ecosophia | Magic Monday

For about a decade I practiced Tarot, and found that I could get reliable results if I were to meditate on the meaning of the cards as they applied to my life. What I could never quite get while working with the Tarot were straightforward "yes/no" answers.

About three years ago I went over to geomancy and have been amazed with how on point it is and how it gives straight-forward "yes/no" answers as a matter of course. I've seen folks get similar levels of "yes/no" type answers working with Ogham, and of course Horary Astrology, but not with other systems of divination as far as I can remember.

I'm curious JMG and commentariat, do you know of other divination systems that can give reliable, accurate and straightforward "yes/no" type answers as a matter of course?

Geomancy is in my experience the gold standard for yes/no divinations. I get the same sort of crisp, no-nonsense results from horary astrology, but it's not anything like so easy to learn. Ogham, Coelbren, the runes, and similar systems of sortilege (that's the fancy technical name for oracles where you draw one or more items from a fixed stock of symbols) can be very precise for some people, not for others. Tarot? In my experience, it's an extraordinary rich and flexible oracle if you want to see the whole picture, but you won't get a straight yes or no from it for love or money.

There are tens of thousands of other divination systems out there, most of which I haven't worked with. Some of them may be as good at yes/no questions as geomancy, for all I know.

Do you have an idea what it is why numerology does give only arbitrary results in contrast to other divination systems?

This is going to sound like a joke, but you can always flip a coin and take heads as "yes" and tails as "no."

Unlike geomancy, it won't give you a sense of why the answer is what it is.

Just to riff off that idea a bit, you can use coin flips to generate geomantic charts. Heads is active, tails is passive. Either flip a single coin four times to generate each of the mothers from top to bottom, or take four coins of different denominations to represent each of the four lines in the figure, then toss them all at the same time.

I call this the 41 cent geomancy oracle -- you take a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and a penny and toss them all at once, assigning the results with the quarter for the top line and the penny for the bottom. It works quite well.

If there is going to be a Dolmen Arch study group...how can I sign up?

Also, what system or practices goes well with the Dolmen Arch work?

1) If one gets started, I'll post something here.

2) The material in my book The Druid Magic Handbook is entirely compatible with The Dolmen Arch; more generally, the teachings of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, the Gnostic Celtic Church, and their sister organizations (currently inactive, but I plan on fixing that in due time) are all compatible.

I would certainly be interested in that, too. I've recently picked up the DMH again and started working through it - "funny" how it's helped me with specific problems in my meditations on the Mabinogian a few times already. Learning the Ogham alphabet currently. My wife was quizzing me on the first Aicme last night. Seems like a perfect pairing...

Several Ecosophians have mentioned "Saturn returns", and my curiosity piqued, I went out yesterday and looked the term up. Then I made myself some charts at
https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php.

These seemed to be pretty spectacular to my only-slightly-educated eye.

For one, I was born one month before the Great Conjunction of 1961. Then I had a Saturn Return in January of 1991, and another this year in March to keep the Grand Mutation company. (The Grand Mutation also happens to be a Great Conjunction.)

As advertised, change-in-life events have occurred for the couple of years before each of the Saturn Returns. My path changed significantly after the first Saturn Return in 1991, but I will have to wait to see what happens after this one. Learning all this gave me a lot of insights on my life I didn't have before.

Here are the articles I found online:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_return
https://www.astrology.com/article/how-to-survive-your-saturn-return/
https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-the-return-of-saturn-206368
and
https://www.elle.com/horoscopes/a27468618/what-is-saturn-return-astrology/

TSW. Thanks for helping me get educated.

- Cicada Grove

Saturn returns can be a real bear or a real initiation, or both, depending on how you dealt with the thirty previous years! It's a fairly reliable bit of astrological experience, though, and it's good to know about, so you have the chance to brace yourself.

Hello Anonymous,

This site also has good information on Saturn return

https://aquarianastrology.org/

I'm reading th glass bead game by Herman Hesse.

Any recommends for reflections or study on it?

Thanks.

Here you go:

http://archdruidmirror.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-glass-bead-game.html

- Cicada Grove

There's always that!

Start by reading it for pleasure. Set it aside for a while, and then go back and read it again, slowly and carefully. The Glass Bead Game is itself a glass bead game, exactly the sort of structured set of experiences that Joseph Knecht and his fellow masters of the game create in the book; you might see if you can work out the overall structure Hesse is using. (He drops some hints.) It also helps to know that some of the characters stand in for real people whose work influenced Hesse -- Thomas von der Trave is Thomas Mann, Fritz Tegularius is Friedrich Nietszche, Father Jacobus is Jacob Burkhardt -- and a little reading in their work will help you fill in the blanks of Hesse's game. It's a book that can be read once a year for the rest of your life, and each time you'll get something new out of it.

On a whim, I made a wish on the first star I saw tonight, in accordance with the old nursery rhyme. Granting that wishing is of very little efficacy as a working, it occurs to me that there may be more to the rhyme than first appears: the first "star" someone would see at dusk would most likely be either Venus or Jupiter, the benefics, which strike me as quite reasonable things to wish on.

(It was Jupiter, in my case.)

Is there some hidden meaning to the rhyme that we've all been missing out on?

That's a fascinating question to which I don't know the answer.

I recently picked up a copy of Circles of Power, and have read through the full book in order to get a sense of what possibilities exist within the framework the book presents.

1) Am I correct to think the most important rituals to master for a beginner would be the Cabalistic Cross, the LBRP and the basic form of the Middle Pillar?

2) For someone with no prior experience, how long does it take to work through Circles of Power?

3) One of the more advanced rituals in particular caught my eye: the animal transformation ritual. Are there any concerns with working hard towards getting the skills needed for that and then looping back through to cover whatever I missed in that process?

4) There are quite a few points in the rituals which left me a little confused. Would I be correct to assume these points would be useful themes for meditation? More broadly, if my goal is mastery of these rituals, would it be worth my time to take apart each of the rituals in the book in mediation?

5) As mentioned above, I have no prior experience with the occult, but I've done the Cabalistic Cross (once, this morning), am looking for a Tarot deck, and plan to start learning how to meditate this week. Are there other skills which I need to work on at this point in what I hope will be a long and highly productive career in Cabalistic Magic?

1) That's correct. Those are the foundational rituals of the system; combine that with daily discursive meditation and a simple daily divination, and you've got the basic practices that will take you where you want to go.

2) Five to seven years.

3) That's a common mistake. If you don't train relentlessly in the basics -- all the basics -- you won't be able to do the advanced work. Remember that you don't yet know which skills are needed to create an animal body of transformation and which aren't!

4) Yes, very much so.

5) If you have no prior experience, I'm going to recommend that you put Circles of Power on the shelf for a year and work through the material in Learning Ritual Magic, which is a better introduction to the work for a beginner. Once you've done that, you'll be able to hit the ground running with Circles and get further faster. Beyond Circles, by the way, is the master-level material, which you'll find in Israel Regardie's The Golden Dawn; you might want to pick up a copy of that when circumstances permit, so you have it handy when the time comes.

Not being quite sure how to begin, I started a year ago with the exercises in the DMH, and completed the SoP with a developing pantheon that now seems to have settled down with Shinto. I'm also doing meditation and divination.
How does all this relate to the material in Learning Ritual Magic, which I haven't ordered, because I didn't want to get confused? Are they completentary or alternative? Having come to the end of one, should I consider part, or all, of the other?
Thank you.

If you'll check the Magic Monday FAQ, which is linked in the post above, you'll find that Learning Ritual Magic belongs to a different (and incompatible) system of magical practice. Have you finished everything else in the DMH? There's a lot of work in that book.

JMG,

Are there any groups that get together to discuss your Golden Dawn books like Circles of Power? It seems like there are a fair amount of us, and it would be cool to get together and talk shop sometime and share insights we've had.

If not, any tips for creating such a group? Maybe some sort of Dreamwidth discussion board we could start?

I don't know of a group specific to Circles and my other books on Golden Dawn magic. If you want to start one, Dreamwidth is a good place to do it; you may need a paid account, but those aren't expensive and it's a good outfit to support.

If I'm not mistaken, you can create communities on Dreamwidth using a free account.

I'm only half way through LRM, but I am seeing the benefits of the foundation it is creating for the Circles of power, which I am planning on following up on once LRM is complete.

I was going through my archive and found a text file marked "pagan lightbulb jokes" that was pulled from an internet archive of an old early 2000s web 1.0 page, which I only found because it was buried in some links at the end of another obscure archived webpage that lambasted the kind of "fluffy bunny" wiccans that make normal wiccans cringe. It's a crazy blast from the past, most of the jokes deal with the dozens of offshoots and branches of wicca (who knew there was something called Erisian Wicca) but a few of them I thought might make some other commentators smile:

How many Druids does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to change the lightbulb, and five hundred to align the new stone.

How many Heathens does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to hold the bulb up, and enough to drink until the room spins.

How many witches does it take to change a lightbulb?
"Well, what do you want the lightbulb changed into?"

How many Thelemites does it take to change a lightbulb?
None, because every one of them is a star.

How many members of the Golden Dawn does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to hold the ladder, one to hold the bulb, three to decipher the Light Bulb Ritual from the Secret Chiefs, one to publish it, and one to sue all the others.

How many Heathens does it take to change a lightbulb?
None, the light from the burning monastery is perfectly sufficient, thank you!

How does a ceremonial magician change a lightbulb?
He holds the bulb up to the socket and lets the universe revolve around him.

How many Kabbalists does it take to change a lightbulb?
368

How many neopagans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Six. One to change the lightbulb and five to sit around complaining that lightbulbs never burned out before those darned Christians came along!

How many New Agers does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to change the lightbulb, and four to share the experience!

How do New Agers learn to change lightbulbs?
Well, it takes many many years, unless you pay $650 US non refundable, Visa or MC accepted. Then you can do it after the weekend intensive training seminar.

How does Raymond Buckland change a light bulb?
"Refer to my book, 'Practical Light Bulb Changing' by Raymond Buckland, followed by 'The Respectful Disposal of Light Fixtures' by Raymond Buckland, although some prefer my book 'Candle Lighting for Beginners' by Raymonod Buckland..."

All this talk about lightbulbs is making me wonder about the "ever burning lamps" mentioned in occult lore (Trithemius mentioned them I think?). Knowing what we know about thermodynamics, it seems unlikely there could be any kind of non-radioactive chemical material that produces light for hundreds of years (radioactive decay tends to be fatal when it's bright enough, or dim when it's safe enough). What do you think these "magic lamps" really were?

Funny.

As for the ever-burning lamps and the oleum sapientiae or "oil of the wise" that fueled them, I have no idea. I'm not sure anyone knows at this point.

I’d only heard the one about “What do you want it changed into?” What is the significance of 38 in that one joke?

One I just heard the other day:

How many Wokesters does it take to change a light bulb?
—You racist!

And a couple of oldies:

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
—Only one, but the bulb really has to want to change.

How many kittens 🐈 does it take to change a light bulb?
—None. Kittens can see in the dark.

How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
—That’s not funny!

Lady Cutekitten 😄

In that vein:

How many Christians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Charismatic: Only one. Hands already in the air.

Pentecostal: Ten. One to change the bulb, and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.

Roman Catholic: None. Candles only.

Presbyterian: None. Lights will go on and off at predestined times.

Baptists: At least 15. One to change the light bulb, and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad and fried chicken.

Episcopalians: Three. One to call the electrician, one to mix the
drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old one was.

Methodists: Undetermined. Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb. Church-wide lighting service is planned for Sunday. Bring bulb of your choice and a covered dish.

Mormons: Six. Five wives to replace the bulb while husband reviews church lighting policy.

Lutherans: None. Lutherans don't believe in change.

Amish: What's a light bulb?

More seriously, there's the miracle of the lamp oil in the Temple in Jerusalem in the tine of the Macabeans, which probably provided inspiration to magicians trying to create an everburning lamp.

BoysMom

Orthodox: Change?!?

Heh!
How many traditionalists does it take to change a lightbulb?
"If candlelight was good enough for our ancestors, it's good enough for us!"

As to the joke ending in 368, Jewish Kabbalah, as opposed to Western Cabbalah/Quabbalah, tends to put a bit more emphasis on Gematria. Try typing "lightbulb" into an online Gematria calculator like this one: www.gematrix.org
The original joke actually had a random number that didn't link up with any related word or phrase, so I edited the number to make a connection to actual Gematria, and specifically Jewish Gematria, since the original joke spelled it "Kabbalah" and I'd always read that "Kabbalah" is Jewish, "Cabbalah" is Christian and "Quabbalah" is Hermetic/modern usage, although there seems to be some flexibility in applying the non-Jewish spellings.

Edited ((In a Yoda Voice) Fun-eeeee Joke!) 2020-10-05 08:30 (UTC)

But you have to be sure they're not the evil Countercandles, which radiate darkness instead of light!

Evil Countercandles! I can hear the Guenonian "haaarummmmph!" from a mile away.

Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Californians screw in the hot tub!

How many Archdruid Report commenters does it take to change a light bulb?
—You've been led to believe you need a working light bulb to live a fulfilling life, but consider accepting a vibrant alternative future without one.

How many Ecosophia.net commenters does it take to change a light bulb?
—Three. One to turn the bulb, one to act as a thrust-block, and one to power the light on a higher plane by sublimating the binary.

How many Magic Monday inquirers does it take to change a light bulb?
—That's a fine question for meditation!

My work here is done.

Gee, that should be saved on the MM FAQ page!

How many Archdruid Report commenters does it take to change a light bulb?

-I have candles! We can use that instead!

Along similar lines, my favorite answer to that one is actually, "Do you really need a light bulb there?" But I've found, when it's stated that way, a lot of people don't seem to get it. Hence the more spelled-out version above, which covers only one of the layers of meaning of the short answer.

Slow clap.

Great, now the other train passengers think I’m crazy for spontaneously bursting into laugh.

A fine joke. Bravo.

How many Surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
Two: One to hold the giraffe and one to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.

Other notes to add: filled journals, don’t want to forget by not using,

I finished LRM this week aside from the initiation ritual and the last few pages of the last of the five supplementary books that went along with the course. One of the most profound impacts this course had for me came out of the Will exercises woven through this course, the sensation of deciding to do something and seeing it just happen with minimal waffling or procrastinating or battling with myself is almost surreal to experience. And the foundations of magical practice this course laid have made it so much simpler to navigate the seemingly opaque quagmires of esoteric practice, putting an end to over a decade of what’s felt like aimless fumbling trying to find my footing spiritually. I wanted to thank you and the other authors of this book for helping me to finally open this door.

Moving forward I’m hoping you could offer some advice regarding next steps: I’ve come out of this course with two very clear realizations, the first is that the form of Hermetic magic that LRM lays the foundations for is something I definitely want to pursue further, and you’ve laid out the course of study and practice that would involve elsewhere (Paths of Wisdom/Circles of Power, Israel Regardie’s Ceremonial Magic, then the Golden Dawn).

The other though, is that I need to finish OBOD first. Some backstory: I first started OBOD about 10 years ago, worked through the Bardic grade in 5 years, and then started floundering with the Ovate grade, including having some extremely negative spiritual experiences. At the time I asked for some advice on the Well of Galabes back when that was a thing, and you’d recommended picking up the sphere of protection, I started work on it and began working through the Druid Magic Handbook, I meditated my way through the Ogham fews and got really good at ogham divination, but for some reason the SOP just never resonated for me, I felt like I kept banging my head on it and getting nowhere, and then sometime around 2016 (partly due to some extremely difficult life experiences that cropped up around that time, partly because I never really found a groove), my entire practice fizzled and died. I picked up LRM in earnest in October of 2018, half expecting to experience the exact same frustrations... instead something about the Hermetic LBRP clicked naturally into place, feeling instantly comfortable and familiar, and the Cabalistic Symbolism was intuitive and easy to pick up. I took 2 years instead of the projected 9 months because I took the extra time to meditate on every symbol introduced in the text and close read through all of the recommended books... and during that time have not broken away from the foundations of daily meditation, divination, and ritual once (prior to this I was lucky if I could muster a week of consecutive daily practice). So... something happened during this course that had not happened before.

But OBOD was my first passion and it remains an unfinished thread... And I know now that I have tools for tackling an esoteric course and actually squeezing the juice out of it that I didn’t when I began. It’s also a potential 3 year journey compared to the minimum 10-15 years and potential lifetime heading down the Golden Dawn path would entail. So my question is this: I know you advise against practicing multiple traditions, however I don’t want to lose my grasp on the Cabala, Tarot, Hebrew Alphabet, and other symbols and various fundamentals of theory and practice in this tradition that I’ve picked up over the last two years since I know that I plan to return to that for the long haul in a few years. I also really don’t want to have to give up the LBRP since it just works for me in a way other banishing rituals I’ve tried haven’t. Is there any way to continue to move forward on that path (using either Paths of Wisdom or Circles of Power), or if not at least some way of avoiding losing ground that would be possible while finishing OBOD? And would continuing the Hermetic LBRP be compatible?

First, congratulations! That book, simple as it is, isn't easy, and most of the people who start work on it never finish.

Second, I did the OBOD course when it was in its first iteration, before the extensive revisions that produced the current course. I've encountered very mixed reviews about the upper grades of the current course. I'd encourage you to seek divination and see if that's something you want to pursue.

The irony here is that OBOD in its original, Ross Nichols form had the GD all over it -- and for good reason. The Universal Bond, the Druid order where Nichols had his training, had the Golden Dawn degrees for its inner order -- it was one of the many Druid orders that adopted a lot of GD material from refugees who fled the GD for Druidry in the early 20th century. That's why the old seasonal rituals invoke the archangels, for example! What I don't know is whether the new course is equally compatible.

Oh gosh, thank you for the response and you’ve given me a lot to process tomorrow. I’ll probably be back sometime tomorrow afternoon post-divination with more questions.

Since my Gwersu are from 2008 and 2012 respectively are they the older version or newer version of the course do you know?

Does the Bardic Grade material include a discussion of the legend of Taliesin? If so, you've got the newer version. I received mine, which were the original version, in 1994-5, 1996-7, and 1999-2000 respectively.

Edited 2020-10-05 06:01 (UTC)

John,
This is a very interesting conversation. I am currently undertaking the ovate grade of the new course. There is no reference to the GD so far. The course as I understand it has been restructured to make it more accessible and easier to work with than the original course. I guess inevitably that will require a trade off. There has been no reference to arch angels either and we have discussed the lack of a banishing ritual before. I think i would find it interesting to work through the original version of the course once I have completed the new version. I can see that adding a lot of value.
Regards
Averagejoe

There's no reference to the GD in the older course either, but if you know the GD system it sticks out in lumps. I also have access to materials from Ross Nichols' time, where the GD references are even more explicit. As for the old course, you'll probably have to contact someone who has a copy, as I don't thinnk OBOD makes it available any more -- but yes, it's worth doing.

That’s the version of the Bardic grade I worked through, so the new course has always Been my course. As average Joe mentions, it sounds like if anything the changes that have been made make the course simpler and more flexible. So if anything I’d imagine that it’s been slightly watered down from what it once was and would be better enriched by a continued Golden Dawn practice since the focus tends to be more psychotherapy than magic. There are still some Golden Dawn teachings (which I wouldn’t have recognized at the time as such) woven into it still but they’re mostly held to the supplemental Gwersu (I recall there being one on the Tree of Life and the Elements but I kind of glossed over it at the time). The thing is, OBOD has been a huge part of my life for almost the entirety of my adult life (since fresh out of my teens), and it offers certain things that I know I need and have been desperately missing.

I did the divinations as recommended, and asked a friend to read for me as well which almost exactly corresponded to the one I did. It basically pointed out that OBOD has things to give me in this life that I haven’t taken from it yet, told me I was overthinking and that I knew how to find the balance I needed, and suggested I experiment some, try a few different things, find what my comfort zone is, and pay very close attention to how I feel.

My thought was that I could continue with the Middle Pillar and LBRP and the daily divinations, and draw my primary meditation themes and exercises out of the Gwersu, while continuing to read and study occult texts in 7 sentences a week manner set up in LRM and continue to flash card through the tree correspondences and practice drawing the Hebrew letters regularly so I don’t get rusty then start Paths of Wisdom / Circles of Power after I finish. Does that sound like a stable enough approach?

My one question from that would be: I’d obviously continue to practice the LBRP and Middle Pillar daily as a morning practice, but would I also insert the LBRP into the grove ritual? Or would that be overkill? Or are you going to repeat my Divination and say “try it both ways and find out?”

That's entirely workable. Yes, you can incorporate the LBRP into the Grove ritual; instead of tracing a circle around the grove from east to east, go to the east, do the Cabalistic Cross there, then trace the pentagram in the east and proceed around, doing the closing in the east as well. Then purify with water and consecrate with fire as usual, proclaim peace to the quarters, etc. Do the same thing in the closing; instead of unwinding the Grove, perform another LBRP.

Do the supplementary gwersu in the Bardic grade still give the traditional rituals?

Not if it’s the one you’re talking about that mentions the archangels. It’s just the ritual I know.

The old course gives two rituals for each festival, one traditional, one more recent. If they dropped the trad rituals, that's really sad.

Hey jmg

I’ve been doing the 1st of M. Sadhu’s concentration exercises, and I’m disappointed at how bad I am at focusing on the second hand of my wrist watch, it has really made me wonder about my smartphone use.

My question is this, could doing affirmations before doing the exercise help me improve my progress ? Maybe something like “I concentrate entirely upon the second hand of my watch”?

J.L.Mc12

Good. Those exercises are meant to make you aware of just how little control you have over your own mind. No, don't do affirmations -- just follow the instructions. Do the colored pranayamas, grit your teeth, and learn from the experience; I promise you won't regret it.

Would affirmations not work?

That's irrelevant. If you're going to follow a set of instructions from a teacher or a book, follow the instructions -- don't mess with them. You don't know enough yet to do it intelligently. (If you did, you wouldn't need the teacher or the book!)

Hiya!
1. This week, I included reading “In Praise of Johnny Appleseed”, in my rehearsal of the grove ritual. The reading took effort, but went well. The Not for Hire gave me a little hello nudge, and I felt good when I was done.
2. So0O0o-ah… How’s the working going at your end? Anybody else wanna weigh in?
3. About the grove ritual in The Druidry Handbook – What do you think of appointing a Lady of the Lake (or Lord) to hold the sword between uses? Seems more dignified than just leaning the sword on the seat of honor…
4. Any suggestions for making Ogham staves? Stick or poker chip shape, kind of wood, that sort of thing? Tongue depressors strike me as a good idea – room for notes on the back…
Rusty... err... Orange Eldritch Platypus, that is...

3) The usual title in Druid circles is Swordbearer. You're not the only person to have thought of that!

4) Mine are literaly sticks, with the Ogham letter on one end. That way it's easy to tell if one is reversed.

-- Maroon Orthogonal Chicken

Swordbearer it is, then.
I like the sticks idea, and I have a dead hawthorn bush to take down.
Many thanks!
Oh, and The Druid Revival Reader is really stitching TDH, TDMH, and GW together. Memo finally gotten.

Welcome to the tradition.

Thank you.

Good evening JMG!

Today was an interesting day for me. The last comment you gave me, on the training the will post, was about listening instead of speaking all the time and how meditation and divination are ways of listening; that set me thinking, or rather, listening! After many months of being almost just within a few blocks of my house, the bar, the cafe and the library close by where live I ventured into foreign lands. When I was in downtown, that comment of yours came to mind and I was astonished. After maybe thirty minutes of so of just being aware of my surroundings I realized just how much time I am in my head playing the same old cassette over and over: while taking a shower, walking on the streets doing my meals I am thinking all the time and never listening! It is not even something new every time, it is just the same ideas stuck there. I have been mildly aware of this habit of mine, but today while standing in the middle of busy street while a kind man was playing the saxophone and the pigeons flapping their wings above my head I swear for a moment I felt like Jenny in the middle of the quad of Miskatonic U, so weird. That is what it is! But yet, JMG, what is it and how can I go back to it? I can sit right now and try but it won’t happen, because I am trying and then I set myself off into a way of not trying to try...

I think that what happened is that journaling freed my mind from circular and recurring thoughts so that I can either address them or send them somewhere else; meditation showed me to keep track and direct my thoughts and divination showed me to listen and connect. For me it has just been an exercise, even somewhere close to homework with some day to day benefits but mostly I have been the clueless guy who thinks the occult is really cool but doesn’t even know what it really is. This however was different than what I experience during my daily practices. It felt, for as trite as it might be, it felt magical, as if lost in thought, but not all lost in a thought just, not there, but standing right there and got a sense of something huuge telling me to go and visit but I couldn’t got further because the experience by itself somewhat sends a input and my attention reacts. This S does seem to work indeed, and the world even if just for a femtosecond felt unknown, bigger and new. Thanks for the whack in the head!

Excellent. You can't get back to that headspace by your own efforts, but by continuing your practices -- as trite as they seem -- you put yourself in the right place for it to happen. I'm not surprised you recognized the scenes with Jenny from Kingsport -- like a great deal of the magical stuff all through those books, those passages were modeled on things that I've experienced. Notice that she experienced it repeatedly, at apparently random intervals, before it finally opened up wide and forever for her...

Thank you, I’ll just keep at it then.

Would it be appropriate to burn the candles in an open CGD temple or would it be better to do it outside?

I wanted to use the Mars retrograde and the current waning moon to get rid of some bad habits and foster discipline and order. Is a red candle burned for 5 Tuesdays dressed with “Road Opener” oil the right correspondence?

1) Burn the candles in an open temple.

2) That should work well.

Thank you, sorry for my previous answer, I was typing fast, I meant the hoodoo colored candles if that was not clear.

By the way, I just remembered something. I contacted dreamwidth a while ago about making entries searchable (so that your logged in readers can get a search bar). There are a couple of options in you Settings -> Privacy page. By default someone has to be on your "access list" to search your journal but you can open it to any dreamwidth user if you'd like by having Site-Wide search inclusion set to yes (that is the default option) and Searching your journal set to Allow any logged-in user to search my journal (not the default option)

Edited 2020-10-05 22:27 (UTC)

Hmm! Thanks for this. I've just made that change.

It worked! Thank you for enabling it, this is of great help for consulting previous Magic Mondays and such.

Edited 2020-10-06 00:11 (UTC)

I'm trying to adapt the Greater Middle Pillar you described in Llewellyn's Complete Book of Ceremonial Magic into a Greater Central Ray as a part of my CGD Druid grade studies. I was wondering if there is an invocation for the CGD pantheon that already has an established egregor.

If there is no egregor yet, I assume the Mabinogion is where I need to look. Are there any other sources you would recommend?

The Greater Ritual already exists. Use the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram in its summoning form, then use the invocation from the OIW ritual, then formulate the spheres nine times instead of three, then circulate the light, then do the closing bit of the OIW ritual ("Gwron, Plennydd, Alawn, all are one in the infinite Celi," with the gestures), and then close with the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram in its banishing form. Start by practicing it once a week -- it can be pretty robust, and your subtle bodies will need time to get used to it -- and then work up to once a day.

Many thanks for this. I considered the OIW ritual bits, but then told myself it couldn't possibly be that straightforward ;)

One quick clarification - in the CGD it appears as though the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram can stand on its own - it is suggested that it can be done as part of daily ritual and is described outside the context of a temple opening. However, in the polythistic version the Greater Middle Pillar is shown using the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram: LSRP->SSRP->Greater Middle Pillar -> SBRP -> LBRP

I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything and the LRP need not necessarily be done in the CGD version.

You don't need the LRP or the temple opening in the Greater Exercise of the Central Ray. Just do the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram in summoning form to open and in banishing form to close.

1) With the help of Astrodienst I have ascertained that I could improve my prospects considerably by moving from California to Bangor, Maine. This would move my natal benefics from cadent to cardinal houses and (just barely) put Midheaven in the sign ruled by one of them. My Sun and Mercury would be in the third house.

However I do not relish the prospect of living in that climate. I've already had pneumonia once. After 60 years in Cali, I fear a single northeastern winter could do me in; and I certainly wouldn't enjoy it. Also, I have family commitments which prohibit such a move.

Perhaps it might be worth my while to visit that town or establish business contacts there? Could that conceivably be to my advantage?

2) For a good many months I've practiced affirmations. The principal phrase is "I am successful," intended in a material and financial sense. In the past week I started getting pushback from my subconscious, in the form of dreams dwelling on poverty and want. Do I guess correctly that this means I'm getting somewhere, and should push on with unremitting stubborn pertinacity?

1) Ah, the pursuit of half-measures! No, those won't cut it. You have a simple choice: either move to Maine and freely accept the pluses and minuses of living there, or stay in California and freely accept the pluses and minuses of living there. If you try to stay on both sides of a door at the same time, you're going to get bruised when the door shuts...

2) Have you considered journaling to see whether your subconscious might be doing something other than pushback? By all means continue the affirmation -- it's a good one -- but it helps to listen to the subconscious as well as talking to it.

I grew up at The Forks, down the road from Bangor. It is rugged country, and does snow early. And gets dark about three in the afternoon.

I would first visit to see if you can live in relative isolation and darkness.

Ever since quarantine, I've taken up writing a a bit of a hobby that I intend to turn into a source of income once I get more practice with it.

Recently I noticed that, as I'm writing a story down, I can be typing it out decently, then all of a sudden I can start typing really, truly horribly, making three or more mistakes on the same word even after going back and retyping it again and againa dnc onsciously recognizing my mistakes. Curiously, if I delete everything I was having trouble typing out and then rewrite it completely, taking the story in a different direction from where I was trying to take it originally, the words will then come out flowing naturally. It's as if some part of me has a very clear sense of how a plot should go and is actively resisting any attempt to steer it down any other course.

Would I be correct to assume this is caused by a phenomenon of the mental plane?
As a writer, do you have anything similar happen to you?

Could be mental plane, could be astral, depending on what level your writing works from. (Mental level patterns are abstract relations and understandings, astral level patterns are emotionally charged images.) In my case, it's not typos, it's simply that things dry up. I learned a long time ago to catch that when it first shows up, and listen.

I’ve been typing “pooportunity” for over 40 years. It’s the one typo I can’t train myself out of committing.

I once mentioned this to a lady who replied, “Isn’t a pooportunity what they offer you to try to enlist you in multi-level marketing?” 😄

—Lady Cutekitten

Greetings Archdruid,

As you know Trump was sick last few days, over on Faceplant Miller was hinting it was his curse that did it and daily posting images of curses in progress (Images of candles, grim reaper statues, a candle in a prison of iron tridents etc.) with the caption, “thoughts and prayers.”

It got me thinking more of your raspberry jam theory wondering what the blowback will be.

It seems the spell was sabotaged successfully as not only has Trump avoided a debate stacked against him, he’s gotten a poll boost and the lefts demonic glee has pushed more people into the Trump camp.

What are your thoughts?

Umber Palpitating Wolverine

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "what a maroon." Since the coronavirus is no more dangerous to most people than a bad cold, Miller has embraced failure right out there in public. Now he gets to live with it, and have it infect his magic more generally. What blowback he gets beyond that depends on exactly what he's been doing, but I wouldn't want to be him.

I wonder if it's occurred to any of these people that while they're posturing online, there are Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs -- very, very large numbers of them -- doing rituals and prayers for Trump's well-being, and a lot of occultists on the rightward end of things who are hard at work with their own toolkits with the same end in view. (And in my experience, as a general rule, the mages on the right are better educated and more competent than those on the left.)

Is that coincidence or enemy action? 😄

Seriously, do you think there’s a reason for this difference? My experience with leftists is they are all certain they’re very intelligent (oddly enough, a lot of them object strongly to IQ tests) and that’s why they’re leftists, because they are so intelligent. QED. Whereas the rightists are usually happy to tell you the reason they took up a right-wing position.

Lady Cutekitten

It's central to the mythology of the left that they're smarter than anyone else, and so people internalize that false belief when they embrace that political position. It's a serious mistake, since it keeps them from learning from their mistakes or, really, from anything else. That's why their magic so often sucks; since they believe that they're smarter than, say, the great authors on magic of past generations, they never get around to learning anything more than the bunny-slope stuff they already know. Meanwhile people on the right, who don't suffer from that delusion, are more likely to learn what they don't already know.

As I've pointed out before, what you're talking about isn't "The Left" in any meaningful sense, and its members don't refer to themselves as leftists. They still retain a few of the thought habits and bits of vocabulary from the true Left which they took over (and which they hate with an all-consuming passion) but in practice they are nothing more than the PR organisation for the Professional/Managerial Class. The PMC's ideology of extreme social and economic liberalism, especially for the wealthy, requires an intellectual courtier class, whose main function is actually entertainment, and diverting the masses with faith-based economics and pseudo-intellectual social theory. In addition, they function as a type of police force allowing the PMC to destroy its enemies - like the real Left. I've heard it plausibly argued that the Democrats' principal objective this year was not to defeat Trump but to defeat Sanders, to ensure that there was no risk of anything changing. (They certainly did that effectively); And it's part of the PMC's self-image that they are cleverer than the rest of us - otherwise they wouldn't be where they are, with their money and their nice houses.
In the old days, of course, it was very different. The Left was highly supportive of education, not just for intellectual elites, but for all, correctly appreciating that an educated electorate was harder to fool, and was a better foundation for democracy. (The British Conservative Party was popularly known, even by its members, as the Stupid Party, but, like all parties of the Right, it was only interested in power, and didn't worry about whether the policies it promoted actually made sense.) Thus, the assault on education was the first, and longest-lasting, of the policies of the Right adopted since the 1980s. It's been a huge success, hasn't it? With the effective end of the formal Left-Right split in the 90s, and the rise of the Monoparty of the PMC, education (or at least credentialism) has stopped being a public good, and become just a financial investment you have to make if you ever want to be received into the PMC one day. And even if you are one of those NN Taleb described as Intellectuals Yet Idiots, your piece of paper entitles you to feel superior to those who, for various reasons, couldn't make it that far.

Nobody has trademarked the term "Left," you know. I quite understand that people on the factions of the Left that don't have access to power these days are angry at the faction that does, but from a conservative point of view -- and in particular, from my idiosyncratic moderate Burkean conservative point of view -- the similarities greatly outweigh the differences. All factions of the Left share in the delusion that some group of intellectuals or other is smart enough to reorganize human society from top to bottom and have the results come out as something other than a dumpster fire; all factions of the Left, whatever their rhetoric about workers or the poor or what have you, are vehicles by which some group of intellectuals or other seeks power -- the difference at present is simply that the people who control the Democratic Party have gained power, and the people for whom you speak haven't done so, and almost certainly never will.

I don't want to turn this into a political discussion and we obviously aren't going to agree on political principles anyway, which is fine. My point was that it's unhelpful to see the current conflict as between "the Right" and "the Left", but much more helpful to see it as a relatively trivial squabble between different wings of the Liberal Monoparty which has consolidated its grip on the political systems of most western countries. And such squabbles are, by definition, the most bitter and most violent, paradoxically because the stakes are so small (think Freud, but also think magical movements, or even academic politics, which is one explanation for the bitterness of the SJW movement.) The two tendencies within the Monoparty agree on soaking the poor and giving money to the rich, but disagree violently on access to toilets and use of pronouns. One tendency is trying publicly and violently to wrest control at the moment, as often happens in one-party states.
The Liberal Monoparty did not happen by accident, although its creation is easier to understand outside the US, because political evolutions there are very untypical. They first took over parties of the Right from the 1970s, and I can't imagine a Burkean conservative like you would have been very happy at the whirlwind economic and socially revolutionary consequences for those parties. Then they came for the Left, and, because there was an ideological edge to the confrontation they couldn't just promise power, as they did to the Right; they had to trash the traditional ideology of the Left as well. Thus, the contempt of politicians like Clinton and Blair for the principles of the parties that had brought them to power. (As I pointed out, such politicians never claimed to be from the Left, and never stopped sneering at its principles) Thus also, the substitution of Liberal, elite middle-class ideology, whose greatest exponents are the management consultant, the financial analyst and the contract lawyer, for any set of principles based on what people actually want and need. I don't know whether you have this phenomenon in the US, but in Europe, you are starting to see a rapprochement between the traditional (pre-1970s, non-liberal) Right, and the traditional (pre-90s non-liberal) Left, on issues like sovereignty and the defence of communities.
We can debate the relative merits of political systems. I was born just after WW2, and grew up in a society with free health care and education, jobs for all, and, most of all, opportunities for people from very ordinary backgrounds to succeed in life. That's why I didn't have to leave school at fifteen to do unskilled work in the local light engineering factories, but could spend another decade in education, and why I'm typing this at the moment. My children's generation are worse off in every way. For me, this is an adequate argument for supporting policies of the Left, but of course such views remain subjective at the end. What isn't subjective, though, is the replacement of the traditional Left/Right scheme of politics by a dominant Monoparty with a radical Liberal ideology on the one hand, and a mass of people who are disenfranchised on the other.

Whereas I disagree, and see the current struggle as involving meaningful differences between a Left that has always been a vehicle for the professional-managerial classes and a Right that has been largely taken over by a populist insurgency against those classes. That said, you're quite correct that this is not the place for a political debate, and doubtless also correct that neither of us is likely to agree with the other's viewpoint.

Well said JMG, my thoughts exactly. There is a hubris on the left no matter how moderate one fancies oneself to be. It can be well-intentioned but still it boils down to the all too human impulse to believe oneself capable of knowing the way things "should be" and thus justifying the use of both soft force (controlling education, cancel culture) and hard force (taxation, threat of imprisonment, excessive law-making) to achieve those things. The successive failures of this delusion to provide the promised utopian results can gradually turn even the sweetest moderates into extremists who become prepared to justify ever increasing amounts of force to achieve their dubious ends.

My favourite example of this is how a university professor I know is adamant that the root of right wing populism is a rejection of "post-modernism" and the desire to be able to hold ideas uncritically. It's truly bizarre....

He's right that one of the roots of populism is a rejection of postmodernism, but what they reject is the enthusiasm with which postmodernists insist that 2 + 2 = 5 whenever that's convenient for themselves or their corporate masters.

Not oddly enough: if anyone can measure it, they might discover they aren't smart, but those people are!

Amusingly enough, this has been doing the rounds of late...

Republicans have greater probability knowledge? I'd say the last year has shown this in a surprisingly dramatic fashion...

I was going to quibble about whether his actions are actually embracing failure but then remembered the curse's goal was better governance.

Edited 2020-10-05 06:17 (UTC)

Seeking better governance by feeding the flames of partisan hatred is right up there with barbecuing pork ribs to encourage vegetarianism or having an orgy to further the cause of celibacy.

His lack of self-awareness would in the past have been impressive.

Edited 2020-10-05 06:30 (UTC)

It IS amazing if you ever sit down and read Miller’s work, these actions fly in the face of everything he’s taught.

Pick a goal that could work even without magic, then break it down into subgoals.

Do an enchantment of them whole thing and work magic at every step.

What’s going on now is the sort of goal he’d have said was a waste of time and dangerous just five years ago.

Then again recently posted about being able to reach across the isle, be kinder to the other side, and end purity spirals one of his Pro-Trump students said Miller was correct that the lefts purity spirals have driven many to the right.

Miller told the student that he was pathetic for switching sides just because the right treated him better than the left and had a ready made ideology (as if Miller’s side doesn’t have one.)

Since the coronavirus is no more dangerous to most people than a bad cold

The thing is, there's no way to tell who's going to suffer a particularly bad case of it vs. who isn't. (Herman Cain, for example.) Polio was the same way before the vaccine was developed -- most people survived, but some were left with devastating permanent effects even if they did survive. Compassion for anyone who is suffering from any illness is always the best way to respond.

Of course. My point is that gloating over Trump's supposedly imminent demise was not a bright move on Miller's part.

Also, there are masses of ordinary people holding prayer vigils outside of Walter Reed.

How is what Jason Miller is
doing different from what happened on 4chan with Hilary's pneumonia?

That was also a bad idea.

It should also be pointed out that the first time many on 4chan didn’t believe it would work. Miller is VERY aware of what he is doing and has young children who could be harmed by the splashback. Not anyone targeting then mind you but his own spell work harming them via raspberry jam effect.

Gee, I figured it was just karma ;-)

Well if it’s “karma” hitting Trump it’s to his benefit.

Skipping a debate that would have gone bad for him while getting a boost in the polls similar to winning.

His enemies look unhinged such as attacking well wishers outside of Walter Reed Medical Center.

Then foreign leaders sending well wishes for Trump in doing so destroying in more than a few minds “Orange Man Bad.”

All in all this has been good for Trump.

FWIW, I cast a geomantic chart on Saturday for the question "Does President Trump really have COVID-19?"

No perfection nor denial of perfection, just F. Minor passing from the 1st to the 2nd and into trine with Puer in the 6th (adjusted for 3rd party). I read it as saying something like "he paid an unscrupulous physician to SAY that he has it."

I don't watch the mainstream media, but a friend who does told me that Trump's doctor is changing the story every time he makes a statement. And I know enough about Trump to know that he doesn't do much of anything accidentally, maybe even including "getting" COVID.

Any thoughts?

JMG, particularly your thoughts?

I'm just watching the whole thing with my feet up and a bowl of popcorn handy.

At this rate we will run out of popcorn before we do oil.

November 3, 2020: Peak Popcorn!!!

Um, I don't know if you meant it that way, but I immediately saw "oil" as a double entendre--petroleum depletion/cooking oil for popcorn--and laughed myself silly.

Lol well I’m taking credit for it and why not? Seems we are hitting peak everything.

Except stupidity.

I like you, JMG. Never one to tip your hand...

Oh, it's not a matter of tipping my hand. One of the things I absorbed from the Stoics a while back is that it's a waste of energy to have opinions about things when I can't know the facts, can't influence the outcome, and won't be affected by the situation no matter how it turns out. I also have no opinion about who killed JFK or who built the Georgia Guidestones, for example.

Apparently Trump was just released. I can hear CNN in the background, and their commentators are now debating if he bribed the hospital to release him earlier; or if he's engaged in fraud about getting Covid. I need more popcorn!

I asked my Tarot: How is Trump's condition? Will he recover? Will he die before Nov election?
Queen of Pentacles / The Moon / 10 of Pentacles. I would say: He's fine / there's something unknown ( I actually thought, maybe he isn't even sick) / nothing to worry.

Interesting. On my 3 card reading on Trump, the Moon and 10 of Pentacles came up too.

That's great!

To me that says, "A couple that works well together has a secret, but not to worry, the family is tighter than ever."

But I'm no tarot master...

It turns out that, Trump's herd immunity policy has its own raspberry jam principle!

It looks like the real result of this working is that Trump is about to undo the malign enchantment that the Kung Flu has cast upon the people of the world.

Anyone who is paying attention is going to start wondering how dangerous the 'rona really is if someone the media has been telling us is old, obese and has unhealthy eating habits overcame it in a matter of days.

Some of us have had friends who were young and in good health die from it, so it's still plenty dangerous.

Some of us have friends who were young and in good health die from the flu. It happens every year.....

Hi, Jason Miller here.

Last week I taught a class on Saturn. It was awesome. The following day I took a picture of an altar I set up every year on Autumnal Equinox and keep up till All Souls day with a statue of Death that I have been venerating for two decades or so. I shared it with the caption "Thoughts and Prayers".

This got me thinking about different expressions of thoughts and prayers. I took a snapshot of a Cauldron I keep on the left side of my Cyprian Altar and posted it with the same caption.

The next day, a photo of a "relic" of the Race of Yith that hangs on my wall.

The next day a photo of a Phurba from my Altar. Not in Sadhana or in use, just sitting in its holder with the other Phurbas.

This was followed by a picture of my Waas at the Grave as Ascha Sprague, who I venerate and make offerings to as a local ally and source of wisdom. All with the caption "Thoughts and Prayers".

Apparently these simple, seasonable, and in some cases clearly quirky tongue in cheek photos, have led people to believe that I am launching a series of curses against the President. This idea has spread not only here on FB but to other forums as well.

I am not.

If I was, I would not publicize it.

If it worked I would not claim credit.

Nothing BTW makes me roll my eyes more than individual magicians claiming credit for every hiccup the President suffers.

Also, I may be a bit eclectic for some peoples tastes, but even I am not arranging a Saturnian/Lovecraftian/Cyprianic/Vajrayana/Spiritualist operation.

Good Grief.

Jason Miller

Thanks for this! I was frankly very disappointed to hear the claims being made, and it's good to hear that they were groundless.

This is a question I've been meaning to ask for a long time, but haven't quite figure out how to best frame it. Which is part of the problem, I guess.

It's been clear to me for a long time that I, through various practices like meditation or just good old fashioned cognition, build up these conceptual structures in my head. They are sort of crystalline pieces of art, almost. Each concept in its proper place, usually in this symmetrical formation that makes sense to me and brings me satisfaction, for what its worth. This is just inherently the way I think about myself and my consciousness and the world.

But this crystalline/logical structure lacks the element of love. It's sort of dry and aseptic and theoretical. I feel like I need to infuse it with agape or love or life force, but can't really think of a way to do so.

Is there something you've come across that brings the element of love into ethereal or logical/theoretical though structures? Thanks.

You need to cultivate emotional states in the same way that you cultivate mental structures. Art, music, literature, and memory can help with that, but it takes just as much practice as the thought structures do. Don't try to bring the emotions into the structures yet -- first you need to be able to experience them on their own. Find things that rouse your emotions, and let yourself feel the emotions they waken. That's how you start. Going beyond that? The education of the emotions is a complex process, and to some extent you'll have to feel your way there.

Thanks for your reply.

To be honest, it never really occurred to me that love is an emotion. Feels ridiculous once stated, but there it is. I think I always conceived of it as just a slightly different valence of thought. I will do as you suggest and work along those lines....

This week I have a speculation and two questions about a reply you gave.

The speculation first: Einstein's relativity explains the irregularities in Mercury's orbit, but I wondered if they could be actually be treated as a planet of sorts--and mapped to Daath.

Now for the questions, in this reply:
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/53335.html?thread=3997783#cmt3997783
a "mental censor" was mentioned. Here are the questions:
1) Does it operate in the mental plane, or is this the more common meaning of "mental"?
2) Is there a low-hanging fruit that could be explored to disable it?

Thanks for the Magic Mondays!

1) It's astral rather than mental in the strict sense.

2) Nope. If there were, we wouldn't be in the fix we're in. A great deal of magical training has the weakening of the censor as one of its goals.

Hi JMG

Last week we discussed the benefit of a man invoking Mars as well as Venus when looking for love. I asked my ogham cards about it and got a negative answer. I am hoping you can give me some insight.

I asked:
what would be the result of invoking Mars with orphic hymn, candle, frankancence and prayer;
In general: (me: Muin, action: Gort reversed, result: Phagos)
Romantically: (me: Luis, action: Ngetal reversed, result: Oir)
Should I wait to start invoking Mars rather than starting tonight: Coll reversed.
Overall is it best for me to start invoking Mars tonight: Quert reversed.
Is it best for me to keep my focus on Aphrodite: Gort.
Will I need to wait long for the love that's right for me: coll
Can I ask for a time by the calendar atrbutions in the DMH: mor reversed.

In my natal chart Mars is 1st house in libra, trine MC, conjunct Jupiter and square the ruler of the 7th house. My Venus is 12th house in leo, trine my north node.

Are you able to shed some light on this.
Many thanks.

It looks to me as though now isn't the time, and when the time will be depends on factors that haven't been settled yet. I know that can be difficult to hear.

Is it clear if it's factors that haven't been settled or haven't been revealed?

I got some intuitive messages from Aphrodite, though I'm not 100% sure aren't from my subconscious, that she's on the case, has someone in mind and that I should wait for the summer.

I have got a few divination's saying to sit tight and wait in response to asking if there's anything I can do now. I'm probably being rather like the kid in the back seat saying "are we there yet?".

That's not clear to me.

There's an important conversation or set of conversations I need to have that I've been worried about for a long time, and it has seemed like Mercury Retrograde is in the way. I've talked about these things with the same person in the past, so I would normally classify it as banging one's head on a brick wall and to be avoided, but unfortunately it's essential and unavoidable unless some miracle happens.

But I think based on what you have said and also this page which has a similar outlook:
https://www.sagegoddess.com/what-is-mercury-retrograde/
"Mercury Retrograde is a cosmic do-over. If you want to try again – at a relationship, a project, an idea, a conversation – you get a second chance with Mercury who (from our view) stops, backs up, and gives you another shot."
that maybe Mercury Retrograde might even be a better time for it?

Anything Mercurial that begins with "re-" is favorable during a retrograde. That includes returning to an old issue and revisiting previous conversations. Wait until a few days after the retrograde begins if you can, so Mercury is moving, and consider doing some planetary charity to Mercury -- 8 donations of $8 (or a multiple thereof) made in the hour of Mercury on a Wednesday to a charity that teaches children to read, or to your local library, would be good options.

Thank you very much.

I already have been but I realised I forgot to do the candles, I've only been doing the donations and the recitation.

Should I continue like that rather than starting the candles partway through?

You can always add in the candles.

Why is spontaneous magic so ephemeral, and what can be done about it? For example, when moving around my house in the dark, I held my hand up and visualised it blazing with light, and was able to get around as if it was well lit. The next few times I tried it, it still worked, but not as well. A half dozen times in though, and it completely stopped working.

I don't know that anyone has a good explanation for it. It's a known phenomenon, though; one of the reasons operative mages practice ritual work daily is to get past it, and reach the point at which things start working reliably again.

Is it related to the Dark Night of the Soul?

No, that comes much later.

So if I persevere with what I was doing, eventually it'd start working again?

Quite possibly, but you'd have to experiment and find out.

Iamblicus described Saturn's influence as "stability", but taken unbalanced would be manifested as "rigidity". He also described Mars as "kinetic expression" and taken as unbalanced would be "inflammation".

How would you describe the rest of the planets as ideals and their common unbalanced forms?

Thanks so much.

I wouldn't. I'd encourage any student of planetary magic or astrology to meditate on this, using Iamblichus' examples as templates, and come up with their own keywords. (This is a very common exercise assigned to students of occultism.)

On the other blog you wrote:

"Saturn, the planet who rules Saturday, is the lord of time and its cycles, and also the ruler of philosophy and the higher capacities of the mind generally, so that makes a good deal of astrological sense."

I thought Jupiter was the ruler of philosophy and the higher capacities of the mind generally?

If it is Saturn, is it related to Saturn's school of hard knocks which can either make people bitter or philosophical?

Nope. Jupiter's too laid back to get into philosophy. Check any medieval or Renaissance listing of the correspondences of Saturn and you'll find philosophy there.

It seems like modern astrologers have a far to negative understanding of Saturn...

True enough! Saturn is challenging to work with but an immense source of strength, stability, and insight once you get to know him. The same is true of philosophy...

I've been reading nearly everything Gregory Shaw has published in articles after reading his book.

Who would you recommend me read next for such high quality magical scholarship for that era?

Have you read Iamblichus' own writings yet? That would be my suggestion, since that was the approach I used. Proclus and Plotinus are also worth close study.

First of all, what our host said: Read Iamblichus himself.

There is a new edition and translationn out by Emma C Clarke and others (2003 and 2004), but Taylor's older translation is excellent, as Taylor himself was a Neoplatonist. Clarke also has a good monograph on Iamblichus, "Iamblichus De Mysteriis" (2001).

Eventually, after you've absorbed Shaw, there is Hans Lewy"s "Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy," which is magisterial, but very long and subtle (= difficult to read).

Can someone please get Lewy back into print? That's a hugely important book and it's all but unavailable at this point.

It is indeed!

Apparently Brepols holds the copyright now, and every so often Michael Tardieu puts out a new edition with updates at the end of his long (and growing) cumulative appendix of updates to the work. However, Brepols seems to print only a small number of copies of each new edition, and it soon becomes unavailable. An hour ago, the French variant of Amazon listed a single copy of the 2011 edition for somewhat more than 100 euros; but I just checked again now, and it's was within the last hour. (Note: the English/American variant of Amazon does not list all that many books published in Europe; always check all the European variants of Amazon if one wants to buy such a book.)

Edit: "and it was sold within the last hour."

Do gems, without being cleaned or purified, just lose power or do they actually turn negative as they get etherically dirty?

Crystals of any kind -- and gems are crystals -- take on what we used to call the "vibe" of the person who wears them or the place where they're kept. If that just has ordinarily grubby etheric energy, the gems slowly lose force; if the person or the place is noxious, they can become quite thoroughly nasty. Equally, a gem worn by a really capable occultist or mystic becomes charged with their energy, and turns into a sacred object in its own right.

What do you like and dislike about Tarot as a study for divination?

As noted above, I appreciate the extreme richness and flexibility with which the Tarot can map out all the factors in a situation, especially in larger spreads. I'm not so happy with the difficulty of getting a straightforward answer from the cards!

Hello!

Comments and a question

I practice LRM and geomancy. Tarot cards never seem to work for me. I guess I may need to meditate a bit more on their meanings. However, geomancy is powerful stuff.

(1) A few months back I did a reading for a lady friend concerning her boy friend (whom I never met). The reading was not favourable. A second reading confirmed that she wont get anything from him, like financial security. The reading was crisp and clear. Within weeks the boy friend told her that he could no longer pursue the relationship with her. I was dumbstrucked. I was sorry for her of course but awed by the power of geomancy.

(2) I try to meditate daily and right now I meditate on sacred geometric diagrams and alternate with geomantic figures. Last night I was attempting to understand a given geometric construction and I meditated upon it just before going to sleep. I dreamt about the solution and presto in the morning it turned out to be correct! I had been stuck on this diagram for weeks beforehand.

In summary, keep practising! These techniques are powerful indeed...

(3) Now for the question: I have suggested to my lady friend prayer and meditation. But at this time she really needs to find a job and with the Covid 19 crisis, jobs can be few to get. Could affirmations like: "I am a trustworthy and reliable person who brings value to a business" help her find a potential employer?

Thanks in advance!

1 & 2) Excellent. TS does indeed W!

3) It's never a good idea to start affirmations for the first time when a crisis has already arrived -- the emotional stress and other factors can interfere powerfully with the effect. You need to take up something like that when you're not tied in knots over the outcome! If she's willing, you can do a working for her, since you're not directly involved in the situation. Have you gotten to the section on magic at the end of the geomancy book you're working with? That might give you some starting points to work from.

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