Magic Monday
Mar. 20th, 2023 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
It's just past 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 taking a momentary break from chasing down photos of my lineage. Today is the spring equinox here in the northern hemisphere, one of the holy days of the Druid calendar, and this is a photo of the spring equinox sunrise as seen from an ancient stone chamber at South Royalton, Vermont -- one of many astronomically oriented megalithic sites here in New England. The photo's courtesy of New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA), which was gracious enough to send it around yesterday morning.
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!***
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:14 am (UTC)After killing everyone, the game world is destroyed, and the game displays a blank screen rather than any kind of menu. This remains even after resetting the game.
There is no way to replay it, as everything is gone; however, if you wait for ten minutes on the blank screen, the game will offer to restore the world in exchange for your soul. You have no character (since the entire world is gone, character included); and the game repeatedly breaks the fourth wall, and has some weird lines where your character says they don’t have a soul but the player does, all of which raises a very troubling question: when people accept the game’s offer to restore the world in exchange for their soul, what happens? Is it possible for people to actually accidentally sell their souls by doing this?
Given the game was released in September of 2015 and was an immediate success, shortly before things started getting really creepy and weird, it seems like it could explain a lot if even just a small fraction of the people who played it did in fact accidentally sell their souls.....
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:48 am (UTC)//Princess Cutekitten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:59 am (UTC)b) I wonder if this explains why I found the game so creepy when it first came out. I might have sensed the link to the demonic and reacted accordingly.
c) What would it look like if someone had actually unwittingly sold their souls, beyond a sudden creepy and unpleasant vibe to them? I ask because quite a few people I knew were into the game when it came out, and all of them changed quite dramatically around then....
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 08:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 01:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:51 pm (UTC)Games in general are complete time vampires that often overtake the entire personality of the victim.
The egregores behind games are clearly powerful enough to shape and morph individuals and their social traits.
But nope… no dark spirit would ever think of utilising this powerful medium.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 08:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:56 pm (UTC)Also, there are a lot of accusations here, several of which seem incredibly defensive...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:34 am (UTC)My former friend group exploded in 2016, as a large number of them made some very strange, and highly self destructive decisions. Except for me, every member of that group played that game....
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 08:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:33 am (UTC)So the player-or-their-notional-proxy-or-something isn't making the exchange with "the game"; they're making an exchange with a character in the game -- the disembodied ghost of another human child from the backstory, a sociopathic one (having a close resemblance to the player character runaway child, which is used for a lot of narrative misdirection before the reveal; possibly the ghost is supposed to be a residue from the player character's past life). The ghost is ambiguously the narrator, but is not enough of a psychopath to actively push for wanton slaughter independently, in a normal playthrough just going with the flow narrating neutrally. However, in a genocide playthrough, the ghost is gradually strengthened in cruelty and in usurping the player-or-something's powers over the game world, as the player actively looks for fights with misguided spareable monsters to kill them and accumulate "EXP" and "LV", which are revealed in a twist to stand not for the usual "experience" and "levels", but for "EXecution Points" and "Level of Violence". (It's not direct genocide, it's just killing everything that can engage you in the battle interface where there's an option to kill it, and also a snowman monster. There's a shopkeeper monster who makes fun of the fact that you can't attack him through the shop interface, and how his holding you in conversation is giving the other monsters time to evacuate.) The ghost is the one who uses the player-or-whatever's power over the game world to nullify it entirely.
After agreeing to the exchange of their "SOUL" (after being harangued about thinking that they are above consequences), the player regains access to the main menu where they can make "full resets" and start a playthrough over. Normally a full reset is supposed to clear the entire game state, overriding the ways in which the usual save/load mechanics are subject to leakage via the rewind-immune memories of another character (a monster antagonist who, in the backstory, was accidentally resurrected by an infusion of the same reality-bending power of determination possessed by the player character, but lacking their own prior "SOUL" or its compassion). From there, it's possible to play for the "good" true-pacifist ending. Normally this ending has a scene at the end, either a cheerful group photo of the player character with the monsters who emigrated from the underworld, or a heartwarming domestic scene with the player character and their new monster adoptive mother. But after the genocide ending, both these scenes are irreversibly tainted; the player character's stoic expression is replaced by the merciless smile and red avid eyes of the ghost, and the faces in the group photo are crossed out in blood-red, implying that after the ending the formerly player-character hunted down and slew each of them.
There's a lot of ambiguity about what exactly is supposed to be what. I'm not sure the actual word "soul" is ever used with lowercase letters, but if "SOUL" is an acronym it's never explained. There's only a vague introduction of "your SOUL, the very culmination of your being", in reference to a little heart (a third the scale of the player character's body), which the player moves around to make selections from menus, and also to evade monsters' inherent magical attacks (and/or unwittingly hazardous magical self-expressions) in a "bullet-hell"-genre-inspired dodging arena that appears during enemy combat turns. (The last enemy on the genocide route has a number of fourth-wall-heavily-straining gimmicks, and one of them is that he uses the same attacks he uses inside the dodge arena against the the SOUL, while it's the player's turn, directly targeting the spaces next to the combat menu where the SOUL goes.) (In the much earlier game Afterlife, an afterlife city-management game by the unrelated company LucasArts, "SOUL" refers to "Stuff Of Unending Life", but that's probably not an intended reference.) It appears to have something to do with the player's access to the game world. In the sequel game it seems that the player's SOUL is in conflict with the new game's sometime player character, who at the end of chapter 1 beats themselves up to extract it and forces it into a golden cage; this might be because the SOUL is actually a moderating influence on them.
I wrote this before skimming the other comments, and it's weird that the other comments up as of this posting reference the idea of "player characters" in connection with incarnation, monsters, things not existing when a superior power isn't invested in them, the afterlife, and lingering ghosts.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 08:07 pm (UTC)Finally, the game breaks the fourth wall a lot, especially on the genocide run. So, it seems at least possible that this is intended that way; and that depending on who, or what, inspired this game, it may very well have the effect it claims....
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 01:03 am (UTC)This is a little bit of a sore spot for me because I come from a Christian background, where the idea of "action X constitutes knowing consent to be deceived into refusing rescue by grace and coming to fully deserve Hell, and trying to rationalize how this idea might be pathological and wrong also constitutes knowing consent to be deceived into refusing rescue by grace and coming to fully deserve Hell" behaved like a malignant cancer, that tried to attach itself to anything related to a different view of the supernatural than the Christian one. It's tied in with the whole binary internalization-projection self-hatred complex that critical theorists talk about: if you consent to the influence of anything your cultural authorities have labeled as the encroachments of the devil anywhere, it supposedly erodes your bright lines everywhere, and eventually blows up your whole moral practice and you start deserving the fates of the artificially-beat-upon outcast reprobates who are the projection-targets and internalization-sources for your repressed badself. For example, I think the mother of a family that was friends of ours banned her kids from playing any video games that had magic in them. This was not particularly uncommon in America thirty years ago.
However, of course that soreness wouldn't overrule hypothetical good epidemiological data about correlations between demonic-flavored derangements and playing the Undertale genocide route. And anecdotes are just a weaker form of epidemiological data, that are confounded by unknown latent cultural and individual degrees of propensity for data cherry-picking.
If Undertale were interpreted as a mundane artifact, there would be a quite coherent story in which Toby Fox was just trying to use the fourth wall as an additional medium of producing an artistic effect, presenting the player with the idea of potentially not having either moral or practical immunity from the consequences of using save/reload to try all the contingencies in the game to see what happens. This is literally the reasoning criticized by the last-ditch enemy on the genocide route: "and just because you 'can', you 'have to'". It's also the motive cited by the antagonist with the determination powers, for their descent into a horrific version of Groundhog Day (already undone before the game begins) and eventually ennui. The character who's the last-ditch enemy in the genocide route also, in the normal route, makes a number of pointed comments about whether you have a responsibility to go back and be more pacifist, since you're the only one who can control whether the underworld's problems get solved in a way that doesn't add to the pre-existing tally of tragedies. I suspect that the above story does, in fact, contain Toby Fox's actual conscious reasons for why to design the game that way.
That "moral of the story" is, of course, somewhat confounded by the fact that the final battle on the genocide route has arguably the best and certainly most iconic music in the game, though the final battle on the pacifist route has the second or third best.
It seems strange that "who or what inspired this game" should have bearing on how consent is construed here, if it wouldn't particularly be knowable to the person ostensibly doing the consenting.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 02:22 pm (UTC)JLfromNH/Orange Waggish Gorgon
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:21 pm (UTC)animalsinformation cascades"](no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:40 pm (UTC)- This eventuality is apparently ONLY reachable if the player chooses to do the genocide run of the game and then desires to restart it. If the player plays through "normally", even if they do occasionally kill, it will never come up.
- There are, apparently, no achievements or other quasi-tangible rewards granted on any platform for doing the genocide run. The only reason you would do this would be to satisfy your own curiosity. In short, you have to be willing to do the genocide run, knowing that the only reward from doing so is your own satisfaction, and sincerely believing that hey, they're just bundles of code, it doesn't really matter.
- Playing the game requires agreeing to a third-party license agreement; however, this license agreement (readable through Steam without downloading the game) is short, has nothing whatsoever to do with souls, and explicitly mentions that the agreement is made under English/UK law and jurisdiction.
- Is it possible, through any means (including playing two separate copies of the game), to do the genocide run multiple times and reach the sell-your-soul scene multiple times? If so, wouldn't this complicate matters if indeed it is a real exchange of your soul (as you no longer actually have a soul to sell, but would still be able to make the agreement anyway)?
- If this is a real soul sale, who exactly is the "me" the soul is being given to? The...game? The developer who made it?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:57 pm (UTC)I played it in 2016 because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and it just left me cold. It was boring and depressing and I hated the graphics and the gameplay and the plot and the script. The music was ok though, in an 8-bit kind of way.
However, I got the same weird creepy vibe from it that I got from a load of pop musicians who have since started doing weird stuff like drink each other's blood and praise (and in some cases, dress like) Satan, so perhaps this just means my demonometer is functioning normally.
I did notice how the people who liked the game *really* liked it, to a (possibly literally) obsessive degree. In late 2015, I got mildly harassed by a game store 'assistant' for 10 minutes trying to get me to play it and going on about how good it was and then I had to lie that I was going to spend the credit voucher I'd just bought on Undertale and not the game I actually wanted. I then had to avoid the shop afterwards in case he asked me what I thought if it.
Also, I've said it before, but after I started banishing, I lost all interest in video games, which I'd been playing for almost *20 years* at that point. That must say something about them.
Mr Crow
The Tree of Spirit
Date: 2023-03-20 04:18 am (UTC)1. When J. Gilbert writes about subconscious mind represented by the High Priestess does he refer to the concept similar to your GSF concept of subjective mind? I may be mistaken, but if that is the case why did you choose to name it differently? Is it because the term subconsciousness has been overused by pop-psychology to the extent that it nearly lost all its original meaning? Or is it actually a different concept?
2. J. Gilbert states that when we decide to incarnate we choose the place, the time, the challenges, our responses to challenges, and the whole entourage beforehand. Does it mean that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, already happened and known in advance? All we need is to play our part in a play already written. A true tragedy, in the sense that we know what will happen, we know the outcome, but we still play the part and we are not free to change our response because it was already chosen by us before we incarnated. We just go through the motions and our free will is an illusion. The only time we exercised free will was our will to incarnate.
3. But then how we can change ourselves (Strength) in the true meaning of the word change? It seems impossible because even that “change” was chosen in advance and is not a real change. How is it possible? Is it the Divine intervention we opened up to, The Chariot? Deus ex machina? Therefore, we did not know who we’d become and needed to incarnate to get the Divine intervention? So, the self-creation is actually self-co-creation, because without the Divine we’d be just “spinning the wheels” in a totally deterministic world, unable to evolve, to create, and to change.
I guess I worked myself into a corner now and cannot get out of it all by myself :)
Am I even on the right track?
Please help :)
Thank you.
Re: The Tree of Spirit
Date: 2023-03-20 05:32 am (UTC)2) No, not at all. It means we know what we're up against. It's as though you're playing Dungeons & Dragons and the DM lets you know in advance that you're up against trolls and an ice dragon, so your character chooses gear and weapons accordingly. That doesn't mean you know in advance everything that's going to happen and everything you will do in response -- among other things, you're not the only player character in the game!
3) Here again, you can always choose and change. The Divine is always present in you, and in everything else, so every creation is a co-creation with the Divine, because no one and nothing is ever without the Divine. Without the Divine, nothing would exist at all! So in one sense you can see life as a dance or a game the Divine plays with itself, becoming an infinity of beings and things in the process.
Re: The Tree of Spirit
Date: 2023-03-20 05:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:20 am (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:33 am (UTC)Magic and electronics
Date: 2023-03-20 04:34 am (UTC)Re: Magic and electronics
Date: 2023-03-20 05:33 am (UTC)Re: Magic and electronics
Date: 2023-03-20 10:07 pm (UTC)I'm guessing clockwork and mechanical mechanisms barely at all, basic electronics a little, transistors moderately and complex computers significantly?
I am reminded of what is known as "Streetlight interference phenomenon", where streetlights either come on or off as people walk under them. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_light_interference_phenomenon) Weirdly, I used to be able to do this myself, but only before the streetlights changed from the old sodium arc lamps to LEDs. I noticed that if I had a particularly strong emotion in mind, the lights were far more likely to go off, so I'm assuming this was some etheric effect?
Mr. Crow
Re: Magic and electronics
Date: 2023-03-20 10:14 pm (UTC)The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 04:41 am (UTC)Thanks for doing this! :)
Re: The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 05:38 am (UTC)Re: The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 06:14 am (UTC)Re: The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 06:34 pm (UTC)Re: The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 04:09 pm (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
Re: The Ghost Tourist!
Date: 2023-03-20 06:34 pm (UTC)Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 05:02 am (UTC)As someone who wrote a book on monsters I thought I would throw some bigfoot questions at you.
First, does it exist?
Second, does it have a supernatural component or is this just a rare evolutionary cousin of ours?
Third, do you have any thoughts about Native American legends concerning big foot?
Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 05:43 am (UTC)2) BHMs (big hairy monsters), to use the Fortean term for them, aren't all of the same kind. I'm pretty sure that the yetis of the Himalayas and the sasquatches of the Cascade Mountains are large bipedal apes, probably descended from the Gigantopithecus known to paleontologists, but some other BHMs act like preternatural beings -- for example, they vanish into thin air, leaving tracks that just stop in the middle of nowhere. So each sighting has to be assessed independently.
3) Always worth reading or (if you have the chance) listening to, but don't take them in the simpleminded white-guy way.
Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 07:24 pm (UTC)Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 07:35 pm (UTC)Meanwhile people have found a great many tracks, feces, and hair samples. Scientists refuse to look at them. The unwritten law of the scientific community -- "no one but a tenured academic is allowed to discover anything" -- is just as powerful a force now as it was when continental drift was dismissed as crackpot pseudoscience.
Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 08:50 pm (UTC)That second part sounds so typical of any line of inquiry that strays even an inch from the consensus party line.
Somewhat related, I've really grown to despise the weasel-phrase "modern scholars" that seems to litter nearly every wikipedia article of consequence. It sounds to me like newspeak for "current tenured academic who doesn't stray one inch from the party line." Any article on topic related to polytheistic religions/ cultures or occultism is going to have at least 50 instance of this phrase thrown around, each papering over what turns out to be a dumb opinion with very flimsy citations attached.
Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 10:15 pm (UTC)Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 10:12 pm (UTC)And so the status quo continues!
(And that's before we get into the side of things where giant humanoid skeletons, when found, are spirited away by governmental forces to giant underground warehouses, à la Indiana Jones)
Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-20 10:16 pm (UTC)Re: Monsters and Bigfoot
Date: 2023-03-21 12:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:34 am (UTC)Thank you for this forum!
So... Saturn in Pieces... here I come. My second Saturn return has manifested itself promptly. I got flooded, quite literally - uterine bleeding. I had this exact problem 11 years ago. I had a surgical procedure, which fixed the problem for 11 years, but... here we go again. 11 years ago I tried herbs, and homeopathy - nothing helped, except for surgery. Same here - surgery is scheduled for April 10th. I am not in a good place psychologically and thinking about a mantra. What would be a good mantra for this situation? My first thought was, "I am a strong survivor", but this feels like anticipating troubles. I can not come up with an alternative. I am looking for a mantra to put myself together for the next three weeks. I need to un-Humpty Dumpty myself. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Kirsten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 01:56 pm (UTC)Kirsten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 01:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:46 pm (UTC)Kirsten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 12:57 am (UTC)Will be happy to do so!
Kirsten
surgery
Date: 2023-03-21 12:38 am (UTC)I think this helps speed recovery, and in any case seems like the decent thing to do.
Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 05:38 am (UTC)I have recently widowed friend who thinks he is being haunted by his deceased mother in law. She always wanted him for her favorite daughter, rather then the one he married. He has been having seductive and even erotic dreams about his despised sister in law. Two last week alone.
So, I got him to make a witch bottle containing nails, his urine and a penny dated this year to delight any future archeologists. That hasn't helped. Is this because the witch is in the afterlife herself?
He is a Christian so I told him to burn frankincense in his bedroom and to pray to the Archangel Michael to banish all hostile forces from his bedroom. If that doesn't do it, I am kind of stumped.
Do you have any ideas on how to proceed and what do you think of this haunting?
Maxine
Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 05:46 am (UTC)Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 04:26 pm (UTC)Vinegar it is! How silly of me to forget something so basic.
Maxine
Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 10:14 pm (UTC)Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 03:45 pm (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 04:27 pm (UTC)Thanks for that. I think this is less an emergency than simply creeping him out. I hope his prayers and the vinegar will do the trick.
Hugs from Maxine
Re: Strange haunting
Date: 2023-03-20 06:28 pm (UTC)Now that I re-read it, it certainly comes off a bit harsh. Nevertheless, I think the reasoning is sound: you may have accidentally created an etheric booby trap that ensnared him and possibly you. Nothing dramatic, of course, and nothing to get seriously worked up over. However, I would bury the witch bottle somewhere deep and start over by doing some protective magic for him. Is he on the Ecosophia Prayer list? Has he put up a geometric up by his bed? https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/26916.html
He should also consider doing a series of discursive meditations on his MIL, his existing emotions toward the "favorite" daughter (it would be very difficult to be completely neutral in such a case, and even hatred or animosity creates its own polarity and friction), and when he is ready, meditations on his widowhood, grief, and his deceased wife. My thoughts are that he can probably solve this gradually and gently via meditation if he is willing to do the everyday work of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:41 am (UTC)I think I have an addiction to negative thinking and on avoiding happiness if it is not exactly the way I want it. That sounds really odd but it seems to be the case. Perhaps I like to blame everything on something or somebody else because that way I can escape the responsibility that I have on my life. I've seen this topic discussed before here and if I look back I have always flinched on it when I read it.
This past few weeks I asked about an affirmation about changing my life but before deploying it and after realizing that anywhere that I might take my life to probably isn't worth getting to if I don't do it joyfully I would like to add some positivity to it but one thing I don't want is for it to become "brightsided"
Do you have any advice on how to cultivate a positive mindset about the circumstances I encounter in my life, despite that I want to change them? It certainly isn't good to go about hating my day to day when at least at present, is the best that I can get. I feel that with my present mindset nothing I get would be enough and that seems as much a part of the problem as the circumstances by themselves.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 12:22 am (UTC)After I finish moving to my new apartment, I have to do some serious ordering of my life. That's the first step at least, too many bad memories in the current one. A fresh start seems like a good opportunity to get these things in order and start some "systematic" journaling instead of messy journaling.
It won't be fun, the way I flinch from it tells me that, but at least right now it is clear to me that I cannot pursue anything else with success until I start pursuing it from a stable place and with my life in order, be it magic or be it a different career or much of anything else. I do have to thank Saturn for that. On week two of the Training the Will series now and going for another lecture of the MOE lecture tonight. Hopefully I will make it for attunement shy of three weeks from now. After that I might dare to do the OSA work which seems like an even more 'systematic' approach to journaling, but for now moving is my goal, then attunement, then, I'll figure out. :-)
Wish my luck!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 06:10 am (UTC)At any rate, if you wanted to turn it into an affirmation, maybe something like "I follow the advice I would give someone I love in all situations."
On a more magical/symbolic side of things, one thing that seems to be helping me is to focus on the watery/heart-based side of things to balance out the airy/mental side. "Feeling" things more clearly and strongly is not all sunshine and rainbows, but it does seem to be helping the more I let myself do it.
Best of luck in your work,
Jeff
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 12:34 am (UTC)Thank you Jeff! And thank you for your message before that too. Funnily enough I've been trying to do something like that, looking at it from the outside to try to avoid the pitfalls. That idea about self-responsibility is definitely part of it for me, and I need to root it in self love, for otherwise I feel that I am just an angry boss with myself that demands to keep going forward no matter what. Sometimes that self-responsibility is to take it easy with oneself, I don't want to face burn out or something worse.
I think I need something like that about focusing on the feelings as well, something that focuses on not removing value from what I do too despite that I don't like it. It might not be the best, but doing bad work in a bad mood is worse that not doing any work at all... Hmm. I do need to think this through for a bit more but I feel I have a tentative affirmation now that can help me get up from the mud, clean myself and start walking again. Wish me luck! Transformation ain't easy, huh.
Quan yin - Guanjin
Date: 2023-03-20 05:45 am (UTC)recently I've seen a little statue of Kwanyin/Guanyin...and there She is depicted with a dragon beneath her that she feeds a golden stream of something from a ..beaker..(missing the right word here for something one might use to pour milk from) Would you happen to know if the dragon sybolises earth powers or the Chinese emperors vor both?
Thank you!
Re: Quan yin - Guanjin
Date: 2023-03-20 05:48 am (UTC)Re: Quan yin - Guanjin
Date: 2023-03-20 02:40 pm (UTC)The Chinese dragon, actually called a loong or lung, is drastically different from the western dragon as it is associated with water rather than fire. It's strongly connected with chi, bringing good fortune, power, strength (provided you're worthy, of course). You often see the loong illustrated with a flaming pearl which represents wisdom and immortality. They are shapeshifters, shrinking down to tiny size or growing as big as the sky itself, even on occasion taking human form. While they are regarded as auspicious, if their ire should happen to be awakened, they can cause destructive floods and violent storms. (hmmm, we have been having an inordinate number of storms and floods lately, haven't we?....) Emperors often used its image for representing their power.
JLfromNH/Orange Waggish Gorgon
Re: Quan yin - Guanjin
Date: 2023-03-20 10:30 pm (UTC)More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-20 05:45 am (UTC)A very happy and blessed spring evennight (equinox) to everyone! May there be the very new beginnings you're looking for in your life.
To Share: After the welcome thoughts on my earlier take on a Hail Idun prayer, I've put together three more takes, with any feedback welcome, either here, or on the dreamwidth comment thread:
Blog post: https://jpowellrussell.com/#heathen_rosary_hail_idun_in_germanish_lay_bit_2
Dreamwidth comment thread (I haven't gotten comments worked out wholly to my liking yet, so this is the stopgap): https://jprussell.dreamwidth.org/4975.html
To Ask: You've mentioned before that Elizabeth I clearly consulted John Dee on her coronation date, with notable effects (to put it mildly). Do you have any other favorite major historical events where you suspect astrological or other magical influences played a mostly-ignored role? (Did Napoleon have an especially Martial natal chart? Was the USSR declared on a unhelpful day? Were the land energies at Thermopylae especially suited to valiant defense? That kind of thing.)
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
Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-20 05:49 am (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-20 12:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 12:17 am (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-20 01:04 pm (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-21 12:16 am (UTC)After further meditation, reflection, and drafting, though, I do think the emphasis is appropriate, if understood as something closer to the "One Life", or the "life of the soul," as I think that's the kind of "everlasting life" it's healthy and desirable to think about and focus on.
Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun"
Date: 2023-03-21 03:37 am (UTC)I don't know of Idun being specifically about mortals even to just the extent that Thor is, and maybe the text would have to refer more to relationships manifested through sanctifying deeds or exchanges, and less about relationships manifested through contemplation, prayer, and grace (though these are a sort of deed and exchange).
Maybe you should just list a bunch of attributes and epithets and petitions and pledges before trying to feel through which seven or eight should all end up in there together. Obviously some are going to be more redundant with each other than others, but you shouldn't try to jam all your thinking about that into the process of revising some single way; that leaves so little elbow room and you'll be constantly distracted by premature tradeoffs.
Another thing the original prayer did was start by consisting largely of direct quotes from existing texts.
Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-20 03:12 pm (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-21 12:18 am (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-21 12:36 am (UTC)Re: More Takes on "Hail Idun", and Magical Influences on Significant Historical Events
Date: 2023-03-21 03:41 am (UTC)No question, just a thank you
Date: 2023-03-20 07:23 am (UTC)Re: No question, just a thank you
Date: 2023-03-20 06:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:44 am (UTC)I'm working through LRM a third time. The previous two times I've stalled on Chapter 15. Now that I'm in Chapter 16 and doing the inner plane exercise, I'm confused by the directions. It says to do the first part several times, then move to step 9 but I only see up to step 8. Can you clarify what step 9 is?
I'm still having hot flashes 2-3 times a night so my interrupted sleep has me miss details during the day. I'm determined to finish these last couple chapters this time through the best I can no matter the circumstances.
Thank you!
Hot Flashes
Date: 2023-03-20 04:17 pm (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:37 pm (UTC)Goblin Vs farie
Date: 2023-03-20 08:27 am (UTC)Re: Goblin Vs farie
Date: 2023-03-20 06:41 pm (UTC)Re: Goblin Vs farie
Date: 2023-03-20 10:19 pm (UTC)Something I've meant to ask before - can nature spirits be reincarnated in human form? I've never felt quite at home in my human body, but wooded mountain streams are where I'm happiest.
Then again, I might just be a druid...
Re: Goblin Vs farie
Date: 2023-03-20 10:53 pm (UTC)The feeling of not being at home in one's body usually happens when you didn't get enough time between lives, so subconsciously you remember that your former body felt like and the current one just never quite feels right.
Re: Goblin Vs farie
Date: 2023-03-21 12:28 am (UTC)I've had inklings of what my past life before this one was, and if I'm right, she died young and badly and it would have had to be very soon before I was born.
Her living environment would have been the complete opposite to a wooded mountain stream, so it would also make sense that it would be something I would now seek out, rather than it being from a previous life as a fae. I hadn't thought of it that way until just now!
A few Alchemy related questions
Date: 2023-03-20 08:36 am (UTC)1. Do you, or anyone else who may be reading, have recommendations about alternative material that instead of going into distillation right away, continues teaching about elixirs? I was thinking maybe continue in this path until I can get hold of a distillation set up.
2. After reading about the theory of Spagyrics and trying my hand in it, I realized I was already doing something like that in the garden. There is a method of natural farming that is very popular in the organic gardening community those days - knf. It teaches you to ferment plants (preferably wild plants that grow in thriving ecosystems), to produce incredibly bioavaliable fertilizers. There are other methods that resemble calcination to obtain phosphorus salt from beef bones as an alternative to relying on the mined stuff. On top of that, something that is pretty much elixers for plants is also used. Do you think knf could be alchemy hiding in plain sight?
3. I started getting back into homebrewing after many years in haitus, and I want to make herb beers - gruits. To those who are interested, I found a book I plan to buy called "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation" by Stephen Harrod Buhner. But, sine I already started asking alchemy questions - you mentioned in your writing that homebrewing is also essentialy alchemy, but modern brewing books treat it more like science. I tried searching for writings that deal with the alchemy side in Archive.org but was not successful, so I thought I'd ask you or any of the readers if they have other reading recommendations for my research?
Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge and answering questions, I could not get into alchemy without your advice.
Re: A few Alchemy related questions
Date: 2023-03-20 06:47 pm (UTC)https://www.sciplus.com/lab-still-40056-p
https://www.sciplus.com/essential-oil-distilliation-unit-53893-p
2) That sounds extremely alchemical to me. I'm not at all familiar with knf -- where does it come from?
3) I wish! Brewing is an alchemical art, but I have yet to find any serious discussion of the overlap between brewing and alchemy. If anyone else has a book to suggest I'd love to hear about it.
Re: A few Alchemy related questions
Date: 2023-03-20 09:12 pm (UTC)My understanding is that knf, which stands for Korean Natural Farming is actually a set of techniques from Japan which were picked up by a Korean student who moved there (hence that name), who incorporated brown sugar based fermentation methods he was familiar with from the Korean kitchen, as used in Kimchi for example.
Re: A few Alchemy related questions
Date: 2023-03-20 10:17 pm (UTC)Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 09:35 am (UTC)However, I've found the following absolutely fascinating things.
Firstly, the temple technology is most likely a dielectric resonator antennae, something known to radio enthusiasts and professionals for a long time. Dielectric antennae are not limited to the same fractions of wavelengths as metallic antennae, and they do not need paramagnetism to function (although this enhances the effect, or enables it without structure building, in the case of some standing stones). The temple of solomon and herods temple were made from calcite, which is diamagnetic and dielectric. Dielectric resonators have massive Q factors, meaning they store a lot of power in the form of standing waves in the stone.
The holy of holies in solomons temple has a resonant frequency of about 8hz. That's bang on one of the schuman resonances.
There's also a possibility that the gold lining on the calcite creates a piezoelectric effect, meaning that sound, in the way of a beat frequency with chanting, could excite the structure and enable additional effects. It could also work the other way, as a chamber enhancing meditation. Yes, this thing may have been a transceiver.
The actual mechanism by which fertility is enhanced is ultra weak photons,or non thermal photons. These flow out from the temple and excite plant roots.
Next step is for me to model the temple itself in software, which runs Maxwells equations over the 3 dimensional features of it.
Hope this helps.
Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 06:48 pm (UTC)Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 07:16 pm (UTC)Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 07:29 pm (UTC)Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 07:50 pm (UTC)They're still a long way off from looking at temple technology of course, but it appears more and more like our ancestors were definitely a leg up on us in using this effect.
JLfromNH/Orange Waggish Gorgon
Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-20 08:01 pm (UTC)Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-21 02:54 am (UTC)Re: Temple technology research update
Date: 2023-03-21 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 06:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 11:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 09:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 10:18 pm (UTC)Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-20 11:54 am (UTC)I hope everyone here has a blessed equinox.
John, I was curious about the lore around the Star Logoi. Are there any good sources to read more about them, or is it more of a matter of that knowledge being scattered around in various sources?
All the best,
Justin Patrick Moore / Viridian Amorous Moth
Re: Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-20 07:02 pm (UTC)As for the Star Logoi, as far as I know it's another "stuff scattered all over space and time" sort of topic. A good book on that would be great, but I don't know of one.
Re: Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-20 11:30 pm (UTC)I'll tuck the Star Logoi into my writing journal as something to keep an eye out for and as a possible future topic to research.
I hope your day has been good. The GSF open lodge + compatible equinox ritual from FHR = rockin' stuff!
Justin
Re: Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-21 12:53 am (UTC)Have you read the book, Manitou: The Sacred Landscape of New England's Native Civilization? I read it over 3 years ago, a fascinating book about ancient ritual sites. Maybe I first heard of it on Ecosophia...don't recall now.
Happy Spring!
Ellen in ME
Re: Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-21 12:05 pm (UTC)No, I hadn't heard of it, butI will definitely make a note of it, and perhaps pick up a copy before we go up that way next. It sounds very cool. Thank you!
The following book is on a more immediate to buy list: Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes of Ohio: More Than Mounds and Geometric Earthworks by Mark Lynott.
Happy spring to you and yours as well!
Justin in OH.
Re: Star Logoi
Date: 2023-03-22 03:38 pm (UTC)When you come back to Maine, give us a shout out on Open Post and maybe we could meet up.
Ellen
Jung and Steiner
Date: 2023-03-20 12:10 pm (UTC)JMG, if I'm not mistaken I recall that you once compared Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner, and concluded something to the effect that Jung did not pay enough heed to his inner visions, whereas Steiner paid too much. I am writing a piece on Jung currently and I'd like to quote you on that, if that's OK with you, but I haven't been able to find the original comment in which it was made.
Also a quick question on planetary charity: if a gap between donations exceeds one week, does the usual advice apply, to simply pick up the donations from where they left off until the round is completed?
Many thanks,
Luke
P.S. Belated gratitude to JP Russell for his book recommendations a few weeks back.
Re: Jung and Steiner
Date: 2023-03-20 07:06 pm (UTC)As for planetary charity, yes, the usual advice applies.
Re: Jung and Steiner
Date: 2023-03-20 07:07 pm (UTC)Re: Jung and Steiner
Date: 2023-03-21 04:00 am (UTC)Re: Jung and Steiner
Date: 2023-03-21 01:01 am (UTC)A rare mention
Date: 2023-03-20 12:23 pm (UTC)I recently came across a mention of a practice that doesn't get openly mentioned in most Golden Dawn materials, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it. It's called the "Indigo Egg", I think.
Re: A rare mention
Date: 2023-03-20 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 12:46 pm (UTC)A few weeks back I posted here and Tunesmyth added a request to the prayer list for a little boy undergoing a serious brain surgery.
Fortunately, the little boy (who we shall call ES) recovered well from that surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful. ES is now having upwards of 60+ seizures in a day and doctors believe if he has to go back into paediatric intensive care, he won’t come back out again. He has been living in the hospital for months and today he’s being flown to another city with a more experienced surgeon who will perform a second brain surgery on either Tuesday or Thursday. ES is only 2 years old.
I am once again requesting prayers and positive energy from anyone willing to send them to ES. His mother is a good friend of mine for many years and is a big believer in prayer. I have her permission to pray for ES as well as to solicit prayers on his behalf. We feel every bit of prayer helps.
Thank you again to JMG and Tunesmyth, as well as all the readers and posters here who help with prayers. I think it does make a difference 🙏🏻♥️
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 05:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:03 pm (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 01:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-21 02:58 am (UTC)Gawain
Spring Solstice and Noticing the 5th Layers
Date: 2023-03-20 12:47 pm (UTC)I have JMG's Occult Handbook and for this week, mediating over the Spring Solstice section and one part of the practice for this week is to see if we notice the changes in the various 5th layers of the different planes.
For the etheric plane the 5th layer is the top chemical layer; astral 5th = individual likes and dislikes, if I remember correctly, book not with me and mental layer 5th = functions.
Request for those with more experience for any tips on how one sets the stage to notice. I may be overthinking things but for the etheric plan, I guess I will focus on digestion and bodily functions, astral is easy enough but wondering about the mental 5th layer of functions? Possibility there will be some nuanced changes in functions of certain objects, theories, practices, habits, etc., as we transition to more solar current than telluric?
Re: Spring Solstice and Noticing the 5th Layers
Date: 2023-03-20 07:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 12:53 pm (UTC)In the section "Practical Work with Color and Sound" of the "Principles of Color and Sound" chapter in the CGD book, it specifies "you will need a musical instrument that does not require the use of your mouth". I'm wondering if this is because that's easier for untrained singers to match, or if there is some occult significance precluding the use of e.g. a pitch pipe for this purpose.
Thanks,
Heather
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-20 07:22 pm (UTC)Dealing with fear
Date: 2023-03-20 12:59 pm (UTC)Re: Dealing with fear
Date: 2023-03-20 06:08 pm (UTC)I noticed in myself that a daily examination of conscience coupled with weekly confession and a general study of traditional moral theology made an absolute mess of me, and that there was much fear of punishment and of making reparation that was caused.
I just wanted to mention that in case it might be relevant to you in any way.
Re: Dealing with fear
Date: 2023-03-20 06:55 pm (UTC)Re: Dealing with fear
Date: 2023-03-20 07:26 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you're having good results from the Mayan Order lessons; they're colorful and fun, but very practical.
Re: Dealing with fear
Date: 2023-03-20 07:52 pm (UTC)