ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2021-05-02 11:40 pm

Magic Monday

creation of the worldIt'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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Bookshop logoI'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!***  

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Make a friend in the community first. Then it will fall into place

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
It would depend on the tradition and what precisely you are looking for. Both etsy and amazon sell magical tools. Golden dawn and goetia are suitably well known that you can easily find specific items designed for use in those systems. I believe there is even an online store that explicitly caters to Golden Dawn, but I don't know any details. More earth based traditions are generally quite flexible in what they use. I've personally had excellent luck with antique stores. My chalice was purchased from a mundane glassware shop. A friend actually makes regular purchases from a catholic supply store (they sell church supplies, even to the public). One of the better sets of runes I've seen actually was purchased off of amazon. A set of dominoes that were used for divination originally came from Toys R Us.

Re: Prayers for Kiki

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll light a candle to Bast right now for Kiki. Poor kitty!

The Grey Badger

A very serious question about karma

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Do the more advanced* animals like primates incur a karmic burden for behaviors like (to pick one I personally find reprehensible) randomly battering subordinates to insure their own dominance? Or does that not matter because they are innocent animals acting according to their nature? *I do realize you can't fault a cat for playing with a mouse it's caught!*

And what about humans living in a culture where such behaviors are not only the norm, but considered right and proper. What karmic burden do they incur? We postmoderns have gone on a crusade to condemn people of the past for behaving in ways we of the future dislike, and am I projecting that when I ask this question? Even when the behaviors visibly do harm to others? That famous "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," keeps coming to mind.

And if any of this is true, then the standards we are supposed to live up to are those of angels, and as one of Shakespeare's characters said, "then no man would escape a whipping."

Or is this just a formerly Christian background finding this to be a problem?

Thanks,

The Grey Badger

IROP/BROP

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Hullo JMG!

In a mini report back based on realizations in previous magic Mondays,

It seems to me after more meditation and practice of the CGD Ritual of the Pentagram.....

The invoking form is the cross within the circle, associated with Muner. Raising consciousness to that level. The banishing form feels to me to be simply the empty circle of spirit. Perhaps with the cross emerging from it, as in Naf.

I've also got the strong feeling with my in-the-works Rhiannon invocation, that I need to develop some command of Welsh, in order to communicate better and invoke properly.

Do you or anyone in the Commentariat have resources for good texts or programs for learning Welsh besides duolingo?

Thank you all in advance!

-WindMan

Swords and Wands

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I recently picked up a second hand book by Ina Cüsters-van Bergen, the English title of which is The Temple of High Magic, perhaps you know it. I got interested in magic through your books, PoW, CoP and LRM, but I wanted a different take on the subject for balance or something like that. The book is interesting enough with guided pathworkings which I’m keen to do, but she’s one of these occult people who has switched the associations of swords and wands, i.e. swords are fire and wands are air. Would you say that that makes the pathworkings inappropriate for me (that’s my guess) or could I maybe hack the scripts to make them agree with the swords/air, wands/fire normal associations without destroying their effectiveness?

Thanks!

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
There’s something incredibly toxic energetically about the Corona virus.

I wrote rona in sand on the beach and let the ocean wash it away. An incredible amount of dark and toxic energy came through and shortly after a woman argued in that faux friendly way with my wife about how we needed to wear masks outside. Even though she was the only one doing so.

I recently told a friend of mine that I would be skipping the vaccine, and the same toxic energy came to bear. It was very strange. After both instances I’ve had to do repeated banishings.

It has led me to think that people don’t WANT it to go away. That they are actually fighting for it... Any idea what that’s about? And why it’s so toxic? Anybody else have a similar experience?
kimberlysteele: (Default)

Re: Prayers for Kiki

[personal profile] kimberlysteele 2021-05-03 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for your prayers... they worked! She is already pooping again! She had a decent size poo last night and is starting to clear the constipation.

I do feed her pumpkin and I used to actually sprout & grow wheat grass for her, and in the process learned how to make rejuvelac -- I will buy some more fully grown grass for her as well as some seed for sprouting, that's great advice.

My most heartfelt thanks.

Re: My experience with the Chenrezig mantra as a non Buddhist, aka Good Is Not Nice

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
In Tibetan Buddhism, we’ve been taught that the syllable OM, at the forehead, represents the body of all the Buddhas; the syllable AH, at the throat, represents the speech of all the Buddhas; the syllable HUM, at the heart, represents the mind of all the Buddhas. This imagery is often used in visualizations, pictures of sacred beings, etc. There are additional chakras, but they would not usually be discussed with beginning students. I have never heard the feet considered as an energy center in Tibetan Buddhism.

I’ve never heard of the syllables of the Om Mani Peme Hum mantra being paired with specific energy centers. I just did a quick Google search and didn’t find any examples of this.

Since it is a six syllable mantra, there are many teachings explaining how the six syllables purify the six negative emotions and support the six perfections. If you look at the Wikipedia entry on the mantra,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum#In_Tibetan_Buddhism
you’ll find a chart about this, plus teachings on the mantra from three respected teachers with links to a great deal more material.

JMG has written books on several different paths of practice. My impression, from my few months visiting ecosophia, is that he emphasizes doing a path fully and in order. He is very careful about saying which paths go together and which do not.

The mantra Om Mane Padme Hum invokes the Buddha of compassion; it is a way of increasing our own ability to experience and express compassion. Compassion is the beginning and the heart of the Buddhist path. Therefore I think chanting this mantra, or listening to the chant, with those intentions, is a valuable and safe practice for everyone.

The Buddhist path starts with meditation and compassion. It goes on to additional practices, complex visualizations, etc. In my experience, it is a wonderful blessing to learn practices that have been created over centuries and practiced by thousands of goodhearted people. But the safest way of following the Buddhist path (like any other path) is to practice it in order and when possible under the guidance of a teacher.

Best wishes for your future practice! May everything be auspicious for you, on the physical plane and the spiritual plane!

EllenZ

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Not JMG but I had a similar concern about my own abilities. Done is better than perfect. I’ve been using my decidedly subpar tools for awhile now and it hasn’t been a problem. Cardboard cross and circle, poor paint job and an old pickle jar for my holy water.. Celtic Golden Dawn tools. So far no Gods were offended by my lack of quality. It took me about a year to get over the idea of needing “the perfect” tools. Just do it. It’ll be fine. I think it’s like magic itself. It’s an iterative process. You’ll get better and finally be able to make that wand you want.

[personal profile] robertmathiesen 2021-05-03 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, Randi's spouse (since 2013) was a man ... So, yes.

Re: My experience with the Chenrezig mantra as a non Buddhist, aka Good Is Not Nice

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
As a practicing Buddhist - and someone who likes reading this blog - it seems that the intermixing of Buddhist practice within non Buddhist spiritual paths should only be done with the greatest of care and should be immediately abandoned upon a negative result.

We do a LOT of what I would call the equivalent of banishing spells as a daily practice and a LOT of study on the nature of Karma. After 30 years of Dharma practice I still feel like a beginner a lot of the times.
psykitsune: (Default)

[personal profile] psykitsune 2021-05-03 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
HI JMG,

I've been doing the discursive exercises for a while and have felt them to be extremely helpful. I've noted that I'm far more able to enter a concentrated state of mind than I was, say with mindfulness meditation. While I am cautious apart reading too much into these kind of experiences, would you have any tips, or know any books that talk about the experiences that can happen to you during discursive meditation.

Thanks,

Adrian

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
2) I don't know if I'll see him again any time soon, but I will relay the message to someone who will.

Re: A Muslim Druid

[personal profile] tamanous2020 2021-05-03 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Here here, it would be very interesting to hear the story of a muslim/druid hybrid.

Re: Current Mood: cheerful?

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
When you describe yourself as "geeky" the accompanying symbol is "xue" [rising tone] which means "to study" or "school" (daxue, big school = university, xuesheng = student). I don't read much Chinese so have just assumed that the others were equally legit. (But I also assumed you picked 'em.)

Re: A Muslim Druid

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not a Muslim Druid. I merely had a delivery for the mosque. Sorry about any disappointment.

Re: Mundane Astrology/Lunar Eclipse

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Nyet! Viruses are like chain letters, which can't reproduce themselves and rely on their host to reproduce. Errors in this process (like if you mess up while copying the chain letter) create variants. The more people you send the letter to, and the more copies each of them makes, the more variants there will be - most of which will be "inferior", but some of which might be "improvements" on the original. Likewise, more hosts having no pre-existing resistance means more virus variants. If this guy wants us to think, contrarily, that having a lot of people in the population who won't get infected because they have prior immunity is Bad, isn't it also Bad to have lots of people get sick because then they too will be immune afterward (except for those who die, natch)?

(Anonymous) 2021-05-03 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I know quite a few gay men who are really quite irritated the lengths people go to erase gayness from historical figures; and especially when they do the same to modern figures. It's rather odd to watch.....

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