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.

The illustration on the left? That's the Monas Hieroglyphica of Dr. John Dee, the great Elizabethan astrologer, alchemist, occultist, and mage. The simplest version of what it means is over here to the right, which is part of a page from Dee's book: the Latin words mean Moon, Sun, Elements, and Fire. It's also the emblem of Mercury rising from the emblem of Aries, and much, much more. If you want to try your hand at solving the riddle of its deeper meaning, here you go. 

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

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,

As always, please know your efforts are greatly appreciated, and I hope you're doing ok this morning.

I'm crafting an affirmation to aid me in my effort to learn, practice and succeed at a new career. The new career will require new levels of discipline, as well as overcoming a host of assorted bad habits, both large and small.

1) Are short, one sentence affirmations more potent than say, one with around 4 sentences? I'm finding it difficult to encapsulate my areas of needed focus in one sentence, yet I don't want to dilute the focus with a longer affirmation (if such a thing is possible).

2) In your affirmations intro post, you advised focussing on things you can change within yourself, rather than things you wish to receive from outside of yourself. For this reason, would you recommend against affirmations that state specifically how much money one visualizes oneself earning?

3) I very much seek to manifest desires that are as in harmony with the universe as possible. If one is not yet versed in divination, are there any other techniques (magical or otherwise) to know if one is embarking on a career that will turn out to be, well... not what the universe wants?

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

1) Four sentences is far too diffuse and complicated, and suggests that you're trying to dictate details to the universe -- not a good plan. Rethink it, focusing on the essentials.

2) I'd very strongly recommend against this. Just for starters, do you really want to be stuck earning that amount, and only that amount, if we get a burst of hyperinfiation and gas costs $1500.00 a gallon?

3) That's what divination is for. You may want to postpone trying to change the world until you've learned a system of divination to check what the world wants...

Libra Ingress

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

The Libra Ingress has Venus in Scorpio and Mars in Libra, so shouldn’t mutual reception apply here? In your recent delineation for the US you didn’t consider it so I guess there’s a reason for that (my getting the rule wrong most likely) otherwise it would change the reading quite a bit I think.

Re: Libra Ingress

[ecosophia]

Oof! You're quite correct, and I managed to miss that. Thank you for catching it; I'll write up an addendum in the next few days and post it. The main differences are, first, Biden's chances of surviving to the end of the year are considerably worse if Mars has the force of being in Scorpio, and second, Harris is likely to do much better in office, at least at first. I'll work it out and post the details shortly.

[d_mekel]

Last weeks Rosicrusian image really got the wheels turning and brought up many questions and thoughts. You explained that the absolute is the impersonal, the supreme being is the original divine entity, and the solar logos is a soul that passed through the same stuff that we are working through. Someone commented that the solar logos could be like the demiurge.

Would that make the absolute Ain Soph, supreme being represented as Kether, and where would that land the solar logos? I also read in Richard smoley and jay kennys hidden wisdom where they compared kether, chokmah, and binah to the big bang. kether being something smaller than an electron, chokmah being the explosion, and binah where the source of form would start and so on down the tree through the other spheres until we have actual matter.

second, if we are referring to as above, so below, could this mean that the absolute is malkuth for an even higher divinity and it is never ending? It just keeps going up and up?

[ecosophia]

1) The Solar Logos is Tiphareth, the sphere of the Sun. Netzach, Hod, and Yesod are the three primary swarms, the Lords of Flame, Form, and Mind, and we are Malkuth.

2) It's possible, but how would we know?

[thuley]

I've been slowly learning the 4th virtue of the mage, but I've run into a problem: I have a larger than average number of psychics in my family and I tend to attract (and be attracted to) them in my my regular life. I'm typically very open and expressive, so this causes no difficulties for me outside of magic.

What do you do when someone picks up on a part of your practice you planned to remain silent about?

So far I've tended to come clean, because I know how vexing it can be to have psychic impression you can't confirm, but I worry that I should work on my poker face, remain as silent as possible, and leave my psychic friends and family to decide the nature of their perceptions for themselves.

[ecosophia]

Let them know that yes, you're doing magic, and no, it's best not to talk about it -- you can explain why. Most people are cool with that.

Dolman arch and cosmic doctrine

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Mr Greer,

I am working through the dolmam arch study course and meditating through the cosmic doctrine book. I wanted to share a potential connection that occurred to me in the spirit of "sharing a story with one who has walked the path ahead of me to make sure I am not completely veering off course accidentally."

The potential connection:

Chapter 8 of the cosmic doctrine speaks of a great entity realizing self awareness once all external influences have reached equilibrium. This self contemplation being the creative source of our world.

Does the realization of the elaeth, the awakening of reflective consciousness discussed in the completion exercises of lesson one in the dolman arch, correspond on a much smaller scale with the self realization of a great entity discussed above?

Re: Dolman arch and cosmic doctrine

[ecosophia]

Excellent! Yes, and since each of us is a reflection of the Great Entity -- "man is made in the image of God" -- that's very relevant.

Heathen Golden Dawn

[gullindagan]

Things are moving along. Still trying to fit all the pieces together, and still finding more pieces.

First, I'd like to ask about Initiation. I have obviously not done any intition rituals, but I'm practicing at roughly the equivalent of the Bardic grade. So I should figure out the grades and at least the first initiation now.

I thought that it might be a good idea to take the classes from the Rigthula as the grades, which would ultimately turn out to be four. The first would be Thrall, then Karl, then Jarl and finally Konr. Thrall could be something like 9 months of HLBRP + Meditating on the runes then Gylfaginning and divining with the runes, preliminary herbalism then Karl is MP, meditating on Voluspa then scrying the runes, 9 herbs charm, brewing and herbalism, Temple Opening and Closing, then ALU ritual, making a brew in Odrerir and initiation. Jarl is hexagram ritual, series of 7 GHR culminating with the Sun, consecration/magical tools, evocation, transformation (werewolf, bear shirt, falcon of Freya), advanced herbalism, astrology, cabbala and brewing. Then Konr is potentially a series of Enneagram rituals (going down the spheres to the middle(Malkuth), then back up), Equinox, HGA/Fylgia and other stuff I don't know of yet. Does this sound like a good rough draft?

As for an actual initation ritual, I could easily just take the ones from CGD and switch a few things. The one from Thrall to Karl could just be the LBRP with a meditation and Rune Reading. Btw, what is the point of the circle and cross prop on the alter for different grades?

As far as astrology, I've found a couple few strands that might be fun. The first is that apparently somebody working on a copy of the Picatrix way back when added a bit about runes, where there were two for each sign! Do you know about this? ( https://www.jstor.org/stable/2848261?read-now=1&seq=7#page_scan_tab_contents )

Also, there apparently is an entirely separate (from Edda lore) set of magical images for the Saxon gods of the days, apparently it died out when the Eddas became more well known, but it seems like some powerful imagery for the planets, though very different: http://www.germanicmythology.com/works/VersteganDaysofWeek.html

Do you think this could be added to this synthesis soup? It sounds fun to me to get that Renaissance stream in with Bureas, Picatrix, and the Saxon dieties.

Also, do you think the Equinox rituals would be a good idea? The Norse definitely didnt have anything like an 8 fold or even necessarily 4 fold season thing, but roughly doviding it into "Summer" and "Winter" might make sense, thought doing 4 rituals a year would probably be easier in a way.

Ok, thanks!

Re: Heathen Golden Dawn

[ecosophia]

All this is very promising indeed.

1) That sounds like an excellent outline. A student who did all four grades would end up with a very solid grasp of magic.

2) You can certainly use the rituals in CGD as templates, but feel free to change things as you like. There's a lot of wiggle room available.

3) Good heavens. No, I didn't know about this -- I don't have a JSTOR subscription, though. Is there a way you can get me the contents of the article?

4) Excellent! What you have here, as you're well aware, is a set of classic Renaissance magical images for seven Saxon deities. You could go very, very far with that. Which version of the runes are you planning on using, by the way -- or have you considered making room for more than one? The 33-rune Saxon/Frisian futhorc has its charms.

5) I'd recommend four rituals a year. Two tends to foster certain imbalances, of a kind that ran barefoot all through the original Golden Dawn.

[(Anonymous)]

On the Coivd open post, someone posted something I'd like to hear your thoughts on, so I hope you don't mind if I repost it here:

"I've seen a lot of evidence that at least some of the detrimental effects of the vaccines are related to effects on the subtle planes. I've never seen anything like this, so I'm thinking something weird is going on.

I know a lot of people who have been shrieking about how they hope the people who refuse to play along with the Covid narrative suffer horribly and then die since last March; and now it's extended to anyone who doesn't take the vaccines. This generates a lot of magical force, and I'm wondering if these energies have settled into the vaccines.

If they've been charged with the energies of an accidental death spell, this could explain a lot of the weirdness around them. Do you know if this is possible?"

[ecosophia]

I don't know that it's accidental. The Magic Resistance of very dubious memory spent a lot of time flinging death spells at Trump and everyone who supported him; the mere fact that those spells were incompetent doesn't obviate the risk of blowback. Given who's getting the vaccine and who isn't, it's not impossible that this is the blowback...

That said, all that death-wishing won't be without an effect -- and the effect will concentrate on those who are doing the wishing, since very few of them know the first thing about directing energies away from themselves. So, yes, that's possible.

[(Anonymous)]

Does the SoP also "break the egg"?

[ecosophia]

Yes, though it does so much more slowly and gently than some other rituals.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello all

The past couple of weeks, comma I've noticed there's a lot of talk about "breaking the egg." I consider myself someone who has crossed this line recently, but the trouble is, I think I was unprepared for the things that came afterward. This is gonna be a longish but hopefully coherent explanation, so please bear with me.

Before I became a practitioner, I never witnessed anything supernatural, and if I got the heebie jeebies from something I saw, I could easily dismiss it as my eyes/ mind playing tricks on me. Now, having sharpened my intuition, I'm noticing things more frequently and intensely.

I live in the boonies with my parents. I'm going to college so this set up is ideal for me financially. I lived in San Diego for about 5 years before, so living in the wilderness again was an adjustment. After a couple months of living there, I begin to notice a negative, unwelcoming vibe from the forest on the eastern side of the house. I ignored as I was accustomed to until recently. This unwelcoming, unfriendly energy that seemed to scream, "stay away from me, I hate you" was persistent enough that I finally decided to get my friends, a pair of very intuitively gifted identical twins, to check it out. Obviously I hadn't mentioned any details about the forest so I could get an unbiased conclusion from them. Long story short, they felt the same way. They related to me the specific feelings I also had- not just the general feeling, but also that this energy was coming from the entire stretch of the woods, not from a single point. So we didn't get the impression that all this came from a single entity. Which can be dealt with in a simpler, more straightforward way than an entire area acting up. I also asked my parents about the woods. My dad said I probably had an intuition like my mom and could sense wolves or coyotes lurking nearby, but my mom spoke up and said she hated going near that particular stretch of woods, especially at night. My dad sort of scoffed and blew it off, so since then my mom and I have started researching the history of the property (they moved there about4 years ago). We didn't find much aside from the fact that every single person who lived there got a divorce, usually losing the house in the process. Weird, but there's nothing to connect that to directly.

The matter isn't on my mind as much anymore since hitting a dead end, but theres a growing anxiety at night. I purposefully read and study magic until I pass out to avoid sitting in the dark waiting to fall asleep. One night, I call it quits and hop into bed around midnight. I turn off the light and sit in the dark waiting to sleep. I look in a corner and see a shadowy humanoid figure. Assuming I'm overtired, I wait for the vision to clear, but it doesn't. Instead, it seems to notice that I've noticed it and it quickly walks toward me. I'm terrified, so I shut my eyes, pull up the covers like a child, and do the LBRP (banishing air) mentally. Once done, I could notice an immediate difference in the atmosphere. I'm glad it worked, but I wish I never was in this situation in the first place.

To sum up, I'm unsure of how to handle entities like this if they're gonna pop up around me like this. I genuinely love studying and practicing magic, but I'll admit this type of event makes me very, very squeamish. In addition to daily LBRP giving the house a holy water bath, what other measures can I take to prevent other unwanted visitors? I also should say that I do NO spirit work whatsoever because of my aforementioned squeamishness. My second question is, what should I know about nonhuman entities, spirits, and other creatures that crop up around newbie magicians? I feel like because of the forest, this problem will be especially pervasive in my life, so I'm pretty sure going the extra mile to protect the house is in my best interest.

Thank you JMG and community for any input

[ecosophia]

Okay, first of all, this is quite common. What the Romans called the genius loci -- the spirit of a place -- can be hostile to human beings, and given the way that people have treated the land, this is far from uncommon. Since you're not comfortable dealing with spirits, you might see if you can find someone who is, who can communicate with the spirit of the forest and find out what the problem is. It's quite possible that some simple change will satisfy the spirit and then you'll have no more trouble.

In the meantime, you might consider doing some natural magic to protect your home against hostile spirits. My book The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic is one of many sources that discusses protective magic of this kind.

As for "breaking the egg," this kind of thing happens whether or not you do magical practice. For you, it's happened; you now live in a larger and stranger world. Get used to it, and know that there are also wonderful things to be met with here.

Some observations after some months of rituals

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

As always, Thank you for the provisioning and maintaininace of this public good.

It's been 4 months since I started daily banishing, and a little bit under two since I added a MP excersise. It certainly has been a rewarding experience, and your blog and books have been instrumental on this a heartfelt thank you.

1) in this time (this past months) I took also a concerted effort to try to approach Hermes Trimagistus, coincidentaly an unplanned trip to Egypt occurred which allowed me to get appropriate figures (ofcourse by then I knew I wanted to do that approach towards Thoth, so I can't claim reverse causality hah). Now another coincidence happened, which I know now is might be related. I felt very interested in joining this online course about stellar magic, but with no particular reason .. at least related to my attempt to get close thoth/Hermes Trimagistus). I hardly every join a course, and this one was at 2am my time and dictated in Italian (albeit with english subtitles), so I was quite surprised at my drive to attendance and take notes. The course/workshop was basically centred on calculating the time to create talismans working with the star SPICCA. Now, I haven't advanced to talisman creation, but it all seemed quite intuitive. I took note on the talisman to be drawn itself, and left my notes until a few days ago I was revising them. I started doing some side research, reading on the star itself, and to my surprise In his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Cornelius Agrippa attributes Spica's Kabbalistic symbol Agrippa to Hermes Trismegistus, and this is the symbol that is represented in the talisman I learnt about. Now that's a coincidence there!




2) a second effect I've noticed that might be related to taking up ceremonial magic is that.. well some things have certainly lost their shine. A few weeks ago I decided to delete social media apps, which I had thought would be a "difficult" thing to do given I live abroad and away from friends and family.. but one day I just did it, and its been pretty great! A sense of "if someone wants to contact me they certainly would know how to" seems to have take root.

3) I enjoy some online games, it builds upon my liking of fantasy and role playing games in general. It's not something that takes up too much time, but I have been mulling on its potential adverse effects. Now, I have played a game launched in 2020 called Genshin Impact (beautifully designed to be honest), it seemed very well written, and it's performed extremely well all over the world. Its quite a good business model since the game itself is free but if you want special characters your need to pull your luck in a "Gacha" system, basically lucky slots to see of you "Summon" the character you want. Now the lore of the game is great, but some names started to be a bit .. suspicious. Some of the main characters of the game are "archons" of which there are 7, and 3 have been shared in the course of a year.. Barbatos, Morax, and now Baal.. and well this names, if I'm correct, are names of demon's associated with a specific grimoire. Now I can't stress how nicely the game is written, it basically doesn't have a direct comparison in the market. It was developed by a Chinese company, and has been an incredible hit, over 60 million downloads, over 160 million dollars in revenue in the first month from all over the world. Here is a video of the recording of some of the music for reference (as in the work that went into this): https://youtu.be/pFrKZxStL_U


A LOT of work has gone into this. I wonder, is the choosing of this names, basically demons associated with European reinasance grimoires that you summon, is just "good" cultural research, or is it tapping into a little more than that? Here I am just skimming on the surface but I am sure there quite more going on on the subplots.. I mean you main companion in the game is named Paimon. Is there a possible negayive effect of this?

Re: Some observations after some months of rituals

[ecosophia]

1) Good. This kind of thing happens, especially if you've done this work in a previous life.

2) Excellent! This shows that you're shaping off the cheap sorcery of mass culture.

3) Oog. Yes, those are the names of demons, and so is Paimon. I would have nothing whatever to do with that game; however attractive it may be, demonic energies aren't something you want in your life.

American Goddesses

[(Anonymous)]

About a year ago, I went hunting for some goddesses for a story. It's in the chilling-out phase, now, before revisiting. (I suspect-it's a fanfic-that because of where I went with it, that it'll stay a file forever. Doesn't fit the fandom. But aspects might be extractable.)

I wanted specifically USA American dieties, and ended up with Liberty, Justice, and Columbia. Liberty and Justice are all over everything in reality, Columbia a bit rarer. With just the first two, my fictional religion seemed unbalanced, and I had to hunt up Columbia to make it feel right.

Now over on your other blog, folks are talking about appeals to Liberty and Columbia. Synchronity? Sure. But it sure feels to me like they're forgetting Justice, and that oughtn't end well, kind of like neglecting to invite the fairy to the christening.

Is there something more there that I blundered into last year, or is this just my inate trinitarianism coming to the forefront?

BoysMom

Re: American Goddesses

[slithytoves123]

Hmm. I think you're on to something.

Columbia is the deity of America itself as a particular place/nation, not a universal ideal like Liberty and Justice. Arguably she's precisely what's been forgotten in the war between Justice and Liberty: that are not the shining city on the hill setting an example of freedom for the rest of the world, nor are we a cartoonishly evil villain who must be struck down in the name of Justice -- what we are is one nation among others, with our own virtues and vices.

(EDIT: I realize this isn't relevant to your specific suggestion, which is about this community. But it seems like the missing factor in the broader culture war that could harmonize the two sides.)

New home

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I know you’ve answered similar questions so forgive me if I missed it but we’ve just bought our family home. It’s about 120 years old and we love it.

I’m in bardic grade of CGD - what would you recommend I do to best set ourselves up in this home? (You gave me some advice when our first son was born and he is a real blessing, thanks for your small part)

Best
Edward

Re: New home

[ecosophia]

Congratulations on your new home! If the energy in the home feels good, there's nothing you need to do at all other than settle into it. If there's any part of it where the energy feels wrong, do a banishing ritual there.

[(Anonymous)]

Good evening, JMG. I'd love to get your help with a divination reading. I did I simple shield chart asking about whether I should move to a new (particular) city/state. Here's what I got:

LW: Colled
RW: Carchar
Judge: Bendith Fawr

The judge seems to be saying yes, but I don't know how to read the LW and RW.

This is complicated by the facts on the ground as I'm visiting the prospective place and finding it really out of my reach financially because of the housing crisis, even if I'd like to be here. The reading seems to indicate I should do it anyway if I can make it work, but I'm uncomfortable with going over my budget for rent.

This makes me wonder about using divination when making a final decision about things - what do you do when you get what seems like a positive reading but the facts tell a different story? Do you typically just trust the reading, or are there times to choose a different course than what seems to be suggested?

Many thanks!

Ravenwillow

[ecosophia]

What that says to me is that it's a great place (Bendith Fawr) but you can't afford it (Carchar and Colled). You'll need to try somewhere else. Remember that a positive figure that is generated by two negative figures loses much of its positivity!

Magical help for Afghan friend

[(Anonymous)]

Hey

To make a long story short, I used to know a fellow from Afghanistan who worked at a restaurant in my city, and who would help me with Persian (I'm very slowly teaching myself) whenever I would go to eat there. We kind of became friends, but then the pandemic happened, the restaurant closed and everybody went into lockdown, and we lost touch.

Lately, with all the news that's been going on, I decided to see if I could find him and get in contact with him again, to see how he was doing and so I'd have someone to talk to in Persian again. I was able to track him down on social media...and turns out he'd gone back to Afghanistan to visit family, and is currently stuck there, unable to reach Kabul airport.

I know what the answer to this question will probably be, but is there anything I, as someone who never really got beyond the Lesser Pentagram Ritual, can do magically to help this situation? I don't see anything else I can do and I'd really like to find some way to help him get back home.

Re: Magical help for Afghan friend

[ecosophia]

You're in the same situation as someone who's never gone to medical school and is faced with a friend having a health crisis: there's basically nothing you can do. You might consider praying for your friend.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I've been developing some methods for forecasting financial markets. This is a task requiring specific mental states and careful emotional control - I have to see conditions for what they are without being unduly swayed by optimism, pessimism or greed.

Can you suggest any magical practices to bolster these kinds of mental abilities? Meditation seems obvious and is something I practice, is there anything else you'd suggest for someone who wants to see clearly and judge accurately the movements in an abstract non-space like a financial market? I know you've mentioned astrology as a market forecasting tool before but that's not quite what I'm asking about, my interest is in boosting my ability to use forecasting tools rather than asking for recommendations of tools.

Thanks for your time.

[ecosophia]

That's going to take a great deal of emotional self-control but it's something that can be done, and it's got many other advantages. The basic principle is that you have to stop letting yourself be swayed by your feelings. Choose exercises that build that habit. For example, once a week, have something for lunch that you don't like, and don't let yourself express your dislike in any way. Choose a political view you disagree with, research, and write out a detailed discussion of every reason why it's a good idea, without any reference to your own feelings or to the other side of the argument. In the same spirit, write a blistering critique of whatever belief is dearest to your heart. If you have some facility with magic, you can also invoke Saturn, but the will exercises will take care of the job even without that.

[snaegl]

You have mentioned a number of times that certain energetic exercises/courses of study are not compatible. Do you have favorite criteria for determining which systems play well together? I'm currently trying to suss out whether OBOD Druid Grade studies will mesh well with a tantric-derived course of study. Thank you for any insights you might have!

[ecosophia]

The only way to be sure is to talk to people who've done both. That's how I found out that Golden Dawn magic can clash with some kinds of qigong -- I made that mistake and took several years to recover. We simply don't know enough about underlying processes to make firm determinations in advance of experience.

[(Anonymous)]

It seems like a lot of people who don't want the covid vaccines and believe in reincarnation have a sense that it will have long term effects in future lives. Do you know if this might be the case, and if it's possible, why it might be?

[ecosophia]

People have been getting a lot of strange clairvoyant experiences relating to the vaccines. I suspect that's what's going on. I haven't had such experiences -- just a clear, cold sense that taking any of the vaccines would be a very, very bad idea.

Transmutation of sexual energy

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning to JMG and other commentators.

Recently, I read Dion Fortune's Problem of Purity and was intrigued by her description of transmuting the sex impulse (my description) in Chapter 6.

In the chapter, Fortune says to:

1) Visualise the spine as a hollow tube and make a mental picture of your hand encircling it, and then with the imaginary hand, squeeze the spine upwards in a massaging motion.

2) As soon as the energy travels up the spine into the brain, picture yourself having a third eye in your forehead, and beam the energy outwards into a philanthropic cause.

I remember having read before in another book (sorry, can't remember the title) about recirculating the energy into your navel via touching your tongue to the roof of your palate. I believe it was said to be a Taoist practice?

Archdruid, would you have any recommendations for further reading material? I am very interested in the transmutation of energy into vital force. I work in a creative field, and I have been feeling very drained for the past half year. My colleagues diagnosed me as suffering burnout, but I feel like there might be a deeper reason for this general lethargy and lack of pep.

Re: Transmutation of sexual energy

[ecosophia]

There isn't much else on the subject in Western magic; the Taoists do the recirculation thing. What I recommend is a little different.

1) do the hollow tube thing with your spine, but squeeze it only if you're female. If you're male, relax and open it fully in a rhythmic fashion. (The difference is based on the difference between female and male orgasm.)

2) Send it to the top of your head and then out like a fountain of golden light, flooding your aura with energy.

3) Do this at least three times, and more if you like, whenever you want to redirect sexual energy.

New home

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I know you’ve answered similar questions so forgive me if I missed it but we’ve just bought our family home. It’s about 120 years old and we love it.

I’m in bardic grade of CGD - what would you recommend I do to best set ourselves up in this home? (You gave me some advice when our first son was born and he is a real blessing, thanks for your small part)

Best
Edward

Re: New home

[ecosophia]

I answered this on an earlier page.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, you mentioned earlier in this Magic Monday the speculation that part of the cause of the madness regarding current events may be divine in origin may come from a deity or deities, as in "Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad...". Personally, with the memes coming out of Afghanistan I've been struck by how extremely Dionysian they are. They remind me on the one hand of The Frogs and on the other of The Bacchae. In addition, the way that many Afghanistan related memes criticize the covid lockdowns strike me as particularly noteworthy (a decent collection of both are here: https://secretsun.blogspot.com/2021/08/if-you-believe-they-put-meme-on-moon.html).

There's been speculation that Zeus may have a hand in events with the various symbolic lightning strikes. As noted, the flavor of the Afghanistan situation strikes me breathtakingly Dionysian. I'm curious your thoughts on these speculations and if you feel comfortable sharing if you've seen signs of other deities in the unfolding crisis?

[ecosophia]

There is something old, cold, and gently amused moving through this. I don't know who it is but I can sense it now and again. Other deities are doubtless also involved!

[(Anonymous)]

Some months ago, I did a honey jar spell for the first time. It did not work, and I am no longer bothered about its result. As I live in a rental property it is not buried. What are good ways to dispose of it? Would it matter if people or animals ate the honey?

I also never felt connected to the magic. Whilst I know this is not the case for everyone, I need to feel that the magic or presiding spirits have a connection considerably older than I am with the place. As I am in Europe and feel this way, I am less likely to feel in tune with American rootwork

[ecosophia]

Find a place to bury it. Whether or not you feel connected to it, it's a good idea to treat the magic with respect.

Timing purchase of Zeus statue

[(Anonymous)]

I have been thinking for months about buying a statue of Zeus and the idea has been stronger in my mind again recently. The ones which feel and look right are expensive, so I have been taking my time. Of course it would be a good idea to buy it on a Thursday at an hour of Jupiter, and perhaps also in the morning, but should I make sure I get it when the moon is waxing? The moon is not so relevant to Zeus, but perhaps it helps nonetheless? Should I even wait until after the winter solstice and the sun is waxing again?

Perhaps I should have bought it under Leo as my Jupiter is in Leo. But I do not want to overthink this. Part of me feels like I should buy it soon, perhaps even this Thursday. Though if it is sensible to wait even a couple of weeks...

Re: Timing purchase of Zeus statue

[ecosophia]

You're overthinking it, big time. Just get the statue. Burn incense to Zeus on the day and hour of Jupiter, and you'll be fine.

Cosmiculture Pipe

[weilong]

An update on one of my radionics experiments:
I planted a cosmiculture pipe in the middle of my garden this spring. The garden has taken off like never before. I planted some Jerusalem Artichoke close to the pipe. Online sources say the plant can grow to one or two meters. Mine is at three and counting. Many of the herbs and other things in the area are three or four feet deep. It's never been this lush before.

Re: Cosmiculture Pipe

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it! TSW...

Philosophy as Alchemy

[slithytoves123]

Maybe this would be more appropriate to the Open Post this week, but I had a thought recently that the reason (post)modern philosophy is so terrible is that philosophy is at its heart a form of alchemy, and so as a society that rejects alchemy, we've forgotten how to do philosophy.

To flesh out the idea, there are two major streams of philosophy in the Western world (the only one I'm qualified to talk about), and two minor streams worth mentioning. The two major streams are of course analytical philosophy, which arguably reached its zenith in the late 1800's and early 1900's with the logical positivists, and continental philosophy, which arguably reached its peak around the same time with the existentialists. The two minor streams are the pragmatists and the postmodernists.

Roughly speaking, good philosophy is a form of alchemy in that you first analyze the subject under discussion (the solve phase), then having analyzed it, you proceed to draw conclusions (the coagula phase) primarily deductively (reasoning to what follows directly from your analysis) and abductively (reasoning to the best explanation of your analysis). Each of the stream above had a critical flaw in their solve phase, and their coagula phases have all been unproductive.

For the analytical tradition, analysis means conceptual analysis: asking precisely what we mean by some concept 'X' and trying to pin it down as precisely as possible. The flaw is that meanings are nebulous and nothing outside of pure logic and mathematics can be pinned down the way they hoped. The analytical philosophers either ignored this, and produced nonsensical conclusions, or became absolutely obsessed with it and never got past the analysis phase at all. (You have to give the logical positivsts' credit, though, they are the only school of thought I can think of in the history of philosophy to ever all admit they were wrong.)

For the continental tradition, the solve phase is more about ontological analysis: set out what sorts of things actually exist, and how we relate to them -- will and representation; ideas and the-thing-in-itself; Being, Nothingness, and radical freedom, etc. -- and draw conclusions from that. The flaw here is a more classical one: the belief that one's ontological analysis is just How the World Is (even if you deny that this is possible), and not only that, but Obviously How the World Is, and so anyone who thinks otherwise is simply incapable of proper understanding -- or is a counter-revolutionary. As the last comment hints, one of the big analyses that Continental philosophy got stuck on was Marxism, and I daresay it never recovered.

EDIT: Moreover, it seems to me that the analytical tradition has been too suspicious of abductive reasoning, and the continental tradition uses it too readily.

The pragmatists and postmodernists were to an extent a reaction to these two problems, but they fell into a different trap: they effectively, if not always explicitly, concluded that since conceptual and ontological analysis so often went wrong, they were worthless. For the pragmatists, that often meant preparing traditional philosophical problems to be handed off to science and the humanities to deal with. For postmodernists it meant a general suspicion of every discipline -- and unfortunately the American imitators of the postmodernists adopted their style without their hard-won cynicism about politics and now look where we are.

Re: Philosophy as Alchemy

[ecosophia]

Hmm! That makes a great deal of sense.

[tamanous2020]

JMG,

Hope you are well!

1. Today the Pfizer vaccine got its rubber stamp from the FDA as expected. In your experience, what would be the best chart to run to see the effect of this? Run an ingress chart for the United States government like you have done recently? Look at the natal chart associated with either Pfizer or its vaccine?

2. Given that you mainly read the works of dead people, are there any classic works, occult or otherwise, that turned out to be a waste of time on your end?

3. Recently I was on a forum group for neoplatonism discussing Proclus' "Henads". Are these similar to the Kabbalistic Sephirot? Or are these more like Tolkien's Valar, with the One being Illuvatar.

Thanks,

Tanamous

[ecosophia]

1) That's an interesting question to which I don't have an answer. Why not cast a series of charts, see which works best, and draw conclusions from that?

2) Oh, good heavens, yes. Arthur Edward Waite is long dead, and his books are crap.

3) Well, to begin with, Iluvatar is the Christian God in Elvish drag, not a Neoplatonist concept at all. Remember that to Neoplatonists, the One is timeless, impersonal, unchanging, and without qualities or properties -- it's only in the handwaving of Christian Neoplatonism that you get the sort of argument from semantical gymnastics that claims that the abstract, timeless, impersonal One is also a person who can have a son, etc.

The Henads aren't really akin to either the sephiroth or the Valar. They're aspects or manifestations of the One, which possess personality in a superlative sense: each henad is the One filtered through a particular mode of personal existence, a personality of Godhead. Their closest equivalent is the gods of Hinduism, who are each the absolute Brahman as seen through a particular, personal mode of manifestation.