Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's 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.

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With that said, have at it!

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

***Ahem. People have continued to try to post questions, despite the post being closed. I have deleted these. Follow-up comments to existing questions are fine, but other than that, please save it until the next Magic Monday.***

Comments

[ecosophia]

The Golden Dawn system is a very demanding system. To get a basic mastery of the tradition requires ten to fifteen years of hard work, minimum, including systematic daily practice. It's very cerebral and doesn't offer much on the emotional and intuitive side of things, and it can lead to a wildly overinflated ego if you're not careful and make certain mistakes. On the plus side, I don't know of a more comprehensive system of Western magic; if it can be done using magic, you'll know how to do it, and if you take it seriously and avoid the well-marked pitfalls it will transform your life utterly for the better.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm only about two weeks into the first month of the Introduction of the "Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition" book and I am already a little confused with the wording of the "Bringing Down the Light" ritual. Do you know anywhere I can get clarity on that?

Regardie's books on the complete Golden Dawn only talk about the grades beyond the initial set up rituals...

Thanks a bunch

[ecosophia]

The ritual in question is one that the Ciceros created, as I recall. You might see if you can contact them.

[(Anonymous)]

Does the above apply to the Celtic Golden Dawn as well?

[ecosophia]

The Celtic Golden Dawn is not as complicated a system; partly, it's been streamlined in certain ways, and partly there are aspects of the system that simply haven't been developed yet. It's designed to avoid the ego traps the Hermetic GD has, and it's not quite so richly stocked in practical magic methods; five years of systematic work will get you to the point of mastery, and from there on you can add new things to the system.

[(Anonymous)]

Would it be possible to use the Hermetic Golden Dawn as a resource to find things to try?

[ecosophia]

Of course. I created the CGD system that way in the first place!

[vitranc]

If I may. I think you once said the GD system is a solar current system. How does it compare with Druidry, which if I got it right is a „dual“ solar and tellurgic system?

[ecosophia]

Yes, the GD works with the solar currrent primarily, while the kind of Druidry I practice works with both the solar and telluric currents. There's another difference, though, which is that Druidry is a religious and philosophical system, while the Golden Dawn is a magical system. It's like the relationship between, say, Taoism and kung fu -- one is an overarching worldview, the other is a way to do certain things.

[(Anonymous)]

But... I understood that you always described the system you teach in "The Druid Magic Handbook" as magical, in parallel with your GD and CGD books? What would be the overarching world view of the Golden Dawn? If I understand right, the different world view is also expressed in the respective focus on one or two currents?

[ecosophia]

The system in the DMH is a magical system that fits within the broader spiritual system of Druidry. The Golden Dawn is a magical system that fits within the broader spiritual system of Christian Neoplatonism.

[(Anonymous)]

What are some systems that work more with the emotional and intuitive side, but aren't just New Age mush?

[ecosophia]

There I can't help you. I'm one of those highly cerebral types.

[(Anonymous)]

So for a highly cerebral type then its safe working with the Golden Dawn without worrying about its overly cerebral nature compounding your own? (I ask because you've said that magic risks compounding your own imbalances; and I'm not sure how that works)

[ecosophia]

If you're a highly cerebral type, you're better off working with a highly cerebral form of magic -- but once you get good at it, you can then use its toolkit to balance out the cerebral dimensions of the work (say, by making talismans of Venus and the Moon to strengthen the emotional and intuitive sides of your nature).

Celebrating the Cerebral

[(Anonymous)]

"I'm one of those highly cerebral types."

That's something I very much enjoy and appreciate about your writing, that it shows you've so carefully thought about the topic and how to present it. Some other writers on related topics too easily fall into emotional ranting that obscures their points. I hope that over time, you'll be a good influence on my own writing in that sense of clarity.

- Mr. New-Writer

[(Anonymous)]

Ecstatic Dance - especially if you can find an African teacher

[(Anonymous)]

How does the Druid Magic Handbook system compare to the GD?

[ecosophia]

It's a much simpler system, meant to work within the worldview and spiritual tradition of a particular kind of Druidry. It could probably be expanded to the same level of complexity but a couple of generations of hard work by practitioners will be needed to make that happen.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, what are the well-marked pitfalls?

—Lady Cutekitten

[ecosophia]

That's a good topic for a medium-sized book. The most important, however, are egomania -- too much focus on solar symbolism in the Adeptus Minor ritual has that risk -- and a tendency to get caught up in visionary melodrama through treating experiences in scrying and pathworking as real rather than symbolic.