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.

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

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

[open_space]

Good evening JMG!

A couple questions:

1) I was wondering how much silk is necessary to protect a consecrated item. Just that it is covered on a single sheet of it is enough or should I fold it several times over it? I was gifted an item and I want to keep it charged when I am doing my practices.

2) There have been cases of unintentional magic by the improper use of the mind. How can one think scenarios or possibilities without it backfiring?

"Hail Idun" Variants, and Any Questions of Which to Ask More?

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

I hope everyone's having a lovely late winter/early Spring.

To Share: I'm a bit stuck on my "Hail Idun" prayer for my Heathen Rosary, so I've put out three variations I'm thinking over. Any thoughts anyone here has on them, either as prayers or as poems (or both) is most welcome: https://jpowellrussell.com/#asking_for_help_with_hail_idun

To Ask: JMG, any topics you wish got asked about more often/in more depth here on MM?

As always, thanks very much to JMG and everyone else here.

To any who will have them, I put forth my blessings and best wishes,
Jeff

Have you read this book, and if so, may I have a comment?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I am curious if you have read "The Secret History of the World" by Jonathan Black, nom de plume of Mark Booth:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mark-booth/the-secret-history-of-the-world/

If so, I am curious what you think of it; I have been meaning to ask you this question for a while, but I have put it off, assuming that you'd saying something along the lines of "The Illuminatus! Trilogy is more accurate." But I finally decided to ask.

On a related note, do you get annoyed when people ask you if you've read this or that book and your short summary thoughts on said book? If not, I intend to ask more questions like this in the monthly Open Post, but I promise not to abuse the privilege.

Thanks!
-Eugene

WW3

[(Anonymous)]

JMG - what do you think the odds are that the Ukraine conflict escalates to something involving nuclear weapons? What are the most effective things someone like me could do to prevent it, particularly on the magical front? Prayer? Any form of the SoP? Thanks.

3 become 7

[hwistle]

Hi John,

I've been thinking of how, in the Way of the Golden Section, you explain how the three Druid elements mixed to produce the seven gates/directions. I find this beautifully clear (love a diagram!) and like how harmoniously resolves the apparent contradiction between the three and the four elements.
I could be wrong but I don't remember seeing this in any other book discussing the Three Principles (like DMH): Is this a new insight you've come across during your work in the WGS, or does it come from one of its sources? (Alchemy, Druidry, etc)

Many thanks!

Manuel

[(Anonymous)]

A while ago a different commenter asked you about protective talismans that reflect negative magic back at the caster, and you replied this can bring negative karma to you. You suggested it was better to have a protective talisman which simply removed the malefic energy rather than reflect it.

Where does the malefic energy actually go, if energy can't be created or destroyed? Wouldn't you have a build-up of this energy? And can you plan where this energy goes during the consecration of the talisman?

Mirrors

[bendithfawr]

Hi JMG,

I'm reading a book on cell salts and the author makes a big deal about electromagnetic radiation (which I can understand but it's pretty hard to avoid) and also mirrors. He says mirrors in the bed room are to be avoided at all costs because of unnamed reasons. Apparently something with bad energies being reflected.

Is this something you've run across before? Are mirrors harmful on an energetic level? I haven't noticed anything untoward from the mirror on our wardrobe door but it would be pretty hard to move in order to experiment.

Thank you for any pointers!

[lukedodson]

First of all, my blessings to anyone who will take them. A question for heathens (JP Russell, I'm looking in your direction!): could you point me to a good source of information on the Vanir?

Also, as I'm writing this response to Naomi Wolf's recent article on the 'ancient gods', I'd be grateful to hear from any polytheists who are interested in being quoted for the piece (whether anonymously or not). I would be particularly interested to hear your own perspectives on how your faith relates to your scepticism of global Covid-authoritarianism and the malefic influences at work in society today.

If you wish to contact me privately, my email is: lukesdodson (at) protonmail.com

Thanks!

Luke

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning JMG!

Are there any recommended magical practices for developing general perceptiveness and helping become more observant? I assume there's no getting around some good old fashioned practice of awareness and attention, but since perception and observation are so tightly linked to consciousness it also seems like the kind of thing that would be amenable to some magical nudges.

on developing rituals

[(Anonymous)]

How are rituals developed, or maybe discovered? I'm thinking particularly of the Judson excercise;so many turns to the left,so many to the right...and that will clear your etheric body. Never would I have ever thought of that...

Ecosophia Prayer List

[tunesmyth]

To those who are interested, here are all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared across the Ecosophia community. Please feel free to add any or all of them to your prayers.

If I missed anybody on the full list, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or at the prayer list page.

This week I would like to bring special attention to three prayer requests.

The first is a bit of an ***emergency request***. Boccaccio's friend and spiritual teacher "A" fell suddenly unconscious yesterday. He is in an artificially induced sleep right now and is due to be awoken this evening. With the permission of A's wife, Boccaccio asks for prayers for A's health and well being, and that A wakes up in the best possible state.

The second is for Praesepe, for help overcoming her Stage 2 metastastic breast cancer, and for the most beneficial outcome to her upcoming surgery and radiation treatment (as well as for the preliminary surgeon's appointment she has tomorrow, 2/28).

The third is Lp9's request on behalf of their hometown, East Palestine Ohio, for the safety and welfare of their people and all living beings in the area. The details coming out are still caught in the fog of war, and various claims of catastrophe and non-catastrophe are flying about, but the reasonable possibility seems to exist that this is an environmental disaster on par with the worst America has ever seen. At any rate, it is clearly having a devastating impact on the local area, and prayers are certainly warranted.

Finally, if there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological Hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.

advice for the unexperienced

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning JMG,

I have been occult-curious for several years but have not had a real sense of how to engage safely in a practice, so I have mostly stuck with beginning my days with the planetary prayers and seven angels prayers, and also experimented a bit with Chaos Protocols (Gordon White).

I've recently come across the Modern Mystery School and I am wondering about your take on this organization. They appear to have a roadmap for learning and engaging in practices for personal/magical empowerment and spiritual growth which they state is rooted in the lineage of King Solomon.

I am wondering whether you think this might be a good way to approach magic, given my lack of success with independent efforts and a real lack of knowledge about where to go to "find the others". Do most people practice independently, or are there other groups I could seek out that could also be helpful/effective? I welcome any thoughts or impressions you may have!

Thank you,
Lisa

Modern Order of Essenes

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning, and thanks for answering questions again.

Would you already happen to know at which time (or times) of the day the Modern Ordern of Essenes will be on Saturday? Or at least a rough idea?

Thanks.

Counteracting Black Magic at Societal Level

[(Anonymous)]

I have a rather unusual question for you, JMG. Please bear with me.

Say that an ancient symbol of prosperity was misappropriated and altered by a society that used it for evil purposes and black magic in the not-too-distant past. And say that the society that used this altered symbol behaved so monstrously that the symbol is still associated with malevolence. And say that one of the cultures that traditionally used the sacred symbol decided to reclaim its auspicious power (for the benefit of the world) by returning it to its original form and publicly using it in ceremonies by moving counter-clockwise around the seats of governments that are still under the sway of above mentioned black magic. And further, let’s say that the society that performed this complex ceremony has no ethnic association with the society that misappropriated the sacred symbol; rather, that it was a victim of the same cruel ideology from which its most ‘monstrous’ manifestation sprung. From a magical perspective, what might be the consequences of the ceremony?

I know that the details are vague and the situation hypothetical. But there are reasons why this is so.

Ron M

[(Anonymous)]

A handful of questions here - while we're far from developing a mental body, what happens to our material bodies as we reach or get near that goal? Do they weaken accordingly?

In learning about souls coming down to the material plane and becoming material objects, I went around sensing all the objects around me, in nature or human-made (or machine-made.) No response from the rug under my feet or anything made of concrete or plastic (no surprise), but a faint response from the all-wood gazebo. Then I thought of things like sailing ships and even some vehicles, which people give names to and talk to at times and seem to think they have souls of a sort. Musical instruments? Ask any violinist, for example, and the answer's likely to be a resounding "Yes." So, do these objects have souls of any sort?

Not a question, but when you reassured a beginner than beginners often make mistakes in ritual, let me add another category of people who do - tired old folks at the end of the day, especially if it's been a rough day. I remember one night I had to restart my LBRP three times running! Just in case any other readers run into that situation. Thanks,

Gambage Obstreperous Goblin

The Occult Philosophy Workbook

[brenainn]

As of today, I am now a few lessons into the Mayan Order correspondence course. I purchased a copy of your Occult Philosophy Workbook a little while back, and I am wondering if the material in the workbook would be compatible with the Mayan Order lessons? Or would it be better to just focus on the Mayan Order material for a while?

Sleep Difficulties

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have a friend who has never been able to sleep alone. When he does, he wakes up every hour. When he sleeps with a woman, he can sleep through the night.

My friend is a retired homicide detective and I am wondering if he has picked up some contamination from his job. He is a practicing Catholic but does not do any sort of banishing ritual or other forms of protective magic. I had an intuition that his astral or etheric body might be damaged in some way. What do you think?

I know the logical course of action is to make a friend he can sleep with but he has recently lost his wife of many years and doesn't want to get into a relationship with a woman just now.

Maxine

[sanctuaryofroseandchalice]

Dear JMG:

My only question this week is the following. Yesterday while book shopping in Ojai I purchased a book that caught my attention called Mysteries of the Holy Grail,” by Corinne Heline. I looked her up, what I was able to find out was that she was a Christian mystic and occultist, a member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, and a student of Max Heindel. She later founded the New Age Bible and Philosophy Center. Are you familiar with her work, if so how would you rate the quality of her work? Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,
Sanctuary of the Rose and Chalice.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you as always for this space.

1. You mentioned in a comment to the open post last week that you moved to a location where astrology showed you would prosper. How can a person find out their own best locations like this? Do you have to cast charts for different locations using software? Is there a way to narrow down which charts to cast? Does any software generate lists of promising places for a querent? Even if some are impractical, it may be interesting to know where they are.

2) Do you or any readers know which pantheons or spiritualities have prominent lore about not taking too much from nature, not being out of balance with nature and so on?
Native American religions are sometimes stereotyped this way, but as I am in Europe, I do not know much about their reality. I know that this is in some ways a contemporary idea, that we need to have more respect for nature and that through recorded history people have often been fighting against nature for survival. I would assume that the societies with very human centered religions, like Christianity and before it Indo European pantheons, generally triumphed over those with more animistic faiths through being more acquisitive, though ultimately this ideology of overreaching means modern industrial society is comming a cropper.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

[(Anonymous)]

I am wondering what you think about the thought/work of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and how (if at all) his perspectives on magic and life might have influenced your own.

Litany of the Tree of Life - Ascension

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning,

I’m working my way through your The Litany of the Tree of Life and I’m hoping you can verify or correct my understanding of the differences of the Ascending phase. As an example, let’s say I’m doing the Sixth Path: Byw to Byth on my way back up the Tree. Do I reverse the naming and reading of the spheres throughout the Litany? Using our Sixth Path example, would I first recite the invocation of Byth and then that of Byw after? And then later would I say “ Between the spheres of Byth and Byw the Sixth Path wends its way…”?

Thanks!

GSF Solar Plexus Exercise

[diletpoly]

First, to share, I've been really enjoying getting into the Golden Section Fellowship work. I feel like I'm able to focus on it and put more energy into it than any other system I've tried in the past. I did have a bit of a hiccup this week, with getting pulled in a lot of different directions, so I didn't do the whole of it, but I managed to do the SoP every day, even if somewhat rushed, so I'm resetting and getting back in the habit. It feels good to be able to pick myself back up and get back on train after that. In the past I probably would have said, "well, I messed up, I'll try again later", so being able to give myself a bit of a break and just keep it going feels nice.

Also, musical interlude, go to youtube and look up a song called "Hi Ren" by an artist named Ren. I wasted a lot of time watching reaction videos to it. Not my style of music, really, but if you look at it as performance art, it's beautiful.

Now, my question. I really want to do the Solar Plexus exercise standing up. I'm used to doing taiji and qigong that way, so it feel right. To date I've avoided it, because it's "against the rules", but is there any reason not to?

Thanks as always,

The Dilettante Polymath

GSF question

[alifelongme]

As I slowly work my way through the GSF manual I have more questions, if I may:

1. When banishing, is it important to banish only imbalances in each specific element or I can ask an elemental powers to help banish all (other) imbalances?

2. When I read the whole book from cover to cover before getting into practices I have noticed some discrepancy in the description of the color of Nwyfre and would like to clarify it before it comes to initiation stage.
On page 8: “It can be imagined as clear air full of light; its color is gold, and its symbol is the circle.”
On page 90 wrt to drawing a circle surrounding the lodge: “ As you do this, imagine the cauldron drawing a line in pure white light.”

My question is about the color of the circle - gold or white? Maybe I missed something somewhere but I cannot find it :(

Thanks

The Exorcist

[(Anonymous)]

I watched the exorcist as a teenager and I found it very scary indeed. I still find it quite scary but not as much and generally enjoy and admire it as a film. It is the only horror film that gives me bad dreams occasionally - especially if i re-watch it. Does this mean anything or is it just one of those things? Also have you seen it and did you find it scary?

[(Anonymous)]

Can a red bag amulet be closed with a simple elastic ring instead of sewing?