Magic Monday
May. 30th, 2021 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
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***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 12:06 pm (UTC)A couple of questions about drugs and the occult today:
1. Could the psychedelic experience be controlled using occult means? For example, would a capable Golden Dawn magician be able to control the entities encountered on psilocybin or DMT, and if so, how?
2. Are there any spells that would aid a magician to better navigate the psychedelic experience (e.g. to interrupt the experience prematurely, or to protect oneself against hostile spirits)?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 05:34 pm (UTC)I've been attempting to move past just doing SOP so I can delve into the whole DMH system. I've yet to take on regular discursive meditation practice and I keep getting hung up on what the starting theme should be. So I did an Ogham divination on what the nature of the starting theme should be. Here's what I got:
1. Past: Straif
2. Potential: Saille
3. Present: Fearn
What direction might the oracle be trying to point me in with regard to my query? All I can really glean from this so far is that I should stop ovethinking and overationalizing these things and instead I should let my intuition and being-in-the-moment help guide me.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 06:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 06:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 11:34 pm (UTC)2) What are your thoughts on the relative learning curves of the two approaches? It seems like it takes a couple of years of serious training in ceremonial magic before you can make reliable contact with a spirit, vs. 15 mins on compounds like DMT. Why sail across the ocean in a rowboat when you can fly across it in a jet?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 12:19 am (UTC)2) Are you contacting a spirit, or just hallucinating? To judge by the results, it's the latter.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 12:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 03:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:35 pm (UTC)It's a much better idea to try to access those places sober, willingly and in total control through magic.
I witnessed an ayahuasca ceremony done without the proper setting, experience and guidance and the place was a melting pot of madness and the "shaman" was more interested in looking cool than taking care of his participants. It was more like an astral orgy rather than a spiritual ceremony because everyone was opened up and feeling everybody else's feelings. Just by going inside the place, for like 5 minutes, I had to go puke someone else's grief of a death grandmother who tried to communicate to her that she was fine and that she should stop crying, but she couldn't listen for obvious reasons. I had to banish twice that day and bathe in ice cold water.
Good for the participants that one of the musicians banished the space in the beginning and asked for the help of the gods and knew her way around natural magic to calm them down, I don't know what would've happened to some of the participants if she hadn't been there.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 01:03 am (UTC)If you would permit some follow-up questions, do you consider psychedelics as unsuitable for everyone except "native people that developed those methods"? The natives used it in the context of a communal setting guided by experienced shamans, but in our day and age there are 'solitary practitioners' that seem to do well also.
Secondly, how long do you think it would realistically take to get to truly psychedelic spaces using nothing but occult methods? How many years of training are we talking about? The appeal of psychedelics to me is the visionary aspect, and it seems that most occult systems fail to match it in that regard.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 09:56 pm (UTC)Also the environment being mostly moist and hot. And the rhythm of personal body language. Its a full package deal in a way. Not to say non native can't do it but it would take some time "going native" to figure it out
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-02 01:06 am (UTC)Intense visual aspects in occultism seem to depend on the gifts of the person, but judging by other accounts working with the astral effectively is quite common. A couple of students of Dion Fortune, I don't recall the name just know have a book where they delineate their visions in a detailed manner, that could probably give you an idea. I am by no means an experienced mage either, I've been doing this seriously for about one year, every day. So getting there, to get to a place where you can tune in to the astral vividly I would say maybe a decade? Daily practice has given me some glimpses between the 6 months and a year mark, making an emphasis in meditation but still nothing that has sent my into a rapture of ecstasy. Also, magic is not about tripping out, it is about accessing the full scope of the states of consciousness available to a human being and advancing out souls. Can that involve intense visuals and ecstatic states? I bet, but that is a means, not an end. All I know is that the effort is worth it. For what is worth, magic can seem dry because of its academic tones, believe me, it isn't, at least not the magic I practice. It is full of color and bonding with the natural world.
The thing is that with substances you buy a ticket to the concert and watch, with magic you get to learn the instrument and play it yourself, that's my take on it. I've also been a user of marihuana and I've only done magic after the effect has completely passed, but it also seems to set you back as it does tear your astral body a little every time, so I had to quit. Take the warning seriously, its true. Even without actively using it, just from the effects of previous heavy use I think I got my metaphysical bodies sprained for a few months.
If you want a Tarot reading, I'm giving those for free here in my journal, but getting to your query will take me a bit since I have a back log for this week.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-02 02:45 pm (UTC)This is probably the most succinct and accurate metaphor I've encountered regarding the psychedelic experience. Thank you!
Omens and divination in odd places
Date: 2021-05-31 12:10 pm (UTC)This is not so much a question as an update on omens and communications with higher powers.
I am currently in transit. I have a job in Japan, but I cannot get my work visa until the border re-opens. So I have been learning Japanese and waiting...
I pray regularly to the Lady Bast, who I have been close to for many years. Often I use language videos for "shadowing", where you repeat with the native speaker to fix language chunks and make the hearing/speaking automatic. More often than not, I see messages in the random sentences that appear, often with a dry sense of humour evident. Phrases such as " all in good time" when I have asked to get me to Japan.
Recently I began to despair and I applied for a job in Indonesia and started learning Indonesian as a backup plan. So I am waiting for the Indonesian company to reply and I go to the only large bookshop in town to look for a phrasebook. To my surprise they have not a single Indonesian phrasebook and a whole shelf of Japanese books, odd since the last time I went they had but one.
I thought it over and decided I really did not want the Indonesian job, I wanted to go to Japan more than ever.
Add to this, recently I have been seeing foxes all over the place in daytime. This is somewhat unusual, but then I have been praying to Amateratsu the chief Kami, Sun Goddess of Japan, in polite Japanese, and her messengers are foxes. So receiving the message I have withdrawn the Indonesian plan and rededicated myself to learning Japanese and trying to be patient...
Most of my greatest errors in life have happened because I disregarded the direction of forces in life and tried to go against the flow. Now I am at least trying to pay attention...
Many thanks for making this space available.
Best regards Ben from the north.
Re: Omens and divination in odd places
Date: 2021-05-31 05:30 pm (UTC)Re: Omens and divination in odd places
Date: 2021-05-31 06:05 pm (UTC)Best regards
Ben from the north.
Re: Omens and divination in odd places
Date: 2021-05-31 06:52 pm (UTC)Attention and Bodily Distraction
Date: 2021-05-31 12:11 pm (UTC)The attention practice in chapter one of Learning Ritual Magic recognizes you might get itchy (or uncomfortable or restless). It says to "attend to [such sensations] calmly and easily." I'm not clear whether this means:
Which reading is intended?
~Plum Shabby Pug
Re: Attention and Bodily Distraction
Date: 2021-05-31 06:52 pm (UTC)Marijuana use and Druidry
Date: 2021-05-31 12:15 pm (UTC)As I have an dependence on the cannabis plant (and have for many, many years) your responses regarding practice while under her effects (or rather, NOT doing same) struck a nerve. I abruptly stopped my practice which I’ve been doing daily for about six months because I am positive you are correct that I shouldn’t be doing this while under the influence. I need to kick the habit (or at least get control).
But I’m in a catch-22 situation, where a primary source of nascent personal strength and will is the practice I stopped. I understand I should just not do the bad thing before my practice, easy! But also, as a person with a dependence, maybe not so easy. It’s gotten to the point where I feel normal when under the influence. (My coworkers would plotz if they knew.)
Do you think that in my situation, it could be OK for me to continue to do the SOP (since it’s such a safe and helpful ritual generally) and journaling while working towards control of the dependence and waiting to progress with divination and meditation once I’ve managed to gain the upper hand? (Might take a while, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, innit?)
To be clear, I don’t have what I call a “dude weed lmao” type of relationship with this plant. I respect her enormously and appreciate all she’s done for me in helping me to kick an opiate addiction. (I differentiate between addiction and dependence based on the effect to my life. Addiction is awful and destructive - dependence is manageable and legal.)
Maybe I just swapped them out, but Mama Cannabis is a much kinder, gentler mistress than Daddy Poppy is a master. With proper respect and intimacy, I’ve found the cannabis plant can have great assistive effect for me in ritual. But as a clearly inexperienced practitioner, and one who clearly needs to enhance my will quite a lot, I fully understand and agree that may not be a good thing.
Thank you for this forum.
Magenta Exogenous Seahorse
Re: Marijuana use and Druidry
Date: 2021-05-31 06:55 pm (UTC)Re: Marijuana use and Druidry
Date: 2021-06-01 12:22 am (UTC)I had been using edibles daily as a way of coping with a nasty egregore at work, but when that was over and I started up my daily ritual practice again it became quite apparent how much it was holding me back. It took two weeks after quitting to reduce my anger to non destructive levels and then another couple weeks before I started getting the "wow gee whiz" results again. Last night I celebrated finishing a project with a cookie and this morning it is obvious things are more dull. Still getting results but I get easily distracted and communication with the inner voice is not as consistent.
It was a good test and now I know this stuff is for special occasions only, not daily use (I used it to kick an opium dependence as well after a surgery so I know exactly how valuable it is in that context). The problem is I have a bag of edibles in the fridge that I am not sure what to do with.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 12:23 pm (UTC)- What is the specific grade and part of the Tree of Life that is related to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel attainment?
- It's common to hear that some evil spirits can masquerade as good ones on the subtler planes, is there a common and simple hack that everyone can use for discernment in these conditions?
Cheers,
Scarlet Hibernating Octopus
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 06:58 pm (UTC)2) Watch your level of consciousness. (Regular meditation makes this easy.) Contact with angels and other beneficent spirits produces a calm, cool, expanded feeling; contact with demons and other malevolent spirits produces a hot, confused, murky feeling. Once you get used to the difference you'll recognize it instantly.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 12:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 12:20 am (UTC)LRM
Date: 2021-05-31 12:25 pm (UTC)1. This is my sticking point right now. I've done several meditations on the Four of Cups and how it expresses Chesed and I'm as mystified now as when I started. There seems to be an incredible amount of depth to this and I'm completely stumped as to what word best summarizes this card for me. Is this something I should just accept and move on to the next card or should I continue to meditate on it until I find the word that summarizes it for me?
2. In performing the MPE, is it best to imagine yourself expanding to a great height each time one does the Qabalistic Cross or to continue to visualize oneself at that great height until the end of the ritual? Odd that I've been doing the MPE for months but just began to wonder about it.
As always, thanks for providing this forum and the opportunity to ask these questions.
Sincerely,
Brother Josephus
Re: LRM
Date: 2021-05-31 06:59 pm (UTC)2) I always just expand each time I do the Cabalistic Cross.
The Artist’s Way
Date: 2021-05-31 01:30 pm (UTC)Anyone complete this text and find it helpful? Any suggestions for getting the most out of this from an occult perspective? I’ve been stuck on the water ritual in OBOD for months now, so I’m also thinking this is timely for finally unblocking my flow and subconscious a bit.
Re: The Artist’s Way
Date: 2021-05-31 06:59 pm (UTC)Re: The Artist’s Way
Date: 2021-06-02 06:34 pm (UTC)I think the book is most useful for folks who are either completely cut off from feeling creative, and/or are overly harsh with their self-judgment of their creativity. If you feel like you would benefit from giving yourself permission to do things that might not be immediately practical, or like you're not making time for things that are fun and beautiful in your life, it's got a lot to help you.
My main concern would be practical: if you follow the Artist's Way exercises to a T and do daily magical exercises, you mind find yourself pushing against the limits of what you can reasonably keep up with while also living your life. It's a common pattern I've run into myself with self-help type programs: you start off super excited, bite off more than you can chew, and when the initial enthusiasm wears off, something gives.
Hope that's helpful!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 01:44 pm (UTC)Background: I personally have found the christian god either dead or in absentia, with whom I wish to have no relationship whatsoever. I do not yet have an active relationship with or felt a particularly strong calling to any of the other acknowledged pantheons. When I realized that god wasn’t following through, I told him off in no uncertain terms and parted ways. I'd asked you before about finding a new pantheon and you mentioned that I should read up on them and pick one based on what I felt a connection to. I've done (and am still doing) that, but while there are a few individual deities from various pantheons I'm curious about, no pantheon as a whole really stood out to me. And pick-and-choose doesn't seem to be a good idea. So...
1. Are any of these other pantheons known to not be dead - that is to say, are all of the “old gods” gone the same way as the christian one or are some of them known to still be active and expressing genuine power and having genuine relationships with followers, and if so, which ones? I have a personal curiosity about some of them in particular, but aspects of each also concern me greatly, and while I am not an atheist, I’m not big on the tribal identity aspects of being specifically aligned to a particular religion. That said, I’d like to have “a” pantheon so that I can practice the SOP in more than a vague, earthy form, although I’m fine with the vague earthy forms if that’s most appropriate at this point. I'd also like to be worshipping gods who are actively involved in elevating their devotees and not consuming them.
2. My mother insists on praying for me (that I have a close personal relationship) to the aforementioned christian god. For her however it’s a matter of life and death and she won’t have it any other way (if I told her how I really feel about it I’m sure she’d pray all the harder and for obstacles to be thrown in my way, no less - she’s done much the same before). Is this something I should be concerned about? I’d really not like to have to take hoodoo baths daily or even weekly.
Thank you for your thoughts on this!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 07:02 pm (UTC)2) It's not a problem. The SoP should take care of any energetic issues.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:49 pm (UTC)Personally, I had no contact with the Christian god while growing up in a pretty devout environment. Later, I realized that the conception of god in Christianity is so utterly confused (I'm talking on average and in general) that it is no wonder there isn't a consistent response. I think Greer is correct with his multiple-jesus theory. If you aren't picky about who shows up, it seem pretty easy to get an evil "Jesus" on the other end. That would also explain a lot of what I see in the local churches. They key for me was to realize that theology isn't a thing, its three: political crap that got shoe-horned in to solve disagreements, idle intellectual fantasies produced by a cultivated mind devoid of real spiritual contact, and organized accounts of spiritual experience. Trying to deal with god the father and work my way from there, I ended up in contact with a surprisingly pleasant entity calling itself YHVH who admitted to being a minor tribal deity who was later promoted into a role he isn't qualified for, serving as a representative of To En (The Unity in greek, I think this was a concession on his part to my neo-platonic reading). It may very well be that Christ was just a man, the divinity part came when he started being used as a mythological representation of either the solar logos or the higher self. When I tried to apologize for my earlier anger towards him (I can't speak for you, but I was a bit childish about it), his response was really striking: He would of course forgive me if I had actually offended him, but the truth of the matter is that he is in way over his head and isn't keeping up with his duties.
Regrading the old gods. I really like the "vague earthy form". Something I caught onto pretty quickly is that the impersonal powers of nature do still seem to have their own personality and temperament. During the SoP, I've had the elements start talking to me a few times.
When I started Druidry, I had no connection to, and little interest in, the welsh gods. To my surprise, Hu was very responsive to my prayer, and I am slowly getting to know the others. I think you are quite right that pick-and-choose isn't good, they are after all gods and not salad toppings. My best approach has been to ask about other deities and pantheons in prayer. Some I was warned against working with, others were completely fine, one I was told I'm simply not ready to work with yet. If you have a favorite (or at least, most interesting) you may wish to communicate with that deity, then work out into the rest of their pantheon and the other ones you are interested in. For historical reference, pantheons did get mixed historically. Isis was very popular far outside of Egypt, Mithras was originally persian and spread all through Rome, while a sizable minority of deities in Japan are imports that came with Buddhism. Hopefully this helps.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 10:09 pm (UTC)So I think I will cultivate some gentle personal connections, while grounding in the vague earthy forms for the SOP, and we'll see where it goes.
Anonymous: that's a very interesting data point about Christ. I was very into christian mysticism, poured my heart into it, and found a pile of dead dry bones everywhere I looked, spiritually speaking. It really hurt, in a way, to put so much into that relationship and to feel, almost abandoned, really. Plus not seeing any real genuine change or benefit from religion in other's lives who supposedly followed said deity, sort of put the final touches on it for me. I still think there's a lot of horrible things done under some force motivating people in the name of Jesus, and while I can certainly make room for the fact that there might be some people who have a positive experience with that relationship, I've seen a lot of people claiming that who end up supporting some pretty harrowing things. Granted, you can't always judge a god by their followers, but I do sort of expect a deity to provide some genuinely positive things on the larger average than negative, through people who supposedly follow him/her. So yeah, "way over his head" might be one explanation for it. Your recollection has helped me let go of some of my anger towards that deity, which is definitely a good start. I still don't think I really want the monotheistic thing, at all, though, so I'm not sure there's any way back to anything more than a willingness to let it go at this point.
Hmm, interesting thought though. Maybe when Jesus said "go into all the world.." he wasn't talking about spreading word of him, but rather of the essence of his teaching - that "Divine Spark is within you" thing, and people just got it all mixed up with the messenger. If I got deified under those circumstances I'd probably be way over my head too.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 11:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 12:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 11:57 pm (UTC)On the subject of the divinity of Christ, one of the oldest Christological statements comes from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God...the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:1, 2-3). The most natural reading of this is that Jesus was appointed Messiah and adopted as the Son of YHWH following his resurrection. Other statements by St. Paul that indicate the preexistence of Jesus are, if certain scholars are to be believed, best understood as an Angelic Christology. That is, Jesus was the incarnation of a very high ranking angel, who acted as the prophet of his Father God and then was adopted as his son and a god following his death.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 01:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 02:51 pm (UTC)One thing I have found, in my experience: never ask a thing of a god that is not the provenance or interest of that god. This holds as true for Zeus, Apollon, et al. as for Christ, YVHH, et al.
Axé,
Fra’ Lupo
Cosmic Doctrine
Date: 2021-05-31 01:45 pm (UTC)Thanks for your time.
Re: Cosmic Doctrine
Date: 2021-05-31 08:28 pm (UTC)"The first swarm, entering into the already prepared group-mind, has objective consciousness."
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 01:55 pm (UTC)The usual assumptions are along the lines of aliens, portals, cryptids, etc. I was curious if you had more of a magical explanation for these unusual disappearances. I thought ascension, like in the bible, could be a possibility.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:34 pm (UTC)And I'm fairly sure I became a missing person report, but I never bothered to look back to find out.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 11:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-02 02:13 am (UTC)Memorializing the pandemic
Date: 2021-05-31 02:00 pm (UTC)I'm thinking that we're most likely to codify the wrong lessons: heroism of overworked health-care workers and the glory of vaccines, for example, rather than seeding of the vaccine into nursing homes and communities, and the value of vitamins. This will be no place to meditate on the inevitability of death.
Lathechuck
Re: Memorializing the pandemic
Date: 2021-05-31 03:50 pm (UTC)After all, they argue, we did it in response to the Great Disaster of their parents' generation (9-11, 2001), so why not something for them, too?
Lathechuck
Re: Memorializing the pandemic
Date: 2021-05-31 08:30 pm (UTC)Re: Memorializing the pandemic
Date: 2021-05-31 08:35 pm (UTC)Re: Memorializing the pandemic
Date: 2021-05-31 09:11 pm (UTC)Desire and New Thought
Date: 2021-05-31 02:06 pm (UTC)For the last few months I've delved into New Thought works and techniques.
I find that one common theme among many of them is to have a strong, burning, clear desire. Atkinson mentions this in a few different places as well as later authors.
I've tried to create mental visualisations of scenes in which my desires are fulfilled, different writing exercises and so on.
I have to be honest, I feel like my desire goes out pretty soon after I start the exercises.
This could mean that I didn't truly want those things after all, but now I find myself in a quandary of not having a truly burning desire.
I desire some things naturally, but nothing that's an all-consuming passion.
For example, one thing I would really love to have is to have a source of income based on activities I enjoy (reading, researching, writing and persuading; potentially fitness and martial arts). I actually applied for a job that I think fits these criteria (B2B enterprise sales) and am halfway through the interview process, but it's not like it's a burning desire that occupies my mind from the moment of waking.
In your experience, is it necessary to have these kinds of burning desires to realize them with New Thought methods?
Re: Desire and New Thought
Date: 2021-05-31 03:54 pm (UTC)Or, perhaps you can find a non-selfish desire to serve your community (however you define it). That means discovering what they need, what you can accomplish now, and what greater things you could accomplish with a well-directed will.
Lathechuck
Re: Desire and New Thought
Date: 2021-05-31 05:47 pm (UTC)Re: Desire and New Thought
Date: 2021-05-31 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 02:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:32 pm (UTC)Noobs Like Me
Date: 2021-05-31 02:20 pm (UTC)I am trying not to read ahead on "Doctrine and Ritual" and to just be patient, but since the tarot deck seems to be critical to the process, and I missed out on a set of Knapp-Hall cards, I decided to give the Philosophical Research Society some of my hard earned $$ and shelled out for a copy of Yolanda Robinson's "Mysticism and Qaballah in the Knapp-Hall Tarot" and Manly P. Hall's "The Tarot".
I guess what I am worried about is will either of these books and my trying to figure out the tarot/cabala a little bit in advance of your lessons will cause me greater difficulty that I am already having?
Also...I am kind of thinking that I might be needing a banishing ritual pretty soon, any suggestions?
Re: Noobs Like Me
Date: 2021-05-31 04:31 pm (UTC)Re: Noobs Like Me
Date: 2021-05-31 08:34 pm (UTC)Second, I'm not sure why this seems to have missed so many people, but I listed a whole series of tarot decks that are suitable. The Knapp-Hall deck is only one of them. The others are still available. You can get any of the others -- the Wirth deck or any of the Marseilles decks -- and do just fine.
Third, er, yes.
Re: Noobs Like Me
Date: 2021-05-31 11:28 pm (UTC)Re: Noobs Like Me
Date: 2021-06-01 02:55 am (UTC)from EllenZ
Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 02:22 pm (UTC)Well the two leaders of India and Brazil are considered to be Trump-like, and they have expressed that they liked Trump or liked how he did things.
Could it be spill over from the anti-Trump spells considering that the President of Brazil got Covid as did Trump?
The other thing is that Michael Hughes was promoting spells of "no boundaries" in regards to immigration. People at the time pointed out how these spells could go completely awry in shutting down boundaries or erasing all boundaries. It would seem that both can explain Covid leaping from boundary to boundary and shutting down countries.
Hughes often included in his spells curses against Nazis and fascists, both who were ill-defined by him other than they liked Trump or supported them. Again, there were people in India who did have statues of Trump that they blessed. Brazil's President wanted to copy what Trump did, and he has been referred to as a fascist.
In conclusion for the time being, perhaps the emotion concentration coupled with the poorly designed spells worked to spread Covid.
Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 06:54 pm (UTC)You would also expect a curse on right wing populists to affect the Philippines. I don't know if it has suffered abnormally high cases. Boris Johnson in the UK also got Covid though, which matches your theory.
That said, I have considered the idea that the pandemic was either a successful curse from MR that was nastier than even they expected, and the collateral damage was the karmic backlash, or the pandemic was bolstered by the Corona-chan workings on the chans to hurt China, and the backlash was that it hit the right wing even harder.
Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 08:35 pm (UTC)Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 08:47 pm (UTC)Also, what kind of blowback would Hughes' "Magic in the Time of Coronavirus"* have if this is the case? Breathing in pain and suffering seems like a very bad idea to begin with, but the following lines are creepy as frack:
"May I be free of suffering; may I be at peace.
May you be free of suffering; may you be at peace.
May all beings be free of suffering; may all beings be at peace.
May all be healed and blessed.
Amen. (Or so be it or so mote it be)"
The reason I find it creepy as frack is that here, and I think the rest of the English world, peace is often associated with death: "Rest in Peace", "Kingdom of Peace" to refer to heaven; etc. Then it also supposedly comes from a Buddhist context (I don't know enough to confirm this, but am going with the claim), and asks for an end to suffering. While, in Buddhism, life is suffering, so to stop suffering you must die. So, drawing in suffering and then saying a prayer that uses symbolism associated with death strikes me as a very, very bad idea, especially when millions of people are terrified of mass die offs....
https://michaelmhughes.medium.com/magic-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-mass-meditation-for-healing-and-compassion-35a153a0c36b
Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 09:10 pm (UTC)Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 09:19 pm (UTC)As for Tonglen, I'm sure that if it is a traditional practice, that it has its uses, but stripped from that context very likely to be very dangerous. I doubt it's as dangerous as mishandled kundalini yoga, but I think it's up there.
Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-05-31 11:34 pm (UTC)To start, Tonglen is usually rendered as "giving & taking" which I regard as having much stronger interpersonal connotations. JMG is mostly correct. It is usually an advanced practice for laymen and an intermediate one for monastics, but not always. My teacher introduced me to it fairly early in the curriculum, but that is unusual. The normal safeguards for this practice are part of the surrounding philosophical context and not part of the practice itself. With that in mind, these instructions are shockingly bad.
Addressing Mollari in more detail:
Yeah, this practice would go spectacularly off the rails if somebody trained in western esotericism tried to do it. It is deeply grounded in eastern ideals of karma and merit, as well as the boddhisattva ideal. The verbal formula I learned was similar but noticeably different, "May I be free of suffering and it's causes. May I discover happiness (ananda, I believe) and it's causes." The next step wasn't "you" then "all beings", it was somebody you like, somebody you don't care about, then somebody you dislike/hate. The final stage (all beings) explicitly doesn't have a formula. The closing is done by allowing the light to fade and returning your attention to you breathing for a time. In mahayana (the larger school of thought that encompasses Tibetan Buddhism), it is believed that it is possible to exist in the world and be personally free from suffering as a Boddhisattva, but this assumes that you are actively working towards helping others attain liberation/insight.
I think there is a very good reason for having such a visceral response to it, though I don't think it will fuel the pandemic. The way the instructions are set up on the website, I believe they are guaranteed to simply draw in suffering, allow it to reverberate freely through their own life, and cut themselves off from the healing they so need. The instructions are very inward focused, especially in comparison to the original. The instruction page absolutely reeks to me, and I felt sick as soon as I opened it and immediately got better after closing it.
For more personal theories, I think this might be some of the very magical blowback that is being discussed. Remember that both the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa have both been accused of being fascists / white-supremacists / insert-insult-here. If some of their malignant-magic ended up targeting the Buddhist community, it is entirely possible that they ended up getting the attention of one of the Dharmapalas; and this might be a manifestation of its displeasure.
Regarding the vaccine as blowback, I really hope you are wrong, unfortunately I think the same thing. My attempts at scrying the vaccine have consistently been bad, and that theory seems to have a lot more metaphysical weight than the normal theorizing on the internet, for whatever that is worth.
Re: Magic Resistors and Covid
Date: 2021-06-01 09:04 pm (UTC)Magic and sensitives
Date: 2021-05-31 02:25 pm (UTC)Does that mean I give up magic? Or are there work arounds?
Re: Magic and sensitives
Date: 2021-05-31 08:52 pm (UTC)Re: Magic and sensitives
Date: 2021-06-01 03:24 pm (UTC)vaccination mandates
Date: 2021-05-31 03:14 pm (UTC)Hi.
I live in a place and state (Twin Cities/MN) on the paranoid delusional end regarding COVID fears.
I'm a teacher in a public school. I really really don't want to get the vaccine (likely had a mild case of COVID a year ago and also suspect that the vaccine would be bad for my body and soul) and also do not want next school year to face onerous requirements because of this choice(e.g. mandatory masking and weekly testing).
I am aware that I am just one of millions of Minnesota residents and realize that the scale here is huge, but wondering if you have suggestions for magic rituals/prayer that might be helpful to maintain vaccine choice as well as choice about masking and testing for school teachers here.
I have finished one round Learning Ritual Magic and am working through Circles of Power. I feel comfortable praying to Greek gods and also am comfortable praying to Catholic powers in alignment with my esoteric understanding of them.
Thanks much,
Desiree
Re: vaccination mandates
Date: 2021-05-31 08:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 03:39 pm (UTC)Should I get into a comfortable meditation posture?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 08:58 pm (UTC)Human mores are relevant only to humans, but they are what they are because they more or less conform to the requirements of our evolution. The universe doesn't have to have eyes to make that happen, just as your digestive tract doesn't have to have eyes to sort out nutrients from waste!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 03:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 09:00 pm (UTC)one or two comments/questions on Qabalistic Cross and the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram
Date: 2021-05-31 03:49 pm (UTC)Thanks a lot for the space here, much appreciate this public good you so adeptly provision!
After quite some time reading, I have embarked into the first steps of practice (of the LRM). To put things into context, I have been extremely interested in occult philosophy, since quite some years now, but its certainly taken a while until I embarked on a practice (I needed a book readings a some synchronicities to get that going).
I wanted to share something that happened today, as it was a very intense response to my first proper Qabalistic Cross and the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. I finished the last part of the Qabbbalistic Cross Ritual, and then proceeded to help my partner with his first attempt too.
I was sitting down and felt quite an energy rush, closest I can describe is like an an "ecastatic" feeling, pleasent, intense, near my solar plexus... and then a warming and an erection as a response. It is not my intention to overshare, but I wonder if this is a natural response?
I had read heard that the base of our magical powers (as humans) lie in yesod, which has a correspondence with the genial area. Is this somewhat related?
To add more info on the data point. I have been on the lower side of libido for some time now, which I had attributed to the stress of lock down, a removal of my gallbladder year ago, and mourning from the loss of a parent two years ago. 35 male here. I wonder how much of that was some energetic blockage reaction?
In any event, it was certainly a positive experience, just somewhat unexpected!
Re: one or two comments/questions on Qabalistic Cross and the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram
Date: 2021-05-31 09:01 pm (UTC)the flow of a creators energy into something she creates, and why completion may be important
Date: 2021-05-31 03:53 pm (UTC)This is an exploratory question.
When meditating on the three druid elements, I was pondering over how with intention and imagination we can impart energy into an object. For example, charging water. I recalled reading in one of Caroline Myss’ books about a native American tribe that believed that when a person creates something they put some of their own life energy into the object. It was the tribal belief that to start a creative undertaking while ill or elderly was a very dangerous thing that required permission of the tribes medicine man’s, or medicine woman’s, permission, because if the person died before the item they were crafting was completed, they would themselves be incomplete, their life force would be somrhow sundered, and their spirit might not not find its way.
It occurred to me that even if a person does complete a creative effort, it is true that some of their energy stays with that object: yet if the object is completed before death, this is not seen as a problem.
To finally get to my question: what is so important about the act of completion, as far as keeping the creators energy / life force intact? Do Druid teachings or any of the other traditions you are knowledgeable in have anything to say on this issue?
Thank you,
Gunnar
Re: the flow of a creators energy into something she creates, and why completion may be important
Date: 2021-05-31 09:03 pm (UTC)Natural magic and natal chart
Date: 2021-05-31 03:56 pm (UTC)My intuition says that the signatures work as a distinct cause and wouldn't be subject to the same issue.
- Fuchsia Ponderous Weasel
Re: Natural magic and natal chart
Date: 2021-05-31 09:05 pm (UTC)-- Taupe Pretentious Catfish
Arthur Conan Doyle - Spiritualist after The Great War
Date: 2021-05-31 04:08 pm (UTC)One of my regular YouTube Channels (TimeGhost) -- produces a series "Between Two Wars Zeitgeist" (you can listen if you don't want to watch, since it's mostly still images anyway) -- just produced an episode for their second season on the rising prominence of spiritualism in the western world and the 1921 speaking tour by Doyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6R_-zvCEBI&t=527s
Doyle dabbled in spiritualism before the war. After the horrific loss of life during the war and the 'flu afterwards, and the distraught families left behind, convinced him of the immense practical importance of psychic communication.
"By that point he also considered the proof to be irrefutable: a family friend, who had become a spiritualist after her three brothers were killed in the fighting at Ypres, was able to accurately relay to him a strictly personal conversation he once had with his wife's brother long before. Doyle could see no other explanation for how this friend could know this." Using his own Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, "The Truth, however improbable, is what remains after the impossible is eliminated," Doyle the icon of rational science became Doyle the committed spiritualist and 100 years ago went on a speaking tour to promote the idea.
Even before 1914, he had been producing fewer works of fiction. Afterwards, he produced books entirely on spiritualism.
In 1926, he wrote "While it is true, that spiritualism counted its believers in millions before the war, there is no doubt that the subject was not understood by the world at large, and hardly recognized as having an existence. The war changed all that. The deaths occurring in almost every family in the land brought a sudden and concentrated interest in the life after death. People no only asked the question, "If a man dies shall he live again?" but they eagerly sought to know if communication was possible with the dear ones they had lost. They sought for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still."
Doyle said he was putting religion onto a scientific footing and that there was no contradiction between rational science and spiritual belief. That religion didn't need to fear or deny psychic communication and effects.
What do you suppose the influence of such a prominent household name -- even to this day -- had on the growth of spiritual movements at the time? His name has not yet come up in your writings, nor have you alluded to the change in public attitude that happened after those events, so I was wondering if you were going to explore that aspect, since I suspect many people who helped support the writers you have mentioned were attracted by exactly that zeitgeist.
Bruce
(Renaissance Man)
Re: Arthur Conan Doyle - Spiritualist after The Great War
Date: 2021-05-31 09:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 05:05 pm (UTC)Also, re Biden's presidency, he is getting handled with kid gloves by the MSM. When do the problems foreseen in the inauguration chart kick in?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 09:25 pm (UTC)2) If you'll reread my post on the subject, he's supposed to get a honeymoon period at first. He's only been in office for a little over four months, you know.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-01 03:36 am (UTC)That being said, it would be beneficial to examine longer fractal scales of the same set of contacts, perhaps using as a scale the Colonial pipeline affair for the Sun-Moon square, and expanding the sequence of events accordingly. The scale from inauguration to the Texas snowstorm was 25 days, with the final Jupiter contact happening 100 days from the inauguration. From the inauguration to the Colonial pipeline shutdown on May 7th was 107 days, yielding a final Jupiter contact ~428 days from the inauguration, that is to say roughly around March 24, 2022.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 05:17 pm (UTC)I read the first post in this week's Magic Monday about the wide base of knowledge being the basis for a successful magical practitioner to work from along with the poster's aha moment of realizing the ability to practice arose at the synchronous time for them.
When I step back and try to objectively (or at least as objectively as one can) survey the skills I have gathered in my life I find that there is no skill or set of knowledge that I would feel comfortable crediting myself with mastering. I have, however, managed to achieve what I would refer to as a competent amateur level of proficiency in a very diverse and lengthy laundry list of subjects.
I suppose this could make me a good candidate for magical practice. I have picked up a daily practice of the heathen LBRP/LSRP + Middle Pillar. I false started the practice for about six months once before and then dropped it for six months. I picked it up again and have stayed quite devoted to it for about seven months now and have fully built it into a routine. It does feel forced though, I have to make myself go to do the practice, at the same time, I felt a very strong pull to start a magical practice. While practicing ritual though I feel... clumsy? is perhaps the most appropriate term. I don't feel as though I have some great past life basis of advanced practice there to build off of.
I sometimes feel as though I'm being pushed towards something, but I have no inkling of what. I don't know that I have a question, just more of a comment I suppose!
Thanks,
HV
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-31 09:27 pm (UTC)