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. (Please note:  Any question received after then will not get an answer, and in fact will just be deleted. I've been getting an increasing number of people trying to post after these are closed, so will have to draw a harder line than before.) 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 image?  That's the eleventh card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 11, Quadrature of the Circle, when upright tells you that it's time to pull everything together and try to make a working unity of it; when reversed, it warns you that you're going to be on your own for a while, without support from others, and will have to deal with the positive and negative aspects of that. The oak leaves on the sides of the image tell you that this card belongs to the first third of the oracle, which corresponds to Calas, the principle of solidity and materiality; this is the last of the 11 Calas cards, and with the next card we move on to Gwyar, the principle of fluidity and change. 

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With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

Various

[australiandreamer]

1) That was interesting. I had done something that I should not have done (and which I knew I should not have done prior to doing it) and later on was winding back what I could. I engaged with God, mentally apologised to all those in my sphere who had no idea but who are affected by my actions. I found myself effectively apologising to myself for any effects on his other bodies (ie etheric, astral etc – and realised that I was conceiving of myself as an individual in another place of which my body and my mind were only a part. For an extra element of interest the part of me that I was identifying as ‘not me/’other’/had become aware of ie the extra bit was not the me with all the bodies but the me that I normally think of as me – as in I started as ‘normal’ me became aware of ‘other’ me and realised that the ‘me’ I was identifying as ‘other’ was the ‘normal’ me and that ‘other’/new-perspective me was the primary me and ‘normal’ me was either a part or a reflection of the ‘real’ me. Not sure if I am explaining that very well…


2) Re "Depends on the intention and the degree of focused imagination behind them. Rituals have no power in and of themselves -- it's the will and imagination that move through them that gives them the power." When you have say a Catholic mass going and everyone there from the priest to the last parishioner knows every move by heart and are just going through the motions (eg mouthing all the right words and doing all the right actions but thinking about other things) is there still an effect there?


3) I had a gander at your posts on the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the Middle Pillar Exercises since they get mentioned a lot (and noticed some similarities to the exercises in EOTIW). I am pretty sure I would not get past the title of the first one without offending your average Christian but I can’t seem to think of any explicitly anti-Christian elements to it. Is it just because of Wiccan associations, occult associations or connections to elemental/planetary elements etc that would give it bad press in those areas or is there something explicitly dodgy from a Christian perspective?

Re: Various

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, and that's an important realization. The "other me" is your individuality, the real self you have from life to life, while the one with the bodies is your personality, the mask worn by the individuality during this incarnation.

2) The thing to keep in mind is that human beings are not the only ones with will and imagination. A Mass in the proper form (i.e., the pre-Vatican II Mass) has power even if done badly by the human participants because its form embodies an act of will and imagination on the part of transcendent powers. It's stronger when done with full intention by the participants, but it still has effect. The post-Vatican II Mass no longer has the correct form, and so it's empty unless the priest and congregation know how to fill it -- and by and large, they don't.

3) There's noting anti-Christian to it at all. The problem is simply that mainstream Christian churches don't want people making their own contacts with divinity -- they're supposed to be dependent on the church, after all.

[(Anonymous)]

I’m very surprised to report that I hit the limit of my ability to consider literature while working on “Branwen” in the second grade of The Dolmen Arch course. I’ve always treated texts as dead historical artifacts rather than using the interactive approach that living myths and legends require. When I realized what changed, I went back and reread the grade, found what I had missed and started over. The experience is like being Theseus, the Minotaur, the labyrinth and the string all at the same time.
This is also the most fun I’ve had being wildly frustrated in a… nope, wait, make that ever.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it!

[realmscryer]

Good Evening JMG,

1. This week, a few hours after doing the SOP with the Tree of Light for the first time, my wife asked "Were you doing something with lights?" Having no idea what she was talking about she clarified asking if I had been doing something with magick this morning involving lights. Turns out she was seeing what appeared to her as small white flowers at the end of branches when she leaned in close to me. Curious. I had not given her any details about the SOP or the Tree of Lights.

She has a history of seeing such things so her observation is not too surprising. Though I did take notice of how close her description of what she saw was to what I had been doing earlier that morning. What would this ability be called? If she wanted to explore further, and I believe she might, where would be a good place to start? (She said it was okay to ask you.)

2. Should the Tree of Lights visualization and breathing only be done with the SOP? Can it be overdone? I rather enjoy the experience.

3. As I continue learning astrological magic I am becoming more interested in learning about alternatives to calendars and clocks. In doing a search on this DW forum for additional ideas I found this comment by you:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/90808.html?thread=9036216#cmt9036216

Did anything come of this work?

Thanks as always for all your work and help.

--Eric

[ecosophia]

1) It's a form of clairvoyance -- a perfectly natural human capacity, like a talent for music, which some people have and some don't. If she's interested in learning more, the early chapters of The Druid Magic Handbook provide a good general overview and the first and last sections of W.E. Butler's book How to Read the Aura, Practice Psychometry, Telepathy, and Clairvoyance provide practical instruction.

[open_space]

Good evening, JMG!

Oh I know, sometimes I get a little sentimental. But I guess it is entirely normal for someone undertaking the path of self transformation to go through periods were you feel grateful to the people that have facilitaed that process which of course you are. It is usually at the moment when something of value hits you in the face. So, thank you! This time I've learned something very important to me which I've always, always being bad at. Silence. Not in its restricting sense but in the quality that arises when you shut up and listen. I think I've been a jerk at several ocassions to people in my life for not knowing how to direct my efervescent energies with caution and direction for which I apologize if I've done. Knowing how to keep silence is also knowing how to take advantage of inaction and that can create thundering statements! If I may, as you sometimes admireably demonstrate. To Know, to dare, to will and to zip it I should repeat every morning.

With that said, I do have some questions for you tonight.

1) Has it been your experience that Levi responds to prayerful like conversations?

2) I haven't looked carefully into the radionics material you shared a while ago but I remeber that you discussed in the post that Earth Pipes faciliate the process of the dynamics of solar and telluric energies. Isn't that what a wand of the CGD variety is meant to do? I guess, if so, a radionic wand could be an interesting experiment... What do you think? Does it have chances of working?

3) Why is it that "what you resist persists"? as I think Jung said? If we look at it from the dynamics of the will, the emotions we generate are unconcious acts of will so if you've set it in motion they are meant to finish and that happens by feeling them and expressing them. Until then, the will remains divided. Plausible?

4) Related to above, is that a way for the will to be "freed" in the magical sense? Once the "working" you set into motion reaches its goal? Last time I asked about freeing the will from a working but I got confused about then how is it possible that a magician (or in the extreme sense the magician for hire) can do several workings throught his life without dividing the will so I think I might not be getting it straight. What is it that remains in motion forever and can't take back and what is it that allows for different working to take place, one at a time, over a lifetime of work?

5) Since the flurry of "gets" I've obviously developed and interest to what is going on with Kek but then I got a copy of a book of memetic magic and I didn't find it my style --too saturated with internet culture--. Do you think Kek would respond rather to the way Jenny speaks to Tsathoggua followed by careful study of Egyptian mythology? I find her approach much more elegant and clean. (She is also nice to chat with! And thoughtful)

6) Finally, I know that six by six bingo cards are not traditional but after last week's suggestions I felt that the JMG's Magic Monday Bingo Card needed room for some other classic phrases so I took the liberty of expanding it for everyone's amusement if you don't mind.

Click for higher res:

[(Anonymous)]

😄

—Princess Cutekitten

[jprussell]

Good evening and thanks as always for your time, knowledge, and this space!

1) In the DMH, how important is it to complete both a personal transformation SOP and an external action SOP before beginning scrying the elements? Similarly, should a student complete scrying each element at least once before attempting awakening the two currents? My reading of the DMH doesn't give a strict sequence, but the order they're presented suggests it might be implied. Obviously, meditation and divination should be a guide here, but I'm trying to make sure I follow your advice to "learn a magic system absolutely by the book".

2) Is there any problem with performing a weekly DMH Grove Ritual with no "goal" other than meditating in the space? I'd like to start performing a Grove ritual weekly as a kind of "live fire exercise" for when I need it for scrying, awakening the currents, or other practical needs, but I don't anticipate having such practical ends every week.

3) A check on learning: you've mentioned that it's best to meditate in a space cleared by a banishing ritual. I assume it would be not-quite-as-good to banish somewhere and then go meditate somewhere else, and still less good to just meditate without banishing at all. Is that a fair assessment?

4) Speaking of banishing's interaction with the other two legs of the magical cauldron, is there any particular benefit in divining in a banished space?

5) I'm not sure if this is entirely occult, but here goes: in past posts, you've described English-speaking North American culture as an independent culture that has undergone a Faustian pseudomorphosis, rather than just being another region of Faustian culture. This implies that the land itself has some important say separate from cultural/linguistic continuity. If it's not a post's (or book's!) worth of thought, could you elaborate a bit on how you see the influence of the land itself vs the transmitted culture playing out in determining (proto) great cultures? (I feel like you answered a similar question on one of your recent posts, but I cannot find it, so my apologies if this is a bit of a repeat).

Cheers,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

1) The order is not fixed. Let your own divinations and your personal sense of what you need to do guide you, when it's not explicitly set out.

2) I highly recommend this.

3) That's correct.

4) Some people find that this helps, some don't. Try it and see what works best for you.

5) You might find Vine Deloria Jr.'s book God is Red helpful as an introduction to the spiritual implications of place. I've discussed this in several places but never in a lot of detail; I'll consider it as a theme for a future post.

[causticus]

Good evening JMG,

1. If you don’t mind me promoting a new project that many people here might find to be of interest:

After a few interesting discussions with jprussell, I created a group here on DW called sanepolytheism (a not-so-subtle homage to Dion Fortune). Here on MM and in adjacent discussions, the focus is on occultism first, and then religion after that, when it comes up in discussion.

I thought I’d provide a space where polytheists could share general tips, experiences, devotional praxis methods, philosophical musings, and frustrations; from a religion-first perspective and then a healthy flavoring of occult perspective. Anyone here please feel free to join! Also, commenting is open to Anonymous posters (though these will be screened), so anyone can feel free to discuss anything related to the group’s purpose in confidence. A few of us already have some interesting discussions going and there’s a post featuring many different polytheist versions of SOP; I much look forward to growing that into a mega-thread that can be very useful for a lot of readers. I’ve mimicked your basic set of rules: no profanity, and no sales-pitches or shilling some agenda. Christians (and other monotheists) who are open-minded and accepting of pluralistic religious practices and beliefs are welcome too.

2. Regarding your casual hypothesis from the most recent open post that a god or goddess might be behind the ongoing mass event which I don’t think I need to name:

(a) Would the process of causing a “mass trance” be as simple as the deity-in-question infecting the target group’s egregore with a “mind virus” of sorts? The primary target seems to be the affluent classes of the industrialized world, particularly in the West. It seems like the people most entranced are those who consume lots of corporate news media and mass entertainment products. If watching too much TV plugs on in to a cruddy egregore, then would the above theory explain why hundreds of millions of people all of a sudden lost their critical thinking faculties around the same time?

(b) Are demons actually powerful enough to tamper with very sizable egregores like that? Or is their power limited to messing with one individual person at a time?

[ecosophia]

1) I'm delighted to hear this, and wish I had time to participate!

2a) "Mind virus" is one way to talk about it, I suppose. I'd say, rather, "whom the gods destroy, they first make mad." It could be mediated (so to speak) by way of the media, or it could be simply correlation that those who are most addicted to corporate media are also those who have offended the gods.

2b) Under normal circumstances, no, but these are not normal circumstances. The so-called Magic Resistance included invocations of demons in a good many of the magical workings they did against Trump, and many, many thousands of people participated in those. Deliberately invoking demons puts you in their power. That means a very large number of people handed themselves over to malign powers, and those powers will doubtless have some fun with their new toys before breaking them.

Wrath of gods

[(Anonymous)]

The wraths of god was discussed lately. Is there a way to get away from it. If we turn back from hubris can one be absolved? For example Daedalus unlike Icarus not only flew but because he kept a low height he managed to survive.

What are the ways to reverse the wrath of gods?

Re: Wrath of gods

[ecosophia]

Gods are eternal beings, and so they don't change their minds. If you've personally done something to bring down their wrath on you, you're probably toast; some gods will accept contrition and repentance, but most won't. On the other hand, if you're unfortunate enough to live in an age and a nation that has earned the wrath of the gods, but you yourself haven't participated in that other than casually and in ways you couldn't readily avoid, you can follow Daedalus's option, avoid hubris, put some serious attention into your own inner life and your relationships with the divine, and have a very real chance of avoiding the thunderbolt. Listen to omens and intuitions, and if something tells you "get out," get out and don't look back.

I keep on remembering part of a song from Godspell:

"I send you prophets, and I send you preachers
Sages in rages and ages of teachers
Nothing can mar your mood

"Blind guides, blind fools
The blood you've spilt
On you will fall!
This nation, this generation
Shall bear the guilt of it all!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYuzuk8ApoU

[ataulfo]

1) Your critique of modern myths and control fantasies is incisive. What modern ideas have kept you from rejecting modernity wholesale in your approach to the occult?

2) In the introduction to your and Warnock's Picatrix translation it says, "Readers steeped in modern occult lore may be startled to find that today's popular notion of magical power as a function of the magician's will energizing forms in the imagination appears nowhere in the Picatrix. This should come as no surprise; the concept in question was introduced to the magical traditions by Eliphas Levi...."

Likewise, in your book on geomancy you note "Magic, from this [premodern] perspective, is the art of finding the appropriate patterns in the anima mundi and opening a channel for those patterns in the spiritus mundi, so they manifest in the corpus mundi in a particular way."

In the Druid Magic Handbook you say of invocation and banishing, "You don't need to force the element to do these things, and it's a serious mistake to think of magic in terms of forcing and commanding nwyfre to obey you."

My unfortunate tendency early in learning has been to white-knuckle these operations. I have a really hard time turning off the astral faucet. It's clear as day in my birth chart with a certain large blue planet as it has been in my experiences over the course of life. Thinking about the whole process as not exactly up to me, and simply opening the door in invocation, and then inviting whatever powers carry unbalanced energies away in banishing and letting them do it, has helped.

Given the Druid Magic Handbook belongs to the post-Levi current, where the magician's personal agency holds an important place, and your instruction is not to force anything there, are modern and traditional magic unified in relying mostly on outside sources of power? What exactly is the difference?

[ecosophia]

1) It's not modern ideas as such. It's a clear realization that I can't be anything but what I am. The people who think that they're rejecting modernity are all following one of the standard habits of modern thought, the delusion that modern people aren't really anchored in their own time and place but can toss it aside like old clothes. Ironically, just as they're affirming their modernity by thinking that they can reject it, I'm rejecting an essential part of modernity by acknowledging that I can't walk away from my identity as a modern person.

2) The proper relation between personal power and cosmic power is one that I'm still very much exploring, and the comments you've quoted are all part of that exploration. I'll let you know when and if I come to a conclusion.

[(Anonymous)]

1) How much detail should you go into when replaying in reverse the day before bed? I find myself going through it quickly - in a 'this' then 'that' of the major events type fashion - and I'm wondering if I should be going into more detail.

2) I've always had a strong will, but I find myself at a place in my life where I am totally lost and I feel my will fading as I have nowhere to direct it (given that I have no clue what to do or where to go)(I'm one of those who figured out they are in a 'bullshit' job during the pandemic and in the middle of a degree leading to a career that has limited viability in the long descent - psychology (first in my family to attend university, got there using my will ;))). Is there an effective way for me to obtain some guidance from somewhere (perhaps my higher self?) as to what I'm supposed to be 'working on'. I'm willing to do whatever work it takes to access this guidance - I've adopted a daily LBRP, LMP, journaling session, single card tarot divination (with little success so far) and discursive meditation for 3 months now (which I know isn't very long). But I was wondering if there was anything more direct I could do or do I need to figure it out with my lower self while I make the slow treck into magic?

[ecosophia]

1) Different people seem to have different needs here. Try lengthening it out a little and see what you think.

2) What you're experiencing is normal. You've begun to extract yourself from the mass mind and think your own thoughts instead of those that are prechewed for you by your culture, and you haven't yet gotten to the point where it becomes clear what to do about that. Don't stress about it. Finish your degree program, keep up your magical practice, and let your capacities to perceive the deeper side of life ripen, as they will. It'll all become clear in due time.

Choose Your Visionaries

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

I haven't had much to ask about of late, but one situation has been building up slowly over the past two months.

An acquaintance of mine, H, has been working on a magical system for the past few years, and finally got around to compiling and publishing all his writings on it. It's got good ideas, a solid correspondence system, and definitely seems to take.

H is hoping, naturally, that the system will survive beyond him, but he is currently interested in getting more people using his system, doing work with him, and answering their questions about it...or so he says. As he refuses to speak to anyone on a regular basis and doesn't even answer questions asked of him, I'm debating whether I should keep trying to communicate with him about this. After all, the system is designed to work even without his input!

I'm wondering if you've run across this in your experience -- someone who's got good ideas and magical talent, but can't handle group dynamics to save their skins, and that's what sends things to pieces.

Re: Choose Your Visionaries

[ecosophia]

Good heavens, yes. This happens all the time. The set of skills that makes for a good designer of magical training is not necessarily related to the set of skills that makes for good interpersonal interactions; just for example, I'm fairly good at the former but not very good at the latter, which is why I channel my instructional time into those few formats where I can manage fairly well.

Questions on Protection and Numerology

[(Anonymous)]

Hello again Mr. Greer. I'd like to thank you for answering my reincarnation-related questions a few weeks ago; the information was very much appreciated! I have a couple of additional questions that are fairly wide-ranging, but all connect together:

1) I'd like to make one of the simple red bag amulets you discuss in your Magic Monday FAQ, and was wondering if you or any other commentators could recommend where to get a suitable bag (I don't currently have the sewing skills to make one, although learning such skills is something I plan to work on this year, in part to prepare for things going forward). I also note that you say to dispose of the amulet after it soaks up a sufficient amount of unwelcome energy to wear out; as someone on a tight budget, is there any way to cleanse and reuse the bag, and, regardless, what's the proper way to dispose of the components when one lives in an apartment?

2) Connected to the above, I'm currently engaged in a fairly complex, though completely non-political, project that is (unfortunately) web-based. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that fact, things have gotten to the point where I, those working with me, and the project as a whole are subject to fairly continuous harassment from a group of immature individuals that had released a similar project and now appear wrongly convinced we are attempting to steal their thunder. I'd assume the red bag amulet would work well enough to soak up the stuff targeted at me (though is there anything else that should be done in this sort of case to strengthen the overall protection charm?), and from reading other posts of yours there doesn't appear to be anything that can cover others unless they're fully cognizant of and willing to accept it, but is there anything that can be done to 'protect' a nonsentient hobby project (analog or digital) from those attacking it, especially given that this isn't something that should (in a normal situation) stir up anything other than polite disagreement and coexistence?

3) This leads to an additional question. I was playing around with the numerology techniques you had posted on (I found that this year, in which I'll make some substantial life changes and steps forward corresponds to a 1, which I trust is a good sign) and found out that, quite by accident, both the name and 'birth' date of the above project are 9s. This is surprisingly (or not) accurate; based on your summaries of each number it seems 9s correspond to great potential, either for success or failure, and from my perspective the project will pretty definitively be in one or the other of those categories (with no real middle ground). I was curious, however: could numerology be used to calculate a good day to release the project. Does numerology work for things like this that aren't technically alive?

Thank you very much!

Re: Questions on Protection and Numerology

[ecosophia]

1) Lucky Mojo, or for that matter any other hoodoo supply shop, carries such things as a matter of course. Yes, you can reuse the bag -- wash the salt down the drain with plenty of cold water, throw away the nail someplace outside your home, and then wash the bag in cold water and let it dry thoroughly, and it can be reused.

2) It really depends on what sort of magical skills you have. If you know how to do any sort of protective ritual, for example, you can mentally place the project inside the space where you do the ritual and use focused intention to concentrate on protecting it.

3) Yes, very much so. Consider choosing a date that adds to 6 -- since the project itself is a 9 twice over, and 9 + any number = that number, this would bring it out under the best possible auspices.

Protection against theft

[(Anonymous)]

Morning John,
I’d be grateful for your advice on a subject I’m not familiar with. This is the context. In the UK at the moment certain cars are being targeting by thieves for their catalytic converters. The process of stealing them only takes a few minutes with a battery power tool. I own one of the cars that is being targeted. I’d like to use an enchantment or spell to protect the car. One that doesn’t involve any blowback from the “sticky jam” principle and would like advice on what I need to do. One thought I had was to make the car ‘invisible’ but that would have to be linked to only those wishing to steal something from the car otherwise the car would be dangerous to drive! So I know one must tread very carefully. Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards Averagejoe

Re: Protection against theft

[ecosophia]

Well, what kind of background in magic do you have? It won't do a lot of good for me to suggest something you don't know how to do.

[(Anonymous)]

Following on from the question last week about natural magic in corpse washing and your question about other cultures' funeral rites. From what I found, Jews use rose, myrtle,and aromaticc spices. Muslims use plum leaves, camphor, and finish with purified water. For Hindus it's ghee, honey, milk, yogurt, and placing tumeric on the head of females, and sandalwood on males. There are often multiple washes with the different substances and varying temperatures. In the West lavender oil seems popular, and a very western Buddhist family used sage, rosemary, lavender, and sweet rose petals - though that seemed more like whatever they could grab out of the garden than any tradition.

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Interesting. Thanks for this.

[(Anonymous)]

A few Magic Mondays back you had very precise dates of the lifespans of your previous two incarnations. Does that mean you've tracked them down and know who you were by name?

[ecosophia]

I've known their first names since shortly after the memories came in. I haven't taken the time to chase down records, if that's what you mean; my memories are simply clear enough that I've got a pretty good idea of the time frame. (For example, I know that two lives back I came to the US fairly late in life, right after the First World War, and one life ago I moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1942 to get a job in the booming war economy there.)

Do-in and Five Tibetan Rites

[illyria2001]

Are Do-in and the Five Tibetan Rites compatible with the LBRP/MP?

Re: Do-in and Five Tibetan Rites

[ecosophia]

Yes. I've used Do-In successfully with all the magical systems I've practiced, and the Five Rites have been common practice in the Golden Dawn scene since Donald Michael Kraig introduced them in 1988, with good results.

[(Anonymous)]

A few variations of this question have been asked, so to get it in one place. If you've cursed someone or yourself, either deliberately or think you might have done it by accident, what should you do?

[ecosophia]

First, you can't actually curse someone by accident. It requires conscious intention and will.

As for what to do, you can't erase the curse. All you can do is call the energies back on yourself and let the curse affect you instead of the target. That's going to happen anyway, one way or another -- that's how karma works -- but if you accept it willingly it's usually less miserable to go through than if you try to wiggle out of it.

Oh, and prayer can help. If you have a good relationship with a deity, ask for help and guidance in dealing with the curse.

Question on Imagination

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Question left over from recent Ecosophia discussion on imagination: if I strongly believe in something I have created or others have created in my/our imagination(s) can these beliefs not only take form in the astral light but take on it’s own agency?

For example, I learned in a recent Doctrine & Ritual post that Hermes Trismegistus was actually an assortment of Greek-speaking Egyptian occultists writing in his name. Let’s say that for whatever reason enough people believed in Hermes Trismegistus as an entity with whatever powers, would any powers or activity from Trismegistus on the astral plane only be reflections of our imaginations from the astral plane or if the belief was strong and persistent enough, would Trismegistus manifest in some way?

Re: Question on Imagination

[ecosophia]

Yes, this is a commonplace of magical theory. What you imagine vividly takes on a certain reality on the astral plane, and the more energy you put into it, the more energy it has. It takes on agency when the energy passes a certain threshold. Keep in mind also that such an astral form can become a vehicle that a spirit or a god can inhabit and use as an instrument. Many of the godforms of mythology and magical practice are exactly that -- astral forms that a god or goddess has accepted as an offering, and uses to interact with humanity.

SOP and The Powers of the Sphinx

[(Anonymous)]

I am at a point in doing the SoP where I am ready to start using it to "change myself" ala the instructions in the DMH. I sat down and prayed to a deity I work with and got a clear answer of what to invoke for those changes: The Powers of the Sphinx.

To correspond them to four elementals gates I have this: Knowledge - Air, Will - Fire, Daring (Courage) - Water, Silence - Earth.

Here is what I am thinking of so far as the wording goes:

(Invoke) May the powers of Air bless me with the acquisition of Knowledge.

(Banish)...and with help of the powers of Air I now banish from within me and around me all Ignorance of Mind. I banish it far away from me.

(I) May the powers of fire bless me with strength of Will
(B) ...and with the help of the powers of Fire I now banish from within me and around me all Apathy. I banish it far away from me.

(I) ...May the powers of water bless me with Daring, courage of the heart.
(B) ...and with the help of the powers of Water I now banish from within me and around me all Cowardice. I banish it far away from me.

(I) May the powers of Earth bless me with the repose of Silence.
(B) and with the help of the powers of Earth I now banish from within me and around me all Noise. I banish it far away from me.

--I was curious what you think of the wording? I had to meditate/contemplate a number of times to think of what the opposites of the four powers of the Sphinx might be and this is what I came up with after reflection.

I still need to do some more meditation on this and divination before I go forward. Also, how long would you keep at a formula within the SOP for changing one self?

Thank you.

Indigo Lemony-fresh Hamster

Re: SOP and The Powers of the Sphinx

[ecosophia]

Nice! This should work quite well.

With regard to length of time, you've got at least two choices. You can decide in advance that you're going to do it X number of times, for for X weeks or months; alternatively, you can decide to do it until you see results. Either option is valid.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning!

I know Michael Ende (Neverending Story) was an Anthroposophist and L. Frank Baum a Theosophist.

Do you or other readers know of other children’s books by occultists?

Also, interesting to note that a seemingly fairly accurate children’s book with hoodoo themes was published last year: Root Magic by Eden Royce. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/root-magic-eden-royce

I haven’t studied hoodoo in any kind of depth so I can’t speak to its accuracy but it seems fairly on point. The hoodoo practitioners are depicted positively. There’s a semi-woke subplot that involves corrupt cops and is very 2020 but it’s not so egregious as to derail the whole book. It also depicts the tensions within the Gullah community around hoodoo. Overall, an interesting book and an interesting development in children’s literature.

Another children’s novel published last year, Down to Earth by Betty Culley, depicts a family of homeschooling water dowsers in Maine. Again there’s conflict with the locals over their practices. This one is not at all woke.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/625110/down-to-earth-by-betty-culley/

[ecosophia]

You'll have to look hard to find books by her, but Joan North had some kind of esoteric involvement -- her three children's books, The Cloud Forest, The Light Maze, and The Whirling Shapes (all major faves of mine when I was young) are all informed by a good solid grasp of occult philosophy. Other than that, nothing comes to mind; anyone else?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh and also (I’m the one who commented about children’s books) the winner of the main Newbery prize this year is somewhat interesting... The Last Cuentista (https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/the-last-cuentista) is sci fi and depicts a girl who has to fight to preserve storytelling and humanity against a sinister bunch of transhumanist globalists who have attempted to impose Kurzweil-style singularity on the humans remaining after a massive meteor strike. The plot and villains are quite hokey and unoriginal, though the prose is well done.

What makes it remarkable though is that the main character, a mystical-minded localist, is literally a version of that meme “I will not eat the bugs! I will not live in the pod!” (In the books, “bioloaf” subs for bugs but there are literally pods that the girl resists living in.)

I’m guessing the Newbery committee was unfamiliar with the meme and the ways in which the book illustrates some principles that get labeled alt-right. The rest of the books they chose for honors this year are dull and ideological in the expected ways of the current left-liberal order, with a check-the-box approach to identity and oppression as forms of virtue/merit.

I’m wondering how The Last Cuentista made it through and got the gold...would love to have been on the committee. At any rate, the gold medal winner ends up in every library and school and it’s a decent choice for the first time in years. (Last year’s gold medal winner was particularly awful, with a main character who constantly dropped hateful remarks about white men/boys.)

[ecosophia]

Well, that's good to hear!

[(Anonymous)]

Some years ago (2014 or 2015 perhaps) I did a working, my first one, and I thought that it failed. It was magically a fairly bunny slope thing with sigils, though I backed it up with concrete real world action. However, years passed with no effect. Then in 2018 things started shifting pretty rapidly in the direction I had asked for (the intention was a large scale declaration of my will for where I wanted my life to go). Almost everything came true. However, there is one element related to where my family will live that I asked for then and now, years later, both the place and my circumstances have changed in ways that make it no longer in alignment with my will. Recently the opportunity to move has presented itself (paid but optional relocation). Soul searching and divination later, I am fairly certain I want to stay where I am.

My question is, by rejecting this one element, what kind of backlash or problems am I setting myself up for? Is it normal for a working to lie dormant for years and then take effect? Do I have to do now what I thought then I wanted? It doesn't feel like I'm splitting my will, just that things change over the course of nearly a decade.

[ecosophia]

Do another working, asking that the energies of relocation you invoked may go to someone who needs help relocating, and bless them, rather than affecting you and your family. Yes, it's a division of the will, but done that way it'll be less damaging.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello HMG,
Thank you for teaching all things occult. I am working on SOP. I am practicing the ritual in a Druid context. In one of the comments where you teach how to pronounce the names of the deities you include Esus. However, he is never mentioned in any part of the ritual (opening, air, fire, water, earth, spirit above, spirit below, spirit within, closing). Why did you include him in the list?

[ecosophia]

Where are you getting your Druid names from? The version I use invokes Esus in the west.

[gullindagan]

Quick question... still mulling over Runes on the Tree, but was a little unsure of something.

In the Heathen MP, FREYA is invoked with Perthro in the throat center... the imagery is 2d sphere, but the placement is Da'ath... which sphere are we invoking there?

[ecosophia]

Daath isn't a sphere as such, and its energies are always reflected from either the second or third spheres, depending on what you want to do.

Notes

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

My exact saturn return is this Thursday; it's been an absolutely brutal run these last few years with a sequence of harrowing events that nearly had me gone. I'm much better now but I had surgery a few weeks ago and thus these final few weeks leading up to this thursday have felt like a mini-rerun of the last few years—extremely stressful.

I wanted to thank you for running this forum and answering my questions over the last few years; it's kept me going through really tough times and helped me understand the nature of my problems better, and forge a new path, discipline myself, and dig in a lot deeper to pull myself out. Hopefully, thursday marks a new era, and I can devote myself to the projects that are now potentiating themselves on the horizon, and move on from the past.

Thank you sir.

Re: Notes

[ecosophia]

You're welcome. I finished going through my second Saturn return not so long ago, and I know the feeling!

Astro discussion

[denebalgedi777]

Hi all,

Returning to an earlier theme of meditation on the Outer Planets:

Thinking about the symbolism here, can any of these be placed into the benefic or malefic category in a clear cut way? My thoughts:

1. Pluto I thought of as having a kinship with Mars and as a malefic.
2. Neptune/Leto I thought of as having a kinship with Venus and as a benefic. However, based on some further study and discussions here, I'm not sure this is always the case.
3. Uranus/Prometheus has a kinship to Mercury, and is therefore changeable -- malefic or benefic depending on circumstance.

Would be interested what others think. This doesn't incline to as a clear a balance as the original 7 planet system. And yet, I still prefer to use the more modern system.

Thanks!

-DA777

Re: Astro discussion

[ecosophia]

Interesting. In mundane astrology, Uranus and Neptune both function as malefics -- I doubted this at first, but found that it works that way reliably in charts. The minor planet Pluto seems to be pretty consistently malefic, just as the minor planet Ceres is pretty consistently benefic -- nobody knows for sure about the other, more recently discovered minor planets. But those are simply my experiences from one, fairly idiosyncratic branch of astrology.