Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. 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 above 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. 

 

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

A Couple Spagyric Questions

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I intend on making a spagyric tincture of spruce buds this spring - do you happen to know what planet the spruce tree (blue spruce, to be precise) corresponds to?

Also, on the subject of spagyrics, the first one I made (basil) didn’t turn out so great but I’ve held on to it. I’ve heard that people will sometimes use spagyrics as fertilizer for plants/soil. Is this the case and if so can you provide any suggestions on doing so?

Thanks!
-Colter

Re: A Couple Spagyric Questions

[ecosophia]

1) I'm not familiar with the planetary correspondence of spruce; I would guess that it's Saturn, as many conifers are, but don't quote me on that.

2) Yes, you can do that, but it has to be very dilute so the alcohol doesn't harm the plants. Put a tablespoon or so into a watering can and use that to water your garden.

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, JMG.

Today I have two questions regarding e-books your wrote; two problems came to my mind. These questions might benefit your readers, because possibly such thoughts crossed their minds.


1) The first one is practical. For starters, no one is going to give away copies of your books, because of your workings to make them useless if used as pirated copies. So, I paid for an e-book; "it belongs to me now." You have said before that your e-books can be printed, without triggering your protection against piracy.

However, most e-books are sold with protections that make this impossible. These are, as you know, circumventable. The same way I won't surrender my paper books to the censors if possible, I don't want to lose the e-books I "bought" because they were remotely cancelled. So, storing local and unlocked copies is mandatory. This brings the first question.

The first question is, "If I remove DRM from e-books authored by you that I paid for, and I intend to store them for my own use, will this trigger your protection works on them?"

If yes, I need to know this, because if so then your e-books with DRM are useless, and I won't ever buy one again. There are always the paper copies.


2) The second one is sort of ethical. Using advertisement blockers is, in a sense, stealing. Authors putting ads that generate revenue get less of it with the ads not shown. Disclosure, this won't bar me from using adblockers; I'm a very concerned thief. Digital cooties can infect your computer and steal your digital everything, and not using adblockers is unwise. I'm willing to put up with the karma of stealing advertisement revenue from content creators by blocking advertisements, so there goes the problem with ads; the price will be paid, one way or another.

However, your books remain. Making local copies will violate the distribution agreement between the e-book provider and me. In magic, violation of contracts is serious (as in, there will be a price). I am willing to pay the price to remove DRM from my books, but this leads to the second question.

The second question is, "Removing DRM from e-books violates the contract between me and the distributor. Will this violation trigger the workings you made to protect your books?"

Again, if this occurs, "I need to know this, because if so then your e-books with DRM are useless, and I won't ever buy one again. There are always the paper copies."

[ecosophia]

I cannot encourage you to remove the DRM from e-books, for obvious legal reasons, but I will say that my working does not make any reference to DRM or other software. It focuses entirely on whether you paid for the book -- new or used -- or got it from a library or in some other legitimate way. Thus, for example, it will not be triggered if you tear out the copyright page or put a different cover on your copy, so long as you did legitimately buy your copy.

Central European Tradition

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,

I've seen you describe Franz Bardon's works as being part of the "central European tradition." What are some other books and authors in this tradition? I haven't found anything comparable to Bardon's works, so I'm curious what else is out there.

Re: Central European Tradition

[ecosophia]

There's very little else from that tradition in English. Georg Lomer is one of the few exceptions; his Seven Hermetic Letters is worth studying if you like Bardon. Anton Joseph Kirchweger's Aurea Catena Homeri is in a much older version of the same general current. Since my reading knowledge of German is not very good and my reading knowledge of the western Slavic languages is effectively nonexistent, I don't have any other titles or authors to recommend.

A Fine Mess

[kimberlysteele]

Hi JMG,

This evening I stumbled across the website of a person named Aja Daashuur, a Los Angeles lifestyle guru who hosts past-life regressions and other events in her home. This is one of her programs, which basically asks white and white-passing people to pay reparations to non-whites:

https://www.thespiritguidecoach.com/true-wellness-program

Ms. Daashuur claims her home/workshop has been visited by "hundreds of witches". She has an Instagram and has been featured in online magazines. If witchcraft and occultism becomes uncool, do you think the woke witch trend will collapse?

Re: A Fine Mess

[(Anonymous)]

One of my grandmothers was Cherokee, one was German. Should I pass money from one hand to the other? 😄

—Lady Cutekitten

[mollari]

Thank you for Magic Mondays!

1) My patron deity has asked me to start thinking about the role that place plays in religion. I've seen God is Red come up a few times in your blog and writing, and have requested a copy from my library, but would like to know if you know of any other good sources on the topic.

2) Last week you mentioned that having more than one case of mutual reception would mark a chart as unusual. Every member of my family has at least two sets of mutual receptions: is it normal to have patterns where some weird feature appears multiple times in family members' charts?

[ecosophia]

1) I don't know of another good source. That doesn't mean there isn't one, just that I don't know of one.

2) Hmm! I've never encountered anything like that -- but then I'm not a natal astrologer and haven't studied that many sets of family charts. Interesting.

[(Anonymous)]

Thought some people might find this interesting. It's an article written by an anthroposophist talking about some of the occult dimensions of videogames.
http://www.spiritalchemy.com/1560/video-games-and-spiritual-development/

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this! A very thoughtful piece and, I think, quite accurate.

[(Anonymous)]

Time for one of our periodic rounds of applause for our generous host. 👏

—Lady Cutekitten

applause and thanks

[ritaer]

Huzzah

Rita

[(Anonymous)]

I read “Geraint son of Erbin” in The Mabinogion this week. (No, I haven’t read The Dolmen Arch.) As usual, I can see why my literature professors were ducking the Matter of Britain – this story defies pretty much any modern interpretation. As usual. And I can see by extension how Samuel Clemens hated the misreading of the Arthur Cycle popular in the Antebellum South. As usual. Clemens fans will recall his dig at shining armor stories in naming a wrecked riverboat Walter Scott. Yet, fans of working steamships know the SS Sir Walter Scott is not wrecked on the Mississippi. Instead, it is a tour boat still at work on Loch Katrine in Scotland.
Be all that as it may – I keep thinking what the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is going on here?
Any hints or clews?
Thanks.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

Nope. The same advice applies: don't try to understand it, let yourself experience it. That's the basic rule of thumb for any initiatory experience.

Pins

[(Anonymous)]

What organization is represented by the pin in the photo? Last week: same question. Does the "F" in either case stand perchance for "fraternity," "fraternitas" or maybe "fellowship"? Is either of them your personal pin, or are these vintage pieces from occult organizations of the last century or earlier?

Re: Pins

[ecosophia]

I was wondering if anyone was going to ask about that. ;-) This week's is the crest of the Knights of Pythias, an American lodge organization. The FCB stands for Friendship, Charity, and Benevolence -- most of the old lodges have some set of initials that stand for virtues. Last week's was an emblem of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, back in the day the largest fraternal order of them all; the FLT stands for Friendship, Love, and Truth. I don't own either of these, but I have a lot of Odd Fellows pins, as I was quite active in the IOOF at one point.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG

I've been hiking recently. In one particular spot of the trail on the way back home I started thinking about snakes - how we see them only rarely, and at what time of the day they usually appear on trails, and what kind of environment they prefer. I was thinking in such way and walking for several minutes, and sure enough -there was a medium sized snake crossing the trail. Interestingly, my wife who walked with me told me that she was also thinking about snakes at that moment.

On the reflection, I may discount all these as a mere coincidence. But this was not the first time I observed such coincidences, so I'm starting to think there's something about it. On the other hand, I have a feeling that I have to be very careful exposing these things to a conscious thoughts: too much reflection and it will be gone like an overexposed film. So, I'm asking for your advice on how to better approach these things?

Oleg S.

[ecosophia]

Pay attention to them but don't overthink them. Read Jung's book Synchronicity if you want a convenient mental model that won't get in the way of experiencing them.

Results of scrying

[abrahamjpalma]

Hello, Mr Greer.

I would like to share my advancements with this divination technique. It's been pretty irregular. Most of the times I get no stable images, just noise and too much movement. But sometimes I get fixed images, or slow enough to make sense of them, and even a few have been pretty real, not just shades of lights, but like watching a color TV screen. On the occasion, I have forgotten them before I could put anything in the diary, as if they were dreams.

There's a theme that has repeated a couple of times and I have meditated on it. In those sessions I have seen:
1. A plant.
2. Something related to water.
3. Something related to fire (always a weak form).
4. Something related to wind (always strong and clear).
5. Something related to earth.
6. A green winged dragon who watches me.

Plants and elements are always different images, but the dragon is the same. So I have reflected on him. He is not threatening, he only watches me, the same way I am watching the scrying images, without expectations, without judgement. I feel his confidence and power, he bears no fire and I haven't seen the front legs so far, so he could be a wyvern, but I am still unsure about this. By the looks he can fly, so it could be a wind dragon as well.
After meditating on the images, I have the impression that this dragon is partly me, like a mirror reflection, partly an independent will. Sometimes I don't see the whole dragon, only one eye, but I know it's him. I think it might be my totem. And also that I am weak with fire, whatever that might means.

Now I don't have any idea what to do with this. I didn't expect to have a totem, honestly. Do I have to wear a sigil or anything? I'd rather not have anything for showing, since I want to keep it secret.

Re: Results of scrying

[ecosophia]

Don't worry about doing something with it, other than meditating on the imagery and seeing what it has to teach you.

[(Anonymous)]

If someone knew they didn't have long to live and wanted to make as much spiritual progress possible in the time remaining, what would be the best way to do it?

Spiritual Progress in the time remaining

[(Anonymous)]

Hello:

I just found a wonderful book named, “Gateways,” by Mark Stavish. Our esteemed host wrote the forward to it. I’ve just started it. It claims that a person can make much progress in a short with consistent and determined work in a short time

The methods are hermetic, alchemical and qabalistic. Much of what we are all familiar with here.

I find it astonishing in its simplicity and potential power. Any thoughts, JMG? Cautions?

Reliving memories

[lunarapprentice]

Hello JMG. An occult question will emerge at the end of this long comment. I’ve made it as short as I can.

JMG, some of your recommended reading has been helpful to me. I have in mind Scripts People Live by Claude Steiner, novels by Dione Fortune, The Tacit Dimension by Michale Polanyi, and Dorothy Brande’s Wake Up Live.

First off, I’ve long known that I’ve been emotionally and socially handicapped by some severely dysfunctional upbringing by my parents, with effects to my own happiness I’ll leave you to imagine. I endorse having Asperger’s; this is a label that more or less accurately connotes how others perceive or experience me, but it hasn’t otherwise proved useful. At one point 20 years ago, I was getting trained in social pragmatics, and it soon became clear to me that my model of mind was not the real problem. I sensed an inner saboteur, and that this problem reflected not some sort of deficit, but an active process. I had counseling off and on over 35 years with nothing to show for it. My first big clue came when someone asked you, JMG, maybe 10 years ago, what book influenced you the most, and you replied “The Tacit Dimension” (I’m working from memory here). I immediately read it, and it opened up a whole new aspect of mind which I had hitherto not considered deeply. I was convinced that was where I needed to look to make any progress, and so began a long process that has continued to this day. My dream-life has been an important realm where my progress manifests: over the last several years, a sequence of dreams slowly revealed that “inner saboteur” I had intuited, and hinted a relationship with my early upbringing. So I felt confident I was on the right track with tacit memory. But as certain as I was of my parents’ role in my life, I couldn’t see how their influence was affecting me NOW. A big break came when I discovered shame and shame-based upbringing. That was a bullseye. It was how I was brought up, how I brought up my daughters, and I put a stop to that immediately. I was too late to prevent harming my older daughter, but she has at least has acknowledged the change. Important as that insight was, it was nowhere near sufficient. I was bummed, because for a little while, I thought I was home free.

In my uncomfortable re-exploration of Christianity, I synergistically came across Dione Fortune’s novel ‘The Goat Foot God’, and was fairly smacked by it, as it precipitated insight into how others perceive me, and how my inner saboteur operates (followed by a synergistic discovery the novel ‘The Wind and the Willows’, a supposed children’s book which gives an insider perspective on social intelligence). I mentioned ‘Goat Foot God’ to you 2-3 weeks ago on a Magic Monday, and you suggested I read more of Dione Fortune’s novels, which I am now doing. I came across a helpful concept (I think from ‘The Secrets of Dr. Taverner’), in which Fortune states that in the normal course of life, a young person is outwardly focused, on such things as learning, a livelihood, bringing up a family and such, and that later in life, a person turns inward, towards spirituality or other inner disciplines. But if a child is brought up badly, then that normal sequence is upended, and the young person spends his life inwardly focused, and doesn’t attend properly to life’s external imperatives. (Oh man, that’s me to a ’T’, and I’ve long been so conscious of this inward focus, and its detriment to my daughters, that I revealed it to a psychologist; she was impressed by my insight, and she said “you’ve got to stop doing that!”. Yeah.) The next day I read the following in ‘Scripts People Live’ regarding childhood: “mother tells you what to do and father tells you how”. In an instant, a puzzle assembled itself. You might recall my comment in ‘A Useful Kind of Madness’, how I mentioned that my own father was one of those cranks of whom you spoke, and that my mother was autistic to the point she was unable to bond with me. Well, I now SEE how the dynamic I had with them as a small child works NOW. Bing.

My mind is yet again chewing on my single most recurrent, and clearest, memory: A nightmare I had at age 3. I won’t recount the details, except to say that it had two parts, the first in which I felt bathed in bliss in the knowledge of my Aunt’s love, and the second half in which I was plunged into horror and grief when I saw that my [now departed] mother did not love me, and that my Father seemed clueless. That horror portion was what my recollections would usually dwell upon, but the whole dream as always been at my fingertips. The meaning of this dream long eluded me. I only came to understand, at age 33, the horror portion. This insight came suddenly, as my Father lay on his deathbed, unable to speak or move. The meaning of the horror portion revealed itself in a shattering insight, showing how my father manifested his love for me. I was able to thank him, enabling him to depart to the next realm with some consolation.

It has taken another 30 years to figure out the meaning of the first, blissful, half of my dream. Just this week, I realized that the first part is more important that the second, and I think it is a road map. In that first part, I had felt swathed in my Aunt’s love even though we were apart(my Aunt lived far away, and I seldom saw her). Not only did I feel loved, but the dream landscape I surveyed was of an indescribable, intense beauty. Yet the landscape was mundane. What made it so indescribably beautiful was my perception of it, which was linked to my relationship with my Aunt. That memory is the ONLY memory I have of feeling loved when not in the presence of the person. The bliss I experienced is a human capacity. It doesn’t need to happen only once in a lifetime in a dream. I’m convinced it was the same experience Somerset Maugham, for example, describes at the end of ‘Of Human Bondage’.

What I have from my biological mother is the opposite of what my Aunt gave me, but that is what I live out of. My father, clueless nerd and crank that he was, gave me immersion lessons on how to be interpersonally inappropriate when not absent altogether (again from Scripts People Live: “mother tells you what to do and father tells you how”).

Now for my occult question:
JMG, surely you’ve heard of PTSD, and how people who suffer from this not only have unbidden recollections of their traumatic memories, but RELIVE them.

So, if people can relive traumatic memories, should it not be possible to relive sublime, blissful memories? That’s what I want to do: re-experience my dream memory of my Aunt’s love, so I can place that on my throne, and displace the Hellish emotion and self-image given by my mother.

*** So JMG, is there an occult process to relive a memory? What is it? ***

--Lunar Apprentice

Re: Reliving memories

[ecosophia]

Thanks for the narrative -- plenty of other people are in the same fix, or some variant of it, and they may benefit from reading this.

As for reliving a memory, there are various ways, but all of them are based on the simple rule that the more you attend to something, the more energy it picks up from your attention. You can try simply setting aside five minutes or so every day to remember the good half of that dream as clearly as possible. You can also sit down, enter into a meditative state, imagine a portal in front of you, decide that the experience of your Aunt's love is on the other side of the portal, and then imagine yourself walking through. Try one or both of those and see what results you get.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

1) A question about music as an initatory experience:

Do you think ist is possible that there are some residues of Druidic knowledge hidden in Irish "trad" folk music? I know that some airs can be traced back to harp tunes of the old Gaelic Court music from at least the late 17th century. Maybe the line goes back much further?

From my own experience I can tell that I began feeling a strong pull toward reading about the old Irish saints, the Good People and the Ogham since starting to learn the Irish flute.

Maybe it's nothing but I have a strong feeling there might be more under the surface...


2) The experience described above had me sitting down once more with your Druidry handbook.
Can one be considered initiated into Druidry after practising for a full year (Earth, Sun, Moon-path, celebrating the eight stations of the wheel)?

[ecosophia]

1) That's possible. Another factor is that a lot of people who aren't Irish take up Irish music because of a love of Celtic spirituality, and so that attraction will be woven into the egregor.

2) It depends on what you mean by "initiated." If you mean "will that year of practice get me started on the process of becoming a Druid?" -- the word "initiation," after all, literally means "beginning" -- the answer is yes. If you mean "is that year of practice all I have to do, and I can then parade around my Druid-ness and insist that other people ought to do what I tell them?" -- why, then the answer is no. (I'm sorry to say that the latter has been embarrassingly common in the Neopagan scene...)

[(Anonymous)]

I started yesterday to scry the Ogham fews as outlined in the DMH, after meditating on each few. I started with Beith as instructed. I am going to start meditating on the results today, but I found that what came up during the session was somehow unresolved. At first I was in the realm of Air, but it's like the session couldn't make up its mind which way to go, and so I received a number of slightly disjointed image sequences.

This could have been my mental state when I started, but may also have been because I did something wrong, hence my questions:

1. When you're in the Grove before starting to scry, does the few take the place of the elemental symbol for the element to which the few belongs? I'm referring to the symbol which becomes a portal. (I imagined the symbol of Air.)
2. When you ask for a guide, do you trace the symbol for the element to which the few belongs, or the few itself? (I traced both)
3. If I've done something wrong, should I scry Beith again, or better to meditate on the results and move on to the next few?

Thanks!

[ecosophia]

1 and 2) It depends on how you choose to do it. There's no hard and fast rule.

3) Go on to the next one. You'll be going back through the cycle more than once, right?

On mutual reception and weak semi-squares

[adwelly]

Following up from my question last week, I've had a ridiculous amount of fun looking into the historic frequency of mutual receptions. There's something redolent of stamp collecting about this so I was able to unleash my not very well hidden inner nerd. I looked at Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn ingresses at London from 21st June 1800 17:51 UT to the present. The rule I used was that a for a given pair of planets, both were in the sign ruled by the other.

One slightly doubtful assumption to these figures is that a mutual reception involving the sun is sufficiently accidental to still be of interest.

It turns out that as far as I can tell there were 387 in the 220 year period. There were 60 examples of charts with two mutual receptions and 2 with a triple mutual reception. These last two where 23rd September 1974, at 09:58, which had Moon-Saturn, Mercury-Venus, and Jupiter-Neptune. The other was 22nd September 2004, 16:30 UT that had Sun-Venus, Moon-Saturn, and Uranus-Neptune.

Of interest also is Aries Ingress London 1939 which has two: Venus-Uranus, Mars-Saturn. Mutual receptions are absurdly laborious to spot without computer assistance - if you allow Pluto, there are 50 unique planetary pairs to check for mutual rulership. However the pairs happen frequently enough to consider if the rule implies one additional chart or three.

As for what it means beyond the obvious point that charts with one or more mutual receptions are even trickier to interpret than usual I currently remain clueless. Neither 1974 nor 2004 stand out as exceptional years compared with 2016-2021.

I have a complete list extending to 2032 if anyone wants a copy.

---

On the subject of whether or not to include the weak semi-squares in the 2020 inauguration chart, I made the following interpretation based on what I know about planetary personalities in mundane charts.

Sun-Neptune 48.6 (the president is slightly unpopular with the mass of non political people - little impact)
Moon-Neptune 40.1(the PMC is weakly unpopular with the mass of non political people - little impact)
Mars-Neptune 47.7 (non political people are in conflict? unsettled? disturbed? but not enough to matter)
Uranus-Neptune 47.8 (pivitol people or well known activists, perhaps Greta Thunberg types, are mildly unpopular with the mass of non-political people - little impact)

I assume little impact because the aspect is minor and because the examples are at the very edge of their orbs. They also seem very much par for the course except perhaps Uranus-Neptune. In general, PMs and presidents usually see dips in popularity after election, and the PMC/Aristocracy is never going to be popular. As for Uranus-Neptune, I should think that they swing from popular to unpopular depending on the times. They are only going to have an impact when they are at an extreme so a weak semi-square is of little interest I would have thought.

Are these on the right track or have I missed something?

Andy

Re: On mutual reception and weak semi-squares

[ecosophia]

Those seem like perfectly reasonable interpretations. Thank you for the material about mutual receptions -- that's fascianting.

Earth Alchemy

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

During one of the discussions on magic mondays, may 2019, there was a very brief mention of Earth Alchemy whereby the solar and telluric currents would be combined to obtain a lunar current for magical purposes. You also mentioned that you have been trying to uncover as much as is possible of that lost art.
Presumably your book, secret of the temple, is part of that research project. Can we have a brief update about this project?
I noticed that a part of the secret of the temple is about land fertility. Do you happen to know what other aspects this earth alchemy could be used for?
For instance, would it allow better access to the invisible world of spirits and all?
Regards
Thanks

Re: Earth Alchemy

[ecosophia]

The project is ongoing, and a second book -- working title The Ceremony of the Grail -- is close to half finished at present. The Secret of the Temple focuses quite specifically on the use of energies to bring agricultural fertility, but yes, there are other applications, a galaxy of them. Access to the invisible world of spirits? There are countless ways to get that, and earth alchemy can do it, but it's not one of the safer ways.

Purposes of occult systems

[(Anonymous)]

Hello once more!

In march 2019, you also mentioned that different occult systems have different goals,
for instance Seership, union with the divine, contact between upper and lower selves, revelation to educated minds.
(1) Could it be that Earth Alchemy represents a 5th goal of occult systems?


I am currently re-reading magic mondays and taking notes whilst finding lots of interesting leads. From my reading it appears that from the material discussed, you are, in effect, beginning to describe a road map of occult systems world wide.

(2) Would you consider, one day, writing a book on occult theory that includes a general introduction to occult practices that could be adapted to many contexts? It would do a world of good and dispel considerable confusion on many aspects of the occult. Just like there are introductory books on physics, I feel there is a need for a general introductory book on the matter.

Indeed, from the few notes I have taken, I feel I am beginning to gain a much better view of the occult and its ramifications. And just like a road map, it is never complete nor ever finished but mightily useful nevertheless.

PS: and no, I am not in a position to write one!!!!!

Re: Purposes of occult systems

[ecosophia]

1) No, like alchemy itself it's something distinct from occultism as such. There are a lot of things like that -- things that aren't actually part of occultism, but have ended up as part of the occult tradition because occultists are the only ones interested in such things. A lot of Western alternative health care falls into the came category.

2) Why not set yourself the goal of learning enough to write one?

Food Chain and the Classic Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG. I was meditating in the shower the other day, when a correlation came to my mind that I don’t believe I have read anywhere. It is a correlation of the food chain/trophic levels to the classical elements as the following ‘flows’:

Decomposers: from Fire to Earth (just as fire reduces everything to ash, the decomposers transform all complex organic matter into simple organic compounds / humus)

Producers/plants: from Earth to Water (as plant life is “rooted’ in earth but draws water from the earth; also, it is also highly depending upon water for survival)

Herbivores: from Water to Air (as herbivores consume “watery” plants by wandering about in all directions like the wind)

Carnivores: from Air to Fire ( as they consume “airy” herbivores and use their fire-like will to stalk and catch their prey)

If my unconscious mind has regurgitated this information from some forgotten source, I figure you would know such a source and inform me. If it is not such a regurgitation, does this analogy/correlation make sense to you?

Carnelian Crunchy Muffin

Re: Food Chain and the Classic Elements

[ecosophia]

That works very well! I don't recall seeing it before, so it's apparently a new contribution -- and a useful one.

AWEN / AUM

[(Anonymous)]

I've been performing the Sphere of Protection now for that past several months, daily, with astoundingly better results than I ever got with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagrams, or with the typical opening Pentagrams of protection ritual from Wiccan sources.
I also have tried calling on divine names from pantheons, but after failing to feel any sense of meaningful connection, I've gone to simply calling on the essential ideas of the divine and the elements, unnamed, which has also produced a much greater sense of connection with the powers. Maybe one day I will get a name come to me, but for now, I find myself just directly connecting to the currents and sense of the elements. It feels more basic and powerful. By the time I've finished my morning invocation, I feel alive, full of vim and vigour and ready to take on the day.
One of the elements that helps invigorate me is when I vibrate the sacred word AWEN. And I've felt that sense of vigour before, which leads me to wonder, where the word AWEN derived from?
Many, many moons ago, I read that the favourite "eastern" meditation word popularized in the New Age world "OOM" was actually supposed to be "AUM", pronounced so as to cause the chakras to resonate. That is, the tones begin as a deep "AAH" that one feels resonating in the pelvis chakra, followed by a modulation of pitch up to an "UUU" sound that moved the centre of vibration up through the charas in the bowels, stomach, chest, where it became an "OOO" resonating in the throat, and then to yet higher pitch until it became an "MMM" that was felt resonating in the third eye. Thus invigorating the chakras during meditation. (I actually met a yoga instructor from India who did not know that. Or that dogs actually stretch in the downward dog pose, hence the name. Go figure.)
As I vibrate the word AWEN it has almost exactly the same sequence and effect, beginning with a deep vibration in my pelvis and moving up my body to my forehead as the pitch changes.
I was wondering if this was pinched from Eastern sources and incorporated into the new Druid teachings some time in the past 250 years, or is it actually a co-incident and independent European spiritual development? I'd be tickled if it were the latter, but not at all surprised if the former.

Bruce
Renaissance Man

Re: AWEN / AUM

[open_space]

The way I was taught about it is that whenever there is a realized being the primal sound is there in one way or another. AUM, AMEN (pronounced correctly not as in English) and derivatives are meant to acknowledge that primal creative force. I don't know about AWEN but perhaps is similar.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG - I was wondering if you have any opinion of the Denning and Phillips Magical Philosophy books. I have been reading them lately and find them really invaluable and the system very attractive. But most of the lodges descended from it seem very private and quiet! Do others still read their work?

[ecosophia]

It's an active tradition, but a very quiet one these days, because -- like most occult orders these days -- they've had problems with jerks who join magical orders to cause trouble and preen their egos, rather than to do the work. As for the books, I know people who've had excellent results with the system.

[d_mekel]

as above, so below.

Could our malkuth be some other life forms kether?

[ecosophia]

Good! The Golden Dawn papers say that the Malkuth of our world is the Kether of Hell.

[(Anonymous)]

In the Sphere of Protection you can do the opening and closing without naming any gods. Can you do that with the elemental sections and if so what do you say?

[ecosophia]

Yes, you can do that, and you can say whatever you want. My series of posts on the SoP talks about that; the words can be varied as you wish.

Gravitational Anomalies: Tourist trap or something more?

[steveinnc]

Good morning JMG,

What is your take on "gravitational anomalies" that are commonly marketed as tourist attractions?

I ask, because up until about a week ago I would have said that they were most likely just wonky rooms full of optical illusions and hype. My family and I were up in the NC mountains last weekend, and it was raining, so we decided to do an indoor activity. There is one of these anomalies near Boone NC, which has been a tourist attraction for many years. I figured: "Why not go? It's a bit of local color, and at worst it'll be a fun story." To be sure, there was no shortage of schlock and kitsch, but the anomaly itself is another matter.

To confuse matters, the room *was* wonky. You reach the room from a small courtyard uphill from the anomaly. Going through the door, you enter a small hallway; you could bypass the anomaly room by going left, or enter the room by going straight down a ramp. (Note I will freely use "we" because the four of us discussed what we saw and felt, and were in agreement.) As we proceeded down the ramp, we began to feel an odd sensation. I could feel it most strongly in my head, possibly an inner ear effect: it felt somewhat like falling, and somewhat like being pulled forward (downhill). In my life I have walked and hiked on many slopes, some quite steep, and I've never felt like I was being pulled sideways. The room itself was about 10' wide across the hill, and 20' long up and down the hill. The upper part of the room was slightly sloped down, while the lower part was more sharply sloped down, and there were handrails all along the sides. In this room there was a pendulum (a broom hanging on a hook) with a protractor mounted (allegedly) level, a swing that appeared to be hanging at an odd angle, and a track on the other side wall that appeared to be sloping up steeply in the downhill direction. So with the "appears" and "allegedly" being assumed: The broom was hanging at a significant angle from level, I think about 25 degrees. Rubber balls, seemingly ordinary rubber handballs, would roll up the track, go into a hole, and reappear in a receptacle well below the starting point of the track. The swing hung at a downhill angle, and this was the equilibrium point whether or not someone was sitting or swinging on it. All the while we were in there, about ten, maybe fifteen minutes, we felt the disturbing sense of being off-balance; the handrails were very necessary! This feeling went away after moving only a short distance from the room, either back up the entry ramp, or into the next room.

Scientifically speaking, it felt as if there was a significant horizontal gravity vector. If I am remembering the 25 degree angle correctly, it would be a 0.47g horizontal acceleration, assuming an unchanged vertical acceleration of 1.0g, and assuming that the protractor was really level. The off-kilter nature of the room bothers me though. I wasn't expecting something real, so I didn't bring any instruments. Ideally, I'd put a laser level outside the anomaly and paint a true horizontal line on the wall inside the anomaly, and measure angles from that. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the place felt seriously weird, and that the feeling was localized in that small space.

What are we dealing with here?

Thanks!

Re: Gravitational Anomalies: Tourist trap or something more?

[steveinnc]

Replying to myself here... I can add that I have thought of possibilities - some occult, some not.

There is always the possibility that it is a really good illusion, but the distinct physical sensations (present even with eyes closed) associated with that one room suggest otherwise.

So if the effect is not illusory, there must be some cause. One suggestion (given in the waiting room prior to goin in) is UFO technology. I tend to think if that was the cause, the Feds would have dug it up long ago, and "encouraged" people to forget it ever existed.

Another thought that came to me (not discussed on premises) has to do with ley lines or moon paths. You've said these are conduits for etheric energy across the Earth. You've also said that etheric forces can have physical effects, so could this be something like an etheric waterfall of sufficient power to measurably disturb physical objects in its vicinity?

Money Matters

[(Anonymous)]

First off, I will join in Lady CK's round of applause for the incredible generosity of our host. Hear, hear!

Secondly, I have a... situation. I was sued by a credit card company, and the lawyer I retained missed the court date (d'oh!) so a default judgement was entered against me. I would like to try and call up the law firm and negotiate with them myself on the basis of my lawyer's ineptitude, and hope they will take pity on me and cut me a bit of a break on the amount owed. Can you recommend the appropriate planetary hour in which to make that first phone call to the lawyers on the other side? I can't decide if it's better suited to Jupiter/Venus (money) or Saturn/Mars (law).

It feels so freeing to be paying off my debts. I have a few left to clear, but it's largely due to your advice and guidance that I am starting to sort myself out (collapse now and avoid the rush). Your influence in my life has been hugely positive and I am so happy and grateful for all the gifts I have received and continue to receive every single day. Thank you so very much for your tireless efforts.

Re: Money Matters

[ecosophia]

Do it on a Friday in an hour of Venus. That's the best time to ask for favors and to seek a congenial relationship with someone else.