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 more than 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 photo? A hundred years ago you wouldn't have to ask, because she was the world's bestselling author. Her name was Marie Corelli. (Well, actually, her name was Mary Mackay, and she was the illegitimate daughter of the same Charles Mackay who wrote Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, but Marie Corelli was the name she went by.) She was a Rosicrucian -- a member of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, to be precise -- and a student of occultism, and her novels, whch were wildly popular, were chockfull of bits of occult lore. That's one of the main reasons why she's been erased from literary history. Can't have occultists haunting the hallowed halls of literature!

If your local library system hasn't purged its collection, they might have a few of her books. I'm reading one novel of hers right now -- The Secret Power -- and so far, despite a certain lushness of prose and a habit of talking to the reader, it's a pleasant read with fewer adjectives than her younger contemporary H.P. Lovecraft.

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.

With that said, have at it!

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- see you next week!***

Comments

[jprussell]

As always, thanks much for your time and energy answering these questions.

Also, a happy Samhain to you!

1. As I've been learning the SOP, I've been meditating on each few of the Aicme corresponding to the element I've been learning. Now that I'm on Spirit Below, I'm about to have gone through every few, but I still have two more stations to learn. Any suggestions for meditation topics that would reinforce Spirit above and/or Spirit Within as I add those to my practice over the next ~6 weeks? There's obviously plenty of grist for the meditation mill between the DH and DMH, but I've been enjoying having my learning of the Ogham and of the elements reinforce each other, and it's not obvious to me how to do so for these.

2. Apologies for yet another FAQ-clarifying question on safety: the MM FAQ states that doing magic while pregnant/nursing is a no-no, that doing basic practices like the SOP is okay before kids are 3, and that after age 3, more complex workings should only be done when the kid(s) are at least a few hundred feet away. Just to be absolutely clear, my understanding is that the SOP and grail working are okay to do with a pregnant woman or child under 7 near-ish (in the same house, less than a few hundred feet away), as long as it's in a space the kid doesn't spend too much time. Have I parsed that correctly?

Thanks much,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

1) I'd suggest meditating on each aicme as a unity for Spirit Above, and reviewing the entire Ogham for Spirit Within.

2) That's correct. Since you aren't the one who's pregnant or nursing, you have some flexibility. ;-)

Etheric Cleansing Ritual questions...

[australiandreamer]

At least I know when midnight starts in NJ now :) z(and that you guys have a *very* long daylight savings period!)

1)Technical question – I know we are experimenting here in ye ole Southern Hemisphere re the north v south polarity but does the clockwise / anticlockwise element also need experimentation or is that a lock (eg if I am starting facing south would I always keep the counterclockwise start or try both or if you are changing the north to south you would always change a counter clockwise to a clockwise?)

2)Imagination question. In step one I was imagining there were bits of black substance on me and as I turned (and tried not to feel dizzy) black droplets were flying off me and being destroyed as they landed (kind of like a drop of water on a hotplate). In step two I was imagining the force of God’s unsullied creation being drawn up as though I was being embraced by a coloured field (it has been green (growing things) or brown (as in good soil). In step three I was imagining His love and warmth flowing from above onto my head and coating the top of my body (again like a colour this time it has been yellow (sun) or white (sun/purity) or blue (sky)). In step four I was imagining the two colours wrapping around me and combining / being woven into a single garment (kind of like a toga) I was wearing as a protection (sometimes the two colour striped sometimes combined (eg blue and green combining into a single aqua)). This morning it was a golden light from below, a silver light from above and they combined into a kind of a glowing amber armour. 2a) Is that the kind of process we are talking about or am I heading into a dead end and should be keeping it force/stream related? 2b) if the concept works are there specific colours associated with these things I should get used to or what works for you is fine

3)You referenced getting rid of the etheric gunk – I read that as just the stuff that randomly builds up just by walking through life both from our own actions and those around us and this as a kind of a reboot? Not being sure what the difference is between etheric and astral I am kind of guessing but open to clarification :)

Re: Etheric Cleansing Ritual questions...

[ecosophia]

1) That's a perennial source of disagreement among occultists on your side of the planet. Most of the people I know of who work with the SoP do it exactly the same way as they do on this side, for whatever that's worth.

2) Interesting. Experiment with it and see what works best for you!

3) The etheric realm is the realm of life force, so etheric gunk is gunk that affects life energy. Yes, you pick it up as you go through life.

[(Anonymous)]

Good evening and happy Samhain Archdruid!

1a. Would this be a good arrangement for a Roman SOP?

(DMH version)
Opening: Jupiter/Jove, Dionysus, Minerva, Venus

East: Apollo
South: Vesta
West: Neptune
North: Ceres (or Venus?)
Below: Proserpina
Above: Jupiter/Jove

1b. Would vibrating "Awen" be out of place for Spirit Within? Something different maybe?

2. Any word on when DA copies will be back in print, particularly ones that aren't $300-a-pop?


-Indigo Erudite Lizard

[ecosophia]

1a) That would be entirely appropriate.

1b) You could use Awen -- the Romans were nothing if not willing to borrow -- or the Latin word FIAT, "so be it."

2) The publisher's begun work on a trade paperback edition of Vol. 1, which is sold out. Vol. 2 won't be brought out in paper until all the standard hardback copies of that volume have been sold -- there are still some in stock at $65.

Where was I?

[revert2mean]

Hi JMG,

Off reservation as usual, but this wasn't a dream. I was meditating and suddenly I could see a golden net surrounding me, moving and expanding with me. Then I was far outside the net, far away, looking at my physical body and seeing it as this tiny, dense thing in the far distance. I was in a huge torrent of energy rushing in that direction. I didn't feel the sense of oneness and bliss, just this huge, unfathomable amount of energy. Our obsessions with our bodies and our emotions seemed very silly from that perspective. Then I was back. Later I was told a huge solar storm had started just before then.

Any views on where I was? Thanks for your patience.

Re: Where was I?

[ecosophia]

You may have just glimpsed something of what you actually are. The material body is the smallest fraction of our complete existence.

[tamanous2020]

Hi JMG,

Thanks for the forum!

1. Is lying a type of black magic? Given the definition of magic is "changing consciousness in accordance with a will", when I lie to someone, whether it's to avoid conflict or potentially gain something, I am attempting to modify their consciousness in line with something I'd prefer, over telling the truth. I take it that a lot of karma would occur as kickback from this?

2. I've read that training in martial arts or say dancing has a much better carry over effect for magical practice then standard weight lifting/bodybuilding. What would be the reason for this? If I recall previous comments you've made, a lot of the original strongmen which were the fountainhead of today's gym culture were occultists themselves!

3. Have you ever read, or have an opinion of, Steiner's work "The Philosophy of Freedom"?

4. Given your occult background, have you found any further spiritual depth in either the Iliad or Odyssey? Would they be worthwhile literature to use as discursive meditation?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, in a very small way. The karma's not something you want, either.

2) I've heard that claim too, but my experience is that it's not true. Weight training, especially the good old-fashioned sort done by strongmen back in the day, is very solid training for the will; combine it with some classic muscle control of the Maxalding variety, and you've got a very effective physical dimension to your magical training.

3) It's one of the few books of Steiner's I read regularly. Like so much of Steiner's work, it's brilliant but flawed; its achievements are important enough, and its flaws severe enough, that it deserves very careful exploration.

4) Good heavens, yes. Both of them were treated by the old Neoplatonists as very rich texts with many layers of meaning. You could do a lot worse than meditate on them.

SOP question.

[(Anonymous)]

Very particular question for the SOP:

When summoning the elements, I use my right hand to trace the sigils. And I've been using my right hand to trace the sigils for banishing as well. But, embarrassingly, this has been making my right arm noticeably stronger than my left... what are your thoughts on using the right hand for summoning, and the left for banishing? Good? Bad? Irrelevant?

PS - Happy Samhain to you and the commentariat :)

Re: SOP question.

[ecosophia]

I recommend instead simply taking up some other form of exercise with the left hand and arm.

Questions

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

In the past, you've mentioned ritual and charity to planetary spirits to ameliorate bad karma generated in the past.

I have things I've done when I was young that I am not proud of; instances of hurting others, often unaware, sometimes out of laziness and selfishness. In one instance, someone told me years later what I did, and I felt great shame wash over me.

While I am much more active and disciplined about the weaknesses of my character now, I would like to try and remedy some of the karma generated in my past and generate positive force towards those people. Could you suggest how to go about this?

Re: Questions

[ecosophia]

If you can, the best thing to do is apologize to them. Beyond that -- well, it depends on whether you have their consent. Doing magic for people without their consent should be avoided. If you can't get that, consider paying it forward by making donations to charities corresponding to whatever harm you did.

An Earthly Update

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

A happy Samhain to you and yours, and all the commentariat.

I wish to give you an update on the problem I brought to you last Magic Monday, about my having common episodes of disassociation. As you suggested, I began to increase my red meat intake (not over-much, though!), and have not had any episodes since. So, thank you for that.

However, for the first four days or so, I had an interesting side effect. It felt as though I was stuck, rather painfully, inside my own body, like there were large amounts of spare energy spilling out and through my body, twisting it about. I only became comfortable when I began to feed that energy into the ammonite, directing it through a small sculpture I have of a stoat that has been a great help to me over the years. Holding the stoat in my left hand and the ammonite in my right, the energy rushed down my left arm, through the stoat, then flowed up the arm again (much more calmly), then into the ammonite. Think the 2 of Pentacles in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and you've got the idea.

My hypothesis at this time is that I had grown so used to disassociating (and using a fair amount of energy to do so) that NOT disassociating made the energy usually used for doing so have to go SOMEWHERE.

Re: An Earthly Update

[ecosophia]

That seems very likely to me!

[robertmathiesen]

Marie Corelli!!! What a treat to see her remembered here! Thank you! I'm glad to see that you like what you're reading of hers.

Her novels were arguably the first "best-sellers" ever, a phenomenon which changed the shape of the publishing industry. I had not known she was a member of the FRC; thank you for that new piece of information.

She was one of my mother's mother's favorite novelists and also one of her major sources for esoteric teaching. (Another was H. Rider Haggard, whose personal religious views were highly unconventional and esoteric.) She even named her two children after characters in Corelli's novels; my mother was Edris (from Ardath and my aunt was Muriel (from Ziska).

Academics who study the history of esotericism usually overlook the really popular novelists, to their detriment. (And genealogists generally pay little attention to the interests and personalities of the ancestors whom they study, equally to their detriment.)

There are a few very recent exceptions to the generalization I just made. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier recently edited Reinventing Marie Corelli for the Twenty-First Century (2019), a volume of articles with a few on her esoteric interests. Also a man whose legal name actually seems to be Simon Magus recently won his PhD with a dissertation titled H. Rider Haggard and the imperial Occult (2018), and just now (2021) published as a book. These two volumes are promising developments, at long last.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this! I've started a course of reading old occult fiction from the 19th and early 20th centuries, with an eye toward future novel projects. Corelli's books have been on the shelf in every single Theosophical library I've ever visited, so she was high on the list. Regrettably, the Corelli anthology is from an academic press and costs $125, so I'll have to pass on it, but Mr. Magus' dissertation was easy to find and download -- thank you for that also.

If you happen to know of other occult-themed novelists I might not have heard of, I'm all ears... ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

I've thought of something potentially very interesting I'm attempting to develop: each Great Culture in Spenglerian terms can be seen as a creation of a ternary our of a binary. The first pseudomorphosis fails because all Great Cultures are incomplete and eventually run into Diminishing Returns; this prompts the fledgling Great Culture to look for a new source of inspiration; and when this too fails, the Great Culture is forced to find a new footing. It is only here, with the ability to contrast the new principle of the Great Culture with not one, but two others that the Great Culture is able to get off the ground.

If most souls reincarnate close to where they last died, then given how few people travel, most souls will remain under the influence of a single region for a very, very long time; quite often in many cases the entire time they are human, which means that the souls of those who form the Great Culture will often have directly experienced both pseudomorphoses. What this implies then is that part of how the Great Culture emerges is that the souls remember the failures of the last two rounds of imitation, and so are able to embark on a process of creation, armed with the knowledge of two distinct ways to fail to be human successfully.

Do you see any flaws in this logic, and any ways to develop this further? Obviously I will be meditating on this extensively for the next few months (at least!), but any other advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[ecosophia]

Hmm! That seems very plausible to me. I can't see a way to test it without getting a lot of accounts from people who remember previous lives, but it seems worth exploring.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. Is there any usage in natural magic and/or symbolic significance to the black opal?

2. In the DMH, with the wheel and the stations applied to the times of the day, should those subdivisions flex or contract depending on the season? I got that idea from doing planetary charity, where the hours shift to encompass particular energies inherent in each time of a day, which changes according to when the sun rises and sets.

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

1) Most kinds of opal bring misfortune to the wearer, but black opals are the one exception -- they are lucky stones that bring good fortune. Opals of all kinds stimulate the visionary senses.

2) Traditionally, they don't -- the divisions remain when they are irrespective of the time of sunrise and sunset.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been practising the LBRP and the LMP for several months now. Recently I've started having these moments where it feels like my entire body is vibrating intensely. Any ideas on what this might be?

I think my husband is obsessing over something (focusing and brooding) and I believe this obsession has been passed onto me and has loged itself into my subconscious and taken root there. Is there any way I can get this thought out? (Sorry if I'm not using the right terminology)

[ecosophia]

1) You're starting to feel the life force flowing through you. The vibrations will settle down as the flow stabilizes.

2) I recommend journaling about it. It won't have settled there unless it found something waiting to receive it. Let yourself write whatever comes to mind as you think about it, and see what you get.

Reverse affirmations

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I wondered if you could give any thoughts on a strange effect I've had throughout my life?

Basically, every so often, I will realise something like "I haven't had to wake to up to pee in ages", and then, predictably, the next night I will do so!

The same thing happens with things like "oh well, at least it's not raining", and then 10 minutes later it does.

Now, this could just be an application of Murphy's law, but the timing of my thoughts seems too closely related to be a coincidence.

I can only describe these as a reverse affirmation, where it's not something that I deliberately try to will into happening by repetition, I just have a single thought before something happens, so I don't know if I'm causing it, or just picking it up before it happens? I have had some slight precognitive thoughts/images in the past, so either could be the case.

Thanks.

Re: Reverse affirmations

[(Anonymous)]

(OP) This also applies to things such as "I've not played any video games in months", followed by a compulsion to do so a few days later. So I'm not sure if I'm just priming myself, or if there's some imp or similar planting thoughts in my head. I banish daily, so I'd expect not though?

Sung Poems & Theurgy

[cs2]

Happy Samhuin/All Souls to everyone!

Thank you JMG for answering my questions over the past year. I'm one of surely many people who would not have pursued magic without some kind of mentor, so Magic Monday means a lot!

I now have sung versions of Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke and The Valley of the Black Pig by WB Yeats. These have been very easy and fun to come up with, and I sing them every day before closing the SOP.

1. Do you think something by Rilke could serve for Central Europe like your Johnny Appleseed poem for the US? I don't know exactly what you did for your working, but I was thinking I could combine it with my daily blessing candle (which overlaps what the Catholics here are doing) and sing a poem to lift up this area.

2. This is theurgical, right? I think all the magic I've been practicing has been theurgical from the beginning and I just didn't know. I'm very inspired to find more poems and sing them to the gods. The tunes easily come to me when I'm circling the park. Thank you.

Re: Sung Poems & Theurgy

[ecosophia]

1) It's worth trying! I don't know the energies of central Europe, of course -- I've been there once, briefly, in my teens, while I was still in my first fumblings at magic -- but Rilke's poetry is profoundly magical and should do the job if anything can.

2) Yes. Theurgy is magic aimed at transforming the self (individual and collective) through invocations of the gods.

[(Anonymous)]

Marie Corelli! It so happens that, by way of reading a biography of the American artist Edward Gorey (Born to Be Posthumous), I recently delved into his favorite reading, the Mapp and Lucia novels, by E.F. Benson, and there found the character, apparently inspired by none other than Marie Corelli, the infamous Italian, baby-talking, Moonlight sonata playing Lucia (Mrs Lucas) of the most quaintly Elizabethan village of Riseholme.

The Mapp & Lucia novels, from the 1920s and 1930s, were new to me, but it turns out that I'm late to the parade, for many of my friends are long-time fans, and two series have made for British television. I would describe the Mapp and Lucias as light, rainy-day reading, albeit masterpieces of the genre. The writing is crisp and wild, and I laughed out loud at some point on almost every page. Edward Gorey read and reread the Mapp & Lucias obsessively-- and the people in his artwork, most especially those wrapped up like tamales their huge fur coats, certainly could serve as illustrations for these novels.

Now how does this connect to Magic Monday? I don't know that it does! But perhaps another synchronicity might be relevant to mention: that E.F. Benson wrote his Mapp and Lucia novels in Lamb House, which had previously been the residence of Henry James', the famous novelist (The Ambassadors, Portrait of a Lady & etc) and brother of William James, a great pioneer of consciousness studies.

As Lucia and Marie might say, "Grazie per aver ospitato i Magic Mondays"

MILLICENTLY LURKING

[ecosophia]

Hmm! I'm utterly unfamiliar with Benson's fiction -- though I've read, and enjoyed, that bio of Gorey.

Treasure in the Stacks

[(Anonymous)]

Curiously enough, I just looked up what books of Corelli's we have in the collection at my workplace (27 titles) and one of her novels is called "Mighty Atom". I wonder if Kid Greenstein read the book?

Other promising titles include: Wormwood, the Treasure of Heaven, Soul of Lilith, Ardath: the story of a dead self, among others.

If someone can't find them at their local library, perhaps they can get it through interlibrary loan.

There are many treasures in the stacks!

Re: Treasure in the Stacks

[ecosophia]

The library system here doesn't have The Mighty Atom, but it's available for download from archive.org, along with the rest of Corelli's books -- she's long out of copyright, of course. It's certainly possible that Greenstein read her; an astonishing number of people did. (Just not those who wanted to claim literary status.)

Divination Advice

[stcathalexandria]

Happy MM JMG!

What resources can you recommend on crafting divination questions?

I've been wanting to do a trip to Washington D.C. to research at the Library of Congress before it closes to vixened only (right now a clean PCR is allowed). I asked my tarot card deck "should I go to D.C. on (date)" and got 7 Wands, Queen Cups, and The Lovers. I'm meeting a friend there so that made sense and seemed very positive.

But I just couldn't shake the feeling that I shouldn't go. So I asked the cards "Am I in danger going to DC on (date)?" and got 3 Wands, Ace Cups, Ace Pentacles, which is three Yes's but doesn't feel forbidding, and feels more in agreement with the first reading.

I think I'm crafting my divination question ineffectively. My gut doesn't want to go but my head says this could be my last chance to go given how events are unfolding.

Thank you,
Amaranth Waggish Nymph

Re: Divination Advice

[ecosophia]

If your gut says don't go, don't go. The point of divination is to teach you how to get clear intuitive feelings -- the oracle is a tool to teach you to listen to yourself.

Dream/Waking Interface

[lp9]

Good morning!

Several nights ago I had a dream that I was doing some sort of magic or ritual which involved lighting candles and speaking or praying over them. I won't go into the details, but in the dream there was a huge gust of wind at my face which actually pushed me out of the dream and woke me up. When I woke up it was the strangest feeling--almost like the tingly sensation I get during the SOP or prayer, but rather than being focused on a small part of my body, my body was entirely encased in the tingly feeling and it was as if a smooth shell surrounded that tingly, feeling extending several inches from my body. The feeling lasted for a solid ten minutes before fading.

What might that have been? Am I sensing my subtle bodies?

As an interesting data point, this occurred a day before I was scheduled to take the addition cell salts in the Carey protocol. I have noticed meaningful dreams or a strange experiences often seem to happen a day or two before, as if in anticipation of the astrological timing.

And one additional note, since people were talking last week about how their dogs react to magic. My dog consistently barks during the first two steps of the SOP, calms down during the third, and falls asleep between Fire and Water. Without fail. He has a very persistent personality, so he would certainly bark through the entire ritual if he wanted to, but for some reason only the beginning of it bothers him.

Re: Dream/Waking Interface

[ivn66]

Just for what it’s worth, your description of that feeling exactly matches how I feel at the end of a full Middle Pillar performance.

Tiny soul carrying around a corpse

[(Anonymous)]

Happy Monday JMG
What is the Druid perspective on today, my favorite day of the year. Being of Mexican descent, I've been talking with my dead relatives so long, it seems like a normal / casual thing. Curious on how this is perceived up north among Druids.

Best,
JeffBKLYN

Re: Tiny soul carrying around a corpse

[ecosophia]

Like most things, it depends on the Druid, but most of us are entirely comfortable with the spirits of the dead, and of course this time of year is when we set aside a special time for them.

R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz and sacred geometry

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

2 weeks ago, you mentioned using the writings of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz for your sacred geometry oracle book. Can you tell us which books of his you used in that instance?
Many thanks and regards

Re: R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz and sacred geometry

[ecosophia]

I've read most of his writings and it would be hard to name which ideas came from which source, though The Temple in Man was particularly helpful. I also picked up a lot from writers who were influenced by him, such as Robert Lawlor.

Covid vaccines and magic

[(Anonymous)]

Hi!

I am studying LRM and I am gearing up to do the self initiation ritual.

My daughter who is 20 is at university far from home and has done a single shot of the Pfizer vaccine. She is fine right now. Is there anything I can do to strengthen her immune system using magical techniques given the substantial probability of serious side effects any time in the future?
Thanks!

Re: Covid vaccines and magic

[ecosophia]

You're not quite at the point where you can do practical magic. Once you finish the self-initiation ritual and go on to Circles of Power, get up to speed as quickly as you can with the opening and closing ritual for a temple and with the Hexagram ritual, and do Mercury workings for her benefit -- if you have her consent, that is. Mercury rules healing.

Maria Corelli and radioactivity....

[(Anonymous)]

The Secret Power - A Romance of the Time. 1921

Synopsis: A novel of scientific prophesy, where a beautiful golden-haired woman, Morgana, invents an airship powered by fantastic machinery, and her colleague, Roger Seaton, has discovered how to harness radioactivity to create a massive force of destruction ....

The above quote from is from http://mariecorelli.org.uk/works/fiction.html

She seems to have anticipated the atomic bomb....interesting.

Re: Maria Corelli and radioactivity....

[ecosophia]

There was quite a bit of that in her time. Secret explosives with cataclysmic power were a staple of popular fiction between the wars -- I think everyone sensed the approach of the nuclear age.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you familiar with the British esoteric author Caitlin Matthews? I just came across her work on the Mabinogion in particular, and was thinking about getting one of her books to augment my studies for AODA. As a scholar of the Mabinogion yourself, I’d be interested to hear your opinion.

[ecosophia]

She's quite capable, though (like me!) she has her own spin on things. I don't find her books useful for my purposes, but those are rather specialized; I'd certainly encourage you to read her and see what you think.

Ogham divination

[(Anonymous)]

This morning was the fourth day in a row that I turned up Ngetal in the reversed position; not the same ray each day, but still.... The string began on Oct. 29th. Earlier in October I got Quert reversed three days running and on the "knowledge" ray each day! What are the chances? I suppose that if you're doing this every day you can expect to see some improbable runs, but these two instances seem like a lot.

Re: Ogham divination

[ecosophia]

The oracle is trying to tell you something. Have you considered meditating on Ngetal reversed, and seeing if you can figure out what it's saying to you?

[ivn66]

Hi JMG.

1. Recently I ordered a talisman from Christopher Warnock. I asked sir W how the LBRP might or might not effect his talismans, and he told me he couldn’t answer that as he wasn’t a GD practitioner. I’ve been keeping it in a black silk bag in the room in my apt furthest from the temple while I do banishing rituals. In your opinion, is this necessary? If I leave the talisman out will the LBRP or LBRH effect it? I remember Damien Echols once saying that something that’s been consecrated, as opposed to simply filled with energy, won’t be impacted by a banishing, but I’d like to know your take.

2. If a mystic aims at love, a mage at power, & an occultist at wisdom; is there a name for someone who’s after all three?

[(Anonymous)]

Not JMG, but someone asked Clifford Lowe this recently and he said none of the GD rituals will really affect a planetary/celestial talisman. They're operating on different levels.