ecosophia | Magic Monday

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Magic Monday

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. I'm going to jump back here a bit because I managed to trace down another significant figure from a lineage I've already discussed. Bishop Richard, Duc de Palatine was an Australian spiritual teacher and Gnostic bishop who played a crucial role in bringing the alternative sacramental movement to the United States, and strongly influenced both of the bishops who consecrated John Gilbert. Born Ronald Powell in 1916, he became a member of the Theosophical Society and then a bishop in the Liberal Catholic Church. After the Second World War he moved to Britain and founded the Pre-Nicene Christian Church, one of the major fountainheads of Gnostic Christian spirituality in the English-speaking world, and later traveled widely in the USA and elsewhere, teaching students, ordaining priests, and consecrating bishops, until his death in 1977. I've recently had the chance to study more of his writings and have discovered that he was much more influential a source for the Gnostic material I received than I'd realized -- so he's this week's honoree.

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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!***

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

A few more weeks of meditation. ;-)

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept. It doesn't have to be vampiric in nature -- quite the contrary, it's one of the routes that Taoists have used for a very long time to step out of the cycle of rebirth. It's not a path I recommend, however. (If this suggests to you that there are many options for the evolving soul, good -- that's what it should suggest.)

Thank you for this thought. Perhaps it goes some way to explaining my intuitive dislike of the current Christian refrain that “God is love”, which strikes me as something that can be used as empty justification for whatever current “progressive” movement is en vogue.

Planetary rulerships and the body
Which planetary deity (and other deities if known) rule the Achilles tendon? Is it Jupiter because it's in the leg? It also seems like a very Hermes area, as he has the wings on his ankles.

I have noticed that in the material from William Lilly on the Renaissance Astrology website, there are some ailments and areas covered by more than one deity. Are there other sources which can help clarify or choose who to ask for support?

Overdoing it when avoiding Mercury retrograde?
As it was Mercury Retrograde at the start of this year, a lot of things started under Mercury retrograde. I was reluctant to sign up for courses that started then (in subjects Mercury rules) as I had already experienced other obstacles. Now I wonder if I was silly to miss or delay this kind of opportunity. These are short courses for adults lasting a few months, not part of a college education.

The phrase I've usually seen is "color symbolism." Open Space's suggestion would work, of course.

It's an oversimplification, all right, and it's also an unanswerable question. No two souls are the same, and no two souls have the same needs or gifts.

Yes, there's a lot of odd stuff in Peter Kelder's booklet, and much of it has more to do with the internal politics of the late 1930s American occult scene than anything else. I recommend the cool to tepid bath after the practice, but if you like cold showers by all means take them. As for the dietary rules, some of those come from a popular fad diet of the time (the Hay Diet) and others are personal notions of Harry Gardener, the publisher of the booklet, who seems to have partly ghostwritten it for Kelder. I don't pay too much attention to them.

Hi, JMG:

It seems like you can't pick up a book on the history of occultism without seeing a picture of Eliphas Levi's Baphomet, with a variety of explanations of what it is and what it represents. I'm wondering your opinion on this entity, if it even is an entity. I know it's come to represent the Devil for some. For others, it represents occult wisdom. I know some witches associate it with Pan. (My local witch shop has a Baphomet statue for sale, and I know the owners are not Satanists). Is it an egregore? And what would be the result of invoking this being? I have no intention of doing so but have known people who have.

Thanks!

Surprising, in Vietnam it is the year of the cat since they have a different lunar calendar to everyone else, so I’d say they will be safe from rabbits!

Chức mừng năm mới!

J.l.Mc12

Be careful of generalities like "words are so important in magic." Some workings depend on exact repetition of words, but others don't. This is one of the ones that doesn't -- in the SoP, the actions and mental imagery are the things that shouldn't be changed.

Nice. I found a video detailing the creation of a 32 point compass rose (for those of us who don't mind video). The narration in the first ten minutes or so is a bit hard to follow as the poster hems and haws quite a bit but the non-narrated process of creating the compass rose itself while a little overly long is still fascinating to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9obPq8wawg

JLfromNH/Polka-dot Grimy Frog

Your question reminded me of this report from a few years ago. An elderly woman had been praying for years to a figurine of Elrond from Lord of the Rings, under the assumption it was St Anthony.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-38531888

Hmm! That's a fun idea. The only tarot deck I know of that has five suits is the Discordian deck, which has the suits of Sweet, Boom, Prickle, Pungent, and Orange, named for the five Discordian elements.

1) So as not to overemphasize above and below by vibrating twice at those and not at the quarters.

2) I don't recommend varying this. These two rituals have very different energy structures and those should be left as is.

3) The new material is mostly magical in nature; among other things, I was able to work out the numerical values of the letters and so take some first steps in Coelbren gematria.

There's one expert in how to manage relationships with Hermes, and that's Hermes. Pray to him and listen for the answer -- keep in mind that it may come by way of feelings and emotional tones rather than words. In my experience, Hermes -- the god of merchants and thieves -- is fine with self-interest; you can be sure that he's interested in you for his own reasons, and doubtless finds the human world endlessly amusing.

This is where the standard prayers, like the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and so on come in handy—they keep the lines of communication open, so to speak. If your religion has standard prayers, try saying them every day. Good luck!

—Princess Cutekitten

The quote works very well for the discussion below too.

It can certainly be peaceful, especially when you realize 'in' is the only way 'out' and perhaps sometimes that means docking at port for a while with provisions and a few bottles of rum as reserve.

--Periwinkle Slithy Piglet

Maybe that's what makes her magic work, but it doesn't do much for me. It's mildly irritating when people assume that the particular type of magic that happens to work well for them is the only kind that can ever work for anyone. For me, ecstatically bumbling around was entertaining enough when I was younger, but it gets in the way of effective magic, which -- again, for me -- is most effective when pursued with utter clarity of mind and intense one-pointed focus of will. Candles and words are quite helpful in conjunction with those latter things.

Would Columbia, Lady Liberty, and Uncle Sam also count as egregores? And if so, is there a way to to utilize them in a more productive way?

I ask, mostly for Columbia, because the druids invented their own gods and then found that those gods did in fact respond. Either way, what would be some best practices for working with Columbia for the good of the country?

Hello Mr Greer,

My boyfriend has recently started learning to play guitar, and so we discovered that the current standard tuning of 440 Hz has replaced the 432 Hz tuning in 1955. New age websites say it was decided by the nazis for occult reasons, and then it was adopted as the new standard globally after that. Apparently 432 Hz is in resonance with our bodies and the universe, and so their idea was to cut us from spiritual realities. Do you think there is any truth behind this ? I’ve tried to listen to music tuned to 432 Hz and it seems to have a more powerful effect on my emotions, but then it could also just be a placebo effect.

And, not a question, but in a few weeks I will be finishing the 4th grade of the Dolmen Arch. I started the 1st grade, 2 years ago in February 2021. Maybe I’m really slow at this, but it took me a long time to understand what this is all about. There are so many things to learn in that book and so much to meditate upon, and I don’t think I’ve understood everything yet. Anyway, I just wanted to say a deep thank you for this and the other things you share. It really has completely transformed my life and made the path clearer, even if I know I still have a long way to go on that road.

— Littlegraou

I want to thank Tunesmyth for maintaining the prayer list. You rock, dude. (Grin.)

—Princess Cutekitten

I wonder if Al Stewart was thinking of that when he wrote one of my two fave songs of his...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i46s52JAUE

That's certainly one problem with it! I find it repellent because it's so one-sided. The Divine is also wrath, and grief, and pain, and joy, and cataclysmic power, and a still small voice whispering in the most silent moment of the night...

UPDATE:

Thank you so much. She is doing better although we are not out of the woods yet.

The neighborhood was overrun with semi-feral cats for a bit because someone was feeding them, but we noticed for the past couple of days that all the cats are gone. It's possible someone poisoned them or they all got sick at the same time.

Watch out for your animal companions.

Just because it's an egregor doesn't mean that it's useless -- just that its power doesn't reach all the way up to the divine level. If you work with such things, work also with the divine, in whatever form speaks to you most.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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Magic Monday

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Re: Crystalizing the Aura

Re: “Queer Gnosticism”

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Re: 5 rites

Baphomet

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Re: Writing . . .

Re: Just a little spark

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Re: question about prayer/relationship with gods

Re: question about prayer/relationship with gods

Re: Navigating / Return to the Trunk

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Re: “Queer Gnosticism”

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Re: “Queer Gnosticism”

Re: Prayer Request

Re: “Queer Gnosticism”