Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for 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 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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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 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

[yuccaglauca]

The grove closing in The Druid Magic Handbook ends with,

"By the Sword of Swords, I pledge my faithful service to the living Earth our home and mother. Awen."

Could you explain a little of what that pledge means?

Is it perhaps a reference to the AODA earth path changes, or the energetic role of Druid magic as mediating between Spirit Above and Spirit Below, or a commitment to eventually perform the land blessing ritual later in the book, or something else entirely? Is someone obligated to do something specific if they use this grove ceremony?

[ecosophia]

Good heavens, you haven't caught onto that aspect of the AODA system yet? It means exactly what, after appropriate reflection, meditation, and divination, you understand it to mean.

[yuccaglauca]

Fair enough! I suppose that is kind of a recurring theme . . .

[ecosophia]

It's an essential theme. All the teachings and orders that are part of the Universal Gnostic tradition take the freedom and independent insight of the individual as a central principle, and apply that principle over and over again. I know it's a little unfamiliar, especially these days, when pipsqueak experts claiming the right to tell other people what to do are as thick on the ground as cow turds in an overcrowded feedlot, but that's the tradition as I learned it and I'm sticking with it.

[(Anonymous)]

I admit that I also felt weird about the sword, which delayed my learning of the grove Ritual for about a year… what kind of egregore was I buying into, does it fit in with me here in Central Europe, and in general?Gave it another try recently and came to think that it’s about MY inner Excalibur - the sword as a part of me as of everyone. Lil the first time, the practice brought vivid dreams… is it a valid interpretation?

[ecosophia]

Good. Yes, that's one way you can interpret it -- and the way you yourself interpret it is what matters.