ecosophia | Magic Monday

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.

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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!***

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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!

Good evening and a happy Thanksgiving to you too!

I would be very surprised to find that such an exercise exists for the heart. The heart appears to open up naturally as a byproduct of working with the solar plexus. Developing kindness and compassion are the favored techniques for that in Tibetan Buddhism. Meditations on the subject would fit nicely with the DA (I can't speak to WGS, I haven't purchased a copy yet), as would spending time trying to observe the heart and sensations relating to circulation. I haven't gotten to the 3-cauldrons yet, but I imagine that the solar cauldron would do a good job opening up the heart. There is a similar Neidan exercise explicitly for that purpose.

Hopefully this is of use, I know it isn't exactly what you were asking for.

Thanks very much for this, I always appreciate your thoughts, especially on physical practices. Kindness and compassion are definitely on the meditation slate, and a lot of my prayer practice lately has been pointing in that direction as well. I've been trying to pay more attention to my heart beat, but I'll have to add circulation to the list as well.

As for the 3 Cauldrons, I am also not there yet, but luckily, as anonymous below points out, the center cauldron is actually at heart rather than the solar plexus, which is a detail I also missed until I asked an inadequately-reviewed question a few weeks ago. So I'll have that as part of my practice when I get to it, but I've purposely been taking things slow and steady.

Cheers,
Jeff

Stephen Harrod Buhner's books The Lost Language of Plants and The Secret Teachings of Plants are both about 'the intelligence of the heart' and heart-centered perception. I have both, I have read the Lost Language of Plants and it includes toward the end a set of exercises for working with the heart in this way, and it looks like Secret Teachings goes further into that.

Unsure about compatibility with the DMH/DA, but I would have thought the Cauldron of the Sun, which is located at the heart, which is included in the Three Cauldrons ritual would actually be an exercise to work with the heart?

Thanks very much for the recommendations! I saw someone mentioned Buhner's books before when I did a search of this journal's archives for "heart center", so I will definitely move those to the top of the list (I had them on my list for more general learning and didn't realize they overlapped with this specific goal).

And yes, I believe the Three Cauldrons work will certainly help, but I have not gotten to incorporating them just yet, and I have been using the structured curriculum as an excuse to combat my natural tendency to race ahead on things.

Cheers,
Jeff

I also recommend Buhner. He's not coming from a classic occult tradition, but rather what he calls a "vegetalista" tradition. He's not working with (visualized) energy or qi, so I'd think his exercise plays well with JMG's druid traditions - especially because he emphasizes connection with nature, communication through the heart, and deep listening to other species/beings that are part of the world around us.

Funny, Jeff, you asked the reverse question of mine last week (I said I was more familiar with heart-centered ways of knowing, rather than solar-plexus-centered ones and asked for solar plexus reading materials). :D

Indeed, that was the main inspiration, but it was too late/I had posted too much to ask last week!

And again, it sounds like I need to give Buhner some serious consideration, thank you for the further recommendation.

Cheers,
Jeff

Magic Monday

Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question

Re: Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question

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Re: Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question

Re: Runes and the Grail, Heart Center Exercise Question