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. 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 had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 

 

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

[ataulfo]

I'd like to share a two things.

1) I was a vegan for about six years, including for most of my first year of occult practices, and during that year I got a job that is the epitome of sensory overload. I was constantly worried what others thought about me. I didn't really like meat and still don't, but finally tried including a serving of fish or other meat every day or every other day. The concern with other people's opinions and perceptions immediately diminished to insignificance. A close friend remarked that I had become a "very solid" physical presence, "but not dense."

2) Early in the pandemic I had sleep problems and was dating a stoner, and so I took up smoking weed before bed every night as it gave me control over when I fell asleep. Of course after a year straight of this it didn't work as well, and I didn't really like it. I made sure never to do rituals or meditation under the influence and made a point of avoiding divination while high as well. Nonetheless, I always had disconcerting problems with the banishing visualizations in the SOP, back when I practiced it, which disappeared in early 2022 when I was able to quit smoking for a few months. The sleep problems came back, however, and I had too much anxiety during the day, so I caved and took it up again. Eventually I standardized it to an exact dosage of edible every night; I still woke up and did my practices, and I still made progress despite it not being an ideal situation. I finally had the courage to not get stoned last night, instead taking a large dose of non-intoxicating CBD oil, which I didn't think would put me to sleep based on past experience. In fact, I was out like a light and woke up today pleasantly surprised and feeling more normal than I have in a long time. Doing practices this morning was a whole different ball game, in a good way. I am left wondering where I would be now if I had avoided weed in the first place. That is to say it seems to be a hindrance to deliberate imagination and abstract thinking even when kept separate from my practices, although it does not seem to prevent improvement even given the hindrance.

Thanks and hope this is helpful to someone with similar issues.

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Thanks for both of these.