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.

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I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the 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

Finding lost things

[(Anonymous)]

This is perhaps a deeply silly question, and if that’s the case, I welcome a silly answer.

However, I recently misplaced some very important keys of mine. I have turned my home upside down, and looked in every corner I can think of, without finding it.

I have been initiating in Golden Dawn magic for over a year now, and I was curious if there are any techniques, whether it’s searching during certain astrological hours, or certain ritual practices that I could perform that might assist me in finding said key.

Re: Finding lost things

[(Anonymous)]

It was lost keys that finally pushed me to try remote viewing for the first time. It was very accurate but still took a while to find the keys. It turned out the description of the wheelie bin where they were also sounded very like the cellar. :)

Sapere Aude

[ivn66]

Hi JMG -

Just wondering if you can recommend any resources for learning more about Westcott. I have his "Numbers: Their Occult Power etc" as well as the larger Collectanea Hermetica and there's a certain energy in his writer's voice that I feel very drawn to. So, biographies, other notable works - I'd be interested in anything along that line which you may care to mention. I also wonder if what I'm feeling when I read him may be related to a Rosicrucian current or something? Is it possible to pick up on something like that just reading somebody's academic works?

Re: Sapere Aude

[ecosophia]

William Wynn Westcott is one of the most underrated occultists of modern times: a quiet, genial, extremely capable figure whose work is reliably first-rate. R.A. Gilbert did a collection of his essays titled The Magical Mason that has an autobiographical essay, but nobody's done a proper bio of him -- more's the pity. He wrote a great many books and essays; you can download a fair number of them here.

question

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG,

I'm curious about how karma actually works. Like are things such as degree of harm, or intention of harm, factoring into the karmic equation, and similarly, how does doing good work?

Re: question

[ecosophia]

That's a very complicated question. The basic rule is that every thought, word, and deed has consequences for good or ill, and those return to you sooner or later. How they return, and how soon they return, depend on what other karmic patterns you're dealing with -- think of yourself as being in a field of constantly changing karmic forces that are all interacting with one another, and with you.

Yes, your attitude and intention matters, but that doesn't mean you get a free pass by saying "But I didn't mean it!" If you caused harm via very common combination of good intentions and stupidity, say, you get the karma of harm, the karma of having ineffective good intentions, and the karma of being an idiot. On the flip side, if you did something for selfish reasons that turned out to help someone, you get the karma of helping someone and also the karma of being selfish, and those tangle with each other and work out in due time.

Greetings from the cosmic oom!

[(Anonymous)]

FYI as a background task I add additional words to the cosmic oom website periodically — like Hubble‘a universe the oom-iverse is constantly expanding (albeit slowly). Also you needn’t track down the Tree of Life image in Origen — of course it would be in Contra Celsum. I’ve ordered it and will find it myself. Thanks again for all your good work!

Re: Greetings from the cosmic oom!

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear that the Oom is continuing to pulsate. As for Origen, I think it's in Book VI but don't quote me on that. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

a) I am about to start working with the Ovate Temple in the CGD, and would like to make sure I have it right. The instructions say to do the LRP in the temple, and don't say whether to use the banishing or invoking form. Am I correct to think this means I ought to alternate between the two, just as I do with daily practice?

b) Does the temple replace or supplement the daily LRP on the days I do it?

c) We are back under a complete lockdown, actually the strictest one thus far, and so I have wound up with copious amounts of free time. Would it be problematic at this point to do the temple work daily as a form of practice?

[ecosophia]

1) For now, alternate them. When you get to the next stage you'll be doing a summoning LRP to open and a banishing LRP to close.

2) Either one, depending on your preference.

3) No, it wouldn't be problematic at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning.
My question is about I’m going to say celebrities, but including anyone popular really.
It’s been noted here about the destabilizing nature of popularity. I.e. singers, priests whose energy grounds out through sexuality, all the mental issues that celebrities seem to have, it seems there’s also an issue with you tube creators etc. Just basically anyone in the popular imagination. The one counter example I’ve seen discussed was Louis Pastor who was protected from a death spell by prayers from the populace. What’s going on with that destabilization from an occult stand point?

[(Anonymous)]

Who is, or was, Louis Pastor? I tried to look him up and only got results for Louis Pasteur.

-/Lady Cutekitten

repetation

[syfen]

Archdruid,

Im finally writing and organizing the spells that I cast regularly.

When I write spells use poetry with vivid imagery for the incantation, and I write a different poem each time I cast the the same spell. I really like writing poems, but would using the same poem over and over make the spell more potent?

Regards,

Syfen

Re: repetation

[ecosophia]

Experiment and find out! This varies from person to person.

TSW

[(Anonymous)]

Since exactly March 13 I've begun to move through a fully systemic karmic culmination. Unfortunately it appears to be dragging my whole family along in a Job-lite kind of way. They are proving to be good soldiers as the experience illuminates some weaknesses and strengths and we are drawn closer as a unit. Our impression is that we are riding the wavefront of much larger phenomena swirling around us. I've been investigating if this is driven by the grand conjunction, by Moon phase or as a result of my Saturn planetary charity (Saturn is afflicted in my natal chart). All of the above? Are others here experiencing this? Having just started to study along with you on subscribestar I dont have the tools to decipher the web of forces at play so any advice is appreciated.
I'm working the CoP,PoW pair after finishing LRM about a year ago. Daily practice is very regular and beneficial. While meditating on the events described above a very complex knot form descended the ray of light to just above my head. This opened to some very fruitful meditations and I would appreciate guidance to further study systems that are built around sacred knots. I believe some Catholic orders used to wear a belt with knotted rope and there are mythologies involving a girdle of Isis. I have an inkling that sacred geometry "ties" in here somewhere.
Finally, one of the trails leading from these meditations led me to the use of astragali in divination. Is anyone familiar with their use? I expect this system evolved to use dice later, again with a hint of sacred geometry.
Thanks as always for this forum.
Gawain

Re: TSW

[ecosophia]

1) There's a lot of collective karma earthing out right now, so your own karmic culmination will be mixed in with that. Saturn planetary charity shouldn't be involved -- one of the reasons that planetary charity is a good idea is that it doesn't tend toward blowback -- but everything else on the list, yes. You and your family are obviously coping with it well; keep going, and once you're out the other side you and your family will reap the benefits of having cleared away a lot of noxious karma.

2 and 3) I'm sorry to say neither of these are subjects I know anything about. Happy hunting!

[tamanous2020]

Good Monday JMG,

1. In previous postings, you've mentioned an etheric cleansing mix that can be used to clear out a space. What was that?

2. Recently, I had a odd experience doing the SoP. I had done the Etheric exercise you posted about in the morning and did the SoP at Midday. At the circulation of light, it felt like my left leg/knee and lower back had an electrical charge going through them that caused some spasms (and made it quite difficult to maintain my posture). Was the addition of the etheric exercise the source of that in your opinion? Or does this sound more like blockage clearing?

3. Given your earlier mundane astrology regarding the presidential inauguration and recent political news showing the ratcheting up of tensions between Russia/USA and China/Taiwan, has your opinion regarding the potential for war changed at all? I recall there being a wait and see approach regarding which accepted inaugural time would pan out.

4. Do the Druid Revival gods have any preferred devotional offerings that you're aware of?

5. Is there any known start date or accepted historical time when the modern social justice movement started that you or the community knows of? I was thinking of looking at the mundane chart for it and seeing what information that could provide.

6. When doing a geomantic shield chart, do you follow the traditional wisdom that you should toss the reading if Cauda Draconis appears in the 1st mother?

Thanks!

Tamanous

[ecosophia]

1) Depends. Are you talking about something to mop the floor with, or what?

2) It sounds like a blockage clearing to me. As for the etheric exercise, nobody knows yet!

3) I'm still waiting and seeing. Tensions and rumors are tensions and rumors, and we'll see what actually pans out.

4) That seems to differ from worshiper to worshiper. Ask them!

5) I don't know of one, but that's a fascinating question. Anyone else?

6) I discuss that in one of my books. When Cauda Draconis appears as the first mother, it typically means that it's too late, baby, for whatever action the querent has in mind; it's still worth casting the chart to see why. When Rubeus is the first mother, that tells you that the querent is lying to you -- or if you're the querent, that you're lying to yourself. In either case it's worth going ahead with the reading.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I was raised a Christian and when I was a child I pledged my soul to the Cristian god. I'm no longer a Cristian, but the fact that I made that pledge concerns me. Should I be worried about this? Is the Christian god going to come for my soul when I die?

[ecosophia]

I wouldn't worry about it. Are there other gods you pray to now? They'll make sure you're in good shape when you die. (That's one of the things that gods do.)

[(Anonymous)]

I had to have the remains of a decayed tooth pulled out today. I had hoodoo bath as soon as I got home and will do the SoP before bed (only up to Air so far). From an occult point of view, is there anything else I should do?

[ecosophia]

Other than getting plenty of rest and eating well? Nothing that I know of.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello John,

What are the best mystical or magical practices (the simplest, the better) to clear ancestral karma?

Thanks,
Aziz (Scarlet Hibernating Octopus)

[ecosophia]

Clearing ancestral karma is advanced work, suitable for people who have a solid grasp of magical or mystical technique and have already cleared their own personal karma. Until you get to that point, prayer is your best bet.

Theory of Sensing Earth Spinning

[youngelephant]

Hi JMG, I vaguely recall you relaying some theory on why people sometimes can feel the Earth spinning. It's buried in a past MM somewhere, and I regrettably did not take a note of that one. So apologies if you've heard this before. My thinking has led to the conclusion of etheric plane resonance with the Earth, but I'm not sure if there is more to it than that. What do you think?

Re: Theory of Sensing Earth Spinning

[ecosophia]

I don't recall ever saying anything about that!

[deansmith]

JMG,

I stumbled upon the following book in a used book store...

Active Meditation: The Western Tradition, by Carl Japikse and Robert R Leichtman

I haven't found very many rescent books on Western style meditation (this one seems to have been written in 1982), so picked it up. Are you familiar with it? If so do you know much about it or the guys who wrote it? Also if so what are your thoughts on it? I've never come across it mentioned anywhere in occult or meditative circles. As always, thanks for your time.

Best,
Dean Smith

[ecosophia]

I read it and didn't find it useful, but for the life of me I don't remember why. (It was a long time ago, for whatever that's worth.)

SOP

[jaroslaw]

Some questions about the SoP you wrote about here earlier on dreamwidth, and the one in the AODA New candidate guide.

I've done both the former and just recently started the AODA Elemental Cross after a long hiatus from druidry. Now, I've been using the ritual you posted here on Ecosophia, and using the Slavic Gods in the SoP, since I'm in the army now and my magic books are back home far from me for the time being. However, the more I'm practicing the SoP as I have it now, the more I want to go and advance my practice from where it is now. I've been wanting to start the CGD, and as soon as I can get home I'll bring the book back with me so I can start on it. My question is, should/would it be appropriate for me to continue to do the Slavic SoP as I do it now, and go into the CGD? If I wanted to finish my AODA candidate grade, should I stop the SoP as I currently do it and perform it as done in the Candidate guide?

Re: SOP

[ecosophia]

Okay, you're talking two radically different magical systems here. The two versions of the SoP are interchangeable -- a number of people in AODA have taken up the version I posted here, with good results -- but the Celtic Golden Dawn system uses the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram instead; if you take you that system you'll need to stop doing the SoP entirely and perform the LRP instead.

Dark times

[(Anonymous)]

What role do you think the occult sciences could play helping us through the dark times ahead? Not only in keeping ourselves centered, but physically healing the environment

Re: Dark times

[ecosophia]

Occultism by itself is not an effective way of causing major changes on the material plane. You can use occult means as a way to strengthen actions taken on the material plane, but if you're not doing the material actions, the occult actions won't amount to much. (I routinely field questions from people who want to use magic to heal the environment while continuing to wallow in lifestyles that wreck the environment, so if I seem a little irritable about this, there's a reason.)

If more people were to take up occult studies and practices, the resulting self-knowledge and insight would make it much easier for them to recognize that lives of endless material consumption aren't making them happy or fulfilled, and that can help them ditch destructive lifestyles and also cope with the hard limits of the deindustrial future. If more people who are already working to heal the environment were to combine occultism with their ecological restoration, that would make the restoration more effective. So there are possibilities -- but it's still going to take a lot of hard physical labor and a lot of giving up of ecologically damaging lifestyles.

[(Anonymous)]

Just an update for the book club backorders. I received an email this morning saying that Bookshop.org expects to receive inventory of Levi from the distributor on 4/27, and will ship out to customers within 24 hours after that.

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I'm glad to hear this.

Kirlian photography

[(Anonymous)]

As an occultist, what do you think Kirlian photography really captures, if anything? Besides the moisture content in leaves, which surely can't apply to someone's head in an indoor room. And what does "electrical-coronal discharges" mean? The discussions of it all refer to "the pseudo-science of auras" and other comments in that vein. Inquiring subjects want to know.

And if it's what the dicussions say it is, which I can't make head nor tail of, what do the various colors mean? And is it just how you set the camera up?

Carnelian Pungent Opossum

Re: Kirlian photography

[ecosophia]

I haven't looked into it for years, but it seems to be taking pictures of the etheric plane. What do the colors mean? I haven't the least idea.

To the Future - And Beyond!

[(Anonymous)]

Here's one that's been bugging me for a while...is the concept of reincarnation part of the Myth of Progress? After all, despite the occasional setback, the journey of each soul is from "least evolved" (e.g. flatworm) to "evolved beyond our understanding" (astral plane...and beyond?). So the concept of evolution here seems to be "higher/lower" rather than "becoming better adapted to its environment." It seems to me that at least superficially this is no different than "progress forever."

Cordially,

RPC

Re: To the Future - And Beyond!

[ecosophia]

We're becoming better adapted to an environment that includes spiritual as well as material factors. Progress covertly supposes that everything is supposed to keep on improving in the same way forever -- bigger and better machines, or what have you -- but the basic idea of spiritual evolution as I understand it is that each soul develops in a different way, and so your soul could evolve in a completely different direction than mine.

Occult History

[(Anonymous)]

Hello Mr Greer,

As you know, there is a long line of occult thinkers who claim to have access to secret knowledge from a bygone era but instead invented new ideas and rituals. I was wondering if you believed the legends about some kind of ancient Babylon/anti antediluvian/Atlantis/fill in the blank ancient magical empire, or is most of that just allegory? If so, how successful do you think we have been in recreating what was lost?

Re: Occult History

[ecosophia]

There's a lot of allegory, no question, but it's clear (for example) that the ancient Egyptians knew much more about magic than we do. Some of that lore was systematized in Roman times, and then mostly lost with the coming of Christianity; the Renaissance saw a lot of good work done to recover the late classical synthesis, and then much of that was lost with the coming of the scientific revolution. What we have now are fragments of a much vaster and more effective knowledge, though some of the fragments work well and more bits are being added all the time.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a term for masking/hiding/redirecting oneself on the astral and mental planes? So that people can't inadvertently think at you, or tune into the abstract concept of you? At what point in Golden Dawn training does this come in? Specifically your learning track Golden Dawn work.

[ecosophia]

The term is "veiling the aura," and the GD ritual that does that is the Rose+Cross ritual. In my books, it comes in early on in Circles of Power.

[mrwhite105]

Hope you're well JMG,

I was wondering about remembering past lives and I've been reading around looking for any authoritative occult advice on how to do this, but I can't seem to find much. I did find something by Dion Fortune where she writes (very briefly) about focusing on some karmic experience in your life and meditating on that, and then that's supposed to lead the way. Do you think this is reliable? If not, do you know of other ways to recall past lives into conscious memory?

Another question I have is whether this is recommended for beginners in occultism. Is trying to recall past lives too much for someone who's only really just started out with occult practices, or is it actually quite safe provided you go about it in the right way?

Many thanks.

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend this at all. You will remember your past lives spontaneously when you're ready to remember them; before then, you're not ready for it. Methods such as hypnotic regression produce confabulated (i.e., fake) pseudomemories -- that's why testimony extracted by hypnosis cannot be brought into courts, it's so often false. Just focus on doing the basic practices and let your past lives surface when they surface.

First Work of Spagyrics

[(Anonymous)]

Hullo JMG!

I hope you are doing well!

I began the first work of spagyrics the other day, and found grinding with the mortar and pestle difficult. As in it took me over and hour and a half and I still didn't feel the vervain was reduced to a "fine powder." (The book says it should only take around 20 minutes) It was certainly much finer than when I started..... I can tend to be a perfectionist about these things, so I wanted to ask:

how fine is fine? Is it okay for it to have some visible larger pieces? Should it all be uniform powder? What's the target?

And I keep questioning if I was using the pestle wrong, I tried using both ends (don't know which end you're supposed to grip, or if you can use both) I found the stone grinding on stone sound and feeling very mesmerizing and relaxing. And focused on the work of the grade as best I could. But it still felt like it took so long..... I do have a very small mortar and pestle, the opening is only about 3" in diameter. Perhaps that's why.

Any advice or guidance is much appreciated!

And thanks for maintaining this forum!

-WindMan

Any guidance or advice would be appreciated.

Re: First Work of Spagyrics

[ecosophia]

A lot depends on how coarse your herb is to start with, and how dry it is; also, the smaller the mortar, the slower the process. If most of it's powdered, you're fine. As for the pestle, the wide end is the one you grind with.

[(Anonymous)]

From an occult perspective, what does fasting do?

[ecosophia]

Fasting increases your sensitivity to the nonphysical. So does a vegan or vegetarian diet -- that's why it's recommended for some spiritual traditions, and decidedly not recommended for some others (when too much sensitivity will make you freak out, this is not a good thing).

[(Anonymous)]

What role if any does the throat center play in the DMH tradition?

[ecosophia]

None. There are 360 energy centers in the human body; most spiritual traditions choose a few of those to work with, and of course the fewer you work with, the more intensely you can work with the ones you choose.