Magic Monday
Jan. 1st, 2023 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

The picture? I'm working my way through photos of my lineage, focusing on the teachers whose work has influenced me. Sylvester Gould, last week's honoree, was an active member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, one of the more interesting occult orders of the late 19th century. (After many reorganizations, it's still around as the Church of Light aka Brotherhood of Light.) The H.B. of L., as most people called it back in the day, was founded by two British occultists, T.H. Burgoyne and Peter Davidson. The photo is of Burgoyne. It's also the photo of another gentleman, one Captain Norman Astley, who took over the reorganized H.B. of L. in America from Burgoyne, married another H.B. of L. adept -- the remarkable and talented Genevieve Stebbins -- and helped Benjamin Williams aka Elbert Benjamine aka C.C. Zain re-reorganize the H.B. of L. into the Brotherhood of Light aka Church of Light. Yes, Burgoyne and Astley were the same person. It's a complicated story. But Burgoyne and Peter Davidson, whom we'll be talking about next week, were among Sylvester Gould's teachers -- and behind them stands another and a considerably stranger figure.
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***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***
Re: Asian folklore
Date: 2023-01-02 10:56 pm (UTC)Re: Day by Day
Date: 2023-01-02 10:58 pm (UTC)Everyone I know who's taken up magical practices has faced this same experience, and of course I certainly have. It sucks -- but knowing that it's a test, and knowing that all you have to do to pass it is to keep trudging onward, can help.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 10:59 pm (UTC)Mundane Astrology: How far ahead?
Date: 2023-01-02 11:02 pm (UTC)And thank you very much for hosting another Magic Monday - this is a real treasure trove. I hope you and your wife had a pleasant start into the week! :-)
How far ahead can one reasonably look with mundane astrology?
My understanding is that one needs a certain background knowledge about the current situation of a country etc to do meaningful predictions - or putting it differently, the further one would look into the future, the less fine-grained the predictions would become.
But could mundane astrology also be used a bit further out in the future to get a very general idea about some „coarse-grained“ stuff which will happen in a country‘s future?
As an example: There are predictions talking about a „war cycle“ in upcoming years, say the second half of this decade. If somebody simply wanted to check the most important mundane astrology „markers“ for war in their country, could this be done five to ten years ahead? Or do you think it would be hard to predict even major trends this far out?
(And yep, I‘m aware that this would be assuming that the capital would stay the same and the country wouldn‘t break up or otherwise rearrange in a major way… ;-) )
Milkyway
PS: I‘ve skimmed through the mundane posts on subscribestar, but haven‘t worked with the material yet. Subscribestar makes printing it a royal pain, so I‘ve decided to wait for your book. Apologies if you‘ve already covered this question somewhere in your posts there and I missed it!
Re: Asian folklore
Date: 2023-01-02 11:04 pm (UTC)the value of Mystery Schools
Date: 2023-01-02 11:05 pm (UTC)If you have any knowledge about this group, would you please provide me with any impressions or opinions that you may have? Thank you for any guidance you may be able to offer, I appreciate it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:07 pm (UTC)I am curious about your thoughts on where the Western occult / magical community is headed. I have been thinking about this after reading some of your work and learning that magical lodges were once all the rage, but gave way to Wicca and covens, for instance. It's difficult for me to see the current iteration of neo-paganism having any kind of lasting roots, for a wide variety of reasons.
Re: Curses
Date: 2023-01-02 11:09 pm (UTC)But there's also what I like to call the Raspberry Jam Principle. Magical energy is like raspberry jam; you can't spread it on anything else without getting it on your own fingers. If you're going to curse someone, you have to make contact with the nasty energies involved, and those energies are sticky; they'll affect you as well as your target. The more often you engage in nasty magic, the more of the same energies you'll get on you, and the more miserable your life will become. You can really, thoroughly trash your life that way. I've watched it happen, rather more than once.
Instead, concentrate on positive energies. Take the example mentioned above, where someone's trying to wreck your livelihood. If you focus your magical efforts on success and achievement and prosperity, what kind of energies stick to you? Why, energies of success, achievement, and prosperity. This is also why a lot of old-fashioned occultists go out of their way to do magical blessings and healings; they know that some of that blessing and healing energy will do the raspberry jam trick and stick to them. That approach works, and works well. Give it a try!
Heathen SOP and some more CosDoc
Date: 2023-01-02 11:09 pm (UTC)1) Some symbols like "hawk of may" have a strong association to the Arthurian legend. I am thinking of something that fits better to heathen mythology but it might take some time. I think I'll take them as they are for a start and change them once I found something else. Do you see any problem with this?
2) Translation of "power/powers": There are two different possibilities to translate. One is "Macht", the other is "Kraft" (which could also be translated back as "forces"). Do you make any difference between the two? In German - as I think also in English? - both can be used in a personalized way, e.g. "die Kräfte der Natur" can be conscious beings, just like "die Mächte der Natur". Are the "forces of air" principally the same as the "powers of air"?
3) Translation of "spirit below/above": A direct translation would sound rather silly, I think. A possible translation could be "Geist der Erde" (spirit of the earth) and "Geist der/des Himmels" (spirit of the heavens). Is that what you mean with below/above?
4) Translation of "telluric current": A direct translation would be "Strom der Erde" which I somehow don't find very fitting. You mean streams of energy, I guess, so I'd rather invoke "Energiestrom der Erde". I don't see a big difference besides the sound... Does anything speak against this?
5) CosDoc: The statements about the omnipotence of a Great Entity in relation to the universe it creates seem somehow contradictory at a first glance, since it is explained afterwards that the Great Entity does depend on the reaction of the atoms gathered around it, when it projects its concept of itself. From that I conclude that the Great Entity and the Universe are not the same thing and that the Universe exists in some way outside the Great Entity. So omnipotence would not mean that it can do as it likes within the universe, but that the universe can't change the Entity so it is "free of conditioning influence". And when I say "outside" that doesn't mean outside the universes "ring-pass-not", but that the Great Entity IS the universes ring-pass-not, ring-chaos and ring-cosmos. It provides the location, but we are the ones to dance there, so to say?
Thank's a lot, and best wishes to you for the new year!
Greetings,
Nachtgurke
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:10 pm (UTC)Re: New Year's Symbel
Date: 2023-01-02 11:11 pm (UTC)I offer my blessings and best wishes to you as well, with gratitude for your open and forthcoming participation here and elsewhere on the various JMG-net presences.
- Dijon Tangential Gnome (today)
Re: Mundane Astrology: How far ahead?
Date: 2023-01-02 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:12 pm (UTC)-Translucent Jejune Octopus
Re: D&D as the Road to Perdition
Date: 2023-01-02 11:13 pm (UTC)Rather fits some of the stranger middle-class behavior that's popular right now, too.
Rhydlyd
Re: the value of Mystery Schools
Date: 2023-01-02 11:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:18 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2023-01-02 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:23 pm (UTC)Re: Skinwalker ranch
Date: 2023-01-02 11:24 pm (UTC)-Spork -
Re: Heathen SOP and some more CosDoc
Date: 2023-01-02 11:28 pm (UTC)2) I would use "Kraft" rather than "Macht," as to my ear "Kraft" has the connotation of effective forces, not just power that could be expended in vain.
3) Geist der Erde and Geist der Himmels would work very well.
4) That would be fine. I assume it would also be Energiestrom der Himmels?
5) That's certainly my take on it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-02 11:29 pm (UTC)