Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

(I'm feeling unimaginative this evening, so it's just going to be a plain old ordinary Magic Monday with a strange alchemical diagram for its graphic. Deal.)

Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed to new questions. See you next Monday!***

Comments

[jenniferkobernik]

Hi JMG,

A question about color breathing as I grimly roll my boulder back up the hill that is developing an actual meditation practice:

When you breathe the color in through your solar plexus to fill your body, does it empty out of the rest of the world so that only your body is filled with the color, or are both your body and the area around you filled with the color at that point?

[ecosophia]

It doesn't empty out of the world. When you're doing color breathing, you imagine yourself in the midst of an infinite ocean of the color you're working with, and since it's an infinite ocean, you can fill your body with it without decreasing the ocean one bit.

By the way, yes, I know, meditation is hard work -- probably the hardest work you'll ever do. The payoff is commensurate.

[marcu]

Dear Mr. Greer,

Thanks again for providing this forum to ask questions. It is much appreciated.
I was wondering if Tarot cards can send an "Error" message. For example if I were to ask a specific question and the card I draw has nothing at all to do with the question could I interpret that as an indication that the question does not have an answer at this stage or that I should perhaps ask the question in a different way?
Perhaps more generally how applicable should one expect Tarot answers to be on specific questions?

[ecosophia]

This sort of thing varies drastically from person to person. In my experience, though, very often when the card you draw doesn't seem to make sense, it's because you're thinking of the question -- or interpreting the card -- in too narrow a way. Ask yourself: if this was an answer to the question, what would it mean?

Children

[(Anonymous)]

I know this came up before, but regretfully I cannot recall any detailed precautions.
So my question is: when the child is 5 is it safe to:
-proceed daily with the routine, as usually recommended by you, of banishing ritual, followed by meditation and divination/ Tarot reading?
-if not safe together, which element or elements are safe?
-does it matter if the child is present in the same home at the time or does it help to pick a time when she's absent from the premisses?

Also I hope to start my work through your Learning Ritual Magic some day soon. Should I wait for my child to be of specific age?

I know these are so basic to you and I am trying to speed reed through lots of the recommended literature here; even the quick read of LRM makes me ache of the work ahead .. but I think since I started paying attention to some things that happen to me but I was usually left with no good explanation or resolution ( contact with dead family members incl. sounds and moving objects; patterns of daily events so pervasive that it would be impossible to call random; specific 'lucky' numbers; answers to prayers) it becomes plain and logical. So I want to learn about it and practice.

Thanks a lot
A.

Re: Children

[ecosophia]

If your child's five you can certainly begin the kind of basic rhythm of practices I've discussed -- and since that's also what's taught in Learning Ritual Magic, you should be good to go. It's usually more convenient to do practices when your child is somewhere else, simply because it minimizes the risk of interruptions! Still, it's not a hard and fast rule.

These practices are basic to me, sure, but I still practice a banishing ritual, a meditation, and a divination every day. That's the foundation of magical training, and you don't stop needing the foundation just because you've built things on top of it...

Emptiness versus the gods

[rationalist858]

Is the combination of inner emptiness and desire for deep, meaningful relationships a good enough reason to start actively contacting one or more deities?

I don't want the gods to replace my friends, or family, or the search for Mrs. Right. But I would like at least one relationship in my life to be always there, independent of outside circumstances. Also, expecting humans to fill the inner emptiness seems a bit too much to ask.

Re: Emptiness versus the gods

[ecosophia]

Possibly, yes, but you might want to ask yourself this: what are you prepared to give to such a relationship?

Magic to Eliminate Procrastination?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John Michael Greer,

Thank you for hosting Magic Monday. I cannot find it now but I recall that last week somewhere in the comments you mentioned that because of your practice you do not have problems with procrastination. Would you be willing to talk about this more specifically?

Sincerely,

MILLICENTLY LURKING

Re: Magic to Eliminate Procrastination?

[ecosophia]

Sure. It wasn't a matter of doing specific magical rituals to ditch my habit of procrastination; it was simply that I wanted magic in my life so badly that I was willing to push through the habit and establish a daily magical practice...and that taught me how to push through the same habit in other contexts. Procrastination is just a habit; like all habits, it gets stronger when you do it, and weakens its grip when you do something else.

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed you occasionally do astrological readings for people. Can I trouble you to do one for me, as I have no idea what is going on with me. I was born on the 29th November 1980 between 7.35 - 7.40pm in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Does it make a difference if you were conceived in a radically different place to where you were born, as for me that was Colombia. Fair warning, you might not like what you see. I've already had a remote viewing instructor stop answering my emails after he checked me out.

Thanks.

[ecosophia]

You can do your own horoscope on any of a number of free websites -- the one I tend to recommend is www.astro.com. Casting and delineating a natal chart takes several hours of fairly hard work, and it's time I don't really have to spare just now, so the free site is probably your best bet.

I have no idea what your remote viewing instructor thought he saw. Your horoscope has nothing particularly dreadful in it: Sun in Sagittarius, Moon in Virgo, the last decan of Cancer rising, a decent elemental balance, enough squares and semisquares to give you some backbone, enough trines and sextiles to give you luck. If you'd like to learn more, there are plenty of websites and plenty of books that will walk you through the meaning of each of the planetary placements and aspects in your chart, and give you a fair idea of the hand you've been dealt in this life; alternatively. if you're willing to pay for the service, any competent professional astrologer can give you a thorough natal reading and walk you through what it all means.

No, it doesn't matter if you were conceived somewhere else. The moment that counts is the moment when you get an independent energy body, and that happens when you leave your mother's body at birth.

[(Anonymous)]

At some point you've mentioned every Druid organisation I've heard of except for the British Druid Order. What do you think of them?

[ecosophia]

I don't know much about them, as I don't spend anything like as much time in Britain as I'd like!

[madgastronomer]

Not a question, but something that might be of interest to your readers, and possibly even to you, although I know you're not a fan of some uses of electronics.

I created, essentially as a programming experiment, Geomantic. It will either generate a completely random chart, or accept four Mothers you have cast offline. You can fill in some basic information such as who it's by and for an what it's about. It will then give you a chart, which can be bookmarked and shared and printed, and you can add notes to the chart.

I'm still adding features. The 12 Houses chart just went live a little while ago, and while it's not very good, it's the best I can do with CSS and HTML right now (I based it on a chart I found online, rather than your prettier one, which I could not copy).

I'm currently working on adding The Way of Points, and then later I'll add Triplicities, before I start looking at anything as challenging as figuring out how to display the relationships in the astrological version.

It is, as the page says, still very much in alpha testing, but I'd love to have some people go and test it, especially anyone who know enough to spot errors, something none of my current testers do.

[ecosophia]

Nice! There are several geomancy programs in circulation at this point, but there's certainly always room for more, and this one has a nice clean appearance. My first test chart showed no errors on the shield chart.

The house chart, on the other hand, came out the wrong way around -- in a geomantic house chart, the first house is in the notional east, on the left hand center of the square, and the houses proceed *counterclockwise* from there. Still, as you've noted, this is in alpha testing, and there's plenty of time for fixes.

Update

[saturns_pet]

Mr. Greer:

A blah besets you? While these creatures have their functions, I will now do my part to broom them away from you with two bits of odd true news that a working mage like you will likely like the taste of.

1) A few weeks ago you kindly confirmed that a geomantic chart I cast did in fact show conditions were/are good for me to train to be Tolkien for Michigan. I did so and am doing so with Swiftness at my back as that chart advised. I have likewise accepted all help offered.

Since beginning, my corner of this cosmos of ours has done all but rain Hobbits in my backyard. I have acquired all those books of Middle Earth again plus more good ones and founded a book club to study Tolkien with my lady love and her mom. The following seeds for a good setting for myths have also sprouted from my wayward education: names, maps both wild and artificial, human populations, food webs, a not-too-shabby simple conlang, and last but not least, banners! :)

I'm an astrological ignoramus: were/are stars good for such deeds? All this happened in like three weeks. Swiftness ain't playin'! lol.

2) I recently made and distributed a one page homespun comic to both fight my hated enemy Chronic Wasting Disease (that approaches my herds as I type) and to honor your celebration of the commonplace.

I finished it on last Friday morning. That same morning I used my might in grundcraeft aka natural magic aka conjoined human living to turn that comic into a charm most Saturnal and mildly Mercurial. Bwah ha ha ha...

SEVEN MINUTES after I delivered that educational charm to my extroverted test subjects for distribution a bad wind storm in my county turned into a terrible wind storm and knocked power out for thousands (including my address)for over 50 hours. It blasted neighboring counties too!

lol. Winning! I am Saturn's Pet. Friends of Mordor: fear me!

My charm was/is well-received during its distribution in my 'hood. I even got a modest gift from some local hunters in addition to a useful boost in reputation!

Thanks so much for holding this fort. Frodo knows we need it... Donation in progress btw. I'm already semi-collapsed to avoid rushes so it is a little bit of a dance for me to get some bucks into a PayPal.

Saturn's Pet

Re: Update

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear things are going well. As for blahness, it's a passing thing, and it sits with me for a little while and then goes its way.

Reincarnation & Personality

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Jmg

Happy to report The Druid Magic Handbook arrived in the mail last week. Looks like a solid year of initial work to me.

My question. In the Druid tradition what is the role of personality in reincarnation? Does the soul get a whole new personality to be navigated like the new body and inate abilities? Or does the soul bring some sort of core personality along with it?

I look at my children and wonder which parts are inherited from their parents and which came with the core being

Re: Reincarnation & Personality

[ecosophia]

What passes from life to life isn't personality so much as character, the basic framework on which personality is built. The individuality, the permanent part of the soul, takes on a new personality with each new incarnation, but it's always shaped by the experience of previous lives. (Astrologically, your rising sign in this life was your sun sign in your last life.) So your children have their own essential characters, which come with them from their previous lives, but the personality they construct around that over the course of their childhoods is new, and derives partly from heredity, partly from environment, and partly from the astrological forces in action at the moment of birth.

[(Anonymous)]

(from Myriam)

JMG, thank you for the opportunity to ask questions about magic. I don't know anyone who can converse with me about it.

I would like to check my recent musings with you. You say we end up on different mountains depending on the path we take, and I'm wondering how that relates to which forces we worship as deities, the nested aspects of the deities, whether we in turn nest in particular aspects, and whether that path towards a specific deity continues on through reincarnations.

If the forces we worship as deities are all aspects of the One Source, and time and cultures change their aspects to us, I think of the deities as nested like Russian dolls all the way into the Source. If each of us feels pulled to worship certain aspects of those deities and we do practices that shape us towards those deities, would it be correct to think that we nest in a particular aspect of a deity, and end up on that “mountain” because our souls choose, are called there, or ARE manifestations of that force? I'm thinking ultimate destination as opposed to floundering around till we get our heads right. Or do we nest in many different deities? Or are our souls a unique aspect of the One, as unique as each of the forces that became gods and goddesses?

And would this pull towards specific aspects of the Source hold true over reincarnations and beyond, into gwynfydd? Or would different lives have pulled us towards different deities based on the personality of each reincarnation? And so nest in none specifically, or in all those we worshipped.

If I desire wisdom above all else, for example, as opposed to music, power, or enlightenment, does that desire come from a previous life or from my soul? (I ask this because since I was a very young girl, I desired wisdom above all else.) In other words, am I a very tiny manifestation of the force that is wisdom working my slow way to nesting in her as my place in the whole that is the All? As would everyone else towards their own ultimate place.

I would really like to know your thoughts on all this.

And as if that wasn't enough questions, I'm wondering if you have encountered the goddess Ariadne?

Thank you for your patience!

[ecosophia]

Different schools of occult philosophy understand these issues in different ways. My take, for what it's worth, is that each soul is a unique expression of the cosmos, destined to fulfill a unique function in the structure of the whole...but that's a very, very long way off for those of us who are still busy learning the lessons of human incarnation. Each of us relates primarily to one of the great noetic beings, the divine Intelligences Proclus discusses in his writings, but being what we are here and now, that relationship has to work through intermediaries -- the forms and manifestations through which they relate to us, which change with ages and cultures.

Each of us also, in the course of our incarnations, has to reach some sort of balance with the other great powers of the cosmos, and it's quite common for a soul to take an entire life, or several lives, working with some power that isn't its own source, for the sake of balance. And then there are also imbalances that come with the vagaries of our various incarnations, and those have to be worked out, often via relationships with other divine powers.

So your desire for wisdom may be a reflection of the ultimate destiny of your soul; it may be the working out of one of the other relationships that will fit you for your proper role in the heights of Gwynfydd, when you get there; it may also be that you spent a bunch of lives being very, very unwise, finally got a clue, and came to this life with the clear sense that getting wisdom is your number one goal this time around.

You can't necessarily find out which it is. All you can do is follow that thread and see where it takes you.

As for the goddess Ariadne, no, I haven't really worked with any of the Greek deities. I know enough people who've had powerful experiences of them, though, to know that they're real, and mighty.

We all have flat days...

[ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

The alchemical diagram has defeated me! They're good. :-)!

Just riffing off the McMansion discussion, do you reckon that meme's can, or are being used in thaumaturgy? In explanation, sometimes I encounter folks who have a 'get big, or get out' meme stuck in their heads - and it is immovable, even when the evidence points in other directions.

Thanks for the Magic Monday, and I had a pretty flat week just gone due to illness. And now a 'cut-off low' is fast approaching from Antarctica and should arrive just before the weekend. I'm unsure that weather experience will be flat!

Cheers

Chris

Re: We all have flat days...

[ecosophia]

I'm not sure how much thaumaturgy is involved in memes, and how much of their effect is the drool-spattered stupidity that seems to seize so many people these days!

Daily recollections

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

I have been doing daily recollections (amongst other daily practices such as meditations) for several years now.
I have noticed that I get now a lot of flashbacks from my own life of happenings of 30 years ago or more. It does not bother me at all, but would it be related to my practices? If so, what else could I expect to resurface?

Many thanks!

Re: Daily recollections

[ecosophia]

Good question. Are the events from 30 or more years ago things you still haven't really processed?

[(Anonymous)]

John--

In your replies to others and in formulations I've read elsewhere, I've noted an underlying formula for a basic working that I'd like to verify:

Take a square of paper (torn, not cut). Inscribe on that square the target/object of the working (e.g. the people of the United States) a number of times. Turn the square clockwise 90 degrees. Inscribe the intention of the working across the previous writings (e.g. may we live in peace) an equal number of times. Fold the square in some manner and place under a candle of an appropriate color (e.g. red for healing). Meditate on the intention while burning the candle for a regular period daily until the candle is completely consumed.

Questions:
1) Is this formulation essentially correct?
2) I have seen both 7 and 9 given as the number of times the writings are to be repeated. Is one better than the other?
3) Does is matter how the paper is folded beneath the candle (e.g. quarters)?
4) What does one do with the paper once the candle is completely consumed and the working is complete?

Many thanks!

--David, by the lake

[ecosophia]

That's a good basic framework. You can also expand on it in various ways: for example, the candle can be "dressed" (anointed) with oils compounded to reinforce the magical purpose, you can dust the paper with powder or put five small drops of a magical oil on it (one in each corner and one in the center), and so on.

Odd numbers are powerful in traditional conjure. 3, 5, 7, and 9 are all used; I find 7 and 9 best for the paper work.

The paper should be folded in quarters. If you're trying to bring something toward you, fold the paper toward you; if you're trying to send something away from you, fold it away from you. When it's done, if possible, bury the paper in the back yard to keep what you've brought, or in the front yard to see to it that what you've sent away never comes back.

Navigating social relationships and occult studies

[violetcabra]

For the past two or three months I've been practicing banishing rituals, daily discursive meditation and occult study. It's a bit too easy for me to treat divination like an addiction so I've been putting it on the shelf for the time being, although I've been getting quite a bit more into astrology which I find more balanced.

In this time I've noticed that my consciousness has indeed changed quite a bit; most noticeably I no longer enjoy watching youtube videos or reading popular novels for relaxation. Both strike me as very unpleasant now, and I wonder how I could have ever liked them! Equally I am increasingly less needy in my social realtionships. Perhaps this is because I don't share many interests with my old friends. What I would love to chat about, astrology, tarot card symbolism, herbalism, literature etc is something that would baffle and frighten my friends. So passing time with others is increasingly seeming more like a chore than a pleasure.

With my shift into more occult involvement I feel a shift in my casual relationships with others. My life used to be an open book, but now I have a lot of things that I don't want to talk about with others. While at work I was reading William Walter Atkinson's book Reincarnation and the Law of Karma and a senior employee, being playfully nosy, looked over my shoulder and was clearly taken aback. He seemed to think that my book was neat, but also disquieting.

This was something of a wake up call. It all the sudden seemed like quite a bad idea indeed to have my coworkers learn that I am reading Dion Fortune's The Goat Foot God or bring in a pack of tarot cards to the break room and go through them slowly as I love to do in a quiet moment. Some people would be deeply freaked out to discover that I'm a sincere student of traditional occultism. With the way that many people already look at me (like I'm something evil) I am sincerely concerned about acquiring a reputation of witchery in the small town I live in. You can well imagine what some people would like to do with their local "transgender witch" or whatnot (since some people seem to feel full license that it's okay to hate transgender people with the same vehemence that liberals hate working class white men). I feel like transgenderism is turning into the Poland of the culture wars, if you catch my drift. I recently had a nightmare about this, which is part of why I'm bringing it up.

Point being, my life has subtly shifted in the past few months and I'm in a new phase of my life. My question is, JMG, how have you navigated this awkward phase where no one in my life is into occultism but I feel that it is prudent to keep my studies and practices under wraps, at least for now. Do you have any advice on how to navigate this sort of thing? I don't like the feeling of retreating from everyone and becoming increasingly reticent, and living in my hometown has a lot of practical advantages. Of course I have to make my own choices, but your thoughts on the matter are welcome and appreciated!

Re: Navigating social relationships and occult studies

[ecosophia]

This is something that everyone goes through, and it's an important part of the work. Secrecy in occultism isn't just protective -- it's also a potent tool for becoming aware of yourself, and the way you relate to others. Yes, it has its awkward moments -- there's a reason why Manly P. Hall titled one of his books on occultism The Way of the Lonely Ones -- but on the far side of the loneliness is a capacity to relate to others in a different and far more conscious way. Being needy isn't necessarily a good thing.

One thing that works for a lot of people -- and it's something that's actively taught in some schools -- is learning to compartmentalize the occult side of your life. While there's a lot that's repellent in pop culture, there are certainly things you can do with other people that will be mutually enjoyable, and learning to accept those and enjoy them for what they are is a useful skill. I understand the desire to talk about occultism with others, but here again, there's a good reason why the fourth virtue of the mage is to be silent.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I ordered up a small bottle of Florida Water awhile ago, and it has had me pondering:

If a person buys something from a small well-regarded business when they could buy the same product from Amazon, in industrial quantities no less, and spend less money, is there a better “vibe” in the item? I’m wondering if Amazon, say, has its egregor, and Lucky Mojo has theirs, and their products, though identical in every other way, reflect that?

(I purchased from Lucky Mojo and although it cost more and took longer to arrive, it felt right to do so. Would do it again, for sure.)

Would appreciate hearing your thoughts on products and the effect, if any, of the egregors of the establishments that sell them.

Thanks!
OtterGirl

[ecosophia]

Any object takes on energy from those who handle it. One of the many reasons I don't shop at Amazon is the sweatshop conditions inflicted on the people who pack and ship the orders there; that leaves its mark.

Folk Magic Books

[(Anonymous)]

JMG – on occasion you have referred to “folk magic” and have sometimes referred to a book “The Long Lost Friend” (if I recall correctly), but I don’t recall you discussing folk magic at length or providing a “reading list”. Would it be possible for you to recommend a few of the best folk magic books that you have read (ideally, those which are still in print)?

Ron M

Re: Folk Magic Books

[ecosophia]

The Long Lost Friend is in print, in a very solid new edition by Daniel Harms; it's mostly of historical interest, though. In terms of practical handbooks, I favor Orion Foxwood's The Candle and the Crossroads, and the writings of Catherine Yronwode, who was my teacher in conjure: the place to start with her work is The Black Notebook, which is a collection of essays by her and others, and her online (and as yet incomplete) book on hoodoo theory and practice, which can be read here.

[(Anonymous)]

When I first started reading your work I was kind of bowled over by all the things you believe - gods, magic, divination, astrology, alchemy. Are there spiritual or magical beliefs you think are wrong?

[ecosophia]

There's that funny word, "believe." I don't find beliefs useful. I have no idea if the gods are real -- and of course that little sentence "the gods are real" embodies vast ambiguities, depending on what you mean by "real". What I know, because I've experienced it, is that if you invoke them you get certain results.

That's all we actually know about anything, you know. Gravity, for example, may or may not exist; we have literally no way to know for certain -- but we do know that if you pick up a rock and drop it, it falls, and we know that the mathematical models crafted by Newton do a great job of predicting the way things fall when dropped. Does that mean that gravity is "real"? Should we all believe in gravity? That seems silly to me. The theory of gravity is a tool, not a truth; it's useful, and that's its justification.

Are there spiritual or magical teachings and practices that aren't useful -- that do a really poor job of helping us understand the universe and live our lives? You bet. Do you remember all the yelling a few years back about how the world was going to end on December 21, 2012? That was nonsense, and I wrote a book titled Apocalpyse Not explaining why it was nonsense. There are plenty of other beliefs, especially in pop culture, that are equally nonsense -- because when you put them to the test, they fail. (The world didn't end on December 21, 2012, full stop, end of sentence.) But many other teachings and practices that are labeled "spiritual" and "magical" (two more slippery words) deliver the results they promise, and anyone who approaches them with an open mind will discover that through personal experience. That, not "belief," is what matters.

Visualization

[(Anonymous)]

I have for about five months now made a daily practice of relaxation, meditation, divination and reflect as per Learning Ritual Magic. For the most part it has been an awesome experience, and before I get to my question, I'd like to say thank you for writing the book, it's helped me with very practical things that other texts (like Regardie's) never did.

Anyway, the one thing that has jumped out at me over the course of my practice is that I have a hard time with visualization, which came as something of a surprise to me because I used to be really good at visualizing things. All through childhood and well into my early thirties I would fall asleep every night to a parade of very detailed, often unbidden, visualizations happening across my closed eyelids. Now it's all I can do to get the vague image of light at each point in the Qabalistic Cross.

So my question is, I've seen you suggest praciticing visualization 10 minutes a day, but how exactly? Is there any specific technique you know of to improve this skill?

And, unrelated, but I thought you might get a chuckle out of this (assuming you still find the hubris of science entertaining):

http://www.tfp.org/medieval-antibiotics-offer-effective-medical-solutions/

Re: Visualization

[ecosophia]

That's a very common experience. Your subconscious mind is grumbling and being annoyed about being expected to submit to a little healthy discipline. It'll get over it. If you want to practice visualization, simply sit down, choose some image to visualize, and put ten minutes into imagining it as clearly as possible, using all the imaginary senses -- imagine yourself tapping on it and hearing the sound it makes, imagine the scent and texture, and so on. Over time, that'll help you pick up facility with visualization.

[(Anonymous)]

My family, and my husband's family, both have a tendancy to dream the futures. The futures I dream can be changed. Fortunately, as some are horrible. My husband doesn't like to discuss it at all-but my mother-in-law (overseas) and I talked about it a couple times.

It's hereditary. I get it from my dad, who leans towards material athiesm otherwise and finds it all rather horrifying.

I've worked very slowly through much of Gareth Knight's Experience of the Inner Worlds over thevlast several years. It hasn't had any effect on the dreams one way or another.

The kids know that we don't talk about this sort of dream outside of the family. Is there anything else that is advisable to teach them about this? Girls are three and six, boys are nine, eleven, fourteen, and fifteen.

Thanks,
BoysMom

[ecosophia]

As long as they know that it's okay, there's nothing wrong with them, the futures they dream can be changed, and you don't talk about it with strangers, they should be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

In one of your Galabes posts you said astrology is one way of using natural cycles for divination. What are the others?

[ecosophia]

There are quite a few of them -- most esoteric traditions have at least one. The planetary days and hours are a system that got a lot of use in the Western esoteric tradition. The tattwas are another, which got picked up from Theosophical literature and used in the Golden Dawn. Then there's the Nine Star Ki, which has Chinese roots but is much practiced in Japan these days. Look up any of these on your favorite search engine and you'll find plenty.

Healing Magic

[fluiddruid]

Greetings, most venerable Archdruid, may your beard grow ever longer.

I was wondering if you could recommend a system of energy healing. I am interested in energy healing as it seems to be a very practical application of magic and one that is going to be in high demand in the coming age of economic contraction. But I don't really know where to begin. Is there a complete energy healing system that is compatible with practices described in your Druid Magic Handbook?

P.S. I am reading the Celtic Golden Dawn as well and I did like the healing system based on using the properties of herbs and foods matched against diseases.

Re: Healing Magic

[ecosophia]

There is such a system, and it's included in the reconstructed early 20th century Druid correspondence course, the Dolmen Arch course, which will be published in the next year or so by Azoth Press (the same press that did my translation of Bruno's On the Shadows of the Ideas.

The system of herbal healing covered in The Celtic Golden Dawn is classic medieval Western healing lore, in the form passed down by the medical school of Myddfai in Wales. One of the books I'm considering writing down the road a bit is a book of Druid herbalism based on that tradition, and designed to work with The Celtic Golden Dawn -- but we'll see.

meditating practice

[syfen]

Archdruid,

In martial arts training there's a problem that all students run into where they have to be proficient at multiple patterns of attack, uses of muscles, and breathing techniques. It's really easy for a student to get overwhelmed because there are just so many things to practice. The solution is to break down the art and focus on specific parts during specific times.

Since I started learning from you I've noticed just the panic inducing variety of meditation practices there are. Color meditation, discursive, empty mind, and etc...is it wise for a student to practice each of these like a martial artist practices. Do one on one day, and another on a different day?

Regards,

Syfen

Re: meditating practice

[ecosophia]

The usual approach is to add things one layer at a time. First learn to relax in the posture, and take a week or two to get comfortable at it; then add the breathing, and take as much time as you need to get comfortable at that; then begin the discursive work, in a simple form, and do that for a month or more until it starts feeling natural; then add in color breathing, or what have you. The basic rule is that you're only doing one unfamiliar thing at a time.

It also helps to have a specific course to follow, as set out in a book or the lessons of an organization. Those are usually structured in the way I've just laid out, and that step-at-a-time process makes life much easier for the student.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, you have written that, astrologically speaking, one's rising sign in this life was one's sun sign in that person's previous life. When one knows one's sun sign in the present life, than, accordingly, the present sun sign should be the rising sign of one's future life. So, it should be possible to calculate in which month one will be born in one's future life. Is this correct or nonsense?

Booklover

[ecosophia]

Knowing your future rising sign doesn't tell you which month you'll be born in, because the earth turns on its axis every 24 hours, and the rising sign is determined by the earth's rotation. Say your sun is in Leo in this life; every single day, there's a roughly two-hour window when Leo is rising, and it rotates around the cycle of the day as the sun moves from sign to sign.

Resources for natal chart?

[(Anonymous)]

Can anyone recommend a good guide to working through my natal chart?
I know little at all about astrology, but the conversation here made me curious enough to go over to astro.com and I am suddenly very interested in this natal chart of mine. It's weird-looking and I just learned the word "stellium."
The website seems to have a ton of information but I haven't found my way to a good place to start there. The rest of the internet is overwhelming. I wouldn't mind a print book or workbook if someone can recommend a good one.
JMG, thank you as always for providing this forum!
Jonathan.

Re: Resources for natal chart?

[ecosophia]

The book I found most useful when I was first learning astrology was How to Interpret a Birth Chart by Martin Freeman; I have no idea if it's still in print, but even if it isn't, it ought to be available on the used book market. There are probably plenty of other good books on the subject now -- if anyone else has one to recommend, have at it.