Weekends and the Golden Dawn
It’s been a busy few days. On Thursday, after all day management training at
work, I went shooting with my friend, Tim, at the local gun range. He has a
Glock 19 and I’ve been considering picking one up. It’s a pretty solid 9mm. He
suggested that we go shoot his so I could get a feel for it. The net result is
that I realized that I really need to get a left-handed model (I’m left-handed)
or an ambidextrous pistol so R can shoot it easily as well. Shooting right
handed pistols always gets old quickly.
Yesterday, R and I had friends over for the continuing series of somatic
workings with the four elements that my friend, Richard, is teaching us on a
monthly basis. This was the final form of the Work of Earth, some discussion
about how it works (or doesn’t) and then some discussion of the Work of Air. I
jokingly referred to it as the Taoist Golden Dawn but I know that Richard’s
ideas flow from two key sources (followed by his own powers of insight):
- Close study of as much of the original Golden Dawn material as possible.
This followed by heavy working of the material. (He did quite a bit of this
when a lot of other material wasn’t available.) - Application of points of view and ideas derived from his close contact
with Taoism, Tai Chi, and Taoist practices in general over the last 20
years.
This isn’t to say that he’s modifying Golden Dawn practices to fit Taoist
patterns. Rather, from the perspective that he’s gained through both close study
and heavy work in a non-Western tradition, he’s noticed things that many people
either seem to miss, gloss over or find unimportant. I really wished I’d taped
the discussion that he had with us because, as always, it is a lot to take in.
We should be seeing him within a month or so to be introduced to the Work of
Water practice.
After this, R and I went to Thai Kitchen in Bellevue/Redmond (which she’d
never gone to before). This is one of the oldest of the local Thai restaurants
and is quite good. After this, we went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory. We both loved it. It was fun, endearing, and
occasionally a bit disturbing (looking at it as a children’s movie). We laughed
uncontrollably during the various songs (not to mention the squirrels!).
Today, I was supposed to get started on my paper but I wasn’t feeling
enthused so we watched the original Chinese version of Shaolin Soccer. R
hadn’t heard about this one and I didn’t know what to expect. It was very
amusing in a Chinese sort of way. I especially liked the spontaneous singing and
dancing amongst the citizens.
I’m currently still working my way through Dan Simmons’ Illium on the
fiction front. Beyond that, I am reading The Craft of Research to try to
figure out my thesis work. I’d be outside mowing and such but I think I’ll wait
until twilight to do it. It’s too damn hot.
