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 trace, as far as I can, my own occult lineage in photos. We're still tracing Juliet Ashley's end of the lineage. Two weeks ago I posted an image of her fourth teacher, Arthur Edward Waite, the Golden Dawn alumnus who passed onto her the rituals that became the foundation for the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose. Waite, in turn, got his knowledge from the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Last week I posted an image of one of these, the redoubtable William Wynn Westcott; this is Westcott's partner and rival in the project, Samuel Liddell Mathers. Another Freemason with a passion for the occult, and like Westcott a genuine scholar and mage, Mathers didn't have the organizational skills to keep the order together once Westcott stepped down from the leadership, and the Golden Dawn promptly blew itself to pieces in the squabbles that followed. Mathers remained in charge of one of the fragments thereafter, and he and his branch of the order will appear again once I get into some of the other ends of my lineage. 

PayPal tip jar link

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 link above to access my online tip jar. (Dreamwidth is having trouble with crosslinks to other sites these days, thus the absence of the usual button.) 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.

***This Magic Monday is now closed--as in, no further comments will be put through. See you next week!*** 

Comments

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

Was wondering if you could set me straight about interpreting a positive judge to a negative question.

Lately, I had a run of bad luck on a recent trip and with the upcoming election and all the gunk it entails I decided to cast a shield chart on the question: Was my recent misfortune the result of malign magic? I got:

1st Mother: Tristwch
2nd Mother: Tristwch
3rd Mother: Bendith Fach
4th Mother: Bendith Fawr

1st Daughter: Gwyn
2nd Daughter: Gwyn
3rd Daughter: Tristwch
4th Daughter: Mab

1st Niece: Pobl
2nd Niece: Ffordd
3rd Niece: Pobl
4th Niece: Bendith Fach

LW: Bendith Fach
RW: Ffordd
Judge: Bendith Fawr

Trying not to overthink things, I'm interpreting the judge Bendith Fawr, being very positive, as YES, so there is malign magic at work. LW Bendith Fach suggests it is incidental - I am not necessarily an intended target, but was in the splash zone with the connection to 4th niece suggesting a loose colleague caster and 3rd mother indicating its in the past. RW Ffordd suggests I am isolated from it and 2nd niece indicates said isolation is from my circumstances (Makes sense - I was on a trip so there was extra distance). Fford + Bendith Fach = Bendith Fawr looks like whatever got thrown at me managed to get spun around to turn out better than expected, and I just need to soldier on and clean everything up.

Is that how you would read it? It feels extremely fortune-loaded for there being alleged malign magic at work.

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

That's how I would read it. For what it's worth, my perception is that there's a great deal of nasty magic being flung around nearly at random, so the reading doesn't surprise me.

Re: Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

I listened to the podcast Glitch Bottle last night, and the guest was the British magician Josephine McCarthy. She said, if I understood correctly, that unskilled magic flinging, citing pop culture grimoires, is worse than useless. Not only is it unlikely to work as hoped, but it also essentially consumes your etheric energy. The flinger is setting themselves up for premature aging at best. My impression is that this stuff essentially cannibalizes said flinger.

Is that your impression, JMG?

Thanks,
OtterGirl

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

Hmm. I may not be familiar with the same kind of pop-culture magic she's talking about. The stuff I've seen is pure LARPing and won't have any significant effect on anything, not even your own etheric energy.