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? One of my readers mentioned a little while back that a namesake of mine was a R&B saxophonist back in the 1940s and 1950s. I decided to check him out, and here he is in all his musical glory. Check out one of his tunes here. As far as I know, he's not a relative, though you never know -- there's been far more interracial marriage in American history, to say nothing of less formal interactions, than anybody likes to admit in these polarized times. If he does turn out to be a distant cousin I won't be unhappy. 

(If Big John Greer was an occultist, that fact didn't make it into his online bios, but of course it's always possible -- between hoodoo on one end of the African-American community, and a plethora of urban magical lodges on the other end, there was no shortage of black American occultism when his career was rolling...) 

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

[jprussell]

Good evening!

Thanks very much for the time and effort you put into these posts, and for cultivating such an interesting and pleasant community.

I've got a bit of a grab-bag of questions today, on which I equally welcome the commentariat's input:

1. I know they are not a part of your religious practice, but do you have any thoughts on what kind of beings the elves of Germanic myth are or might be?

2. This may be a question for the Lords of Karma, but here goes: presumably, if a tragedy affects a group of folks, like the loss of a beloved family member, then somehow the karma of all of those affected led them to that experience one way or another, and that is part of why they were incarnated into that place and time. If that is correct, how might one person's karmic culmination interact with this broader group? More concretely, is it self-centered to wonder if karmic culmination due to my beginning a spiritual practice was part of the explanation for a death in my family that hurt others just as much as me?

3. To what degree (if at all), does magical symbolic (e.g. tarot, ogham, cabala) or mythological thinking enter into how you approach secular topics (e.g. economics, politics)? For example, do you ever look at a political situation and think something like "ah yes, I'm seeing some reversed Nuin here that will likely lead to some reversed Mor" and thereby gain insight that more traditional methods of analysis might not bring?

4. As a bit of a flip to the above: your writing has a fair number of examples of applying esoteric lessons to exoteric problems (like, say, ternaries resolving an inadequate binary). Do you have any favorite examples of a mundane insight or way of thinking granting a spiritual or magical insight?

5. Have you heard of "The Twelve Type Enneagram", and if so, do you have any thoughts on it? If not, it's a personality typing system that describes folks by their primary planetary energy, and I was wondering if the descriptions it gives might be good ways to better get to know those energies.

Thanks much,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

1) When I meet some, I'll certainly let you know. ;-) Seriously, I don't happen to know -- there are a lot of different spiritual beings around, and they don't necessarily fit into anyone's categories.

2) Keep in mind that everyone dies sooner or later, and having someone in your life die is thus one of the most inevitable of all human experiences. If that's karma, it's everyone's karma. The tangled way that karma works in the lives of groups of people is difficult to trace, and especially so with karmic culmination -- you might have simply had that coming at that time anyway.

3) That's not really the way I think. My magic and my politics are both shaped by a broader philosophical context, and that's what tends to show up when I think about politics: "Okay, I was wondering when the enantiodroma was going to cut in," and that sort of thing.

4) Nothing particularly comes to mind.

5) No, I hadn't heard of it. It's not the kind of thing I would hear about, since I don't keep track of current pop occulture.

Energetic interference with cell salts?

[tunesmyth]

Greetings Uncle John! I have a question about proper use and storage of cell salts. Cell salts are a subset of homeopathy, are they not? My wife has begun taking homeopathy workshops, and one thing she was taught there was to be careful with how to handle remedies: do not store them right next to electrical appliances, and do not handle them directly with your hands as the hands are our main point of contact with all of the who-knows-what there is in the world that you don't want messing with the subtle levels of your remedies. Instead, put pills in a cap or spoon, and from there deliver them to your mouth.

1. Does this make sense to you, and have you ever worried about this? As for me, I was storing my cell salts in my bathroom medicine cabinet... which has both a power outlet installed in it directly next to where I kept the salts, and an electrified anti-steaming heated mirror that automatically goes on when the lights are on, directly in front of where I kept them. I didn't actually know it worked by electrical heating until recently-- the temperature issue might also interfere with the potency of the salts. Do you think there's a good chance I might have hurt my batch?

2. I have an acquaintance who has bought a bunch of 3x salts with the intention of transforming them into a larger supply of 6x salts. In the process of succussion and trituration and so forth, do you know if there is there normally any kind of prophylaxis used to avoid touching the ingredients directly?

Re: Energetic interference with cell salts?

[ecosophia]

1) Nope. Homeopathic medicines vary in their vulnerability to electric fields and the like, and also in their reaction to bodily contact. The more raw material there is in the medicine, the less vulnerable it is, and mineral-derived homeopathics are also more robust than those derived from plants (which are themselves more robust than animal-sourced medicines). On both counts, cell salts are very sturdy; they'll put up with almost anything and still keep their potency, unlike some others.

2) Yes. They shouldn't be touched by hand and the instruments used to handle them should be cleaned, rinsed with cold water, and dried thoroughly before and after use.

SOP with a broken foot

[tunesmyth]

I am on crutches for the month due to breaking a bone in my foot. Do you foresee any substantial differences in terms of effects of the SOP between performing it sitting on a backless chair and turning, seated, to each station, versus performing the whole thing on crutches with one foot up in the air? The former is more comfortable for me physically, but if it gets in the way of me making an etheric circuit between forces above and below or somesuch, crutches are certainly doable.

Re: SOP with a broken foot

[ecosophia]

Ouch! Best wishes for a prompt recovery. Fortunately, the SoP is very flexible and works just as well sitting; I know of a student of John Gilbert's who was in a wheelchair and so always did it sitting, and he got excellent results.

[extatic]

Good evening.

1. A little random but is there anything occult-ed about the yearly birthday cake ritual? A child/adult sits in front of the cake, makes a wish and blows out the candle. Almost like turning the light out on the wish.

2. Could you comment on performing the LBRP away from the home as to avoid any bleed over. Such a performing it in in a local park isolated. Is this still effective?

Thank you kindly.

[ecosophia]

1) It's a little more magical than that. Flame, as a living energy, adds power to human intention -- that's why lighting a candle or a stick of incense is so common an element in prayer practices. To blow the candle out is to transfer the energy wholly into the Unseen, and to do it with your own breath/life energy.

2) Of course it is. You can do it anywhere. Do divination before choosing a place, though, because nature spirits don't always like having their energetic patterns disrupted by regular banishings.

[taylorrose]

Hello JMG. I wanted to thank you for hosting this forum and for having so much patience with me. So last week, I asked about astrological ritual magic, and you mentioned that I would need to learn and master a system from top to bottom before moving on to make my own. Since then, I decided to commit myself to mastering the system from DMH. Since then, things have gotten... weird. On the one hand, re-reading the book showed a shocking amount of depth that I didn't catch onto the first time. It seems like one could easily spend a lifetime, maybe even several, in order to take that system to its fullest. Also, the rites have become far more powerful than they were a mere month ago. On the other hand, I've been having strange and transient problems that started with a headache (with an intense sensation of heat, light, and vibration) and has been migrating downwards (now we're at the stomach). I've woken up a few times and felt like I have light flowing out of my solar plexus, usually with a sensation that discomfort described above is dissipating. Finally, there are a set of meditation themes that seem really important to me but when I try to meditate on them I immediately get intensely sleepy and focusing on them feels like trying to dig through rock. This problem seems restricted to a small set of themes, and I've been practicing for years without encountering this phenomena.

1) I'm not looking for health advice, but I was wondering if you've heard stories or rumors about this system coming with health consequences? It feels more like an initiation than a problem, but I was wondering if you knew of any old lore or crackpot-pseudoscience relevant to this?

2) Seeing the incredible depth of the DMH, how far should I take it? A year of practice? A decade? Is there some specific attainment I'm looking for or is it obvious when I reach it?

3) Do you have any thoughts or advice on the meditation problem?

4) Is accounting under the dominion of saturn or mercury?

5) Have you seen any books on financial astrology, or is something that is only referenced and never explained?

[ecosophia]

1) It's not a health problem. Your subtle body is getting a workout, and it's aching the way your muscles would ache if you took up a new and robust exercise routine. Just keep going; if you can get a full body massage, that will help clear things out.

2) Don't set a time limit. Work your way through it a step at a time, going on to each step when you've got a solid grasp of the previous one, and when divination says you're ready. It will probably take you two to five years before you reach the end and say to yourself, "Okay, I'm ready to go onward."

3) Ah, the joys of mental blocks! Try doing some journaling on the themes, asking yourself "Why don't I want to know about this?"

4) Saturn through and through.

5) There are plenty of books on financial astrology, though they tend to cost quite a bit. I just entered "financial astrology" into archive.org and came up with quite a bit!

[(Anonymous)]

What’s your take on the popularity of “Let’s Go Brandon” cheers and songs? I live in Red State and work for a very red company. The resident NASCAR fans tell me Brandon Brown’s statistics are less than noteworthy, but they also think that adds to the hilarity. Also, I’ve noticed politically unaware music fans are being drawn in by patriotic counterculture acts like Hi-Rez & Jimmy Levy. (Give “This Is A War” a listen.) Apparently, the counterculture cool of protest music no longer belongs to the left. I can report that something is moving, but your view is probably better than mine.
Rhydlyd… err… Maroon Insipid Mole, rather.

[ecosophia]

The hapless media flack who said that probably had no idea that he'd just handed the deplorables a very potent spell. The deplorables themselves seem to have figured that out very quickly, and they're using it with great efficiency. It's become the auditory equivalent of a hypersigil -- a symbolic pattern that gathers and concentrates energy toward a specific intention, which might best be phrased as, shall we say, "Jab Joe Biden." The way things are going, he's going to get well and truly jabbed, too.

This is the kind of thing you see in the months before a revolution. Hang onto your hat.

A Nightmare Lower Down

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

I believe that you have addressed this issue with other members of the commentariat, but I can't find where it was, so I'll ask it here again.

Myself and a close friend, who I shall call M, had a brief romantic entanglement of about two months, foolishly believing that we could make "friends with benefits" work. It didn't, so we decided to go back to being friends. So far, this has worked out well. Unfortunately, despite my conscious mind being quite set to not being sexually involved with M, I find myself having dreams of us having sex. I have attempted to change what takes place in my dreams, both in this case and others, but it has not worked. I'm not sure where this falls on boundaries of consent -- if we are no longer together, is that hurting M? Is this a succubus I'm unintentionally feeding?

Unfortunately, these sex dreams are not my only nocturnal troubles. I have been having nightmares that usually end up with me waking with a start. While there is no pressure on my chest, it does seem that there is a dark hunched figure (as though made of soot), about the size of a shoebox, hovering above my sternum. This seems to describe a night-mare, but I am curious if this is correct.

Re: A Nightmare Lower Down

[ecosophia]

1) You are not responsible for what happens in your dreams. You might try doing some journaling on the theme, "what do these dreams symbolize?"

2) Hmm! You might try leaving a dish of vinegar out in your bedroom overnight, and see if that dispells the entity, whatever it is.

[open_space]

Hi! I am back. To paraphrase one phrase of yours: What a strange trip it's been. Today I see a stranger in the mirror and I am excited about it. There is one big message that has been tattooed into my brain and that is that it's impossible to come to magic and come the other way without a rugiste tentacle sprouting from my amygdala or what not. If you have to see something you will see it and you will see it good and proper until you get it, and I have.

Its easy for me to make something sound greater than it us but not today, for this year I have achieved the most important thing in my life so far and I didn't even have to leave my room. For I have started to make sense of the mess that I am, of the potentials should I clean it up and for God's sake stopping being so stressed about nothing important at all and have fun while doing it! :-)

But whoa, some things do scare the phlegm out of me with quite some force. I swear to you I thought I was going to die or turn mad, but of course it was just my mind doing a tantrum because it has to get up and put my rump on the meditation chair and keep looking at it.

There is another thing that I have learned and that is that drawing shapes in the air with intention and magical guidance, sitting in a chair breathing rhythmically is no joke by a long shot. For a moment there I started running faster than I could hold my breath steady and now I've been humbled to understanding that things won't happen until I am ready for it and if I try to outpace me I'll fail, hard, because this is not about proving myself at all it's about becoming myself and weaving all the dimensions of the things that I have been given to be a receptacle for it.

"I am one with the one Life of the universe, it flows through me to accomplish all my worthy desires"

This affirmation has become deer to me and though I am not, or at least have not realized that I am one with the One Life yet I'm and will make sure to get there some time. It has shown my the my desires are not petty, they are worthy of being pursuit and being Earthed through me because they are not distractions they are part of the process for me to get there.

My wholehearted thanks to you, dear JMG. Your approach to magic has shown me to be more easy with myself and it is helping me heal the wounds and fears from the last time I did, improperly and without a balance.

Fortune was right, sensible people are scared of any sort of psychic phenomena and I am certainly terrified in some way but I am learning to see that they are not out to get me but rather they are blessings.

Properly formulated questions incoming next week too ;-)

[ecosophia]

You're welcome and thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG!

My thanks for your time. I've started your Celtic Golden Dawn book, and note you say to alternate banishing and summoning of the LRP on consecutive days. What are the reason/s for this?

Best wishes from Sydney

[ecosophia]

Most people who come to serious magical training have never learned how to sense or direct energy. By alternating banishing and summoning rituals in the first stage of your training, you learn how to do both. Later, once you begin the Bardic work, you'll be banishing using the LRP and invoking using the Exercise of the Central Ray every day, but by then you'll have some idea of how to do both!

A decaffeenated an possibly illegitimate druids

[vitranc]

Hi JMG,

Some relatively unrelated questions and facts:

1. I seem to remember you advising against mixing brain affecting substances, such as drugs, but even coffee, with meditation. Reasoning, that they all work by shutting down some parts of your brain. This got me thinking, since due to circumstances I have gone about a week without coffee and have in the past experienced a noticeable increase in awakened awareness after meditating with my favourite tree or at times just after a normal Session. Is it possible to get reliable performance results analogous to coffee with occult means?

2. I am gearing up to try my first set of calling on the currents rituals from your DMH. A bit nervous, but I intend to do it. I have been at this for some years now, but have yet to tell anyone of my friends, family, or acquaintances about my practices. A select few know that I go meditate, but I think most think it is the knotend legs kind of meditation. It got me thinking, if it ever comes up, that I have to talk with my family and tell them what I do. At what point can one call oneself as a Druid? Not being formally initiated in, or even established contact with, a Druid organisation.

3. last week I was taking a bus commute trough a city and was very annoyed at the traffic, and frequent stops and goes. Irritated at the cramped conditions. And impatient with all the … people cramped with me in this tin can. Then I thought; “wait, the other passengers are probably just as annoyed as me. Wait, am I being influenced by this crowd?” So I performed a Druid egg and I was immediately and markedly less annoyed with the situation. I was still in a tin can, crowded with other people, lurching with unpredictable accelerations down the winding streets, but I was markedly less annoyed by it. Then after about a minute I felt the feelings rise again. I performed the egg once again, this time the difference wasn’t as great, because I didn’t let the annoyance rise as much as before. And the trip was over.
So I have an actual example of a field application of the Druid technique. TSW. I only did it for training purposes or at a family dinner table for practice before. Nothing dramatic. But this is a field application!

Best regards,
V

Re: A decaffeenated an possibly illegitimate druids

[ecosophia]

1) Yes. Chemicals that affect your consciousness do it by imitating chemicals that are already part of your body, so anything you can do with a drug, you can do without it. It just takes more practice!

2) As usual with Druidry, there's no rule! Being a Druid isn't a matter of getting certified or what have you. What it is...well, that depends on the individual Druid. I know that probably isn't much help!

3) Glad to hear it. That's a good useful technique.

CosDoc questions. Planets and swarms.

[abrahamjpalma]

Hello Mr. Greer.

I'm slowly progressing with CosDoc (painfully slowly, but as you said, there's no need to rush).

Currently I'm trying to make sense of the planets and swarms. Reading your posts on the issue clarifies some things, but obviously it doesn't make the work for us. One thing I try to remember is that the text is a metaphore for a frame of complex system behaviours.
So, the first reading leads to the Sun God, and the planets as Entities that condition us mortal beings. This level is what all the commentaries in the post seem to relate.

My second reading put me at the level of a social group, where the Logos is not a person, but the 'spirit' of the group. Here, individual sparks are the people belonging to the group, and every planet is the 'sphere of matter' in which they interact. In this second reading, Lords of Flame are scientist and mystics that discover the laws of Nature by experimentation (free to roam outside), Lords of Form are academics and teologists that compile the knowledge in useful texts for others to study (following the paths carved by others), and Lords of Mind are teachers and masters that explain the topics to the following stundents (individualized). There are many weak links, but makes some sense. Now, when I think of the Lords of Flame I think of gurus that learned some Truth of Life (TM), then the Lords of Form are the administrators of the Lodge that follows the teachings of the gurus and are in charge of the books, and then the Lords of Mind are the students and future teachers in this institution. Here, every planet is a degree, so being in 3rd grade is the same as being in Mercury classroom. Students in 6th grade will have the honor to be accepted in conferences given by the gurus, when they are back to the institution.

The third reading put myself in the role of the Logos of the universe I create around me. Here is where I'm struggling. I'll try to recapitulate my understanding of these chapters:
Since I cannot see me directly for who I am, I probe a myriad of movements, slowly learning what is possible in the physical realm, the most accesible to me. What troubles me here is that Fortune says each of this movement is a divine spark and thus has the potential to become a Logos itself. I can't picture a random movement of my feet as a potential Logos.
Once I know subconsciously what the physical body is, after a time of introspection, I can start experimenting with the ethereal body.
Then they come the concepts, I give names and labels to the experimented reactions, so now I know what are my skin, my feet, my eyes, but also what is outside. The key about concepts is that we need to go back to concepts of the earlier planes to give labels to the subtler planes. That's why we say Libido is a Force: it is not a Force in the physical sense, but the effect in the ethereal plane is similar to what a physical force provokes in the physical plane: it pushes something (me) towards somewhere (having sex). Here, Fortune explains that in order to conceptualize effects happening in a given plane, we need to retrace concepts from the physical plane, find an equivalent in the following plane and so on. So, concepts such as force and movement mean a different thing in each plane. A movement in the astral is so different from a movement in the ethereal as this is different from the physical.
The processes exposed above are subconscious, they are happening without a direct intention of our mind.

The Lord of Mind are then our conscious thoughts, the voice we hear when we are thinking. They work with the concepts that the subconscious mind has created and learn by vibration (repetition). These thoughts are able to interact with the thoughts that will follow them individually, and this way we can follow a line of thought.

We need a time of introspection then, for integrating all those experiences, concepts and thoughts in ourselves. It is only after we have internalized the concepts and the thoughts of one plane that we can start interacting with the following one.

This is what builds subtle bodies around us. We need to watch, interact, conceptualize and become habituated to the next plane to be able to form a body of that plane, until all bodies have been created. Forming a body of the 1st plane matter starts a different process. Introspection is no longer needed, evolution proceeds by experimenting again in the lower planes with the knowledge acquired in the subtler ones. When this happens, we can experience conscious dreams (Lords of Mind meeting Lords of Flame in the 6th planet).

I hope I am not getting this awfully wrong.

Re: CosDoc questions. Planets and swarms.

[ecosophia]

You're not getting it wrong at all. This is excellent.

video

[(Anonymous)]

I have a magic-themed video editing project that requires some long hours in front of the computer but have been proceeding very slowly because of past betrayals and failures. The path has been cleared and I'm definitely dealing with larger forces that want this done, yet I resist due to doubts about my worthiness. Meditation got a few different answers like "do a little every day" which I followed sporadically. Scheduling for planetary hours helps some, but there always seems to be a convenient excuse for distraction.

This sort of work used to fully absorb me and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it especially with topics I really care about, and I'd like to find that passion and enthusiasm again which makes it seem effortless. Will 1 wants to tap into the higher power, finish the project and achieve the intended cultural goals while advancing my evolution. Will 2 thinks about all the other artists with more experience and hopes the gods will chose someone else so that I don't embarrass myself again, which also happens to be the worst nightmare of Will 1.

Is this still in the ream of affirmations, or should I look for more powerful tools to help scrape the shell off?

Re: video

[ecosophia]

How much experience do you have with the more powerful tools? They aren't the kind of things you want to use for the first time for something that really matters to you.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning Sir and Druid

1)What is the tomb of the unknown soldier in Greco-Roman terms? A funerary temple to Mars to which offerings of flowers (and blood red poppies) are given?

2) I was researching the symbolism of Aquarius and came across the figure of Cecrops I, founder and Tutelary of Athens. His myth is bathed in Taurean symbolism, coming out of the earth, teaching the Atticans and Athenians how to worship the gods with Altars and sacrifices, make ox shaped cake offerings, solidifying relationships by instituting marriage, social order by creating tribes out of the Atticans, inviting the Olympian gods to claim patronage over the city that Athena would eventually claim as Athens.

From that was a mention of Aeropagus, which lead to the Areopagus sermon and lastly to the Temple to an Unknown God. This was a temple or rather an altar to give worship to a god or goddess the worshipper did not know by name nor could be identified with the Olympian gods. Was this worship to unknown gods a common practice in other cultures? I couldn’t be helped but notice the similarity of this to the setting out of an empty space at the Seder for an unknown guest (presumably Elijah).

3) In the Interpretatio Germanica, is there a figure that can be associated with Ouranos? Some time ago, I meditated on the possibility of a future Hitlerian religion and the phrase “Ouranos Germanicus” popped up.

(This question has been significant as the paper slip that had I wrote this question down tore from a preperforated strip has torn in the same uneven manner in the three times I attempted to tear it out, and took it as a sign. )

4) Has there been a “Wotan” analysis of the French Revolution? Is there any particular candidate for a God or Archetype of that upheaval?

[ecosophia]

1) That's like asking "what is a pizza in Chinese cuisine?" The tomb of the Unknown Soldier wasn't created by Greeks or Romans, so any Greco-Roman spin you put on it is up to you.

2) It's fairly common in polytheist cultures. In Japan, for example, there are plenty of deities whose names work out to "the kami of such-and-such a place." All they know about it is that it's there, and if you make appropriate offerings to it, you get cured of eye trouble or what have you.

3) I'll have to pass this to my Heathen readers, as I don't know. Georges Dumezil claimed that Woden was the equivalent of Varuna, but this is one of many places where I think Dumezil was smoking his shorts.

4) I don't know of one. You might consider taking it on as a project.

Planetary charity

[(Anonymous)]

- Are food banks a Moon-related charity? What other types of charity are relevant apart from women's refuges?

I have made a couple of errors with planetary charity during a very busy period of my life. What is the best way to address these?

- One week I paid slightly too much (i.e. the wrong number).
The following week I also bought a statue of this deity which I hoped would 'compensate' and the seller damaged it whilst packing it. I think I have more to do here!

- Different deity: I miscounted the weeks, when I'd actually finished the cycle and I paid an extra week, thinking it was the final week. Does this mean I will need to finish the second cycle I inadvertantly started, and keep paying for several more weeks? Or do I have to make it one of those very long double-figure cycles now? (e.g. if it were Mars - which it isn't - I would have paid 6 weeks now ... would I have to do 19 more weeks to make it up to 25? Or just 10 for 2x5? Is there another way to make this right?)

Re: Planetary charity

[ecosophia]

1) No, anything that helps the poor is a Saturn charity, and things that help women are Venus charities. For the Moon, anything that benefits the ocean, rivers, lakes and streams, anything beneficial to sea or water life -- whales, for example! -- or to wetlands. The Moon also rules childbirth and nursing, so any charity that benefits pregnant women and infants would be suitable.

2) Don't worry about it. You can treat the overage as a separate, one-off offering.

[stcathalexandria]

Happy MM!

Got an unhappy question. There are two social media celebrities called the Island Boys. One of them posted a livestream where he talked about how he sold his soul to a demon (2 min clip here https://twitter.com/kusumlatathakur/status/1458757972348203008?s=20 ). Some quotes:

"Ever since I sold my soul I haven't been happy....I had to do it so I could make it....I could sacrifice anybody I loved, but I sacrificed myself....The demon asked me who to sacrifice....You get to have anything you want."

My question is he says he could have sacrificed someone he loved instead of himself. Is this true? If so, very scary.

Many people replied that many of the rich and famous in Hollywood have sold their souls to be there and that explains so much about what they stand for which is pretty much the 7 sins.

Obsidian Phlegmatic Aphid

[(Anonymous)]

Not to discredit what he is saying, but his looks scream attention seeking, so I would take anything he says with a pinch of salt - specially if it's on social media and might be a controversial topic that brings attention to him.

[(Anonymous)]

The introduction to this post now has me curious about the history of African-American occultism!

Have you written any posts on this, or do you have an article or book to recommend, on this topic?

[ecosophia]

Here's a post on the early days of the tradition. When I get back to posting on the magical history of America I'll be posting more about that, because it's an important element in American occult history. As for books, Carolyn Morrow Long's Spiritual Merchants, on the rise of the hoodoo industry, is a great introduction.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Had a really good laugh at the pic this week. Perhaps Big JMG's debut record "I'm the Archdruid" is coming up on the horizon?

Outside of journaling (working on it already), do you have any guidance on how a magician is supposed to process really raw heartbreak? I only have a year of basic GD behind me.

How can I be more proactive in listening when I ask the gods something in prayer? I understand it's a very long process, but I'm curious if you have tips. I've been acknowledged in a big way (including an audible voice) twice, and have received signs when I've asked for them a few other times. Asking for signs all the time feels rude, and I'd like to know if I could be actively trying a bit harder.

PS. there's a sculptor named John Greer here up north.

[ecosophia]

I'm sorry to say that mages have to deal with heartbreak like everyone else. As for listening in prayer, just put some time into being silent and attentive, and know that the gods don't necessarily give you an obvious response.

Apollo-Belenus Og

[cs2]

I had what I think is contact from a god, but I've never had this before, and I'd appreciate you confirming whether you think this is real.

Friday at midnight I read a detailed prayer to Elen, asking for guidance in healing from a health issue. That night I dreamt I was teaching others to pray to Apollo. This didn't feel like a dream; it felt like my subconscious played an 8-hour tape for me to experience.

I've never prayed to Apollo or had any kind of relationship with him. I've never had a clear interaction with a deity. This area was once Belenus territory, and later Apollo-Belenus. I pray to Og daily, especially in winter when I rarely get to see the sun.

I asked Ogham if Apollo is Og (Muin), if I should pray to Apollo (Uilleand) and what I need to know about praying to Apollo-Belenus Og:

Situation: Reverse Ioho
Lesson: Uilleand
Self: Onn

Then I asked whether I could love him, and drew Reverse Eadha. I take this to mean he's not offering a lifelong loving relationship, but rather to lend me strength over the next months as I work to get out of this health issue.

1. Does this sound like contact from a deity, or do you think I'm reading too much into it, wishing for something that isn't there?

2. Is this how you would interpret the Ogham reading? Thank you.

Re: Apollo-Belenus Og

[ecosophia]

Yes, that sounds like contact with a deity, and yes, that's how I'd interpret the reading. There may well be another deity who will become your patron in the long run.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I've been comparing what we've been learning from Doctrine and Ritual with concepts in my DMH studies. Both strands cast a lot of light on each other, but sometimes I got caught up in the different names each system has for what may be similar concepts. A lot of seemingly worthwhile material is coming out of meditations and reflections on both systems, but I worry that in doing this, I may be forcing concepts on a Procrustean bed.

So with the assumption that these two systems are not identical, but have similar concepts in parts, could I ask a few questions?

1. Is the circle of Ceugant the rough equivalent to Kether?*
2. If so, that could mean that Ain Soph is the equivalent of Annwn, in other words the stuff (unsure of the name) inside Ceridwen's cauldron?

* I ask, because a series of insights seems to work. I got a clue from the theory chapter in the DMH where the Tree of Life is compared to the Wheel of Life. There is a passage which says that "the ninth [Sphere of the Tree of Life] is the realm of the stars, and the tenth represents the divine realm beyond the stars."

I had assumed that Kether, meaning 'crown' in Hebrew as per Levi, corresponded to the Station of Alban Arthuan, which also has the symbol of the crown. But it also corresponds to 'a place in the northern stars' as one of the Inner Places of the Stations used in Ogham path working.

This led me, in short, to tying together a few concepts. It's not yet fully fleshed out, and there are hole in it, as you'll see. If Kether, which would represent the divine realm, is equivalent to Ceugant, then Alban Arthuan could correspond to the ninth Sphere on the Tree. In retrospect, it doesn't totally work, because it appears that the planetary correspondences of the Spheres seem to differ depending on where you look.

But despite this, it could still lead to some correspondences to Doctrine and Ritual if Ceugant corresponds to Kether, the unity. This makes more sense rather than Alban Arthuan corresponding to Kether, because both systems indicate that what is represented by the words Kether or Ceugant are inaccessible and unknowable by humans, whereas Alban Arthuan is an accessible state of consciousness.

After the unity, it divides into the binary. Whereas in Levi this corresponds to Chokmah, perhaps the first binary we get in the DMH system is that of Celi and Ced, the male and female principles, and also perhaps the equivalent in the DMH system to the axiom 'as above, so below'. These correspond also to the solar and telluric currents, and Spirit Above and Spirit Below in the SOP.

The idea in Levi that the sun impregnates the earth, resulting in the creation of the earth's 'subtle body', or the great agent, seems to reference this.

If that is the case, then the 8 Stations of the Wheel could be like filters which colour the emanations of the divine realm, themselves filtered through their manifestations as the Sun and the centre of the Earth and personified by Celi and Ced.

I still need to think a lot more on all this, but I thought I would run it by you to shed light on why I'm asking about these correspondences.

[ecosophia]

Trying to work out exact correspondences between different systems is always a challenge, and especially so when you're dealing with radically different geometries of meaning, as with the Tree and the Wheel. In terms of the Tree of Life, I equate Ceugant with the Supernal Triad; Annwn doesn't really fit into that system well, since the Tree portrays the universe as the unfolding of a single transcendent reality, while the Druidical teaching portrays it as the balanced interaction of two basic realities. That said, keep working with the symbolism you're developing and see where it leads you!

[(Anonymous)]

John--

A couple of questions this week:

1) While browsing the library at a retreat center this past weekend, I came across several small book(let)s by the International Biogenic Society about the The Essene Gospel of Peace. Do you know anything about this group? From the blurb on the back, it looked like it was founded around 1928.

2) With regard to this month's book club chapter, how does one learn about one's destiny so as to be able to better align one's will with it?

3) Regarding your latest podcast discussion and the cycles of complexity in concepts, I thought immediately of the life cycles we learned about in grade school science: more complex organisms growing from simple seeds, then dying and being broken back down into simple components again by decomposers and providing the raw materials for future cycles of complexity. It made me wonder if there was something similar going on here, perhaps on a higher plane (astral?) where "decomposers" of some kind break the complex structures we've built back down so that another cycle has material to work with. Is there any tradition suggesting such an "ecosystem"?

--David BTL aka Maroon Translucent Tasmanian Devil

[ecosophia]

1) Good heavens, yes. Edmond Bordeaux Szekely was still around in the 1970s, and his books were extremely popular in the macrobiotic circles I ran with -- I still have some of them. He was an odd duck of the classic Western esoteric variety, with his own very lively system of Essene spirituality, vegetarian diet, and health practices. The International Biogenic Society is apparently still in existence in a small way.

2) Meditation, divination, blundering in a fog, and occasional bursts of dumb luck. That's certainly the best recipe I've been able to come up with!

3) That makes enormous sense, and there are hints in some of the old occult lore about such beings, though nothing particularly well developed.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

The self-initiation at the end of LRM, how often should you repeat it and how much time should you leave between repeats?

Thanks.

[ecosophia]

As often as you feel you get benefits from it, and at least a week between repetitions.

[d_mekel]

In the technosocial interview, you were discussing gods dying and being reborn. Different versions of the same gods that have changed overtime.

I'm trying to grasp gods. Are they entities that have always been out there, but they gain more power as they are worshiped, like an egregore? Did they start as a lowly spirit and worked their way up through a hierarchy to gain god status? Are they an egregore? OR...is our imagination the source of their creation, which would still make them every bit real because our imagination is real and it came from the Divine mind/source.

All the questions are ones I've pondered, but essentially I'm wondering what is a god?

[ecosophia]

What we learn from the old polytheist faiths is that "god" is a general label that includes many different kinds of being, with many different origins. Some are primal cosmic powers, some are beings like use who completed the journey we're on long before our time, some are human souls of remarkable holiness and power, some are egregors, and so on. The only workable definition of the word "god" I know of is "a being that humans worship."

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,
The enneagram has been mentioned above. What is your take on it? I've found it tremendously helpful in dealing with myself and other people. Is there anything else to consider? I perceive some negative connotations when you and others mention it here. Why?

[(Anonymous)]

I’m nor JMG or an enneagram expert. But there is a deep connection between the points in the enneagram, the chakras and the vedic gunas.

I hope this will help you futher in exploring the enneagram.

- Spork -

[(Anonymous)]

Something for the weird file. This morning I replaced all the salt jars around the house. I knew I needed 12 of them and where each one goes. I made them up and started putting them in place. By the time I got to the last four, there were only three. I wasn't the only one who saw 12. I looked everywhere it could concievably been put by accident, and it's nowhere to be found. Apart from some weird physical world chain of events I haven't thought of, what could have happened to it?

For anyone doing the salt jars, the nails can rust through without discolouring the salt. Don't keep telling yourself it's just cayenne pepper stuck to the nails - it's probably rust.

[(Anonymous)]

I've had a somewhat similar experience in a different context. On one occasion, I dropped a CD insert while getting it out of the case. When I went to pick it up, I couldn't find it. I looked all over the floor, under the sofa, everywhere I could think of, and it wasn't there. My wife couldn't find it either. When we moved house, we cleared everything out of the room and it still didn't turn up. Really odd.

Owain D.

Big Tech Stalkers

[hongmaoren]

Hello Mr. Greer,

Something has been going on and if the matter interests you I'd like to know what you think about it. To preface I use youtube frequently, mostly for listening to music and finding lectures and interviews to entertain myself while working. Because of this I am familiar with how the youtube algorithm presents video recommendations and advertisements. Within the past few weeks I had noticed a video titled, "You'll not only lose your mind, but you'll lose your soul" | Christopher Lee on the occult" popping up in the sidebar every now and then. Youtube continued to suggest it occasionally in subsidiary locations until yesterday I opened the youtube app on my cellphone only to see this same video in the primary location, which generally indicates what Youtube "thinks" I'd be most interested in watching. I tend not to interact with the site much, but this drove me to select "not interested" on the video so that youtube will stop recommending it to me specifically. The clip itself is short and shows Christopher who seems to be trying to spook his audience. Not to drag on, but the reason I find youtube's "behavior" regarding this video disturbing is that I don't typically search occult subjects on youtube. Looking at my homepage now, I don't see a single suggestion for any video on an occult topic. Not to mention, I don't know much about Christopher Lee aside from associating him with a questionable Star Wars film--I have certainly never searched for him on youtube (or searched star wars for that matter). Do you think the big tech algorithms have a bias against occult subjects? The video suggestion strikes me as very creepy and, given my interest in occult subjects away from youtube, had the same quality of feeling as when I see an online advertisement so specifically targeted to me that I know my privacy has been violated.

Here is a link to the annoying clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRVQD4FKPrY&t=1s

Thanks and best wishes,

小丹
Dijon Crunchy Troglodyte

Re: Big Tech Stalkers

[(Anonymous)]

My unsolicited 2 cents: apps have way to cross-reference info on user preferences.. so if you searched somewhere else, youtube might have access to the general search interests