Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

 It's almost midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Let's start things out with a bit of alchemical text: 

 

"It [the first matter] has been compared to all things in the world, visible and invisible, possessed of a soul or not, corporeal or spiritual, dead or alive, mineral or vegetable; to the elements and their compositions, to things hot and cold, further to all colors, all fruits, all birds, and in short to all things between heaven and earth." 

 

The image is the third illustration from Splendor Solis, the most gorgeously illustrated of all the old alchemical texts. The text on the shield says, "From two waters make one, which you will seek to make into Sun and Moon, and make them drink the inimical wine.  You will see when they are dead.  Then make earth out of water and you will multiply the stone."

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!***

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

Comments

Rulerships

[(Anonymous)]

I considered the following rulerships after reading your delineation of the upcoming Presidential inauguration. I was struck by your treatment of the rulerships of the Houses according to their Zodiacal placements. I hadn't realized that this could have such an influence; so I again reviewed my natal chart with this in mind, and the foregoing questions presented themselves.

My natal Saturn rules my Second House, and is posited in the angular First House. He has some afflictions, but is basically strong in his domicile Capricorn. Since I gather that the Second House that he rules is a House of earned income, does this mean that I have a chance of earning through Saturn-related occupations?

Likewise my natal Sun, also well placed, rules the Ninth. I have read that besides philosophy and religion and all the deep questions whose answer is 42, the 9th is connected with publishing. Since the Sun is to some extent a wealth planet, does this mean I have a shot at earning by authorship or publishing, or is the 9th nothing to do with that?

I ask because my natal Jupiter and the ruler of my midheaven are afflicted, by each other, and weak in cadent Houses, making their situations a source of lifelong frustration.

I would like to get a big book such as Llewellyn George's A-Z Delineator and work all this out myself; and indeed last year I *did* get that book, through ILL, and took much time to make a thorough delineation of my chart. And Mr. George told me that by a certain placement I have much difficulty acquiring the books I need in order to learn things: and experience has shown this to be so.

Re: Rulerships

[ecosophia]

It's a source of puzzlement to me that so many modern astrologers neglect the practical implications of planetary house rulerships. If your natal Saturn is strongly placed and rules the 2nd, that means that you'll have to struggle financially in youth but will end up quite comfortable by the time you get old. You will have to work for it -- Saturn is always a planet of hard work, and especially in this context -- but you can prosper through your own efforts. How to do so is something you'll have to read based on Saturn's aspects and other indications in the chart. As for the 9th, it can tell you whether you can get published -- that'll depend as much on the Sun's aspects and the house in which it's located as anything -- but it can't tell you whether you can make money at it.

The inimical wine

[(Anonymous)]

Concerning the nature of the inimical wine mentioned in the inscription on the knight's shield in the splendid illustration you've provided: those little Manneken Pis statuettes in the background cause me a certain suspicion. One comes to the albedo by way of the negredo, I guess.

Re: The inimical wine

[ecosophia]

That's not a new speculation. One of the statues is male and one is female, if that helps any.

Astral Thunder?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

This past summer, and especially these past few weeks, it sometimes seems as though I “hear” thunder, or explosions of some sort, in the far distance. I almost reflexively brace myself, waiting for impact.

The heavens wheeling into their new alignment? A bad tide rolling in? Am I a nut?

The other night I awoke to a vision of a woman kneeling, with her hands covering her face, on my wall. At the same time, a thin, extremely bright white light began to drop from the ceiling, next to her. It was halfway to the ground before all of this vanished. I marveled at it all, decided the times are crazier than I am, and went back to sleep.

Surely I’m not the only one experiencing such weirdness.

Would be grateful for your insights.

Thank you,

OtterGirl

Re: Astral Thunder?

[ecosophia]

1) Astral thunder is a known thing, and almost always counts as an omen. Can you tell the direction -- either in terms of compass points, or in terms of whether it's to your left, right, etc.?

2) Can you describe the woman any more clearly? Does she remind you of anyone?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! It always seems to be behind me. Often it’s an anticipation, rather than a sound.

As to the woman, we have a Diego Rivera poster in front of our bed, “The Flower Seller”. The woman’s back is to us. The woman I saw was not her, but was brown-skinned, long black hair. She sat sideways, kneeling, hands over her face. My first thought was grief.

This doesn’t bode well, does it...

[ecosophia]

No, neither of them bodes well.

Anyone else experiencing anything of this sort?

[(Anonymous)]

1. I recently heard about the book Summoning the Gods by Collin Cleary. Some of its themes sound similar to those in your post on the other blog, a couple of months ago, about Disenchantment. What do you and the commentariat think of this book, if you've read it? Do you recommend it?

2. You said here about the presidential inauguration chart, and also the Capricorn ingress, that the charts showed a 'calm before the storm'. How long do they indicate that would last?

3. Last week, you said 'If you invoke the same planet over and over again you become more like that planet. If you invoke all the planets you balance the planetary energies in yourself.' What if you have some badly aspected planets and don't invoke those? Is that an inevitable problem if doing planetary invocations?

[ecosophia]

1) I haven't read it, or even seen it.

2) That's very hard to tell from a chart of that type. Certainly we've got some months, at least -- the Capricorn ingress chart for the US didn't show anything on that scale arriving during the three months that it applies.

3) Yes, but you can do planetary charity to balance out the debilitated planets.

Astrological Charting Software?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG:

What software do you use to generate your mundane astrology charts?

Thanks, Cicada Grove

Re: Astrological Charting Software?

[ecosophia]

I use an old version of Solar Fire.

Having trouble with the Druid Magic Handbook

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have been working steadily through the DMH for some time now. I am at the Ogham Pathworking and am having a devil of a time figuring out how to draw the pentagrams . I know I figured out the process for the Cauldron Consecration ritual which I did in the summer but my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seems to be worse now.

No matter how I study the Cauldron ritual, I can't seem to figure out how to draw the pentagrams. Fatigue is like intoxication and makes everything extra difficult.

I would be very grateful if you could explain the process to me in simpler terms.

Maxine

Re: Having trouble with the Druid Magic Handbook

[ecosophia]

There's no simpler way to explain it. What you need to do is to break it down, one pentagram at a time, and draw yourself a "cheat sheet" for each one on a piece of note paper.

[(Anonymous)]

I scrapped my old blog/website because my previous partner had it tied in with big tech and refused to budge. This summer I started working on a new one that uses a lot of your ideas but with a critical focus on local politics to counteract the "do as I say" narrative being pushed on our community. Also there is satire mixed in because it is fun to write that stuff.

I bought the domain and did a soft launch for testing purposes and then took it down to rework it, but have not promoted it yet. Is the astrological chart already set in stone?

Do you have any general guidelines for blog related electional astrology? You seem to have done very well promoting your unconventional ideas. Thank goodness, too.

[ecosophia]

No, your astrological chart is for the moment when you launch it for real and begin promoting it. Everything you've done so far has been conception and gestation; that's the birth.

Look for an election in which the Moon, Venus, or Jupiter is applying by sextile or trine to your natal Mercury, Jupiter, Sun, or Midheaven, and none of the malefic planets (Mars, Saturn, Uranus) are in negative aspects to anything in your chart.

Occultism and American Lit...

[(Anonymous)]

I’ve noticed some thematic similarities between A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Green Wizardry, and The Druid Revival Reader. Is Samuel Clemens an éminence grise in the Druid Revival, or is some strange convergent evolution at work?
Rusty

Re: Occultism and American Lit...

[ecosophia]

I think it's convergent evolution, though I can't be sure of that; George Washington helped crowdfund Iolo Morganwg's first important Druid publication, you know!

Planetary Charity for Venus

[(Anonymous)]

What would be your best advice for planetary charity to Venus? I know artists and musicians, are there any other categories that are relevant?

Re: Planetary Charity for Venus

[ecosophia]

Arts, crafts, and other creative pursuits are good options for Venus charities -- for example, a charity that provides music or arts classes for children would be a good choice. The other obvious option is women's charities -- a donation to a battered women's shelter, for example. Women's issues correspond to Venus, men's issues to Mars, and issues involving those who don't fall neatly into either category to Mercury.

Fortunately Minor and the 11th House

[adwelly]

(From Art and Practice of Geomancy)

I’m discursively working my way through geomantic correspondences, and I happened to notice that like Fortuna Major, Fortuna Minor is strengthened in the 5th house and weakened in the 11th. I read that Minor represents amongst other things, sources of external help and the 11th house represents amongst other things sources of external help. My immediate reaction was that the relationship between them should be a strengthening one.

I haven’t reached the point where I’m going to have to give this some careful thought, but it’s out there on the horizon. I thought I’d just check that it wasn’t a typo before I got there. Discursive meditation is hard enough as it is without trying to make sense of a typesetter’s slip up.

Is the house relationship the same in Fortuna Major and Minor?

Many thanks

Andy

Re: Fortunately Minor and the 11th House

[ecosophia]

What's going on here is astrological: Leo, which is ruled by the Sun, is the natural planetary ruler of the 5th, and thus the 11th is his weakest house. If you meditate on the Sun as the significator of the ego, this isn't hard to figure out!

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, this is a suggestion, I want to make sure everyone sees it in plenty of time. As soon as you start a topic on the other blog I’ll put it there too. My suggestion is: everyone who can attend the big summer feast have a T-shirt with MEDITATE ON IT printed up, and wear it to the picnic.

If I remember correctly, someone also suggested a barbershop quartet to sing 🎼”What a wonderful theme for meditation!”🎼. They’d be particularly impressive if they were wearing the T-shirts. Maybe they could even work up a Temptations-type dance routine. (“Edna, quick, come to the window. You won’t believe what those weird guys with the beards are doing now!”)

—Lady Cutekitten

[ecosophia]

Too funny! Do you know a good online place where a tee shirt like that could be produced and purchased?

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings,
A warm thank you for your recommendation for Parker’s Astrology. It is the first astrological text that I have encountered that is laid out like a high school textbook, with clear examples illustrating the relavent points. While it is not without its biases (its total dismissal of placidus for equal houses), it manages to cover a surprisingly wide breadth of topics including horary astrology without getting bogged down in Llewyn’s A to Z’s frequent asides. It is definitely a beginner’s text, but it is pretty thorough, supplemented with “A to Z”

[ecosophia]

I'm glad to hear that -- not least because now I have something to recommend to people who need an introductory book on astrology!

[(Anonymous)]

I had a few small revelations during meditations that I wanted to run by you. Is the collective unconscious basically the same thing as the astral plane? And is the accumulation through time of one's memories the same thing as the growth of one's astral body?

[ecosophia]

Not exactly in either case. The collective unconscious is Jung's way of talking about the nonpersonal aspects of the whole inner world, which includes astral, mental, spiritual, and higher aspects; the astral plane is, however, where most people contact the collective unconscious most easily (e.g., in dreams). The accumulation of memories is one function of the astral body, but it has others.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning JMG,
A small point perhaps but I wonder if there's any utility in having pictures of gods (for example those used in the SoP every day) on the things you use and see a lot. For example, what about Thoth/Hermes on my telephone, which I pick up fifty times a day to look at? I also understand there's a link between these gods (and Mercury) and communication. Thanks.

[ecosophia]

Good question. Try it and see what results you get!

Basic Magical Practices

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid

I have been doing discursive meditation for a short while (with some breaks). I have just bought a set of tarot cards to begin divination. The next step once I have the first two in place as habits is beginning the SOP in the next couple of months.

As I understand it, these are the three basic magical practices. The idea is to do these alone for a few years (plus reading) till my kids are older and I have more time to really look into ritual magic.

I have seen you post several times that once you start down the path of magic, you can't stop and you pretty much have to continue at least basic ritual practices for the rest of your life as a protective measure, because you become sensitized to the other planes. Is that an accurate summary?

Will discursive meditation+divination+SOP take me to that level or do I need to get into proper ritual magic for that? Or can I stop them safely at any time if I'm only doing those three things? Will cutting out the SOP make a difference?

Thank you!

Re: Basic Magical Practices

[ecosophia]

The basic triad of magical practices are right on the edge. Some people can do those for a while, stop, and go do something different with their lives. Others find that they're across the border:

"For mark! no sooner was I fairly found
Pledged to the plain, after a pace or two,
Than, pausing to throw backward a last view
O'er the safe road, 'twas gone; gray plain all round:
Nothing but plain to the horizon's bound,
I might go on; naught else remained to do."

If you aren't ready to commit to the path, you can practice a little meditation, a little divination, do some reading here and there, and be fine. Serious practice of the three elements of the basic triad, and you're in the gray zone.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question on the CGD consecration of the ovate temple.

Reading page 89-90 again, I noticed that the consecration is done only once, just before meditation, not after. I've been doing it twice, one time before meditation, and another after it (then the purification, etc., all in reverse order).

Is the consecration supposed to be done only once? What would be the side effects of to be doing it twice, if this is not the proper way?

[ecosophia]

It's fine. When you proceed to later Ovate lessons, you'll find that it's normally done once in the opening and once in the closing.

Regarding spiritual evolution

[(Anonymous)]

In last month's open post on your other blog, I had asked you about plants and how they are viewed from an occult standpoint. To this, you replied by giving me an example from the Rosicrucian tradition and explained that plants are, from an occult perspective, less spiritually 'developed' (I use this word for lack of a better term) than animals. I still have some doubts regarding that and I meant to ask you in this month's Open Post, but since there was none, I am asking you here.

From the perspective of evolutionary biology, plants aren't ancestors of the animal kingdom, they are a kingdom of their own which shares a common ancestry with the animal kingdom. Thus, I think that any discussion of the spiritual development of plants should take this into account, shouldn't it? Couldn't it be possible that the Rosicrucian tradition wasn't aware of this and hence they assumed that plants were ancestors of the animal kingdom and hence less spiritually developed than them?

In 'The Secret Life Of Plants', the author talks about beings which are associated with plants (which Theosophy calls devas, as you had mentioned). Could it be then that if plants are on a parallel path of spiritual evolution to ours, then plants which have reached the point at which they are at the same point as those human souls who are ready to be reincarnated as the higher beings like demigods, get incarnated as the dryads of ancient Greek tradition? In other words, are dryads what plants reincarnate as (to begin with) once they reach their equivalent of what the Druid tradition calls Gwynfydd (assuming that plants are indeed on a parallel path as ours)?

Sorry for such a long question. I wanted to make it shorter but I couldn't.

Regards,
Viduraawakened.

Re: Regarding spiritual evolution

[ecosophia]

That's not what's taught in the occult traditions I've been studying of late. That doesn't mean that those traditions are right and you're wrong, but the teachings are what they are.

In terms of the teachings, evolutionary biology isn't the same thing as the evolution of the soul. Plant bodies are what they are because they have the appropriate features for souls at a particular stage of spiritual evolution; animal bodies are what they are because they have those features plus another set, suited to souls at a more complex stage of spiritual evolution. Remember that everything plants do, animals also do, but the reverse is not true; that's the marker that shows a difference of evolutionary grade. Plants have material and etheric bodies, and some of them (specifically, trees) have astral sheaths; animals have material, etheric, and astral bodies, and some of them (specifically, humans, and a few other species) have mental sheaths.

As for devas, again, according to the teachings, they're a different order of being entirely. The mineral creation is superintended by elementals, who were created by the Lords of Flame; the vegetable creation is superintended by devas, who were created by the Lords of Form; the animal creation is superintended by group souls, who were created by the Lords of Mind. One of the tasks of our swarm, when we complete our pilgrimage down and then back up the planes, will be to create a similar set of beings on the mental plane.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. You've written before that you shouldn't do magic during the time when an eclipse is happening. Does that include your daily standard SOP?

2. With the three few Ogham spread you outlined in the DMH, you wrote that the second few represents the potential for change coming from the future, but the third few represents your position in the present. Does that mean that the potentials from the future might override the few indicated in the present, or that despite those potentials from the future, the few representing the present will still be the outcome? I have taken it to mean that it could go either way.

For example, today's Ogham reading was reversed Nuin (from past), Quert (potential from future), and reversed Ruis (in present). I read the latter two cards as meaning that the it could go either way; the day will tend greatly toward unresolved things or forces, yet there is potential given some effort to resolve these things and reap the rewards of doing so.

3. Does visualization eventually grow in strength to the point where your visualizations actually look like they are in reality? I can fairly easily imagine a forest in my mind's eye with my eyes closed, for example. It has a ghostly, unreal quality but it looks accurately like a forest, and I can focus in on details like a particular tree, or a fern, or some moss.

With my eyes open, I can for example picture a lizard on the table next to me as I write this, but it's not that the lizard is actually there, I can see through it to the reality behind, but I can also picture that lizard running across the table in a fairly realistic yet 'ghostly' way. But I never could mistake the imaginary lizard with a real one. Do the visualizations ever get so strong that it's hard to tell whether these creations are in reality or not?

4. Not a question, but a report. I'm on day 2 of this month's cell salt protocol with the 3 days of extra salts. This morning's SOP was a bit more vivid than normal. But what was more interesting was that I had very intense dreams, and so did my wife - but there were common themes. I had to escape from some people with guns, and then discovered an ancient Egyptian temple covered in soil. My wife dreamed of being kidnapped, supposedly flown to Iran, and was made to believe she was actually there when she wasn't. That we both had dreams of being chased/kidnapped, and that somehow locations in the Middle East were featured was a little uncanny. Perhaps the full moon and the coming eclipse had something to do with it all, too.

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

1) No, a good basic banishing is one thing you can certainly do during an eclipse.

2) It really varies from case to case. I recommend meditating on it!

3) Yes, though reaching that point requires a lot of practice.

4) Interesting! Thanks for this.

How does one tell what is a magic system?

[(Anonymous)]

In 2013 I decided to try out feng shui. I got a book on western feng shui, which orients the guas to the front door rather than to the compass like traditional (proper?) feng shui does. That year I had more work than before or since (and fell in love harder and more painfully than for a long time before or since). I also burnt out by the end of 2014 and still haven't recovered nor would I ever want to repeat the experience of burning out on several fronts like that.

In January 2014 I decided to try traditional feng shui but tripped over how complicated it all seemed, so ended up stuck in indecision about the two systems. I felt I had monkey-wrenched it for myself, unwilling to go back to the 'fake' western version and unable to understand the genuine system.

I am now wondering if feng shui is a form of magic system. You said it is a bad idea to mix two systems if you don't know what you're doing. So my questions is, how does one even know when one is dealing with magic systems? I'd like to avoid inadvertently throwing a spanner in the works in future just because I didn't realise I was working with a magic system and was in the process of switching to another magic system.

Re: How does one tell what is a magic system?

[ecosophia]

1) There are many different schools of feng shui. One of the differences among them is that some orient toward physical surroundings and others orient toward compass points. The first one you used isn't "fake," it just belongs to the end of feng shui that focuses on physical surroundings. You can find very detailed accounts of traditonal lore from both systems.

2) Feng shui isn't a magical system as such, but it's powerful stuff -- as you found out! As for figuring out what might be worth treating as a magical system, one thing I use is what I call the James Randi Criterion: anything that a rabid dogmatic materialist like the late James Randi would dismiss as "woo-woo" should be handled with the care appropriate to something that might involve magic. Put more simply, if it scares a rationalist, treat it as magic.

For the Druids in you life

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings!

I thought I would share this here. I was looking for some American made soup spoons since we only have one and the kids fight over it when we have soup. I was looking at solving my problems with solstice gifts. I found these:

https://www.libertytabletop.com/product/celtic/

I noticed that the salad forks had the Three Rays of Light so I had a grab those, too!

Re: For the Druids in you life

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this!

[(Anonymous)]

I have CGD but I haven't started serious work on it yet as I'm still doing other things. However, I do the CGD invoking and banishing rituals of the pentagram every day as I find them useful in helping to keep me 'clean.'

I was leafing through the book and I came across a warning in the Bard section saying to not perform the banishing ritual in the inner grove as it will interrupt the link to the inner energies (of the element of earth, in this case.)

The thing is, I've done this. I was on vacation and with no chance to do a physical invoking/banishing ritual, I did it all in the inner grove. Will this be a big problem for me? Can I undo the damage? I've been doing invoking rituals in the inner grove since I read this, will it help?

Thanks for any advice!

[ecosophia]

The inner grove in question isn't any old inner grove. It's one of a specific set of inner groves used in the Bardic grade to concentrate the energies of the elements. You can invoke and banish to your heart's content anywhere else on the inner planes without the least trouble.

[stcathalexandria]

Now 7 weeks in to LRM and I've been surprised by how many emotions have come bubbling up during my days. I do all the practices first thing in the morning before breakfast. Later when I'm walking the dog, or in the shower, or preparing a meal, out of the blue will come some anger about one of my family members or a wave of regret or a urge to have sex. Is this a result of the magical practices? I've just been journaling what comes up as a way of examining it and not shunning it away.

Second question, I did a tarot card reading, two cards for each week of December, and for the week of Christmas got 5 of Swords and Justice. I immediately began to worry and try to figure out how to avoid any upheaval and loss. How do you approach such readings? I'm thinking too of the inauguration day reading you did. I'm noticing the steps of denial, bargaining, etc with myself and want to jump to acceptance. Am I making too big a deal of this?

[ecosophia]

1) That's common, and a good sign. If you're getting sudden emotions rather than sudden troubles, it means that you're dealing with your unfinished business as a series of states of awareness, rather than having to grapple with them in your life.

2) One of the great lessons of daily Tarot practice -- or any other divinatory system you care to name -- is that it's very, very rare for negative cards to mean the dreadful things that beginners think they mean. The 5 of swords may mean that you will have to let go of something you want -- quite possibly something very minor -- because you realize it would be unfair to insist on having it. Relax, note what actually happens on Christmas week, and go on from there.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you know if you have a demon obsessing you?

[ecosophia]

First, get yourself checked out by a competent psychotherapist, and be honest with them. Mental illness is far more common than actual obsession. If you get a clean bill of mental health, take up some kind of regular spiritual practice and watch what happens. If you're obsessed, the entity will go nuts, thrash around wildly, and then go away.

[(Anonymous)]

My understanding is that even if you met long ago and have been dating for a while and so this is not actually the beginning of the relationship, still you should not get married on an eclipse day, because it's still the beginning of the marriage. Is that correct?

There's an employment situation that I'm wondering if it's similar enough. Say you discovered a job long ago and applied and did a couple interviews, but now they want you to fill out the official internal application where you give them your references and so on. Is that the same--don't do it on an eclipse day? (Dunno if I can persuade my spouse to do that.) Or is it OK because you actually started the application process long ago and this is only the official internal application?

[ecosophia]

Doing something in the same calendar day as the one in which an eclipse happens means nothing. This morning's eclipse began at 2:32 AM Eastern time and ended at 6:53 Eastern time; if you weren't filling out an application during that specific window of time, it doesn't matter in the least.