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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.

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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!***

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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?

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?

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

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

Any recommends for reflections or study on it?

Thanks.

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.

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?

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) 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.

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.

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.

Here you go:

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

- Cicada Grove

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?

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.

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

There's always that!

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?

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

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.

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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

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?

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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Magic Monday

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Saturn Returns

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Re: Saturn Returns

Glass Bead Game

Let There Be Light!

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Re: Glass Bead Game

Next steps

Mouni sadhu

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Re: Let There Be Light!

The Johnny Appleseed Report

The world is indeed a bigger place!

Re: Next steps

Re: Mouni sadhu

CGD Greater Central Ray Invocation

Re: The Johnny Appleseed Report