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. Last week's honoree, Theodor Reuss, got the idea and many of the teachings that went into the Ordo Templi Orientis from this man, Carl Kellner. Kellner was an Austrian chemist and a successful industrialist who made a tolerably large fortune by creating and patenting a new process for manufacturing wood pulp for paper. He was also, as the photo shows, something of a dandy; let it never be said that all occultists are dowdy!

In his off hours, he was an active Freemason and a student of occultism. A member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, he also studied with European students of our old friend, Paschal Beverly Randolph, and with several Hindu gurus and a Sufi shaykh. He drew up plans for an occult order that would pass on Randolph's sexual gnosis using rituals like those of Freemasonry. Before he could complete the plan, however, he was struck down with a sudden unexplained illness, recovered somewhat after a long hospital stay, and then suddenly died. (There's some reason to think that he'd been experimenting with kundalini yoga -- not the modern, simplified, safe version, but the old robust teachings that can drop you dead in your tracks if you don't have a guru watching you on a daily basis.) 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 a student of Kellner; still, thin as it is, the connection is there.

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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

Completed the LRM course last week

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Thank you for this space.

Last Friday I completed the self-initiation ritual from "Learning Ritual Magic". It has taken me three years to finish the lessons (it's not that there were any breaks--I spent months on some lessons for no discernible reason). I wanted to share (a slightly edited version of) the course review notes that I made as part of the last lesson. These are in no specific order and may seem almost banal, but I wanted to share them all the same.

This is quite long, and it would be helpful if you could comment on some of these points, however, please feel free not to (or even not publish this, for that matter).

1. I am more awareness of the astral plane and am easily able to 'transit' to it, viz., bring readily to the mind's eye images of both real and imaginary things.

2. I have developed a more nuanced view of good and evil; most of the things we consider evil or bad are relative to our milieu and the set of conventions to which we have been exposed. On the flip side, I have become more 'cruel' and am accepting of things which would have earlier made me react in pity and kindness. The notion of revenge and doing something 'evil' in return to somebody is also stronger in me. I have been practising martial arts for more than seven years now and have reached an above-intermediate level of proficiency - I hope this confidence to handle physical conflicts doesn't have something to do with this (going against all the tenets of the martial arts).

3. I have noticed a significant enhancement of my will - in carrying out things that I would otherwise have put off, pushing my limits, sticking to a regimen of exercise or magical practice, and so on. On the other hand, this has made me more impatient towards those who do not have a strong will, in general those whom I perceive as being weak of mind.

4. My career and aptitude are in the abstract domain (computer science, to be precise), and I enjoy problem-solving and exercising my intellect. I guess I have an affinity to Hod - I prefer to dwell in the intellectual plane (puzzles, logic, reasoning out, understanding, and knowing).

5. The initial exposure to the Tarot cards in the early lessons have awakened in me an interest in and love for things European. I don't know if this is because a past-life connection to Europe. I also have a strong affinity for the Roman empire and Latin - so much so that I have been learning Latin for the last two years.

6. I seem to have acquired a strong streak of nihilism and a feeling of "What is the point of anything?". I don't know if this is related to magical practice or a consequence of growing old and becoming more aware of my own mortality. This is somewhat counter-intuitive to the fundamental magical principle that we are more than this life and the presence of other planes of existence.

7. I have been somewhat lax with the meditation and am still somewhat confused about discursive meditation; meditating on a symbol and its associated concepts and ideas seems not that different from 'associative thinking' where we allow the mind to lead us on a chain of thoughts and concentrate on what each thought means and implies.

8. Tarot divination has been pretty hit-or-miss for me. Though I feel a strong affinity towards the cards, I am not able to grasp what they are trying to say to me, or map the happenings in a day to the card I drew.

9. I am beginning to incorporate Tiphareth into my martial arts practice. It is early days yet, but I think I am able to bring out the so-called 'high feel' in each movement that my master talks about.

10. I have become more assertive and dominating/controlling of situations. There has also been an increase in my clarity of thought and analytical ability, with 'magical' intuition coming into play additionally.

11. When I am about to fall asleep or sitting/lying quietly with my eyes closed, unbidden/unrelated images sometimes pop up. These do not relate to any situation (past, present or future) and seem random.

12. I am more aware of patterns of synchronicity in my life.

13. I am a practising Hindu, but I have developed an affinity to other religions/philosophies, specifically Hermeticism and Christianity. I feel a powerful bond of love towards Christ and his suffering on the cross.

14. Affinity for history, old things, permanance (probably an artifact of growing older).

15. I am an introvert by nature. I feel that this trait has become more pronounced - I try to avoid crowds, even conversation with people if I can.

16. I think have developed more insights into people's motives, and read them better. In general, I pay more attention and notice information flows and cues where I wouldn't have caught them before.

17. I am quicker to anger and to take offence.

18. I have become more aggressive in my driving. I live in India where the traffic is, metaphorically speaking, 'eat or be eaten', and my earlier style of polite, safe driving used to get me a lot of stick from other (impatient) drivers. Now I give back as good as I get (though not compromising on safety, of course).

19. One worrying aspect is the reduction in my belief that all humans are equal. While I believe in treating everyone fairly, realism in terms of people's capabilities, potential, etc. has crept in. I also think the knowledge of things like karma is also a factor in this outlook.

20. There has also been a gradual shift to a right-wing ideology - I am drawn more to tradition, proven ways of doing things, order, and so on. I have developed an aversion to degeneracy and deviance.

21. I have stopped caring about what people (who don't matter to me) think of me. I still adhere to my own ethical code, of course, but social conventions no longer bind me that strongly.

Best regards.

Re: Completed the LRM course last week

[ecosophia]

Congratulations on finishing the course! Less than ten per cent of the people who begin a study course of that kind get to the end of it, so you're among the few. I'd encourage you to work on the increased anger and the readiness to take offense -- those aren't helpful. Anger should always be something you choose, and it's best used in small doses; as for a habit of taking offense easily, that normally comes from inadequate self-knowledge leading to a brittle self-image. (The Order of Spiritual Alchemy lessons are very good for working on this.) As for the rest -- yes, those happen. One very common consequence of doing serious esoteric work is that it helps you understand what you yourself think and believe and desire, as distinct from what society wants you to think and believe and desire!

Re: Completed the LRM course last week

[(Anonymous)]

If I may, a excellent antidote to the arrogance and contempt for others - and daily life - which can arise when some small but significant progress is made in esoteric studies is the excellent saying common among Sufis:

'Remember, the Way is service. It is no other thing.'

Also:

'You have come a long way, and you don't know what that means; you have a long way to go, and you know what that means!'

If real humility and service are neglected, no esoteric accomplishment is worth anything.

Just as, in martial arts, if you perfect technique but become a violent bully it is all negated.

This, incidentally, lies behind the vows of service, loyalty, courtesy and purity common to both Islamic and European chivalry.

Re: Completed the LRM course last week

[(Anonymous)]

My Sufi teacher once said that his practices gave him such happiness that he had to guard against spiritual arrogance and disdain of other religions. So that trapdoor swings more than one way and may be hinged in the middle. Tread cautiously!
Nasrudin had a few pithy comments on the topic IIRC.