Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight as I write this, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Let's start things out with a quote again: 

 

"The balance of natural force is not lightly to be overset.  It is essential to the safety of the magician that he should conduct his operations in accordance with cosmic law; therefore he must understand the spiritual principle involved in every problem and work it out accordingly." 

 

That's from Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah, her most influential book, and one of the books of hers that did an enormous amount to shape my understanding of magic and the occult.   

Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. (Any question received after then will not get an answer, and will likely just be deleted.) If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

 

I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use the button below to access my online tip jar. If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com!  

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I have a crippling internet/computer addiction. It’s been a problem for ages, but has grown a great deal worse since March, with everything I used to use to keep it in check being removed, or worse, forced online. I’ve decided I really need to address it, so I spent a few months journaling on the issue, and found my internet use was a wall.

Simply put, my subconscious refused to discuss the root cause, preferring instead to redirect my attention elsewhere; and it kept getting very angry and defensive when I pointed out that I wasn’t doing whatever it was trying to say I needed to do before I could talk about internet use because I was spending basically all of my time online. Even just getting offline for long enough to do my journaling sessions was incredibly difficult.

I came to suspect I’m dealing with a very nasty astral parasite, and so on Tuesday I picked up my copy of LRM, flipped to the directions of the LBRP, and did the ritual. I repeated it Wednesday morning and when I journaled right after found that my subconscious wanted to address the problem of my internet use, for the first time. This lasted for about ten minutes, and then my internet obsession reestablished itself. It was fascinating seeing the rather sudden shift in my journaling, and although it hasn’t always happened while journaling, this pattern has repeated every morning since: a few minutes of clarity, and then my internet addiction reestablishes itself. It’s still here, but it’s a great deal weaker than it was when I started.

I also had the pattern you noted would occur with a crisis when someone starts banishing: every time I went online for anything, even if it was to do my job, I would get hit with horribly intrusive thoughts about how it was “clear banishing was doing nothing” and I needed to refocus on directly combating my internet use. The really weird thing is I know it’s working: I can feel the LBRP doing something.

Finally, on a mundane level I’m working to adjust my life to make having a computer unnecessary so I can get rid of it, since it’s clearly toxic for me, but this will take some time, especially given current circumstances; but easier to attain is the point where I can put it in a closet for a day or so. I’m already there; or I would be if I had the willpower to keep it there for more than a few hours. (Which is a massive improvement over where I was when I started banishing!)

1) I’ve had internet problems my entire life. I’ve lived with internet access quite literally since I was born, and have always found it far too enticing, and as I’m assessing my life, I’d say calling it addictive is fair. Is it possible I’ve had this astral parasite my entire life? How often does that sort of thing happen?

2) The other weird thing is that I’ve felt rather depressed and anxious about the current virus panic. I found it disturbing that so many people would lose their minds over it; and that so many of the things I did to keep grounded and stable are on indefinite hiatus. These emotions are still present after banishing, but vastly more manageable. You’ve mentioned a lot of people find that magic helps them deal with depression: do you think this might be because there’s a connection between astral parasites and depression?

3) I’m assuming the LBRP is going to be harder for me to perform, as well as harder on my subtle bodies, since I dove right in and skipped spending two weeks with the Qabalistic Cross; but is it normal for people who dive right in to find that it makes their hearts race and leaves them slightly out of breath? Oddly, this didn’t start right away, but it has occurred the last three times.

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, you could have picked it up quite early, and I have no hard evidence about how common that condition is these days but I suspect it's fairly widespread.

2) Astral parasites are one possibility. Keep in mind, though, that regular banishing also cleans up your astral environment generally, and produces a less grubby state of mind that way.

3) That's ordinary fear. It'll peak as you dig down into the emotional knots that keep your addiction in place, and then fade away.

One other thing. When you've been doing the LBRP for a few months, add in the Middle Pillar exercise; when you've done those two together for a few more months, consider learning other magical rituals. Each working you do makes life more difficult for noxious entities and adds to your strength.

Spagyrics

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Many thanks for these continued opportunities to run questions by you. I have a few regarding spagyrics:

1. I recently started working with Stavish’s The Path of Alchemy. He says that spagyrics can be shared with others but doesn’t directly mention children. I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old and would like to share the seven daily tinctures (I wouldn’t give them any more-advanced preparations) with my family to improve everyone’s general well-being. Is this typically safe to do so for children in low doses?

2. I noticed the plastic wrap between the lid and jar of one of my tinctures ripped, potentially exposing it to the metal of the lid. Is this a big deal or am I safe to continue with its creation?

3. While searching through previous Magic Mondays I found that you laid out a 10-year curriculum centered around the AODA system (9/30/19). In it, you suggested to begin working with spagyrics *after* going through DMH and then the Dolmen Arch, but not before doing so. While I’m interested in advancing in both magic and alchemy, I think alchemy takes a priority for me right now. So, is this advice specific to the AODA path, or do you generally advise against practicing alchemy until after obtaining magical competency?

Many thanks,
-Colter

Re: Spagyrics

[ecosophia]

1) Frater Albertus mentions somewhere giving a spagyric magistery of chamomile to an infant with bad colic; the results were excellent. Ordinary spagyric tinctures are perfectly safe for children.

2) Replace the plastic wrap -- yes, that means you have to open the jar for a bit. It won't harm anything.

3) If alchemy takes priority, then restructure the practices accordingly. The curriculum I outlined was specific to the AODA system.

[andrewskeen]

Good evening JMG,

I have a Picatrix question, if you would be so kind: when bk3 ch1 describes Mercurial stones as "all stones shaped and inscribed" and minerals as "all stones that are raised up and used in noble works", this to me screams "marble"; do you agree with that assessment, or am I way off?

Speaking of Picatrix, which two or three books (if any) would you recommend to read alongside Picatrix to better understand it in context? My deepest appreciation for Magic Monday, it really is a high point of every week, and I glean a ton of helpful information from it every time.

Best,
Andrew

[ecosophia]

1) Only if the marble has been shaped and inscribed, or if it has been raised up and used in a noble work. The rules are quite precise; if it hasn't had one of these things done to it, it doesn't qualify. (Substance alone is not enough.)

2) How's your background in traditional astrology? If it's at all weak, William Lilly's Christian Astrology should be your constant companion. Chris Warnock's Secrets of Planetary Magic is a good introduction to Picatrix-style magic. Finally, I'd recommend the scholarly books of Frances Yates, especially Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, to give you a sense of the broader context of the work.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, this is for both you and Sven, but is there a Heathen GD temple opening out yet or should one use the polytheist one you posted?

[ecosophia]

The polytheist one can be used for that, for the time being.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer,

I have three questions I was hoping you might assist with:

1. I'm currently reading "The Art And Practice of Geomancy". Relating to page 72, I was wondering if there are any guidelines for how yes/no, even/odd randomness maps to being manifest or latent? Or is this something that is chosen by the person casting the chart?

2. Are you aware of any occult writings or guidelines on how certain foods relate to certain mind states and anxiety?

3. On your post "Things Get Seriously Weird..." a commenter mentioned how difficult it is to tell the difference between a demon and a god. Is this a big risk for someone who is praying to a newfound god and how can one avoid praying to the wrong entity?

[ecosophia]

1) "Manifest" is signaled by one point, "latent" by two. These are purely technical matters dealing with the presence or latency of each of the elements, and do not factor into the answers to questions.

2) Not since the late Renaissance, unfortunately.

3) This is one of the reasons why it's helpful to practice a daily banishing ritual. That will help keep your state of consciousness at a level that keeps you safe from malign spirits. Daily meditation also helps with this.

[(Anonymous)]

I’ve started doing some Qabalistic magic, and while I’m not yet up to the point where I can use magic to affect things on a large scale, I’m getting there, and so I’m starting to think through what I want to use it for. Since I’m another resident of Ottawa who’s sensing our city will have a tough time in the near future (there seem to be at least three of us, which I find a tad concerning), one of the major things I’m looking at is using magic to try to reduce the risks we’ll face. Some of it is unavoidable; but there are lots of things that depend on finer details which can be changed.

For a number of reasons, I suspect incompetent municipal politicians will play a role here, and this has gotten me thinking about municipal reform. This is a broad, amorphous enough concept that I don’t think my goal should be just municipal reform: it’s not focused enough, and it leaves too much to chance. Instead, I think I need to focus on one aspect of that broader task.

There are a number of ways that I think Ottawa’s municipal government could be improved, but one of the biggest ones is by breaking it up. Until 2001 the current boundaries of the city were a county; and trying to run a county as a city is a recipe for disaster. Thus, I think one of the biggest ways to improve government for us is to de-amalgamate the city and the rural areas around it. This is a nice, crisp, clearly defined goal, and so I think it could work for a target.

I don’t necessarily want to push for de-amalgamation in general, since other cities in Ontario probably ought to have been amalgamated when the government pushed through these reforms twenty years ago (ex: Toronto); and I’m also going to want to be careful about exactly what the target is for Ottawa, since the municipal borders before amalgamation were not ideal, and so it seems like reviving them would be counterproductive at best.

This leaves me with an avenue to explore, although exactly what the target ought to be is still something I need to spend a great deal of careful time considering, since the potential for causing other issues is something I need to keep in mind. I’ll of course do extensive divination on the topic before doing any rituals.

The exact goal to have is crucial for the occult aspect of it, but at this point I can ground my future workings by starting the process of getting people talking and hopefully interested in the idea of de-amalgamation: in other words, since my target is political change, the first steps need to be political action. I therefore ought to try to find groups pushing for de-amalgamation, and if they don’t exist, start them; start pestering the province, and start laying the ground work to make this into an issue for future municipal elections.

Does this sort of thinking seem reasonable/likely to get good results to you?

[ecosophia]

Oog. Political magic is far and away the most difficult and dangerous branch of magic I know of, and when one person tries to do it to shape the behavior of thousands of other people, major issues of scale also come into play. You might want to pick up a copy of Dion Fortune's book The Magical Battle of Britain and study it very carefully before going forward.

Positive thoughts

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Various occult sources I have read mention the importance of maintaining positive thoughts and a positive mindset. I find this particularly difficult and was wondering if you could recommend any sources or techniques that provide guidance on cultivating a more positive outlook?

Re: Positive thoughts

[ecosophia]

Sure. I'd encourage you to do journaling, as discussed in the Magic Monday FAQ, to get to the roots of the difficulty, and then consider using an affirmation to replace negative self-talk and help you change your attitude.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a friend who takes reishi mushroom spagyrics daily, apparently its a thing. I told her it was dangerous and she would like to know more. Where should I direct her to learn more? What are the dangers and how do we know about them?

[ecosophia]

The prohibition on fungal spagyrics is found in a variety of alchemical texts, notably Jean Dubuis' alchemical lessons. The danger is that fungi concentrate what we can call, for short, "death energies" and using fungal spagyrics risks shortening one's life considerably. We know about them because people have died.

Priapus and earth meditation

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
You mentioned that the Lord Priapus might like to receive sex as an offering so we tried it. Normally, our statue of Priapus lives in a little temple or grotto in the strawberry garden but for the magic sex rituals, we carry him to our flower garden by the house which is much more secluded. We live in the country and the garden backs onto a forest so it is very private.

This is not a magic to do lightly as I am driven to exhaustion trying to get all the garden produce harvested and canned, dried, fermented and frozen. Our crops are doing wonderfully including the persimmon tree in my polytunnel. We live in Canada so the sheer amount of persimmons, peppers and melons are startling. To say nothing of the cucumber harvest. So I recommend this to all gardeners and farmers out there.

To recover from the harvest exertions, I have been performing the OBOD meditation of laying on the earth and bringing green earth light through my palms into my body and exhaling black fatigue into the ground. I have debilitating fatigue and this brought me back from a nasty near collapse. I recommend it to anyone with fragile health as a way to buck oneself up. I do about 25 minutes of this meditation and feel greatly improved by it.

Thanks to everyone here for asking so many interesting questions and to JMG for answering them. I learn a lot here.
Maxine

Re: Priapus and earth meditation

[ecosophia]

Thanks for the data points!

Another assorted set of questions

[open_space]

Good evening, JMG!

1) When we say “flame the pentagrams” do we imagine them setting them ablaze? That is how I have been doing it and as soon as I finish saying it they light up in blue, non heat radiating flame, but I just noticed while rereading the first chapters that the CGD doesn’t specify.

2) I’ve been getting the sensation of the color yellow in the East and this matches with the first knowledge lecture and the rest of the correspondences for Air which I have been meditating on and they seem to have linked together in a bundle of meaning so to speak. So it occurred to me should I focus on this whole bundle while invoking/banishing the respective element?

3) I think I recall that tension blocks the flow of the energy is this correct? If so, should my knees (in the RoR) and me hand while tracing be loose?

4) Whenever I imagine tracing the pentagrams in golden light, I feel on my right side of the body energy moving up my right leg, up my right side of the trunk and out my fingers. I tried with my left hand and instead of that it seemed to have a sucking quality to it rather than radiating. Is there a reason for this?

5) And last but not least. I have been getting a stronger sensation on my LIRPS and LBRPS and an increased sense of being surrounded by something mighty and powerful but with that some sort of fear has risen as if it could get out of control or if something bad could happen or if something could be broken. Could it be that I am resisting the transformation this is bringing in about? Or said another way, since I am identified with my present state of being and personality and that is changing, could the fear of something breaking come from that instead of something dangerous actually happening?

Re: Another assorted set of questions

[ecosophia]

1) Some people do flames, others don't. Find out which works best for you.

2) Again, see if that helps.

3) "Straight but not stiff" is the usual advice.

4) Yes. There are complex issues of energy polarity within the subtle body, and that's why you're supposed to use your right hand.

5) The fear is normal, and it means nothing -- it's just a normal reaction on the part of the unthinking levels of your mind. Nothing dangerous will happen.

Does human mean human

[vitranc]

Hi JMG,

on the other blog you mentioned, that there were 4 human civilizations before; Polar, Hyperborean, Lamurean, Atlantean. Even naming the centers of them, but how the archeologists would not recognize the traces they left. I went and did a quick google search and found conflicting time frames and accounts of the nature of inhabitants, mostly from the theosophical society.

1. why would we not recognize their traces? Is it because of their way of life; Being nomadic, or only using perishable building materials. Or because they would not be "tool using"?

2. Given the time scales involved, would they even be. They would be human, but would they be Homo Sapiens?

3. What is a human being? For the first time I am looking on that term not from the ground up, but from the "CosDoc point of view".
a. a human being is a spark evolving in this swarm?
b. a human being is a member of this swarm that has reached the rim of Abred?

Best regards and please excuse my rambling thoughts today,
V

Re: Does human mean human

[ecosophia]

1) It's much more complex than that. First of all, many of their traces are currently underwater, buried in ocean sediments, or under ice. Second, archeologists are very good at not noticing things they've been taught not to notice -- watching them ignore traces of human settlement in North America before 12,000 NC has been quite an education. Third, we have very little knowledge about the nature of their technologies, and those could have been so different from ours that we wouldn't recognize them as technology.

2) The Polarian and Hyperborean cycles seem to have been genus Homo, but not H. sapiens. The Lemurian and Atlantean cycles seem to have been H. Sapiens.

3) "Human being" is a vocal noise used by some members of our species. Its meaning is very loosely fixed by usage; it has no inherent hard-wired meaning of its own. The only real answer to "what is a human being?" is to point at one and say, "a being like that."

Etheric SOP, Rest Days, Dennis Hauck, Rudolf Steiner, Elephants

[joshuarout]

Dear J.M. Greer,

1) You've encouraged experimentation with the Sphere of Protection, so I would like your advice about the soundness and safety of the following modification. I'm drawn to etheric work, so after the invocation of each element and the banishing by means of it, I have done 10 repetitions of loading the element via pore breathing, followed by 10 breaths of discharging the element (as in Step III of Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics). The effects seem quite strong, and so far, positive. I felt more centered and rejuvenated, and discursive meditation afterward seemed more focused and productive. However, I've only done it twice as yet, not enough to thoroughly evaluate the effects.
Also, what could be some of the signs that it's not advisable to continue the modification? Do you have any alternative suggestions for an Etheric SOP?

2) What would be your advice regarding magical or occult training and rest days? Are there certain days - perhaps a New Moon every so often - on which we may drop all practices and simply rest and focus on non-doing, or grounding ourselves in the mundane, or is there a minimal set of things that we should continue to do even on rest days?
I realize the question is very broad and systems may very, so perhaps it could be framed with respect to the systems you've taught or are familiar with.

3) You've state before that you wouldn't recommend the works of Dennis William Hauck on alchemy ('not by a long shot'). Why would you not recommend his works, and what are their main deficiencies?

4) Have you done any practical work with Rudolf Steiner's system (the six basic exercises, How to Know the Higher Worlds, etc)? How would you evaluate his system and its goals?

5) Would elephants be suitable recipients of planetary charity for Jupiter?


Thank you for hosting these and for your responses,
Josh Rout

Re: Etheric SOP, Rest Days, Dennis Hauck, Rudolf Steiner, Elephants

[ecosophia]

1) You're breaking new ground here. I have no suggestions, other than to watch the state of your health and see how the practice develops.

2) I don't take rest breaks, ever. In my experience the key to success in magic is steady, patient, relentless practice.

3) It's been a very long time since I read any of his books, but what I noticed back in the day was an overly pop-psychological approach to alchemy and sloppy historical research,

4) My focus when it comes to Steiner's work is in his explorations of Goethean science, and his philosophical work The Philosophy of Freedom. I know people who've had excellent results with his practices, but I haven't worked with them. In terms of Steiner generally, the thing to keep in mind is that he was active in the early days of Theosophy, when it hadn't yet become painfully clear that astral clairvoyance is not necessarily accurate; his work contains a great deal of clairvoyant material that's frankly loopy, and needs to be used with a good dollop of common sense.

5) Agrippa gives elephants as a Jupiter correspondence, so yes.

Angel of Mars

[(Anonymous)]

Samael or Kamael?

N

Re: Angel of Mars

[ecosophia]

Both are attested in traditional sources. I always used the name Kamael, for reasons mostly rooted in gematria.

The Johnny Appleseed Report

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, John!
Thursday, I set crackers for my late dog and whiskey for Samuel Clemens on my ancestor altar, then sent my dog* to let Mr. Clemens and anyone favorable about Friday’s reading of “In Praise of Johnny Appleseed.”
Friday, I read the grove opening from The Druidry Handbook, did the Elemental SOP, played “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain, visualized a sternwheeler on the Ohio River, and started reading the poem. It still took effort, but not rugby game effort – just honest work. Mid-read, a sense impression of being on the bridge of a huge riverboat moving very fast arose… including the extra senses that tell the mechanically inclined that a very large machine is running very well at full power. I finished reading the poem, and read aloud the grove closing. Ha! Finally worked.
All righty then! Anybody else gonna weigh in on this project? Am I the only one feeling the work in this magical working?
Rusty
*I’d been trying to make a decision of working through your Druidry Handbook or 365 Days of Hoodoo by Stephanie Rose Bird. Finally, it hit me that I don’t feel inspired to talk with my ancestors. So much for that. I took down my ancestor altar after a month of saying hello to my late dog and failing to engage anyone else. Druidry it is. Will keep you posted.

Re: The Johnny Appleseed Report

[temporaryreality]

Rusty, you've asked several times if others have been having difficulty reciting/chanting Lindsey's poem. I've not done it every Friday, but mindful of your question, I remembered to read it again this last Friday. I wasn't particularly loud - in part because others were about and I'm inhibited, but also because of this sentiment expressed on the site https://americanorchard.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/vachel-lindsay-johnny-appleseed-poet/:

"Lindsay cared deeply about how his poems were read, and sometimes offered his readers puzzling instructions on how to read them. In the introduction to his Collected Works, Lindsay instructed: 'All my verses marked to read aloud should be whispered, however contradictory that may seem. All poetry is, first and last, for the inner ear, and its final pleasures are for the soul, whispering in solitude.'"

Anyway, only if I tried to go too fast (good galloping rhythm!) did I lose my breath and then only slightly. I didn't find the reading particularly taxing. It seems that you're very fully engaged in and with the poem, though, so that might account for it. I did have the curious sensation this time around of feeling like I'd never read the poem at all before (like, I kept having little moments of surprise when the imagery brought something to the fore that I "wasn't expecting" in spite of having read it at least half a dozen times)... that was odd.

Angel positions in LBRP

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

What would be the effect of moving the positioning of the Angels in the LBRP please? e.g switching Gabriel’s usual position in the west with Michael?

I ask because I realize I have been doing it wrong and yet it still seemed to work!

Thanks

Re: Angel positions in LBRP

[ecosophia]

It will work, but it'll work better if you put the angels in their proper places. That way you benefit from the egregor built up by all the other people who've done it the standard way.

Influence

[(Anonymous)]

Quoting from a previous Monday: “One of the basic maxims of magic says that the planes are discrete and not continuous….if you want to make something happen on the material plane, you have to use material plane means to do it. Magic is the art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will; when it has effects on the material plane, they're indirect, and happen because the change in consciousness influenced one or more conscious beings to do something on the material plane. ”

This maxim appears to contradict the principle of “as above, so below.” Thus, it voids the ground of being for synchronicity & symbolism. It also appears to invalidate a whole host of presumably mixed-plane events such as placebo/nocebo effects (astral-etheric-physiological), changes wrought in the body by social stress, vivid imagination, or strong emotion (astral-physio), behavioral changes effected by changes in affect, cognitive regulation, and sensory impacts via reading, teaching, memes, 12-step programs, art-drama-dance-poetry-music, and political rhetoric (mental-astral-material), It even challenges the validity of magic itself.

Unless there is a kind of ‘frictional contact’ such as the boundary between air and water or water and land where intentional, contained energy is transferred from one plane to another, how can changes in consciousness have any influence at all on the material plane? Harmonic resonance or quantam entrainment? If consciousness itself – or awareness, or focused attention – is the connecting medium, then it constitutes a substrate of beingness that acts as a kind of ‘force-field’ whence cross-plane events emerge. Changing it is the same as charging it past capacity, like a cloud that discharges polarity with lightning. But, if the planes are like a stack of disks one above the other, spinning at different speeds, none touching, no connection, then why should, how could, any influence leak or leap from one to the other?

Re: Influence

[ecosophia]

It's always tempting to take a general statement and reinterpret it in an arbitrarily extreme sense, but the result is always misunderstanding. To say "the planes are discrete and not continuous" in no way implies that there are no connections at all between the planes; it simply means that there are meaningful divisions between them, and that if you want influences to pass from one plane to another, you need to know a little bit about how the connections work.

Astrology questions about an ingress chart

[shadow_rider]

Hi JMG

Noob astrologer back again. I have generated an ingress chart for Wellington, NZ, for the September Equinox 0130 23 September. The chart is almost exactly opposite that of the London ingress you posted. So the Sun is in the 3rd house, Moon in 6th, 4th house contains Mercury, 10th house Mars and Uranus, the Jupiter and Saturn conjunction is in 7th house and that's where the short leg of the T square points. The ruling sign is Gemini so messy, messy...

So, there is a general election set for October this year in NZ. With the help of H.S.Green's Mundane or National Astrology and by following your previous analyses I have attempted to undertake an assessment.

It seems to me that the government is in some trouble with everything going on in the 10th, but the opposition in the 4th isn't in great shape either. They are both heavily detrimented. The difference to me looks like the Sun. Sun looks OK in the 3rd house and looks to me like the popularity of the prime minister could be the deciding factor. I've called it as likely a win to the ruling Labour Party but in a messy election and not nearly as decisive as many people expect.

Foreign affairs looks decidedly interesting.

Do you see anything in what I've described that obviously contradicts that?

Re: Astrology questions about an ingress chart

[ecosophia]

No, that seems quite reasonable. Foreign policy issues are likely to play a decisive role in how things work out in the election.

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any other magic blogs you recommend people to follow?

[ecosophia]

I mostly read books by dead people, and they don't generally blog much. ;-) Anyone else?

Love

[(Anonymous)]

Morning John,
This may seem a little old fashioned but what is the role of “love” in the occult?, if indeed it does have a role in the scheme of things. And in terms of a specific example, can ones goddess fall in love with her devoted human follower or vice versa? And say if that was to happen would it have positive or negative consequences for those involved? And in terms of clarification, I don’t mean in a sexual sense.
Regards
Averagejoe

Re: Love

[ecosophia]

Love between human beings and deities is one of the main driving forces of religion; talk to a devout Evangelical Christian sometime about God's love for them and their love of God, for one example. It's normal, appropriate, and benefical to all concerned.

[(Anonymous)]

You mentioned before that fasting can make someone more attuned to the unseen.

Does it follow that overeating might make one less able to witness it?

How might obesity relate to inner clarity?

[ecosophia]

When your stomach is full it's harder to perceive the unseen; that much is true. Don't make the common mistake of thinking that obesity is just a matter of overeating, though. Your genetics play a larger role in your body weight than your diet, and a galaxy of other factors can also contribute to body weight. Nor does body weight as such have any impact on spiritual or magical perception. To cite only one example, here's William Wynn Westcott, one of the two founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a mage of considerable power and insight:

Not exactly scrawny, you'll note. On a more modern note, here are Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Shakmah Winddrum, two leading ceremonial magicians and occult teachers of our time:

I could list quite a few others, but I trust I've made my point...

[(Anonymous)]

I've been thinking about how the early ghnostic cults would cast a die to decide which members would play the role of the bishop, reader, prophet...etc...for each meeting, so people did not confuse themselves with the roles they were playing.

What might be the dangers of overly identifying one's self with a consistent role placed upon one or that one enjoys?

How have you related to the role of Arch druid? Was it easy to put that identity down?

[ecosophia]

It's a major risk. A role like that is always less than a full human being, and so if you identify yourself with a role you become a little less than human. In extreme cases, which are not as rare as one would wish, you get a sort of cardboard cut-out personality without much of anything behind it.

For me, "Grand Archdruid of the Grand Grove of the Ancient Order of Druids of America" was a job title, not an identity. I enjoyed much of my stint in that office but I was happy to step down and leave the hassles to someone else.

[(Anonymous)]

After a couple of months of working out of a rut with meditations, affirmations and general reading I've felt disciplined enough to start daily SOP. I've been working on it for a week and had a few questions.

1) In choosing deities, does it help in choosing those where my family has a stronger connection with as opposed to choosing any deity among the many? (For the father God and mother goddess)

2) How flexible is the SOP when it comes to sensing the the sphere and beams? The first time I visualized the beam coming from earth, it was light green even though I tried to imagine white.

3) Is it okay to sense the sphere at random times during the day, or should it be limited to strictly during the ritual?

- nomad

[ecosophia]

1) That's a personal matter. I don't know of any consistent rule.

2) Try to make it white, but if it won't, it won't.

3) That varies from person to person. See what works best for you!

[(Anonymous)]

1. When I think about it, I don't know whether I'm a hard or soft polytheist. Maybe even a mixture if that's possible. But this doesn't feel like it matters at all when I am practising, as I feel a connection. Like thinking about the evolutionary tree isn't that relevant to relating to a living being in the moment. It comes from a different place. I'm guessing this is alright? There seems to be more of a dividing line now.

2. In your occult philosophy, what is the meaning and relevance of idolatry and opposition to it, or iconoclasm? In religions in general.

[ecosophia]

1) It doesn't matter at all in terms of practice. The only reason it matters at all is that some people have grabbed onto those labels as banners in yet another round of dreary pagan politics.

2) An occult maxim runs, "By names and images are all powers awakened and reawakened." If you fixate on the names and images and forget about the powers, you slide into idolatry. If you assume, usually in bad faith, that the other guy has fixated on the names and images and forgotten about the powers, you slide into iconoclasm. Neither one is helpful.

CGD LBRP

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, I started the CGD two weeks ago and I have a few questions :

1)In the rite of the rays, do the star that appears above my head during the vibration of Mae go inside my head and stay there, or does it remain above the head ?

2)Once I have completed the rite of the rays the manual tells to go east to draw the first pentagram, then once the last pentagram is made it asks to "return to the center". So am I supposed to walk or make a step during the ritual or should I stay put in the center and only rotate ?

3)Do I have to sit in a chair for discursive meditation or can it be some eastern cross-legged posture ?

4)Do you have any tips or little practice to make the visualisations more vivid ?

Aaaand thats it ! Thank you for the magic mondays
Regards

Re: CGD LBRP

[ecosophia]

1) That's a typo -- the star should stay above your head.

2) You start in the center of the room. You go to the east -- as in, take as many steps as your room will allow. You go all the way around the circle, returning to the east. You then go back to the center -- as in, walk back to the center of the room.

3) You have to sit in a chair. Cross-legged postures cut you off from the earth currents -- which is appropriate for their kind of meditation but not for ours.

4) Put five minutes a day into just practicing with your imagination. Imagine objects, people, places. Practice makes perfect!

[(Anonymous)]

Curious experience this morning.
I was doing the SoP with a Classical Greek pantheon of your suggestion, and got to Apollo (fire). I have a poor visual imagination and was trying to visualise a red triangle. Thinking of one made of wood, an image popped into my head of a Shinto tori, a red gate that represents the entrance to a temple where a kami, or god, lives. I couldn't get it out of my head (I still can't) and I also have images of Shinto gods/demons flying around. I had trouble finishing the SoP and still feel a bit shaken up.
Have you any idea what's going on? Is this a message that I should start using the Shinto pantheon, and if so is there any guidance available?
I should say that I have had connections with Japan for a very long time and have seen many Shinto shrines. But this was completely unexpected.

[ecosophia]

I would suggest praying and doing divination about it. It's quite possible that a kami is expressing an interest in working with you. It should be easy enough to construct a SoP with Shinto kami -- I'd put Amaterasu no Omikami as Spirit Above and Sarutahiko Okami as Spirit Below, for example -- and I suspect they'd be pleased to be invoked that way.