ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2022-11-27 11:46 pm

Magic Monday

Herman SpruittIt'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 hereAlso: 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. 
 
Bookshop logoI'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!***


stcathalexandria: (Default)

Re: Sacred Geometry, Divination and Meditation

[personal profile] stcathalexandria 2022-11-28 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"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."

This was my situation.

Plus when I was in elementary school, if I got my work done early, the teacher gave me more work to do. I didn't even realize that as an adult I was playing the procrastination game with myself because of that too.

And then there's that enjoyment of the adrenaline rush of finishing things heroically at the last minute that I also enjoyed.
stcathalexandria: (Default)

[personal profile] stcathalexandria 2022-11-28 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Could we do this with the United States?

Heavy duty cleaning, fresh management, and a grand re-opening sound wonderful.

Re: Frequent reader but infrequent poster here

(Anonymous) 2022-11-28 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks everyone! It looks good for the short term - no super harmful chemicals and lots of rest are now in order.

Re: An oddity and a problem.

[personal profile] brenainn 2022-11-28 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. I'll pass this onto him verbatim. From what I remember of the fellow, he's likely to opt for the first option (though he might be quite different now). I know he has a Christian background, and there's a traditionalist Catholic parish near him. I might recommend he give the traditional priest a call.

Tarot card 5 of pentacles reversed in a 3 card reading

(Anonymous) 2022-11-28 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi JMG. I've had the 5 of pentacles reversed several times in the outcome position in recent days, including the last 2 days. Obviously it's telling me something. I've generally interpreted 5 of pentacles reversed as a hopeful card indicating troubles now behind me. But the repetition makes me think there's another message here. How would you generally consdier the card in that position?

[personal profile] milkyway1 2022-11-28 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Don‘t look over the pond in our direction. Seriously. We could send some of ours over, though. Alternatively, why don‘t we all team up and look towards, uhm… Antarctica? Mars? We could lease one of Musk’s rockets, couldn’t we? Although that wouldn‘t be fair to poor Mars, I‘m afraid.

*sigh*

Milkyway
jprussell: (Default)

Re: celebrating the winter solstice

[personal profile] jprussell 2022-11-28 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for sharing this, there's a lot of great ideas here, and I especially appreciate your suggestions on being flexible with the needs and customs of kin, friends, and the broader culture.

One further custom that can fit the extended Yuletide that my household has been practicing some years now: on New Years Eve, we build a fire and we hand out cards to anyone joining us. On the cards, we write down anything we want to let go of as the year closes, and maybe things that we want to bring forward into the new year, and then we put the card in the fire. Everyone is free to share what they wrote, or not.

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: Karma and promises

(Anonymous) 2022-11-28 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
OK, thank you JMG.
jprussell: (Default)

Re: Eros & Psyche, DA, Apollo & Hyacinth

[personal profile] jprussell 2022-11-28 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
On 1) Not literally the same explanations, but the Four Branches of the Mabinogi by Will Parker makes a marvelous complement to DA takes on the Mabinogion. You can get a lot of the material here online, including the translation and footnotes, here: http://www.mabinogi.net/fourbranches.html

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: Proclus and Cabala

[personal profile] readoldthings 2022-11-28 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Fascinating, thank you!

(Anonymous) 2022-11-28 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
When demons, elementals or other beasties end up in human bodies, are they aware of what they are and what's going on?

Page 5 of 10