Just Plain Old Ordinary Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

(Since we've run out of surviving Brythonic languages, it's English this time, and so here are some English Druids at Stonehenge.)

Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

With that said, have at it!

This Magic Monday is now closed to new questions. See you next week!

Comments

Etheric Charging, again

[jpc_w]

Hello.

Back on the topic of etheric charging, do the 10AM/10PM time limits apply to
other planets in the solar system for charging purposes? And should these other
planets also be prograde when charging?

Thanks.

Re: Etheric Charging, again

[ecosophia]

For planetary charging, you want the period when the planet is above the horizon but not yet at the zenith; that'll take a little bit of astrological knowledge to calculate. Retrograde status doesn't affect the etheric properties of the planets, just their astral properties, so that can be ignored in this work.

What is the Purpose of the Great Work?

[(Anonymous)]

Or indeed can it be said to have just one?

Today I posed this question at a small gathering of people acquainted with the topic, and got at least two responses. One person mentioned the Abramelin operation and the knowledge & conversation of the HGA, which I suppose would put the emphasis on personal spiritual development. Another brought up the notion of participation in the creation of the world as an ongoing affair, and gave the example of a departed friend who used to answer the question “Have you been born again?” with, “But you have to do that every day.”

Perhaps some people are simply trying to improve the conditions of their lives. Does this make magic a form of self-help?

If indeed we do participate in the re-creation of the world, does this make a difference? Would the world be more stale if we didn’t?

Is it a legitimate goal to try to alter the state of the world, to make it more like we think it should be or change the outcome of world events, or is that just dubious thaumaturgy on the order of ad jingles and logos (incantations and talismans), or even the malefic manipulations of Guido von List and his cohorts? In a word, what are the legitimate aims of magic, and where do they stop?

Kevin

Re: What is the Purpose of the Great Work?

[ecosophia]

The term "the Great Work" has been used in various ways in different traditions, so you're going to have a hard time getting any kind of coherent answer to this! As for your question -- "what are the legitimate aims of magic?" -- that's an excellent theme for meditation and study, and I encourage you to take it as such.

P.S.

[(Anonymous)]

As for titles, how about going with “Lundi Magique” or “Lunes Mágico” or “Lunedí Magico”? Then there’s Latin...

Kevin

Re: P.S.

[ecosophia]

I already used Latin a while back. As for the others, sure, I could do that.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG
Since you've run out of Brythonic languages may I suggest Goidelic ones? And after that you might consider Germanic or Romance languages, or maybe constructed languages like Esperanto or lojban.

[ecosophia]

No doubt! I know very little about the Goidelic languages, though, and will probably choose some less linguistic theme for future Magic Mondays.

Helping the recently deceased

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer,
A lovely friend of mine died less than two days ago. I am finding my Druid studies to be of great benefit at this time and thank you for introducing me to Druidry.

When I found out my friend had died, I opened a Grove and did the complete SOP and then prayed for her spirit to be comforted and guided into a successful experience of the afterlife. I also called her name three times and asked the Gods to let her hear me and I told her everything I needed to say to her. I felt much better for all that and a good cry.

Is there something else I can do to ease her passage? I pray for her every morning and evening, that she be guided and comforted, and will continue until it feels right to stop.

Thank you so much for Magic Mondays. I read the questions and answers with my note book open to write down so many useful ideas and practices.

Yours sincerely,
Max Rogers

Re: Helping the recently deceased

[ecosophia]

Please accept my sympathy on the loss of your friend! The sort of work you're doing is what I do in similar circumstances.

[marcu]

Dear Mr. Greer,

I'm busy with the introductory exercises in Learning Ritual Magic and I don't really feel like I'm making any progress with the attention exercise. I was just wondering if there are any additional or remedial exercises I could do?

My second question relates to chaos magic. I've had the book Chaos Protocols on my shelf for a while now and I've finally decided to read it. In the book the author mentions a ritual called the Headless Rite which has a very involved ritual and incantation. My question is, how advisable or dangerous is it to try magic that one comes across. The magic in this book seems rather a grab bag of things that purportedly work but I'm hesitant to tangle with things that I don't understand. That being said I also don't want to avoid trying different things if they are mostly benign. Could you spare any advice?

[ecosophia]

Marcu, everyone runs into periods where this or that magical exercise seems flat, unproductive, and unhelpful. When you feel that way, just keep on slogging.

As for trying random bits of magic you come across, that's not really a useful habit. Your first task as a student of magic is to learn one system thoroughly, and that's best done by taking a book or study program -- just one, please -- and focusing all your efforts on doing the material in it as well as you possibly can. Jumping from book to book, pulling out a practice here, a ritual there, is the way of the dilettante, not the serious apprentice mage.

[jenniferkobernik]

Is a daily Ogham divination best performed the night before or the morning of the day for which you are seeking guidance, or does it matter at all?

[ecosophia]

Either way is fine. Choose a time based on your own needs and preferences.

Agnostic Sphere of Protection

[(Anonymous)]

I've been thinking about the daily practice you recommend to people looking to begin learning ritual magic (druid magic handbook, Celtic golden dawn, etc.) and reading your various approaches for using ritual with different deities. When I started to think I needed to ask you a question about it, the question was something like "would it be possible to phrase the ritual to refer to deities as-yet unknown to the practitioner?" -- I came to the conclusion before asking the question that you would probably say it's obviously inadvisable to call out to unknown forces, because unless you're specific about who/what you're asking to help you, you don't know who/what might answer. So I suppose my question becomes both simpler and broader: is specific faith a prerequisite for this kind of magical practice? If a person knows there's * something* much bigger than them there in their world, but isn't clear yet what it is, do they need to do the work of deciding that question before beginning a path of learning ritual magic? Do some people just say the words anyway, similar to how an agnostic might engage with the Al-Anon practice of praying daily to a higher power whether or not they believe in it? How does that generally work out for them?

In my case I was brought up in the Church of England tradition, was professedly (but decreasingly) atheist in my early twenties, and now (at 33) spend more time trying to figure out my local place and how it lives than I do anything else -- I feel like the kind of practice you talk about could help me untangle myself, but maybe that's cheating, and I need to do other work first before I can pin my colours to the mast. I'd be grateful for any input, whether in general terms or otherwise.

Re: Agnostic Sphere of Protection

[ecosophia]

Say the words anyway. The gods are there, whether you believe in them or not; if you give a certain amount of reverence to a set of Druid gods and then, let's say, end up working instead with the Norse or Greek or Hindu pantheon, that's not going to offend anybody. (This is one of the great benefits of polytheism.)

The notion that invoking a god or a goddess requires you to make some grand commitment -- to pin your colors to the mast, in your phrase -- is purely an obsession of the prophetic religions and has no place in a polytheist context. Faith, in the Abrahamic sense, isn't a big deal in polytheist faiths; piety, in the sense of doing suitable acts of worship to whichever deities you want to work with, and refraining from nastiness toward anybody's deities, is the thing that matters.

Shape Shifting

[(Anonymous)]

A while back on the Ecosophia weekly site, I asked if it was possible to shape shift into animal. You said something to the effect that it wasn’t really that hard of a thing to do. So, my question – does one take on all of the attributes and abilities of that creature? Would you get the enhanced ability to smell as a dog, or have a true “eagle eye”? Can the shape shifter procreate? If so, would selkies be an example? What if one dies in their shape shifted form, how would that affect reincarnation?

Re: Shape Shifting

[ecosophia]

Remember that here we're talking about etheric shapeshifting -- that is, an elaborate and more interesting form of astral projection, in which your consciousness moves temporarily into a body of subtle energy made in the pattern of an animal. How much of the attributes and abilities of the animal you get depends, of course, on how well you're able to construct the etheric body of transformation and transfer your consciousness into it. No, you can't procreate in an etheric body, and if you die, you shed the etheric body of transformation right away (much more quickly than you'd shed your ordinary human etheric body) and go on with reincarnation in the usual way.

Occult Geology

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, from your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic, I have learned that the use of stones/crystals for magical effect is not a recent western New Age phenomenon, as I naively thought, but solid traditional practice in many cultures. This is an important insight for me, as it gave me the impetus to take the topic seriously for the first time, and I find it fascinating indeed!

It also makes me wonder: If carrying a small gemstone can have the effects you describe, what about the different types of bedrock we spend our whole lives on? Do they influence all lifeforms across whole geological regions according to their nature? In fact, I dimly remember some European scholar of religion saying that people living on basalt are particularly pious (apparently, the density of churches is remarkably high in those areas).

How does all of this relate to your experiences? And do you know of any studies in, well, occult geology you could recommend?

Any hints are much appreciated!

Re: Occult Geology

[ecosophia]

Yes, emphatically! The magical dimension of place includes many things, but the effects of different underlying geologies are an important part of that. I don't know that anybody's written a book on the subject, and it would take a lot of focused research to do one, but it would be a worthwhile project.

LRM Co-Authors

[davidincminor]

Hello Mr. Greer,

I’m slowly - yet steadily - making my way through Learning Ritual Magic. As I’ve gotten more into it, exploring many of the books and readings that stem both from it and from recommendations you’ve made here, I’ve become curious about your co-authors, wondering what else they’ve written and the broader context of how they fit into LRM.

I see that Clare Vaughn and you wrote a book Pagan Prayer Beads. But as for Earl King, Jr, LRM seems to be his only work.

Would you mind sharing a bit on who they are and how they came to contribute to LRM?

Thank you.

Re: LRM Co-Authors

[(Anonymous)]

I bet “Earl King” and “Claire Vaughn” are pseudonyms, and if they aren’t, they should be!😄

[(Anonymous)]

Are you familiar with the Monroe Institute and if so, what do you think of their methods?

For those who haven't heard of it, the simple version is they use asymmetric pulsed tones in each ear to create an altered state of conciousness and use this for general personal and spiritual growth, visiting other planes, and developing abilities like having out of body experiences, controlled remote viewing and psychokinesis. I've never done any of their courses but it sounded interesting.

[ecosophia]

I've heard of it, but what I've read of their work makes it clear that it's not especially relevant to mine, so I haven't followed up on it to any extent.

Greetings and an interesting story

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John Michael,

Hope you and Sara are well, and thanks again for allowing us to bombard you with comments, hello's, general chit chat, and requests for assistance! :-)!

Last Saturday I attended the Green Wizards of Melbourne meeting and we had a good time and a presentation and discussion about Oil which is a frankly dark topic.

Anyway, I got on the country train to head back home again. The seat next to me was empty, and just prior to the train departing, a young bloke sat next to me. He noticed that I was reading a book on restoring heritage grains - which is an excellent book - and we got to talking. I'm putting a bit of thought towards restoring heritage grains here on the farm - which is my gift in the realms of magic (and one that I am not allowed to walk away from). People these days tend to want to consume, gardens, like amulets have to be created and that takes personal energy.

It just so happened that the young bloke did work experience at an organic farm up north of here with people whom I've known for about a decade. I managed to impart some useful concepts to him and we had a few good laughs too.

You know, I read your comments from last week about the lack of magic practitioners and I too feel the same way. I have an inkling as to why that may be the case, but it is not a concept I wish to write to you about on a public internet forum.

However, it is days like last Saturday when I was talking with the young bloke on the train in a highly improbable chance encounter that I knew that whilst the future may be really hard, we as a species be OK and some knowledge will get through. I can almost hear them saying in the future: I wonder how they did that in the past – they knew so much stuff?

Cheers

Chris

Re: Greetings and an interesting story

[ecosophia]

I have these conversations from time to time, too, and yeah, it's clear that what needs to get through will get through.

[mmelvink]

Hi JMG,

I've been closely following the discussions here on anti-Trump magic and the extreme incompetence and foolhardiness with which it's being pursued, as my current book project (The Occult Science of Empire in Aqquyunlu-Safavid Iran) deals centrally precisely with political magic and the many early modern Persian manuals on the same. Most notably, these manuals present various forms of political magic -- war and assassination, installing just rulers and deposing tyrannical ones, mind-control of rulers, political advancement, plague and famine prevention, etc. -- as utterly mainstream and morally unproblematic; as far as I've seen, they contain no warnings as to possible blowback, and rather emphasize the experimentally proven nature of the workings they prescribe.

I'm trying to square this major Western cultural phenomenon with your observation that malevolent magic is rarely effective and usually backfires. My sense is that the Persianate political magic tradition attempted, with frequent success, to sidestep this problem by wholly sanctifying political magic: in these manuals such magic is a fusion of quranic and angelic with planetary, and its integrity guaranteed thereby. More importantly, political magic would seem to be indispensable in medieval and early modern imperial contexts generally, a crucial check on tyranny. Many of the most powerful rulers in Islamic history were, shall we say, only lightly Islamicized, and not particularly apt to submit to the social-justice strictures of Islamic law. If such unrighteous tyrants would not enforce Islamic law, then, social justice could still be enforced by mind-controlling or deposing them with quranic magic, and ideally installing a philosopher-king in their place.

In other words, much of Islamicate and especially Persianate political magic, pursued under military autocracies, seems far more benevolent than malevolent, a primary check on tyranny. In the modern Euro-American context, of course, democracy is meant to provide the same check -- and works about equally well (which is to say, only some of the time, and often in muted or muddled fashion).

Now the magical subversion of others' wills is obviously more morally problematic in a political system ostensibly predicated on the will of the governed. But under autocracies scholars perennially had to scramble to rein in rulers' tyrannical tendencies or redirect them in more productive ways -- especially toward the patronage of the occult sciences! (It is a remarkable feature of Persianate early modernity that Muslim scholar-occultists did in fact manage to magically transform Turko-Mongol autocracies into astrocracies and cosmocracies.) Do you think a moral and historical argument can be made, then, for the early modern ubiquity of political magic as the expression of a "democratic" impulse, this in sharp contrast to the current rash of undemocratic anti-Trump magic?

(I don't mean this in an anachronistic sense, of course: Islamic political philosophy is entirely Platonic in tenor, so roundly rejects democracy as rule by the mob, and holds up philosopher-kingship as the only system of government that can guarantee justice. But I do need to make early modern Persianate magical politics legible to the Euro-American reader, given how totally ignored the subject is in modern historiography, and this strikes me as a possible hook.)

[ecosophia]

Good! I'd point to a couple of massive differences between the kind of technically capable, ethically informed, and spiritually rooted occultism you're studying and the muddled postmodern posturing that features so heavily in the anti-Trump workings. First, the people who were doing the magic you're studying were educated in a tradition that took the intelligent study of ethics from a philosophical basis as a central theme. Thus books on magic didn't have to walk their readers down the bunny slope of elementary ethics; they could assume that their readers understood the ethical dimensions of what was being discussed, and go from there, trusting the reader to make his or her own decisions accordingly.

Second, and equally crucial, the varieties of magic they were using were much less productive of blowback than the anti-Trump workings we've discussed. This is partly a function of the points you've raised -- workings that draw down influences from the divine, angelic, and astral spheres will by that very fact participate in more balanced and harmonious energies than those that call on a grab-bag of random abstractions and a few demons thrown in for good measure -- but there's also a technical point. Most modern (and essentially all postmodern) magic works by bringing magical energies into manifestation through the practitioner -- that's the basis of what I call the Raspberry Jam Principle, the rule that whatever energies you send to anyone or anything else will manifest in you and your life as well. Traditional religious and astral magic, by contrast, doesn't bring the power through the practitioner. If you make a planetary gamahe, for example, you're not putting your own energy into it; you're making and consecrating the gamahe at an astrologically elected time, of proper materials, so that the planet puts the power into the gamahe directly, without having it flow through you first. So the blowback you risk is on the order of ordinary karma, rather than the amplified blowback you get from the Raspberry Jam Principle.

That said, I think you can indeed make a case for Persianate magic as a rein on the abuses of tyrants -- if you will, a despotism tempered by sorcery! -- and you might compare it to the way that Chinese literati used various tools, ritual among them, to rein in the somewhat less lurid abuses of Ming and Qing-dynasty Chinese emperors.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking about what you could try to get with magic that would have a lot of positive effects and be ethical and have minimal risk of bad blowback. What about 'good timing'? It could mean social skills like good comic timing or knowing the pace to escalate a relationship. It could also have similar effects to good luck - the cavalry arriving just in time, something good happening when you are in a position to enjoy it. Or even if something bad happens, it either sets you up for something good later, protects you from something worse, or at least happens at a time to cause minimum inconvenience. I thought of this idea because at least three times now I've lost a filling or had part of a tooth break off the week before I was going to the dentist anyway, so it didn't require me to do anything extra. Can you use multiple meanings of a term like that to do magic and get several benefits or does it have to be more tightly focused?

On a differnt aspect of time, you usually advocate making change slow, steady and safe. Are there any situations where you would try to bring about magical and spiritual change quickly?

[(Anonymous)]

Then would one have to specify also,'for everyone and everything involved' - as more than usual good timing for oneself could be detrimental for others?

[(Anonymous)]

Back in my days as a Marxist materialist I used to think "Alchemists thought that drinking a concoction of arsenic, mercury and lead would make them live forever? And these people were supposed to be wise?"

Then there is the Daoist joke about the reason for the transition from external alchemy to internal alchemy: "There's only so many emperors you can poison before elixirs of youth go out of fashion."

So what are alchemists actually trying to do when they use serious poisons?

[ecosophia]

Typically, they're trying to poison someone.

A great many alchemical documents are deliberately booby-trapped to assist the clueless to remove themselves from the gene pool. My favorite example is that classic text, the Red Lion of Salomon Trismosin. It gives a detailed recipe; if you follow it, you end up with several ounces of a highly unstable gold fulminate, which you're then supposed to put into a mortar and pound with a pestle. If you do this, you'll blow yourself and the building in which you're doing it to kingdom come. Gold fulminate is even more explosive than mercury fulminate, which is the active ingredient in the blasting caps miners use to detonate TNT.

In much the same way, there's a magical operation in the Picatrix for making a ring of power. The text explains that the assistants who help you do this will be at risk of being possessed by evil spirits, unless you give them a potion -- see, it says so right here in the book! The potion is made from bitter almonds, and contains enough cyanide to drop an elephant in its tracks. The real point of the "potion," of course, is to make sure that your temp workers don't steal your technical secrets; as that famous initiate Ben Franklin pointed out, three can keep a secret if two are dead.

Thus the alchemical recipes for lethal "potions of immortality." If you're an alchemist in a medieval society, among your constant occupational hazards are kings and barons who will happily imprison you and torture you to death to get your secrets. A convenient potion of immortality that will make your local tyrant feel really bright and happy and energetic -- weirdly, arsenic and other heavy metal poisons do this in low doses -- and then drop them in their tracks is a good thing to have on hand.

On the other hand, you can do what Johann Friedrich Boettger did. He was an alchemist, and was imprisoned by King Augustus of Saxony for the usual reasons. The king was mad for Chinese porcelain, which was wildly fashionable in Europe just then, and demanded that Boettger make lots of gold so he could buy porcelain by the ton and not bankrupt his kingdom. Boettger's response was to figure out the secret to making porcelain. King Augustus got all the porcelain he wanted, and Boettger was made a baron and became very, very rich....

[(Anonymous)]

I know a few people who are casting Hughes' workings. I've had no luck trying to talk them out of the spells, since they feel the need to "do something", and apparently nothing mundane will work. Is there anything else you can think of that I could do to try to help, or at this point is it best to just walk away and let them make a mess of their lives?

[ecosophia]

Ultimately, you have to let people make their own mistakes, and learn from them. I know, it's not necessarily easy.

Accuracy of directions

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning JMG,

My street runs in what we call the North direction. However, by the compass it actually runs about 30 degrees North-East. So, when I perform the SOP and start facing East, perpendicular to the window that we say faces East, I am actually facing slightly South-East by the compass.

I feel more comfortable lining myself up with the approximate directions perpendicular to the walls of my house than using the compass. Is this OK for the SOP and other rituals that specify directional orientation? Or, do you recommend being more precise and following a compass?

Many thanks.

Re: Accuracy of directions

[ecosophia]

Approximate directions are fine. Back in the day, it was "more or less in the direction that the sun rises" and so on.

Follow-up on question and plant astrology

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I introduced the ritual you suggested a month ago to my women's group, including the Sphere of Protection from The Druid Grove Handbook. Thank you again for this; they appreciated the nature focus of the ritual. Two aspects that came up that I would like to consult with you. As you mentioned in your previous reply, it would be difficult to have gods that we all agree on. The Elemental Cross section in the SOP does call on gods. As an alternative, we thought we may substitute with Devas of plants as our work is focused on plants. Is this an appropriate substitution? If not, what would you suggest we do for that section? Other part that was only a small curiosity is the use of the word AWEN at the end of the ceremony. Is it appropriate to use this word if we are not druids?

If I may also ask about another topic that relates to our group work, what book(s) do you recommend for a method for finding the astrological sign that relates to specific plant species, especially native plants (which would not be found in Culpepper, your book on Natural Magic, etc.)?

Ann of the future capital of the Lakeland Republic

Re: Follow-up on question and plant astrology

[ecosophia]

You can certainly use plant devas if those are the sacred powers with whom you work. The word Awen, while it comes from the Druid tradition, isn't restricted to Druid use -- the spirit of inspiration, which is what "awen" means, is available to everyone.

As for the astrological symbolism of plants that haven't been classified that way, you've got a lot of hard work ahead of you. The original classifications were assigned on the basis of a solid grasp of astrological symbolism; if you want to expand on that, study planetary symbolism and see if you can figure out why Culpeper gives plants to the planets he does, and then apply the same principle to plants you want to classify.

Ogham

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

I’m using Mickie Mueller’s Voice of the Trees deck for divination and have noticed some discrepancies with what you’ve published in the DMH. Notably in the first aicme, nuin, fearn and saille don’t match with the order you’ve placed them in. And in the forfedha the symbols on the fews differ for uilleand and phagos. Then there’s the cas of mor, whereas Mueller uses iphin and the meanings differ considerably. Chalk this up to a difference in interpretation of a tradition with little written about it? I’m of course taking your advice and writing down my spreads each day to find out what the cards mean to me. Good results sometimes, all over the map at others. Seems like it will take at least a year before I have a good sense of the fews and their meanings in a divination. Thanks again for Magic Monday’s!

Mike T

Re: Ogham

[ecosophia]

We know precisely nothing about the way the fews were used for divination in ancient times, so everyone who writes about it bases their work on their own study and experience. That's true of most divinatory oracles! You'll find, as you practice with Ogham, that you'll gradually get your own sense of what the fews mean, and this will differ from everyone else's.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you familiar with David Abram's writing? If so, what do you think of it? How does his concept of magic relate to yours?

[ecosophia]

It's been a very long time since I read The Spell of the Sensuous, so I'm going on distant recollections here. As I recall, I found it disappointing. For all his talk about a New Materialism, it's still a reductionist attempt to explain spirit as nothing but matter -- which is very popular in a materialist age, but still gives away everything worth saving in order to grasp at a phantom of intellectual respectability.

The gap that lies between his conception of magic and mine can be stated quite simply. From his point of view, matter and energy are the only realities, and what we call "spirit" is nothing but a slightly odd effect of material things. From my point of view -- that of traditional occultism -- spirit is the primary reality, and what we call "matter" and "energy" are epiphenomena of spirit. As William Blake put it, "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age." The materialist says that we have no soul distinct from our body -- which is not at all the same thing...

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking about the muti murders where people are killed so parts of their bodies can be used for magic. While that is several different kinds of evil, could the same end be achieved ethically? Like you can consent to organ donation and leaving your body to science, could you tick a box to allow your bits to be used for magic, without compromising your afterlife or reincarnation? If there were no consequences I'd be good with having my ribs carved into a set of ceremonial daggers.

You've said Druids favour cremation to rapidly sever the spirit's ties to the body, so could some of your body parts being transplanted into others or being preserved long-term in a medical school cause problems? Personally I'd like to stick around long enough so my ghost can be standing next to the operating or dissecting table, stroking my ghost chin and saying "Fascinating..." But I'm not sure I like the idea of haunting an anatomy museum forever.

[ecosophia]

I suppose you could, but traditional Western occultism doesn't use body parts. As for haunting an anatomy museum, nah, having your body preserved for a while just delays the Second Death a little.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,
When I perform the Circulation of Light as part of the SOP, my sphere seems determined to remain an upright oblong. I struggle to make it actually spherical and not let it conform at all to my body shape.

Are spherical proportions worth struggling for, or is there perhaps a good reason that the 'sphere' is so stubbornly non-spherical? Maybe the shape I am experiencing is the shape of the Sphere of Sensation?

Thanks so much for answering questions!

[ecosophia]

Make the sphere larger. Yes, you're probably experiencing your sphere of sensation, so you want to form the sphere of whirling light further out, well outside your aura.

Roman Golden Dawn

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

Which of your magic systems would you recommend to a student whose favoured pantheon is the Graeco-Roman one?

I have decent knowledge of Roman mythology, a passing knowledge of Latin, and I feel far more comfortable in the company of Iuppiter or Hercules, than any other deities. I've been agonising over this choice for a while now, but I don't seem to be able to make a decision.

I own both Learning Ritual Magic and The Celtic Golden Dawn and I have browsed both. I find LTR very easy to follow, but its Judeo-Christian bent makes it almost indigestible to me. The CGD, on the other hand, is far more appealing with its nature-focus, but - alas - the Celtic pantheon, language, etc. are utterly alien to me. Similarly, although I have not tried geomancy yet, it attracts me more than the tarot.

Would divination be a reliable approach to solve this dilemma?

Many thanks in advance for any advice you'll want to offer. And for these Magici Dies Lunae!

Re: Roman Golden Dawn

[ecosophia]

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. In order for there to be a workable system of Roman magic, somebody has to learn some other system well enough to be able to convert it over to Roman symbolism. If you're not willing to do that, you're going to have to sit around and wait for someone else to get around to it.

If you are willing to do that, I recommend The Celtic Golden Dawn, since it's polytheist in its focus and lends itself well to interpretatio Romana. A lot of Romans worshiped Celtic deities -- did you know that the Gaulish horse goddess Epona became the patron goddess of the Roman cavalry corps? There are altars to her all over the Empire -- and you can do the same for a little while. After you've finished the course of study, and understand the system from inside, I can walk you through the process of converting the rituals and instructional work to a Roman framework. As I also know Latin tolerably well, and have a decent familiarity with the classical sources, it shouldn't be difficult at all -- but you're going to have to make it happen by mastering the system in its current form.

Druid Mental Alchemy

[(Anonymous)]

Hi AD Greer,

I remember your mentioning a while back that you have some Druid Mental Alchemy materials that you would like to put together, but I wasn't sure if you had done that (I may have missed the announcement). Are they available anywhere? If not, do you have a recommendation for something similar?

Thank you!

Kelly

Re: Druid Mental Alchemy

[ecosophia]

I don't know of anything even remotely like the materials I have. I've been occupied by other work for a while now, but as time permits I plan on finishing the thing up and either offering it as a course or publishing it as a book.