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 and George Cecil Jones, who were introduced over the last two weeks, this week's honoree was a teacher of Aleister Crowley. Theodor Reuss was a German occultist and Freemason who, like our past honoree Sylvester Gould, was a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, the successor order of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (HB of L). He founded and headed the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a magical lodge originally envisioned by Austrian occultist Carl Kellner, which passed on the occult traditions of the HB of L and certain specific teachings that originated in another of our earlier honorees, African-American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph. Reuss passed on the teachings of the OTO to Crowley and eventually made him the head of the OTO in the English-speaking world, setting off a cascade of events that would make a first-rate melodrama or a really good tell-all book. Since I'm not a member of the OTO, my only connection with any of that story is that one of my teachers was taught by a student of a student of Reuss...

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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

Healing spell

[syfen]

Archdruid,

which planet works best for healing spells? I've variously heard the moon, mercury, and venus.

Thanks!

Syfen

Absolute Numerical Value of Aleph

[scottyc]

Question for anyone familiar with Gematria numerology (Hebrew numerology): what do you consider the absolute numerical value of aleph (א) to be?

- I thought the absolute value would be 1 as it is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

- Later on, thoughts came it may be 2 as a representation of "as above / so below" or even an absolute value of 3 "as above / so below and the adept depicted in the magician tarot card.

- I just came across this "The numerical value of Aleph is 111 (Aleph + Lamed + Peh: 1 + 30 + 80 = 111). The number 111 contains the trinity; and it is also the constant of the magic square of six. 111 = 1 + 10 +100."

Context for the question is a riddle Eliphas Levi left in his book, The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic (CH 21 pg. 178: "He who understands perfectly the absolute numerical value of א multiplied by N, with the grammatical force of the final N in the words.......")

Saturn Opposition

[(Anonymous)]

Saturn is just moving into Pisces and another cohort of people in their forties will be getting their second Saturn Opposition. I am aware of the general idea of working with Saturn, but I am not sure what exactly is meant, and how individual it is. The period of my first Saturn Opposition, by which I mean the period the planet was in the sign, was very successful in important respects except for a major issue that started right at the end of it, quite far away from the exact degree of opposition. My Saturn return was very difficult and dramatic. If it is possible to see one unified message in both of these periods, what led to success in the first opposition, and what I was pushed towards by the return, it is that Saturn likes me in what youngsters these days call "monk mode". This currently, usually looks more possible for me than it does for the average middle aged person, for example, I do not have children. But I am wondering how far I should go in actively trying to recreate the aspects that were helpful the first time - but not those that were bad for me. I appear rationalist to most people I know in every day life, so to use astrology as the deciding factor for any important decision I am unsure about feels like a little too much.

I am also wondering about Saturn oppositions and house moves, as I would be surprised if I were still living in the same property by the time Saturn goes into Aries. It is hardly unusual for people in their mid forties to move home, and this will be fine for plenty of them. We did not move, or try to, when I was in my first Saturn Opposition. Is it a good idea to use some extra prayers or offerings if this comes up? I would normally do planetary charity and candle burning anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

You remember that module for your WoH RPG that I never finished ‘cos it turned out to be in a different universe?
Well, it begat another short story, neither squamous nor rugose, never intended for human eyes.
I did my best to entomb it in the New Maps, the dread tome with its star-defended cover.
Many thanks for your help bringing the occult slide rule to the nightmares of the masses.
Rhydlyd

Martinist Orders

[mek_kladenets]

I've felt drawn recently to finding a good Martinist group to work with. I remember you stating you had started working with one a few months ago. Do you have any recommendations as to navigating those waters and any orders in particular that you recommend?

[deketemoisont]

Copied from my own blog:

https://goldensectionforum.boards.net

(Shorten the name to GSForum; this is *not* the Golden Section Fellowship, but for discussion about its work, and was allowed, but won't be run, by John Michael Greer; all errors will be mine.)

[Yes, the presentation can be improved.]

And thanks for allowing it (and writing the books!).

[(Anonymous)]

You've been (rightly, to my mind) skeptical and wary of Naomi Wolf's article about the Pagan gods reappearing, saying that the notion that the god's someone worships are behind problems all to often morphs into the notion they are, and from there into pogroms. Doesn't the same risk exist with you publishing the demonic hypothesis on the origin of the Covid-19 debacle? What makes your hypothesis different (and less dangerous to your mind, I assume) from hers?

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe an odd question, but is there any reason to be wary about praying to/forming a connection with a god? Could that have consequences or mess something up in your life if you pick the wrong one (and no, I don't mean Loki)?

I formed a very new and tenuous connection with a deity, but was advised by others that I should let it go because it wouldn't work out long term. And okay, fair enough. But in the present moment it is the only connection that I have, I have not had great luck with this of late. I would rather have something (even something not perfect or temporary) than none at all. As long as the god on the other end seems responsive, is there any reason I should be concerned about continuing it on my end?