Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just getting on for midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything ***about occultism*** (ahem) 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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I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and I have a new answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain other gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I now have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online. 

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

With that said, have at it! 

***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

Comments

[wbj]

I don’t have a question, but last week someone asked about the possibility of electricity in cities disrupting the etheric plane, and since I’d been looking into that myself for a while, I’ve written up my observations on electricity’s effects on the subtle planes. I hope you don't mind if I post this here for people interested in the topic to check it out.

https://wbj.dreamwidth.org/761.html

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this.

[(Anonymous)]

Might you and the assembled Wizardren care to dabble in dream interpretation?
I found myself in the dream cave from A Voyage to Hyperborea, and someone unseen was offering me a magic bag. Naturally, the bag changed shape and material every time I looked at it. Kidskin panels at first, then a suede marble bag. “You just put your enemies inside.” I did not like that idea. The price was much too high. “No? Well, you can put these beads in it.” They were ordinary plastic in blue, white, and silver. I didn’t like that idea either and woke up just as the bag took the shape of a suede Elder Thing from a summer camp craft kit.
And, no, I didn’t notice if the head was detachable.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

According to hoodoo tradition, dream interpretation is one of the things you have to have a gift for, and I don't. Sorry!

[d_mekel]

Unintentionally, the spring equinox falls on my last day of LRM. I figured it may be beneficial to do the self initiation that Saturday night or following sunday morning since I've been studying/memorizing it this past week. Is there anything you would suggest to this idea?

Second, I saw you mentioned elsewhere you would have considered joining a rosicrucian order if you were christian or could handle the vegetarian diet. I see there are a couple websites out there. Which one is "the" one.

[ecosophia]

1) It's a fine idea.

2) I currently belong to three Rosicrucian orders -- the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, which is an invitational order for Masons; the Societas Rosicruciana in America, which is an old-fashioned occult order; and ​L'Ordre de la Rose+Croix Esthétique du Temple et du Graal, which is a revival of the Sâr Péladan's order. The order I mentioned that I can't join because I'm not a Christian or a vegetarian is the Rosicrucian Fellowship, which was founded by Max Heindel and sells the best astrological ephemeris on the market.

[(Anonymous)]

In a previous Magic Monday, there was a post about mapping the characters of Bloom County onto the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. I asked what for, and you suggested I go see. So – both Milo and the Giant Purple Snorklewacker were both missing from the list. Might they be the manifestation and essence of G-d? Since Binkley knows both characters, he becomes a prophet – probably similar to Amos (regular guy, outraged by banal inhumanities), and… and… now what?
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

I suppose you define the G.P.S. as Macroprosopus and Milo as Microprosopus.

[(Anonymous)]

Would setting up a lodestone altar in the room that I do my banishing ritual be a problem? As in, would the banishing ritual mess with the lodestone magic?

[ecosophia]

I don't know. I don't recall hearing that anyone's put it to the test.

Concerning Theurgy in the Iamblichus Neoplatonic tradition

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,
I am reading Theurgy and the Soul by Shaw. Iamblichus stressed the need for the ritual of Theurgy in order to make a connection with the gods in the act of Demiurgy, but I have yet to read directly what Iamblichus did that he called "theurgy". Is the act of Theurgy somewhat similar to the rituals such as the SOP? If not, would you mind explaining what Theurgy actually is?
Many thanks!

Re: Concerning Theurgy in the Iamblichus Neoplatonic tradition

[ecosophia]

We have only a very sketchy idea about how Iamblichean theurgy was practiced, since none of the rituals have survived. It may have had a fair amount in common with the rituals of the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri, but that's only a guess. Certainly it involved rituals that brought the mage into contact with beneficent spirits and the gods, and so it probably had a certain amount in common with modern ceremonial magic...but again, we just don't know.

God or Not?

[brenainn]

I have a question that might (or might not) be a little odd. Years ago, when I was about 15, maybe 16, I went on vacation to Michigan with my parents. While we were walking around a shopping mall there, I entered a department store and found a Ghanaian wood statue of a tall man. It was on clearance for like $3.50. I felt a strong compulsion to buy it. It quickly became one of my most prized possessions, and I still have it. I also quickly felt like there was a presence in the statue, a living presence that has watched over me since I acquired the piece. As the scales have fallen from my eyes as of late, I have begun to suspect that perhaps this statue has a divine spirit in it. Over the years, I have even felt a desire to make offerings to the statue, though I have yet to do so.

1. Might I have acquired some kind of actual idol, with a divine spirit in it?

2. If so, I'd like to make those offerings to it, though I don't know its name. Would simply offering some incense and prayers be fine?

3. How might I divine the name of this spirit, assuming there is one resident in it?

Re: God or Not?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes.

2) That's a classic way of handling it.

3) When you pray to it, ask it to tell you the name it would like you to call it. See what kind of response you get.

[mrwhite105]

JMG, I hope you and yours are keeping well!

So I've just started getting into magical practice in the Golden Dawn/Hermetic Cabala tradition - starting out with your book Paths of Wisdom, of course. I've only been doing the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the First Stage Meditation so far (it's only been five days), and I have a few questions.

1. Does the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram still have the same effect if you whisper or vibrate the words quietly?

2. When I was doing the LRP only once a day (alternating between invoking and banishing), I noticed more of an effect in terms of what sensations I felt than after I started doing both rituals in the same day. Should the ritual only be done once a day to start out with, and should it have any sustained noticeable effects the more it's practised?

3. The very first time I practised the LRP, I did the invoking ritual and then immediately did the banishing ritual (not knowing any better) and then felt rather dizzy for about an hour and very slightly nauseous. Is that because doing both rituals so close together produces an energy imbalance?

4. After practicing the First Stage meditation a few times, I automatically found myself visualising a ray of light shining upon me similar to what you're supposed to visualise for the LRP, and I felt a warm, tingling sensation focused around my solar plexus and a weird magnetic feeling on my forehead. Just tonight after meditation, I was able to briefly intensify the magnetic feeling around my forehead at will, after which my solar plexus area started to feel very hot and almost as if it was burning (although it didn't hurt). Would you say this is a sign that I'm skipping ahead too quickly and overcharging myself with energy or is this normal?

Thanks

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, though it has more effect if you can be a little louder. You don't have to yell, however.

2) Not necessarily. It's very common for the apparent effect to decline over time as you get used to it. It's not actually having less of an effect -- it's just more familiar and so less striking.

3) It was probably just the fact that it was your first magical practice, and your subtle bodies weren't prepared for it.

4) Such things are perfectly normal. Most students get some odd energy movements early on.

[(Anonymous)]

I’ve been doing the middle pillar from Circles of Power for a few months now, and have had a very strange experience today. When I did the circulation of energies, no matter how hard I tried, the energies would not descend past about the level of my solar plexus. It took a very real effort to do the final Cabalistic Cross after, much more than I have ever needed for ritual work. When I finished, I felt queasy and gross, which has never happened before. The effect lasted for a few hours before finally going away.

Do you know what could cause this? Do you know if I can do anything to prevent it from happening again?

[ecosophia]

It sounds as though you had a blockage around the solar plexus. That's usually caused by emotional tangles -- you might see if some journaling helps. If you can get a professional massage, that can also help quite a bit.

[(Anonymous)]

hi JMG,

having heard you voice your opinion of Aleister Crowley on a Hermitix podcast from a while back, and also having heard you speak well of Grady McMurtry in that same interview, I'm curious to know your opinion (if you have one, that is) on Thelema as it stands today, particularly of Thelemic training organizations like A.'.A.'. .

[ecosophia]

I don't really have one. I've known people in various Thelemic groups, and they run the usual gamut -- some are capable mages with functional lives, others are basket cases, and a fair number have the distinctive astral funk that comes from lots of badly managed sex magic -- the kind of thing that makes their aura feel as though it has lots of sticky fingerprints all over it, and you don't especially want to think about why they're sticky. But I've rarely interacted with the groups, and not at all with the hierarchies.

The Violet Flame

[(Anonymous)]

I'm thinking of taking up the Violet Flame meditation, with its decrees. After encountering mention of it online a couple of years ago, I considered but did not put it into practice; however I was reminded of it when I looked up the website of the Saint Germain Foundation, which you mentioned recently in the answers thread to a post on this forum. I've reviewed what's involved and I think I'm ready to go with it.

I'm wondering about compatibility issues. I practice HOGD rituals adapted for use with Hellenic deities. The imagery used in Violet Flame decrees tends to be Christian. In particular, one is advised to request protection from the archangel Michael. I like the image of the archangel Michael and could probably go with it, but might this not clash with my Hellenic Golden Dawn ritual practice? Will it be best if I keep the practices separate and distinct? Supposing instead I asked for protection from some of the Olympians - what might be likely to happen in that case?

One reason I am drawn to this practice is the claim made for it that sounds much like something you've said about discursive meditation: it helps resolve old karma, and tends eventually toward recollection of past lives. It's mainly the former that interests me.

I've found a number of decrees in verse form by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and am thinking of using or adapting some of them. But apparently she ran the Summit Lighthouse group back in the day, and you've warned us against that as a cultish organization. Would I run the risk of becoming entangled in their egregor by using her materials, or was she active before that developed?

I've listened to some videos of her leading chants, and I didn't like her voice, nor the rhythm she gave to the chants; to my mind the Hare Krishna mantra is the gold standard of chants, as it can be - and often is - made into a beautiful song, is short and easy to remember (but not *too* short, like "Om") and is something one can put into practice right away. But the Violet Flame sounds more like it will really meet my needs.

Re: The Violet Flame

[ecosophia]

That's an interesting question; I don't know of anyone who's tried to combine the Ascended Masters work with Hellenic polytheism. One thing you might consider is asking Apollo to fill the role that St. Michael fills in the standard version -- they have very similar energies. As for Prophet, I don't recommend using any of her work. You'd be better off finding other decrees, or simply writing your own -- that's always an option.

[hippieviking]

The other day while doing my daily practice (Heathen LBRP and MP) I invoked Tyr in order to thank him for something. I did this during the LBRP prior to doing the MP. During the MP and during every ritual I did for the next several days all of my visualizations would only appear to me as black or I would start to visualize in the intended color and it would then turn black. Nothing really felt off or bad about any of this and I could still form the images, just only in black. Any idea why that was happening?

Thanks,
HV

[ecosophia]

No idea. Have you considered a runic divination?

[open_space]

I was meditating on the planes and the sense organs that we have to perceive them. I did this because I started to get uncomfortable at the idea that the egregores I am part of dictate some of my actions and thoughts. I first tried to detach myself from all of them by analyzing my personality and seeing in which egregor it would correspond. However this is a task which seems impossible for the same reason that we can’t remove our bodies from all places; we have a body there and the rest of the planes and it has the be somewhere any given time. Correct?

However, there definitely are some egregores —or perhaps I’m abusing the term but I mean specific currents in the astral and above— sometimes I get in contact with things that I like but loose the connection in a few days only to find out myself —thinking how did I forget about this?— the next time that I get contact with it. How can one keep contact with such a current?

[ecosophia]

1) Correct. You can no more separate yourself from all egregors than you can walk without having your feet touch something.

2) That's one of the advantages of keeping a magical journal and reviewing it regularly.

Banishing

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
Last Saturday between 4 and 5 pm, which was the hour of Saturn, I did a banishing for a friend in their bedroom. Something not friendly was waking them up at 3:30 every morning. So, I hoodoo mopped the house, adding Florida water, some Blue Vervain tincture and some saint John's wort tincture to the water. I opened a grove in the bedroom and used a blue candle for fire. I invoked Saturn to prevent any malign entities from entering the room. I went around the room 3 times burning clouds of frankincense and saying, In the name of the Lord Saturn I ask that no bad thing be allowed to enter this room. Then, I wiped the window and door frames with Saint John's wort shield oil (SJW, angelica and blue vervain macerated in oil) asking Saturn to not allow any bad thing to enter. Then, I closed the grove.

What would you have done differently or in addition? I also consecrated the oil to Saturn on the altar.

I talked to my friend the morning after and they had a peaceful night.
Maxine

Re: Banishing

[ecosophia]

What would I have done differently? Quite a bit, but that's because I have a lot of training and experience in ceremonial magic. Given your background and the kind of work you like to do, that seems like a good set of workings.

Magical battle of Britain

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I think the Meghan/Harry interview with Oprah represents a very nasty attack on Britain. It is already injecting huge levels of race hatred in what was a comparatively harmonious country.

This feels like the latest in a string of occult attacks - I was quite horrified to see the end of your recent UK ingress chart talk of potential for activity by “foreign agents.”

Would this work for a group who want to help protect Britain do you think:

Follow the weekly letters and associated meditations from Dion Fortune’s “Magical Battle of Britain”?

Obviously Dion was writing about different circumstances but it seems that the purely defensive focus on building morale against attack is something needed now as then?

If so, could I ask if anybody would be interested in working these meditations with me? Minimal org. required apart from Sunday timings I think

Thanks!

Re: Magical battle of Britain

[ecosophia]

I think it's an excellent idea, as long as you follow them precisely.

As for the interview, it certainly didn't do anything helpful for the couple in question. An English friend of mine, who isn't particularly conservative, has started calling the two of them 'Ginge and Whinge.'

You're welcome. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

I've had a bit of an odd issue pop in ritual work over the past few days: I've been doing them, and my focus is getting better, but now that I'm able to feel what they're doing, it's a little distracting. For example, feeling the circulation of energies in the Middle Pillar is quite odd, and the weird sensations have sometimes made me lose focus.

Is this normal? Aside from sticking with it, do you have advice for how to handle this?

[ecosophia]

Just keep on practicing. You'll get used to it soon, and then you'll be able to use the perceptions to strengthen your work.

[(Anonymous)]

While I know it's too soon to know about the Covid vaccines, do you know if vaccines in general have any effects on the subtle planes?

[ecosophia]

Some occult organizations argue that they're very harmful -- here's an example. I haven't really looked into the matter, but probably should.

New Transcripts - 3/15/2021

[happypanda]

If JMG will allow I would like to announce the latest transcripts available.


1. Disembodied Beings: The Wandering Dead

https://happypanda.dreamwidth.org/4311.html

and

2. Disembodied Beings: Spooky Tales of Wholeness

https://happypanda.dreamwidth.org/4461.html

Re: New Transcripts - 3/15/2021

[ecosophia]

"Spooky Tales of Wholeness" is a great title. It sounds like something H.P. Lovecraft would have written if he'd lived into the 1960s and dropped acid. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG, hope you are well. I have been practising Golden Dawn magic for just over a year and I am considering starting Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment for a chronic health issue. Will I need to suspend my ritual practice for the duration of this treatment? I have heard that different traditions working with subtle energy are not always compatible. It seems to me the LBRP is less intensive than the Middle Pillar ritual in its manipulation of the subtle body, so could I at least continue to practice a daily LBRP? If not, is there anything you would recommend I do to stay magically protected given that it may take months?

[ecosophia]

What I'd recommend is that you talk to your TCM practitioner about your practices, so they can work around that. Most TCM methods -- for example, acupuncture, acupressure, and herbal therapy -- are, or can be, entirely compatible with GD work; one of the best GD practitioners I know is married to a Taiwanese herbalist, and uses TCM medicines all the time.

[(Anonymous)]

Since the other thread has run its course, I will ask here.

What kind of effect is in the veneration and anti-veneration of certain persons in the creation of egregors (or figures of worship).

I have two examples of this in the persons of Fidel Castro and Pablo Escobar. In Fidel’s case, he immensely disliked the phenomenon of a cult of personality, and took a number of measures to ensure that at least while he lived, that no statues and murals and place names of living communist figures such as himself were made. Once dead, his successor extended this to a blanket ban on such official imagery.

In Escobar’s case, he had a cult of personality in his home city of Medellin, with entire neighborhoods named after him. When his relationship with the Colombian government turned sour, and after his death, there was a an effort to suppress those official reminders of him. However, given his noteriety, several television series have been made regarding him, either allegorically, or more directly. In any case, the promotional material for those television series, mostly unofficial, have had a healthy market, with purchases of his image (or rather the actors playing the role) being made much in the same way as images of saints. This lively trade continues despite pleas from the government otherwise, and attempts to steer the productions to depict him as the “patron of evil”.

While I don’t know if there is actual devotional practice to either of these two figures, the question remains on the attempts to negate veneration of these notable personalities, one from the person himself, and the other from without.

[ecosophia]

It always depends on whether people project an archetype onto the person, and that's something the media can't control, despite all its pretensions! Donald Trump, for example, is a perfectly ordinary brash New York business tycoon, but for most Americans he's become an emotionally charged icon freighted with archetypal imagery and energies. That's what has turned him into a one-man singularity around which the entire country is rotating; even those who hate him can't stop thinking about him.

[(Anonymous)]

Not exactly occultism, but a campfire conversation with a west-coast elder almost a decade ago has been drifting in and out of my head lately. He lamented that the faddish nature of the New Age movement (nevermind Harry Potter popularity) coming in tandem with the rise of interest in pagan paths tended to create a community where the most experienced and knowledgeable were taken advantage of, expected always to give more and take less despite age bringing with it ever increasing demands. (Where the additional idea that someone should work for pittance or nothing just to show they're "good" I cannot fathom, but thankfully that's been put aside as the years moved on - at least in the circles I run in.)

I can't help but think that looking after a community's own in their twilight years would be where traditions, lodges, and associations shine; however, I have experience in none of these. Do you have any advice on how a community could be assembled and structured that looks after those that are retired, giving them some peace without casting them off as no longer relevant? Should a community support those that have given much, but can no longer give of themselves? Does that advice change if long distance communication becomes hindered?

I hope you'll find this relevant to the discussion, but regardless I look forward to future posts.

PS: Looking forward to learning about Mundane Astrology in the coming months!

Addie.Illion

[ecosophia]

You can't assemble and structure a community, any more than you can assemble and structure a tree. A community is an organic growth. That's why attempts at "creating community" fail so reliably. The New Age and Neopagan scenes are (for the most part) dysfunctional pseudo-communities, and it's precisely their treatment of elders and other vulnerable people that shows off just how dysfunctional they are. Attempts to change that will founder on the fact that most participants are in those scenes solely for what they can get out of them -- this is also why, when poor African-American neighborhoods are full of little churches that have no trouble finding the money to buy or rent a worship space, so few Neopagan groups (which draw from a much wealthier demographic) can manage the same thing.

Mixing real and fantasy

[(Anonymous)]

Brother Greer,
Would there be any potential harm from, in an urban fantasy style story, having a character use an actual banishing ritual to get rid of or fortify against fantasy monsters?

Thanks,
BoysMom

Re: Mixing real and fantasy

[ecosophia]

None at all. Old-fashioned occult detective stories used to feature actual magic all the time.

[booklover1973]

Is the coronavirus pandemic something which burns up a part of collective and/or individual karma, and if yes, only collective karma, only individual karma or both?

[ecosophia]

I don't know. Have you considered using divination?

Agrippa Translation

[kevinprice1]

Do you have any thoughts on this translation of Agrippa that's coming out later this year? https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Three-Books-of-Occult-Philosophy/Heinrich-Cornelius-Agrippa/9781644114162

I know that volume one has been out for some time and I'm wondering if this new translation will be worth picking up. Thank you!

Re: Agrippa Translation

[ecosophia]

Eric Purdue's translation of the first book was first-rate. If the other volumes are up to the same standard, it'll be a must-have.

[(Anonymous)]

1. What would be the wisest way of coming to terms with opportunity costs? As in - selecting something, and not beating yourself up over the range of options you've given up, and second guessing what you selected?

2. How do know if you have an energy blockage, and how can you tell the difference from an energy blockage and purely physical causes?

3. In the DMH, the color for Duir is black. So when scrying Duir, one is therefore instructed to use black color breathing. If white color breathing attunes one to the spiritual, and to perhaps also the higher self, then using black color breathing would likely attune oneself more so to the personality/lower self. Is that way off-base?

4. An observation, not a question: This gets into the territory explored in the CosDoc post this week and how you can approach it using different metaphors, but I am reading Jens O. Parsson's book Dying of Money, which is about inflation (thanks to whoever recommended it on a previous post).

Maybe this is just new to me and not everyone else, but I am struck by just how 'magical' the field of economics is - it seems a lot of economic boom and bust cycles (easily mappable onto the Wheel of the Year as perhaps unbalanced forms of it) are as much psychologically driven as they are driven by physical limitations. Parssons looks at the history of Weimar inflation along with the post-War American inflation in the 60s, and a huge component in those inflations were decisions made based on ideology rather than observations of how I imagined that economics is supposed to work (a study of limited resources and limitations in general).

The scary thing is that it is widely assumed to be a rational science! But the very act of attributing value to units of a physical substance (money) is profoundly psychological, thus firmly in the realm of the magical. The ability of economic decisions, based on these unspoken psychological and intellectual causes, to influence the well being of people and the state of the natural world is profound.

(The book, by the way, is great. It discusses, among other things, how inflation has a seductively wonderful effect at first, as the economy and everyone in it prospers, but through time rewards mainly the non-productive classes - especially in today's terms the PMC - and causes a divide between those who can partake in the boom and those who increasingly cannot - think those left behind in housing bubbles and speculative bubbles like Bitcoin - and eventually results in periods where basically everyone loses. Very interesting, and it looks like we're in for another round of it based on the current increase of the money supply.)

[(Anonymous)]

Not JMG, but I'd just like to comment that #1 has been the story of much of my life--whether I chose path A or path B...