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. With certain exceptions, 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 twenty-third card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 23, The Double Square, when upright tells you it's possible to move to a new level, and that unexpected possibilities are opening up; when reversed, it warns you that unexpected risks and dangers are also opening up. The sun in the upper left corner of the image tells you that this card belongs to the final third of the oracle, which corresponds to Nwyfre, the principle of spirit and meaning.  We've completed our passage through the first two of the basic root functions of sacred geometry -- √3, the principle of the vesica piscis and the equilateral triangle, and √2, the principle of the square and its diagonal -- and now we're beginning the √5, the seed from which the Golden Section unfolds and resolves all back into unity. 

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)]

Hello JMG,

I would appreciate your feedback on the following geomancy shield chart:

Query is whether person X is attracted to me in a romantic way.

RW is Acquisitio, LW is Populus, Judge is Acquisitio.

My interpretation: It’s a solid yes (Acquisitio as Judge and RW), but person X is excessively passive and I'll probably need to take a lot of initiative to make something happen (Populus as LW). Other people may also be involved, since I don’t know if person X is already in a relationship.

[ecosophia]

I'm sorry to say it's not a favorable reading. Acquisitio is unfavorable for romantic questions; love requires letting go, which is why Amissio is favorable for such readings. I'd read this as saying that you want there to be a romantic attraction, and you're projecting that onto X (Populus can indicate a projection), but there isn't one.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

1. Regarding the collapse of industrial civilization (understood as a long ragged decline punctuated by periods of acute crisis), certain fringe environmentalists advocate a more “hands-on” approach to expedite the collapse and save as much of the natural world as possible. I understand that your position is more along the lines of "let's wait or the collapse and adapt as individuals/communities” rather than taking any direct action to throw a wrench into the system. Part of that may be due to your understandable reluctance to promote illegal actions in a public forum, so to keep the question focused on the spiritual: what are the potential karmic consequences of waiting for the collapse, rather than offering active resistance? If political and legal action proves fruitless, why not do all that we can to save as much of the natural world for our descendants?

2. You’ve mentioned before how the internet reflects the lower astral, which is the state of consciousness of the majority of people. Is this a good reason for someone on a spiritual path to generally avoid most of the Internet, particularly the most noxious parts of it?

3. Related to the above, what would be the effects of practicing a spiritual path while also exposing oneself to some of the noxious parts of the internet, against our better judgement (for example, certain social media websites that shall not be named)? Would the spiritual path help insulate us somewhat from the noxious elements?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, I'm familiar with that sort of thinking. Like too much of what passes for radical environmentalism these days, it's impressively ignorant about the nature of systemic collapse or the mechanisms of ecosystem survival and recovery. Resistance, as any electrician can tell you, is simply a way to transform useful energy into waste heat, and the forms of "active resistance" that have been proposed by the various eco-radicals out there fit that definition to a T. As Dion Fortune pointed out in a different context, you succeed by supporting and building up what you want to see more of, not trying to tear down what you want to see less of; if you want to contribute to the survival and recovery of the biosphere, learn about ecological refugia and put in the hard work of building and sustaining them, and -- ahem -- change your own lifestyle so you're contributing as little as possible to the problem and as much as possible to the solution. It's the unwillingness to do that -- the insistence on the part of certain eco-radicals who shall not be named that it's just fine if they sit around playing video games all day and otherwise participating fully in the industrial system, while daydreaming about terrorist acts -- that makes so much of today's pseudoradical environmentalism such a waste of time.

2) Yes, very much so.

3) That'll generate a great deal of cognitive dissonance, and in time, you'll either give up your spiritual path or you'll stop wallowing in the slime.

[(Anonymous)]

You might recall my mention of a burst of energy arriving with the season of Alban Heruin. Well… It gets weirder. One person actually took the advice I gave. “Scuse me while I hoist my dropped jaw back into place. On top of that, three twentysomethings asked me questions directly related to Green Wizardry regarding undoing the damage done by the Baby Boom generation – and I was able to both answer and encourage further study. (Thank you for your help in getting ready for the questioners and their questions.)
So, you remember my comment that I feel that somebody is trying to stop my studies of Druidry and Green Wizardry? Uh-hunh. The next day, three well-heeled boomers of the I-got-mine sort quite literally blocked my path – each one a comic scene in itself. Is this some kind of cosmic equation balancing, or is the revenge of the boomers (or something worse) upon me? More importantly, is there some method to keep the path of Green Wizardry clear?
Many thanks.
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

Excellent! As the saying goes, it's when you start taking flak that you know you're over the target. You can expect that polarized reaction to continue -- a steady stream of young people looking for answers and old people trying to keep anyone from asking the questions -- and the only way to deal with it is just keep going. All you can do is take it a step at a time, cope with the obstacles as they come up, and don't forget to laugh at the comic scenes.

Roman celibacy philosopher

[lunarapprentice]

Around a year ago, you briefly discussed the origins of the Christian doctrinal abhorance of human sexuality, as Christians clearly did not inherit this from Judaism. Specifically, you mentioned the name of some Roman philosopher who waxed forth on the wonders of celibacy, and then St. Paul and the early church fathers really embraced that and ran with it.

What was the name of that philosopher, and perhaps the work he expounded his ideas in?

—Lunar Apprentice

Re: Roman celibacy philosopher

[ecosophia]

It wasn't just one philosopher, it was an entire cultural trend. The book you want is The Poisoned Embrace: A Brief History of Sexual Pessimism by Lawrence Osborne. He traces it to the Gnostics, but he also talks about the extent to which Greek culture generally went gaga over how awful sex was.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

1) Given your stance on not mixing spiritual systems, to what extent does this apply to religion and magic? To make this more concrete, let's take Christianity and the GD system as examples. As long as the religious practices relate purely to the spiritual level and the magical practices affect the etheric, astral and mental levels, there should be no conflict, right? In this sense, prayer (e.g. Christian contemplative prayer) is always OK, but something like particular kinds of meditation may not be?

2) In what ways, if any, does religious practice supplement magical practice and vice-versa?

3) Is the Golden Dawn magician a happier human being as a result of his training than, say, a Buddhist arhat, or a Christian mystic? For the individual seeking lasting peace, tranquility and freedom from the passions, which path would you recommend?

4) Since Vipassana meditation was brought up last week, does the GD system contain any “Eastern”-style meditations like Vipassana or Zazen, or any meditative practices that are non-discursive yet contribute to the attainment of wisdom and understanding?

[ecosophia]

1) The GD system works with Judeo-Christian divine names and concepts, and so is entirely compatible with Christian religion -- in point of fact, its founders and most of its early members were Christians, if someone unorthodox ones. So that may not be the best example! While religion and magic relate to different levels of being, if your religion and your magical system conceive of the cosmos in radically divergent ways, you may run into trouble; it's best to have both of them sharing a common basic worldview.

2) Magic supports religion by giving the practitioner the tools to work with consciousness in ways that facilitate contact with deities and inner orientation toward religious states of being. Religion supports magic by keeping the individual spiritually and ethically in balance.

3) It's impossible to generalize, since different people have different emotional needs.

4) Nope. Emptying the mind is exactly what Western magic doesn't do, and for good reason -- that doesn't play well with magical states of consciousness.

Existential crisis

[ecosophian]

JMG, following your example I started to study astrology. So the first thing I did was decode my birth chart. It painted a very accurate picture of me. And now I'm in an existential crisis because of it.

All my worst and my best qualities, all my failings and my triumphs, that wasn't me, it's just planets playing with each other.

Where's me in all of this? I feel like I'm just an observer, a passenger in a car driven by someone else.

Now I understand the gnostics who defined planets as evil spirits that keep us trapped in the material world.

As Freddy Mercury sang: I want to break free!

Any words of wisdom, JMG?

Re: Existential crisis

[ecosophia]

No, it's you. If somebody paints a portrait of you, are the features in the portrait just tubes of paint playing with each other?

You were born at the moment when you were born because you came to this life with a certain set of personal qualities, certain strengths and weaknesses, certain elements of good and bad karma. All those things are mirrored synchronistically in the moment of your birth, and thus in your birth chart. All those things, furthermore, are the results of your own actions in previous lives. You drove the car down the road that you now see through the windshield. If you want to go somewhere else, you can do so.

One other ppint: the stars incline, they do not compel. To the extent that you simply slide through life doing what seems natural, yes, the chart predicts your every action. To the extent that you make something unique and individual of yourself, the chart stops being a prison and turns into a springboard off which you can jump in any direction you choose. Now that you've studied your birth chart, you know the strengths and weaknesses you established in previous lives. What are you going to take from this life? That's entirely up to you.

[(Anonymous)]

I know this is an incredibly explosive topic, but to what extent do you think demonic forces may have played a role in the radical changes and slow decline into irrelevance which have occurred in the Catholic Church since Vatican II? You've written some things suggestive of the possibility, and cited some people who make such claims, so I'm curious if you'd be willing to discuss any views you have on the topic.

[ecosophia]

Okay, to begin with, I'm an outsider, and not a particularly sympathetic one. My take on the Catholic church is inevitably shaped by the fact that I'm an occultist, a Gnostic bishop, and a Freemason, among other things! Most Catholics would doubtless hold that any one of these things rules anything I have to say out of the discussion.

That said, my take is that the implosion of the Catholic church was assisted by malefic spirits but not caused by it. The cause was the takeover of the church hierarchy by adherents of the Modernist heresy in the early 20th century. That takeover was cemented at Vatican II, which rejected the historic rituals and spiritual commitments of the church in favor of a surrender to contemporary intellectual fashions. Once the church was no longer protected by the old strong rituals, no doubt malefic spirits got in there and had a field day, but that was an effect, not a cause.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,
Thank you for providing this space.
I've started doing a Jupiter charity and meant it to be 6 times every Thursday at a Jupiter hour. However, after doing it twice I skipped it last Thursday. Should I start all over or continue this coming Thursday with charity #3?
Thanks again,
Kirsten

[ecosophia]

Pick it up this Thursday. Jupiter's generous that way.

[tamanous2020]

Hi JMG,

Hope you are doing well!

Q- Your thoughts on the role of magic inside the US presidential campaign of 2015/2016 has certainly been great food for thought. Have there been other historical US political campaigns (or administrations) which you found to been significantly interwoven with or affected by the occult/magical practioners?

Tamanous

[ecosophia]

I haven't done anything like adequate research into the subject yet.

[vitranc]

JMG,

1. I have been devouring your WoH books 🦑 and have come up to providence. With a current detour trough Shoggoth stories. And I would like to ask about some clarifications. What is a sorcerer, a witch, initiate in those stories. What differentiates them, what they do, are capable of?
2. Are there real world paralels? GD initiates, druids, wicca?
3. I must say I am taken in by your hero Owen Merrill. He has insists he wants to be a part in some of my recent meditations on will, self-discipline and courage. He does not steal the show like the dark one, or is a superstar like Jenny. But the man has… a certain persistance, insistsnce.

🐙 regards,
V

[ecosophia]

1) Glad to hear it! Please, please note that these are fantasy novels and their magic is not the kind you can actually do in this world. Some of it's based on actual magic, but it's kicked up several notches. In the stories, a witch is a folk healer who knows some practical spells; an initiate is a member of one of the cults of the Great Old Ones who has some magical abilities as a result; a sorcerer or sorceress is typically a half-human child or descendant of one of the Great Old Ones and can shape the fabric of reality directly, in something like the way the Great Old Ones do.

2) There are no equivalents in the sense that nobody in this world can do the things that witches, initiates, and sorcerers can do in the stories. I drew the basic concepts, though, from magical practitioners in this world: witches are modeled on folk practitioners, initiates on members of magical orders such as the GD, sorcerers on the great legendary figures such as Merlin and Apollonius of Tyana. Nobody's modeled on Wiccans; my attitude toward Wiccans isn't all that different from Abigail Price's.

3) Thank you. There's good reason why he, and not Jenny, is the central figure of the series: I was bored to tears long ago by all the fantasy stories about Special People with Special Powers who are the only ones who can wield the Magic McGuffin and defeat Blorg the Bad, Evil Lord of Evilness, blah blah blah. I wanted the series to center on an ordinary guy: a military vet, reasonably tough and smart and brave but nothing special, who achieves greatness through his own capacities for love, loyalty, and plain ordinary guts.

Even the relatively unusual characters are also much more ordinary than your average fantasy characters. I was endlessly amused by one review of The Weird of Hali: Dreamlands that went on at some length about how weird it was that the main character of that novel, Miriam Akeley, was so -- so ordinary!!! Indeed she was, and that's the point: the kind of fantasy that insists that magic and wonder is only for Special People is to my mind actively harmful -- one more prop to the overinflated self-importance of the supposedly Special People in our current world.

Not a typical pregnancy question I promise (feel free to screen)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I came across your work about 18 months ago and realised this is what I have been 'missing' all my life. I promptly jumped into reading all the occult books I could find time for and started a GD daily ritual magic practice. It also took me surprisingly little time to overcome the materialist worldview and I also has this huge 'ah hah' moment when reading you commentary on industrial civilisation - sort of like I've always known. Anyway, I'd just reached the stage where I was starting to see with my etheric vision before I found out I was pregnant. So of course, on your advice, I stopped all ritual practice (I can feel all the energy going into bub and my changing body atm anyway). I've stopped reading in the occult space as well as I now need to focus my efforts on reading up on all things parenting, birthing, breastfeeding etc. I can say that I'm very glad I found your work before getting pregnant as I felt so much 'clear out' of my physical body, my mental health is the best it has been in quite a while and I feel like I have a much better sense of the possible futures I should be preparing my little one for.

Anyway, I was wondering if you had any advice on how one can help themselves to stay true to the spiritual path when they need to stop practicing their daily ritual for some time? I feel like having a child will be a very spitiual experience for me anyway becuase of the toxic mothering I receieved and all the personal work I have done to overcome the emotional wounds. But I'd really like to make sure I get back to this when my child is old enough - i.e. any tips for taking a break but still being committed and ensuring you come back? I'm thinking about starting a daily prayer practice, but this would be very new for me. I was also curious if when I restart ritual practice will I be closer to square one again with things like my etheric vision or is it something that will stay with me to a certain exent even if I don't 'stretch the muscle' for a few years?


Thanks

Re: Not a typical pregnancy question I promise (feel free to screen)

[ecosophia]

This kind of question is one I'll gladly answer. Right now you're engaged in one of the most powerful and important magical practices any human being can do -- you're quite literally invoking a spirit into material incarnation -- and of course that should be the focus of your attention for now. Once the child's born and the first very intense postpartum period is over, you can assess your time and needs, and consider taking up meditation, divination, and/or natural magic, and bringing some occult literature back into your reading list. You can do literally every kind of occult practice except for ceremonial magic, and all those things will help further your magical development, so that when you take up ritual again you'll catch up to where you were very quickly and then go further.

[(Anonymous)]

I've put some of your advice regarding love magic ("the most effective love spell is to make yourself more lovable") towards getting a girlfriend over the last 2 years, along with a lot of self-work, and I'm pleased to say that it's been extremely effective, and I'm now in a solid relationship. However, part of me still feels unsatisfied. I'm sad to say that my girlfriend loves me more than I love her, and I find myself fantasizing about other women frequently, imagining that I'll be happier with someone else, making moves that fall just short of cheating but that open the possibility towards it. Part of me "knows" that this isn't the case, that I would only repeat the same cycle, but another part of me wants to go along with it anyway, for variety, for novelty, for curiosity, out of sheer craving. The worst part is that I believe my girlfriend, being sensitive and empathetic, is picking up on this, at least on a subliminal level, which is slowly driving an invisible wedge between us, as obviously no one wants to be with someone who is mentally checking out.

Do you have any general advice, magic-oriented or not, for dealing with this issue, or giving me some sense of how to approach it? My background consists of about 3 years of Golden Dawn practice, for what it's worth. I understand that you've been happily married for a long time, and since the overlap between dating coaches and occultists is minimal at best, I don't know who else to ask.

[ecosophia]

First of all, I'd recommend some serious journaling on the subject. Very often, this kind of mental infidelity is a reflection of unresolved conflicts that have nothing to do with the relationship and everything to do with old emotional patterns not yet sorted out, and journaling will help with that. Also, keep in mind that these habits are making you less lovable than you would otherwise be; you may want to pick up the work of making yourself more lovable again...

Leathercraft Recommendation and Question

[jprussell]

Good Evening!

I hope you're having a fine late May evening/morning/day. Here in Texas, we've had a "cold" front, bring most welcome cooler temperatures despite the associated thunderstorms.

First, to share: I've taken my first shaky baby steps into the world of leather crafting, and one of the most useful resources for me (besides the helpful folks at the local Tandy Leather store) has been Dark Horse Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/c/DarkHorseWorkshop Richard/Magnus does some really jaw-dropping leather carving stuff, mostly with a Norse flavor, and he inspired me to give it a go.

Secondly, a question related to the above:

1) For JMG or the commentariat: I've found it pretty easy to find mythological/astrological/other esoteric references to metalworking, baking, brewing, and weaving/spinning/sewing, but no dice on leather or woodworking. Does anyone know what planets, Gods, angels, dwarves, elves, etc might be right to call on for leather and/or woodworking?

Thanks very much,
Jeff

Re: Leathercraft Recommendation and Question

[ecosophia]

Well, how about Vidar? If I recall my Norse mythology, he's busy working with all the scraps of leather that wise leatherworkers cast aside for him, making the shoe that will split open the jaws of the Wolf Fenrir.

[(Anonymous)]

I assume this is something that will come with practice, but do you have advice for learning to tell when something that comes up in prayer is coming for an external source (ex: a deity) compared to when it's coming from an internal source?

[ecosophia]

It's a long, slow, difficult process! One way you can assist it is to pray for the ability to discriminate between the message of the gods and the products of your own mind; another is to keep track of how things work out in practice, and see if you can find common themes.

[booklover1973]

JMG, you might be interested that in the following Arxiv article, a candidate location for Planet 9 is proposed, which would, in astrological terms, be in the vicinity of 20° Taurus: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.07675

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Interesting. Now let's see if this proves to be something other than a speculation -- and I'll keep an eye on 20° Taurus.

[(Anonymous)]

RE: The Secret of the Temple

Had previously seen that there was an intention to make a series of books with this as the first.
Was curious what the status of that is.
Is the series still intended to happen? Or did it morph in to something else that I am not aware of?
Thank you for this blog and the willingness to answer questions.

[ecosophia]

The second volume in the series, The Ceremony of the Grail, will be published later this year. I'm gathering raw material for a third volume right now, in between other projects.

Orphic hymns in German; planetary charity double-check

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG and everybody,

My first question is probably to the commentariat: ;-)

1. Does anybody know a good translation of the Orphic hymns into German, preferably available online?

And to JMG: Thank you, as always, for the very valuable service you provide here.

2. A couple of weeks ago, I asked for planetary charity advice with regards to a wastewater issue, and you recommended Venus.

Since this is my very first planetary charity and I don‘t want to make things worse accidentally, I‘d appreciate it if you could double-check my plan, so to speak:

I‘m going to make 7 donations of an appropriate amount to a woman‘s shelter on the next seven Fridays in the hour of Venus. On the first Friday, I‘ll light a candle, invoke Venus with her Orphic Hymn (preferably in German, otherwise in English), ask for her help with this matter, as you suggested, and promise to make the donations, then I go ahead and make the first donation - either online, or putting the money into an envelope and carrying it to the mailbox. The next 6 weeks are the same, only that I don‘t need to make the promise anymore.

Would that be about right?

3. And these are probably silly questions, but you keep saying that other beings have their own individual personalities, just like humans, and I don‘t know what Venus is like in planetary charities and what her preferences are, so…

Will it make a difference whether I do the donation by online payment, or put the money into an envelope and post it at that time? Or whether I mix the payment methods in different weeks?

Also, if for some reason I can‘t make the first hour of Venus on a given Friday, would she be miffed if I do it in the second hour?

I know I wouldn‘t mind something like that, but some (human) people are sticklers for such small things, so I imagine some other beings might also put much weight on small details… :D

3. I am considering starting another planetary charity soon. Do you advise to finish one first, and then start the next, or would it be ok to do two at the same time? Does it matter in this case if they are to different planets or to the same?

Thank you very much. May you and your wife have a blessed week!

Milkyway

PS: To the poster who provided the context about the native Italian goddess Cloacina back when I asked:

Thank you very much, that was very interesting! I don‘t feel comfortable making this first planetary charity more complex than necessary, so will stick to invoking Venus and leave all the other layers aside.

I checked about the Myrtles, though, as I wouldn‘t mind planting one in the garden. ;-) Alas, they are not winter-hardy in our region. There are reasonably winter-hardy myrtles from other parts of the world (in particular one from Argentina, methinks), but they seem to differ quite a bit from the Mediterranean myrtle, so not sure if they would appeal to Mediterranean goddesses.

Re: Orphic hymns in German; planetary charity double-check

[ecosophia]

2) Yes, that's appropriate.

3) None of that matters, as far as I know. You might want to be more precise with Saturn, but Venus is a tolerant planet.

4) It doesn't seem to make any difference one way or another, but you might want to experiment and see what results you get.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I’d be grateful for your advice on a point to do with meditation.
For many years I had practised, broadly, Eastern-style meditation, with breath work. Since I encountered your work, I have discovered discursive meditation, and have tried to practise that, instead. However, and partly as a result of the OSA work I did, I have found that the most fruitful and powerful type of discursive meditation concerns myself and my (now quite long) past. My basic method is to reflect on personal worries and concerns, in the form of assertions, questions or denials about issues, and see what kind of physical response I get from the body and, in turn, what new thoughts arise as a consequence, and follow them. I use an adaptation of the Emotional Freedom technique, which will be known to some of the commentariat. I have found this useful and liberating, but my question is whether this practice is sufficiently close to the idea of discursive meditation to count as part of the daily rituals, or whether I should try to do something else as well, such as meditating on a more narrowly magical or spiritual subject?
Thank you.

[ecosophia]

There are two benefits to be gained from discursive meditation. The first is the training of the mind and will you get from the practice; the second is the insights you receive into the themes you choose for meditation. If you want to follow the path of occult training, you should plan on adding in a session of meditation focusing on occult or spiritual themes; if you simply want to continue in the OSA path, the work you're doing is probably quite adequate.

Abraxas & Alt-catholics

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
1.) Since I sometimes buy your books just out of curiosity/ or to support that your books will be available I ended up with the Conspiracy Book, which I read in a flipping from one double page to another way, i.e. not systematically. This way I happened on the Gnostics. Would you perchance know and willing to say something about it, why the Abraxas was viewed by the Gnostics as evil and the Knights Templar had him/it/? often as a signet ring? Different worldviews?

2.) Thanks again for Owen Merill as a hero: especially the phrase: he felt the pull of habits he spent years cultivating, helped me to get along to betterment (also how he goes from: Latin- huh?! to fluently reading it after some longish time)

3.) Do you know about the "Alt-Katholiken"? I'm not sure if they are only in Germany, but they try to adhere to catholicisms as before Vatican I IIRC, but have taken their practices further, as in e.g.: the first two women priests were ordained in 1998, marriage open to all sexes (i don't know the proper phrase here, meaning lesbians and homosexuals can marry)
You once wrote that if the Latin Mass would be stopped completely a force for good would leave Earth. To your knowledge, would something as what the Alt-Katholiken are doing keep that from happening?

4.) Since I sometimes buy books from you more or less at random I also have one example of the shadows of the ideas. Now that I have it, I'm loathe to let it go, but I' m not sure that I will be working with it in any foreseeable future. At this point I'd linke to preserve it maybe for my progenity.
I think the fresh smell of the Produktion has come off it already, and I wonder if I could do more that just wrap it in linnen? I would be prepared to pay a fee or buy something for that end, since I'm not yet trained in anything but wishful thinking ;) Should I post my E-Mail Adress?

Thanks again for your work!

Viridian Banal Scarab (the green ordinary dung beetle)*

Emily07

*did you know that there is a stone in I think Tut Ench Amuns Headdress that is a green Scarab? It is made from meteorite-glass.

Re: Abraxas & Alt-catholics

[ecosophia]

1) It's an oversimplification to think of Abraxas as a purely evil power. In Gnostic thought he's the demiurge Plato discussed in the Timaeus, the maker of the world of matter; the numerical value of the Greek letters that make up his name add to 365, so he's the lord of time; the more stridently world-hating Gnostics saw him as evil, but a great many others saw things in less simplistic terms -- thus the signet rings and talismans, which acknowledge his rulership over matter. As for the Templars, they were Gnostics -- I'm pretty sure, as noted in a couple of my books, that they encountered some of the surviving Gnostic traditions in Palestine during the Crusader occupation, and ended up adopting a Gnostic view of Christianity, though not a hardcore world-hating one. (I suspect they were Naassenes or something very close to that, but that's really just a guess.)

2) You're most welcome!

3) The Old Catholic Churches are an international presence; they schismed over the (to my mind absurd) claim of papal infallibility put in place by the first Vatican Council in 1870. There are various different flavors of them. If they've maintained the old Mass in one of its proper forms, yes, that could help a great deal -- and if more people join them as the Roman church sinks into decadence, that could also help.

4) That's a subject about which I know very little. Anyone else?

[thinking_turtle]

In the Arch Druid Report The Renewal of Religion you wrote:

It so happens that a large minority of human beings—up to a third, depending on the survey—report having at least one experience, at some point in their lives, that appears to involve contact with a disembodied intelligent being. Many of these experiences are spontaneous; others seem to be fostered by religious practices such as prayer, meditation, and ritual. Any number of causes have been proposed for these experiences, but I’d like to ask my readers to set aside the issue of causation for the moment and pay attention to the raw data of experience. There’s a crucial difference between the question “Does x happen?” and the question “Why does x happen?”—a difference of basic logical categories—and it’s a fruitful source of confusion and error to confuse them.

Whether they are caused by autohypnosis, undiagnosed schizophrenia, archetypes of the collective unconscious, the real existence of gods and spirits, or something else, these experiences happen to a great many people, they have done so as far back as records go, and religion is the traditional human response to them. If nobody had ever had the experience of encountering a god, an angel, a saint, an ancestor, a totem spirit, or what have you, it’s probably safe to say that we would not have religions. Human beings under ordinary conditions encounter two kinds or, if you will, worlds of experience: one that’s composed of things that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, which we might as well call the biosphere, and one composed of things that can be thought, felt, willed, and imagined, which we can call the noosphere (from Greek nous, “mind”). The core theory held by religions everywhere is that there is a third world, which we can call the theosphere, and that this is what breaks through into human consciousness in religious experience.

When I read that it made me think deeply. I had never thought to associate disembodied intelligent beings with religion. Or that just up to a third of people have that experience.

What suggestions could you offer to further explore this topic?

[ecosophia]

Okay, I'm gobsmacked. You write:

"I had never thought to associate disembodied intelligent beings with religion."

Ahem. Are you familiar with words such as "god" and "spirit"? Religion is the art and science of managing human relationships with disembodied intelligent beings, such as gods and spirits.

In terms of further reading, well, pick up the writings of any religion you care to name and see what they have to say about gods and spirits...

Path of the Earth

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I asked you on last October's open post about the Earth path: how deep does it go, what does it look like when one follows it all the way. Your reply was something like "yes, I should write something about that". Would it be too impatient of me to ask about it again at this time?

Context: me and my wife already live off the grid, with no car or TV, cooking with firewood or a solar oven, in a house we built with almost all natural materials. We've been trying to come up with a nature-based spiritual path of our own, given that there's basically no trace left of whatever existed here before (we live in Portugal). Any hints of what kind of direction(s) to try?

Thank you!

Re: Path of the Earth

[ecosophia]

My considered response is that this is not something for which anyone can lay down rules for anyone else. It sounds to me as though you're taking the Earth Path seriously, and since it leads different people in different directions, the important thing is not to try to figure out in advance how deep it goes and where it leads, but to follow your own earth path and see how deep you go and where you end up.

Giordano Bruno - De Magia

[stcathalexandria]

I ordered one of the Giordano Bruno - De Magia special editions from Black Letter Press and just got the notice that it is shipping out soon. I admit it was an impulse purchase and now I'm wondering, could you provide some context for this work in the history of magic?

Maybe there are others here who purchased it too?

If the possibility ever comes to have the Levi book we are studying made into a similar quality volume, I'd jump on that too.

Re: Giordano Bruno - De Magia

[ecosophia]

It's an eccentric offshoot of classic late Renaissance magic. Bruno's magical writings had next to no influence in his own time, but he drew on most of the classic writings from the Picatrix to Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy and then went in his own direction.

Astrology books

[stcathalexandria]

I hit submit and then remembered this other question -

On your podcasts about your new Pluto book (just purchased btw!), you mentioned your astrology books coming out later in 2022. One is a beginner's book and one is on mundane astrology, correct?

I'm trying to decide in the meantime if I want to do Chris Warnock's Horary or Electional Astrology course. I'm thinking Electional so I know good time to do things. Of course all his courses sound great!

Thank you for hosting another MM!

Re: Astrology books

[ecosophia]

Hmm. Neither of those books will be published in 2022 -- neither one is finished yet, and it usually takes a publisher around a year to get something into print -- and the first one isn't a general beginner's book; it's a book on using daily transits across your natal chart for astrological timing. In the meantime, since you've got a couple of years to wait, do one course and then the other!

Geomancy patterns

[(Anonymous)]

I'd like to ask for your take on some things that came up in a few recent geomancy charts.

1. What do you make of a chart in which all four nieces are the same figure?

I cast a shield chart to ask whether calling a certain acquaintance will lead to an opportunity to provide for my family and keep my commitments. The nieces all came up Conjunctio. Witnesses and Judge all Populus, consequently. (Which in this case I don't see how to take as either a Yes or a No.) Do you find any general pattern of meaning for such charts?

2. I had already noticed Populus coming up as Left Witness in particular in a few similar queries about my situation. Then the chart I just described. Then I asked a heavier question: Am I this year going to have to face a day when I can't provide for my family and keep my commitments?

Again I got Populus for both Ws and J. My immediate thought was that this is saying, "You and everybody else." That chilled me a bit. Though I'm wary I could be fooling myself, a la, "Yes, but don't feel bad--it's not the consequence of my own failures if it's happening to everyone regardless." Alternatively, I could hear that as, "If you don't do something about it, no one will."

I had asked for my answer in the house chart though, 12th house since it's really a question about my fears. So my answer was a Yes by mutation, though with favorable figures, so I'm meditating on & dealing with that. The Populus J + Ws did really catch my attention though. Does anything strike you about that?

The whole chart is: 1. F Minor 2. Pop 3. Conj 4. Amis 5. Carc 6. Amis 7. F Major 8. Pop
9. F Minor 10. F Minor 11. F Major 12. F Major
A lot going on, I think.

Thanks so much!

Jonathan.

Re: Geomancy patterns

[ecosophia]

1) In any shield chart where the witnesses and judge are Populus, I read it as "reply hazy, ask again later." Basically it's saying that nothing can be known about the subject at that moment.

2) See above. If you were reading it as a house chart -- I never interpret the same reading in both ways; that's a great way to end up confused -- it would be "yes, but it'll work out all right." With Fortuna Minor as your significator, it's pretty clearly saying that it'll be a temporary situation and that others will help keep things together until you're back on your feet.

CGD circumambulating

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I'm working on the CGD, and I have a small doubt. When you're talking about circumambulating the temple, you say to "cross the arms and lower the head after arriving at the east". Should this position be kept during the whole time I'm walking around?

Thanks you for the clarification and for all the support!

Kind wishes,

Fox

Re: CGD circumambulating

[ecosophia]

No, just cross the arms as you pass the east and then release the gesture.