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

New Year's Symbel

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

A happy New Year to everyone! May it bring more of what you need and less of what you don't.

To Share and Ask: As last year, when I set my goal of reading books only by those dead for the year (accomplished!), I'd like to invite anyone willing to join me in a virtual symbel. Symbel is a Heathen ritual where those participating share rounds of toasts. During each round, anyone so moved may raise a glass and propose a toast, to which all participating drink. Traditionally, the first round of toasts is directed to the Gods, the second to the ancestors (or other divine beings like elves, dwarves, or the like), and the third is a chance to either share something accomplished, or pledge to do something. This last is called a "boast," but if it is empty bragging, you're doing it wrong. The goal is to acknowledge and call upon the role your community, human and divine, plays in helping you get things done. Composing poetry for the toast is traditional and appreciated, but definitely not required (I followed the rules for the Old Norse form ljóðaháttr as modified for modern English).

So here's my ask: will anyone willing please share in any of the three toasts below you can get behind with the beverage of your choice (alcohol is traditional, but whatever your beliefs or post-New Year's Eve feelings allow will work just great), and reply with any toasts you'd like others to join you in.

Hail to Gods
and Goddesses fair,
bright bringers of weal.
Drink I raise
to drightens* with whom
Daily we are glad to deal.

Hail to Ash
and holy Elm**,
forebearers far-sung.
Glass I lift
to that glad line
from which we are sprung.

May coming year
kindly yield
blissful blessings to all
Blithely will I
blog each week
wielding words to enthrall.

*drighten is a modernized form of an Old English word for a lord or ruler
** In Norse Myth, Ask (Ash) and Embla (Elm?) were two trees that Odhinn and his brothers made into the first humans by giving them spirit, wits, and blood/healthy color. I've Anglicized them here.

As always, thanks very much to JMG and those who read and comment.

To any who will have them, I put forth my blessings and best wishes,
Jeff

Re: New Year's Symbel

[liamq]

I will join you in this; it’s quite lovely, and it will help in my attempts to get closer to Nordic and Germanic deities.

And as an aside, thank you for always contributing something unique and insightful to Magic Mondays. After JMG, your comments are almost always the ones I learn from the most.

Re: New Year's Symbel

[jprussell]

Wow, thank you so much, that's very kind. I really enjoy this community and the discussions it has, and I do my best to contribute rather than mooch.

Cheers!
Jeff

Re: New Year's Symbel

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Jeff, thanks for posting this! While I don't plan to blog each week so didn't "join" in on the third, I did participate in the first two heartily (though I am not a heathen the principles and relationships you highlight poetically are ones I can relate to in my own way) and lifted a fine glass of honey-fortified local cider, which I thought a most appropriate beverage for such a purpose.

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: New Year's Symbel

[jprussell]

Thanks very much!

I should have been a bit more clear, it seems: the idea is that the "toaster" proposes a toast, and anyone who supports that person in their intent drinks to the toast. Then, the next toaster goes with their own goals, and so forth. Drinking to someone else's toast says "I support and encourage you in that" rather than "I intend to do the same thing".

So if you have any goals of your own for which you'd like to invite others (including me) to toast to, I'll be more than happy to reciprocate.

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: New Year's Symbel

[tunesmyth]

Jeff, I would like to join you but I won't have time to compose my own toast before Magic Monday ends. Would you consider making this a blog post on your own page?

Re: New Year's Symbel

[jprussell]

Thank you, and great thought!

Here's a post on my own dreamwidth for anyone who'd like to participate after this MM has closed: https://jprussell.dreamwidth.org/2094.html

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: New Year's Symbel---a slightly different topic

[ritaer]

Since you mentioned the goal of reading books by dead authors, I thought I would add my suggestion of reading books from other cultures--many of us do read scriptures or philosophy from the ancient world or from other religions, but I would also suggest fiction, novels, poetry or essays from other nations and cultures--especially non-Western ones. I have been reading some mysteries (my favorite fiction genre) by American Indian authors.
Suggestions would be welcome

Rita

Re: New Year's Symbel---a slightly different topic

[jprussell]

Thank you for sharing, and I agree, that's another great way to get exposed to some new ways of thinking.

It's a bit cliche these days, but I enjoy rather a lot of Japanese pop-culture, mostly anime and manga, but I also thoroughly enjoyed reading Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi. Manga-wise, the series I'm currently enjoying is called "Witch Hat Atelier", about an adolescent girl learningto do magic. Even though it has a thoroughly "magic as technology" world, it uses magic as a metaphor to explore the artistic creative process, and the drawings are stunningly beautiful.

If you do film, Bollywood also offers a very interesting take, as it's so clearly inspired by Western cinema, and yet very clearly from a different culture. I've heard Egypt fulfills a similar role for the middle east, but I don't have any personal experience there, despite marrying into a half-Egyptian family.

Otherwise, my own reading has mostly been expanding my firmly Western horizons - Goethe's Faust, Hesse's Glass Bead Game, re-reading the Mabinogion, Dickens, Doestevsky, C.S. Lewis.

Cheers,
Jeff