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?  I've decided to do another pass through magical personalities, and I figured I'd start with one of my own teachers. This is John Gilbert, with whom I studied the teachings of the Universal Gnostic Church, the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the Modern Order of Essenes, and the Magickal Order of the Golden Dawn -- this last, of course, is the parent body of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose. This photo was taken in 2008 in eastern Tennessee at a Druid event there; it was the last time John and I met in person, though we corresponded via email and talked on the phone quite a bit after that. 

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With that said, ask me anything!

**This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

Comments

Magic Sword(s)

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning Archdruid Emeritus!
I had been working with the DMH for a few months now after spending a little over a year with your Golden Dawn material. I have acquired a sword to use for the solitary grove ritual and I was wondering:

1) Is it a conflict of energies (or otherwise acceptable) to consecrate this sword as a magic sword per Circles of Power and still use it to open a grove.

2) If not, would it be alright to rework the ceremonies for the wand, cauldron, and crane skin bag for a grove sword, or is there some other procedure?

3) Do you have any ideas for a Druidry specific banishing implement (like a hand scythe maybe?) or is roughly banishing spirits like that a bit outside the oeuvre of Druidry?

Re: Magic Sword(s)

[ecosophia]

The equivalent to the magic sword in Druid practice is the iron or steel sickle. You can get an ordinary gardener's sickle -- small ones work better in ritual practice -- or go for something fancy:

Consecrate it using a working based on the wand, cauldron, and crane bag, and you're good to do. Don't use the Circles of Power ritual -- it invokes different forces, which you haven't learned how to work with.

Re: Magic Sword(s)

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks so much!

In regards to the grove sword, would I do a similar ritual for consecration or is the peace sword not necessarily need a formal consecration?

Also I’m assuming that even if I have experience with Golden Dawn style work, mixing tools is more or less a poor idea.

Re: Magic Sword(s)

[ecosophia]

1) The grove sword doesn't need a formal consecration, and in fact if there are other people in the grove, you don't want a consecrated sword -- it's always good to give other participants ritual parts, and a lot of people like drawing the sword and saying the line that goes with the action.

2) Yes, in most cases.