On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 01:02:40PM -0800, Greg Stafford wrote:
> I think you mean, "How does a worshipper get magic when he doing the
> draconic version of the myths?"
>
> The actual answer is, "One does not do draconic worship for magic. The
> development of your true soul is not to obtain power. The purpose is
> to obtain inner tranquility and peace."
>
> But efore I go too far in that vein, I'd want to know if I am even
> answering the right question.
Can I add a vote for "that's an interesting question, please go further (or indeed too far?) in that vein", whether or not it's precisely what David D. had in mind?
I note the apparent similarity between the comment here about the relationship between 'ordinary' and 'draconised' readings of Orlanthi mythology, and that in Revealed Mythology about the theistic and mystical readings of Vithelan mythology. On that basis, I'd suppose that the^H^H^H _an_ answer is that one performs the "draconised HQ" by _refraining_ from performing the theistic one, and instead meditating on its meaning. Or else, by performing a modified, but structurally similar one, in which one does some sort of renouncing-the-fruits-of-one's-acts bit when one "achieves the goal". Or, if one has already performed the 'ordinary' version, by applying this understanding to how to (not) use the powers gained.
However, given that the EWF evidently didn't just sit around on a rock going "om" for several centuries, I'd further suppose that some cult leaders acquire draconic powers, manifest them, and then start to teach them more directly: i.e., so that the students themselves start to manifest (at least superficially) draconic powers without first acheiving anything at all approaching mystical union with an ancestral dragon (much less the Cosmic one). At this point, it ceases to be a mystical practice as such, and probably also starts to vary more markedly from even structural similarities to the practices of those of the 'host' mythology, while retaining elements from it. They might be of a form that's magically compatible with theistic practice, without making the sort of narrative sense that theistic myths and rituals generally do. As to actual details of what one would specifically do to grow scales and claws, or to breathe fire, I dunno; doing those things in and of themselves seems pretty "Path of Immanent Mastery"-ish, whether by exactly the same means or not.
GGWV.
Cheers,
Alex.
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