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Hi I came across this book in a catalog over the weekend but can’t make up my mind if it’s directly relevant for questing or not. Does anyone know anything about it? Thanks.
No – not read it but does look fascinating.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Just bought it online, so I’ll post a review in due course!
OK Simon, it arrived and I’ve just read a chunk, so here goes…
I’d say yes, The Art of Conversation with the Genius Loci by Barry Patterson is directly relevant to psychic questing. While this book has a pagan ecospiritual approach, you don’t have to be a shaman to benefit from its words of wisdom, although you might become one! As books on the ‘how to’ of psychic questing in general are few, this is a valuable sourcebook in my opinion.
Within the first few paragraphs of the introduction, the author suggests that the art of ‘finding one’s place in the natural world’ is about being yourself, being open and having patience. That is, not necessarily having the sense of being on some kind of quest, but still having the sense of being connected with the source, so that knowledge, power or inspiration might be granted.
We lose the magic of the moment when our minds step in to seek meanings according to our preconceptions ‘as if the whole world was a cipher and we had to crack the code’. Much psychic questing is about having an agenda, an active, rather than passive role, but there’s a lesson right there for all psychic questers I feel.
Barry has written a very personal book with an eco-spiritual message that I fully endorse, and as he’s an environmental educator in the West Midlands, as was I once, I know where he’s coming from.
Simon, as we’re in the same county, I’ll let you borrow it when I’m done reading.
Perceval
Just a small response as to ‘why’ people go Questing… of course, there are probably as many motives as there are individual characters but I am reminded of the old Taoist saying,
“If you find a job that you enjoy, then you’ll never have to work again in your life!”
Really we are just talking vocation.
I, for instance, have a talent for artwork, and this is how I work to earn money. But, if money was no object and I didnt need any, then I would be questing all the time… by that, I simply mean, that I love and enjoy investigating and discovering new things and solving mysteries…
Its the same with Andrew Collins, its not that he is seeking some specific enlightenment, its just that he loves the game itself and wouldnt be capable of sitting down, being quiet , watching t.v. doing ‘normal’ things and never questing again.
We are what we are.
In my expereience, good questers dont have an ‘ego trip’ about what they are doing; they are simply doing what their vocation or calling, destined them to do… because it involves ‘other-realms’ doesnt neccessarily equate that it is spiritually profound… I know a few who are struggling to resolve their spiritual landscape even though they have done many quests; its really just another realm of human investigation… ‘inner space’ as opposed to ‘outer space’… Astronauts dont need to be spiritually profound, they just need to be good at their job, their calling; its the same for questers/researchers etc. reminds me of another Taoist saying,
“Before I became enlightened I used to chop wood and carry water. After I became enlightened, I chopped wood and carried water.”
Hi Perceval,
Thanks for the book review – it does sound relevant. I’d be very interested in reading it when you’re finished but I have a mountain of books that I’m supposed to be reading so there’s absolutely no rush.
Your mention of the “how to of questing” also made me realise that there is a major stream of discussion missing here on exactly that. So I’ve created a new forum called “Psychic questing: How to”. This is where novice questers can ask “How do I?” type questions and where (hopefully!) more experienced questers will proactively post their tips and tried and trusted techniques.
If we get a bit of critical mass behind this, I could even roll this up into an online guide of some kind.
Now I am fully aware that there are few fixed rules or laws in questing and that a large percentage of what goes on is improvised depending on circumstance. Having said that, I do believe that there is some merit to describing certain techniques that are used often (from meditations, protection rituals, communing with site guardians to mundane research tips) – and I’m hoping that people will contribute what works for them into this new forum.
Let me know what anyone thinks of this idea.
Hi Simon,
I feel that more ‘general interest’ topics would be of value in terms of helping the forums to reach critical mass – specific research questions (I have quite a few of these too) being naturally only of interest to minorities of members (but the bigger and wider the membership base, the more likely such questions will generate answers).
I’m not above using a little subtle mischief to get things moving if necessary (thanks for taking the bait Yuri, but where are those lurkers?).
I’ll be sure to contribute to the ‘how to’ forum. I have a lot to learn, so there’ll be plenty of questions, but for what it’s worth, I’m happy to offer people the benefit of my own experience.
I’m an experienced quester of sorts – as far as I am aware, my psychic talent doesn’t amount to much more than being an open-minded (willing) victim of an outrageous sustained sequence of symbolic synchronicities, leading to some controversial findings, a few loose ends, and some seemingly forgotten sites (more on that later).
Having completed ‘phase one’ of the quest some time ago, before career and family commitments intervened, I now feel there could be value in taking things to the next level, so to speak, to see if my findings can be corroborated by other, more deliberately psychic means (working with the genius loci, dowsing etc.).
Guess this last bit should have gone in the ‘introductions’ forum, but I’m not good with categories!
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