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.

 

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!

Comments

Divination by-the-book

[temporaryreality]

Hi JMG,

Since mid-2018, I've been on the slow-boat DH (and slight DMH) track wherein I've adopted the primary practices of SOP, meditation, divination (plus offerings and prayer). Until recently, I wasn't compelled to do much more than that, but I find myself reassessing that. This leads to my question that must be prefaced by a sheepish admission - I may have gone and done what you're always saying not to do, to wit "Don't change the instructions you're provided in the magical system you're learning." - perhaps you can confirm if I've done that, and if so, what my options are given the situation:

Ogham and I never "clicked" to the extent that I actually perceived a kind of stonewalling, begrudging "yeah, I'll answer your question about a particular topic, but if you keep asking for daily readings, you're gonna get completely irrelevant answers. Pbbbt."

I'd lay off Ogham a bit, re-start, maybe attempt a slightly different approach, get nada, rinse & repeat.

Finally, I took off in a new direction, using the elemental correspondences of the fews as subject for my meditation, each in turn and in some depth. I ended up "collecting" a round of twenty-five Ogham-derived (but different) symbols and meanings and started using them as my daily divination source, with very good results. As in, the system seems happy to "see" me, is spot-on a lot of the time (with a few head-scratchers thrown in now and again), and hints at further depth and juicy complexity should I wish to devote more attention to it.

Now, if I do decide that I want to go further into DMH's lessons, should I set this aside and try to work with Ogham again? Have I done the silly thing and tried to tweak the system and not follow the instructions?

I asked Kimberly (who offers Ogham readings) to approach the fews on my behalf to inquire into how I should understand my (non)relationship with Ogham. Her interpretation of the fews she drew (Quert, Tinne, Coll reversed) was positive, mine not so much (I don't dare ask them myself at this point, my interpretation reinforces that).

Eventually, I intend to pick up your forthcoming sacred geometry course and work in that direction, so I'll learn the sacred geometry oracle, but in the meantime, have I gone off the rails here or do you think I'm ok to keep going with the elemental divination in conjunction with the very basic practices plus working my way toward being able to do the grove ritual?

Thanks for taking the time to read and consider my question.

Re: Divination by-the-book

[ecosophia]

The Ogham was traditionally a filing system in which almost any set of symbols or ideas could be fitted. If you've kept the elemental meanings in their same order, you should be able to use your modified Ogham oracle just as well as standard Ogham. Normally, that kind of tinkering isn't a good idea, but by good luck, accident, the will of the Great Old Ones, or what have you, you stumbled across one of the places where it can work.

So proceed with the oracle, and consider eventually publishing it as a deck.

Re: Divination by-the-book

[temporaryreality]

I did luck out and I'm so glad!

I've kept them in the same order and several still correspond to their "mother Ogham," though as a whole, rather than being tree/species based, their images (such as I've figured out so far) seem to be landscape based and several meanings are very different. I'm writing up what I've learned about the system and most definitely hope to publish it. It'll be a ways off, but now that I can go ahead and learn the grove ritual (well, after I ask in a divination :D), I'll be one step closer by being able to use scrying to develop the system more.

It was accidental tinkering (it just started as meditation) but I'll be careful as I proceed with more of the DH/DMG to not invent-as-I-go.