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

[(Anonymous)]

I'm hoping to get into astrology, starting by studying my own chart, but don't know my time of birth. Do you have advice for what to do in such a situation?

[ecosophia]

You've got at least two choices. The first option, which is a good place to start, is to cast a solar chart -- that's a chart that puts the Sun on the ascendant. These have been used by astrologers for years when there isn't a known birth time. That'll give you some guidance, and of course you can interpret the planets in their signs and the aspects between them no matter what kind of chart you do.

The second, if you can afford it, is to find a good professional astrologer who knows how to rectify a chart. It's possible, using events in your life that are foretold in your birth chart, to work out the missing ascendant; it's a challenging branch of astrology but some people are very good at it. That would give you a complete chart -- though of course you'll have to pay for it.

[milkyway1]

About rectifying charts:

Have you, or any of the readers, made particularly good (or bad, for that matter) experiences with any one way of rectifying charts?

And if there is a method of rectifying that anybody can recommend, I‘m curious if you have learned to apply it yourself, and how you found the learning process. (Book recommendations particularly welcome… ;-) )

(That is still way above my current skill level, but I suppose it‘s prudent to collect some knowledge, books etc now and then apply them/learn the skills as time permits. You never know if a book or website will still be available at all in a few months - and I still find it surreal to say that, but here we are…)

Milkyway

[ecosophia]

It's not something I've studied in any detail. Sorry.

[(Anonymous)]

If you were born in the United States, you could go asking the office of Vital Statistics of the county or state you were born in for your long form birth certificate. It will cost a fee to do so. Alternatively if applicable, you could ask the hospital you were born in for such records.

[(Anonymous)]

My birth was not registered until several months later; and I'm not in contact with anyone who might know the information either. Thank you for the suggestion though!

[robertmathiesen]

The information on record won't always be even close to accurate. The birth cetificate issued at my birth in 1942 didn't give a time of day, so at one point I asked my mother. She said I was born in the early morning, so that she was able to phone my father to tell him before he had left for work. That phone call would have happened roughly between about 6:00 and 8:00 am, give or take 30 minutes.

When however, I sent away for a certified copy of my birth record (to get my RealID), the document I got back gave my time of birth as 8:00 pm !!! Possibly that was the time the attending physician actually filled out his report of my birth.

In other words, your officially recorded "time of birth" may not be even close to your actual time of birth.