Magic Monday Strikes Back!

[ecosophia]

It's technically Monday now -- a little past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight tonight Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all. 

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Astral nasties that a LBRP won't deal with

[(Anonymous)]

I recently spent a week away from home sleeping in a motel. As any good mage does, I performed banishings to clear the space of etheric muck. From the first day I was there, I performed two banishings with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram a day, morning and night. The first night I was bothered by something appearing like a classic 'grey' alien, which I managed to intimidate enough to get to back off. I fell into a nightmarish lucid dreaming state, remaining apparently in the motel room but being visited by family and other people, culminating in a battle with a particularly menacing floating bean bag. Ragged but determined, the following night when the 'grey' returned, I prayed to a god I have a strong relationship with and was not harassed again that week.

While I am satisfied that prayer has been proven as a successful option, I'd like to know, what other portable ritual or magical tools are there for nuisances that are not dispelled by the LBRP? Does this resilience suggest that I was dealing with a more serious entity than the standard nightmare pest?

- Patrick

Re: Astral nasties that a LBRP won't deal with

[ecosophia]

The LBRP is a basic practice suitable for complete beginners, so yes, it doesn't always get rid of everything quickly -- though if you keep performing it in the same place, it'll gradually strip away everything noxious. The LBRP plus the Rose Cross ritual (or the OIW Ritual, which is the Druidical equivalent) will do more. If you've got a location with serious muck, open a temple in full ritual form -- you can use any convenient surface, including the floor, for an altar; a small incense holder fits conveniently in luggage, and any cup will serve for water -- and invoke the protective deity of your choice, then close in form, and that should do it fairly well. Of course natural magic is also always an option -- protective herbs and amulets can make things like that much easier, (My book The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic covers that in detail.)

Organ donation

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

Here's what I've been pondering last week: what are the magical effects of organ donation (if any)?

Kind regards, Brigyn

Re: Organ donation

[ecosophia]

Good question. I don't know that anybody's looked into that.

Coelbren

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

No questions for the moment; just a comment. I’m back in the UK, and have bought a copy of Coelbren through the local bookshop. I’m reading it with interest (in parallel with Penny Billington’s ‘The Path of Druidry’). Just wanted to mention that when I was growing up, I’d always wondered what the runic symbols were at the base of the memorial stone to Iolo Morganwg (on the wall of the building where he sold radical pamphlets and salvery-free sugar!). Now I know!

Here’s a link to a Wikimedia image of the stone: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iolo_Morganwg,_y_Bont-faen.JPG

Bogatyr

Re: Coelbren

[ecosophia]

The Coelbren passage says "Gwir yn erbyn y byd," "The Truth against the World," which was Iolo's motto and (according to him) the traditional motto of the Bards of Glamorgan. Thank you for this!

Paths of wisdom

[(Anonymous)]

I am inching my way toward a magical practice, and since I know some Hebrew, I picked up your book Paths of Wisdom. When I did a tarot reading exploring my interest however, I got the Tower in reverse crossed by the Hermit. Is that at all auspicious?

Also, since the book has been out for some time, what would you change about it if you were to write it again?

Thanks for doing this!

Jay Dee

Re: Paths of wisdom

[ecosophia]

Never ask anyone else to interpret your Tarot readings for you. That's like asking some stranger to get involved in a conversation between you and a lover! I'd encourage you to meditate on the cards, in the context of the rest of the reading, and work out what it means.

As for the book, I'd make a lot of little corrections and revise the basic philosophical stance to reflect my current views, but as a guide to the Golden Dawn Cabala it's stood the test of time quite well. My current take on the Cabala will be covered in a forthcoming sequel to The Celtic Golden Dawn.

Just the right amount

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG

Thanks for your answer about astral projection.

In a magical working how do you make sure you get the right amount of magical energy driving to achieve your goal without going to far. Any goal would be bad if taken to far. I'm cautious about starting to do magic before knowing how to avoid a "sorcerers apprentice" run away kitchen scenario.

How compatible are the mental training methods in W.E. Butler's apprenticed to magic with the druid magic handbook if energy working and wheel of the year are followed from your book.

What is a good source of info on the wheel of the year in more depth than, like is available for the tree of life.

Can a machine like a car possess a kind of spirit? Are there machines and constructs that can and some that can't?

Thank you for hosting this here, its much easier to read than on the blog.

Michael

Re: Just the right amount

[ecosophia]

1) Don't worry about getting too much energy. As a beginner, your constant challenge will be getting enough to have any effect at all.

2) Yes -- Butler's writings have been a major influence on my magical work since day one (his book The Magician: His Training and Work was one of the first two books on magic I ever read) and my practices draw fairly heavily on the tradition in which he worked.

3) There isn't one yet.

4) Some machines do seem to pick up a certain inner dimension, others don't. I don't know of anyone who's worked out why.

Sphere of Protection

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a limit to the number of times the Sphere of Protection can be safely practiced in one day?

Re: Sphere of Protection

[ecosophia]

Beginners always want to overdo basic ritual practices -- I know I did! Once a day is the right amount -- more is too much, less is too little. Instead of doing it repeatedly, work on learning how to do more complex and interesting ritual work.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a few questions here: you mentioned that western occultism and vegetarianism don't mix. Why is that, and slightly broader: how much does diet influence magic?

I have this uncanny knack for being able to walk into a bookstore and find any book I want, no matter how obscure, old, or otherwise unlikely to be there, as long as I'm there to find something else. This has happened enough times that I'm starting to think there may be something here. Do you have any idea what it might be?

Over at your blog, you said, "A good deal of what’s going on here in the United States would, I think, be diagnosed by a competent Native American medicine person as a mass case of soul loss." What are the symptoms of soul loss?

[ecosophia]

1) It's not occultism generally, it's ritual magic. Vegetarianism makes you psychically sensitive -- that sounds great, but it can be a serious problem if you live in a modern community (the kind of psychic static that fills most contemporary towns and cities isn't something you want to be sensitized to), and a much worse problem with magic, because magic ups the intensity of the experiences you're going to have. It's as though you were to do something to make your ears more sensitive while taking up rick guitar -- increased intensity plus increased sensitivity can cause actual damage. (Thus one of the best ways to shut your psychism down if you're in a situation where you need to do that is to have a big meal of relatively greasy meat. Barbecue pork ribs are among my go-to meals for this when I'm on the road.)

2) It's called intuition. Everybody has it; you've simply picked up the knack of using it -- which is a good thing. Try doing the same thing in other contexts and see if you can expand the range of ways you can use it!

3) You'll have to consult a medicine person for that, or read some good books on shamanism. That's not a field in which I've specialized.

loss of soul

[(Anonymous)]

Many thanks for hosting this! my ears pricked up with the discussion of soul loss on ecosophia.

Carl Jung discusses the symptoms somewhat as being clinical depression, but I remember thinking that he skimped a bit on explanations and maintained a quite materialist viewpoint, at least with the material I read. Of course I've also read Carlos Castaneda in my drug soaked teenage years and later read the much more sober accounts of Medicine Grizzly Bear Lake's excellent book _Native Healer_ where he discusses some of his experiences and technique. Still, my understanding is admittedly fuzzy at best and the entire subject strikes me as compelling.

My questions are: 1) do you know of any good resources for researching soul loss and possible ways of addressing this grave problem? I find the sort of anthropological literature where a rationalist is doing, essentially, weird travel literature hard to sift through, so any recommendations are much appreciated! 2) How can you tell if you have lost your own soul or are dealing with someone with with a missing soul or part, what are the signs and symptoms? 3) does magical ritual in the western tradition help retrieve souls -- i.e if I am missing my soul or part can doing the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram help to restore my soul?

Re: loss of soul

[ecosophia]

The western magical tradition doesn't include the concept of soul loss. I'd have to sit down with a competent traditional shaman or two and have some long, careful talks before I'd consider myself qualified to say what in western occultism corresponds to the traditional diagnosis of soul loss. As for the literature, what I know of it was mostly cribbed from old ethnographic literature about the coastal Salish people of Washington State, which I read many years ago to try to get a sense of the mythic landscape of the place I was living.

[jbucks]

A few weeks ago, you wrote to me in reply to a question I had: "Music (like all the arts) can also be pursued as a deep and intense spiritual practice; if you pay close attention to how your music affects your state of consciousness and that of your listeners, it very quickly approximates magic."

I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind elaborating on that and/or pointing me to a few sources or examples for further reading. I thought about it since then, and I take it to mean partly that art-making partially involves the act of exploring your own behavior/beliefs through the means of another substance (the media you are working with). So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that I should be paying attention to what happens in my consciousness when making or listening to my own music, and watching the feedback that happens as a work of art begins to manifest in the materials. A trivial example: let's say I have a penchant for making melancholy music, then it's worth noticing that and reflecting on why.

Art-making is also a way of exploring the seven laws as you described them in Mystery Teachings - you can see them being put to action in the art that you make.

The other thought that struck me was that artists have often described their art as not being made by them - something takes hold of them and they act as a channel for that art to be made. I don't know if there are parallels with the psychological idea of the flow state - but I've noticed in myself that sometimes my music has just written itself.

I have read descriptions by some artists about how they have been 'taken hold' of something while making art, that they are simply acting as a channel for a work of art to be created. I don't know if there are parallels with the psychological idea of the flow state - but I've noticed in myself that sometimes, rarely, my music has just 'written itself'.

You wrote to someone last week: "The Watcher at the Threshold doesn't take the form of random annoyances. It's an emotional and/or cognitive reaction, taking forms such as boredom, disinclination, being suddenly attracted to a whole flurry of other activities, or the various grades of fear. I'd encourage you to keep trying."

Does this affect people without magical training, too? This sensation happens to me very often when starting a new project, musical or otherwise. My mind has a very familiar set of tricks that it plays on me to avoid actually starting. Thanks in advance!

[ecosophia]

I'm not really qualified to say much about music as a spiritual path -- I'm not a musician and so haven't read more than a little on the subject. Joscelyn Godwin's books on the esoteric dimension of music are my go-to resources there. As a writer, I'm very aware of the extent to which my work is a cooperative product of my mind and the imaginal world -- to the extent that my characters will literally sit me down sometimes and explain something that I've missed about them. (Jenny Parrish, one of the two central characters of The Weird of Hali, had to do that when I kept trying to figure out who she was going to end up in a relationship with; she's an asexual, and I didn't get that until she told me.)

As for the Watcher, though, it waits whenever and wherever you go beyond the limits of the little self, and the creative arts are among the ways beyond, so, yes, that's him. Get used to him, learn to give him a nod and a smile as you blow on past him, and everything will work out just fine. ;-)

Why pentagrams?

[(Anonymous)]

Are pentagrams used in magical workings simply because of the symbolism the mage wants to work with, the elements if I'm not mistaken(Earth, air, fire, water, & spirit)? Or is there something magically unique about the symbol?

Could a ritual with a six or seven pointed star, or a series of triangles, say, with slightly different symbolism work as well?

I recall you saying something about a ritual practiced by many people over time being more effective than one invented and used by one individual(perhaps I'm remembering this inaccurately). Is it that the golden Dawn system was an effective one and the use of it's symbolism gained a sort of 'momentum' after it caught on?

If I understand correctly the sphere of protection makes use of a circle that is spun around the body fast enough to effectively become a sphere, so it seems like it wouldn't be the case of 'this is the only symbol that works'. Though I could understand it being the case that many were tried and a few seem to work better than others...

If it is possible to use a different shape would it matter if the shape used was made up of an unbroken line rather? Like comparing the continuous nature of a pentagram/circle drawing with a 'star of David' for example, which could be two triangles overlaying or interlinking each other depending how you drew it.

I suppose that's a lot of questions...

So, why pentagrams?


Thank you for doing these magic Mondays. Really learn a lot from these threads.

Jason P.

Re: Why pentagrams?

[ecosophia]

The pentagram has been a protective symbol since ancient Greek times; the Pythagorean brotherhood used it as one of their symbols. Yes, all the emphasis on the pentagram down through the centuries has given it a lot of power, and its geometry is based on the golden proportion, which has specific magical properties as well. Could you use a different symbol? Yes, of course, but you'd have to put a lot of effort into building up any kind of power in it, and the pentagram already has that due to twenty-six centuries of hard word by occultists.

[jbucks]

Another question: I normally don't spend much time with pop culture, but my wife and I sometimes do watch TV series. We finished watching Stranger Things, a Spielberg-esque series set in the 80s which uses an enormous amount of pop culture references from that time, which is when I was a child. Now, I know that the makers of the show use nostalgia on purpose to make it popular, and that the life depicted in the series is idealized. But it has still 'cast a spell' over me to a great degree, that days later, I have been afflicted with a profound bittersweet sense of nostalgia, which is strange because I'm sentimental about a childhood that I never actually experienced. It's also rather annoying (and perhaps a bit humorous) that since then I have had 80s pop music stuck in my head on repeat. It's become very apparent that pop culture really does 'change consciousness'.

It led me to wonder what nostalgia actually is, and why pop culture finds it so effective? An enormous amount of pop culture today uses settings from the recent past rather than coming up with anything new or appropriate to the time we are living in. It's like pop culture seems to want to use nostalgia to hide our present situation (shifting of the balance of power of nations, climate change, etc) rather than actually deal with.

[ecosophia]

My take is that that's exactly what's going on. Pop culture encourages you to hide in the past rather than face the present and the future, and a lot of people are more than willing to meet it halfway, because the present sucks and the future is going to suck a lot worse.

Neurological disorders and magic

[(Anonymous)]

I'm very concerned about my daughter, 32, who has Tourette's Syndrome, severe OCD, Executive Function Disorder and other related symptoms of neurological disorders (she also had seizures as a child). She studied hypnotherapy, NLP, and other things through the internet on her own for years to use the various techniques to manage her hallucinations, tics, violent impulses, etc. She refuses to take drugs. It's been a long, hard road for her.

We were talking about her recent discovery and enthusiasm for the Wayseer Manifesto people. It looks to me like a disguised system of magic that is newly invented and isn't tied to a tradition, and all your warnings come screaming in my mind. She is describing what sounds like magic forces flowing through her, both positive and negative. What concerns me is that she cannot block the negative forces. Given her neurological reality, she says it requires too much energy to block. Instead, she acknowledges the energies, lets them flow through her without letting them alter her, like the Litany against Fear in Dune, then lets them leave her. Thinking back now, I wonder if these flowing forces has been her reality all her life, and all the constant weird things her body does physically and mentally are forces she is wide open to. She cannot stop them she says. And she is now experiencing powerful shudderings like a Kundalini awakenening.

I try really hard to understand what her reality is like, but I struggle. I take some comfort in knowing that because she dealt with a lot of hypnotists online, total strangers, she developed a core "safe place" where her mind retreats to at will, and from which, if things got out of hand, she could regain control at any time she chose. She spent years strengthening this, and could be how she allows the forces to flow through her without touching her.

I wanted to teach her the SOP to block these negative forces, but she refuses, saying the ideas and words are different and clash with her mind's system, which is unique and has evolved to deal with her issues. Not surprisingly, I'm rather worried about what might go through her unchecked. Over the years, she has gained some mastery over herself and is experiencing fewer meltdowns and "storms" as she calls them, where her entire neurological system goes completely haywire physically, mentally, and emotionally. She seems to be going in the right direction, but I worry about whether the Wayseers might lead her into something harmful to her.

Any thoughts on all this? I'm powerless to help her anyway, but maybe I shouldn't worry and just let her walk her path?

Myriam

Re: Neurological disorders and magic

[ecosophia]

Since you can't help her, you probably do need to let her walk her path. Let her know that you're there for her when she needs you, and leave it at that -- really, that's all you can do.

Geomancy

[druidtides]

I was starting on the Geomancy book and I was wondering about the references to inner element and outer element. It wasn't obvious if there is a way you can determine this by looking at the pattern or whether it is predetermined by other means and you just need to memorise it?

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

It's something I got out of the traditional lore, and I haven't been able to work out how it's determined, so yes, you probably just need to commit it to memory.

CGD Ovate question

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning, JGM!
Thank you for all that you have chosen to share with us.

In my meditations on the on the 16 geomantic figures and their elemental relationships, I have reached a puzzlement: the aetherial plane and body seems associated with both water and air; and the intellectual with both air and fire.

Fire = spiritual essence/primal spark
Air = intellectual
Water = aetherial
Earth = material

Ceugant = intellectual plane, triangle of fire
Gynfydd = aetherial plane, triangle of air
Abred = material plane,triangle of earth and triangle of water together.

Is Water both material and aetherial; Air both aetherial and intellectual; Fire both intellectual and the spark of spiritual essence?
Or am I over-thinking this lesson?
Any wisdom you care to share is most valued...

Re: CGD Ovate question

[ecosophia]

The lesson to take from this is that correspondences aren't identities. It's not that water "is" aetherial, it's in certain senses, when looked at in certain ways, the aetherial plane relates to the other planes the way that water relates to the other elements. Does that help?

Triads/Ternaries

[(Anonymous)]

I've been continuing to explore and meditate on this potential correspondence between the Tree of Life (sans Daath) and the triad of druidic elements. Unsurprisingly, triad relationships keep popping out of the woodwork, so to speak, but I want to be cautious and not force or shoehorn relationships into a pattern to which they do not actually belong. (Am I finding these triads just because I am looking for them?)

One of the correspondences I've been looking at in this process is the polarity of being/becoming, rest/motion, stasis/change. In the "usual" view, this is a binary -- each being a pole. Is there any tradition of a ternary here? In meditating on the seasonal correspondences of the elements, I noticed that calas/winter/stasis and nwyfre/summer/change were joined with gwyar/spring-autumn...transition? That is, the third component is the state of transition between stasis and change?

Obviously, more meditation is in order here, but I was just wondering if this matches any tradition that you know of.

Thanks!

David, by the lake

Re: Triads/Ternaries

[ecosophia]

Yes, you're finding them because you're looking for them -- that's the point. If you learn to look for triads, you'll find them more often, and you'll get stuck in binaries less often. As for the polarity of being/becoming and so on, good! That's a very useful theme for meditation. May I make a suggestion? Being/beginning/becoming...

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any esoteric exercises or rituals that can open up a person's intuition and ability to understand and respond to the emotions and psychological needs of others? Reading Berne and Steiner lately have made me aware of how tone deaf I am to the messages being sent by others. As a result I often find that I allow myself to resort to needless game playing.

[ecosophia]

Steiner's book How To Know Higher Worlds has a range of useful exercises. The other things I'd suggest are regular meditation and daily divination, both of which tend to develop subtle perceptions in a balanced and healthy fashion.

Saturn's Influence

[(Anonymous)]

I would like to develop a deeper understanding of the influence of Saturn in my natal chart and wonder if there are specific techniques you would recommend to work with this energy. I understand that Saturn is a malefic which has alarmed me no end. I have Saturn (17 degrees) conjunct Sun (16 degrees) in 9th house Libra, both square ascendant Capricorn. I have been told that this is a difficult configuration made all the worse by another square of Moon in 6th house Cancer. And Neptune (another malefic?) is also conjunct Sun / Saturn in 9th house Libra at 21 degrees. Do you have any advice, suggestions, practices, readings that would help me understand and appreciate these planetary influences?
Also, do you have a limit as to how many questions any one person can ask per Magic Monday? (I have so many!)
Thank you so much for all that you do.
Yanocoches in Colorado

Re: Saturn's Influence

[ecosophia]

Saturn is a malefic, sure, but it can also work to your benefit. Liz Greene's Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil is a good book to read in this light. Neptune in my view is a benefic, not a malefic -- it shares a planet with Jupiter, after all -- and Saturn in Libra is exalted, thus on his best behavior. I'd encourage you to get a complete natal chart delineation from a local astrologer -- you've got plenty of them in Colorado! -- and have him or her walk you through your chart to see how the strengths and weaknesses work together. Trying to make sense of a chart based on just a few planets and their positions is like trying to make sense of a piece of music by noticing only the B flat notes.

As for questions, two or three is a pretty good number; many more than that and I may get grumpy.

Hi It’s Me Pogonip

[(Anonymous)]

I have one for you. I have instructions to make up a charm to bring in needed money. The instructions tell you to treat the charm as a living thing. What would you feed it? I drew it on an index card, I can’t very well water it. I’m stumped.

Re: Hi It’s Me Pogonip

[ecosophia]

Do it the way you would feed any other guest -- put a portion of food on a little plate, or in a little bowl, and set it before the charm so that the charm can eat as much as it wants; then, after a while (say, the length of an ordinary mealtime) take away what it hasn't eaten and do with it what you do with any other unwanted food. That's how you make offerings in many cultures!

Religio-imperial occultism

[mmelvink]

Hi JMG,

A central argument of my forthcoming book (in Brill's Iran Studies series) is that the epochal shi'ization of a very Sunni Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries was carried out via explicitly occult-scientific means, among others. While your CGD system may well be utilized to imperially druidize North American society in coming centuries (gods willing!), what other instances of such successful occultist retooling of mainstream religious culture within an imperial context do you suggest I could point to as useful historical parallels? The equally epochal, if far bloodier, protestantization of parts of western Europe was not, of course, particularly occult-scientific in tenor -- to the contrary; but surely other similar Western transformations were?

Re: Religio-imperial occultism

[ecosophia]

Valerie Flint's The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe suggests that the Christianization of Europe was very powerfully furthered by the magical dimension of Christian practice. The Protestantization of Europe had a magical dimension -- I'd encourage a reading of Frances Yates' The Rosicrucian Enlightenment as a way to get a sense of this. You might also look at the way that Dion Fortune set out to transform attitudes toward sex in the English-speaking world with a series of magical workings, some of which took the form of published novels, others of which took the form of publicly presented rituals -- and her order also took the lead in using magical means to counter Nazi Germany, as discussed in The Magical Battle of Britain.

Ghostly presence in new home

[(Anonymous)]

After I moved to a new place last year I started to feel, neigh even see or hallucinate, the presence of an entity or entities in our new home. That surprised me because I’m not one to experience such things and not even sure what I believe in that regard. At first, I just felt the presence but now I see or hallucinate them, usually as vague distortions in the air or wisps but occasionally as a nearly distinct object or body. During the first few months there were just a few instances then it became a daily experience that went on for weeks. My house is a mere 640 sq. ft. so avoidance is not a possibility.

I can attribute no emotion or other quality except presence to the experience. It is sort of like having someone you don’t know in a cubicle next to you at work. You know they are there but other than that nothing specific comes of it. Several times a day I engage in ritual prayer and it if often noticeable as an apparently respectful but distracting presence just behind me and to the left.

My question, not having familiarity with such things, is what if anything should I do? Should I be concerned and try to banish it or ask it to leave? Or, given its apparently peaceful disposition, should I coexist with it? Do such things normally go away on their own accord? My house is a brand new, very small, off-grid place on the edge of a wet meadow at the end of a mile of private dirt road in the Maine woods. Not an ancient castle or an old New England farmhouse where the romantic in me expects to hear these stories. Just a very small modern house surrounded by secondary forest, wetlands and a nearby railroad track.

I should state that as of two weeks ago whatever this was or was not simply ceased but I’m still curious what the John Michael Greer or his readers think one should do when confronted with such a presence. It hardly seems to call for fear or revulsion but on the other hand I generally prefer to be alone when I’m alone.

Re: Ghostly presence in new home

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to coexist with it, so long as it shows no signs of interfering with you or others. You are never actually alone, by the way.

[(Anonymous)]

I've heard a bit about the Saturn return with regards to a natal chart. Is there a way to calculate when that would happen using the free natal chart services I've seen around the internet? What should one be on the lookout for when they are in their Saturn return? Thanks!

[ecosophia]

This is easy. Your Saturn return usually happens near your 30th birthday, and then again near your 60th and (if you should have one) your 90th. To figure it out, go to a natal chart service and get your natal chart. Then pick up an ephemeris or an astrological calendar and see where Saturn is now. If, say, your Saturn is in the early degrees of Capricorn, you'll be right on a return now, since Saturn moves from the 4th to the 7th degree of Capricorn this month; if not, you can flip forward or back to figure out when Saturn will be in the same position as it was when you were born -- that's what a Saturn return is, after all.

Questions

[(Anonymous)]

1 – What protective herbs would you use to surround parsley ? 2 – Several tradition advise for a period of fasting or at least an abstinence of some foods for a certain period. In your perspective is that merely a matter of discipline or is it a form of purification? – 2.1 – It it is a purification it is important for a magician to do that regularly ? 3 – You advised several times the use of banishment rituals, but I don’t recall that you’ve ever advised shielding (apologies if I am wrong). You don’t consider shielding to be useful? 4 – What is you take on Reiki, if any? Thank You

Re: Questions

[ecosophia]

1) I'd look up protective herbs in a suitable book, such as my Encyclopedia of Natural Magic, and decide which ones I want in my garden.

2) Depends on the fine details of the practice. As to whether it's important, that depends on what kind of magical work you're doing and whether you find fasting to be helpful.

3) Depends on what you mean by shielding. That's not a concept you'll find in traditional occultism.

4) I don't have one. I haven't looked into it.

The Templars

[(Anonymous)]

Hello

According to you, were the Templars involved in occult practices and if so what could theses practices be?

Karim

Re: The Templars

[ecosophia]

Nobody knows at this point. I've speculated that they became adherents of the Naassene Gnostic heresy, but nobody knows what the Naassenes practiced.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG
I asked a couple weeks ago about wether jupiter or saturn herbs could help me get more discipline with my chores. I started dinking sage tea and I feel like it has helped quite a bit. I still have a ways to go but I managed to get going.
Now, on another aspect of my life, It's a very common topic with my therapist that we talk about my relationship with girls. I had a girlfriend six years ago and it was the second and last time I ever had sex. I tend to feel guilt when I express my sexuality. I don't really feel confortable when I want to express a girl that I like her, so I don't tend to come off as attractive.
I investigated my natal chart and turns out that I have a mars-venus squaring, with venus conjuncted with the sun in Aries in the third house, while mars is in Cancer in the sixth. My guessing is that the sun settles the match for venus, making me emotional, while mars (trined with mercury in pisces) makes me be agressively rational, but cannot manifest much in action. So I looked up martian herbs and I'm thinking a basil and thyme infusion can help my mars get in tune. Is my assessment accurate? What else could I try or consider?
Thanks in advace.
Juan Pablo (with the little snail avatar on the blog)

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to get a full birth chart delineation from a competent astrologer, because that kind of "well I have this, and this means that" tends to be very misleading. If your sex life is a mess, that's not something you can deal with by drinking herbs; you need to figure out why your feelings on the subject are tangled up, and resolve those tangles, or you'll just be putting more energy into an already tangled situation.

starting a practice

[(Anonymous)]

Many thanks for hosting Magic Mondays! They are very helpful.

is it normal to have a range of issues come up when one starts doing banishing rituals? Most notably after starting to do the Sphere of Protection I've been fatigued and depressed with pain in my heart and solar plexus. A back injury immediately behind my heart which I correlate to a a lifetime of unresolved chronic grief alternately relaxes and I am restored to full range of motion and then contracts and is much tighter with a lot of cracking.

Is this sort of thing to be expected? I really enjoy doing the rituals and feel great happiness as I do the visualizations. Afterwards, though, there is melancholy and fatigue. When I first started I slept 15 hours a day for three days in a row. It seems like these rituals may be balancing some of my extremes, but I feel it is prudent to check in to see if this sort of thing is a flashing danger sign.

Re: starting a practice

[ecosophia]

Quite the contrary, it's a sign that your system is trying to recover. I suspect you have a vast amount of physical tension and don't get enough rest. Try responding to the melancholy and fatigue by taking a nap, if that's an option for you, and see how that works.