Dilun Hud

[ecosophia]

 (Yes, that's "Magic Monday" in Breton. Those are also Breton 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. Thank you, and see you next Monday! 

Comments

[jenniferkobernik]

A few days ago, I was doing my Sphere of Protection, and a stressful conversation was taking place in another room. I couldn't tune it out, so I started humming tunelessly as I was doing the Circulation of Light (humming during the SoP is something I have never done before) to try to drown it out long enough to finish the ritual in semi-peace, which I did. I did not feel great about the SoP, as I ended feeling frazzled and irritated instead of peaceful, cleansed, and protected. I was actually thinking about repeating it in a new location devoid of argumentative family members (I don't do it more than once a day in general, but felt as if it had failed this time), but just as I was stepping out of my usual position facing east, my back grew hot as if someone had placed a heating pad or hot water bottle against it--not a slight warmth, but really very noticeable, almost shocking. I did not repeat the ritual that day. Does the experience of the weird heat suggest anything to you at all?

[ecosophia]

You managed to trigger an energy release, probably up the spinal channel. It's something that happens now and again in magical practice, and humming -- or certain other kinds of vocalization -- can help set it off. If it begins happening often, you may have a bit of a rough road ahead of you, but now and again it's not something to worry about.

Intrusive noises are one of those things mages in training have to learn to live with. I've live in apartments most of my adult life, and having loud music or a loud argument suddenly start while I'm doing a working or a practice -- well, let's just say been there, done that, used the t-shirt to clean up the mess. With practice, you can learn to filter it out...but it takes a while.

Central Ray

[(Anonymous)]

What would be the result if you used the opposite-gendered divine name (i.e. Sul for a man, Coel for a woman) in the Central Ray ritual?

Re: Central Ray

[ecosophia]

You'd run the risk of messing up the energy flows in your etheric body, which shares the pattern of the physical body. It's important here to recognize that the physical body has its own reality; whatever gender a person may identify with in personal and emotional terms, or what have you, the physical body is what it is, and while it's not the whole person it does need to be taken into account.

Work with the divine name of the opposite gender in the ninth sphere takes place in Sphere workings, which will be published in detail in a forthcoming book. In those, you're not moving energies through the subtle channels of your body, you're working with macrocosmic energies, and having the gender polarity to work with is helpful rather than the opposite.

[(Anonymous)]

Do magicians go through a dark night of the soul? I've heard different things about it in other traditions. Some regard it as an unavoidable and necessary part of the process. Others think of it like overtraining in an athlete and a better training programme would have prevented it.

On the subject of political magic it seems to me the best thing mages on the left could do would be a working to let the oppressed and exploited see the world as it really is. That would be a very long lever for change, it's non-coercive and the backlash would be potentially very enlightening as well.

[ecosophia]

The difficulty in answering your first question is that the phrase "the dark night of the soul" has multiple meanings. Its original meaning was given to it be Juan de la Cruz in his book of the same name, where it's one of the stages of Christian mysticism, characterized by spiritual "dryness" and a sense of God's absence. From there it's been stretched and lopped to fit any number of Procrustean beds.

The magical traditions that are purely practical in nature, and don't pursue spiritual goals, don't have to deal with anything of the kind. Those that have a theurgic focus, seeking the transformation of the self, very often reference some such process, but it's usually a lot less emotionally wrenching than the state de la Cruz (or, for that matter, Evelyn Underhill) describe. In the Golden Dawn tradition and other magical traditions related to it, it's described as the encounter with the Abyss,which is the ontological gap between the upper three and lower seven spheres of the Tree of Life, and is more cognitive than emotional -- a process by which the individual mage has to open himself or herself to the experience and perspectives of the Higher Genius, the part of the self that exists beyond space, time, and change.

Your political magic idea would be interesting. Me, I'd rather see a working to encourage everyone to see the world as it really is -- it seems to me that if the privileged middle and upper middle classes lost the ability to ignore the impact of their lifestyles and politics on the working classes and the poor, we'd see a lot less nonsense of certain kinds, and maybe even some constructive change.

energy gifting and divination

[sea_spray]

Hi JMG

Thank you for taking the time to host this and answer our questions.

I'm wondering if it is possible or advisable for one person to give energy to another. my wife has too much energy while i have too little and we agree it would be nice swap some. How would this be done? Would prayer work? She is christian and there are many stories of minor (e.g. within the known laws of physics) miracles in her church.

Does asking a god what they think about something directly often disagree with the dogma of the church worshipping them?

what are the etheric effects of sleeping to together over a lifetime?

What is the best place to buy your books so that the largest proportion of the price goes to you as royalties?

Is it possible to have a "conversation" through repeated divination? Or would it be more effective to meditate on each answer for a while.

I hope that's not too many questions, please answer what you have time for.

Re: energy gifting and divination

[ecosophia]

1) Be careful about phrases such as "too much" and "too little." It's not always obvious who needs how much energy! You can certainly approach the question through prayer, as gods know more about these things than human beings do.

2) Depends on the god and the church. I suspect, though, that the more loudly the church proclaims that it has the unalloyed truth, the more likely the god it worships is to have a different opinion.

3) Do you mean literally sleeping together, or do you mean that phrase as a euphemism for having sex? Both have effects, but they're different.

4) Go directly to the publisher's website and buy it from there. Thank you for asking!

5) Depends on the method of divination, but almost always it's best to meditate on one reading, to get the most out of it, before casting another.

[(Anonymous)]

In Mystery Teachings you say it's a bad idea to concentrate and store energy. But in CGD magic energy is accumulated in the inner elemental temples and the serpent's egg. How are these different?

What is the largest scale alchemy has ever been done on, and what is the largest scale it could be done on? The idea of an alchemy works the size of the Orgreave coking plant appeals to a twisted part of me. :)

Since I started reading about magic it's affected my dreams. You know that anxiety dream where you're lost on public transport - I've had the same dream where I'm lost on the Tree of Life. I kept pathworking back and forth but couldn't find where I was supposed to be. :)

[ecosophia]

1) No, in Mystery Teachings I say it's a bad idea to accumulate energy, in the sense of hoarding it and not letting any of it out. Just as it's entirely sensible to stash some money in a bank account to tide you over variations in income, knowing that you'll be putting money in and taking it out regularly, it's sensible to stash some magical energy in certain aetheric structures -- whether on the inner planes or in a magical working tool -- knowing that energy will be moving through it, now building up, now flowing out.

2) Alchemy is a very small-scale process, because it depends on the interaction between the materia and the consciousness of the alchemist. To get any kind of result, the maximum amounts are measured in ounces. Sorry!

3) I used to have pathworking dreams too, but fortunately not that one.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG
I can see why number and sacred geometry are interesting (I am getting on much further with Frances Yates just now and trying to spot some of your spoor tracks ahead of me across the pages. Smile.)
My caveat for the following is that my understanding of maths and its amazing history has remained seriously deficient all my life.

You wrote last week to a correspondent on MM: “… 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 [bold added] -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."

My immediate thought was to question whether ‘your’ series in the proportional mathematics goes to ‘infinitesimal’ rather than ‘zero at one end’. Additionally it has occurred to me after a little bit of reading that ‘zero' might actually be a geometrical property, for example, ‘flat’ within a larger category of ‘slopes’. My further thought is that the concept of infinitesimal is real enough and allows logical proofs about curves and rates (time). And with curves we can see maxima and minima, tangents, slopes, the relations of square and circle; for the latter see Yates again. And eventually Calculus emerges as a tool.

Geometry seems to be about proofs – logical steps in series that one can always come back to. I am interested in recognition, identity, insight and understanding – which are intelligible but not readily explicable. I find it a necessary part of being conscious to make constant reference to my senses, and perhaps thus to what earlier cosmology referred to as macrocosm and microcosm. Question. Change seems the essential of magic, but reference to identity appears equally necessary. I once did some ‘mind experiments’ in imagination, and shrank a thought toward an infinitesimal. It seemed possible for a thought, an identification, to be extinguished, to ‘wink out’ – some kind of minimum.

I have reached the point in Yates when Fludd has a struggle with Kepler. Neither had reached to Calculus but Kepler was scathingly impatient with Fludd. Leibniz and Newton were to come. (Question)If divination, star charts and etc. ‘works’ (your word), we have a way to go yet, or as Yates says of Bruno, there is a determination to find a method for the imagination yet to come.

Hmm … I have a feeling I am going to ‘end up’ with poetry and/or staring at the back of my own head.
best
Phil H

[ecosophia]

The number line centered at 1 goes to zero on the one end the same way it goes to infinity on the other, never quite reaching either one -- in terms of the older mathematics, the opposite of infinitesimal is not infinite, but immense -- this used to be a technical term, "too big to measure," before it took on its present metaphorical sense of "huge."

And poetry isn't a bad place to end up...

Giordano Bruno’s magical images

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
Thank you for translating Bruno’s book. It’s a beautiful book as art object, and also fascinating. And definitely useful...but After a careful read of The Shadows of the Ideas, I am still puzzled by the magical images (astrological in nature.) You mention in the introduction that using them for everyday memoria may be dangerous, and Bruno may have intended them differently—perhaps as notae, to meditate on, trace and improve one’s memory magically? The book doesn’t expound on this. Could you suggest some techniques or resources for doing this safely?

Sincerely,

MsKrieger

Re: Giordano Bruno’s magical images

[ecosophia]

I'm by no means sure I know exactly what Bruno had in mind with the images he took from astrological magic! The ones I chose to be illustrated in the book have benevolent effects, and if you take a few moments to contemplate them from time to time the blessings they bring will have an easier time manifesting in your life -- but beyond that, a great deal of further research and experimentation will be needed to figure out how best to use the images generally.

Children

[(Anonymous)]

I know you have touched on this before, but being new to this, I was hoping you could clarify. You have said that ritual magic shouldn't be done when you have young children, which seems like sound advice to me. Does that also apply to practices like the sphere of protection or the AODA grove ritual? It seems like these would be alright, but just want to make sure.

Re: Children

[ecosophia]

Those are fine. You can also practice seasonal rituals, and natural magic (the sort that uses herbs, stones, etc.) around young children in perfect safety. It's when you get into serious ceremonial magic -- summoning spirits, consecrating working tools and talismans, and so on -- that you're calling on forces that may not be safe to have around the very young.

Grove Stones

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

I have a set of Grove Stones that I would like to enchant on the Druid Holy Days. Can I use my already enchanted set of stones, re-enchanting each of them on the appropriate Holy days, or should I take a new set of stones?

Also, can I start this process with the southeastern stone this coming Belteinne (then following south, southwestern, etc) or would I do well to wait until Samhuinn to begin (and if so, why)?

Thank you for your time, and for hosting magic mondays!
- Brigyn

Re: Grove Stones

[ecosophia]

You can certainly re-enchant them -- repeated enchantment is worth doing, as it produces stronger results -- and you can start at any point in the cycle.

Alternatives to magic

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Greer,

I know you don't recommend the practice magic to people who take psychiatric medication. On the other hand, I know you are not a fan of people trying to get rid of their desires. With these two viewpoints of yours in mind, what's a person who takes psychiatric meds, yet desires to practice magic, to do?

I tried asking myself what it is that draws me to magic, and why I keep coming back to it after all these years. I came up with three things which draw me to magic:

- concentration: being able to concentrate on something with intensity and focus gives me a positive feeling of power,
- purification: I would like to unblock my internal energy channels to improve the vitality of my physical body,
- protection: I want to develop a strong aura to be protected from other people's emotions, as well as potential magical attacks.

What would you recommend that I do? Should I start doing everything I can in order to get myself off antidepressants and be able to safely practice magic, or are there other occult practices which can give me these three benefits and would be safer for me to practice?

I know it's a rather large and serious question, so thank you in advance for any response and also for providing this wonderful opportunity.

Re: Alternatives to magic

[ecosophia]

I'd concentrate on getting off the antidepressants. It's a good standard rule among old-fashioned occult schools that a prospective student should deal with any pressing non-magical issues first, before tackling the hard work of magical training.

One thing only you can decide is just how necessary your antidepressants are. I know there are people who really do need them to get through the day -- but there are also physicians who dispense them very, very freely, not least because pharmaceutical companies give kickbacks to doctors who prescribe their drugs. If you can handle your depressed moods without medicine, without danger to yourself or others, tapering off the drugs is probably a good idea all by itself, over and above its usefulness in preparing you for magical training.

[(Anonymous)]

For the sake of time efficiency it's tempting to think about doing magic and exercise one after the other. Can you do magic while still sweating and breathing hard? Conversely is it safe to be under a heavy barbell soon after doing magic? Is there a length of time you should wait between magic and exercise or exercise and magic, and should you do something like eat or have a bath between them?

[ecosophia]

Heck of a good question. I don't know that anyone's ever explored this. Me, I'd do the magic first and the exercise later -- calming mind and body for magical practices isn't easy when you're breathing hard and your muscles are shaking from pumping iron -- but your mileage may vary. Since there's no traditional rule forbidding this, I'd encourage you to experiment.

A few questions

[(Anonymous)]

Hi jmg
How can one tell between a magical order and a personality cult?

If i have bad habits or defects of character that i would like to change, would the practice of theurgy help me change them or would would those defects impede me from practicing it?

What do you think most people who get into Magic have in mind about what they can get from it?

Does freemasonry involve magical practice?

I tried googling local magical lodges but i had no results. Do you have any tips on finding one?

Are left hand path magicians edgelords or are there actual practical reasons for choosing the left hand path other than wanting attention or a reason to be mean?

And finally, do you know any texts on astrological theurgy?

Thank you very much!

Re: A few questions

[ecosophia]

Quite a list!

1) The same way you tell whether anything else is a personality cult -- if it centers around a personality, rather than (say) a body of teaching, it's best avoided.

2) Everyone has defects of character. Part of magical training is learning to deal with those, in yourself and others.

3) You'd have to ask them. I haven't done a survey.

4) No.

5) They're not easy to find, because those that make themselves too public get bombarded with inquiries from people who aren't serious about doing the work. Your best bet is to get to work studying and practicing magic on your own, so that you'll know what to look for.

6) What on earth is an "edgelord"?

7) Sure. Can you read ancient Greek?

[(Anonymous)]

Serious question: what are your thoughts on the magical ethics of masturbation? I'm concerned that masturbating imagining people will effect them. I don't want to be etherically rapey, but I do wish to pleasure myself and imagine having sex.

In part, I ask because I've been affected by other people masturbating thinking of me (and it was verified). I also don't want to imagine past lovers.

Your thoughts on this are highly appreciated!

[ecosophia]

Don't visualize actual people when you masturbate. Your imagination can quite easily come up with appropriate imagery all by itself, if you let it.

Ritual space

[(Anonymous)]

As I work through your book,Learning Ritual Magic I'm using my home office space for the exercises. Is there a conflict created by performing magical and mundane work in the same space, or is the open/close of each exercise sufficient separation.
I second the above question re exercise and ritual practice, where I would be allowing around 45-60 mins between. I'm guessing exercise resembles eating or sex here.
Thank you for the advice about not mixing Tai chi and GD ritual. Much improved results. Are there compatible or even complimentary martial arts systems you would recommend?
Thanks as always for the excellent help you provide.

Re: Ritual space

[ecosophia]

1) I do my magical practices in the same room I use for writing, so I hope that's okay. ;-)

2) As I noted above, I simply don't know about exercise. Experimentation would be useful here.

3) Western martial arts seem to be perfectly compatible with GD ritual -- many of the original Golden Dawn initiates used boxing and fencing as exercises, for example. I suspect, though this would have to be explored by people who know the arts in question, that most so-called "external" arts (karate, judo, tae kwon do, etc.) should also be fine. It's when you start doing a lot with internal energies that problems pop up.

approaching misanthropy

[(Anonymous)]

I'm new to occultism and am wondering if a certain practice/ritual could help restore my faith in humanity, or at least keep toxic people out of my life? The cumulative effects of dealing with workplace bullies, toxic supervisors (ridiculing me, taking credit for my work), busybody/malicious neighbors, unsupportive "friends," scoundrel business people, and a lot of general bad luck have worn me down so much.

My coping/defense mechanism is social avoidance and isolation, which I realize is not healthy. Being an empath, being naturally quiet and reserved and probably too self-aware probably doesn't help.

I'm not a malicious person; I try to be kind; I'm not intentionally putting bad energy into the universe. I've tried therapy and didn't find it helpful. I've prayed a lot...and here I am. Any advice? Thank you!

(PS: my mother has faced similar things, and far, far worse--a therapist once started crying after hearing her life story. Maybe someone has hexed us...?)

Re: approaching misanthropy

[ecosophia]

I hear fairly often from people who describe experiences similar to yours. Very consistently they fall into one of two categories.

First, you get the people who've gotten caught by the most toxic of the legacies of institutional Christianity, the notion that weakness is morally good. They've been taught that it's good to be kind, to be quiet, to be meek, to be passive -- that being these things will make them good people -- and then discover the hard way that being these things by and large means that life kicks you repeatedly in the teeth. Baffled and miserable, they keep on trying to follow a misguided definition of what being good means, and they keep on getting kicked in the teeth by life, until they realize that there's something wrong with their basic approach.

That's the first category. The second consists of people who like to wallow in their misery because they've found it's a good way to get attention from others. We've all met them -- the people who love to go on by the hour about their sufferings, and who always have a good reason why there's nothing they can do but keep on suffering. They have what they want out of life, and there's no point in encouraging them to change.

I'm going to assume, though, that you belong to the first category. In that case, yes, magical training can help you quite a bit. It can teach you to develop a strong will, to choose what you want out of life and make that happen, and to find the balance between mercy and severity, kindness and harshness, that will attract the kind of people you want in your life and chase off the ones you don't. It's going to take hard work, and you'll need to be willing to change a lot of the ways you do things, but it's certainly within reach -- if you choose to reach for it.

12 000 year old terrestrial catastrophe?

[kallianeira]

Ave Archdruid! Today I read one of your ADR essays from April 2015, the one from the reporter who missed all the signs, about Atlantis not going to sink, no way, not ever. The date you used, 9-thousand-and-something BC, concurs strongly with the date of a postulated catastrophe on Earth detailed in the book "Watermark", by Joseph Christy-Vitale. I wonder if you are failiar with that work, or its thesis, that Earth's magnetic field, land formations and climate were altered dramatically by an encounter with cosmic debris from a supernova at that time? - it's the only instance of such claims I've encountered with any shred of accompanying evidence. As one might expect, it seems to have been left out in the cold by the established disciplines whose material it dared to reinterpret. And I am curious as to the provenance of the date you used in your story, and whether you could suggest any other related material or similar topics. Thanks and regards kallianeira.

Re: 12 000 year old terrestrial catastrophe?

[ecosophia]

9600 BCE is the date Plato gives for the sinking of Atlantis, and it's also the end of the Younger Dryas cold period and the beginning of catastrophic glacial melting at the end of the last ice age. A lot of alternative theorists who are interested in catastrophes in recent prehistory have latched onto that date for good reason. I haven't read the specific book you mention -- the last round of reading in that end of the alternative-realities literature I did was in the course of researching my book on Atlantis, somewhat unoriginally titled Atlantis. There's a huge amount of literature out there on such topics, some better documented than others; it's always seemed to me, though, that the basic fact of the end of the last ice age -- which caused cataclysmic floods in low-lying areas around the globe, backed up with huge tsunamis caused by several known geological factors, and drastic changes in climate, is more than enough to account for the evidence without dragging in supernovae. Still, since I haven't read Christy-Vitale, I'll reserve judgment until I've read his book.

Ancestor spirits

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG. I have a question about ancestor spirits and the safest way to interact with them.

First, some background:
I was adopted at birth. I found my birth mother when I was in my mid-20's, but it took a lot longer to find my father's side. In fact, I only found them recently. I haven't contacted any living people, and I'm not sure I want to. I don't want to disrupt anyone's lives, just to know more about where I came from.

But as I was looking at some old photographs of my grandparents' generation (found on-line, on a genealogy site), I had a strong desire to at least honor them in some way and perhaps to have some kind of contact with them. I know there are many ancestor traditions all over the world, but what I was wondering is whether there are any major warnings or safeguards you would give to someone interested in that.

I'm not practicing ritual magic currently, but I do have a regular prayer practice and I'm familiar with basic natural magic.

Re: Ancestor spirits

[ecosophia]

I don't do ancestor work, and am not very well informed about it, so can't advise you here. You'd probably be best off finding someone who's experienced in that end of magic.

Radiation therapy

[(Anonymous)]

You mentioned that you shouldn't do magic rituals while you have cancer. I'm currently undergoing radiation therapy for lung cancer - do you have any comments. (And no, I don't smoke, never have.)

As an amusing aside, your comment on the occult number line reminded me of a passage in the second OZ book: The Land of OZ, where the instructions on a bit of magic powder say to to count to 17 by 2s, and Tip begins with 1/2.

John Roth

Re: Radiation therapy

[ecosophia]

Best wishes for a complete recovery! I'd encourage you to pursue your spirituality in other directions until you've recovered from the radiation treatment and the cancer is in remission.

Alternative to banishing/mirroring back?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John Michael,

I would like your thoughts on the following idea for dealing with negativity that might come one's way. I am a highly sensitive/intuitive person, deeply empathic, and it has been a journey to be healthy with that capacity! And to not play "psychic garbage collector." I'm in a pretty good place now, but when I think of "banishing" and "mirroring back" negativity--whether simply emotions, ill intent, or even concerted black magic type messing about--this doesn't feel so great. It's just sending nasty back, even if it didn't originate with me. And the negative forces remain in the total ecology of our shared environment.

One healer offered that she instead surrounds herself with a kind of cushion of divine goodness/benevolence, and intends that anything which comes at her be met by this benevolent divine. The person can have whatever experience they want or need to have (good/bad/neutral), and may even think they're having some experience with her, but whatever--just another variant on projection. In that way, there is at least an attempt to offer healing for the unwell, but it doesn't have to be actively processed/dealt with by the healer herself. It's worked quite well for her, so far.

I am intrigued. I think it takes cultivating strong relations with source/god/divine/whatever the label first of all, and having a clear sense of one's self in relation to that divinity. But do you have any thoughts on this as a tactic?

Thank you!

Re: Alternative to banishing/mirroring back?

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I'd say give it a try and see how well it works for you.

Pyramid power

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

What is your view of so-called "pyramid power"?

Karim

Re: Pyramid power

[ecosophia]

I experimented with it for a little while in the 1970s, didn't get any results, and haven't looked into it since.

Sabian symbols

[(Anonymous)]

What is your opinion of the Sabian symbols? Do you use them, and if so how?

What I’ve seen online so far suggests that the most familiar way is to observe the sun’s position at dawn on a given day. Assuming this is valid, how would one apply it?

Is it fruitful to pay attention to the passage of the Sun through the Sabian symbols in relation to the features of a horoscope? Can they play a role in the interpretation of a natal (or horary or mundane or other) chart, or are they better taken as a system unto themselves?

“We are Sabians of Harran” is my favorite historical dodge.

Kevin

Re: Sabian symbols

[ecosophia]

I haven't looked into them. I've been studying astrology systematically for only about eight years now, and there are still quite a few branches of it that I haven't explored.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Thank you for the Magic Monday!

Do you have any idea on how our society has been able to get so disconnected from reality? There are plenty of times where I'm left shaking my head at how absurd something that almost everyone else takes for granted is, and it seems like their under a spell of some sort.

Do you know of a way to get at least some people to notice the real world?

[ecosophia]

This kind of thing happens reliably at certain phases in the historical cycle. What Giambattista Vico called "the barbarism of reflection," the state when abstractions pile up so fast and thick that they make it very hard to see the concrete realities of existence.

Getting them to notice -- well, that doesn't tend to work very well. All you can do is work on seeing things clearly yourself, and helping those who want to be helped.

Middle pillar

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, I have a question concerning the lesser middle pillar exercise you've written about. When you imagine the light from above entering each of the magical centres is the light supposed to target each centre individually like pointing at each one with a laser pointer, or is the light supposed to pass through e each centre so they are connected like beads on a abacus?

Re: Middle pillar

[ecosophia]

The light from above descends to each sphere and then fills it, like water flowing into a container, before going on to the next.

OBOD

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks as always for Magic Mondays! I remember a while back that you mentioned that you find the OBOD course to be very good, but that you wished that it contained more of an introduction to magic. I'm considering beginning the OBOD course, and was wondering if you'd recommend any supplemental material on the topic of magic to go along with it (by the way, I have young children at home, which I know from reading your replies elsewhere is a complicating factor).

Also, I have a strong interest in shamanism... do you have any recommendations for good resources on that topic and/or tips for finding a well-qualified shaman to study under?

Thanks again!

Re: OBOD

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to do the OBOD course as is, then, and bring in the magical work once your children are a little older. Once that happens, my book The Druid Magic Handbook can easily be adapted to work with the OBOD material.

I haven't studied shamanism at all, thus can't really help you there.

[(Anonymous)]

Amazon informs me that The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic is the second edition of Natural Magic: Potions and Powers from the Magical Garden.

Is this a correct statement? The descriptions of the texts overlap somewhat, but not entirely.

(I know you're not a fan of Amazon, but for my fiction writing friends, they find Amazon pays enough to live on for midlist writers in flyover country, while tradpub does not.)

BoysMom

[ecosophia]

They're exactly the same book except for the title page. For once, Amazon got it right.