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

[hearthculture]

Inspired by questions about dreams a couple magic Mondays ago, I've been paying particular attention to my dreamwork and it's intersection with my magical practice.

I've always been an active dreamer, regularly remembering 2-5 vivid dreams a night; at one point I wondered if my primary work in this life was actually to be performed in dreamtime rather than during waking. After an initial experiment, I've shifted my SOP to before bedtime. I find that this has yielded more coherent dreaming and clearer understanding of my dreams the morning after.

I mentioned before that it has been observed that the brain is "bathed and cleansed" during sleep, and in homeopathic circles there is a theory about dreams being affected by remedies (basically dreams process what remedies purge.) This is interesting as homeopathic operate on the etheric level.

I have a working theory that dreaming is a time of integration and organization during which the body and mind process and file away the experiences of waking life. As I've experimented with SOP work and dreaming, I am feeling like there's an element of processing and integrating various forms of experience - perhaps from all of our bodies. For example, if the physical body experienced one thing, but in the small moment the etheric body and astral body experienced something else (say when someone is untruthful, or a lovely setting is filled with bad energy) then dreaming helps us to process all this.

Anyway- questions...
1. Any thoughts or recommendations on using banishing/clearing before sleep?
2. Is there any teaching about senses/perception of our different bodies?
3. I understand that intention works its way down from higher planes to the physical. Is it possible that perception moves the opposite direction? I.e. perceiving works its way up the planes and intention comes down in some sort of cycle?
4. From my spouse- Does the SOP use personal energy for it's protective effect. I.e. If I do the SOP in the morning and recall it in situations of stress throughout the day, would this be draining of my personal energy?

Thank you for your time and years of study.

[ecosophia]

1) Some people like to do it, others don't. Experiment with it and see if you like the effect.

2) Yes, an enormous amount of it. Arthur Powell's books The Etheric Double and The Astral Body may be worth reading.

3) Not really. Your ability to perceive gradually expands up the planes as you develop spiritually, but that's a different thing.

4) No, not at all. If you pay attention to the ritual, you'll notice that you're asking for help from the elements; that's where the power comes from.