Dave's Step 19:4
My original story at Adept Step 4 was centered around the Fey World card. This card depicted a giant snail sailing through space carrying a small world on its back. The small world was a walled village and open area, or a castle with grass and a hill within its walls. A huge dragon was sitting upon one of the towers.
Upon reflection, at this time, it seems that any sanctuary or environment one has is a combination of A) self-confinement, B) an opportunity to move to a different place as you outgrow your "place in the world", and C) the realization that you can/will be challenged/threatened in you chosen place --- in this case by the resident dragon.
My, how my perspective has changed in this long two-year exploration of the Tarot.
In the picture I drew as part of step 16, I conveyed my perceptions of the Hermit. The Fey Hermit is unlike the Waite/Smith Hermit (who has gone into a high place and holds a light for others to come to) and is instead using his light to explore his own environment (knowing that he has many paths and many doors in which to exit from his environment).
There is quite a significant linkage between the World card and Hermit card. In the former card, one has no choice but to live with what is evident. In the latter card, one can explore and cease exploration at will. This is a big improvement in my mind. It symbolically represents putting aside the feeling that one is being carried along by what one has chosen to evolving into the situation of having choices that will lead to new life situations.
So, now to answer the given questions:
1) My work on my astrological book about the prediction process was my whole world for about two years ---- to some degree, anyways. It shaped my schedule and focus. Since I wrote and researched it from my own Den (a room in my house that is tailored to suit my personality and interests, and is not shared by anyone else), the book was a sanctuary that carried me along.
2) The ultimate boon, as Mary asks, is that I've consolidated and clarified my thoughts and practices and passed my own self-testing.
3) What kind of path is shown or implied? The next issue is to publish and market it. I'm not aggressive in that I have to tour and lecture relative to the book as a means of proving I'm right or that my methods are the best for many others. The book is more of a statement that astrology needs to stick to its proven basics, that it can be simple and still be amazingly effective. If others want to follow, that is their choice.
4) The Hermit, my last chosen focus card, relates to the Journey, Spiral, Path archetype as listed by Mary Greer. I felt that my years of study and practice of astrology, especially since I had developed such a well-founded approach to prediction, had to be shared. This is part of a legacy, just as is the family I have helped raise, the work and products I have helped to develop, the help given and received to/from others, the friendships and lessons of life, all that constitues a varied and full life. All of those things were shared and now my personal study of astrology can also be shared.
Dave