using] that blessing to deepen our connection with the divinity granting it.” On a really simple level, cultivating gratitude and an awareness of where yr blessings are coming from is a part of that work.

Comment on Types of Religious Engagement by Lasting Pagan Communities | Hawk's Cry

Lasting Pagan Communities | Hawk's Cry — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:58:36 +0000

[...] from Dreaming the Future Closer, wrote a thought-provoking article on different types of religious engagement. He proposed that there are three kinds of approaches to religion that people can have, the [...]

Comment on CSI, murder mystery, life by Ian

Ian — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:05:16 +0000

I think that’s pretty much spot on. CSI: NY has inherited the attitude that began CSI (this is Vegas, all kinds of things happen here) and given it expression in a distinctly NY variation. CSI (original) hasn’t been able to sustain that so well.