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-seventh card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 27, The Golden Proportion, when upright indicates that you can expect perfect success; when reversed, it tells you that your own actions have brought about your failure. 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 working with 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)]

a) I've had a somewhat odd observation that I've been mulling over lately: the dream of Re-enchanting the World followed a pattern I've come to recognize, since it pops up all over the place in the history of the 20th Century: it came on with a loud bang in the late 1950s and early 1960s with an enormous amount of hype; seemed like the wave of the future for a while; and then slowly trickled away, before completely imploding over the past decade and a half or so. In other words, it patterns as a Plutonian Phenomena. This got me thinking about it, because it seems like it shouldn't be: in fact, it's opposed to the Plutonian, but as I thought about it, a lot of things opposed to the Plutonian seem to pattern as Plutonian.

Television criticism thrived in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which fizzled out by the end of the 1980s; the counterculture of the 1960s; the Appropriate Tech Movement of the 1970s; the Transition Towns movement of the 2000s; New Urbanism in the 1990s. This seems to me to be a striking feature of the Plutonian: during his reign as a planet, he appears to have ruled over the attempts to resist his influence. This irony, however, unfolds logically from the nature of the planet: Pluto is the planet of rejecting the cosmic order, and during his reign as a planet, he was part of that order: so naturally, he ruled over attempts to resist the rejection of the cosmic order!

This also explains the somewhat odd way that so many people who, during the Plutonian Era, seemed to be resisting the Plutonian are now clinging to it so desperately, while many who seemed more Plutonian have let go, since they were actually less Plutonian.

Does this line of reasoning make sense to you? It has all kinds of weird implications I'm only beginning to tease apart, but if it holds then it is a very substantial realization and makes a lot of sense of loads of other things (ex: why so many occultists in the Plutonian Era veered into Plutonian things).

b) I've also been wondering about the moral collapse and the descent into demonolatry over the past fifteen years or so, and realized it ties in neatly with Pluto fading out: it's common when dealing with Pluto for people to pretend to believe in something, by expressing it in the most extreme form. As Pluto fades out, people are clinging to it, and trying to pretend they still believe there is no cosmic order. I can't think of any better way than by rejecting all morality, and summoning demons. It may not make the universe into ugly chaos, but it does a wonder in making their own lives into it....

[ecosophia]

1) That makes enormous sense. Pluto is all about rebellion and schism, and so it would follow that attempts to rebel against Plutonian influence would be, in effect, controlled opposition: "what you hate, you imitate" taken to a new level. The trajectory of beginning with a bang and ending with a whimper is typically Plutonian; so is the tendency to fixate on utopian fantasies rather than simply choosing something to do, and doing it. It'll be interesting to see, as the Plutonian influence fades out, if that habit fades with it.

2) Yes, quite possibly so.

[(Anonymous)]

Happy Alban Heruin!
A bit of Green Wizardry with apologies for the intrusion into the usual discussion of magic… hey… didn’t think through, did I? Anyway – In response to your question to me in your post, “The Twilight of Empire”, on 15 June: Yes, I’m already working my way through the recommended material. The Food Conspiracy Cookbook is available for free at archive dot org. That the first line of the dedication is my given name in all caps with an exclamation point is, I suspect, a sign that you’ve got me pointed in the right direction. Many thanks! As far as checking in with functioning co-ops…the Midwest has a few large ones, but neighbors divvying up staples and produce might be a lost art. For now…
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it.

[jprussell]

Good evening,

To all who observe it, a happy Father's Day, and a happy and blessed early Summer Solstice to anyone who celebrates that! Otherwise, I hope your summer is off to a pleasant start, and thanks for sharing your knowledge here.

To share this week: I asked a while back if JMG had any knowledge of Oswald Spengler (of The Decline of the West fame) being an occultist, due to many references to occult and occult-adjacent sources. It would seem the answer is a pretty definitive "no", though. From page 392 of the 2021 Arktos edition of Volume II:

"The Isis-cult in Republican Rome was something very different both from the emperor-worship that succeeded it and from the deeply earnest Isis-religion of Egypt; it was a religious pastime of high society, which at times provoked public ridicule and at times led to public scandal and the closing of the cult-centres. The Chaldean astrology was in those days a fashion, very far removed from the genuine Classical belief in oracles and from the Magian faith in the might of the hour. It was "relaxation," a "let's pretend." And, over and above this, there were the numberless charlatans and fake prophets who toured the towns and south with their pretentious rites to persuade the half-educated into a renewed interest in religion. Correspondingly, we have in the European-American world of today the occultist and theosophist fraud, the American Christian Science, the untrue Buddhism of drawing-rooms, the religious arts-and-crafts business (brisker in Germany than even in England) that caters for gropus and cults of Gothic or Late Classical or Taoist sentiment."

(Bolding mine)

As for a question, I was a bit late asking this on the last Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic post: 1) If I’m remembering correctly, you’ve characterized much (most?) of what occurs between incarnations as astral in nature, which implies some kind of (semi-?) persistent astral vehicle for the individuality. In Chapter 12 of the DaRoHM, though, it seems that some/all of our astral “body” is associated with the personality of a given incarnation and is left behind and no longer inhabited by the individuality/soul behind it.

So, I suppose my question is: what’s happening here, as far as we know? Does the astral “body” split into that which is left behind and that which stays with us? As we better reach the higher (mental, spiritual) planes, does less of our astral vehicle persist between incarnations?

Thanks very much for your time and care,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

Thanks for spotting the Spengler quote. I'd forgotten that, but it's utterly in character, and shares both his strengths and his weaknesses: that is to say, he's right to recognize the identity between late classical occultism and late modern occultism, and wrong to dismiss both movements as cavalierly as he does. As for your question, the astral body persists for quite some time after death. The first death, the death of the material body, starts the process of leaving incarnation; the second death, the shedding of the etheric body, usually happens a few days after that. That's when the real work of the afterlife begins, because the soul is then embodied in its astral body and mental sheath, and has to process all its experiences during life -- and this takes place on the astral plane, through the astral body. In the course of that processing, the astral body dissolves, its forces returning to their sources in the different sub-planes of the astral, but all its experiences are passed on to the soul and become part of the enduring knowledge of the individuality, the part of you that survives from life to life. Once that's finished, the dead person spends a more or less brief time in contact with the mental plane, and then descends into incarnation again, picking up new astral, etheric, and material bodies in the process.

Blessing Candles & The Lake

[cs2]

Happy Summer Solstice!

1. Does a tamer cream as opposed to stark white (switching to beeswax), or putting it in a lantern, lessen the efficacy of a blessing candle?

2. We have moved next to a large lake that is wild and powerful. I walk along the shore and she washes me clean etherically (at least that feels like what is happening). She also wipes away bad moods. Even when I'm back home, if I have angry thoughts (I didn't want to move here) the lake will pop into my mind, definitely from the outside. Someone (my HGA?) is telling me to walk at the lake and let it banish my anger. She is dangerous in a practical sense because she makes her own (severe) weather patterns and has a strong rip current, but on a magical level, is there anything dangerous to spending such close time with a lake like this? Thank you.

Re: Blessing Candles & The Lake

[ecosophia]

1) Not at all. I use beeswax candles by preference fo rthis.

2) Not as long as you're respectful. You seem to have established a good relationship with her, and as long as you respect that, that relationship should be a blessing for you. What you've described, btw, is the way the ancients felt about deities generally...

Mundane Astrology

[k_a_nitz]

(1) I've subscribed to your subscribe star and as part of working through the lessons I've drawn up a work-in-progress 2022 Aries Ingress and Cancer Ingress for Wellington, New Zealand (both at my site if any NZ readers are interested). The Cancer Ingress was quite fascinating as 7 of the houses had planets in their rulership. Now, the Aries Ingress applied for the whole year, and the Cancer Ingress applied for the nine months, thus modifying the influence of the Aries Ingress. So for the next ingress, what guidance would you give for thinking about its influence relative to that of the Aries and Cancer ingresses? Should one be given more weight than the others?

(2) On the translation side, I am about a third of the way through Carl du Prel's edition of Immanuel Kant's Lectures on Psychology - du Prel's introduction makes a very strong case for Kant having arrived at some very esoteric views, and that Kant's interest in Swedenborg was driven by his desire for evidence to back up his own intuitions. If you or any readers are really keen on seeing an English translation of any other untranslated German works published before 1925 by authors who died before 1951 (i.e. out of copyright in most countries), then I can add them to my list for next year.

Re: Mundane Astrology

[ecosophia]

1) That's a subtle matter. Broadly speaking, the Aries ingress always takes precedence, and each succeeding ingress is more subordinate than those before -- but a strong planet in a later ingress can overrule a weak planet in a prior one. Practice will teach how you to read this.

2) Delighted to hear this! I wonder -- can you find a copy of Die Wiedergeburt, das innere Wahrhaftige Leben (also published under the title Das Buchstabenbuch) by Karl Kolb? It's the best source for the letter-mysticism practiced by J.B. Kerning (pen name of Johann Baptist Krebs), which influenced a vast range of European occult traditions in the 19th and 20th centuries.

My hands

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have been practicing magic including a daily SOP for 8 years now and have had really surprising benefits from it. At least, I was surprised.

This last year or so, I have noticed a sort of full feeling in the palms of my hands and a slight tingle. I was afraid it was a symptom of illness so I really got to grips with my blood sugar and am only eating one meal a day and that, very low in carbs. My hands feel the same even though I have experienced many other health benefits.

Is this tingling an effect of my magical practice?

Pink Pestilent Neanderthal

Re: My hands

[ecosophia]

Yes, you're starting to develop the ability to feel etheric force. Don't worry about it, and for heaven's sake don't obsess too much about diet. (That way lies a range of long term difficulties; remember that worrying constantly about food will do you as much damage as anything you eat.)

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

I have two question for this Monday:

1) When doing the SOP, the light descending during the Opening is bright white, but the light ascending from the Earth is golden, and when the two mix, the effect is like sunlight in late afternoon. Is the light ascending supposed to be white, too, in other words, am I doing this wrong? I didn’t consciously (as far as I remember) make it golden when I started doing the SOP, and now it appears that way all on its own.

2) I want to start with discursive meditation, and it occurred to me when reading the instructions that I’ve been doing this for a long time, but in writing. Is it imperative to do it solely in your mind, or is journaling an acceptable method, too (for the record, I’m willing to try it without the props and expect it to be quite the challenge)? And can you read up on the subject of your meditation beforehand, or are you supposed to start with only what you know and can conclude yourself? (That's technically a third question, oops...)

Periwinkle Amorous Llama

[ecosophia]

1) You're not doing it wrong. If that's how the light appears to you, go with it.

2) Journaling is also a good practice, but I recommend a daily discursive meditation as well as journaling. Of course you can read up on the subject beforehand -- better still, use the book you're reading on the subject as a source of meditation themes. You don't have to extract everything in your meditation from some inappropriate orifice or other... ;-)

People Who Aren't People

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, I have a friend with highly advanced energetic senses. She tells me she can sense health problems in people and other, less definable spiritual qualities. One thing she told me in particular is that there are "people who aren't people" roaming the world. They look like people but she perceives no human energetic signature from them at all. I asked her if she'd ever tried to identify or investigate one of these "people" upon seeing them, but she said she finds them very unsettling and had a strong intuition that doing so would be a bad idea.

Does this square with anything you or any readers have experienced? Could these be something disguising itself as human, or actual humans subject to some kind of possession or who are able to etherically mask themselves in some way? Thanks for hosting these Q&As.

Re: People Who Aren't People

[ecosophia]

That doesn't fit anything I've experienced, but clairvoyance is a complicated thing, and different people with energetic senses experience the world in very different ways.

An Easy Simple Meditation

[(Anonymous)]

So I’ve settled back into practicing a form of meditation I learned a few years ago from Tony Mierzwicki’s book “Graeco-Egyptian Magick.” You sit and envisage the seven traditional planets about you, each in turn: the Moon before you, Mercury to the left, and so on. Jupiter is in the heart center and Saturn overhead. While you imagine each planet as an appropriately colored luminous sphere, you chant each of the Classical Greek vowels as long as you can sustain it, one vowel for each planet. I’ve found three cycles of this practice is the basic minimum, seven is about my limit.

For a year or two I practiced this, then went off it in order to try discursive meditation. That’s where I went off the rails. I couldn’t do it. As soon as I try to think discursively about some symbolically rich image - say, the Fool from the Rider Waite tarot - I lose interest. My mind is much more interested in images themselves, and how beautiful they are - their vibrant colors, how they are composed - rather than in what they symbolize or represent in some allegorical way. So my meditation practice went to hell.

While visualizing the aforementioned planetary spheres, I sometimes think of the attributes of the gods appearing within them, or - more rarely - their faces or figures. They seem to glow in my mind’s eye. But I don’t particularly look for meanings in them. If the gods feel disposed to send me some such realization, I’ll be paying attention.

I suppose this may mean that I won’t be recollecting past lives any time soon, or growing a mental body all that fast, nor ascending in a rush up the great chain of being. But then I never asked to become an enlightened being in this lifetime. All I ever wanted was to make nice pictures and find some gratification in doing so.

When I visualize the sphere of Venus, I imagine a sphere of rose quartz. At first I felt this a bit too pink-bubbly; but when I visualize her in green, the other obvious option, it makes me think of leaves of infested plants I’ve seen and I get images of giant insects. So I’m sticking with rose quartz.

Tony says to picture Saturn as black. But in terms of visualization a black sphere hanging in the blackness of space is a non-starter; so I picture Saturn as a deep indigo, rather like a black light in an old-time poster shop.

The location of Jupiter at the heart center reminds me of the hyper cube at the center of a tesseract. I fancy some kind of more-than-three-dimensional spatial matrix is being referenced here.

Re: An Easy Simple Meditation

[ecosophia]

Okay; so? If there was a question in there, I missed it.

2 + Petunia = American Ruling Class

[(Anonymous)]

Or so thinks the writer of this article. I’m still digesting it (it’s long), but since the topic has come up lately, here it is, courtesy of Rod Dreher:

https://thejosias.com/2022/06/16/the-politics-of-hell/

Re: 2 + Petunia = American Ruling Class

[ecosophia]

So noted. I have to confess that long disquisitions about Catholic theology are not my go-to resource for much of anything, but others may find it more to their taste.

A couple of questions ...

[australiandreamer]

1) I received this in my email the other day ... "Greetings From The Illuminati Order. Bringing the poor, the needy and the talented to the limelight of fame, riches, power and security.
Do you want to change your life completely for good and wish to be rich and successful in your business? Are you talented and wish to be famous? Do you want to be protected spiritually and physically? All these and more you will get in a twinkle of an eye when you join the great Illuminati Order. Do you agree to be a member of the Illuminati New World order? Reply YES! via email:"
Even before I started reading here that would have been sad but so totally not how it works! (I didn't send an email)

That is not a question just wanted to share...


2) If you spend three months working into a path and then you do nothing for three months ... when you return do you pick up where you left off, do the whole thing over in the same time frame, do the first one and see how it feels and if all good do the second etc or ...?


3) I recently came across the book 'Not in His Image (15th Anniversary Edition)' by John Lamb Lash ... is it a worthy read or a don't bother or ... ?

Re: A couple of questions ...

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, I've seen those. Funny.

2) You go through an abbreviated version of the work you did over the first three months, starting from scratch but advancing as quickly as seems appropriate through the different stages.

3) I haven't read it. Anyone else?

The compact version please.

[vitranc]

Good morning JMG,

I have an assortment of loosely connected questions.

1. Still thinking on the W.E. Butt.er’s How to read Aura. I have been contemplating clairvoyance and it’s development. He wrote that all physical senses are a variation of one sense. And so all psychic senses are also all variations of its own sense. And so you start with the basic and develop it further. It got me thinking, that he might be speaking just of etheric senses. And astral senses are a separate thing. Or do his methods promote both?

2. I have been tinkering as of late intent on making my own DMH stones. It is just when I go online and search for druid stones the results are standing stones. Would it be a bother to ask for a picture, description or example of the stones used by druids in DMH?

Best regards,
V

Re: The compact version please.

[ecosophia]

1) His methods promote both, though they're mostly aimed at developing astral senses.

2) Here's an example:


That is to say, any small pebble of any kind is suitable. Don't make this more difficult than it is! Just gather some small rocks you like.

dead person won't stop bothering

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

When my wife was a teenager, her best friend killed herself. That girl had a lot of problems apparently. My wife is convinced she was a abused by her father.

It left my wife with the feeling that she didn't do enough to help.

And even today from time to time, my wife has nightmares about the girl. At one time, she was afraid the ghost of that girl would occupy our unborn child.

Is there anything I might be able to do?

Re: dead person won't stop bothering

[ecosophia]

It's very unlikely that the ghost of the girl is still arond; having died as a teenager, she'll have needed only a modest time to process her memories and go back into incarnation. My guess is that your wife still has a lot of stress and tangled emotions around that experience. She might consider doing journaling to sort through her memories and feelings, so she can let them go.

Syllabus on medieval metaphysics

[vitranc]

Good morning JMG,

I thought I would ask this here separate. One of the commenters on the other blog asked about a syllabus on medieval metaphysics (I assume she found a long lost family ring, but lacks a friendly mentor :-) ). I thought that, if it is short enough for a question here, I would ask here about it. It might help the budding sorceresses out there.

Best regards,
V

Re: Syllabus on medieval metaphysics

[ecosophia]

The two of you aren't the only people who've asked for that! Let me do some research and see if I can post something.

Sul, from last week

[tumeric]

Some information to Cliff who posted last week enquiring about Sul in this post.
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/186249.html?thread=30951305#cmt30951305

The following prayer to Sul was posted ages ago, which I've kept (thanks readoldthings).
I've memorised it and include it in my prayers occasionally, and while my prayer practice is very novice I do feel some presence.
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/85690.html?thread=8201658#cmt8201658

I hope this prayer is what you're looking for.

Derailed meditation

[revert2mean]

Hi JMG,

I've been meditating following your instructions. It's been great. I've been more purposeful and able to keep my thoughts focussed on my own concerns much better. My intuition's been VERY chatty, but I guess that's not surprising.

However, I was suddenly overcome by a very vivid image of The Hermit from the Smith-Waite tarot, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness which I couldn't shake. I'm not much prone to sadness generally. Do you think something was messing with me, or is this some sort of genuine presentiment?

Re: Derailed meditation

[boccaderlupo]

Just a note of weird coincidence: I recently (about a day or so ago) was struck by this same image, and a sort of general melancholy has ensued. And I'm not prone to sadness, either.

Axé,
Fra' Lupo

Karma of a mage & SOP

[emily07]

Dear JMG,
1) you wrote that when one becomes a competend mage (after three lifetimes) the last one ends up messy (as in e.g. a defect floor fan in a monastery does the job). I forgot to ask: what happens next? Ascension to enlightened something-something ( with the ability to spell things correctly in English ;)) or on to the next lessons? E.g. like the sentence of one of the magic the gathering trading-card game: "if magic is your crutch cast it aside and learn to walk without it."?

2.) To me the SOP circulations let me think of the three anatomical tubes of the ear for balancing. Would you/ what you have learned so far, let you think that there is a connection? And if yes, is it willed? I wonder because for me it defenitely has a quality that has to do with my balance.

Thank you very much!

P.s: I wonder, is the following of interest to you? There is the fairy tale of Wassilisa the most beautiful (Wassilissa, die Wunderschöne), who is sent to Baba Yaga to get a rekindle of the herdfire. Baba Yaga supposedly lives in a house made of human bones. In " Der große Bildatlas der Archäologie", Orbis Verlag 1985 (originaly published in French) on page 32 it features a Foto of a (caved in) hut made solely out of "Mammutknochen" (Bones of mammoth). M.I.Gladkikh did the excavation and apparently several were found in Mezhiritch/Ukraine (the book of course being printed in 1985 says found in UDSSR).

Re: Karma of a mage & SOP

[ecosophia]

1) The three-lifetimes thing doesn't just make you a competent mage, it's the process of completing your work in material incarnation. What happens next is that you enter the mode of existence that Druid philosophy calls Gwynfydd, the luminous life. From that point on you no longer have to go through the cycle of death and rebirth, so you can proceed to learn the lessons of the next stage of spiritual evolution with a little less interruption. It's not heaven, and there's a lot of hard work still to come, but it's an improvement.

2) Interesting. I don't know if the connection was intended, but you can certainly meditate on that and see where it takes you.

3) Hmm! Yes, I've heard of the mammoth bone hut. If that's the case, we may actually have a contemporary portrait of Baba Yaga...


This was found in a burial in that same site, iirc, and the skull of the old woman who was buried there showed the same kind of sagging face that's in the image. (Last I heard, it's the oldest known portrait of an individual human being.)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not even sure if this counts as a "magic" question, but it's somewhat on topic.

Do cockroaches have souls? Mosquitos? Ticks? Fleas? Annoying insects in general? Was wondering about the karmic consequences of murdering pest insects.

-deathcap

[ecosophia]

Every living thing has a soul, including plants. When you bite into a raw tomato, it screams. (You can detect this with an EEG.) All things live by killing other living things; carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, plants choke out competing plants and send their roots in search of the nutritious remains of the dead. That's the nature of life on this planet. You literally can't take a breath without dooming countless microbes to be devoured by the white blood cells in your lungs.

Since that's the case, getting squeamish about squashing a mosquito is kind of a waste of emotional effort. My rule, when it comes to insects, is that anything harmful to me, if it comes into my space, dies as quickly and mercifully as I can manage. Anything not harmful to me gets put outside. Weirdly, some insects seem to have figured this out: moths who get into my apartment will land on a wall near me and wait very patiently while I get a little cup and a piece of cardboard, then hop into the cup and stay there until I can release them out the window.

[randomactsofkarmasc]

On the last Levi book club post, jongoddard commented on the scythe's handle being divided into Golden Sections. I found that quite intriguing and have meditated on it and then started researching (because the math is so cool!) and definitely have a better understanding of Kronos ("to whom perfection and decrease belong"). Are there any resources you recommend that include the Golden Section/Proportion in a cosmogony, other than Timaeus? I found one (https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/11/1/98/html), but I feel like I don't understand everything about this that I'm supposed to.

[ecosophia]

How fascinating! No, I don't know of any other examples, but then I haven't gone looking for it. Thank you for the article -- that's fascinating stuff.

Divination sucess rate; planetary charity consent; divination: confirmation questions?

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning,

And a blessed start into the week for you and your wife, JMG! Thank you very much for the opportunity to ask questions again.

1. Since divination is done by humans, there will inevitably be a certain amount of “wrong” predictions, due to mistakes, personal biases, bad days, etc. (Even leaving aside the question whether an oracle in itself can be infallible.)

In your experience, what would be the success rate (rate of correct predictions) of a “good” diviner?

(Just asking for a guess from experience here, or even for a rough range if that’s the best you can give :-) )

2. A question about occult ethics:

Is it ok to do planetary charity for issues concerning others without getting their explicit consent?

Example: For a successful job search of one’s spouse - this would concern the spouse, but also oneself/the whole family (in terms of money, spare time, overall happiness, …). Would planetary charity in this case require consent from the spouse?

3. In wrapping up a divination e.g with the Geometry Oracle, is it a good idea to ask one last question along the lines of “did I get the reading right” - a confirmation question?

And if anybody here has tried that/is doing it, are you using the full range of your oracle’s potential answers, or are you going with a simple yes/no divination (e.g. picking one card of the Geometry Oracle: upright = yes, reversed = no)?

(I’m currently playing with such “confirmation questions” and am not yet sure whether they are doing good or harm - would love to get your perspectives, opinions or experiences on them).

Thanks,

Milkyway

Re: Divination sucess rate; planetary charity consent; divination: confirmation questions?

[jprussell]

On 3), I have not tried with the Sacred Geometry Oracle, but I have occasionally asked such questions of the Runes and Ogham. I have more usually found it useful to ask something like "what do I most need to know further about this reading?" or "Is alternative A the right interpretation rather than B?" Such questions usually take the form of a second three-card spread something like "context, interpretation, outcome", or else draw one more card/stave. When I have tried more baldly asking "did I get this right, yes/no?" I more often seem to get more equivocal answers. I tend to chalk this up to the spiritual powers I ask for help in such matters telling me to suck it up and learn to go with my own interpretations, but that might vary depending on what oracle you're using and/or any powers you pray to for help.

Cheers,
Jeff

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for providing this forum and your valuable insights.

I recently began experimenting with a contemplative tradition alongside my longtime magical practice, but quickly found the two are not compatible: the contemplative tradition effectively overwhelmed my former practice, rendering me incapable of doing the work, both physically and mentally. This was frustrating, as the work was maturing and delivering powerful results after many years.

I performed Tarot divination (Rider-Waite) on the subject, and would like a gut check on the reading.

I pondered whether I should continue with my usual ritual practice.

Result: Wheel of Fortune, Temperance (reversed), Emperor

The Wheel of Fortune I associate with the ritual itself, as the card layout has some similarities with the ritual space. My view of this was that the disharmony/incongruity between the two practices (as represented by the second card) would give way to a kind of power/triumph, as represented by the third.

Unsure, I reshuffled and asked again. Result: Temperance (reversed), Emperor, Magician (reversed). The repetition of the cards was curious--it seemed to be a refining of the previous response, suggesting (to me) that this power/triumph would lead to a block in my magical practices (third card).

Finally I considered whether I should continue with the contemplative practice. Result: Devil (reversed), Wheel of Fortune, Lovers (reversed). If we assume the Wheel of Fortune is representative of my ritual practice, it seems to suggest that if I proceed on that road I will not find fulfillment.

All of these taken together seemed to suggest, to me, that I ought to for now abandon the ritual practice and continue with the other road. Does this seem correct? Any other angles here that you can see?

Thank you once again for your time and thoughtfulness.

[ecosophia]

Always treat the reading as an answer to the question you asked. Thus your third reading is a clear "no" -- you asked whether you should continue with the contemplative practice, and you have a very negative reading. Don't redefine the reading after the fact to be about the ritual practice!

Also, it's a bad idea to ask the same question more than once. That's disrespectful to the oracle. It also usually means that you don't like the outcome of the first reading.

In this case, it certainly looks as though you decided in advance that you wanted to give up the ritual practice and take up the contemplative practice. The cards are trying to tell you not to do that -- compare the answer to the first question to the answer to the third. Will you listen to them?

Luck?

[(Anonymous)]

What is 'luck' exactly?

Is it just another way of describing the results of having earned good karma in the past(or past lives)?

Re: Luck?

[ecosophia]

The term "luck" is a dumpster into which lots of stuff has been heaped up. Luck includes good karma from this life, good karma from past lives, ordinary prudence and skill, and sheer random chance, among other things.

Herne

[lukedodson]

Sending my best wishes for Midsummer to JMG and all the commentariat!

I would be interested to know if there are any good occultist and/or scholarly sources on the character of Herne the Hunter. He is a spirit that I have felt a strong pull towards for the past 3 years or so. His position within the fragments of late-medieval English folklore makes it unclear to me within which pantheon he would best fit - I have toyed with the idea of assembling a uniquely English Druidical pantheon around him, as he blends so well elements from Cernunnos and Woden.

Re: Herne

[ecosophia]

Hmm! That's not something I've looked into, so I don't happen to know any sources. Anyone else?

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any particular considerations facing people who have attention deficit disorders who want to practice occultism? I have been practicing occultism for several years now with good results, but I may have an attention deficit disorder, which would explain why focus has been a particular challenge.

[ecosophia]

It's going to take you more work to get good at some things than other people have to put in, but that's the only thing I've noticed. This is something I've had to deal with, too -- I have mild-to-moderate ADD as well as Aspergers syndrome (and a couple of other neurological issues as well).

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning Sir and Druid,

Three things:
1. Somehow, every card in this series has been relevant to my current situation for the given week, be it upright or reversed.

2. When I commute to work, I would as a matter of course ask at the beginning "How will this shift turn out to be?". Then I will pay close attention to ebbs and flows of traffic as well as my own reactions to said traffic. Doing this kind of commuting divination predicted for me the order in which events occur during the work shift. Paying attention to my own reactions during the commute led me to modify my own actions during the work shift to be more fruitful or at least less self conflicting. Is there any literature on such traveller's divination, divining the course of events at their destination by events in the journey to said destination?

3) What is the deal with Pachamama and traditionalist catholics? They react as if its the immanent sign of the conversion of the church to the great satan. Its like they ignore the extensive history of catholic conversion by syncretism, especially the dozens of female deities converted to "The Virgin of X" and other local deities converted to "St. X of Y". Also what is Pachamama? This figure seems like a catchall neopaganist name for the divine feminine of the South American pursuation.

[ecosophia]

1) Hmm! Interesting.

2) I know people who do various forms of it but I've never seen a book on the subject. It seems to be a subset of omen reading. I was taught by one of my teachers to do an omen walk -- just start walking, and treat everything you encounter as though it's a message in response to your question.

3) You'll have to ask a trad Catholic about that! I have no idea why that's got them all aflutter.