Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just past 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'm still tracing my lineage in photographs. At some point after the death of Bishop Shaw, a question arose about the legitimacy of the apostolic succession of the Universal Gnostic Church. John Gilbert arranged to settle the matter in the traditional way by receiving sub conditione consecration from Archbishop Herman Adrian Spruit of the Church of Antioch; that's Archbishop Spruit in the photo. Sub conditione?  That's the technical term for a second consecration given to a bishop in case the original one didn't have valid lineage, and Spruit was the man to give it. 

He was born in 1911 and started out his religious career as a Methodist minister, but he became convinced that a more sacramental and less dogmatic approach to Christianity was needed, and so he joined the Independent Sacramental Movement and was consecrated as an independent bishop. At that time there were sixteen different lineages of apostolic succession outside the control of the established churches, and squabbles between independent bishops about the validity of the different lines were common. Spruit ended that in an exceptionally graceful way. He arranged to be consecrated sub conditione in all of the lineages, and then conferred the same consecration on any bishop or qualified candidate for the episcopacy who requested it. These days practically every bishop in the Independent Sacramental Movement has all sixteen lines -- yes, including me -- and the squabbles are over. Bishop Spruit's Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch remains an active independent church, and so do many of the other independent churches who received his blessing. 

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:  PayPal for now, but that'll be replaced by a couple of other options shortly. 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.

With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

For my fellow Americans, I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, and for everyone, I hope that you are looking forward to good things this winter as we head to the close of the year.

To Share: Given our host's announcement of his new book The Ceremony of the Grail, I thought I'd share a bit of interesting lore/speculation linking the Runes with the Grail tradition. In an appendix in Alu: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology, Edred Thorsson (Stephen Flowers), shares his theory that the three Anglo-Frisian runes Calc ("chalice"), Stan ("stone"), and Gar ("spear") represent some of the key elements of the grail myth/ritual complex. Eirik Westcoat includes some poetry inspired by/created as part of his own work with the this intersection of symbolism in Eagle's Mead.

To Ask: For JMG and anyone in the commentariat who might have thoughts: I've been doing the Solar Plexus exercise given in the Way of the Golden Section and Dolmen Arch daily now for a while and a starting to feel like it's doing me some good. That has me wondering if there is any similar exercise targeting the heart center? Specifically, anything aimed at opening/unblocking the heart center that's compatible with DMH/DA work, preferably with some kind of physical component.

As always, thanks very much to our host and all the other wonderful folks here.

To any who will have them, I put forth my blessings and best wishes,
Jeff

Re: Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question

[ecosophia]

1) That's an interesting speculation, and would make sense historically, since the Germanic tribes who settled in Britain seem to have absorbed more than a little from the Celtic peoples they conquered -- the fact that Old English images of Thunor show him with a sword rather than a hammer is one indication here. (I suspect he was conflated with Lugos, who wielded a sword.)

2) I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with one. I'm still piecing together the rest of the system in which the solar plexus exercise has an important basic role!

An oddity and a problem.

[taylorrose]

Hey JMG,

Do you have any thoughts or advice for dealing with a family member who has at least gotten into Satanism, and may also be practicing malefic magic?

Their presence is now suitably foul that two daily SoP's weren't adequate to keep the area around me clean when I had to deal with them over Thanksgiving. I have a couple of BICOE measures, but they feel extreme enough that I'm hesitant to resort to them.

How seriously should a problem like this be taken?

Re: An oddity and a problem.

[ecosophia]

Very seriously indeed. People who worship evil powers are not safe to be around, and not just in a magical sense. John Gilbert used to say that Satanists want to imitate Satan and get thrown out of heaven, and they do it by misbehaving in more and more extreme forms until the people they're maltreating finally cut all ties with them. All you can do is make that happen sooner rather than later, so you suffer less harm before the inevitable happens.

Er, what does BICOE mean?

[(Anonymous)]

Your dread tome, the blasphemously titled Green Wizardry, has been a good influence on me. This time, it led me to my first science fiction sale, and I’m pleased to report my name joining the long list of notables on the cover of New Maps. The idea for the story came from GW's Exercise for Lesson 36, and the setting appeared in my attempt to write an adventure module for your Weird of Hali RPG.
Many, many thanks for your patience and encouragement!
And – if you don’t mind a digression into writing – I finally realized the setting isn’t in the Haliverse, and things took off once I discovered there never was a grand conspiracy, and the Elder Gods handed off the works to younger ones right on schedule.
Oh, wait… I just created the Younger Gods, didn’t I?
Rhydlyd

[ecosophia]

1) Glad to hear it. My great ambition has always been to write at least one nightmare tome that will cause unwary readers to plunge into a terrifying, unknown reality -- I'm thinking of the one where technological progress is subject to natural limits, human beings don't run the universe, and stupid ideas don't get any less stupid because some marketer insists that they're the wave of the future.

2) No, actually, the Younger Gods wanted to come into existence, so they created you to do all the work of creating them. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm doing a Sun planetary charity and wanted some Ideas for organizations who really need the money and where it will do the most good. It turns out royals are pretty careless when it comes to finances.

[ecosophia]

Horses are solar animals, and there are charities that take in horses from abusive owners, or do things to benefit the world's remaining wild horses. Theaters are also solar -- you should probably be able to find a community theater that relies on donations to help bring live plays to the local population, especially the children. Those are the things that come to my mind first.

[(Anonymous)]

I've recently quit a job that was fast becoming intolerable. The job involves working at a restaurant which has two locations: the one I was hired for, and a second one; until recently, although both locations were under the same ownership, they had completely separate staff, and I had never been to the other store. This recently changed, with the owner deciding, for complex reasons I don't fully understand, to have management from both stores work at both locations.

This includes someone who is incredibly nasty and abusive, and spends a great deal of time complaining about various problems, usually to someone who is not responsible for the issue; dealing with him leaves a lot of us in exceedingly foul moods, even going above and beyond what seems reasonable given what he says or does. I've come to suspect that he is transferring his frustration into other people, which you've said before is a common occurrence.

A few days ago, I went to work at the other location, since several people had called in sick over there. I happened to know that the terrible manager would not be there, and in fact would be at the store I normally worked at, which was part of why I decided to go over there, a decision I fairly quickly regretted.

On the physical level, the store is nice enough; in fact, it has a better layout than the one I normally work with, but it felt toxic in a way which is hard to describe. The atmosphere of the store felt off somehow, in a way which left me feeling very uncomfortable and unusually irritable the entire time I was there.

The people who work there tend to be either very new, or exceptionally foul and unpleasant people; there is apparently a very high rate of turnover for staff there, with most people who are competent and/or pleasant leaving within a few months of getting a job there, leaving behind the core of exceedingly foul and unpleasant people, who do the absolute minimum needed to get by. The food, which is the same as at the store I usually work at, also tasted off somehow, in a way I'm not sure I can explain.

Finally, the location also has a lot of problems with people getting sick, at far higher rates than the store I normally work at; this is part of why I'd never met any of the people who worked at the other location before I went over there.

Does this sound like what I was sensing was that the inner plane environment in that store has gone septic, possibly as a result of having had that abusive manager pouring out his frustration into the environment there since he started working there around 40 years ago?

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's exactly what it sounds like to me. Someone who dumps their own toxic energy on others can also dump it on their surroundings, and make exactly such a miserable environment.

[(Anonymous)]

You mentioned before that giving knifes can risk severing connections. Could this effect be used to intentionally weaken a connection to someone? I'm finding my parents to be overbearing and increasingly difficult to relate to, but know that any overt efforts to reduce their involvement in my life will alienate my siblings, who I happen to want to keep in my life. I have the idea of gifting my parents a new set of kitchen knives for Christmas, which would be a nice practical gift they would use, and am wondering if this could be a case of two birds, one stone.

[ecosophia]

Clever. Yes, that could work well, especially if you have the intention firmly in mind when you buy the knife set.

[realmscryer]

Good Evening,

In reviewing my work in the Dolmen Arch there is an exercise in Gradd Yr Athroniwr for awakening the palm centers and drawing nwyfre from the material elements. Are there any cautions in doing it as a regular, say weekly or more frequent, practice?

When I used to do energetic work with people, years ago, my most effective hand placement was about 2 feet distance from the physical body. I gather that is likely the distance one would find the astral body. If true what might have been going on in these sessions? I thought I was "running energy" but now wonder if there was some other kind of interaction happening at an astral level.

My meditation practice is stirring a strong desire for more symbols to contemplate more often. While it seems I have decades worth of material from the DA, tarot, and Occult Philosophy Workbook are there any cautions about choosing other material for meditation?

Also, your writing about writing is immensely helpful.

Thanks,
Eric

[ecosophia]

1) Weekly should be fine; I did that for a while when I was field testing that material. I'm not sure I'd recommend doing it more often than that.

2) That's fascinating. Your etheric body may also be on the large side -- some people have etheric bodies that extend out further than others -- and so you may have needed the space for your etheric body to stretch a bit.

3) Nope. I've meditated on the most absurd and outrageous things with good results.

4) Glad to hear it!

Sacred Geometry, Divination and Meditation

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

I have something I'd like to both share ask:

I started working through your Sacred Geometry oracle, and am having a lot of fun. Yesterday I was meditating about the line, but forgot to restrict it to a 2d plane, so everything started spinning and since my head has no gravity I quickly lost my orientation. But then I started imagining the line from the point of view of the points, which gave me some stability, so I was able to choose a 3rd point to make a plane. This allowed me to finish the meditation. My questions are:

1. I was aware for a long time there used to be traditions that allowed people to visualize complex geometry, even things we should not be able to see such as 4 dimensional structures. I read somewhere you are not a particularly visual person, but I was wondering if you know if the know how of such advanced meditative techniques still exist in an accessible form? I think your book will provide an excellent introduction, but I would love to go into 3, and even 4d one day.

2. I bought your book mainly for the exercises and meditations, but the cards hold some appeal for be being Jewish, because the tarot deck contains too much imaginary for me to be comfortable with, unlike your cards with the abstract geometry. My question is, if someone struggles with procrastination, could practicing divination be helpful?

Re: Sacred Geometry, Divination and Meditation

[ecosophia]

1) That I know of, there's some material on that in the Theosophical tradition; you might try these two books by Claude Bragdon for starters.

https://archive.org/details/aprimerhighersp00braggoog
https://archive.org/details/fourdimensional00braggoog

2) Nope. I've seen people procrastinate their heads off about divinations! If you want to stop procrastinating, it's simple. First, use journaling to figure out why you like to play that game with yourself -- because it is a game, of course; it's something you choose to do, and can choose to stop doing. Second, stop doing it. When you need to decide something, decide it -- using a coin toss if you have to -- and go ahead with it. As a rule, that you decide is more important than what you decide: any decision is better than no decision at all.

Very oftem people take up procrastination because one or both of their parents routinely put them in double-binds where no matter what they did, it was wrong. If that's what's going on here, bringing those double-binds back up into consciousness is a good way to shake off the habit, because as an adult you can realize what you couldn't realize as a child: you didn't do anything wrong. It was the parent in question who was being a jerk.

Qs

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG,

What exactly is an intiation? Why does it require specific rituals, symbols, or experiences?

Re: Qs

[ecosophia]

An initiation in the occult sense is a set of experiences that helps attune you to some particular set of nonphysical energies and influences. It requires the rituals, symbols, or experiences because that's what does the attuning. Just as you can't listen to the music in radio waves without a radio receiver, you can't tune into nonphysical energies and influences unless you have some material representations of those energies and influences to use as "receivers" -- more precisely, focal points for your consciousness that allow you to begin to sense what's behind the symbols, etc.

An inspired path

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I appreciate your time as this is a bit long-winded.

I've dedicated much of my life to an art, or some might call it a craft. A few years ago this practice led me to an awakening. I had worked for a long time to improve my abilities but always felt something eluded me. I went down many seldom-traveled paths, trying to find answers to my questions but for a long time every possible solution vanished like a mirage as I approached.

Eventually I went far down an obscure route paved by great practicioners from before. It appeared promising but I found that the path appeared to lead to a dead end. I had gone to one of the furthest, deepest places and found nothing. But then I realized a peculiar commonality between the distant place where I was and the place where my journey began, and at that moment I had an epiphany.

You could call it an encounter with the higher self, the genius, the holy guardian angel. That's the best way I can categorize it. In an instant I understood my art in its totality, along with the reasons for the difficulties I had and the path that I might take to overcome them. When I had this experience I knew that the road to the place I want to go will be long and hard, but that I now have a "North Star" I can follow to get there.

My question to you is: what types of magical practice make sense for me? The spiritual path I find myself on is idiosyncratic and individual - established religions and societies have never particularly appealed to me; they all feel like something made to fit someone else. These personal experiences have resonated with me much more than any "brand-name" deities and I seem to draw power from this genius the way that people describe petitioning gods. For example, when I'm attuned to the higher self and following its guidance I have effectively infinite motivation and can make sustained efforts that shock other people, who ask how I haven't collapsed. I've intuited that what I have isn't simply an inspiration but "sponsorship" from something that has some degree of ego and conscious purpose. As to the nature of this "sponsor" I can only guess.

So how does one get more in tune with an anonymous higher power? Do you suppose that's what I've encountered, or am I just drawing on deeper reserves of my own energy than I thought I had? Established gods and religions have methods for working with them to affect change, but in this case I'm flying blind although I have the great boon of a "sponsor" that I have a high natural affinity for. How can I advance toward the level of understanding of someone who knows the identity and history of the power they're appealing to?

Thanks again for reading.

Re: An inspired path

[ecosophia]

Why not ask your "sponsor" what to do?

Judson Exercise: numbers; planetary correspondence for peace

[(Anonymous)]

A wonderful Monday to everybody, and many thanks to you, JMG, for hosting Magic Monday again! :-)

Two questions today, if I may:

1. Judson Exercise

The numbers of turns in the Judson exercise, have they simply been determined by experience ("this works best")? Or is it a somewhat random matter how often one turns, potentially as long as certain rules are adhered to (e.g. as long as the clockwise turns outnumber the anti-clockwise)? Or is there some occult symbolism behind the specific numbers?


2. Planetary correspondence for peace

While several planets cover aspects which are important for peace (Venus, the Sun, Jupiter coming to mind), I have yet to see a clear planetary correspondence for peace spelled out somewhere, just like Mars usually is for war.

On the other hand, one would think that this correspondence is featured front and center, since having somebody to petition for peace would be at least as pressing as having somebody to petition for war. ;-)

Have people been turning to Mars for peace as well as for war? Is peace simply too complex an issue to be ruled by any one planet? Or what am I missing?

Milkyway

Re: Judson Exercise: numbers; planetary correspondence for peace

[lincoln_lynx]

2. Peace is a balance of forces and so it makes sense why it wouldn't fall exclusively under any planet.

[(Anonymous)]

Possibly a silly question, but it's been making me a little anxious. You mentioned a few weeks back about offending the gods by refusing the help they offer, in the context of planetary charity.

How easy is it to do this? Does this principle apply to situations such as prayers or affirmations?

[ecosophia]

If you pray hard for something, and then won't take it when it comes your way, yeah, the god in question is likely to be irritated. Affirmations are less sensitive, since it's just you, but if you get in the habit of affirming something in words and then rejecting it in real life, that's going to mess you over. The moral to this story? Don't use metaphysical methods to try to get something unless you're sure you really want it, and will take it when offered.

planetary charity question

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry if you've already covered this somewhere/sometime else.

I understand that I make a set number of donations corresponding to the planet and put them in the mail at the hour/day of that planet.

But how do I start the process at the outset? Do I pray to or invoke the planet and ask for help/blessings with my petition? Do I repeat my petition after that or just do it the first time?

Thank you.

Re: planetary charity question

[ecosophia]

You can do any of these things if you wish, but they're not necessary. The basic principle is that you make the donations with intention, having in mind the thing you're asking for.

celebrating the winter solstice

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

I am wondering if you (and anyone else who is so inspired) might offer some simple suggestions for celebrating the winter solstice in a family context.

Thank you.

Re: celebrating the winter solstice

[(Anonymous)]

Celebrating a family Solstice...I recently posted an article on my website with suggestions for Heathen Yuletide, but many of the suggestions will work just fine for other forms of Pagan observance and celebration. Most of the suggestions are very family-oriented, including the Sunwait, playing games, telling stories, and suggestions for arranging gift-giving in a different way than the usual Christmas-day scramble, focusing as much on the 'giving' as on the 'getting' for children (and everyone!).

I don't know what the policy here is, for adding links to our comments. If my link doesn't come through, you can find this article by searching for my website "HeathenSoulLore.net" and then looking for "Ideas for Celebrating Heathen Yule" in the list on the right sidebar.

https://heathensoullore.net/ideas-for-celebrating-heathen-yule/

I hope you and your family and everyone here enjoys a beautiful Yuletide season!

Winifred Hodge Rose

Proclus and Cabala

[readoldthings]

This might be more suited to the Open Post, but I've been slogging my way through Proclus's Six Books for the last... well, for a while. Thomas Taylor's translation isn't exactly easy going, but making my way through Plato helped, especially the less well-known works-- dialogues like Philebus and the Sophist aren't very often discussed these days, especially in comparison with the Republic or the Timaeus, but they're necessary to understanding Proclus.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask you about was this-- reading through Book 3, I can't help but see the Tree of Life in everything I'm reading. Proclus tells us that the One Itself is beyond being, and is not the head of a Triad-- this is the Unmanifest. Immediately following the One are the Three Intelligible Triads, the first of which is also, at least sort of, beyond being. Each triad is characterized according to Being, Power, and Intellect-- or, alternatively, the Limit, the Infinite, and the Mixed. The latter terms characterize the triads respectively themselves as well as the 3 terms within the triad.

Now, what I'm wondering is this. I know that Proclus influenced your own thinking a great deal, and my own understanding of the Tree of Life is heavily informed by The Celtic Golden Dawn and Paths of Wisdom. But it seems to me that if I were a student, trying to come up with some visual way of representing these ideas, I would draw something more or less identical to the Tree of Life, with Malkuth as the world dangling off of the end of the Three Triads which precede it, and which themselves emerge from the unknowable One. I'm honestly wondering if that isn't exactly where it comes from. What do you think?

Re: Proclus and Cabala

[ecosophia]

That is in fact exactly where it comes from. The Cabala as we have it is Jewish Neoplatonism with a strong Gnostic influence. The Roman writers Celsus and Origen both discussed the Tree of Life, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries respectively -- that is to say, almost a thousand years before it first appeared in Jewish literature, in the school of Rabbi Isaac the Blind in southern France. You can find most of the core themes of later Cabalistic literature even further back, in the writings of the Middle Platonists. That's not to say there's anything wrong with the Jewish Cabala -- it's a brilliant and effective adaptation of Neoplatonism to fit the needs of Jewish mystical spirituality -- but it's an adaptation, not the original source.

SOP

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning and as always thanks for your time. I've been doing the SOP for a few weeks using essentially what you said you use from a Druid perspective. My choice of 'who' to call might be a little unorthodox, and I'd welcome feedback from anyone who is interested. How I attribute the directions are Mabon above and Modron below with Bridget at the center for the opening, Taliesin in the east and Cerdwin in the west, and Gawain in the south and Ragnell in the north. Any and all comments welcome,especially if anyone has worked with any of the above. I haven't experienced much so far from the SOP, but I've only started a few weeks ago after about a year or so of regular Golden Dawn practice. Thanks!

Re: SOP

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I'll look forward to hearing how that works for you!

Being Kind to Plants

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG - You've posted a couple of things recently proposing that plants and other "lower" life forms are souls that are just a few grades behind us, so we should offer them love and blessings. I am not trying to troll here, seriously asking: How is that compatible with feeding ourselves? Not only do we kill plants for food, but when I garden I rip up weeds and throw them in the compost, or cut the woody mess back as well as possible. I don't stop to apologize to or ask permission of every weed seedling, and really can't. Doesn't being a heterotroph require me to suspend love and compassion for some organisms, at least sometimes?

Related question, I know some occultists and others assert that all souls are eventually supposed to get to our level and beyond, even those that are now just bacteria. But we could not live on this planet to experience growth if there were not plants to eat, bacteria to break down waste, etc. Doesn't this make it inevitable that when the last sentient beings to live before the Earth's destruction are living, there must also still be plants and bacteria, which won't get the chance to progress to intelligent life? Has anyone speculated about what will happen to them?

Thanks very much for tolerating weird questions!

-Translucent Jejune Octopus

Re: Being Kind to Plants

[robertmathiesen]

Why do you believe that love and compassion for some being is incompatible with killing that being? Everything that lives is born to die and to become food for others. Eating and being eaten are the very heart of life. (Yes, I know that this deeply offends our modern Western sensibility. That hard fact highlights a major defect in our sensibility, not a defect in life.)

Frequent reader but infrequent poster here

[(Anonymous)]

asking for a positive energy for my Mom Karen - she has some blood pressure issues and is in the hospital

Re: Frequent reader but infrequent poster here

[lukedodson]

Sending good vibes!

Question about the role of Time in the "Occult Philosophy" process

[(Anonymous)]

I've been studying your recent book, "The Occult Philosophy Workbook," which I love! And I've been pondering the role of Time in the evolutionary processes you describe there. You explain that each of the evolutionary planes has 7 regions within it: the 'lower' three relating to the substance of the plane it is in, the middle one relating to the energies of that plane, and the 'upper' three relating to that plane's spatial attributes.

Where does Time figure in this conception? Is it a spatial attribute of a particular plane? I'm curious about both subjective and objective Time in this picture.

In my meditations on this question, I get the image of the divine spark as a needle, trailing a thread behind it, which is Time. (I see other threads, too, but am asking about this one now.) As this spark heads through the planes, 'down' and then 'up', forming its bodies, it brings this thread of Time along with it, creating an apparent time-loop.

The Being-Spark's experiences of Time are both colored by and collected along the thread, which feels linear as it goes through the planes, but circular once the time-loop is connected back to itself upon return to the Divine plane.

If this is the case, this seems more like subjective than objective Time. Maybe objective Time is part of the larger cycles of the cosmos, perhaps shaped into a similar line-and-then-loop as the great beings taking part in these larger cycles pursue their activities?

Thank you for your thoughts, and all your writing!

Winifred Hodge Rose

Re: Question about the role of Time in the "Occult Philosophy" process

[ecosophia]

Time is a condition of consciousness, and thus subjective at its root. Your metaphor of the divine spark as a needle pulling the thread of time is very apt: matter, energy, and space are the three layers of fabric, time is the thread of consciousness that weaves in and out of it. What we call "objective time" is partly an artifact of the weird habit of using machines to force time into a straitjacket; in a broader sense, yes, it's the consciousness of greater beings, which are also moving in and out of the fabric of a greater reality and pulling us along with them.

Question on cannabis

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG:

I saw you mention in a post that you think cannabis can hinder someone's magical development. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this. I currently use edibles for pain reasons, although the dosage I take would be considered a micro dose, basically enough to take the pain away but not so much as to make me stoned and non functional. I wasn't sure whether your statement had to do with lack of awareness, in which case the dosage might be a factor, or whether cannabis itself has some properties that you think can hinder someone's abilities.

Re: Question on cannabis

[ecosophia]

As far as I know, microdoses shouldn't be an issue. It's the kind of dose that potheads use, the sort of thing that fries your short term memory and blurs your thinking, that gets in the way of magical development.

Karma and promises

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG, I have a question about promises and karma. A couple years ago I became reacquainted with a friend after decades apart. She asked me to make promises, such as keeping in touch, which I did. After a few months of spending time together, I realized that she is full of qualities I do not want anywhere near me. Eventually I decided that I need to keep this toxic person out of my life for my health and sanity, and have been gradually backing away. Even though this person lied to me, and manipulated me, I expect karmic consequences for not keeping my promises. I have prayed about the matter, explaining my side of things to God and asking to be released from the promises, but don't know what the answer is. Do you have any advice for a person in this situation?

Re: Karma and promises

[ecosophia]

Break the promises, knowing that karma will require someone to break their promises to you. If you accept this latter gracefully, and especially if you're proactive and release someone from an inconvenient or badly made promise, you'll be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Newbie to the Golden Section Fellowship here, with some questions:

1. Do single celled organisms have souls, according to occult theory? Where would they fit in the soul’s developmental cycle, if so?

2. I have been experiencing the number 13 very, very frequently in synchronicities over the past year (other numbers too, but 13 is by far the most frequent). I’m not too familiar with numerology (though I have done some reading on my own), do you have any general advice on how to interpret this number?

3. Is the SoP adequate to protect against most kinds of curses if I ever suspect I’m being targeted or are there other measures that should be taken?

4. Recently I came down with a sickness and lost the use of my voice. I assume in this case it’s fine (though not as effective obviously) to do the invocations in the SoP nonverbally?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, they have souls. They've typically just finished with the mineral kingdom and are on their way to planthood.

2) Synchronicities like this usually have some reference to things in your own life, imagination, or thinking. If you haven't already, try doing journaling on the number and see if you can figure out what it's trying to say to you.

3) It's quite adequate for that purpose. That's one of the reasons I've made a point of teaching it so widely.

4) Yes, that's fine. Imagine that your voice is as loud as usual -- that helps with silent practices.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
You often counsel against mixing techniques from different traditions.
Some years ago, in a book on Chinese medicine, I came across simple techniques to improve energy flow by daily gentle physical massage of the liver and kidneys, and remember finding them effective. Is there a risk of such techniques interfering with GD-type work?
Thanks you.

[ecosophia]

If all you're doing is massaging the area generally, you should have no trouble. If it's focused on specific meridian points, that may be a different matter.

[(Anonymous)]

What is luck? Is it different from karma?

[ecosophia]

I've never known an occultist who believed in luck. "Good luck" is what you get when you prepare yourself to make the most of opportunities and then get out there, find them, and work like a dog to make use of them. "Bad luck" is what happens when you don't do these things.

[(Anonymous)]

With the hoodoo bath the etheric contamination goes to feed the tree. What happens to it in the Judson exercise?

[ecosophia]

The forms get broken up and the energy in them gets dispersed.