I hope everyone at Dragonmount celebrated the holidays and welcomed in the New Year with hopes and dreams. Nevermind resolutions!

Many of us have holidays that are rooted in religious traditions. I found something I thought quite interesting about Robert Jordan. This comes from an overview written by our own Jason Denzel about his time spent with Mr. Jordan during the San Diego ComiCon in 2004.

Jason Denzel:

One unique subject discussed over dinner was the metaphysical basis for the underlying spiritual topography of the Wheel of Time. Specifically, one member of the dinner party asked Robert Jordan whether he had intentionally woven core elements of the world's various spiritual/mystical traditions into his work, or whether those ideas were in fact manifesting THROUGH him as pure art.

 

Robert Jordan:

His answer was a description of his bookshelf at home, which begins at the left side with the Christian Bible, continues into more Judeo-Christian texts, then picks up with the Quran, with books on Hinduism (I got the sense he was referring to the Bhagavad-Gita, but would need to check with him to be sure), Buddhist texts, and then what he called various "discourses" on world religion and spiritual philosophy.

 

Jason Denzel:

In short—Robert Jordan is a student of world religion, which explains much of the religious diversity of his work, not just in terms of the many cultures of his world but in terms of the underlying metaphysical structure of his universe.

Members have been busy at Dragonmount's Social Groups engaging in a multitude of activities.

The White Tower and Warders have been occupied with the White Ajah's Wheel of Time Winter's Carnival! The Warders are discussing New Year's resolutions and playing games. Plus there was a raising! The Kin are critiquing movies and discussing our weekends.

The Ogier are busy adding to their "Memory Tree."

The Wolfkin are having "Healer's" discussions and games.

The Band of the Red Hand has discussed "Christmas Markets" throughout the world and have put up their "Matrims Nominations for 2017."

The Black Tower has hosted a discussion on 2016 and "Goals."

The Aiel had both light-hearted and serious activities: "The Book Game, Weird Cultural Oddities, and Prison Systems."

Wishing a prosperous and busy New Year for Dragonmount and all of its members.