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 fourteenth card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 14, The Dodecagram, when upright tells you that it's time to finish things up and get the last details in place; when reversed, it means that you've let things get out of control and they may be too complex for you to work with. The waves on the sides of the image tell you that this card belongs to the second third of the oracle, which corresponds to Gwyar, the principle of fluidity and change.

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,

I have somehow managed to not come up with any questions this week, so I just wanted to say thank you for hosting this wonderful resource and all the work you put into it.

Cheers,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

You're most welcome.

Protection on the road

[brenainn]

My sister and her two children will be taking a long road trip next week. I tend to worry excessively about that kind of thing, and I’d like to do something to help ensure a safe trip. I have my sister’s blanket permission to perform magical workings on her and her children’s behalf, so I think I’m good on the consent aspect. Since Mithras has already shown himself quite capable of helping me while on the road (I’m certain he saved me from a car crash last year), I’ll be asking for his protection. But are there any other magical/occult recommendations that you or the commentariat can make for a safe road trip/vacation?

Re: Protection on the road

[ecosophia]

Sure. One very simple thing that I learned years ago from an older occultist, is to visualize the car as though it's lit up by a spotlight. A lot of accidents happen because the other person doesn't notice the car they're about to hit. Visualizing the car as lit up and especially visible appears to help with that.

[(Anonymous)]

On the Covid open post, someone posted about the OPM hack, and I've realized that this makes an uncomfortable amount of sense of a lot of things that have happened since 2016; however, one implication of this is deeply unsettling in light of the demon hypothesis for the origins of the Covid insanity, and would seem to fit.

The basic logic I see with what happened starting out in 2015 or so was that if the statements from the OPM are accurate, then essentially the entirety of the US political class (civil service, politicians, journalists, NGO officials, CEOs of major companies, etc) were compromised by someone, likely China. Given that Trump threatened their ability to continue to export their excess production, they'd want to use any avenue of attack to ensure Trump would not be able to accomplish anything.

If this is the case, then it seems plausible that they'd have encouraged TDS; possibly attempting to use the Magic Resistance to hijack the New Age/Neopagan/Occult elements of American society and turn them into a source of disruption against Trump.

If this is the case, what kind of outcome would that create for the people involved? It strikes me that this would be a very good way to establish a link, and would help explain why China is so deeply being affected by the covid thing, but the attempts to control demons, or even just people under their control, seems like a very, very bad idea....

[ecosophia]

I'm going to set aside the political dimension of this for now, since that's not really on topic for a Magic Monday. In terms of your final question, however if person A sets out to get person B to invoke a demon, but person A doesn't take any role in invoking the demon, person A gets some exceedingly nasty karma but isn't actually subject to demonic influence as a result of that action. Person B still made the choice to invoke the demon, and gets the karma for that action and also the very unwelcome effects of being in personal contact with demonic energies.

For the commentariat

[brenainn]

A few MMs ago, I asked JMG if my practice would be considered henotheism. The answer is “no,” so I’m hoping that someone in the commentariat can help me come up with a label for the kind polytheism that I do practice. Basically, it’d be a label for a polytheist who has one primary Deity that receives the highest form of worship (latria, to use the Catholic term), plus other Deities and spiritual beings that receive a lesser form of worship (dulia, in this case). Can anyone recommend a good label for that?

Re: For the commentariat

[ecosophia]

I'd be very interested to hear whether anyone knows a word for it! It's a very common religious approach worldwide, and ought to have a name.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried the Sacred Geometry Oracle and it's really amazing. Kudos on a great system. Sometimes I struggle with the CGD version of geomancy, but I still do the daily version and also for quick yes or no answers.

Does SGO count for "further study" in the Bardic Grade?

Thanks

[ecosophia]

Thank you for this! In terms of the Bardic Grade, well, depends on which order or tradition you have in mind. If you're talking about AODA, you'll need to talk to whoever the current Grand Grove has assigned to manage the curriculum -- that's their baby, not mine.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

1. Does the soul have astral vision in the after-death state? If so, how does the post-death astral vision compare to the astral vision that we enjoy now as incarnate beings?

2. Regarding the clause in the Neophyte oath stating “I vow that I will not suffer myself to be placed in such a state of passivity, that any person, power, or being may cause me to lose control of my words, thoughts or actions”, I understand that a classic interpretation of this passage is that the GD initiate is forbidden to place himself under hypnosis. Does the oath also exclude, e.g., getting drunk?

3. Still regarding the Neophyte oath, “I understand that there is nothing contrary to my civil, moral or religious duties in this obligation.” As a child, I was baptized into a church that claims spiritual exclusivity (the Orthodox Christian church). I don’t practice that faith and no longer identify as a member. However, would the baptism I received count among the “religious duties” that would prevent me from taking the Neophyte oath with a clean conscience?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, and it's much more vivid and steady in that state than it is when you're embodied. "But whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close it in, we cannot see it," to misquote Shakespeare.

2) Yes, if you mean drunk enough that you lose control of your thoughts, words, and actions. A little tipsy isn't necessarily a problem, but more than that? Not an option.

3) There are two factors at work here. First, to my mind, it's grossly abusive to claim, as some Christian churches claim, that a baptism performed for you without your consent or understanding, in infancy, imposes any form of obligation on you in later life.

Second, what that clause in the Neophyte oath means is that your Neophyte oath does not release you from any of your existing obligations; the promises you make as a Neophyte are all to be carried out, and all can be carried out, within the limits of your other duties. That word "duty" isn't an abstraction; it means specific things you've committed yourself to do, or not do. A Christian who becomes a Golden Dawn member (and of course a lot of the members of the original GD were Christians -- some were Anglican clergymen) is still obligated to pray, study the Bible, follow certain moral rules, attend church services, keep Advent and Lent, and so on; those are his or her duties as a Christian. Unless you took an oath saying "I will not practice Christian ceremonial magic," there shouldn't be a conflict.

[(Anonymous)]

I may have an opportunity in the near future to participate in a ceremony held by a church originating in Brazil that incorporates ayahuasca in their worship. JMG, given that your opposition to psychedelics is well known, at least when it comes to magical practitioners, does your recommendation to steer clear of them also hold in a spiritual setting with proper supervision and a long tradition of use, that is, outside of the context of the current drug culture? For what it's worth, I'm also considering joining this church and making it my core spiritual path if the experience proves to be a beneficial one.

[ecosophia]

My opposition to psychedelics, as you call it, is purely a matter of reminding people that taking drugs and practicing classic Western ceremonial magic don't mix well. If you aren't practicing classic Western ceremonial magic, why, do what keepeth thou from wilting shall be the loophole in the law.

As for joining an established church that uses a psychedelic drug as part of its traditional methods of worship, I have no opinion about that, nor any right to an opinion. Again, my comments are directed solely to mixing drugs with one of the traditions of spirituality I know something about.

[(Anonymous)]

If astronomical realities reflect astrological ones, as you suggest in The Twilight of Pluto, then what would the fact that Pluto is not a planet in large part because Neptune controls its orbit mean? Does that imply, as it seems to to me, that Neptune is going to take over the majority of the Plutonian phenomena which remain?

[ecosophia]

Okay, first of all, the reason Pluto isn't a planet is primarily that it's so small -- it's only 1/7th the size of our Moon, for example. It's a tiny little lump of ice. It's not even large enough to clear its immediate surroundings of space debris by means of its gravity. That's why Neptune can yank it around so easily.

It's quite possible that Neptune is going to absorb a fair amount of Pluto's remaining rulerships as Pluto settles into his new status as a minor body. (Mind you, he'll still have some influence of his own -- just as Ceres does, and doubtless Eris as well, though we're still figuring out what Eris does.) What that means, though, is not that Neptune will become more Plutonian. It means that the Plutonian phenomena will dissolve into Neptunian dreams and delusions -- as of course many of them already are.

[(Anonymous)]

So in the most recent Covid open post, you wrote:

Once the demons have finished playing with their new toys, and tossed the crumpled remains aside, they'll return to their previous condition, and keep an eye out for the next batch of morons who think they can manipulate the powers of the Abyss to pursue some petty human vendetta.

Is there a difference between the Abyss where demons dwell, and the Abyss spoken of in Cabalistic thought?

-Cliff

[ecosophia]

Yes. That's an awkward bit of phrasing, isn't it? The abyss where demons dwell is the empty void beyond the Ring-Pass-Not of the created universe, not the infinite qualitative difference between the divine energies in themselves and the divine energies manifest in creation.

Red bag amulets

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I am living in British Columbia, Canada and a lot of my friends were starting to suffer from the very unpleasant environment here. It is partly politically unpleasant and partly on a magical level with some crossover.

I was doing fine, with all my magical practices, and then I started to feel it too. I made up a red bag amulet but I also made a Duir talisman on a very small disc of paper and put that in my amulet. I also did this for the editor of the local paper as he was close to a breakdown.

Before I tied it around his neck, I explained that I had to tie three knots in the string and could do it in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit or any pantheon he liked but it had to be a three-fold blessing. He opted for the father, son and Holy spirit.

I was so surprised as I said the words and tied the knots, my whole body was flooded with tingling from my feet up. I didn't think those words still had any power but I was wrong. I have never done any Christian magic before as no one has asked for it.

Since I started wearing my talisman/amulet combination, I have felt fine and have been sleeping really well with it under my mattress. All my friends report feeling better and sleeping better from having their amulets. I plan to upgrade their amulets with Duir talismans when I have to refresh the amulets when they are 4 week old. The atmosphere is really bad here.

Maxine

Re: Red bag amulets

[ecosophia]

I'm glad to hear that the amulets are working well! That's interesting that the Duir talisman plays well with them -- that's a useful data point. The response you got from the invocation to the Christian god doesn't surprise me; the editor may have a good relationship with that deity.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm following a program which uses the solar plexus instead of the chest when working with the middle pillar. However, I've been feeling a lot of activity around my chest area - both in the MP and throughout the day. What might be the cause of this and what might it mean? I sometimes feel quite a bit of activity in my throat as well.

Is there any sort of working one could do to help them with meeting or coming into contact with people who have similar interests (the occult and finding ways to adapt and live with LESS)? I have held a basic magic practice daily for 4 months now.

[ecosophia]

1) The midline of the body contains a whole series of energy centers -- 33 of them, by one calculation -- and so clearly one or more of those in your chest region are being activated. That's normal -- practices such as the Middle Pilar exercise focus energy on certain specific centers, but the energy inevitably, and appropriately, flows out from those to activate the rest of the centers in the body.

2) You can use almost any kind of magical working for that purpose, from simple affirmations on up. If you're only four months into your practice, however, something very basic is probably best. Have you learned any methods of practical magic yet?

[(Anonymous)]

Most of the people I work with here in Red State are intelligent but not university educated. However, they are noticing that things are amiss in the official US version of the situation in Ukraine, its backstory, and the US and NATO response. Going from I-hate-the-news to cutting around censors to read foreign news is an impressive jump, so I asked my staves to explain the sudden shift in awareness. They said Saille reversed at the left, Quert reversed at the right, and Ailm reversed at the center.
Lack of awareness, a forced choice, and a need to asses the situation. So… looks to me like the loathsome denizens of Flyover Country ignored the situation until they couldn’t, chose to engage, and are in the process of forming a worldview.
(The favor of an interpretation from you and the commentariat would be welcome.)
So… considering all the missed opportunities to question reality, why is this sense of awareness developing now?
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

I think you've answered your own question! The reading indicates that people weren't aware, but the pressures being put on them to make choices they know perfectly well are against their own best interests are forcing them to wake up and try to understand what's happening.

That's an extremely significant sign, btw. We are moving further and further into a prerevolutionary situation here in the US.

[ataulfo]

Did the wave of astral tension break over the weekend, or is it just me?

[ecosophia]

I don't think it was just you, though what I noticed was more a gradual lightening than the breaking of a wave.

Saturn return

[sea_spray]

Hi JMG and commenters

My Saturn return is coming up as my Saturn is at about 26.5 degrees aquarius. Saturn won't quite reach it before going retrograde then going exact next February.

What does thisp mean for the timing of my Saturn return? I'd guess it would apply as long as it's in orb and get stronger as it gets closer but I'm hoping to find some more details so I can plan ahead a little (why yes my sun is in virgo, why do you ask?)

Is there any good advice for going into a Saturn return?

Thank you

Sea spray

Re: Saturn return

[ecosophia]

I just completed my second Saturn return, so yes, I may be able to offer some advice!

First of all, Saturn returns -- like void-of-course Moons and Mercury retrogrades -- have been turned into bugaboos by current pop-culture astrology, and that's inappropriate. How your Saturn return will work out depends on Saturn's condition in your natal chart. If it's essentially dignified and has good aspects, it can be a time of returning to basics, getting grounded, and laying down foundations for new growth, without any particular discomfort; if it's got difficult aspects or a less favorable essential dignity, it can still be these things, though there may be rough patches to get through.

So the most important thing to have in mind is that Saturn returns are not the end of the world. They needn't even be especially painful. Recognize that your limits will be stricter than usual at this time in your life, and that patience and perseverance are essential now, and you'll come through it just fine.

Since Saturn doesn't perfect the return in this pass, expect to have a preview of the issues that will be central to this return while Saturn comes within orb, but then those will fade out for a while before returning when Saturn goes direct again. That will give you additional time to prepare, and a chance to get a sense of what to expect.

Thankful silence

[vitranc]

Greetings JMG,

The company, I was with these past weekend, at one point raised the question of occult healing. “Employing wizards, shamans and energy healers” … “and it is all a bunch of nonsense”. (well….)
Good people, but at that point I was eternally thankful for the fourth, and the fact nobody knows that I am one of said wizards. So I just made a vague remark, that one should be vary of charlatans and was left in anonymous peace. :-)

1. But it got me thinking, suppose one would be in a situation where an occult healing method were to be employed. How does one judge the good and the charlatans? What common sense or methods could one employ?
(Note.: I am not asking medical advice. I am asking for protection against charlatans)

2. Being a DMG practitioner working on the currents. What could I myself do in such a situation for myself or others?

Best regards,
V

Re: Thankful silence

[ecosophia]

1) That's often a challenge. Once you've developed the ability to see or sense magical forces, which regular practice will develop, you'll be able to tell easily enough who's actually doing things with energy and who's faking it. Until then, divination is useful.

2) Not much yet, but the Dolmen Arch material includes a system of energy healing that works with all the same centers and energies you're learning how to use.

Past-Life Something.

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

This week, I managed to join some separate experiences together. For a variety of stupid reasons, I never put all this together as being linked until this week. I ran through some divination on the matter, and it turns out that, yes, there is a tie there. What I'm going to do with this, how much I can learn, how much it matters, that I am still determining.

I am sending this out, not as a question exactly, but as an anecdotal data point. If you have opinions on it, feel free to let me know.

------------

When I was younger, I had a book on world mythology that included Siberian deities. When I read one entry, on the god Es of the Ket people, I found that it would trigger a mental image. In the image, I was floating over a landscape, brown with a grey river snaking through it that ran all the way to the horizon. There were mountains, and the sky was silvery-dark.

- It also felt like I remembered Es, although vaguely, like a friend you knew and lost contact with.
- When I started reading about tribal religions, it was like I remembered parts of what they were referencing, but that something about it was different, and I was so close to properly remembering what to actually do.
- When I listened to drumming, I could feel myself flying out of my body, I could see I was turning into a bird or a horse and flying, and it all felt so natural, like I was supposed to be doing that, that it was my job.
- When I looked at some of the old images, I felt like "oh, yeah, I remember wearing that"
It was like a photograph of yourself, where you didn't see it from that angle, but you can recognize the event.

(I put these things away. I believed that there was no connection, I had invented all of these experiences for bad reasons. Cut to 10 years later...)

Through a series of coincidences, I found myself looking up that childhood book, and the entry on Es, and then the people he belonged to, and where they were from.

When I searched for images of the Yenisei river, I actually let out a yelp, because I've seen that river in my dreams, often! Unfortunately, this was cut a bit short, because most of the images showed there being settlements along the river, all made of concrete, and I started feeling physically sick.

Re: Past-Life Something.

[ecosophia]

Don't assume the reasons were stupid. You may not have been ready to put the pieces together until now.

This is a fascinating bit of synchronicity, though. I've just been reading Ferdinand Ossendowski's Beasts, Men, and Gods, which begins with his flight from Russian Communist forces, right after the 1917 revolution, southwards along the Yenisei River to Mongolia...

[(Anonymous)]

I'm working my way through a GD style system and still have some years work, but I would like to start collecting other books now (because who knows how long global shipping will exist the way it does now, and I live down under at the bottom of the chain).

So my question for JMG and others here: does anyone have any 'must have books' for a magicians library that I should get? Are there any more practical books that you could recommend? Any books on magical healing? And I would also one day like to learn about reading others thoughts and projecting my thoughts as well as the ethics of it so any books on that as well.

Ive started doing my own research of course, but if anyone has anything that jumps to their mind as being important and that I shouldn't miss I would appreciate it. It's something hard to separate the good texts from the not so helpful!

[(Anonymous)]

Israel Regardie's the Golden Dawn, Paths of Wisdom by JMG, and The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune spring to mind; The Cosmic Doctrine by Dion Fortune is quite useful for meditation themes, and for more practical applications, Circles of Power by JMG is a very useful starting point.

Unheard article

[(Anonymous)]

Hi jmj

Did you see the article in unherd today by Andrew watts? I think he must have your book the king in orange! Any thoughts about his suggestion that Putin may have his own magical defences?

Re: Unherd article

[ecosophia]

No, I didn't see it; thanks for this. As for Putin, well, of course he does. I also note that he launched the invasion of Ukraine at a very favorable time, astrologically speaking.

[(Anonymous)]

Something else interesting struck me whilst rereading and musing over the Twilight of Pluto. You (JMG) have mentioned elsewhere that the small, but germinating religious sensibility of the future seems to you to be an appreciation of the sanctity, glory, and variety of life here, rather than a rejection of it. Very immanent versus powerfully transcendant, if you will. You have also talked of the Age of Pisces flowing into the current Age of Aquarius, and how Aquarius and Capricorn are considered to be farthest from spiritual consciousness in the scheme of precessional ages due to their traditional rulership by cold, limiting, materially oriented Saturn. In the Twilight of Pluto, you assigned Neptune to Kether, and Uranus to Chokmah, something which immediately clicked to me. Uranus is the division of one into two, thus the beginning of individuality and the most primordial principle of masculinity in a way. The Age of (Uranus-ruled) Aquarius then, is one sort of initiation of the Nadir; just as a father wants the child to fly after pushing them out of the nest, we MUST experience a separation that is intense, so that we may create an equally vivid personality. That is why disruption is Uranus' forte. We wander about the Garden after our father has temporarily abandoned us here, so that we may learn to stroke the bark of trees and pick its fruits for ourselves. Perhaps the Aquarian age is one side of that long initiation; Uranus disrupts, then after many souls have experienced it, Saturn consolidates and reforms through Capricorn, ensuring that lessons and profound energies are not lost to the oft-gusting tempest of unceasing change that is Uranus. This seems to make a ton of sense also, because adventurous Sagittarius follows this, and bounds away with Jupiterian expansiveness back towards the spiritual apex of Leo and Cancer! From Pisces, spirit of unity, to Aquarius, spirit of distinction, to Capricorn, spirit of cohesion, to Sagittarius, spirit of dynamism. After all, a really good adventure necessitates a being who is connected to the primal source, but is him or herself, and is mature in that knowledge. Aquarius is the first birth, as opposed to the womb itself, which is Neptune. Knowing that has made me feel much more honored to be living at this time, and to be attuned to Uranian energies. I think for some reason that I am more attuned to appreciating the feminine despite being a man, but seeing Uranian energies as the primal masculine has really allowed me to extend that same love and awe towards it. After all, I love eccentricity; I read and post here!

-Derpherder

[ecosophia]

Thank you for this very solid meditation on the theme of the astrological ages!

Tinsel, infinte blackness and birds

[(Anonymous)]

I posted in the Ecosophia comment section about my experience (almost?) dying after being vaccinated about a year ago. I had a Pfizer injection in the late evening April 8th, and at 6am April 9th I woke up to my, then, 1 year old crying to be fed. Sitting in the armchair nursing my son I felt how stiff the arm I'd gotten the injection in had become - I was using it to support my son's weight. Stiffness became a deep, sharp pain that felt as if the bone had been stabbed by the needle. I felt overwhelming nausea and yelled to my husband for help. That's the last thing I remember, but apparently I collapsed backwards, baby on safely on top of me.

The next thing I remember is being aware of something and not being able to make sense of what it was. I could see black, white and grey shapes, but did not seem to have any categories for them. I reached back into memory to try to figure out what had happened, and the only memory I had was of an infinitely dense shimmering blackness. This scared me, so I pulled my awareness back to the present and desperately searched for a way to make sense of the shapes I was seeing. I began to also hear as silence became buzzing became someone calling out a name. There was also the sound of a baby crying, and now I could make sense enough to see a face looming over me. It scared me even more that a baby was crying and I did not know why.

After a few more moments I remembered who I was and what must've happened. My husband pulled me up, but I returned the the ground on purpose (to prevent loosing consciousness again), and I asked him to call for paramedics, bring me some juice (in case it was blood sugar or dehydration), and hold our son - who had been quickly placed in his crib while my husband tried to wake me up.

While I lay there talking to my son and husband, I learned that I had been unconscious for approximately 30 seconds and had been breathing very abnormally: without pattern, and with a heavy, body racking snore - like a death rattle. I put my hand over my heart and it felt bigger than it ever has before. It could have been twice it's normal size. My heartbeat wasn't - a heart is supposed to beat in time but mine was flopping and shaking and had no discernible rhythm. I cried to release stress and prayed out loud.

An energy that was undeniably silver encircled my heart and made it feel very fuzzy. If I could try to describe it - like my heart had been taken inside a ball of soft, dense, Christmas tinsel. The tingling thing stayed at my heart for a number of minutes, then *slowly* moved down my vaccinated arm. I do not know what biochemical process could have moved at the pace at which this moved down my arm. It took about 10 minutes to start at my heart and progress down my arm. When it reached my hand it was over.

When the paramedics arrived they listened to my heart with a stethoscope, took my blood pressure, said I was healthy and that my vaccination the previous night was unrelated. I did not press to be taken the the hospital because I was scared, happy to be told I was OK, and wanted to stay with my son.

Okay - now onto the spiritual questions. I was born a Pisces sun, Gemini moon, Scorpio rising, and if I consider this to have been something akin to a quick dip in the abyss, then based on my death and rebirth date I am now an Aries sun, Pisces moon, Pisces rising. I am no expert in astrology, but from what I know the rising sign is thought to be the sign which you were in your past life, the moon sign your mother, and a Pisces, having completed one trip round the wheel, would start again as an Aries. I was due to be an Aries, but originally born 2 weeks prematurely due to my biological mother's ... habits. I interpret this as having given birth to myself and taken the path of becoming more who I might've been had my mother been an all around healthier person. Practically, I found the door to this choice available to me in a way it had not been before in my life, as soon after this experience I found the words cut ties with my biological mom.

From another angle, this occurred in time with the end of my Saturn return. I took the vaccine because my father asked me to, and it (almost?) killed me. I hero worshiped him throughout my life, and I'm not sure that anything else would have broken this spell and allowed me to see who he really is. He has never apologized, or acknowledged that I was harmed.

Interestingly, a few days prior to the event, I was returning home on a walk through the woods near where I then lived when a calm, jubilant voice spoke from somewhere within me. It said: "I am ready to die!"

It didn't really disturb me; an inner acceptance of death in a joyful, peaceful manner seemed healthy. But interesting that few days later I seem to have (almost?) briefly died.

I don't have a religious upbringing. I spent my working life studying and teaching mathematics. The Abyss reminds me of a vision of deep, empty space that I would mentally rest in when deep in study. It makes me think of possibilities waiting to exist out of the mind of God.

I would appreciate learning if, from a spiritual perspective, what I describe indicates that I died? Or something else?

In the days and weeks that followed I also had memories that were not mine - not big ones, not whole other lives - but strong, real memories of a lot of time spent picking berries, and one emotionally strong signature in which I am much older than I have ever been, there is something terrible happening, and I am taking care of a bunch of children, none of whom are mine. These seem like reasonable past life memories.

Thank your for these forums.
- Boo Da (my son's first, emphatic pronunciation of "bird")

Re: Tinsel, infinte blackness and birds

[(Anonymous)]

The heart symptoms are called “atrial fibrillation “ and will probably re-occur. (I know a lady who has it.). If you can, get to a dr who will refer you to a cardiologist who will start you on some medicine to control the A-Fib, as they abbreviate it.

—Princess Cutekitten

Bed

[stcathalexandria]

A et of Martha Stewart questions as I start spring cleaning....

Best cardinal position for the head of the bed? North? East?

Any other simple home fixes like this?

Since the bedrooms are carpeted, I was thinking of mixing the hoodoo bath and running it through the carpet cleaner. And then running plain water through the carpet cleaner, then the regular carpet cleaner through. Effective as a regular hoodoo bath?

Is the best home flooring something non-carpet that can be mopped?

Mocha Intoxicated Midge

Re: Bed

[ecosophia]

1) In the occult teachings I follow, head toward the north is best. It also helps if you can put the feet of the bed in or on something insulating, such as glass -- this results in better sleep. I don't know of a lot of such fixes but no doubt they're out there.

2) That would be fascinating to try! Let me know how it goes. You can also sprinkle salt and red pepper on the carpet, leave it for a while, then vacuum it up.

3) For hoodoo purposes, certainly, it has advantages.

Card 14

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

I will sooner or later buy your sacred geometry oracle book.
I am waiting for 2 of your other books I ordered to show up first!
I am a bit intrigued by the associations you made between shapes and divinatory meanings.
Are there logical, geometrical or mathematical reasons for such associations?

Many thanks!

Re: Card 14

[ecosophia]

Figuring out the reasons is one of the things you're supposed to do as you meditate on the card images!

[(Anonymous)]

I often find myself in a weird situation whereby if I am feeling energised, other people just walk up and into me, as if they are blindly attracted by etheric or astral energy, but without knowing it.

The best analogy I can think of is like a moth flying into a light bulb or candle flame.

My wife is gifted in seeing auras, I can't see them, no matter how I train. She says the type of people that engage in this behavior usually have dim or murky auras.

What am I to make of this?

[ecosophia]

That's fascinating. It's not something I've encountered before, so I can't tell you what to make of it, but your take on it certainly seems reasonable.

Hypothesis and empire comorbidities

[(Anonymous)]

In the Open thread two probable destructive forces were put forth: the wrath of gods hypothesis and the demonic contract hypothesis.

Is it possible that this two may go at the same time?

I put the same question in Open thread but since it got no answer I thought to repeat it here

Re: Hypothesis and empire comorbidities

[ecosophia]

Yes, it's possible, and in fact there's a tradition that demons can only afflict human beings when the gods allow them to do so. That said, as I noted in my comment to that subthread, there are different consequences, and so we should have the chance to figure out whether it's one, or the other, or both. (Or neither, for that matter.)

FHR SOP

[miow]

Dear JMG
Complete beginner here, so pardon my ignorance.I am following your FHR course and the meditation and divination parts are going well. (In fact, the divination is eerily, uncannily accurate, I am in a bit of a state of shock about it), but I am having difficulties choosing the Deities for the daily SOP. Do they need to be from the same Pantheon? I started out with God almighty, Gaia and Cernunnos, as these immediately jumped into my mind. But I have since been advised to stick to God's from the same pantheon. I feel I can't move on from the basic opening and closing without settling this first. Help?

Re: FHR SOP

[ecosophia]

You don't need to choose deities to proceed with the work. If you're not certain which deities to work with, proceed for now with the plain elemental form of the SoP, and add deities once you've settled in your own mind who you want to work with. Always remember that your mind will be happy to throw obstacles in your way -- it doesn't like giving up its existing habits -- and this is one of the obstacles. Proceed with the work no matter what and you'll be able to figure out the details as you go.