Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just past midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. (Any question received after then will not get an answer, and will likely just be deleted.) If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here. 

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With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Many people who practice magic without banishing rituals note the attraction of strange and malicious beings. I've heard several people call it 'light attracting dark.' What do you think is going on here?

[ecosophia]

There are at least three things going on.

First, once you begin practicing magic, you're going to start becoming aware of your nonphysical surroundings. Unless you happen to live in an area where the astral is unusually clean, that means you're going to become aware of the very cruddy astral environment in which you live, and the critters that normally inhabit such environments.

Second, the critters in question are, among other things, curious. If a human being suddenly starts doing magic, they're going to come padding around to see what you're up to.

Third, well, "light attracting dark" is a nice phrase, but a lot of people who take up magical practice aren't exactly shining examples of light, and neither are their practices. As Dion Fortune comments somewhere, genuine black magicians are rare but muddy gray ones are extremely common! If your magical workings are not very ethical, why, yes, you're going to attract critters.

[(Anonymous)]

Might you be persuaded to give a nickel tour of this week's Fludd illustration?

[ecosophia]

This is a simple one. The ladder has six rungs, which are labeled sensus (sensation), imaginatio (imagination), ratio (reason), intellectus (intellect), intelligentia (intelligence), and Verbum (the Word). We tend to munge reason, intellect, and intelligence together, but Fludd differentiated them as three powers of the mind: reason is the ability to think in a logical fashion, intellect is the ability to recognize the truth of a true statement, intelligence the ability to perceive truths intuitively without the need for discursive reasoning. He saw all these, plus imagination and sensation, as manifestations of the Christ force in human beings. The fine lines behind the ladder, btw, trace out his intersecting pyramids of spirit and matter.

Addiction

[(Anonymous)]

Is there an occult explanation for the periodic (~hour) need for comfort? For myself this often manifests as self aggrandizing fantasies. For others I have seen food munching, drinking, smoking, music listening, and gossiping. I suspect substituting in affirmations and prayer would be beneficial and fulfill the need. Any thoughts on this from the occult perspective would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Addiction

[ecosophia]

I don't know of an occult explanation, but psychological? Sure. People learn to do this as a way of distracting themselves from the miseries of their lives. Little pleasures are good for that. Yes, affirmations and prayer can fill the same purpose more constructively; you can also see if you can do something more constructive with your fantasy life -- if you've got a lively imaginative life, that's a powerful magical tool. You can use it for mini-pathworkings, for example, or simply construct a pleasant place in your imagination that has a lot of things that comfort you, and do magical practices there.

Divination Interference?

[tunesmyth]

Given this alarming comment by Mollari last week, and the fact that you had mentioned that occasionally interested parties can potentially muck with divination results, and the fact that (presuming I did it correctly) on multiple occasions, Geomancy seemed to give me false positives for having symptomatic Covid-- I didn't-- I decided to ask the geomantic spirits whether any of my previous Covid readings had been interfered with, under the assumption that the sorts of nebulous forces that potentially muck with readings on hot button topics may not do so for divinations about divinations. If anyone should be interested, I wrote it up here: it seemed to indicate that indeed it was so, giving a perfection by translating Rubeus between 1st and 12th houses. (Though later conversation from others who practice slightly different methods of Geomancy suggested perhaps different results.)

Would a blanket mucking up of Covid or Vaccine divinations or any other whole subject be, in fact, possible? (Whether by forces human or demonic.) As one commenter suggested, that does seem quite a tall magical order. Is it more that such workings, if they were to be effective, would be targeted at individuals and/or at the particular time that they perform divination?

Re: Divination Interference?

[ecosophia]

It could be done. Divination is subtle, and it can be messed with, by human mages, by nonhuman entities, or (most likely in this case) by both. You might try doing readings in a space that's been banished first, using the SoP or the LBRP.

Your interpretation of your reading, for what it's worth, seems spot on to me. A translation via Rubeus is a common indication of hostile magic interfering.

So how does the LBRP work for a beginner?

[kalidasa]

Hello James,

Context: I'm looking for a "path" to commit to, and the Golden Dawn system is one of the options I'm looking yet. I'm reading your Learning Ritual Magic book (great book! Thank You for writing it), but haven't started practising yet.

1) I'm curious as to how the LBRP actually works (even minimally) for a beginner? How does it "clear a space", more specifically, where does the power to do this come from? The beginning practitioner has no skills in magic, so the ritual must be doing it. Is the power (to banish, initially) drawn from the Golden Dawn egregore, till the practitioner develops enough power of his own?

2) As I understand, the LBRP the beginner practises, is the same as the pentagram that banishes the Earth element. Why is the Earth element (specifically) banished in the beginning? Why not (say) Fire, or Air?

I am a rank beginner, and these questions probably reflect that.

thanks in advance.

Re: So how does the LBRP work for a beginner?

[ecosophia]

Well, I'm not sure who James is, but I can certainly answer your questions. ;-)

1) The power that flows through the LBRP does not come from the individual who practices it. It comes from the divine names that are invoked in it. You can get much better at bringing through power from those sources, but the power isn't yours.

2) The Golden Dawn draws heavily from Christian tradition and therefore includes the Christian distrust of the earthy side of existence as one of its formative elements. (Remember that the world, along with the flesh and the Devil, are the three enemies of the Christian soul.) That's why earth is banished in the standard GD banishing ritual. In the Druidical GD, as discussed in my book The Celtic Golden Dawn, that's obviously not appropriate and so I had to work out a completely different way of handling the pentagrams; you can find a summary here.

[mollari]

I've taken up cold showers and found them to work wonders. This seems to at least partially relate to the etheric effects, which has lead me to wonder about general etheric cleanliness. Do you have advice on how to maintain etheric cleanliness, both for myself and for my home?

[ecosophia]

If you've got floors you can mop, make up a bucket of the same mixture you'd use for a hoodoo bath -- hot water, salt, vinegar, and a little red pepper -- and mop the floors with it, starting in the kitchen and ending right inside the front door. This is called a floor wash and it's a standard hoodoo practice. If you're in a reall cruddy area, add a splash of Florida water to the mix.

If you have carpets, make a mix of salt and a little cayenne pepper, sprinkle it all over the carpets, leave it for a few hours or overnight, and then vacuum it up and empty the vacuum bag at once into your outside garbage.

Thanks Kimberley!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have Hoodoo mopped the whole house today and did a banishing in the bedroom. I usually do my SOP in my flower garden but I guess I need to do it more in the house as you suggested.

I wish to thank Kimberley for the very thoughtful post to help me with sacred drawings. I recognized one as an Amish barn blessing. It is a very pretty flower and I will do my best to make one of those for our bedroom. Violet gave me one ages ago and it hangs in my office.
Hugs from Maxine

Re: Thanks Kimberley!

[ecosophia]

Ah, synchronicity! The questioner immediately before you wanted to know what to do about magical cleanliness around the house, and I told him about floor washes. ;-)

[open_space]

First of all, I want to wish you a happy and pleasant birthday! May light always shine upon you :-)

Secondly,

This Shale Fracking Works!

A recent experience left me with many questions (and in need for some rest and time to process) unfortunately not many that I can formulate just yet. Had I not have the preparation of daily banishing, invoking and meditation I would've jumped to the moons of Jupiter in a scream!

As I was mentioning last week, I started to become aware of the astral plane more clearly than usual and during a meditation session I was using personal matters I want to work with closely as themes and suddenly it was as if I had opened the gates of something and my hands started to move by themselves in particular patterns, and my body joints were cracking strongly. In the end, stood up and somewhat inebriated form the experience my right hand started to draw a lemniscate starting from the center and down to the left.

1) Err, did I just cleared an astral blockage by bringing it down to the etheric?

2) Do you know if there is any significance to the lemniscate pattern? Yes, I have meditated on it!

3) Something else, a few minutes later something was pecking in my attention, as if a presence was there though no one I could see. Then I realized it was the plants wanting me to do something. I approached a small fountain, that was dirty and stale in the middle of the garden and my hands again did something I cannot explain but in the end, the fountain "burped" and the energy of the place shifted to a more bright tone. Is Water something that is conscious in a way and the place having noticed what happened before asked for a favor? Whatever it is, it was awesome . Though I have no idea whatsoever how I did it.

4) Is there something inebriation about the astral or is it only my Moon opposed to Neptune and Uranus?

[ecosophia]

0) Thank you! It's today.

1) The blockage may have been anchored in the etheric.

2) Of course. Look at tarot trump 1, the Magician, in any of the older decks and notice the shape of his hat (or the pattern above his head).

3) Water isn't conscious, but water elementals are...

[(Anonymous)]

What's the best way to banish and do the middle pillar while lying down in bed? Just imagine yourself standing up, or is there a variant for this?

[ecosophia]

Just imagine yourself standing up. You can't really do an LBRP in the physical body when it's lying in bed!

Request for Thoughts on Potential Encounter with a Goddess

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! Thank you again for doing this on a weekly basis, I've found it helpful as a lurker for a while, and now as an asker for a couple of weeks. I have a rather lengthy question, as the context seems necessary for it to make any sense, but I've given a short version if it turns that I'm wrong about the context being necessary, and this is something bog standard among new entrants to occultism.

Short version: if I had an unexpected, powerful, seemingly "ecstatic" experience of a goddess during discursive meditation, is it more likely I actually contacted that goddess, or that I worked myself into some kind of state?

Long version: I have been following your recommendations in the "Foundations of Magical Practice" series from the Well of Galabes for about three weeks now, after some earlier attempts at magical practice over the past few years where I have fallen off the wagon - I perform your Heathen Lesser Ritual of The Pentagram (Banishing), the Heathen Middle Pillar Exercise, a discursive meditation (on a single Rune, recently with the material from "Teutonic Magic", as recommended by another commenter here), and then a rune-casting. Yesterday, after meditating around 10 minutes or so on the rune "Berkana", which is associated with both the birth and death aspects of the feminine, I began to feel "tingly" all over my body, but especially in my chest and upper arms. I asked if someone was there and imagined a goddess. I then asked what she would like to be called, and "Idun" came to mind, and when I used that name, the tingly feeling intensified. I asked how she would like to be worshipped, and some not-exactly-tame mental images came to mind. All of these steps felt mentally the same as imagining something on my own, but the tingly feeling intensified in my chest and arms and I became light-headed - if asked to describe it, I would call it "ecstatic" - but since this was my first experience of the kind, I do not know whether that's how best to classify it.

Before I had gotten very far into the feeling/experience, the timer I had set for the meditation went off, and I straight away went outside to a lovely tree where I've said prayers and made offerings before and gave thanks to Idun and left her a piece of bread and some of a rather nice local IPA. My wife and daughter were getting ready to head to see a friend, and I helped them get ready and did some things around the house before getting to my rune-casting, which I usually do right after my discursive meditation. I felt good, and like I wanted to come back to what had happened, but mostly normal.

Already, this was maybe the strongest spiritual/religious experience I've had in my life, but after my wife and daughter left, I did a rune-casting that seemed to reflect the situation pretty well (the rune for "present" was Kenaz - energy/creativity/sexuality). After, I was putting the runestaves away and one fell, rolled under a nearby couch, and after some effort to fetch it, I found it was Ansuz - a rune with a meaning of "Ancestral God" that is most often associated with Woden/Odhinn. If nothing else, this was a striking element of synchronicity, so I immediately went outside to the same tree and gave thanks to Woden for his help in learning the runes and opening things spiritual to me and offered a cup of the same IPA.

During and right after the prayer/giving of the drink, I again felt tingly all over and felt as if Woden (or some of his presence, at least) was coming into me. From there, I went back inside and had an even stronger ecstatic experience that involved Woden coming into me and Idun coming to me/us, and well, going the way you might expect given the sexual mental imagery from earlier. Afterward, I found myself weeping with joy for a few minutes and with an irrepressible booming laugh for the next 15-30 minutes, right through a cold shower.

Since this was an enormously positive experience that occurred not long after I decided to try, as an experiment, thinking of the gods as genuinely and independently real, rather than as "only" very strong archetypes evolved into my brain (thanks in large part to A World Full of Gods), I'm inclined to count myself hugely lucky and to give all due respect and thanks to Woden and Idun for gracing me with such an experience.

That being said, until rather recently, I've been inclined to think of magic and religion in a Jungian "it's all psychological, but that's more powerful than most folks realize" framework. That kind of thinking leads me to some elements of potential skepticism: I did not "see" or "hear" anything that did not feel like "regular" imagination. I did feel some highly unusual somatic sensations and come away feeling happy and energetic, but I'm not experienced enough to know if that is what I would feel in the presence of a god or goddess. It happened while engaged in a known consciousness-altering practice (though without any fancy breathing or for any great length of time), but not one with the aim of contacting specific divine beings. The fact that arousal was involved also makes me suspicious that my imagination might just have been doing what I've been using my imagination to do since junior high, but in a newly elaborated and especially strong way - it didn't feel like any kind of sexual fantasizing I've ever done before, and the accompanying ecstatic feeling was rather different from only sexual climax (though that was there too). In terms of felt significance and strength of good feeling, I was reminded somewhat of the handful of times I've taken psychedelics, but with none of the perceptual hallucination, time dilation, or lack of normal mental clarity that mushrooms or LSD can bring.

If you've been kind enough to make it this far, any thoughts on how magically/religiously to think about this remarkable, somewhat lurid experience, described at such length?

Thanks very much,
Jeff

Re: Request for Thoughts on Potential Encounter with a Goddess

[ecosophia]

It's one of the sadder aspects of modern life that very often these days, people who have classic religious experiences immediately default to "but what if I was just imagining it?" Imagination is the vehicle through which many such experiences happen. You had the experience; now proceed with the work.

Natal Chart and Other Markers

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

1)In my natal chart, I have Pluto in the 11th House (afflicting Mars), and Taurus Venus in the 5th House. I have been curious if these signify a "thumb on the scale", as it were, as I work very poorly with Air, and perform far better in Earth. My chart is mostly squares and trines, forming a bucket shape, and I am not sure what that means, although I have received the definition of "sturdy yet unbalanced", which is something less than help.

I understand that chart does not indicate destiny, particularly given your example of Crowley, but I am curious about these immediate inclinations.

2)Reading Dion Fortune's "The Training And Work of an Initiate", she mentions "the mysterious jewel" as being the sign of a charlatan. I wear different necklaces, depending on the work I am doing at that moment. Is that the same thing? Also, I failed Plant Biology in college, and so I ended up changing my major to anthropology. I hope that does not mean I lack the scientific background for magic.

Re: Natal Chart and Other Markers

[ecosophia]

1) You'll need to talk to a natal astrologer about that; it's not something I've studied enough to have a meaningful opinion.

2) No, it's not the same thing. In Fortune's time quack occultists liked to parade about with strange jewelry. (Think of hign priestesses with 32 pounds of pentagram-themed silver jewelry in the Neopagan scence and you'll have the idea.) Anthropology is also a science, last I checked!

Bitcoin Update

[(Anonymous)]

This is an update from two weeks ago when you brought to my attention the Bitcoin speculative bubble and recommended reading The Great Crash before proceeding to put any more money in. It took a while to get my money out with lots of technical difficulties, which turned out to be a huge relief that I did not wait for a death spiral to figure out the process. Much appreciated!

On Thursday I was ready to cash out but it looked like the price was climbing close to my break even point, so I decided to roll a chart and got FMaj & FMaj resolving in Populus, which upon looking back was clear indication that I was going to lose but that was the best result I could hope for. My monkey mind took over and I cannot remember how I justified not taking the deal, but the details do not really matter. Upon returning from exercise I found out about the Musk tweets and then hesitated for a bit while it floundered and then crashed again as Asia woke up, basically ruining the rest of my day and landing me a back spasm the next morning.

I am out some money, but it could have been way worse. More importantly I learned how easily I can delude myself, and will consider it a correspondence course in self awareness that will lead to more profitable decision making in the future.

In the meantime I decided to keep my hardware and occasionally check in for research (disregarding the misguided hype). Hermetix released a good podcast today that was heavy into the philosophy of Bitcoin, and I do believe that there is plenty of utility once the bear market is over. Very curious what this week's eclipse will bring, and I am extremely grateful to be sitting on the sidelines thanks to your suggestion.

Re: Bitcoin Update

[ecosophia]

Well, I'm glad you got out. It'll be interesting to see just how far things plunge when they finally get around to plunging.

[(Anonymous)]

On what plane does Tarot divination work through? There is an etheric aspect in the shuffling the cards by the subtle movements of the hands, there is an astral aspect in the reading of the cards. What am I missing here?

Thank you as always.

[ecosophia]

The mental plane, the plane of meanings. When tarot divination works, it accesses mental plane patterns, and the cards become vehicles of meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed in the Haliverse that most of the evil is the Luciferian kind of pride and disdain. Was that deliberate or did it just work out that way? I haven't read the original Mythos, are the cultist there ascribed more Ahrimanic evil of passion and base impulses?

[ecosophia]

The social and intellectual movements I was talking about (and partly satirizing) using the image of the Radiance are pervaded by Luciferic evil, so that naturally carried over into the Radiance. One of the reasons that I don't find Lovecraft's work scary at all is that he was also deep into a Luciferic pattern of his own -- what makes his critters "evil" is that they're alive, in the damp, squishy, flowing, vaguely erotic sense of the term.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it normal to neeed to escalate the imagery in the Sphere of Protection to keep feeling an effect? last night I imagined being in a whirlwind, a fire tornado, under a waterfall and in a whirlpool at the same time, and surrounded by floating mossy rocks.

This also let to my first discursive meditation session. I'm at the first stage and just supposed to be sitting there. But I got questions in my head and went with them.

I was thinking about directionality of the elements. The symbols for air and fire point up, water and earth down. That makes sense as the atmosphere is above you, fire burns up, water runs down, and earth is beneath you. s I was imagining a swirl around me, it was obvious enough to make invoking clockwise and banishing anti-clockwise.

Then I was wondering if invoking or banishing affected the up and down aspect. I visualised the whirlwind and firenado rising for both, and the waterfall and whirlpool going down for both. As they would in nature. Then I got to earth expecting down again for both. But I got the urge to draw earth up for the invoking, then send it back down for banishing. That's how i'd been doing it before.

There are several options. Imagine something else for earth, as in nature it doesn't move and swirl like the other forces. See earth just going down for both phases. Introduce an up and down phase for all the elements, even if it involves things like making fire burn downwards. Or maybe I shouldn't be doing this kind of enhanced imagery at all, and just go back to the original landscapes.

[ecosophia]

It's worth experimenting, but I'd recommend going back to the original landscapes. The intensity of the experienced effect rises and falls over time, and when it falls that usually means that your subtle bodies are beginning to perceive a different type of force and aren't very good at it yet.

southernwood

[(Anonymous)]

Happy Birthday fellow Second Decan Geminian!

It looks like Thursday is going to be a big day for us. Hopefully it works out for the best.

Following the Celtic Golden Dawn instructions for the Bardic grade I ordered the herbs online and when the southernwood first arrived I tried making some tea which had a mellow flavor and helped me sleep at night. It turns out there was not enough for both parts of the spyragic tincture, just the alcohol, so I ordered some more from Europe which was a lot cheaper. When I made the tea from the second source it was shockingly bitter, and I figured they accidentally gave me wormwood, so I ordered more from a third source and got the same results.

Is southernwood ridiculously bitter? My research online is inconclusive which makes me wonder if the original package was something else and it would be preferable to start a fresh batch of tincture. I have two kilos now, and burned some to get the flies out of the kitchen which worked really well.

Re: southernwood

[ecosophia]

Artemisias, like other herbs, vary in their bitterness due to growing conditions. Your first batch was probably a strain that's been bred for tea or flavoring. I'd say go ahead and use the tincture you've made.

[(Anonymous)]

Have there been any attempts to combine alchemy with hoodoo rootwork? I was contemplating your thumbnail sketch of the legend of John the Conquerer, and the feat of syncretizing the rootwork schema of West Africa to the wholly new plant suite of the Americas. Having gathered such a suite of roots and plants, the next obvious step beyond their simple use is to refine these through alchemical preparation.

-Purple Subterranean Emerald

[ecosophia]

I haven't heard of any but it would surprise me if the African-American occult scene hadn't at least looked into that. I'd say give it a try!

-- Tangerine Insipid Hamster

Candles

[(Anonymous)]

I have a pile of candle nubs that I have been saving from my Celtic Golden Dawn ritual magic practice with the idea that some day I will melt them together and make an offering candle, but I do not know much about the subject. I also picked up a Legba candle in New Orleans and my local spirits on the other side of the world seem to be responding to it rather favorably. Unfortunately the Legba candle started tunneling, so I cut off the top and was wondering if it would be okay to mix in with the altar candles? My guess is no and to keep them separate since the energy that went into them is different, but the repurposer in me had to ask.

Re: Candles

[ecosophia]

I'd keep them separate and use them for different purposes.

Michael Aquino - Temple of Set

[(Anonymous)]

Do you think Michael Aquino was actually in contact with a non-physical being when he felt inspired to write the Book of Coming Forth By Night? If so, what is the likelihood that it was who he thought it was? And what is your opinion on the philosophy espoused by the subsequent organization, the Temple of Set?

Re: Michael Aquino - Temple of Set

[ecosophia]

Satanism of any kind interests me about as much as a bowl of warm snot, so I don't have an opinion on the subject. Sorry!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I hope you’ll forgive a rather long and perhaps inexpert question, because I hope that other people might find any comments you have relevant as well.
Since retiring some years ago, I’ve kept myself busy doing intellectual work - teaching, lecturing, writing, translating etc. This earns me a little money but more importantly is a way of continuing to feel useful. A couple of years ago, for various reasons, the work started to tail off, and, with the virus, most of it has now gone. So earlier this year, I decided to invoke the help of Mercury to improve the situation and, for eight successive weeks, I made donations every Wednesday at the hour of Mercury to charities in different countries helping children to read. The sums were not great - about the price of an average meal. But nothing much has happened in the several weeks since I finished.
Although there were one or two small interesting coincidences, the situation has not improved, and one promising opportunity disappeared while I was making the donations. So I have been trying to work out what I did wrong, taking as a working assumption that normally TSW. It’s true I didn’t make a great ceremony of the donations with candles and invocations (my domestic circumstances precluded that). It’s also true that I didn’t ask for anything very precise - I was hoping for new ideas and possibilities as much as anything else. And I don’t know whether there was any confusion in offering to Mercury while working most of the time with the Egyptian pantheon, especially Thoth. And finally, an astrologer friend told me that I might have been suffering from the wider effects of several planets going retrograde earlier this year.
But I was sure that your response would be that I should meditate upon the lack of results, and I did so. I concluded that I was very conflicted about making the request in the first place. As a child, I learned that there was no point in asking for things, because there was no money in the family, so nothing would be forthcoming. I also grew up with the idea that anything I did receive, even of an intangible nature, would necessarily be at the expense of somebody else, since the overall store of goods and happiness in the world was finite. But depressing as that is to realise, I had thought it possible that the donations would have some effect, at least to a degree, independently of what I unconsciously thought about the process itself.
Finally, I tried geomancy recently, and received an answer which, in spite of working through your book, I don’t really understand. I asked simply « what effect will there be from the offerings I have made to Mercury ?» and received the following:

First House Conjunctio
Second House Albus
Third House Amissio
Fourth House Amissio
Fifth House Fortuna Major
Sixth House Laetitia
Seventh House Via
Eighth House Populus
Ninth House Rubeus
Tenth House Populus
Eleventh House Puella
Twelfth House Via
Judge Populus
First Witness Rubeus
Second Witness Rubeus
Reconciler Conjunctio

Do you have any thoughts?

Apologies once more for a rather long and complex question.

[ecosophia]

Thank you for this -- you've actually answered your own question, and it's an answer that applies to a lot of people. Successful magic requires a unified will, and when you're deeply conflicted about the subject of a magical working, it's not going to get far or do much. This is also true of making offerings to a deity -- remember, deities know what's going on in your head and your heart!

With regard to your geomantic chart, offerings to the gods belong to the 9th house of religion. There's no mode of perfection uniting Conjunctio in the 1st with Rubeus in the 9th, which gives a negative answer. Rubeus himself -- especially when he also appears as the witnesses, as here -- can indicate that you're not being entirely honest with yourself, or that there's some factor at work that you're not letting yourself take into account.

[(Anonymous)]

Do war gods deal with combat sports or is that a different speciality?

[ecosophia]

They rule combat sports. War was basically a combat sport in ancient times.

[(Anonymous)]

I might be at the edge of a breakthrough in terms of my own state of consciousness as a result of magical practice, but I also might be tricking myself.

We recently moved, and since then I've been quite anxious on and off about whether we made the right decision with the new place. There are a number of reasons for this, but throughout the experience I've noticed a few things:

- I realize that some of the factors I am worried about are external things that seem properly worthy of anxiety, because if we don't deal with them they will cause problems. Others, however, result from feelings about similar situations that reflect patterns I've experienced in the past. Then there are things in which both types are present: We have a neighbour in the new place we are worried about due to some worrying signs, but we are also tainted by very negative and difficult experiences with a neighbour in our old place. I realize it's unfair to judge the new neighbour on the basis of the latter type.

- As a result of this and other factors, I found myself over the past week quite often in a thick, emotionally-heavy, hazy state (that my early morning daily SOP does help banish for a while).

- Why I'm posting here today is because, unlike previous experiences of anxiety in past situations, I've noticed my mind telling me often something like "your own mind is creating this anxiety. It's a choice."

I am unsure whether that is my mind tricking me into repressing my emotional state (which I know never to do), or whether I am on the verge of consciously choosing not to be affected by the emotional state.

So I thought I'd ask for your advice! Sorry if my description is overly long, it's hard to describe because the experience is unfamiliar.

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

Excellent! You're in the process of learning one of the great lessons of life, which is that 90% of the suffering human beings experience in life is the result of their own attitudes. Anxiety, in particular, is never a helpful habit.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG
I’ve always had a weak Liver channel in TCM terms, and some of the symptoms (eye problems, insomnia) eventually yielded to many years of acupuncture. In addition, I’ve always been interested in regimes or exercises to strengthen the liver as an organ. (I know the organ is not the same as the channel.) Recently, blood tests have shown that my GGT levels, whilst not dangerous, are higher than normal. This usually implies liver problems. I’m not a particularly frequent drinker, although I have been obliged to take daily medications for some years now.
I am not asking for medical advice, but I am interested in procedures I can try in order to strengthen and purify the liver, that won’t conflict with western esoteric practice (in my case, the MP exercise and the LBRP with an Egyptian pantheon). Liver-cleansing herbs don’t seem to have much effect. I have been practising the Five Tibetan Rites, which I hope will have some benefit. Beyond that, I‘m nervous about trying, for example, Qi Gong liver exercises, including sounds and movements and « brushing » the liver, in case there’s a conflict and I do myself more harm than good. Do you, or does anyone else, have any ideas for compatible practices?
Thank you as always for your wisdom.

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend mixing qigong with any form of Western magical practice, as I know too many people who've ended up in trouble by doing so. I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of Israel Regardie's book The Art of True Healing, which discusses an approach to healing using the Middle Pillar exercise; you might find that worth trying.

[(Anonymous)]

How can I make sure I'm pronouncing the divine names correctly in my LBRP practice?

[ecosophia]

You aren't. Don't worry about it. I've heard those names pronounced in the most astonishing range of ways, and the results were still good.

(This is common in mantras generally. In Japan, the word that Hindus pronounce "Om" is typically pronounced "Ung" -- but it still works.)

Are there other banishing rituals, gestures as efective as LBRP

[(Anonymous)]

Banishing is important but not everyone is into LBRP, are there other effective banishing rituals, do they involve Deity of choice or destiny?

Re: Are there other banishing rituals, gestures as efective as LBRP

[ecosophia]

You might consider trying the Sphere of Protection. It's subtler than the LBRP but equally effective when practiced regularly, and it can be done either in an impersonal/animistic form or in a theistic form that invokes deities.