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: 

 

"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.

 

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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!***

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Comments

[ecosophia]

It's a game, of the kind that Eric Berne anatomized in Games People Play. You play at doing magical training, while carefully avoiding anything that will actually force you to wake up and become responsible for your life, so you can daydream about being a Big Powerful Mage while your life continues its accustomed circle around the drain. It's an easy trap to fall into; I was in it early on, before some life experiences and the effects of magical practice jolted me out of it.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it goes deeper than that, Brother Greer.

When I say that my small children are taught to obey without question, I very often get a reaction that this is child abuse, not a necessity for keeping several littles safe and alive. Being able to shout 'stop' or 'come here' and be instantly obeyed is a preventative measure against traffic or snakes with buzzing tails. Questions are welcome, but only after obedience. The few times we've had true emergencies this training has stood my children in good stead.

Questioning authority might very well be part of America's unwritten unifying belief systems. And it strikes me that perhaps always questioning is a necessary component to reach the Tamanous society you described.

Of course the educational systems push back against that, as do government systems, as questions can be so inconvenient. And yet, we still question.

So both an excuse and a natural urge of the land, perhaps? The determining question being, of course, when the question is answered, what does the questioner do next?

BoysMom

P.S. I got interrupted in the middle of writing this by a question from a teen, of course, about how much of what was considered magic in the past is explained by science today, and how much is not? One of my futures-dreamers. But then they all are, so far . . . that trait has turned out remarkably heritable.

[ecosophia]

Maybe so, but in the cases I've been able to examine up close -- my own among them -- it was a classic self-defeating game, and nothing more.

[(Anonymous)]

I think every family should pick someone to deal with emergencies. That person should learn what to do in the most common emergencies and then conduct drills for everyone else.

Dad was always our EP. One day after we were all grown up, I was visiting and heard a loud thud. I thought it might be a meteorite. Dad immediately sent us all to the basement. No sooner did we get down there than he told us to come back up. The house at the other end of the street was burning. He said the thud had been the house exploding, probably gas. That’s what it turned out to be. So if you ever hear a thud, head for cover.

The cause of the explosion turned out to be the house’s owner hiring, for cheap, a unlicensed person willing to backhoe the yard without the gas company coming out and putting out the little warning flags. The hapless backhoe man, who died in the explosion, was a newly arrived Mexican who may not have known the effort had NOT been cleared with the gas company. (Around here, at least, they won’t flag the area unless they are sure anyone who will be working there is qualified.)

Short version: an explosion does not sound like it does in the movies. If you hear a loud thud, head for safety.