Jeff Russell

This has taken a bit longer to put together than I anticipated given the length of the book, as indicated by the title A Short History of Ethics, but I hope I've done it justice, and as usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The night before last I had a couple of dreams, and I'd like to ask anyone willing to help me figure out what I ought to be taking from them. I'll start with the dreams themselves, for anyone who likes to go in "cold," give a little background, and what I've taken away from them so far. If you have any thoughts on what else I might get from these, I'd very much appreciate that.

So, first, my friend, who started a software company and had it successfully acquired by a larger company, making him very wealthy, was dressed in an Army uniform, giving some kind of briefing to a group of soldiers. In that briefing, he made clear that I would be in charge, which was news to me. I was also in uniform, but off to the side, and I was sitting putting on my boots and wasn't sure if I had everything I needed in terms of gear and my uniform (specifically, I think I was missing my "cover," which is military-speak for "hat," and is a required part of your uniform when outside). Despite the mission being a surprise to me, I felt like I'd be able to handle it, once I got my boots on and got up to speed.

In another dream, or perhaps another part of the same dream, I was in a finished basement with a friend (maybe the same one, maybe not - it wasn't clear who he was except "a friend"). Even though we could mostly see what was around us, we were trying to turn on a light to see something. When we flipped, the switch, though, there was only one small, flickering light bulb, and whatever we were trying to illuminate was still unclear. We tried the switch a few times and looked around, and then I realized there was a whole grid of lights set into the ceiling, more than enough to light up whatever we were trying to see, but all but one were not working. Realizing the problem was the bulbs, I set to work figuring out how to change them, and that's the last thing I remember (not sure if I woke up or just moved onto another dream, as one does in dreams).

For background, I have for some time felt like I need to move toward making at least some of my money on my own, most likely from writing mainly, and very likely from writing about my esoteric/occult/spiritual interests. I've been held back from this both by the normal concerns and excuses we all use to avoid going after something challenging and uncertain, but also out of a worry of cheapening or commodifying what is sacred in my life by turning it into a way to make money - I have an MBA, I worked as a management consultant, and I teach business classes at university, so I'm painfully aware of the kinds of warping incentives money-making can introduce to even the most noble of intentions. Further, as for the Army stuff, since I used to be in the Army, but it's been a long time now, "Army Dreams" for me often have the same kind of flavor as "school dreams" have for many people (and sometimes I get lucky and the two somehow combine) - being in a context that was once familiar, but demanding, and feeling keenly aware that I thought I had left it behind for good and no longer feeling up to performing in that context.

Okay, so onto my first stab at interpretation. My entrepreneurial friend seems to indicate this has something to do with my own thought-about entrepreneurial endeavors. Him and the other soldiers being in the Army seems to indicate I see that work as hard, and something I'm not necessarily ready for. Needing to get my boots on and gear sorted seems to stand for a feeling that I'm still "getting ready" for that work, but time may be pressing. The fact that I met this with resignation/determination in the dream, rather than helpless dread, would seem to say that I feel like I can handle this challenge, it just might be hard and take some preparation.

I feel like the light dream is linked to all of this, but I'm less confident of that. One of the things I've been struggling with is "okay, I've read about a bunch of tools for making money as a writer/creative, but what do I actually do? What do I write? What format? Books? A newsletter? What?" and this bit seems to reflect that. The fact that whatever it is is right there, just inadequately seen, and that it could be seen if I just fixed what is meant to "cast light" on it implies that what I should do is obvious, or at least would be, if I could fix my way of looking at it/thinking about it.

So, that brings me back to my ask: what do you see in all this? Does my tentative interpretation make sense? Does anything jump out as obvious that I haven't mentioned? Bonus points if you're like "obviously, you should just do X" in concrete terms for making money, but I know that's a stretch. As I said, I'd be most thankful for any help you're willing to offer.

Cheers,
Jeff

Howdy,

I don't actually expect many folks to have much to ask me, but an anonymous commenter over on JMG's Magic Monday asked me a question and I didn't see it until the deadline for it to close, so I figured I'd put up a post for him or her to post the question here, if interested, and while I was at it, I figured I'd open the floor to anyone who might have follow-ups on earlier blog posts, would like to know more about me, or whatever else.

If it helps to spark any questions, obviously most of the time on here I write about Heathenry and occultism, in my day job I teach business communication (so, mostly public speaking, some writing, and a grab bag of other topics like listening, difficult conversations, running meetings, and that kind of thing), and I have an interested layman's knowledge of military history, ancient history, historical linguistics (mostly Indo-European), roleplaying games (especially older flavors of D&D, but I went through a phase with post-Forge indie/story games), and various other geeky topics. I'm also a dad, a veteran, and a former management consultant.

So, with that, ask away. I'll keep this open until 11:59 pm central time January 21st.

Cheers,
Jeff

This offering is now closed for new questions, but if you have something pressing before I offer another, reach out by DM here on dreamwidth or through my email (linked at my webstead: https://jpowellrussell.com). Those of you who have already asked and not yet gotten an answer, I'm on it and will have those shared in the next couple of days. Otherwise, see you next time!

It's been a while since I've done this, so I figured I'd offer to do a divination reading on whatever questions you think I might be able to help with from now (Sunday, December 22nd) through the end of the year. Just post your question here or send me a dreamwidth message or an email if it's private. Just one question per person, please, but follow-ups should be fine, unless I get way more folks asking than I expect.

A few things on how I tend to approach this, though we can make adjustments on a case-by-case basis, if needed:

1) The two divination systems I'm comfortable with are the Runes and the Ogham. If you have a preference, let me know, but generally speaking, I prefer the Ogham for more magical/spiritual/psychological questions (unless they're specifically Heathen), and the Runes for most practical stuff or anything directly involving the Germanic Gods and Their worship. Not that they can't both answer a full range of questions, I just tend to find them easier to interpret that way in those situations.

2) For most questions, I find some variation of a three card/stave spread in the shape of (roughly) "Past/Present/Future" or "Situation/Action/Outcome" to be most helpful. Sometimes specific questions might call for something a bit different, but when in doubt, that's what I'll go with.

3) As a slight addition to the above, when cards or Runestaves draw attention to themselves in ways I didn't intend (popping out of the deck while shuffling, two cards drawn when I meant to get one, one of the lots bouncing out of the tray I drop them in, that kind of thing), I tend to interpret that as "you need this extra information, pay attention."

4) I'll do my best to convey both the specific cards/staves I got in what positions, and what their "generic" meanings are (at least to me), but then also to synthesize everything into a whole picture. This last bit is largely intuitive, and often is more precise at the risk of being less accurate (example of what I mean: "it will rain tomorrow" is less precise than "it will rain between noon and 1:00 pm tomorrow," but if it rains at 5:00 pm, the former was more accurate because it was less precise), which is why I give the choppier/less synthesized pieces as well as how I think they fit together.

5) I'll be doing family stuff for the holidays, including a bit of travel, so please allow at least 24 hours for me to respond with an estimate on when I'll answer your question. I anticipate being able to do the reading for most within 24-48 hours of posting, but again, if way more folks take me up on this than I expect, that might change.

At any rate, ask away, and a blessed (late) Solstice, merry (early) Christmas, and happy (early) New Year!

Jeff

This week, a fairly quick rundown of my thoughts on Devotional Polytheism by Galina Krasskova.

As always, let me know what you think!

This week I've written up my thoughts on Pierre Pradervand's The Gentle Art of Blessing. If you're already familiar with the Modern Order of Essenes blessing work, you might not find a ton new here, but if not, this is a pretty ready practice that can be added onto just about any religious approach without too much trouble.

Another fairly short write-up of a book I read of late, this time The Sunlilies by Graham Pardun. Though this book is written from very much within the Eastern Orthodox worldview, I found it to have a number of useful spiritual insights for those of us outside of that, but your mileage may, of course, vary.

Besides the post, I also have a request: I would very much appreciate it if you enjoy my writing if you either a) subscribe to my DIY mailing list, or b) let me know in a comment whatever reasons you'd prefer not to.

While I am mainly writing as a way to gather and sharpen my thoughts, it's nice to have some idea of whether what I'm writing is worthwhile to folks. Email subscriptions tend to be a pretty strong indicator of genuine interest, and should writing ever turn into a part of how I earn my keep, email lists are very helpful (promoting new books, soliciting more direct feedback, and so forth).

So, I'm starting to feel my way around that whole process, but refusing to do it the easy way and just creating a substack. Not that I'm going to start selling anything any time soon, and if I ever do, I will give everyone on the list a chance to get out of Dodge before the shilling commences, and after that, I will do my very best to make it occasional and non-annoying.

Oh, and btw, if you are not interested in subscribing, I will in no way be offended, but I would be just as glad to hear your reasons, as that also helps me understand the landscape I'm dealing with.

For the past week or so, I've been giving it a go saying the Heathen Rosary in its almost-done shape, and I thought I'd share how to do that in case anyone else wants to give it a go.

If you do try it out, kindly let me know how it goes, as so far, I've been feeling this one out with little but prayer and divination to guide me, so hearing if it's helpful for others would be very big indeed.

This week, my thoughts on a short, but very well done book. If you read much of what I write, you'll likely like this one rather well.

I just wrapped up Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy and decided to organize my thinking a bit with a post. As always, I'd love to hear what you think.