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

[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!

[taylorrose]

1) Thank you. I spent a lot of time in martial arts and was fed a large helping of "qi-gong sickness" horror stories. I'm really surprised it's having this much of an effect.

3) My current approach has been brute force and making myself sit and focus on the topic even though it doesn't seem to yield a lot. I am convinced this is really important. Is the journaling a supplement or a replacement while I meditate on other topics? I've been a good little rock and I am willing to keep going.

[ecosophia]

1) I got a lot of those same stories, of course, during my time studying taijiquan, and there's a core of truth to them. That's why Western occultism uses only very simple breathing exercises and avoids the practices that can mess you up if you're not careful!

2) Set the theme aside for now in your meditations, and work on other topics. It may be that you just need to give yourself some time for the necessary insights to come together.

[(Anonymous)]

4) Does this mean that the day and hour of Saturn is ideal for making budgets?

[ecosophia]

If you want to stick to them strictly, yes.