Magic Monday, Lunar Eclipse Edition

[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. With certain exceptions, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time, 24 hours from now, 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? A pretty good picture of what was visible out the window a little while ago. The Moon is in total eclipse as I type these words; it was very clear earlier, and while some clouds have come drifting over I expect to see more of this in a bit. A fine spooky sight! I'll return to the Sacred Geometry Oracle next week. 

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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

Stories

[jeanluc_12]

Dear Archdruid,

I hope you and my fellow commentators are well and good.

I’ve recently listened to two episodes of a popular esoteric podcast on YouTube. Both guests, who are magicians and published authors, shared stories of Goetic evocation gone terribly wrong. One involved one of the worst tornados that struck France, while the other was about an earthquake that occurred in the West Coast of the US. I was wondering if you had any stories to share, if not from personal experience, then from secondhand accounts.

Thank you again for hosting Magic Mondays.

Jean Luc

Re: Stories

[ecosophia]

Stories of things going wrong? No, and that's one of the reasons why I don't do goetic evocation -- it can have disastrous results. I've had some considerable successes with magic, but I've never had anything blow up in my face that way.

[(Anonymous)]

A couple of questions about Buddhism:

1. Can Buddhism be practiced simultaneously with the GD system? Are there any serious counter-indications to the GD mage living by the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path and working as prescribed in that tradition, including doing the meditative work?

2. Does reaching the higher grades in the GD systems lead to states that can be compared to the Buddhist concept of enlightenment?

3. The central aim of Buddhism is to escape from the cycle of birth and death through a state of enlightenment achieved essentially via self-reflective consciousness and abstinence from harmful behaviors. Buddhism sees everyday experience as being wrapped up in suffering and claims to offer a way to escape it. How does this differ from the aims of the Western occult tradition?

4. For JMG (or anyone else in the commentariat): I’m fortunate enough to have a center near me that teaches Vipassana meditation, along with a good amount of Buddhist philosophy, so it isn’t just the isolated technique. Would this be safe to perform with the standard GD set of practices (LBRP + MP + discursive meditation + divination) without unbalancing any of the subtle bodies?

[ecosophia]

Okay, the first question -- which you get around to answering further down -- is what kind of Buddhism you have in mind. There are scores of different denominations and traditions, which differ dramatically from one another. Now that I know that you're considering Theravada Buddhism -- that's the tradition that teaches vipassana -- I can answer you.

1) Allan Bennett, one of the leading members of the Golden Dawn back in its original heyday, was also a practitioner of Therevada Buddhism and took Buddhist monastic vows, but he stopped practicing Golden Dawn magic when he did this. I don't recommend mixing different spiritual systems; choose one and stick with it.

2) The grades themselves don't take you to those states, any more than accepting Buddhist initiation does. They give you the tools you can use to get there, if you work at it.

3) Western occultism by and large doesn't treat spirituality as an escape hatch from existence. It also doesn't agree with this notion that existence is 'wrapped up in suffering" -- suffering is one aspect, joy is another, and you can go on as long as you want to, but none of these characteristics define the universe. (You could as well claim that life is wrapped up in peevishness, or amusement, or what have you.) From the Western occult perspective, the universe has valid reasons for being here and so do you; instead of trying to run away from it, it makes more sense to embrace life and make the best of it.

4) I don't recommend this at all. Again, choose one system and stick with it -- that's the way to attainment. Once you've mastered one system, you can consider going on to explore others.

[(Anonymous)]

Happy eclipse! The Lakeland Republic caught a break in the weather long enough to see most of the event before clouds blocked the last few minutes. Since I know very little about astrology, could I get a nickel tour of the event?
You might recall that I asked how I should respond to all the extra energy and whatnot that comes with observing Alban Heruin and that your response was (to paraphrase) relax and see if anyone asks for advice. Well… next day, I got a tutoring gig. Not exactly great spiritual advice, but it does cover the Trivium and Quadrivium… That counts, right?
And from the Department of This-Is-Fun: Otyken, a delightful world music act from Siberia landed in my YouTube que to complement my reading of The Quest for Merlin. I’m no judge of the genre, but the performers are having a good time, and a track titled “Genesis” seems like a synchronicity worth passing on.
Thank you for all your help getting me this far.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

1) Eclipses in astrology are always malefic events, meaning that they bring trouble. Exactly what kind of trouble depends on the fine details. If you've got your natal chart handy, see if you have anything at 25° Scorpio, or in aspect to 25° Scorpio -- that's the position of the eclipsed Moon, and if it is conjunct, square, or opposite anything in your chart, you can guess what part of your life will have trouble. If not, don't worry about it.

2) It does indeed!

Analog Zettelkasten, the Eclipse, and Astral Supplement to Judson Exercise

[jprussell]

Good evening!

I don't know the proper salutation to use for an eclipse, but whatever malefic effects it has are minimal.

First, something to share: A while back I heard about the "Zettelkasten" method of note-taking used by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. I tried following the method using digital tools for awhile and found it somewhat helpful, but never really got into the groove. I decided to try it out with pen and paper, as originally designed, and shortly after, temporaryreality pointed me to https://scottscheper.com/ . I've found his material helpful for getting going with this analog note-taking/knowledge management technique, and the most exciting application has been using it to record my notes and thinking on occult matters. Hopefully some other folks will find this intriguing.

Secondly, a couple of questions:

1. Speaking of the eclipse, I read your Mundane Astrology post on tonight's lunar eclipse (thanks for that!). Other than the political and economic effects you described in the posts, are there any more personal malefic effects to look out for (or would that depend on your natal chart?)? If so, are there any kinds of precautions to take and/or activities to avoid? (My current magical knowledge, if needed: I have been working through the DMH for about a year now, and I do the SOP, Discursive Meditation, and Ogham divination daily, and a Grove ritual at least weekly, whenever I can find space away from my wife and daughter - I substitute the Judson Exercise when I can't get away).

2. My understanding is that the Judson Exercise is primarily etheric in nature, whereas the SOP is primarily astral. If that assumption is correct, then when using the Judson Exercise as a daily banishing ritual, are there any further steps for astral hygiene worth taking to make up for the lesser astral component to the exercise?

Thanks so much for your time and care,
Jeff

Re: Analog Zettelkasten, the Eclipse, and Astral Supplement to Judson Exercise

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Interesting. I haven't looked into zettelkasten at all.

1) It depends completely on your natal chart. The eclipsed Moon is at 25° Scorpio; check to see if that position is conjunct, square, or opposite anything in your natal chart, and that'll tell you what kind of trouble to expect. If nothing is affected that way, you don't have to worry about a thing.

2) That's a fascinating question that, in all probability, nobody alive can answer yet. Much experimentation with the Judson exercise is still needed to figure out its strengths and weaknesses.

Judson exercise

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, I’m missing something here: where can I find instructions for the Judson exercises?

Thank you,

Annette

Re: Judson exercise

[ecosophia]

Right here. It's one of my little discoveries, a fine protective ritual that's apparently safe even for small children to practice, and seems to have been completely forgotten for the last century or so.

re-phrase and repost of a comment where I forgot to ask the question.

[(Anonymous)]

Break in the life line, on both hands although the break is small, I both moved close to my home town to where my grandparents lived (collapsenik since 2006) and feeling a bit but constantly sick to my stomach, almost at the same length my career meets my head line and continues towards the heart line but offset a bit to the right (I am male) .

I am 41 the break is somewhere at the level of the thumb where at the knuckle where the metacarpal meets the phalanx. And I interpret it this to be my around my age.

Approximately at the same length my head line splits in two. The heart line is the only one that is OK and actually starts to be well defined and deep and well defined at that length. I moved. I am feeling that this is a turning point in my life also I started to have some stomach problems, I am leaning more towards optimism on this one.

Should I worry?
I don't know palmistry, how to interpret this?

Re: re-phrase and repost of a comment where I forgot to ask the question.

[ecosophia]

Breaks in the life line don't mean death. They generally mean change. No, you shouldn't worry, and your best bet if all this concerns you is to get a book or two on palmistry and study it, using your own hands as references. Where to get books? Here are a hundred of them, free for the downloading. Have fun -- and remember that a lot of occultists got through the Great Depression because they could do divination for people, and that's a service for which people will pay even when they don't have a lot of money...

Rapid Transportation

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,
Does moving about the planet faster than a sailboat have disruptive etheric or electromagnetic effects on people? After a 400 mile road trip, I was wondering. It would be tricky to conduct controlled experiments, but is there anything in occult lore that indicates a wearying effect of traveling across various magnetic and etheric lines rapidly.
Secondly, if there is such an effect does motion with or against the earth's rotation, and the ether wind, maker a difference?
_Berserker

Re: Rapid Transportation

[ecosophia]

I've never found this to be any kind of a problem, though I suppose your mileage may vary -- so to speak. But then I don't suffer from jet lag either.

[open_space]

I saw a virtual exhibition of W.B Yeats and they have some of his GD items and journals. Unfortunately, the resolution is not good enough to read them. I've found some scattered pictures online but was wondering if you knew of a resource where these are gone in more detail.

[ecosophia]

If you have access to an academic library, there are plenty of books on Yeats' connection with the Golden Dawn these days. Nobody's published his magical journals, however, which is annoying.

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a headscratcher for you JMG and any other polytheists (especially Roman). Venus is the main goddess I worship and I've had some extraordinary energetic sensations around some of the centres trained in the DMH while praying to her. I was looking for a balancing masculine deity who I felt close to that I could regularly pray to, and I felt like adding Jupiter to my main lararium shrine and including him in my regular prayers, so I cast geomancy divinations asking Jupiter if he would like to be added to my lararium and asking Venus if she would be okay adding Jupiter (she already shares the shrine with Janus, Vesta, the Lares, my Guardian Genius and on Kalends/Ides with Juno/Jupiter). The divination came back with a resounding yes from Jupiter (with lots of Acquisitio), but a "No, it will be the end of our relationship" from Venus. I was very confused, apologized to Jupiter and continued on. Recently I've felt like adding Mercurius to my Lararium would be a good idea for multiple reasons, especially since I received some energetic stirrings and a strong feeling of his presence when praying to him on his festival day. I ran a divination asking Venus if she would be okay adding Mercurius to my retinue of household gods and I came back with RW: Via, LW: Via and Judge Populus which I interpret as "No, that road goes nowhere."

JMG, I think you've written before that even with the gods it's best to avoid becoming unbalanced and worship multiple gods, and I thought the whole point of polytheism was to live in a spiritual neighbourhood with many good neighbours. I've asked Venus to help me understand, but no dreams or sudden insights during meditation have been forthcoming, and it's starting to worry me.

Have you or anybody else dealt with something similar? Can you shed any light on this puzzle? Because I'm completely stumped.

[neptunesdolphins]

I have had to set up separate altars (Lararia) for ancestors and various Gods. Venus can be paired with Mars, since She has a martial aspect. Also, you might try Liber and the other vegetable Gods since Venus was the Goddess of Gardens at one time. As for balance of Gods and Goddesses, I have all male at my Lararium, since it seemed that none of the females were that interested in me. I finally ended up with the Norse Frigga, who has a different altar.

As for Gods not sharing spaces, it has happened to me. Mercury and Apollo cannot be in the same space, since They have a history i.e. Mercury stealing Apollo's cattle. So, I would check the mythology and see if there are any clues there about Venus.

So you may have to be open to non-Roman Gods coming to balance the energies.

Translation update

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect the books I sent are still in the mail. But you may be interested to know that I've just finished translating Carl du Prel's "Das Rätsel des Menschen: Einleitung in das Studium der Geheimwissenschaften" [The Puzzle of Humanity: Introduction to the Study of the Occult Sciences] from 1892 and will have it available for sale in early July. I thought this short excerpt from near the end might be of interest to the readership:

"[Transcendental psychology] teaches that the human is the materialisation of a transcendental subject, the embodiment of a supersensory being. As an essential part of nature the human is surely the epitome of what all of nature seems to be, which does not arise from nothing, but rather can only be the materialisation of an invisible world. So thought the mystics. The Bible calls this materialisation of our invisible being “expulsion from paradise”. We can retain the myth, only we will interpret in the sense of the occult sciences, as Philo, Origen, the cabbalists, Plotinus and Plato did in his idealist philosophy. Paradise precedes birth, and is the pre-existence. The fall from grace does not first follow birth, rather it is the earthly birth. It coincides with the expulsion from paradise, that is, through birth our transcendental existence becomes unconscious to us. The “coats of skins” with which God clothed the fallen humans are the earthly bodies of which they were ashamed when they recognised them, whereas they were not ashamed of the previous nakedness of their etheric bodies. Through the fall from grace, so says the Bible, death came into the world. Certainly, for materialisation is on account of the transience of all matter only temporal, and dematerialisation, death, must follow it. For just that reason we should use life to obtain such goods which outlast death. The programme of our life conduct is determined by the knowledge that we are capable of development beyond death."

It's a short book (about 100 pages), but what most struck me was du Prel's conviction that a bright future lay ahead for the occult sciences and that the facts of experience from somnambulism, animal magnetism, and spiritualism would trump materialism because of their ability to explain the unconscious and the soul. His argument seems to be that materialism focuses only on what the consciousness can be aware of and thus ignores the role of the unconscious.

My question for today is what happened to somnambulism? Was it renamed to something else and neutered the way animal magnetism was transformed into hypnotism, or have you already covered this in your history series on the occult in the US and I just missed it or wasn't paying attention? In other words, where do we see somnambulism these days?

Re: Translation update

[robertmathiesen]

When animal magnetism (aka Mesmerism) was in vogue, a somnambulist was simply a magnetized (Mesmerized) subject, and (s)he was thought to be able to perceive truly, or even act effectively, beyond the usual limitations of time and space. In French practice, they were called somnambules, or sometimes lucides.

Once Spiritualism developed, many somnambulists rebranded themselves as "mediums." Nowadays, in some occult practices, it's called trance-work.

Of course, the same hard materialism that reduced animal magnetism to hypnotism, reduced somnambules to hypnotized subjects.

Egyptian Lesser Invoking Ritual?

[(Anonymous)]

In their supplemental notes to Regardie’s Middle Pillar, the Ciceros present variations on the banishing ritual. One form of ‘Egyptian’ style involves tracing a wedjat/Eye of Horus instead of a pentagram. A diagram (page 198) shows the shape and successive lines to be drawn and their orientations (‘start at the left point of the eyebrow and trace clockwise’ etc).

Could there be a workable invoking form with the Eye of Horus (i.e. comparable to the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram)? How would it be enacted (order of lines and directions etc)? Could it be a simple as the same lines and movements in reverse order and reverse direction? Or might things not quite work like that?

Re: Egyptian Lesser Invoking Ritual?

[ecosophia]

That's something that can only be settled by research and experimentation. I doubt reversing the line direction will do the job, however, since iirc the wedjat is traced mostly clockwise, the usual invoking direcion; you might consider instead experimenting with tracing a different symbol, such as an ankh, as the invoking emblem.

Zazen

[davidastrom]

There is a somewhat similar question above, but I think this is perhaps different enough to ask separately. Otherwise: sorry!
Anyway, before I discovered magic - and finished LRM - I practiced zazen meditation in the form of skikantaza ("just sitting"; where you basically just watch the mind). I have continued doing this (whilst also doing the discursive meditation). I have never really practiced zen buddhism proper (precepts etc). I know that you should not be mixing traditions, but what about this meditation technique? I could certainly see potential benefits, but maybe there are problems?

Re: Zazen

[ecosophia]

You can do it, sure; shikantaza is pretty safe. On the other hand, you leave out important keys to magic if you don't make discursive meditation a daily practice.

SOP beginner & DA

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
for personal reasons I felt and diviation nodded along that starting a SOP would be good for me, before I finished the OSA, so I broke out my Volume 1 of DA and have been doing so since this friday.

I wonder if the idea one should concentrate on should be phrased without the no? I suppose the answer will be: do it by the book?

And also the excercise at the end is too ...much/difficult?!... for my imagination, I don´t bring it off - keep on keeping on (KOKO) is the solution here, right?

Last but not least:
IIRC you once wrote in answer to a question from a person who came from the Wiccan end of magic and who apparently discovered that s/he was (unconsciously) on the "bad witch"-side of the spectrum that only a full on ceremonial magic discipline would remedy the unwanted ill-wishing.

Now since reading along here and with WOH and other things I realize my thoughts/intentions/emotions more and boy is it a mess! Ill wishing only appears to be the start of it - I don´t want that, so it´s full on for me , but will DA do the job, since you once wrote that it´s more about wisdom than anything else?

I suppose the "full on" is about something like taming a free-romping beast so that it becomes well trained, a cooperation for the good of the beast and the tamer (and the wider society)? so the DA will do nicely?

Thank you very much for your work!
Emily07 (oh and, if i do numerology on that on, will the 07 count as well?)

Re: SOP beginner & DA

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, it's generally best to leave out "no" and other negative words from anything you use as a focus for concentration.

2) The final phase of the SoP as John Gilbert devised it is hard work; do your best.

3) The Dolmen Arch course is very well suited to that, since wisdom includes the ability to guide yourself appropriately at all levels.

4) It's normal to do numerology with your actual, offline name, but you can see what the 07 says about your online persona!

Archangels & Pagan Gods

[(Anonymous)]

I was fascinated to read your comment in a previous Magic Monday that the Archangels are synonymous with the ancient pagan gods. Can you please list which pagan gods the planetary/tree of life Archangels (Sandalphon, Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Michael, Chamael, Tzadkiel, Tzaphkiel, Ratziel & Metatron) where/are? And any others that you might be able to include (like Uriel)?

Re: Archangels & Pagan Gods

[ecosophia]

Nope. Working out those correspondences is a standard exercise for students and I wouldn't think of depriving you of the benefits of doing it yourself. Have fun!

[lukedodson]

Dear JMG,

Thanks for hosting this space once again.

For the past few days, my discursive meditations have been on the theme of how Annwn and Ceugant, in the Druid teachings, could relate to the Unmanifest as described by Dion Fortune in the Cosmic Doctrine.

My conclusion has been that, while Annwn shares the 'unformed' nature of the Unmanifest, it is more like the stuff from which Atoms are formed by the Tangential movements of the Cosmos. In other words, it is formless, but still manifest. Ceugant, on the other hand, although it represents unmanifested potential, is more like that force of movement which drives cosmic evolution.

Does this sound like I'm broadly on the right track?

Luke

[ecosophia]

Those are certainly concepts worth exploring. Rememeber, please, that there are no right or wrong answers in meditation, and that (ahem) "these images are meant to train the mind, not to inform it." In dealing with the Unmanifest you're quite literally trying to grasp something the human mind is incapable of understanding, so don't worry too much about being right.

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings!

What are the strengths and weaknesses of chaos magic? How does it stack up against other types?

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

In magic as in the martial arts, a system that works very well for one person will work poorly for another. Thus you can't "stack up" chaos magic against other forms of magic. It's not a form of magic that interests me, but I know people who like it and get good results from it. Thus I'd recommend that instead of worrying about its strengths and weaknesses in the abstract, you pick up a couple of good books on the subject (Peter Carroll's Liber Null is iirc the classic source) and see how well it resonates with your needs and interests.

[(Anonymous)]

John--

I need help learning to engage with my emotional self. For much of my life, I have handled emotional issues by compartmentalizing them. I wouldn't say that I had a traumatic childhood--particularly in comparison to some others in our community here--but my better half tells me that much of approach was likely developed as a coping mechanism from my youth. She is very much a sensing-feeling type (a la Meyers-Briggs), while I am a thinking-judging type. She uses her emotional body as something of a GPS (her description); whereas I'd rather have a plan, preferably with multiple contingencies mapped out. Emotions are something to be enjoyed if good, to be squelched if bad, and always (always) to be kept under control. Frankly, I don't trust Netzach and I view Yesod with great suspicion. Needless to say, as I'm continuing my work, this is presenting some difficulties for me. How can I better engage with these other parts of the Self and better "develop my soul" (as I'm told I am here to do)?

--Mint Abstruse Carbuncle

[ecosophia]

Emotions aren't my strong suit either. I got a lot of benefit out of the Octagon Society practices, which you can find here, and also a lot of benefit out of reading books on transactional analysis and using that framework to understand my emotional life, but I'm far from an expert on the subject. Thus I'll throw this one open to the commentariat for their suggestions.

Middle Pillar

[illyria2001]

For the most advanced version of the MP, some descriptions have you send the current of light down the left side of your body first, and some have you send it down the right. Is there a difference in outcome, or does it just come down to personal preference?

Re: Middle Pillar

[ecosophia]

Some of those differences, at least in my writings, are a function of my scrambled nervous system, as I mix up left and right quite reliably and don't always write down the right one. It doesn't seem to matter greatly, however.

Qs

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Top of the morning to ye.

I had a few questions for you.

1) I recently procured a talisman from C Warnock. How often do you recommend consecrating one to keep an active relationship with the deity? Chris also said no need to wear it, do you feel the same?

2)In horary, if you'd like to as a question to a god or a spirit (such as jupiter or saturn), what would the signifier be? Lord of 9th? How would you read a question as "should i do this ritual?" or "should I learn other types of divination?"

3) I am in America working on a new business idea. I have rented a short term house for 3 months that I am supposed to move into on 1st of june (or 1-2 days after).

What would your advice be to elect best time to move in (that can have a positive effect on getting the business off the ground, or just to have a good home base experience to work from)? And are there any rituals post moving in that you advise?

If things work out, I will move to america to build this idea so I am trying to get it right.

4) Adding to the above, is there anything related to mercury or jupiter that I should look to do in order to aid getting the business off the ground? (I have to raise money from investors in a very bad economic environment so thats are def against me right now).

Re: Qs

[(Anonymous)]

One q I forgot was that its a venus talisman that I got, and I'm wondering if I should do the 1st consecration right now or wait till Venus in taurus. I'm not sure if it matters.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning, JMG & all! Hope everyone is well today. My question for you today is:

I notice my ear tubes draining or opening down along my neck during practice, especially during the Middle Pillar but it has also started happening during meditation, scrying, LBRP, the FHR Temple Opening & Closing, all sorts of things. It’s not painful and isn’t doing me any harm but it happens quite often now as I continue to practice more and more. My ears don’t feel closed up or clogged or anything prior to this occurring.

1) Is this common?
2) What does it mean / why does it happen?!

Of note, I did have repeated ear infections as a child, and I have had a few as an adult as well but I definitely don’t have any infection now while this is happening. I suspect there is a connection there but I’m not sure what this is all about and it’s happening so consistently now that I’m beginning to wonder.

Any insight would be appreciated ♥️ thanks very much!

- J

[(Anonymous)]

My ears popped and crackled for about six months while first doing the practices. I've been told by an ENT dr that the angle of the channel from the ear to the back of the throat isn't steep enough to keep things flowing the way they should. I also had numerous ear infections as a child. Doctor's think the angle not being right is due to bottle feeding which is doesn't require as much jaw work for the infant as breast feeding does.

One thing that I found helped my ears is chewing hard gum for an hour a few times a week. There is a Turkish gum that is like chewing rubber. Doesn't taste great so I break off a piece of American chewing gum to add to it for flavor. The hard chewing also had helped my breathing too; I'm doing less mouth breathing now. I think humans are used to chewing tougher foods and the lack of it causes us all sorts of breathing and ear issues.

[flanerieoconnor]

A couple of quick magical timing questions, this week, if I may, mostly as examples to try to get some of the finer points of the concept worked out in my head:

1. If I'm trying to elect for the beginning of work done on a roleplaying game I'm thinking of running for some friends- would that be a matter of Mercury (communication) or Venus (a creative project)? (To be clear, I'd be mostly using a pre-existing system- it's the writing out of world/story that I'm trying to time)

2. Either way, this is something that's been kicking around my head for some time, but that I haven't done any serious work on or really talked to anyone about yet. The date of actual play would be out of my control (7 on a Thursday, no matter what). Given that, I could see considering the moment of "birth" to be either when I first put pen to paper to try and organize my thoughts, or when I wrote an email proposing the idea to said group of friends.

3. If it was the second (I guess a general question about written communication), would the start time be when I started composing the message, or when I hit "send" (or slipped a letter in the post, for that sort of communication)?

4. Some other friends of mine got married yesterday. The ceremony itself was in the late afternoon, well before the time of the eclipse proper (though the reception continued through it), but the timing still gave me a bit of perhaps superstitious pause. It's not any of my business, nor anything I could do anything about, but is there any reason to be concerned about this, or, given the timing of the ceremony, would they be unaffected?

[ecosophia]

1-3) You're massively overthinking all of this. Choose the energy you want to direct into the project and choose the time you will mark as the beginning of the project. Conscious intention is the difference between magic and superstition.

4) It would depend, yet again, on the natal charts of the two people getting married and on how those charts interact. I wouldn't generally advise a marriage with Sun and Moon applying to opposition but if the connection between them works through different planets, and there are benefic applying aspects in the marriage chart to their natal charts, it could be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,
Thank you for posting the picture of the blood moon eclipse.
That give me an excuse to say My anxiety it though the roof this morning, it feels like i am waiting for some kind of explosion.
I keep trying to remind myself not to worry about things beyond my ability to control and normally that works but not recently. I am having trouble with idea that we have crossed the tipping point into world war 3, that the spiraling escalation of the Ukraine war has reached a point after which there is no way to back down for either side.

Do you have any advice on how to better job on personally keeping a more even keel ?

[(Anonymous)]

Do a news fast for a week or so. If you must, just glance quickly through newspaper headlines so you get the gist of what's happening without delving deeply into them. Yes, it's true it's all beyond your control but your subconscious doesn't know that and will amp up your adrenaline in preparation for the emergency it's expecting. I've been doing that with the news out of Ukraine as well as the corona virus coverage just to keep my own anxiety level manageable.

Our host has provided all manner of links to various practices which can assist in helping you stay on an even keel and avoid going emotionally ballistic over the non-stop saturation coverage that passes for news today. Just take a deep breath and smell the roses as you do so.

JLfromNH/Ochre Pungent Slug

Stagnant Energy Build-ups

[(Anonymous)]

Following up on my question last week about energy exchanges between humans, and in particular between parents and children, I wanted ask about the consequences of stagnant or unreleased energy.

What are the some of the symptoms of someones who is male on the astral plane (which you said is usually also a biological male) when they don't find an outlet for that astral energy? What sort of problems come up?

Similarly, for those who are male on the etheric plane (which as you said are usually biological females), what are problems could result when they have no release for that etheric energy, when it becomes stagnant build-up?

Re: Stagnant Energy Build-ups

[ecosophia]

The energy always finds a way out. Typically, excess astral energy expresses itself through fantasy, while excess etheric energy expresses itself through emotional interaction. The classic Karen who throws screaming tantrums at store clerks is making an emotional connection with them in order to vent etheric energy -- a dysfunctional connection, sure, but that's what she can do. The classic male loser who sits around for hours at a time with his hand in his pants and pictures of naked women on the computer screen is venting astral energy through fantasy. There are many other ways the energies can vent, of course, but these are good examples to start with.

Visualization

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Thank you so much for these Magic Mondays. They're an invaluable resource.

I remember that a few weeks ago, you mentioned that visualization had been one of the the skills you had found difficult to master back when you started practicing occultism.

I am not very advanced (two years of regular practice of LBRP/divination/meditation, very slowly working my way through LRM). Your comment caught my attention because I find myself in a similar situation. I have no trouble getting crisp and clear images when I am daydreaming or when I am caught in my thoughts. But I often find it extremely hard to get clear images when I have to (LBRP, meditating on Tarot cards) or when I want to. In the worst days, the best I can get is fog, or blurry scenes, as if hidden behind a veil.

It is not always like that. Sometimes, especially after a long meditation, I get very clear images, but those come from somewhere else, they are not the result of my will.

Do you have any advice ? Any daily practice that could help ?

Thanks again for your time,

Re: Visualization

[ecosophia]

Your daily magical practices are exactly what you need. You might also try spending a few minutes every day imagining something -- choose a different thing each day.

[(Anonymous)]

I need to run a question about the etheric body in some chronic conditions past you and the commentariat. And please bear with my discursive writing style; it's how I think.

Hard work, meditation, Stoic and occult philosophy, and willingness to look at hard things have cleared up a lot of old issues, even including a lot of social anxiety and awkwardness, but certain ones have proved intractable, some of which are physical and a lot of which I thought were psycho-physical.I asked for answers at the altar three days running, and was led to a series of unrelated actions which led me to unearth a folder in the very back of my file cabinet called the (Fragile)X-files, dated 2004. A thorough reread of the folder named every one of those "are they physical or psychological?"problems as hard-wired into my condition. (Premutation carrier, at risk for....and being female, got hit a lot harder than my MDeity daughter. Because having 2 X-chromosomes, it's even odds in every cell which gets the good X and which got the bad X; like a calico cat; some are mostly white with patches; others, like yours truly, are tortoiseshell. For example, My daughter is the only one in the family who can be called "normal"; my non-medical sister casually told the researchers I had Aspergers. (And yes, on that latter, I'm out to my meat-body primary care practitioner.)
So - the intractible ones are being given to generalized anxiety (i.e. being high-strung), low muscle tone, failure of attention, GI and cardio problems, bursts of hyperactivity followed by fatigue & brain fog. It is all of these which made me realize a lot earlier I'd better stick to simple worship and and the like and not even dabble in anything higher than the baby slope practice.

So -- how is my etheric body affected by these hard-wired conditions? Is there anything I can do besides the Middle Pillar exercises and meditation to strenghten it? Can Anything magical that would also help the hard-wired physical problems? Is there a body of knowledge whose practitioners have such answers?

Thanks in advance - The Grey Badger.

[ecosophia]

These are fascinating questions I can't even begin to answer, as they involve a degree of technical knowledge about the interactions between the etheric and material bodies that I don't have. The one thing that occurs to me is that you might consult a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, since TCM works with the interface between the etheric and material realms.