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 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

UFOs

[(Anonymous)]

Ain’t it interesting that the vast majority of UFOs pick the good ol’ US of A as *the* place to put in an appearance?

Re: UFOs

[peter_van_erp]

Even more remarkable, they are only captured by cameras having the resolution of a 1980 VHS video camera, despite the proliferation of cell phones around the world. Or perhaps they only approach people such as our esteemed host, who have declined to join the ever-connected. Druid Aliens?

[(Anonymous)]

A few questions about how karma works:

1. If someone has bad karma coming their way, does a certain amount of bad stuff have to happen to them and the universe will keep throwing misfortune at them until it has? Or do they just need to have a certain amount of potentially bad stuff thrown their way? Then if they handle it so well very little bad gets through, the account is still considered settled?

2. You've said one of the ways to burn off karma is to realise the full consequences of your actions on the astral plain. Is this limited by your current incarnation's knowledge and empathy? Or can you also clear actions where you didn't know you did anything wrong, or even from a previous life you don't remember?

3. According to occuly philosophy, souls have to experience pretty much every bad thing as part of their development. What happens if a soul needs to experience something but either doesn't have bad enough karma to bring it on, or they have enough karma but it's for a different specific kind of bad? Is the learning experience put on hold until they've done the right kind of wrong to earn it?

[(Anonymous)]

Former Buddhist with about a decade of fairly serious practice here:

1) Karma is simply action, and by extension, causality. It's not a cosmic checking account that has to be balanced out down to the cent. Actions have consequences, harmful ones increase the amount of harm in the world, benevolent ones increase the amount of benevolence in the world; and in either case, the person doing things is in the middle of that change. The most common understanding of "bad karma" is that it is forcing you to realize that you are not separate from others, and the resulting negative events are to help overcome the illusion of separation. It is possible to handle things so well that relatively little suffering arises from unwholesome actions, this is usually called "skillful means". Your next question makes it clear you are familiar with at least some of how it works.

2) This actually varies widely. Usually, all your karma is present in your current incarnation even if you don't remember your past and aren't required to deal with all of it at once. In this case, the distinction between past and current incarnation as a source of karma isn't terribly valuable, you are still dealing with the same karma and the same patterns and modes of being. Sometimes, past lives become the spiritual equivalent of a cyst; they are a minor but chronic problem until they are removed, then they temporarily turn into a large problem until they are dealt with.

3) The common western formula, as I'm aware of it is "The soul must know and experience all things". My understanding is that this doesn't mean every bad thing has to happen to you, it means that the soul needs some sort of balance and communion with everything it is in contact with. Once it does that, it is allowed into a wider circle for new lessons, and so on.

An important addendum, the Buddha himself taught that trying to uncover the workings of karma is a barrier to enlightenment. The thing to focus on is restraining your own vices and cultivating your own virtues; growing in understanding and allowing the three poisons to fall away.

If you are trying to puzzle out suffering in your own life, you might be better served by asking a more specific questions. Also, the FAQ has some really good techniques in it, and the books recommended are top notch as well. Hopefully this helps.

[(Anonymous)]

Numerology question, if you feel up for responding: in choosing a name for a child, what would you consider to be the drawbacks and benefits of 2 vs. 6? The choice comes down to a simple single letter difference in spelling the full name. My daughter and I, who are particularly close, are 6s. Is there such a thing as too many 6s in a family? The 6 focus on hearth & home is appealing. My husband would then be the odd one out (he is a 1). Many thanks!

[ecosophia]

I'd go for a 6 instead of a 2. 2, like 4, can be tough to live with.

6 Questions

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Hope you're having a good week so far - here are my latest batch of questions which I've been saving up:

1) Related to radionics, etc - do you know of any etheric-based technologies which could replicate what we currently power with electricity? The main one which springs to mind is lighting, which there is some evidence from the pyramids (hieroglyphic carving diagrams, the lack of smoke stains on otherwise enclosed/underground heavily painted areas of the structures) that the ancient Egyptians had access to.

2) On the subject of illumination, but in another sense, were the illuminated Bibles produced by medieval monks effectively a magical working in their own right? I always wondered why they went to so much effort for a copy of a book which could have bedn produced 10 times quicker without all the illumination.

3) I couldn't find it listed in your Encyclopaedia of natural magic, so could you tell me the occult associations of willow? I'm assuming it's a water-affiliated tree? As a species, is it generally well-disposed towards humans?

4) Several people have commented recently about how animals seem smarter recently. Our dog is 2 years old, and I swear she understands the majoriry of what we say, but it's not so much the words, more the intent behind them. My personal feeling is that a lot of more 'advanced' human souls with the ability to choose have decided that they are pretty fed up of the human race and would rather reincarnate as something less stressful for a while. I know that, given the choice, I'd probably spend a few centuries as a crow or an octopus before begrudgingly heading back to the human world.

5) Several commenters have mentioned geometric patterns as being useful for confusing demons and other noctural n'er-do-wells. I saw a dream catcher the othet day and realised that they are usually composed of several geomtric webs all linked together - an explanation for what I assumed was just 'woo-woo' as a teenager seeing them in friends' bedrooms!

6) I don't know what to call this, but I have an effect where my mental state will dictate the music played on my music library when it is set to shuffle, or (sometimes) will predict future events if I ask it to. Has anyone else had this 'audiomancy'?

Thanks in advance.

Mister Crow

Re: 6 Questions

[(Anonymous)]

If I may be so bold as well, could I ask a favour from yourself and/or other posters?

The reason for my question about the willows is that we are soon scheduled to move house, and there are several large willows in the garden! My astrology knowledge is poor, and we had minimal choice over the moving date, so frankly I'd rather not know right now to be honest. As a result, would it be ok to ask for some prayers that our house move goes well, with no additional fuss or expenses, and that we will be happy, safe and healthy in our new home?

Thank you. :)

Mister Crow

(I accidentally pressed 'post' too early by the way, so please delere the initial garbled draft!)

[(Anonymous)]

In the "less a question and more sharing sharing something interesting I ran across" department, I have discovered an absolutely hilarious large-scale synchronicity: a natural disaster delays the release of an episode of a serial work (that I already strongly suspected had heavy higher-plane backing for other reasons) which included events that are really easy to take as an allegory for the Harrowing of Hell; the episode in question was eventually released on... Good Friday.

(It's also been piling on the small-scale synchronicities, too: salient to last week's comments, a couple of things about that work would be *quite* consistent with Guanyin/Kannon, the Virgin Mary, and Pistis Sophia all being aspects of the same archetype/deity...)

- pretentious_username

[ecosophia]

Funny. Thanks for this.

A gift from a tree?

[slclaire]

Over the past few months I have worked on becoming friends with a mature pin oak tree that is just beyond our west property line and near the SW corner of our house. Because both our house and the next-door vacant house are also set close to this property line, the tree towers over both houses. My husband and I are on good terms with the owner of the house, who allows us to harvest downed wood that falls from any of their several large trees for use in our wood stove.

The process of becoming friends begin with my standing distant from the tree each morning and directing friendly feelings and mental conversation toward it. After a couple of months of this, I sensed that the tree would welcome my standing next to it as the Druidry Handbook suggests. The tree has indicated that it and the other oak trees like it along the street act as guardians over the entire street, and that it is happy to have my friendship.

Several days ago as part of our ongoing friendship I offered the tree the tobacco seedlings that I had not planted in the garden, which I am growing for use in making offerings in nature. Around that same time I also directed the blessing from a GCC communion ritual especially toward the same tree. A day or two later, around 9pm, I heard a cracking sound that I recognized as a large tree branch separating from a tree. It took some time before I finally heard the thud of the large end hitting the ground. Then my husband and I went outside to investigate. We found that the limb had fallen off this same tree. Incredibly, the limb aligned almost exactly up and down along the driveway for the house next door, which is on the other side of the tree from the property line, the one spot where it would do no damage to the houses or to any of the trees and shrubs nearby. This was no small limb, either; my husband measured the end that separated from the tree as 11.5 inches in diameter! Plus it fell just about 12 hours away from when I usually commune with the tree, around 9am, and where I stand against the tree was not blocked by any portion of the fallen limb while some of the foliage did block the trunk next to that area.

Here is my question: does it seem likely to you, as it does to me, that the limb falling as it did was not a coincidence, that the tree intended it to fall as it did, so that it caused no damage and made it easy for my husband to salvage the wood for our wood stove? He spent the next two mornings doing so, and I made a small gift to the tree as well.

Re: A gift from a tree?

[ecosophia]

Sounds like a generous act to me. The tree doubtless knew that the branch was going to go, and made sure that it went in the safest possible way.

[sh1njuk1]

Hello JMG,

Thank you so much as always for doing Magic Monday.

1) I am planning to submit my AODA application for Druid Candidacy on the solstice, as this feels like a properly auspicious date. Is there a day/time that could make it even more auspicious? My intention is that this will become my spiritual identity, practice and belief for the rest of my life.

2) Occasionally I am tempted to quote parts of your books on the Internet to people who are particularly... let's use the word "blinkered". I've held off for several reasons. However, should I give in to temptation, what guidelines should I use to properly respect your ownership of the text? I have either bought or borrowed from the library all sources of the quotes.

3) Recently I've found myself interested in the Etruscans, specifically. Do you or your readers have any recommendation for texts about their culture, and in particular their language?

Thanks again for all that you provide here.

[booklover1973]

About the language of the Etruscans, there is a book "Zikh Rasna" which deals with Etruscan writing, grammar and inscriptions.

[(Anonymous)]

As socialising ramps up again, I am suffering badly with a sense of embarrassment and worry that I have messed up interactions, especially with some prior acquaintances and friends of friends: people whom I don't know very well, but might run into again. The main concern is that I may have been overfamiliar or said inappropriate things, because I got used to talking mostly to close friends during the lockdowns. I also have Asperger's but in the past I worked to improve my social skills. This sort of worrying and misstepping is like when I was a teenager, and I feel disoriented.

Which deities might one appeal to for this? What are some suitable affirmations or study?

[ecosophia]

Depends on your pantheon, but deities such as Mercury are great for this sort of thing. For an affirmation, try "I say the right things at the right times to the right people."

[(Anonymous)]

Are there equivalents of angels and archangels in non-Abrahamic spiritual traditions, particularly in polytheistic ones?


Kimari

[ecosophia]

Yes. Every polytheist tradition I know of has minor deities and subsidiary spirits who run errands for the gods.

Dream meaning

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,

I wondered if anyone could give me some dream interpretation from a dream I had last week, as it felt significant?

It went as follows:
I was driving, then stopped at traffic light, when a donkey like creature with a human face kept calling out "Lazlo" (which isn't, but presumably was my name in the dream) from the back of a truck behind me. I then got out to see, and notice the donkey has a rainbow, oil-slick like sheen to it, while it tried to talk in nonsensical sentences. I then started to tie my shoes. A man came up next to me and warned me to stay sway from synthetic organisms (presumably like the donkey), as they aren't like us and don't think like us. We had a brief, but thorough discussion on genetics which I don't properly remember. I then notice that a nearby pigeon has an oil slick shine to it, like the donkey.

This also felt like it followed on from another dream the week before:
I was being shown a new machine which counted by making coded holes in cylimders. I was trying not to fall asleep, and was making notes in a book full of doodles. Black sludge monsters then appeared, and I somehow knew they were simultaneously 'one and many'. Dinosaurs, which were evidently commonplace (and had a rainbow sheen, as did the black sludge monsters) then began to disintegrate into orange goo, and I stood next to a dissolving T-rex, which was saying they were just the prototypes and had never chosen to talk before.

Any thoughts on this madness from anyone?

Re: Dream meaning

[(Anonymous)]

Why, do you or someone you live with play Sims?

I'm not sure about the other games in the series, but in Sims 2 there is a character you can play who ships with the game named Lazlo Curious. 'Simlish', the made up language used by the game, sounds somewhat like a real language, but has minimal information content. As a sandbox game, any of the characters can be a total donkey depending on the player's whims, and they are synthetic organisms of sorts.

I've no idea if you've exposure to anything that would let your brain use such as symbols, but that's my immediate thought: name, synthetic organism, nonsense that sounds like language.

BoysMom

[ecosophian]

When some person is worshiped as a saint or a diety after their death, how does it affect them? Does it interfere with their reincarnation cycle?

[ecosophia]

Usually that happens because they've risen out of the cycle of reincarnation, and people with psychic sensitivity sense that they're "there" to listen to prayers.

Honeyjar spells

[(Anonymous)]

If you are going on vacation, and the matter with which the honeyjar is concerned may not be resolved by that time, should you take the honeyjar with you? If you cannot take it, or cannot burn candles on it on vacation, do you have to give it up?

On the matter of burying it, what should you do if you live in a rental home, or without a diggable yard?

Re: Honeyjar spells

[ecosophia]

1) No, just set it aside while you're on vacation and pick it up again when you get back.

2) Then stick it someplace in the back of a closet or something similar. You want to symbolically keep the luck with you.

[youngelephant]

Hello JMG,

I frequent a local patch of woods and bring a garbage bag with me. There's a ridge (for lack of a better word) that leads down into a river. There are a couple of waterfalls, or at least aggressively down sloping creeks, from the top of the ridge down to river area. At the top of these waterfalls/creeks I often find discarded ceramic candle holders, and other broken glasswares in general at the top of the waterfall and have to pick up new ones every couple weeks or so. This has set off my magic radar. I haven't detected anything energetically from the candle holders, but I detect an energy flow down the waterfall/sloping creek. Do you know of any magical workings that take advantage of candles, glass, and waterfalls/sloping creeks? This has gotta be what's going on right?

[ecosophia]

I don't know, but that's what it sounds like. I'm not familiar with the spell but there are plenty of spells to get rid of things, people, influences, etc. that rely on running water.

A Magical Podcast

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG and fellow readers,

I am usually the last person to find something interesting on the internet so you may already know this. I recently found a podcast titled, "What Magic is This," and have been enjoying it a lot.

Douglas Bachelor who hosts the podcast seems to be a good and careful scholar and does good research. He talks a lot about magical history and seems a reasonable and amiable sort of person. I have listened to a few interviews he did with other magicians and some of them have been very bright academics who are studying magic seriously.

I hope you will enjoy his podcasts.
Maxine

shape-shifting

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering about your take on shape-shifting, if/how it was possible and if there were any practices that would be useful. Not expecting to be able to turn physically...unless...

Re: shape-shifting

[ecosophia]

Eliphas Lévi discusses it in Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic and I give detailed instructions in a couple of my books. It's not a matter of physically changing your body -- I know of no way that can be done -- but etheric projection in an animal body of transformation is quite another matter...

Saturn

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Since January the Saturn transit in my zodiacal sign is hard to ignore, with some sort of rapid evolving type of dementia of my mother, and minor but very annoying delays relating with real estate management and transactions. I know Saturn is meant to teach us, but I was wondering if I could ask him to take it a bit more easier - he will be in Aquarius until 2023 and I am already almost in the edge of my capacity to deal with this issues...some charity perhaps?
Thank you so much for Magic Monday!
Amaranth Wimpy Alligator

Re: Saturn

[ecosophia]

You can always do planetary charity. Saturnine charities include old age homes, anything that helps the poor, and historical societies.

Platonic Sex

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

If I fantasize about a woman (who likes me too) while masturbating, how can I make sure that she is also pleased by the thought-waves that I project unto her? How can I know if she enjoyed it too?

Re: Platonic Sex

[ecosophia]

You probably have to discuss the matter with her.

Vaccine protection?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG/Commentariat,

I realized recently that I’m inevitably going to have to get vaccinated. I’m currently unemployed and there is a nearly 0% chance that vaccination won’t be made mandatory in order to work where I live some time in the future.

Obviously, we still quite literally don’t know about any of the possible long term side effects of these vaccines, so are there any practices that I can start now that will affect change to help keep my physical body safe in the long term? Or is that even possible?

I’m still ultimately quite new to magic, but I do have some experience with the LBRP/MP/etc.

I feel a bit ridiculous asking this, but I’m at the point where I’d rather take the “woo” seriously, than put my faith into contemporary science.

Thank you,
R

Re: Vaccine protection?

[ecosophia]

Since we have no idea what side effects the vaccine will or won't have, I know of no way to counter them in advance. Sorry.

Reflection

[(Anonymous)]

So in my occult readings I've read numerous descriptions of the "active" and "passive" principle. Fire and Water, etc etc

But for some reason I've never seen the concept of reflections talked about in places like the Kybalion. Which seems somewhat important, for the concept comes up in magical practice and thought a lot (Magical mirrors, Images, Moon physically reflecting light from the sun and so on) Does the concept fit into your cosmogony at all?

Re: Reflection

[ecosophia]

I've never given it any particular importance; there are many metaphors that can be used for such things as the relation between an image and an energy, say, and I don't have the talent of using magic mirrors.

[(Anonymous)]

It feels like after doing the LBRP that all the energy built up and maintained in the final seconds (when the archangels, the pentagram circle and the 6 pointed star) falls like a house of cards, even if I do the QC right after.

What am I doing wrong?

[ecosophia]

You're not doing anything wrong. You just haven't built up enough magical strength to hold things together. Keep at it!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,

I understand that offerings etc to Jupiter/Chesed on the hours of Jupiter, more particularly on the 'day' of Jupiter (Thursday) might be beneficial when making charitable actions etc. To what extent are planetary days and hours off-set by decans? If a Thursday falls within a decan like the one represented by the 8 of swords (1st decan in Gemini) is the benefit of the charitable action thereby negated or reduced? I gather that with this decan, the influence of Jupiter is both at greatest distance, and widely dissipated by the effect of Gemini. So, a charitable action within that time frame might be contraindicated?

A basic preliminary divination by way of the TdM (assuming as per Gareth Knight French images but English system) as to the nature of actions taken with an eye to the planetary hours vs same action with an eye to the decans produced: Effect of honouring the hours: 3 coins; effect taking into account the decan: Lover(s). If the Lover(s) card (as per English system) represents Gemini, then it would seem that it's not just the decan that is having an effect but the entire zodiac sign governing all three decans. In which case - hold off on the intended action until the three Gemini decans are out the way?

More simply - the background question: Is it better to factor the decans relative to the planetary hours with financial decisions or just carry on with the planetary hours on their own terms regardless?

And the foreground question: Does the appearance of the card for the whole zodiacal sign indicate that the negative aspects of the star sign currently outweigh the beneficial aspects of the planetary one? It would be an unhappy thing for any action taken in that context to be 'passing on' the limitations of the time-frame in which it occurred (if such is the case).

[ecosophia]

It's possible to get spectacularly knotted up by trying to interface different systems of occult timekeeping. My advice? Choose one, use it, and resist the urge to mix it with others.

Planetary charity question

[(Anonymous)]

My understanding of planetary charity is that it should be given to an organization, person, animal, building (etc) that you do not currently have a relationship with. Is this also your understanding? If so, is there any etiquette for seeking a relationship with an org you donated planetary charity some time later (like, is it necessary to donate to another org or entity associated with the planet)?

Re: Planetary charity question

[ecosophia]

You can have a relationship with it so long as you don't get any personal benefit from the donation. For example, you can make repeated donations to the same charity with good effect.

[lp9]

I've noticed when I perform the SOP in my head (usually once a month or so), my solar plexus pulses very strongly as compared to when I perform the SOP physically. Usually, the SOP in my head will be when I'm lying in bed, so perhaps the positioning of my body has something to do with it? Any ideas? Thanks!

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I don't know anyone else who has that effect, so I'm not sure. Anyone else?

Clairvoyance

[ivn66]

Hi JMG -

I have recently come to the realization that someone very dear to me is clairvoyantly gifted. She has no background in magical training of any kind, although recently she told me her grandfather was a Rosicrucian (I’ve no idea to which order he belonged). I recall some past MM exchange in which you wrote of clairvoyance carrying certain dangers with it. If you’d be so kind, I would really appreciate an outline of those dangers, as well as some advice to pass along to her on how she might develop this gift, should she choose to, without falling prey to those. Further, it would be great to know of any precautions she should take or how you’d recommend handling further visions that may arise, as it seems they come without much conscious effort on her part. She is very, very dear to me and it would break my heart utterly to see her safety or sanity compromised.

Re: Clairvoyance

[ivn66]

PS - two related questions :

1.) If a person has done a great deal of work in occultism (say, for example, attaining to Golden Dawn adeptus/magister templi rank or the rough equivalent to those in some Rosicrucian order) before having children, would those attainments have any effect on the... er, magical “attunement” of their descendants?

2. Do you know of any Rosicrucian orders based in Cuba?

Guided meditations for pathworking

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG and community

I just stumbled on a Qabalistic Pathworking Course from Jason Augustus Newcomb - I have read good things about it but ofcourze wanted to see if there opinions here about it. Secondly - what is the expected level of practice to take on pathworking meditations ? (I am about to start LBRP and middlepillar excersises - so no much ceremonial practice per se)

Re: Guided meditations for pathworking

[ecosophia]

Well, what does the course (or Newcomb himself) recommend?