ecosophia | Magic Monday

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:

"Discipline has long been interpreted as self-control, or as some would say, "the overcoming of the lower nature.' The difficultiy is that such words as 'conquest' and 'overcoming' suggest an entirely inconsistent aggressiveness of technique. The true metaphysician is not a wearied man wrestling with his lower nature; rather he is poised and relaxed, achieving through realization instead of conflict. Avoid the process of suffering your way into a spiritual state."

That's from Manly P. Hall's Self-Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization, arguably Hall's best book and one of the classics of the Golden Age of American occultism. (The image to the left, on the other hand, is one of Augustus Knapp's splendid illustrations for Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages.)

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!***

***AHEM. THIS POST IS CLOSED. Please quit with the political bickering!***

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

Magic Monday

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps

Re: Next steps