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.

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

Two concerns

[(Anonymous)]

Good Morning John Michael,

I have two questions for MM today. My first question is what are all the necessary ingredients of a good and successful blessing. When you are thinking about blessing or trying to bless someone or thing what are the things you need do to have success with that? What are the things that help and what are the things that hurt the process?

The second question is about prayer for my daughter. She is 12 and nearing 13. She already has a strong will of her own and thinks of her self as much more mature than she actually is. Therefore we have different ideas about some situations. When a child is just an infant a parent I think has wide latitude in their prayers for the child. By the time the child is an adult the normal prohibitions of prayer come into effect, not praying without permission and respecting the child's Will, etc. In the in between time how should one handle this situation. I know you are yourself not a parent but I imagine you have some ideas here.

Thanks so much
Will O

Re: Two concerns

[ecosophia]

1) That's a fascinating question that I've never seen discussed in occult or spiritual literature. For me personally, blessings are strengthened by clear intention, mental focus, and as little emotional connection to the recipient as possible -- with blessing as with divination, emotional connections tend to bollix things up. Blessings are weakened by the opposite of these things.

2) As a parent, as long as you have legal responsibility for your child you have spiritual responsibility as well, and that means you can pray for her without asking permission. It's best also to pray for wisdom for yourself, so your prayers will be guided for the benefit of all concerned.

Re: Two concerns

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you John, both those answers are really intresting. If you want to bless someone with whom you have a strong emotional connection do you just have to accept that it won't have the greatest effect? Most of the time when I try to bless someone I do have such a connetion.

Re: Two concerns

[ecosophia]

When you choose to bless someone with whom you have a strong emotional connection, the more you can put your own feelings aside and deal with the whole matter calmly, the better the results will be.