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. Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says. 

The image?  That's the sixteenth card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 18, The Cube, when upright tells you that this is a good time for you to focus on stability and security; when reversed, it warns you that you've gotten stuck in a rut and you need to get out of it or nothing will change. 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

[(Anonymous)]

Since you’ve been discussing the current accumulation of astral crud and its symptoms among humans here, my ears pricked up at a strange malady affecting a number of Reiki practitioners right now: a case of severe but intermittent diarrhea with no other symptoms that began about a month ago and shows no signs of abating. The illness appears to be non-transmissible, and one hospitalization has resulted so far. Interestingly, the people suffering the symptoms have been separated by time and distance long enough that food and water-borne microbes are not likely to be responsible. That confirmed by lab results in at least one case. Now that they’ve realized there is a collective problem, said Reiki practitioners are looking for spiritual causes. In a possibly related issue, at least one of those affected reports a sudden loss of communication with her spirit guides. She reports that they left her a message that they are away at war. No details.
Have you and the commentariat encountered such phenomena?
Any suggestions on causes and treatments?
Many thanks.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

No, this is a new one for me. Since I don't know the people in question and don't have any background with Reiki, I have no basis to offer any suggestions for spiritual causes or treatments.

Planetary Charity

[jeanluc_12]

Dear John Michael Greer,

First of all, I want to say thank you for hosting Magic Mondays, and for graciously responding to questions. I recently discovered this site and ecosophia.net. Your writings on everything from the occult to civilizational collapse have been edifying. I now eagerly anticipate new essays from you.

I am inspired to do planetary charity after reading an entry from user: ivan66 in the last edition of Magic Mondays. I’m planning to migrate to Canada this year, via the study pathway. I want to ensure that everything will go well, especially with my student visa application. With regards to planetary charity, would Mercury also be my guy?

*Just to add: I think it is worth mentioning that, without consciously realizing it, I’ve been drawing closer to Mercury/Mercurial energy over the past 9 months. I went as Mercury for Halloween last year. It was an homage, done according to classical depictions. I’ve also been learning another language, French, seriously since June 2021.

Thank you.

Re: Planetary Charity

[ecosophia]

You're most welcome. Mercury's certainly the planet I'd invoke for that, yes.

Sources on Shintoism and Hinduism

[jprussell]

Good evening!

Thanks as always for providing this venue and sharing your knowledge. In the interest of giving as well as receiving, I've tried to share something hopefully useful to you and/or the commentariat along with each of my questions tonight, as both are for you and/or the commentariat:

1) Do you (or anyone in the commentariat) have any recommendations for sources on Shinto? Ideally, something with details on actual practice and ritual, though I know that is hugely localized. My own offering: the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America that you've mentioned before hosts a book by one of their former prominent priests, the "Kami No Michi" (Way of the Kami), which I haven't dug much into yet, but looks quite interesting and includes a set of spiritual exercises in the appendix: http://www.tsubakishrine.org/kaminomichi/index.html

2) Similar to the above, but separated for easier reference, do you (or anyone in the commentariat) have any recommendations on sources for Hinduism? The linking thread between these two is that they're both major, relatively unbroken polytheistic/nature-based religions, and I'd like to get a better idea bout what that actually looks like without "reconstructionist" lenses. As my own source, I'll share Mircea Eliade's Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, which struck me as a pretty comprehensive history of Yoga, but coming from the standpoint of somoene who at least respects it, if not actively follows it, paired with Eliade's massive cross-cultural knowledge of religious practices and beliefs.

I hope my shared sources might help some folks, and thank you JMG and anyone else with some further sources to share.

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: Sources on Shintoism and Hinduism

[ecosophia]

1) I have Kami no Michi, and it's quite a decent book; I also recommend Anne Llewellyn Evans' Shinto Norito, which gives you the actual text of traditional Shinto prayers, and a robust appendix full of practical instructions. That said, it's not a tradition I know as well as I'd like, and any suggestions from the commentariat would be welcome.

2) I'm much less well informed about Hinduism than about Shinto, and so I'm going to have to throw myself on the mercy of my Hindu readers. What books would you suggest?

[(Anonymous)]

A few questions for tonight:

1) Is the feeling of “detachment” one gains from consistent magical practice effectively a low-grade form of mystical experience?

2) Does the feeling of detachment keep increasing indefinitely with practice? If so, at what point do we become so spaced out as to be non-functional for daily living?

3) To what extent are more complex, practical workings necessary to develop as a magician? If someone does only the basic preparatory practices (e.g. LBRP, MP, divination, meditation, or their equivalents in another tradition), could they reach the same degree of spiritual development as a thaumaturgist who does the preparatory practices in addition to more practical workings, e.g. for success, health, love? Can one go all the way to adepthood without any practical magic whatsoever?

[ecosophia]

1) It depends very much on what you mean by that remarkably flexible phrase "mystical experience."

2) Not in my experience. Once you realize that your body, your personality, and your material surroundings are temporary and rather flimsy shells surrounding your real self, you get used to that, and then you can use them constructively rather than being used by them.

3) They're not necessary at all. You can achieve the heights of magical attainment without ever casting a spell for any practical purpose, and you'll do it faster than the person who lingers in the byways of practical magic; it's just that most people don't have that singleness of purpose. (I certainly didn't when I got started.)

[(Anonymous)]

On one of your recent podcasts you were talking about, can't off hand remember the exact word use, flavor of the different pantheons and the sort of people it attracts. It was an interesting conversation, and maybe gave some insight to why I end up on the fringes of Celtic movements without joining in - it ticks a box, but not enough of them. What would you say is the flavor (or whatever word was used) of the Egyptian pantheon? And the Greek pantheon?

[ecosophia]

It's very hard to describe such things clearly! If you want to get a sense of the flavor or quality of any pantheon, check out the myths and imagery of the pantheon and see what it feels like to you. To me the Egyptian neteru (gods and goddesses) have the brilliant clarity of polished gemstones -- they don't blend and flow like Celtic deities, they stand in the full light of a desert sun and they are infinitely and emphatically what they are. The Greek theoi to me seem more humanized, more personal, more like ideals we can strive toward. But your mileage may vary!

[(Anonymous)]

Since you mentioned Heinlein’s novel For Us, The Living, I decided to read a copy that has been lurking in my office for a few years. Wow! I’d forgotten how much FUN Gernsback Continuum sci-fi is! That, and knowing a bit about the politics involved has turned a wobbly early work into something far more interesting. So, where did Bob get his ideas about moving an entire personality from one body to another? A common trope, but does it have an origin prior to pulp magazines.
Speaking of Heinlein, I haven’t heard much from Elen of the Ways lately. When I picked up my notes for Belteinne, I said, “Hello, Ellen”, and I was surprised and delighted to find my copy of Assignment in Eternity underneath. You know – The one with the angel with a ray gun on the cover.
So – do I have an amusing synchronicity or something like a saint’s card to set on my altar?
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

1) Good question -- I don't happen to know the origin of that gimmick.

2) Don't ask me, ask her!

Object inspired

[vitranc]

Good evening JMG.
1. Might I inquire about the status of Dolmen Arch reprint?

Last week while riding the buss I noticed several time that young men working class, imigrant, were wearing in their hands beaded strings, akin to rosaries just I think moslem. Subhah, if I remember correctly.
This got me thinking. You once wrote on one of your MM something akin to, that moslem temples/mosks/djamias are not like the places of worship you describe in Secrets of the temple.
In another MM you said something akin to that islam is a dogmatic religion.
2. Could you correct, reiterate the two thoughts, I would not like to be guilty of missrepresenting you.
3. Going ahead. My thoughts on that buss were, if the future of europe is moslem. Well as the gods decide. But what is the future of occultism, druidry, magic and personal spirituality in a moslem dominated space?

Best regards,
V

Re: Object inspired

[ecosophia]

1) I haven't heard any recent news; I'll drop an email to the publisher and see what's up.

2) Of all the prophetic religions of the Piscean era, Islam went the furthest in rejecting the old temple cults; sacramental Christianity and Buddhism both preserved some elements of the old temple tradition, by contrast. All the prophetic religions are dogmatic, in that they consider belief in a set of opinions about the universe to be the basis of salvation: this is as true of the Buddhist dharma as of the Christian gospel and the Muslim aqidah, though of course in all three faiths there's a lot of variation on how strictly the dogmas are defined and enforced.

3) Muslim societies have very rich traditions of occultism and magic. If Europe becomes Muslim, Druids can expect to face the choice between forced conversion and mass murder -- Islam calls polytheism the sin of shirk, which according to the Quran (surah an-Nisah v. 48 and 116) is the one sin not even Allah can forgive, and historically polytheists in Muslim-ruled societies have not been given the limited tolerance accorded to Christians and Jews, but have faced violent persecution. But magic, occultism, and personal spirituaity will thrive so long as the practitioners thereof conform to the basic tenets of Islam.

[(Anonymous)]

I've realized that the main thing which is getting in my way with magic, and indeed with life in general, is that my will is a tangled mess; I have a very hard time willing anything, I have an enormous number of self defeating habits and find it hard to will anything: any time I make any kind of major decision I immediately start second guessing it, and I find it quite difficult to stick with anything.

Do you have advice for how to transform this tangled mess into a unified will? It seems like a can in the can-opener situation to me, and I'd like any advice you can give on how to get around it: in order to unify my will, I need to first will to have a unified will, but I can't seem to will anything properly, and so my will remains a tangled mess....

[ecosophia]

Welcome to the basic challenge faced by every human being, and especially by every human being who decides to become an individual instead of a puppet of the mass mind. We all have to confront this challenge; the only people who are born with a relatively unified will went through the same mess you're facing in a previous life.

The key is to start very small, with things that don't matter. Choose to do something and then do it. Spend the rest of the day, if you like, drifting aimlessly, and then the next day choose something else and do that. I've posted a set of seven simple will exercises here, which you can use to get going. Build the habit of willing in little things that don't matter, and in time you'll find that the same habit applies just as well to big things that do matter.

[brenainn]

My Vegas vacation, as I mentioned on your other blog, ended in the most unexpected way. But more unexpected fallout has happened. While there, I unexpectedly happened upon an outdoor shrine to the Four-Faced Brahma. I felt a strong desire to burn some incense to this deity and then pray before his shrine. I had never heard of him before, nor did I have any idea of how to properly offer the incense or prayers. I just asked for some general guidance.

After I finished the prayer, I sat down near the shrine and a strange but peaceful sense came over me. What happened nearly immediately afterward (the cancelled flight, the long road trip home, etc.) has just been the tip of the iceberg. When I got home, I had a strong sense that my journey with the Christian god was completed, and I'm now meant to go elsewhere. Not necessarily to Brahma, but the sense has been nearly overwhelming.

I've also received various signs, like unexpected occurrences, even a little prescience (something that I've never really had before) that seem to confirm this. I'm not very good at divination, yet, but what I've managed to interpret also seems to indicate this. I'm at a loss to explain what happened. And, yet, I do not grieve over this apparent change. I'm confused but I suspect it started with my prayer to this form of Brahma.

I know there's not much of a question in the above, but I'd like know if you have any insights to offer on folks who suddenly have their primary deity end the relationship, or any thoughts about this very unexpected experience. I also welcome responses from the commentariat. I'll be journaling and meditating on this for quite a while.

[ecosophia]

I know a fair number of former Christians who've had that sort of thing happen. It's one of the things that led me, several years ago, to post an essay titled The Death of God: A Speculation, which still more or less reflects my views on the subject.

[(Anonymous)]

How does one learn to distinguish the effects of the astral to internal effects. Over the weekend I was an extremely emotional mess and couldn't distinguish a specific reason why I might be so upset - I mean I could think of a few things, but I was beyond upset, like hysterical at times. At work this morning a colleague said they spent the entire weekend upset and in a mood and couldn't figure out why either. So I'm thinking there's a possibility the 'astral crud' was particularly bad over the weekend. But how does one learn to distinguish when moods, feeling etc are arising out of their subconscious or being triggered from past traumas etc or are 'pressing in' from more external influences?

[ecosophia]

It takes a lot of practice, and a lot of work meditating and journaling to unpack your own emotional issues, so you recognize the flavor they have and can tell without too much difficulty when something's pressing in from outside. For what it's worth, I also found the astral crud pretty thick this weekend.

double square

[(Anonymous)]

Just finished the Double Square exercise in the sacred geometry oracle and it's probably the most beautiful thing I've ever drawn. I started working on a logo with a friend yesterday and suggested he use the vesica pisces as a container for the proportions and it blew his mind. It's tempting to leave these drawings around the house for when people come over so that they will be impressed. This is the most fun I've had learning something in a while, especially because the applications are endless.

Re: double square

[ecosophia]

Excellent! I'm delighted to hear that you're taking the work seriously, and catching onto its deeper dimensions.

A Short Assortment

[goatgodschild]

Mr. Greer --

1) To you and to the commentariat, I ask for good vibes, or peaceful ones, towards my cat. She is very old and in poor health, and we are going to the veterinarian today in order to find out how much longer we can or should expect her to live.

2) This week, I have started C. W. Leadbeater's Invisible Helpers. I am planning to move through Clairvoyance and Thought-Forms by him as well, as well as the Kybalion. Would you recommend these, and if so, do you have anything to keep in mind while working through them?

3) As there has been very little to ask questions about in regards to spiritual experiences this week, I have a question about something that took place in the past.

When I was 15, I went on a community service trip to the Navajo and Hopi reservations, doing repairs, deliveries, and construction work for the community elders. One day, we went to a place called Canyon de Chelly. We were standing on a cliff, looking out over this massive canyon filled with the most lovely windcaves, and I thought, as though it was the most normal and obvious thing in the world, I am a dragon. I could physically feel my wings, scales, claws and tail, and knew that I needed to fly, to take one of these caves for my own and raise my hatchlings...
I spread my arms wide, feeling my wings billow in the air...and was pulled back from the edge of the cliff.
Luckily there was a safety railing on it, too! I climbed on top of a boulder to try and get above it, but was told to get off the boulder and come stay with the group, which was probably for the best.

Any idea, between you and the commentariat, what happened? I've always been imaginative, but it never had gone that far before, and has never gone quite like that since.

Re: A Short Assortment

[ecosophia]

1) Positive energy en route.

2) Glad to hear this. Those are worthwhile books, and the one thing to keep in mind is that they, like all books based on astral vision, have a strong personal element and should not be taken as wholly objective statements of what's out there.

3) These things happen. They're things that happen to people, not things people do, and they can lead to wonderful or hideous results -- for example, if you'd tried to fly, they'd have hauled your corpse away from the foot of the cliff. The imagination in its richness and power is potent and, sometimes, terrible stuff.

Bat omen

[(Anonymous)]

JMG and commentariat,

I am wondering how to interpret an omen.

Last Wednesday, I went to open the window in the spare room and found a bat hanging onto the screen. I decided not to disturb it and figured it would fly away that night. But days later it's still there, not responding to anything. It must have died. My first thought is that this is a bad omen. A search online about bat symbolism helped a little...but what does it mean that the bat died on my house?

In the past couple of weeks I also saw a big salamander on my doorstep when I took my dog outside in the middle of the night. That seemed cool and didn't feel like a bad omen. It was watching me so I said hello. And I had a dream where I introduced myself to some local wildlife (frogs and turtles). I've been in this house almost a year and have been trying in my clumsy way to mesh with my new surroundings.

Re: Bat omen

[ecosophia]

For what it's worth, this is the time of year when young bats who weren't able to fatten up enough for hibernation come out too early, and some of them die of hypothermia.

I've never really studied omen divination so I'm not sure what these would mean. You might try doing some journaling and see what bats and salamanders symbolize for you, as a start.

[(Anonymous)]

Can you start with daily divination and meditation right away, or do you need to learn doing the sphere of protection in its entirety first? I've only done the opening and closing so far.

[ecosophia]

You can start divination and meditation right away. As long as you've begun learning the SoP, you're fine -- just keep adding to it as instructed, and practice the other two legs of the magical cauldron while you're at it.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,
Thank you for hosting Magic Mondays. I am trudging along - doing SOP for about 3 months, meditating on The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, and doing divination using Tarot. Out of curiosity, I paid to have my horoscope read. It was done by a rather famous astrologist. It really ruined my mood and created a very unhealthy paranoia. It said things like "finances are problematic". Well, I am 56 and that's one area that never has been a problem in my life... so far. Also, the comments on my health were horrible. Name the disease - it's in the report plus accidents, falls, and injuries. So far, I've been blessed with good health and never had a broken bone (hear me knocking on wood). My question is the following: what would you recommend to recover emotionally from a report like this and reconcile it with the realities of my life?
Thank you,
Kirsten

[ecosophia]

Oog. First of all, I'm sorry to hear that you wasted your money; a good natal reading can be a source of insight and practical help, but a bad one -- well, you can fill in the rest from your own experience. I'd like to suggest that you start out by taking the horoscope interpretation you got and making a list, in writing, of everything it got wrong. That in itself may help quite a bit! Then see if you can find a good basic book on interpreting your own chart -- Alan Leo's The Key To Your Own Nativity is one good example, but there are many others -- and go through your chart with it to see what the chart actually says.

Language learning follow up

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't get a chance to follow up with you the other week Archdruid,

For my attempts to magically augment my studies I still consider myself a beginner with a decent working knowledge of herbal magic, was thinking some sort of Hoodoo oil or mojobag would be my best bet, any suggestions in that direction?

Re: Language learning follow up

[ecosophia]

Okay, there I can help you. Solomon's Seal root is much used in hoodoo for anything involving wisdom and knowledge; oils made from it can certainly be used for this, and so may King Solomon Wisdom oil, which usually contains Solomon's Seal root along with other botanicals. Any general success oil is also worth considering. In terms of a toby aka mojo bag, here again, Solomon's Seal root would be one good ingredient, and you can augment it with any herbs for blessing and success.

[(Anonymous)]

In an effort to predict what effects will happen as Pluto finishes fading out, I've started looking into the various ways that the early 20th century differed from the late 19th, and in my research into the differences found a shift which seems to fit many of the hallmarks of the Plutonian, and suggests something fascinating: the modern concept of "social generations" appears to date to the aftermath of the First World War, with the traumatized Lost Generation; generations mark a rather drastic division of society, especially with generational conflict; and further, many of the predictions made according to theories of generations are flawed and tend to fail miserably.

There are two corollaries to this which I find striking: the first is that the rapid, continuous, and radical changes which occurred over the course of the past century and so created the kinds of generational divides are a Plutonian phenomena, and that once Pluto finishes fading out (baring a new astrological influence) the pace of change will slow down to something more like the historical norm; the second is that in all likelihood, the last group of people who will form a "generation" in the modern sense have already been born.

a) Do you think there's a link between the way that the most intense example of the squabbling between generations seems to be between the later Boomers and Millennials, with Neptune (1955-1970) and Pluto (1983-1995) in Scorpio respectively? Do you know if anyone has done much work with generational astrology?

b) This also raises an interesting and rather troubling question, since it's striking to me that World War I, a cataclysm about the point where Pluto was halfway into focus seemed to catalyze so many of the changes which marked it completing the process of coming into focus; and indeed, the sharp division between the Before and After seems quite Plutonian. My concern, however, is that we may see something on a similar scale in the near future.

After all, if Pluto marks division, it would be symbolically appropriate if its age had sharp boundaries separating it from the rest of history; and nothing would dislodge the sclerotic remains of the Plutonian Era from their grip on power quite like the kind of social and political upheaval that would ensue if we did get a disaster on the scale of World War I again, or an even worse one.

I keep trying to convince myself that Pluto fading out won't have that kind of sharp boundary, but I can't shake the sense that this is an important fact of the Plutonian Era. Do you have any thoughts on this? Frankly the implications of me being right here scare me a great deal, and I would love if someone could point out a flaw in my logic here.

[ecosophia]

This seems quite plausible -- and yes, there could be a very sharp division. The Plutonian era came on fairly forcefully beginning in 1900, and it could end just as abruptly in or around 2036, though as you've noted, there will doubtless be other crises on the way out, just as there were on the way in. I'm not at all familiar with generational astrology -- it's not something I've looked into -- but you're right that the rigid division of generations against one another seems to be specific to the Plutonian era.

[(Anonymous)]

Here is another magical working designed to topple Putin. It seems to me to be as ill judged as the Hughes workings against Trump.

"This war in Ukraine was started by One Man who does not enjoy the unqualified support of his associates or his country’s population. He appears to have become deluded, and the situation may deteriorate even further if he is not stopped. We seem to have a clear case here where intervention against a single individual can make a world of difference."

This is the justification for it based on an deluded, ill-informed, naive, MSM fuelled view of what is going on in Ukraine.

"We wish to see him disobeyed and restrained or assassinated by his own people."

So the blowback would be that these chaos magicians get disobeyed and restrained but probably not assassinated? Or nothing will happen at all, given that you don't think chaos magic is particularly effective at all? Unlike the Trump workings, there are no specific instructions given.

https://www.specularium.org/blog/item/349-putin-s-war

[ecosophian]

Not JMG, but

I'm starting to think that when the old magic orders decided to keep magic methods secret from the uninitiated, maybe they had a point.

Swarms

[stuartjeffery]

Hi JMG, Dion Fortune talked of swarms in The Cosmic Doctrine. Given the deep time of the book I wondered if there was any relationship between these and the previous mass extinctions on Earth?

Re: Swarms

[ecosophia]

That's a fascinating question that, to my knowledge, has not yet been explored by occultists. You might consider looking into it!

Same demon or demon legion?

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible that behind COVID biowagon, the waxine, the Nazis, the Soviet Union, those that play with 300 biolabs is the same demon or demon legion?

When Nazis were defeated could it be that the demon/demons passed to the victors who were tempted by their powers?

Re: Same demon or demon legion?

[ecosophia]

Good question. I don't happen to know.

a success .

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG thank you again for hosting this and your dedication to your purpose !

I asked here a few weeks back about solutions to being potentially homeless - being evicted and I asked about a possible magic solution. I have not been able to practice any practical magic in length but have always had mystical experiences. You asked me what magic can you do and I remembered that I would write and draw often with profound effect in the physical world. So I drew a picture of a house with strong roots and a large sun above it and a few words around it denoting security.

Within days we had news of a good contact - friend of a friend who had a house languishing that they couldn't get themselves motivated to do anything with. Turns out it all lines up and it is a real match for now, there are many other things to say in terms of the personal resonance of the particular place and it also reminds me of this resource which I have doubted in terms of intent and trusting my deeper knowing.

Many thanks for all that you do and blessings

.Psychedelic Woozy Jellyfish

Re: a success .

[ecosophia]

Hmm! I'm very pleased to hear this.

Hymns to the Welsh Gods

[cs2]

I've updated my collection of hymns, just short diddies I come up with while doing the dishes. This link now has all the Welsh gods in the DMH, unless I'm missing anyone:

https://cs2hymns.bandcamp.com/

Re: Hymns to the Welsh Gods

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this!

[(Anonymous)]

John--

Could you compare and contrast the unity of Leather, the duality of Taumiel, and the duality of Chikhmah? How does Taumiel fail as Kether? How is the duality of Chokhmah "successful" while that of the chief qliphoth is not?

[ecosophia]

First, you really, truly need either to turn off your spell checker or check what it says. The unity of Leather?

Second, this is a fine theme for meditation and I wouldn't think of depriving you of the useful practice and the personal discoveries you'll make if you focus on it for the next month or so of daily meditations.

Crystal glass

[(Anonymous)]

First - thanks for hosting Magic Monday!

I've been given an opportunity to buy a small figurine of a figure spiritually important to me, made of Swarovski crystal. I've searched the archives but didn't find anything, so curious: do you know if crystal glass has any specific magical properties? Anything to watch out for?

Re: Crystal glass

[ecosophia]

It's a funny little detail of material science that the term "crystal glass" is actually an oxymoron. Glass is a liquid -- a very, very thick liquid, which is why it takes centuries to flow -- but it's a liquid and therefore has no crystalline structure in it.

Glass generally has no significant magical properties, so you should be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question about reincarnation. I believe you ascribe to the view that souls continue to reincarnate on this plane until they have gone through the fullness of human experience. I'm wondering just how complete a sample of human actions that has to be.

To take the most extreme example I can think of, 12 men have walked on the moon. Certainly enough to have seeped into the collective imagination of our time-- enough to count as part of 'the human experience'?

I have a hard time imagining the ecotechnic civilizations of the far future having active enough space programs to allow 7 billion moonwalks. Even spread over a couple million years, that's an absurd amount of space travel compared to our own Space Age.

This makes me think that "astronaut" does not qualify as part of the human existence we're on this plane to experience. I know this is a reductio ad absurdum, but I'm not using it to attack these ideas, merely to explore them. It starts me wondering: do you have any sense of what the limits are? What might qualify or not as "necessary experience"? Or is that something each individuality's higher self determines for themselves?

[ecosophia]

You certainly don't have to have every experience ever had by a human being. For example, all souls do not have to die in a fire when their Ford Pinto gets rear-ended, nor do all human beings have to sing Papageno's solos from The Magic Flute! As for walking on the Moon, I'm far from sure that's significantly different from walking on the Antarctic icecap, say, or standing on a tall mountain, or what have you.

The straightforward answer is that you have a representative sample of human experiences, one that gives you a good selection of the highs and lows, the possibilities and limits, the triumphs and the absurdities of life as a human being.