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

Writing as Magic and Miniature Theaters

[realmscryer]

Hi JMG,

Regarding writing and magic. I have successfully added daily 15 minute free writing sessions to my morning practices. It is practically my 4th daily practice done right after the primary three. Something feels unusual about this writing exercise. Kind of like when I am meditating and feel a bigger sense of the theme.

I understand I may not be expressing myself very clearly. Done subtly and in certain ways could writing used to great magical effect? Anyone write about this if it is a thing? Or is it a matter of studying/meditating on the works of others?

Related:
Does writing have the potential to help develop the mental sheath?

Are there any good sources of information concerning RPG and the occult?

I am not developing a game. But a friend who does develop RPGs as a hobby has inspired me to explore some ideas. Primarily, there might be something magically useful in creating scenes on a table top stage of some kind. A scene maybe sparking imaginative play, exploration of ideas with physical objects, and maybe even some magic?

Regardless, I am having fun collecting the bits and pieces for such a miniature theater. Tiny cubes,a DnD wizard, clothes pins, dice of various kinds, maybe fairy led lights, etc.... I am even going to look for some stones to make a mini dolmen arch.

Thanks,
Eric

Re: Writing as Magic and Miniature Theaters

[jprussell]

On the "miniature theater", some things that might help you out:

1) Most D&D players these days don't make a ton of use out of miniatures, so if you go searching for mini stuff using terms like "D&D" you might have trouble finding what you want. Miniature wargames, on the other hand, are all about this. The word "terrain" is used for the scenery, rather than the figures, and there are all kinds of tutorials on how to make everything from hills to ruined buildings to yes, standing stones (high-density pink/blue insulation foam is a good choice for getting the look, but maybe not as good magically!).

2) Scale can be useful to know about if you're tracking down/making such things. The most common scale is "28mm" which means that a human figure is roughly 28mm tall. This method is not as accurate as the ratio scales preferred by folks who build model vehicles (like 1:144 or the like), but is more immediately relevant to folks focused on "how big are the figures?". Games Workshop makes the most popular fantasy miniature game, Warhammer, and its back catalog has a lot of mostly D&D-relevant stuff, but they're pricey. More recently, apparently 3D printers have become popular, especially for less common scales like 15mm.

I've been into the miniature side of the hobby almost as long as RPGs, so feel free to hit me up if you'd like to discuss!

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: Writing as Magic and Miniature Theaters

[realmscryer]

Thanks Jeff.

I noticed the wargames influence. Took a lot of searching to find a figure without a weapon or clear intent to kill something/someone. Been looking on Etsy, too. It has a number of shops selling neat figures without the mean faces or weapons. Lots of 3D printed figures from what I can tell.

Terrain! Got it. Will look around for tutorials.

Instead of having a game board I am looking at putting together a wooden cube frame. The idea being I can hang things as part of the scene. Lights, ribbons, symbols, and the like.


Thanks again,
Eric

Re: Writing as Magic and Miniature Theaters

[ecosophia]

1) Good heavens, yes. Discursive meditation evolved out of the Greek philosophical practice of writing little essays on the subjects you wanted to think about -- the Stoics were especially fond of that, as it gave them practice in focus and concentration. Many writers also find that the process of writing is meditative in nature, and allows them to unpack concepts and themes in a way that other methods don't. I don't happen to know of a book about this specifically, though there may be books on journaling out there that cover it.

2) Yes, if you work with mental-plane phenomena -- meanings, values, insights.

3) I've never seen any discussion of it outside of my commentariat. Several people have brought up the idea, and I'm hoping that someday an experienced RPG player who's also an occultist will write something on the topic.

Re: Writing as Magic and Miniature Theaters

[realmscryer]

Excellent, thank you JMG. I see some paths to explore combining my mini table top theater, discursive meditation, and writing.