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 thirty-second card in The Sacred Geometry Oracle. Card 32, Squaring the Circle, when upright is an omen of success and achievement; when reversed, it tells you that you're trying to accomplish something impossible and you need to accept that you won't get it. 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 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

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[ecosophia]

I'm going to take this question a couple of steps further into abstraction as, yes, that's a very personal thing to ask.

There are two positive things you can do with an incarnation, and you can do either or both of them. The first is to improve your karma by racking up favorable karma and clearing away the other kind. The second is to raise your level of consciousness. These are unrelated to each other -- you can have the best karma in the world and still be completely mired in the material mode of experience, and you can also raise your level of consciousness to quite some extent and still have a lot of wretched karma. Good karma doesn't keep you from being stuck on the merry-go-round of incarnation -- you need to raise your level of consciousness if you want to get off the merry-go-round and do something else.

Magic as I practice it -- theurgic magic -- is about getting off the merry-go-round. Specifically, its goal is to reach the point that you don't have to go through further material incarnations and you don't have to forget each life when it's over. There are many modes of existence above the material level, far more than we are capable of imagining; material incarnation is more or less the elementary school of the soul. I've been there for a while and got held back in a big way for good and sufficient reason -- yes, souls can definitely flunk a grade -- and at this point I'm interested in doing something else with the rest of my existence.

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[(Anonymous)]

Just to clarify, do you mean that I can leave the merry-go-round with some amount of bad karma? The merry-go-round is so tiresome...

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[ecosophia]

Yes. You'll have to deal with it on the next level up, and it's going to hurt one way or another, but you don't have to have a completely blank slate to make the leap.

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[(Anonymous)]

Would I be correct to think the distance you need to rise to finish material incarnation increases the more bad karma you have to work off?

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[ecosophia]

Nope. It's as though you were running a marathon, and your karma is a backpack full of lead weights. The more weight you've got, the harder it is to run, but the marathon doesn't get any longer.

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[(Anonymous)]

Will we have out-of-body Magic Mondays when you go off the marry-go-round?

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[ecosophia]

Sure. You just have to project your astral body and then rise high enough on the planes to show up. Mind you, if you can do that, you won't need my advice. ;-)

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP, but I have a couple of follow-up questions, if I may. Can that raising of the consciousness be accomplished by practices other than magic? I'm thinking here of serious devotion to a religious path, for instance. And can bad karma be eliminated religious means such as confession, penance, etc.?

Thanks as always,
Ryan M.

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[ecosophia]

Yes and yes. Magic is only one of many ways to raise your level of consciousness; any religious, meditative, or mystical path will do it equally well. In the same way, most religions have well-developed methods for working off bad karma; confession and penance are among the methods that Christianity provides for that purpose. If you're a Christian you should certainly make frequent use of them.

Re: What do you expect for your next incarnation?

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you very very much for this answer. And thank you ever so much for the FHR, and Order of Spiritual Alchemy that you have been posting. I am writing in part because I am worried about you. You have been giving hints about not being here. And You have been working at a break need speed. I hope that you are alright.

You have helped me and are helping me now in these my last years. I am 70.

I have always accepted that there is magic and spirits and other types of beings but I have wondered why do I care? I have never really been interested in magic. On the other hand I have been interested in developing my consciousness, but have never really had a clue how, or believed methods I read. I longed for the insights that seemed to be behind Herman Hesse or even Carl Jung.

On one hand I feel like I have always been here. On the other hand many a time especially when things go wrong and I become depressed I wish I was not in this life. (I think that comes from abuse in childhood. My mother used to justify her abuse with you chose to be born by me. Which I did not believe, but I now think may or may not be true.)

I have recently been ill and am now almost completely recovered and am going to begin the FHR and Spirtual Alchemy, because I now see the reason for them

But, as I stated, esepcially as I get near70, I have been wondering over and over Why? Why bother? Your answer: Karma and consiousness development, has given me a good reason that resonates, makes sense and matters to me.

When I was younger I was much like Goethe’s Faust learning everything, and not seeing any point to life, or even wanting to live. I was trying to find a solution to my pain which I did not find. I briefly looked into the occult did not find what I wanted and left. (What I found was not very good.) And I did not want to make any deals with the devil.

You have been repeatedly saying we enter this life for a certain purpose, or to learn something. And I have always thought I don’t know why I am here, I have learned absolutely nothing that made being in this life worth being here.

Instead, my whole life I have invented reasons, which usually involved other people, as a reason to stay. For instance I have a son, therefore (when he was young) how could I abandon him and what right did I have to do so? If I could not take it, how could I expect that he could?

But my illness, which was perhaps caused for this reason, made me realize (1): I also need to look after myself, instead of depending on others to do it. (I am first born of six children and like caring for and have always looked after others, but I am rarely, if not never with people who reciprocate. This has caused me to betray myself over and over, and not look after my own interests.) And (2): I need to not be so cavalier about not wanting to live. I need to treat my living in this incarnation with more respect.

That does not mean I do not still get depressed and wish I was not in this life. But now sometimes I catch myself at it and say Stop, or that is a lie. And I do stop it.

My son came when I was near dying, I had not seen him in 14 years, and he was very distressed and very insistent I continue to live. He stayed six months and I have recovered.

But I need a reason to live more than just my son. And more than my writing, which also gives me a reason.

Developing my conciousneess and improving my karma in the years that remain, is a pretty good reason. And may in fact be why I am here.

It took me long enough to learn this and it is still hard to hold onto. There has been nuch pain along the way. But I have assembled the materials, everything but the pentagram, and it is coming. I am beginning the practice.

Thank you for giving it to me.

An addendum: I used to think that in Goethe’s Faust the angels cheated when they pleaded on behalf of Faust’s soul. I thought Faust made a bargain, he should have to keep it. Or else he was or the angels were cheating. But now I realize, at least this is my interpretation, it was the devil himself in the first place who was cheating by setting up the deal or the arrangement.

As long as Faust did not want to live, his soul already belonged to the devil, and there was nothing further the Devil needed to do. (His soul by definition belonged to the devil because he believed in nothing).

But as soon as Faust wanted to live, then wanting to live, and believing in purpose meaning was by its very nature Godly. And not the Devil.

Therefore the Devil had constructed his game, or deal, to make it seem the Devil had won, at the very moment he had lost. He was cheating. But if Faust or the Angels had accepted or believed in his cheat, then they might have turned from believing, to despair and disbelief.

And by that manner the Devil’s cheat might obtain a last second win. (when actually it was at that moment he had no right to it. This is why I think in the Catholic church you may gave been evil but if you repent and believe in God at the end.)

Does that make sense?