Dydd Llun Hudol

[ecosophia]

(Yes, that's "Magic Monday" in Welsh. Those are also Welsh Druids in the photo.  I'm doing the Brythonic Celtic languages as this month's theme.) 

Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

With that said, have at it!

This Magic Monday is now closed to new questions. See you next week!

Comments

Complete magical systems

[(Anonymous)]

Hello John. I know you are mostly into Golden Dawn and Druidry, but you are also an occult scholar and probably have friends practicing other systems. With that said, do you know of any complete, balanced magical systems which were published in book form and are not heavily influenced by the GD? And if there are many, could you please list at least some of them? Thank you!

Re: Complete magical systems

[ecosophia]

There are such systems but very, very few of them have been published in book form. One of the reasons that the Golden Dawn and its offshoots are so popular is that they're basically open source at this point. I do know of one such system, which is the one I published in The Druidry Handbook, The Druid Magic Handbook, The Druid Grove Handbook, The Gnostic Celtic Church, and my forthcoming two-volume book The Dolmen Arch; it's not derived from the Golden Dawn system at all, and is derived from the traditions of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA).

[marcu]

Dear Mr Greer,

I just wanted to check if there is any concern with making use of another Tarot Deck aimed at personal growth and introspection (and not at divination) in addition to the exercises in Learning Ritual Magic? I will be using one of the recommended decks for the divination exercises in the book.

[ecosophia]

You can certainly do something else alongside the work in Learning Ritual Magic, and if you're doing different work, it's a good idea to use a different tarot deck -- that way your subconscious will know which set of work you're doing, and respond appropriately.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG
One of my favourite divination systems to use, besides tarot, is I Ching. would i be correct in assuming that since it is related to geomancy it can be incorporated in the golden dawn system of magic?
Also, did you know that there is a ternary equivalent to the I Ching?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taixuanjing
Would I be correct in assuming that since it isn't used as much as I Ching it would be less effective?

[ecosophia]

The I Ching is related to geomancy only in the most abstract sense, as a system based on binary numbers. Its symbolism, internal structure, and philosophy derive from (and are fundamental to) magical Taoism, and these aren't interchangeable with western occultism! To incorporate it into Golden Dawn magic would require someone who had mastered both Golden Dawn magic and the I Ching to do the necessary correlation, figuring out how to adapt the I Ching to Golden Dawn philosophy and practice. You can certainly use it "on the side," so to speak, but I don't recommend dragging it in to a Golden Dawn setting all anyhow.

Yes, I've read about the Taixuanjing. I haven't worked with it, and I gather that it doesn't have a lot of practitioners, so you're probably right that it's lacking in some way.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever heard of the Druid plant oracle JMG?
It's a card system

[ecosophia]

Why, yes -- it was designed by Philip Carr-Gomm, who's a good friend of mine.

[(Anonymous)]

I was reading about numerology in Learning Ritual Magic and the meditations on one, two and three. It reminded me of Buddhism and other enlightenment-seeking systems that say you start with duality which is two and the goal is to get to unity which is one. So the question these suggest is - what about zero? What is its role in the occult? (I accidently hit the Y key while typing that and now need to find a use for 'the occulty' because it pleases me). :)

I thought about the lack of zero in enlightenment traditions and, while this may be as much a joke as an insight, thought it could be a trick of the ego. Since they set out to discipline the ego and the ego doesn't like that, it could be a way for the ego to redefine enlightenment so it can survive the transition. If you become one with the universe it becomes the 'youniverse' and the ego is probably pretty happy with that, so it doesn't want you thinking about what any possible next step might be. I have no idea what its absence may mean in Western magic though.

[ecosophia]

Actually, classical Buddhism goes from two to one to zero -- look into the central role of sunyata, "emptiness," in Buddhist thought. One of the core teachings of Buddhism, after all, is that there's no such thing as an enduring self, no "there" there -- all things are ultimately void.

That's one of the things that sets Buddhism apart from the Western occult tradition, among others. We don't do zero. Insofar as the void has a place in Western occult thought, it's what Cabalists call the Abyss -- the gap between transcendent realities and manifest phenomena. The ultimate reality for us is the Unmanifest, which emphatically is -- Dion Fortune describes it usefully as "the verb 'to be' turned back on itself.

(Those of my readers who are Aleister Crowley fans will be waving their hands by this point, wanting to argue. Crowley borrowed the Buddhist notion of sunyata for his "0=2" formula, as part of his rejection of traditional Western occult philosophy -- he was one of several figures of his time who patched together hodgepodges of Eastern and Western esotericism. As I'm by no means a fan of Crowley or his teachings, I take the liberty of disregarding them.)

In sacred geometry, and the number lore that goes with it, the absence of zero expresses itself in an interesting way. Do you recall the "number line" you got taught in elementary school? It runs like this...

...-3...-2...-1...0...1...2...3...

...and so on to positive and negative infinity in either direction. (What, exactly, is a "negative infinity"?) In sacred geometry, by contrast, we use a number line that centers on 1, not on 0...

...1/4...1/3...1/2...1...2...3...4...

...which goes to zero on one end and infinity on the other -- and both of these are recognized as wholly imaginary constructs. Neither zero nor infinity are real, and neither one is useful in the proportional mathematics that we use in sacred geometry (and that artists and architects used to use back in the day when art and architecture were a lot less ugly than they are today>...

4 fold breath

[orathbone]

Dear JMG, In the Golden Dawn system the 'fourfold breath' of equal parts exhale, hold, inhale, hold is very commonly used before meditation etc. Is this purely to calm the mind or does it have energetic elements as well?

Re: 4 fold breath

[ecosophia]

It has a very substantial energetic dimension. Any pattern of rhythmic breathing affects the body of life force, and also the endocrine glands and the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (which are closely connected to the energy body). Long inbreaths and short outbreaths stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, with its "fight or flight" orientation, and the associated endocrine glands and energy centers; short inbreaths and long outbreaths stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, with its "rest and digest" orientation, and the associated endocrine glands and energy centers. Equal inbreath and outbreath, especially with a pause between each of them, tend to bring the two systems into balance.

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any other systems of spirituality, magic or divination you are tempted or planning to learn? Where do you see your occult development going in the future?

[ecosophia]

At the moment I'm still up to my eyeballs in developing the system I first presented to the public in my book The Celtic Golden Dawn. I've got at least three more books on that system under way, and am testing out all the rituals and other practices that will go into them, to make sure they work as intended, before they're published. After that? I have no idea. I'll doubtless come up with something to occupy my time. ;-)

Materialism

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have any thoughts about underlying forces or astrological indications that would "compel" or "signal" much of the modern world's descent into hard materialism, an environment in which magic and astrology are ridiculed or worse?

Re: Materialism

[ecosophia]

I've discussed my view of that in an essay here. The one thing I'd point out is that modern industrial society isn't really materialistic. Could anyone who was a thoroughgoing materialist -- someone who paid attention to material things in and of themselves -- stand the vile plastic tackiness of modern material culture for a moment? Of course not. What we've got these days is that most ungainly of hybrids, a blind faith in abstract materialism, in which hopelessly cerebral concepts about matter stand in for actual, concrete, sensual stuff. It's always in an age of abstractions divorced from reality that magic and astrology are despised.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG
I'm glad your SOP system is forgiving enough for me. Smile (Ref your reassurance on previous MM). I came to SOP from your Gnostic Celtic Church book. At the start I had difficulty in addressing the Sun vertically above my head. At our latitude of course the sun is never vertically above my head. I got a very swift 'image-insight', so I 'enriched' my version thus: "you, who are always at noon in your singularity". Seems to work well enough.

Allow me to add if I may mine to your and Ray Wharton's condolences last week addressed to Myriam over the recent death of her mother. Like the rest of us I was moved by her account. Satish Kumar once told the story, in this room as it happened, of his mother's voluntary death. In India while being rare it is a known and accepted tradition. It took longer but went much more smoothly probably because of that. A thought on NPD from someone I know, specifically of mothers: "NPD does not mean they do not love their children." A difficult life: so it goes.

best
Phil H

[ecosophia]

That ought to work very well indeed. The sun's never physically overhead at the latitude where I live, either, but that hasn't stopped me from visualizing it there!

[mmelvink]

Hi JMG,

I'm currently writing a piece on the Western (Islamo-Christian) early modern grimoire tradition as a whole, and for comparative purposes I'd like to analyze in tandem the most popular Persian manuals on various occult sciences with their contemporary Latin cognates, with a focus on letter-number magic and geomancy. (Here's the abstract: https://tinyurl.com/yd4vglpl.) In addition to the Picatrix, (Ps.-)Agrippa, Cattan and Fludd, what would you say were the Latin European bestsellers on these sciences through the 17th century, works in vernaculars included? And any less-known, or even downright obscure, early modern manuals that you have a particular fondness for?

Also, an early 15th-century Persian manual by one Lutf Allah Nishapuri Samarqandi, Epitome of the Two Seas, is the first in the Western tradition to combine geomancy with magic-square-based talismanic magic in one book; the author explicitly states his purpose in so doing is to provide ruling and scholarly elites with a one-stop shop for prognosticating and then changing the future. Do the Latin manuals you're familiar with make that point so explicitly, or is it left largely implicit?

Thanks again for Magic Mondays!

[ecosophia]

Those are good questions to which I don't know the answers! My field of study is mostly the post-Eliphas Levi revival of magic; my researches into geomancy happened because the version of geomancy resurrected in the late 19th century was hopelessly incomplete, and medieval and Renaissance Latin sources filled in the gaps -- and of course I've done a few forays into other corners of Renaissance occultism. The grimoire literature in particular is something I've neglected almost totally, as the kind of magic they teach generally doesn't interest me at all; E.M. Butler's classic book Ritual Magic, as I recall, has a decent summary of what was popular.

Michael M Hughes

[(Anonymous)]

Please feel free to delete this if the answer is personal information you don't wish to divulge in public-- or any other reason, really. It's more to share the information with you.

I really wasn't searching for it, but once again I've randomly come across Michael M Hughes (the guy who made that first Trump binding spell that went viral) while searching for if there were any recent JMG interviews on line. This time it's an interview with Hughes from this month. http://disinfo.com/2018/04/interview-magus-michael-m-hughes/

In it, he is asked who are his personal heroes. he responds with a plethora of names, but of only one of them does he say that the person is "also a good friend". The personal heroes who is also a good friend? ...John Michael Greer.

What is this? Are you two really friends? Is he playing at some devious manuever to defend against any embarrassment he's faced after you very publicly expressed your distaste for his most famous work (which he has now written a book based on)?

--Tunesmith

Re: Michael M Hughes

[ecosophia]

I know Michael via an organization to which we both belong. I didn't know he considered me a good friend, though we've certainly gotten along well in person. We haven't talked since the 2016 election, and he certainly didn't ask me for advice about his political magic, or invited me to take part.

Blood

[(Anonymous)]

Since it came up last week, but without any details... Just what are the magical properties of blood? What are dangers or advantages of using it, working with it, offering it?

--Tunesmith

Re: Blood

[ecosophia]

It's an extremely powerful link to the life force of the being from whom it comes. If you know exactly what you're doing, it can be used as an offering to help bring entities into a much more robust form of manifestation than you get by most other means. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, the entities that come into manifestation probably won't be the kind you want around! I don't use blood in any way in my own work; I leave that to competent practitioners of Vodoun, Santeria, and other traditions that still have the relevant lore and know what to do with it. My focus, instead, and that of the traditions I practice, is on rising to the levels where the entities I want to commune with naturally dwell, rather than bringing them into manifestation down here in the world of matter.

Chart?

[saturns_pet]

I've come to haunt your Dreamwidth senpai! While browsing comments I noticed that you looked over a kindred geomancer's chart. Would you do so for me? My little guild of geomancers already looked over it and checked it for errors. Some Dragons have visited me lately. I beheld a heroic possibility and do not wish to err.

Question: Should I train to be Tolkien for Michigan? (I'm not Icarus; fear not!)

1)Caput D; 2)Albus; 3)Acquisitio; 4)Populus; 5)Populus; 6)Amissio; 7)Minor F; 8)Amissio; 9)Acquisitio; 10)Acquisitio; 11)Amissio; 12) Conjunctio; RW) Populus; LW) Minor F; J) Minor F; R)Puella

We saw: go for it (+11). Did we miss any boons and banes?

Thank you for your consideration. Can I do anything to help you besides buy your work and actually use it? I'll get some money into a PayPal soon and drop you a donum.

Re: Chart?

[ecosophia]

It's a favorable chart. Go for it, don't delay any longer than you have to, and accept the help that's offered.

Thank you for asking! Buying my books and using them is the most important gift you can give me, but I certainly won't turn down a contribution to the tip jar. :-)

Whoops!

[saturns_pet]

lol.

My bad:

Sig. 1: House 1
Sig. 2: House 9

Both are in company. Thanks!

Druid magic basics

[(Anonymous)]

Would there be anything wrong in taking the Druid Magic Handbook, working through the Gates of the Elements, learning the Grove of the Druids, possibly awakening the Two Currents, but never proceeding to the more advanced Ogham and Grail workings?

Re: Druid magic basics

[ecosophia]

Nothing wrong at all. You can stop at any point, and then if you find later on that you want to go further, you can pick things up again -- or not, if that time never comes. Regular practice of the Sphere of Protection all by itself is the most important thing in that book; the rest is lagniappe.

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

Hello all

I begun the learning ritual magic course some years back but somehow got stuck very close to the end.

Currently I am focusing on geomancy, lesser ritual of the pentagram and discursive meditation.

Is it Ok if I resume LRM but substitute geomancy instead of tarot cards as the latter cards did not seem to speak much to me?

Thanks

PS: In my practice of geomancy I seem to be getting some quite useful results for me and I really want to pursue this form of divination.

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

No, the Tarot work is important for reasons that aren't limited to its divinatory uses. You can certainly add geomancy to your practices, and once you finish the course in the book, you can do as you wish -- the whole point of such a training is to get you to the point that you don't need to be spoonfed thereafter.

I understand that tarot doesn't appeal to everybpdy. Persevere with it while you're doing the course, even if it's a slog -- the results will repay the effort.

[(Anonymous)]

What is your opinion on the system of Seven Rays known in Theosophy and channelings influenced by Theosophy?

Do the energies form together a balanced whole like the four western elements do, or is the whole somehow skewed?

Thanks for hosting the Magic Mondays. They and the Ecosophia open posts have been very useful for me.

[ecosophia]

I can't speak to the ways they've been used in modern channeled sources, but in the old robust Theosophical form, the system of seven rays seems quite well balanced to me. Like any other system, of course, they can be skewed to fit the biases of their practitioners, but that's another matter.

Intelligences

[(Anonymous)]

What types/forms of non-human and or non-corporeal consciousness have you had a chance to connect with?

Re: Intelligences

[ecosophia]

Deities, angels, planetary intelligences, planetary spirits, and a wide range of nature spirits of various kinds. Also some beings who are noncorporeal (at this point) but not nonhuman. That is to say, the usual gallimaufry for a ceremonial magician with my training and interests.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,

I am curious for your insight into a situation where someone has summoned powerful, chaotic or "dark" forces - with malicious intention in the sense of wanting to control other people's lives per their personal desires - and as such are practicing black magic.

I have been on the receiving end of such black magic for a good six months, reaching a ridiculous intensity over the last month or two (hello Mars-Saturn-Pluto). The GREAT side is all the wonderful, deep personal work I have gotten out of it. Some true healing has taken place for me, as I have embraced this as an initiation. (As one healer advised me---when such an adversary approaches you, it means Mystery has something important in mind for you.)

The not so great side involves the people who are now puppets of something they really do not fully understand and cannot manage or control. In your witness or experience or study, are those who are possessed by such chaotic forces generally aware of how they are being used? Could they become aware, or might the demonic tend to exert more and more power over them as time goes by? Is there much hope for them closing Pandora's box as it were? This particular entity is not a run of the mill type and it's pretty darn clever. I can guess what you might say, but I would love to hear your perspective. Even though these people have been complete @*$&(%#%* to me, it does make me sad to see them destroying their lives like this. (One is the initiator - very wounded person, I think generally rather unaware of what they're into - and the other person involved seems to have been sucked into it via their own issues.)

For my own part, I have come across "demons" several times in the last decade and they seem to function by using your own mind/desires/habits of thought against you. No surprise since, as we can see in the above example, that is exactly how they gain entry into our realm---through the human mind and its desires/habits. It can be hard to see their activity because of this, I know personally. I think I lucked out the other two times because there were such obvious signs they made. (When drifting off to sleep and your usual self-criticism blah blah blah routine is running and suddenly turns into voices that sound like "the Devil" in the film The Exorcist...you just might be having a visit from the demonic! hahaha! How fortunate I knew exactly what to do and dispatched them in about 24 hours.)

Thanks for your thoughts.

[ecosophia]

Some people who dabble in demonolatry do it deliberately, with eyes open; some blunder into it without ever seeming to notice; and there are many points on the spectrum in between these two endpoints. I've encountered some very nasty cases where people had convinced themselves that the demonic beings they were using, and being used by, were healing and helping spirits, or wholly imaginary constructs they were just using to vent negative emotions. The proof, of course, is in the pudding.

In my experience, those who traffic with demons become less and less able to think clearly about what they're doing as time goes on. You may get layers and layers of rationalization all meant to make it impossible for the person in question to notice that he or she is doing increasingly nasty things while continuing to see himself or herself as good and virtuous and nice, or you may get the blank look that shows you that the brain shuts down when certain comments come up, or you may simply get the thousand-mile stare and rote repetition of words that used to have a mind behind them. My advice would be to keep up your banishings, and stay as far away from the people in question as you possibly can.

Mundane Astrology Timing

[(Anonymous)]

There's something I've been wondering about regarding mundane astrology. Since ingress charts are good for 3, 6, or 12 months, would one theoretically have to check from the beginning (I'm guessing the founding of the country?) to know when to draw a present-day chart? Otherwise, for, say, a spring chart, how would you know you're not 3 months into a 12-month chart?

I'm guessing for most countries someone's worked out the sequence of timings already. Also, there could be certain patterns that mean you don't actually have to go all the way back (e.g., if you find a stretch of four 3-month charts in a row, that's all you'd need to know to work out everything after that point).

Re: Mundane Astrology Timing

[ecosophia]

Nah, you're missing a crucial detail. The astrological year always begins with the sun's entry into Aries at the spring equinox. All mundane charts everywhere start from that benchmark, and go for three, or six, or twelve months from there; if you need additional charts, they fill the gap between then and the next Aries ingress. When the nation is founded doesn't matter; the US ingress, for example, still happens in March, even though the US was founded in July.

Mildly Confused with Tarot

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I've been practicing the beginner tarot reading you described a while back on here, and today's reading brought up a conundrum I hadn't considered. I wasn't able to read in the morning but I cleared some time out and did a reading for the day's events between 11 and noon. I asked about today's events, but I get the sense the cards are telling me about something further out instead.

I'm still planning on waiting until tomorrow and reflecting on it then, but do the cards sometimes answer a different question than the one you asked? If so, are there any topics/times where it happens more than others?

Re: Mildly Confused with Tarot

[ecosophia]

It does sometimes happen that cards will answer a different question than the one you asked, especially if it's something that's on your mind. How that works, though, varies significantly from person to person. Your best bet is to take careful notes, and see how it works for you.

Magic on antidepressants

[(Anonymous)]

I have been taking antidepressants for quite a few years now, and there aren’t indications that I will be stopping them any time soon. If I want to be stubborn and practice magic anyway, what precautions should I take to minimize the risk? I’m specifically considering taking up the Druid Magic Handbook.

Re: Magic on antidepressants

[ecosophia]

Watch your symptoms carefully, and stop the practices if you, the people who know you, or your qualified medical practitioner notice that your symptoms are getting worse.

Scrying

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,
I am using the DMH magic system, to good effect (thank you for writing and publishing it).

I'll get right down to it: Visualizing the Inner Grove goes just fine. I can smell the forest, hear the crunch of leaves beneath my feet, feel the wind, and so on. It is like a physical place.

The Symbols/Portals are clear too. But the moment I enter through one of the Portals; the corresponding elemental realm is very strange. I do meet (or rather, feel the presence of) other entities, but there are no visual metaphors - In the realm of air, for example, I don't "see" anything at all. My mind feels strangely expanded, and I have to make a conscious effort to keep my usual 'body' and my self. Sensing seems to work with a form of intuitive knowing - I can feel the time of day, for example, and I can feel distance, and other entities - but there isn't actually anything to see or to feel - I would describe it as a black void, if not for the huge amount of intuitive (supposed) knowledge of the imaginal and material worlds connected to the element.

I had always expected to take a 'walk' through an area not too dissimilar to the Inner Grove, where I'd meet and talk to what would seem to be corporeal beings, but I experience nothing of the sort. The other elements are different but similar, they generally match the elemental properties I'd expect.

It is sometimes hard to leave the elemental planes and return to the Inner Grove, taking a bit of conscious willpower. The experience usually leaves my physical body feeling dizzy or numb; either leaving me with for example a numb face or numb hands (precise physical sensations depend on the realm, it seems). As with other magical workings, a strong cup of tea and something to eat quickly take care of that.

Am I doing something wrong?

Kind regards

Re: Scrying

[ecosophia]

No, you're not doing anything wrong. You simply have an unusual way of relating to the inner planes. As long as you can ground and stabilize yourself effectively once you finish the practice, you should be fine.

Postures and energy flow

[(Anonymous)]

A week or two ago, you mentioned that one should not do Druidic exercises such as OBOD's Light-Body Exercise cross-legged because it prevents energy flow; you also said it is better to be barefoot because socks and shoes are insulating. I have reluctantly been doing OBOD exercises cross-legged because there's not room in my circle to work around a chair. (I don't feel much of anything either way, BTW.)

My ritual space is on the upper floor of a house with a basement, so below my feet [or backside] there is asbestos floor tile, a lot of air space, another floor, more air space, and a thick layer of concrete. And it's cold because we don't really heat it. So I am inclined to assume that if earth energy can make it to the bottom of my feet through all of that stuff, it can make it through socks too. And then I think, well, if it's so smart why can't it find the bottoms of my feet if they are turned sideways? ;-) Or can it NOT make it up there, so that this is just an exercise in imagination anyway and I will only get the real experience if I get out and do it out of doors?

Thanks for your thoughts - Dewey

Re: Postures and energy flow

[ecosophia]

The angle of your feet isn't the issue. When you cross your legs, you form an energetic circuit that closes off your energy body to energy from below. The thing about socks and shoes is a much subtler thing, and mostly matters if you can practice outdoors.

[fluiddruid]

Prynhawn da, John. (Which is "Good afternoon, John" in Welsh, keeping with this month's theme.)

Thank you for hosting these Magic Mondays and sharing your wisdom with us.

1) I am reading Lewis Spence's "Mysteries of Britain" and it is a wonderful book. In one of the passages Spence writes that Celts (or Kelts) celebrated life as a sacred thing in itself (not just as an antechamber to the Otherworld) and were suspicious of fairies and spirits of the dead. I wonder if the fear of death that grips much of the Western world today is just a corrupted version of Celtic worldview?

2) Mistletoe, the very embodiment of vitality and fertility, is one of the most sacred plants in the Celtic religion and by extension in the modern druidry. However, I was a little perplexed when I discovered that mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant that feeds on its host tree. How did mistletoe become a sacred plant? Is there some hidden lesson to be learned here? Like "its okay to take if you also give"? While mistletoe feeds on its host plant, birds also do feed on mistletoe.

3) In this comment section you mentioned that zero is not real. This made me scratch my head. Could you elaborate on this statement?

Thank you again.

[ecosophia]

1) Nah, the attitude of the Celts was that the dead continue to exist, and may not be well disposed to the living. The terror of death that grips the modern world today is a fear of total nothingness -- and of course it's the mirror image of the empty lives so many people live today.

2) Did you think "sacred" means "morally virtuous according to some human standard"? Not at all; mistletoe is sacred because it concentrates the energy of the tree on which is grows, and when it grows on an oak, you get a very pure and concentrated form of the fusion of solar and telluric currents.

3) All numbers, as abstractions, are less real than the concrete things to which we apply them. Natural numbers -- 1, 2, 3, and so on -- and natural fractions -- 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and so on, and also sums of them such as 2/3 -- are closer to reality than other numbers, because they apply so readily to existing realities. Zero, infinity, negative numbers, imaginary numbers, and so on -- those are abstract constructions, useful for human minds to think with but having no connection with anything real.