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

Memorization

[d_mekel]

Hello and happy new year

From COP,for consecration rituals of tools that will most likely be done once a year. How crucial is it to memorize the words and can a cheat sheet be used? Every week I have been practicing the full form of opening and closing, but use a small sheet with the first letter of every word for the closing part. I realize the importance of memorization for ritual, but it is probably my biggest weakness in magic workings.

Second question. For using the telesmatic imagery for angel PVRLAK, would I just use peh, vau, resh to figure the image?

Last one. I'm mainly using the golden dawn stuff from COP to get to the spiritual development chapter. Are there sections I could skip or do you suggest working the book front to back regardless. Was planning on skipping evocations for sure.

Always appreciated
-patrick

Re: Memorization

[ecosophia]

1) You can certainly use a cheat sheet. I routinely did.

2) No, if the name doesn't have the standard angelic endings -AL or _IAH, you use the whole name.

3) Once you've made and consecrated the working tools in chapter 9 you can skip straight to the chapter on spiritual development. The other applications of ritual are optional -- use 'em if you need 'em.