Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's almost 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 and the teachers who influenced them in turn.  Like Allan Bennett, who we discussed last week, this week's honoree was a teacher of Aleister Crowley. George Cecil Jones was the man who introduced Crowley to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and later on helped Crowley found the Argenteum Astrum (Order of the Silver Star, or A∴A∴), the first of the two magical orders the Not-so-great Beast headed during his lifetime. (The other, the Ordo Templi Orientis or OTO, will be discussed next week.) Jones was a working chemist and metallurgist as well as a serious student of the occult. He practiced the magical virtue of silence more effectively than most of his contemporaries, however, and very little seems to be known about him.

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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

Questions Concerning the LBRP

[sanctuaryofroseandchalice]

Dear JMG:

Thank you again for responding to my question earlier about Corinne Heline, I appreciate it. Since then, a new, different question emerged. Previously I asked your opinion about Gareth Knight's version of the LBRP found in A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism and how it compares to the more traditional version. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember you saying that you weren't fond of his alterations to the practice. I also prefer the more traditional version, but I'm taking a correspondence course based on Knight's work, where his version is required if I incorporate the LBRP in my practice. I should probably follow my instructor's advice if I intend on continuing with the coursework, but do you see any potential pitfalls or imbalances with Knight's version? Thank you so very much in advance. Peace and blessings to you.

Sincerely,
Sanctuary of the Rose and Chalice.

Re: Questions Concerning the LBRP

[ecosophia]

If you're doing a specific course, do it exactly the way the instructions tell you to do it. I'm not especially fond of Knight's alterations, but I've never heard that they're problematic, and it's a good piece of will training as well as a good idea generally to work with a course as given, and learn as much as you can from the way it teaches you to do things. Later, when you've finished the course, you can always reassess and go back to the traditional version if you choose.