Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting toward 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 or comment 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. At this point I've finally gone as far back into my Rosicrucian lineage as I can without repeating earlier images -- the other great source of Dion Fortune's lineage, of course, is the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and its founders and major figures have already been honored here. So it's time to leap back to square one and start talking about the other end of my Druid lineage -- the one that goes through the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD). That was the first Druid order I joined, and the source of much of my early Druid training -- and it exists at all because of Philip Carr-Gomm, this week's honoree.

Philip was a young man on the fringes of the London occult scene when he began studying with Ross Nichols, whom we'll discuss in an upcoming post. (That's Philip with the colossal hair in the photo on the right, being initiated into OBOD on top of Glastonbury Tor.) Years later, after Nichols' death, he made the same mistake I did, asked the surviving older members about reviving the order, and ended up being talked into becoming its Chosen Chief.  He proceeded to launch an international correspondence course, write a series of first-rate books on Druidry, and in the process turned OBOD into the world's largest Druid order. He retired from the office of Chosen Chief in 2020, and has been writing books on other topics since then.  Did I imitate him when I became Grand Archdruid of AODA? Whenever I thought I could get away with it, you bet, and it inevitably worked.

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***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

Comments

Woden's Three Deals and Question on Nine Thrall Mowers

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

A happy belated Earth Day to everyone!

To Share: I'm trying to work out a seeming parallel between the tales of Woden giving his eye for a drink of the Well of Memory, sacrificing himself to himself to gain the Runes, and getting the Mead of Poetry, and I wrote this post to see if I could get anywhere with it: https://jpowellrussell.com/#woden_s_three_deals

To Ask: I asked last week, but it was rather late in the day, so I'll try again here with a bit more time to breath, for JMG and/or any of the commentariat. On his way to win the Mead of Poetry, Odin runs into nine thralls (slaves) mowing grass for hay with scythes. He takes out a whetstone and sharpens the scythes. All of the thralls want the whetstone and offer to buy it, but instead he throws it in the air, they all clamor after it, and in the ruckus, slit each other's throats. Having created a job opening, Odin goes on to do the work of nine men all summer long for the ettin Baugi, in exchange for his help trying to get a drink of the Mead of Poetry, which is held by Baugi's brother, Suttung. I've meditated on this part of the tale before, but it seems like there might be some allusion (astronomical?) or symbolic implication I'm not getting, so if anyone has any thoughts on where I might look for insight, or ways of thinking about the story, I'd very much appreciate it.

As always, thanks very much to JMG and everyone else here for all that you do.

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

Re: Woden's Three Deals and Question on Nine Thrall Mowers

[ecosophia]

Fascinating. You'd want to find a distinctive constellation of nine stars through which Saturn, the bearer of the scythe, could pass.

[(Anonymous)]

Any word on when everyone's favorite eldritch fantasy novels with tentacles are going back into print?

[ecosophia]

Yes. I've just finished the page proofs on all seven volumes of The Weird of Hali and the stars will be right for them on 29 September of this year. The other four of my tentacle novels, along with four of my less rugose and squamous fiction -- The Fires of Shalsha, Star's Reach, Retrotopia, and Journey Star -- have all been revised but I haven't done page proofs yet; I'd expect them out sometime in the first half of 2024.

[open_space]

Good evening!

I have seen Phillip's Tea with a Druid from time to time, couldn't help but notice how calm and composed he is. Felt kind of envious! When I started doing practices I was hoping to go and find all the secrets of the universe; after meditating for a while and noticing just how much of a mess things are in my head I quickly forgot about that... if I get things in order and get some of that calmness and composure I will call it a win, and maybe a little insight about a thing or two about the universe would be great ^_^

A small question today. I have heard of many philosophers either getting depressed or crazy about too much philosophizing. Do you have advice about how to ponder such things without everything else becoming "meaningless" or going crazy about such or such idea on the other? You personally have studied and written about what I would consider strong and depressing things such as the decline of our civilization and intense spirituality such as magic and occultism but all in all in your podcasts you seem joyful and composed.

[ecosophia]

Too much focus on any one part of life will mess you over. That's especially true of philosophy, because it's so easy to get caught up in abstractions and lose track of the rest of life. Thus intensive mental concentration needs to be balanced with ordinary physical activities, creative work, interactions with other people, and the rest of life, to keep everything in balance.

[(Anonymous)]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/the-occult-roots-of-modernism

Readers may find this interesting.

—Princess Cutekitten

[ecosophia]

Indeed! It's good to see the Sâr Péladan getting some of the respect he deserves.

Cards and Healing

[(Anonymous)]

After my Essene Apprentice initiation, I have been having interesting dreams--

Among them, I had one in which I was playing a form of Solitaire with an ordinary deck of cards. The cards were giving me insights into the root problems of people who needed blessing and healing. Once each problem was divined in a three-card group, I would bundle them together with an elastic and the person's name on a paper on top, and then put the card deck outside where the Sun would 'clear' their medical and spiritual problems.
Within the dream, I was doing all this at night in my sleep, and didn't remember anything about it until I could not find any decks of cards IN the house, and found several bundles of weathered and faded cards OUTside of the house.

After awakening, I found a couple of references to using Tarot cards in healing work, like this one:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53141180

Are you or any my esteemed co-readers aware of approaches to healing that involve tarot or other cards? I'd be grateful for any leads for continued study and very interested in hearing about the process of it from anyone who has done this, and the results.

Thanks, JMG, for providing a place to learn about these things!

--Tangerine Insipid Marmot

Re: Cards and Healing

[ecosophia]

Hmm! No, I haven't heard of this, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's in existence -- and if nobody's invented it yet, why, that may be your job.

[(Anonymous)]

I recall earlier discussion on MM of a plant leaf that can be placed inside a phone case to reduce being distracted by the phone. What was that plant?

[ecosophia]

You could do that with any number of protective herbs. The one that comes to mind right now is cinquefoil (Potentilla spp.), also known as five-finger grass, which is famous for being able to stop any evil that five fingers can get up to.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I have a couple of historical questions:

1. The earliest reference I cans find to ‘vibrating’ divine names is in the original Golden Dawn volumes. Is this something they invented or does it have earlier antecedents?

2. Does this also apply to the LBRP?

Many thanks

O.

[ecosophia]

1) As far as I can tell it was a secret technique in some English and French magical circles in the 19th century -- how far back, I don't know. It would still be secret, except that Crowley and Regardie published the details.

2) Yep. There's a proto-LBRP in Eliphas Lévi's Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic -- we'll be getting to it in a few months -- and it's pretty clear that it evolved gradually in English and French occult circles, probably beginning in the 18th century.

Dreams...

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

Last week I had a query about dreams and several persons / posters gracefully provided answers. Many thanks to them! However I could not respond immediately due to time zone differences...

Thank you and Regards.

[(Anonymous)]

Good Morning Sir and Druid,

Have there been attempts to associate the seven capital virtues/seven deadly sins with the corresponding planets?

Secondly, in light of the recent drug holiday (without a year context, numerologically adding to a Jovian 6), what planetary associations with various drugs are there in existing literature? Nowadays, all drugs are all lumped into Neptune, but what were the associations beforehand? I suppose opium and its derivatives are Saturnine in nature, and surely the Arabs and Indians knew how to associate cannabis, but what of tobacco from the Americas, among other substances?

[ecosophia]

1) It's a common exercise assigned to students. Give it a try!

2) Tobacco is an herb of Mars, cannabis is an herb of Saturn, and yes, opium is another Saturnine plant. Those are the only ones I know offhand. Neptune, as I understand it, isn't drugs in general, it's the planet of drug addiction and drug culture.

Graveyard influence

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG and thank you for this opportunity to ask questions.

Is there any danger from consuming elderflower cordial made from Elderflowers collected in a graveyard? The Elder tree was growing out of the middle of a broken 1800s tomb.
In your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic I read that Elder is a source of magical protection and that Elder branches were placed near graves to keep the corpse from being inhabited by an evil spirit. But is there a danger of being inhabited by an evil spirit if you drink the cordial, which has gone through a process involving boiling water, lemons and vitamin C?
I ask because since May/June last year my 25yo daughter has been suffering from self hatred, not wanting to be seen by people and has said that she just wants "the old me back" and I don't know what started this off. I'm grasping at straws here.
I have done planetary charity to Mercury (with her permission) but she wouldn't wear a red amulet or consider doing the hoodoo bath. My divination on the question came up The Hierophant, The Devil and The Empress (from a full deck not just the Trumps)

Daisy e

Re: Graveyard influence

[(Anonymous)]

I’m not JMG but I’m somewhat well-versed in planetary charity. May I ask why you chose Mercury for this situation? Mercury assists with communication and travel, but not really what your daughter is going through. In fact, Mercury is mercurial in some ways and I wouldn’t personally approach him at all for someone dealing with mental health issues.

Have you considered the Sun/Apollo (for health) or Jupiter (general abundance, justice)?

Perhaps the Moon is another option.

I wish you luck.

Qs

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG and everyone,

Wanted to ask you a few things today.

- On re-birth:
1) How did you become sufficiently confident that what you were seeing as past lives was real and unlikely the types of delusions that the astral light reflects back at you? (esp since we now know that past life regression therapies are often/mostly fake).

I often wonder this since even Steiner ultimately bought into everything he was seeing and that makes the thing harder for all of us.

2) Since you have access to these memories, have you found character to roughly be similar across lifetimes, or can you be vastly different in each life? I'm wondering from the perspective of the propensity to do good and evil, and how natural that is to each lifetime.

If in a current lifetime you are living well and positively, but have a lot of negative karma coming your way, I wonder how much of that is recent vs lifetimes ago when one's character was less developed/more prone to negative or evil acts.

3) Thus how much of developed character and spirituality becomes the starting point of the next lifetime, and how much do you have to start from scratch each time?

Re: Qs

[ecosophia]

1) I still consider my past life memories as likely rather than certainly true; certainty is a bad habit of the human mind. My decision to treat them as more likely true than not came partly because they contain details I could confirm later -- for example, I was able to describe the clothing I wore in one life during the Regency (a period I hadn't studied at all at that time) and had it confirmed by someone far more expert than I am that this was the appropriate clothing for a person of the social class I was in at that time. Another part was the extent to which the memories explain things otherwise baffling about likes and dislikes I had from earliest childhood -- for example, I've always loathed cars, which is not surprising since I died in on last time around. Finally, there's the simple fact that the memories contain nothing absurd; I wasn't Cleopatra, or anything else particularly special, and the vast majority of the memories have nothing that could qualify as wish-fulfillment. But it's still likely, not certain.

2) There's a very definite continuity of character, but as I think back it's not hard to see myself change and grow, resolve one set of problems and blunder into another, try various things to get past some internal barrier, and so on. It's rather like looking back on one life, but of course there's much more complexity.

3) In my experience you pick up at the start of each life where you left off at the end of the life before. I had a lot of unfinished business at the end of my last life, for example, and it made the childhood of this one kind of a mess.

[thinking_turtle]

Reading the posts here I wonder what abbreviations like SOP and LBRP mean. With the kind help of Jeff Russell and Dékete moi sónt at the Golden Section forum I compiled a list of abbreviations. Since it's not limited to the Golden Section, they suggested to host it at Dreamwidth. It's here:

List of Ecosophia abbreviations

Just added the OBOD abbreviation mentioned in the introduction to this post. I hope the list may be helpful to others as well. Suggestions or corrections are welcome!

[ecosophia]

Thank you for this!

the astral plane

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning and thanks as always for this blog. If I remember correctly, you've said when we die we end up on the level of the astral plan we most resonate with (sorry I'm probably phrasing that badly). If dreams are also of the astral plane, would our dreams hint at what we might experience after we have shuffled off this mortal coil??? What dreams may come...

Re: the astral plane

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's a common comparison.

Paul Kingsnorth Essay

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

I know you and Paul Kingsnorth have had your differences, but you seem to be pretty good at putting past issues aside and addressing the matter at hand. Have you read https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-universal ? Do you think he is presenting the subject (if I've got this right) of the Internet attracting dark forces correctly?

Thank you,
Moser

Re: Paul Kingsnorth Essay

[ecosophia]

I haven't read it.

Vermilion Funicular Lorax

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG, thank you so much for hosting this.

I need to make some changes in my life and I have identified that deep feelings of powerlessness and helplessness are an obstacle that is getting in my way in several different challenges I am facing. Please can you advise on what I might do from a basic occultism or natural magic perspective? Directions for specific meditation topics, prayers, journalling, herbs or other natural substances, affirmations, or whatever you recommend would all be welcome. Or whether you think this is not something to address in this way, if that's what you think.

I have realised I have a lot to sort out in my life and I know need to get to the root of some of these problems. I haven't yet seen what I need to do to address this deep difficulty and I got an intuition from my prayer time that it might be good to ask for help from you here on Magic Monday. I know I can receive divine help if I can open myself up to it, and I know I also have to put in effort myself to make real change and let that divine help in and allow it to change me. I'm struggling to understand what might best help me with what to focus on in the way of addressing and changing this sense of powerlessness and helplessness.

Positive energy would also be gratefully received. Also if others here who are kindly intended would like to send energy or add your prayers to my own that would be welcome too, I know I welcome the opportunity to pray for blessings for others posting here when people ask for that (and I love Tunesmyth's weekly prayer list).

Where I'm with magic/mysticism/occultism: I have been practicing SoP daily for almost exactly one year, and was using a banishing ritual of the cross daily for about six months before that. I finished part 1A and part 1B of the Society of the Inner Light correspondence courses last year so I have done a bit of basic discursive meditation, but I've not felt able to pursue their courses further. I have recently begun using a few herbal teas for incorporating blessing into my house cleaning as recommended by Violet on her dreamwidth blog. I have a devotional relationship with the deity I call Saviour, the Holy One. I have been attending a traditional Church of England worship service for two months in the parish where I live here in middle England.

Vermilion Funicular Lorax

Re: Vermilion Funicular Lorax

[ecosophia]

The specific work I recommend for people in your situation -- and of course it's a fairly common one -- is the journaling exercises of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, which you can find free for the downloading at the OSA website here. It's my experience that the kind of feelings you're wrestling with have their roots in unresolved childhood experiences, and unpacking and resolving those is essential if you're to get past them and move on. The OSA work isn't religion-specific, and it requires only a very modest amount of time every day, but it's very effective if persevered in.

[randomactsofkarmasc]

A few weeks back (MM or Open Post), someone had asked about the focus of Christianity on love. I couldn't find the post to tag the original poster, but read an interesting thing in The Body and Its Symbolism (Annick de Souzenelle) that might be relevant, so I thought I'd post it here in case that poster came back this week.

The quote is
"The Hebrew verb "to know" is the verb that Moses uses to render carnal knowledge of man with woman.
Knowledge is a wedding, a union of the known and the knower.
Knowledge is love."

The author (in other areas) discusses alchemy, so the wedding in the quote could easily be an alchemical wedding.

But, I am not Christian or Jewish, so I could be very off-base with my interpretation. (And I have not meditated on Daath nearly enough to even begin to unpack the deeper layers.)

Regardless, it seemed like something I was supposed to share.

response

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for this. (I am that poster).

Funny that this quote inverts my basic instinct (to know) on its head, completely different from what the Christian interlocutor who proselytised love as the supreme force had in my mind I think.

Questions about the DMH system

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, JMG. A couple beginner questions about the DMH system:

1) Out of all the Celtic and Druidry-adjacent deities, I feel most drawn to Cernunnos. Could I substitute Cernunnos for Hu in the elder god role for the Elemental Cross while keeping the book's suggested configuration of Hesus/Ceridwen/Niwalen for the other slots, or would that be inappropriate or unbalanced in some way?

2) The grove opening and closing ritual given in the Druidry Handbook is very similar to the one in the DMH, but also has optional instructions for using an actual sword during the ritual. If I were to go to the effort and expense of getting a sword, could I also use it in the same way for regular grove rituals as part of the DMH training, or is the sword more of a special flourish best left for the holy day celebrations?

Thank you for your time!

Re: Questions about the DMH system

[ecosophia]

1) Don't tinker with the rituals until you've mastered the system! You can pursue a relationship with Cernunnos in other contexts, but the choice of divinities in the rituals was carefully made and should not be messed with until you know enough to understand the issues involved.

2) You can use a sword in the DMH grove rituals -- I did -- but not everyone has access to that kind of hardware, which is why I made other arrangements. So the choice is yours.

[kayr]

I had a discussion that got rather heated with a friend about the currant use of pronouns to support their chosen gender and the request that the rest of us use them too. While I don't doubt that some people may not feel right with the sex of their currant body I always felt that I was being gamed when this request was made of me and I came up with the solution of simply using their name to refer to them.

In the course of our discussion I had to call a halt as I was feeling more and more angry about this subject and it dawned on me that my reaction was somewhat over the top and indicated something that I was feeling deeply, but didn't know what it was.

I decided to meditate about this and started out thinking about the male and female energies as polarities on a continuum and that people just placed them selves on it as they felt them selves to be. Sometimes you can get a very strong impression that some one is the opposite gender from what their physical body presents and sometimes the impression so seamlessly matches the physical body you see that you don't notice. The word "gaydar" came to mind. I didn't think this was a problem for me, but while I was thinking of this the words "uncanny valley" popped into my head and I did a mental double take and wondered if that is what is what is really bothering me. Another thought I had was that there may be another component of someone expressing the opposite gender in their body that is sincere and one that isn't and perhaps that is the source of my "uncanny valley" feeling. More meditation is forthcoming.

If it is, I will have to come to terms with it, but I would like to ask if I might be accurate in my impression of these male and female energies and how they fit into bodies. And also if anyone else has encountered feelings of "uncanny valley".

If I have offended anyone with the above, I have meant no offense. I am trying to deal with this for the sake of my friendship with my asexual friend with whom I was having this discussion. This friend has always presented as female to me and I accept that asexual is what she feels, but maybe she is just being generous by accepting my use of "she" and I am being curmudgeonly when I tell her it feels just as respectful to use someone's name as some pronoun that doesn't seem to match to me.

Thanks for your consideration.

[deketemoisont]

I can apologize if this is the kind of unsolicited advice you don't want, but have you meditated on whether this person is your friend? You *should* be angry at attempts to compel you to lie - particularly in what's supposedly your private sphere.

[(Anonymous)]

I often feel that I lack control over my own life, being more the recipient of forces than the cause or director of them. To some extent, I believe this is an adopted pattern of dissociation and withdrawal adopted from childhood to deal with certain disruptive events. How can I assert more control over my life? Are there occult tools that would assist with this?

[ecosophia]

To get past those feelings and assert the control you actually have over your life, it's going to be necessary to deal with the long term emotional consequences of those events. One way I've found very effective to unpack the lingering consequences of childhood trauma is the work of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, which you can access here. It certainly worked well for me.

Initiation Complete

[stcathalexandria]

Good morning -

I completed the initiation ceremony in LRM last week. I found it incredibly moving and instantly realized that I made the whole journey way harder than it needed to be. I went through the book 3 times from the beginning constantly berating myself for not doing it perfectly. It was only on the last time through that I said to myself that 'perfection is the enemy here, done is good' and finished the book.

Keeping the magical journal was essential to completing the work. Reading back through it I feel like I'm reading the words of a completely different person. Looking forward to working through COP and POW.

Alabaster Ponderous Mandrake

Re: Initiation Complete

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to hear this. One of the things that very often happens in a course of study like this is that you realize how you're making things harder for yourself -- that was certainly something that happened to me! Now that you've understood that, you can set it aside and go on.

Picking up where I left off

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, and thank you as always for hosting this space.

I've recently gone through a breakup of an 8 year long relationship, and during the worst of it ended up completely dropping my occult practices (so far mostly SOP and meditation, not daily divination but enough to round out the big three, and starting some of the meditative work in the Way of the Golden section.) Being past the worst of it I'm jumping back in. So far it's been great: I still need to rebuild habits, but am using the lull to reorient some of my practices closer to the WGS.

I had two weird experiences while meditating however. The best way to describe them is "unintentionally scrying." With both of them there wasn't a portal (the method you describe in WGS.) It'll start out as a normal meditation, some imagery will come up as a result, but then the imagery becomes more vivid and seems to take on a life of its own. Both times it led to some pretty profound insights (both during the actual experience, and using the method you outlined of meditating on what you've experienced in your scry.) Is there anything else I should be keeping an eye out for if this happens? I want to build up my habits a bit more before getting more serious about a scrying practice, but if it just happens like this it feels ok to gather what I can!

Second question is about a particular symbol. Bare, dark trees were in the imagery in the second scry. When taking a walk one day a particular tree "called out" to me and I immediately made the association. I had a chance to meditate under it and ended up continuing this little meditative adventure I'm on.

It turned out to be an American Elm tree. In the past I've seen you comment on the different "personalities" of various tree species. Is there anything special I should know about Elms?

Re: Picking up where I left off

[ecosophia]

1) That's something that happens to a lot of people when they get serious about occult practice. Take detailed notes and treat it as you would any other scrying.

2) I haven't had much chance to interact with American elms yet, and of course the older material I work with is mostly European and doesn't discuss American trees. Treat it as you would any other older and wiser friend, and see what you can learn.

[(Anonymous)]

Bear with me on this one. My geomantic reading have lately been at turns accurate, weird, and frustrating. I've noted something because it keeps coming up. Pobl plus any other figure resolves to the same figure. The same figure resolved to itself alway produces pobl. Ffordd plus any other figure resolves into its opposite (Tristwch plus Ffordd resolves to LLawenydd for example). And conversely two opposite figures resolve to Ffordd.
Now, I am aware that this is a product of mathematics. But it also strikes me as significant, and yes, it has become a regular theme for meditation.
But none the less, can you give me an idea of what it means to have the same figure in the right and left witness resolving to pobl? Does it mean something like the repeated figure is emphasized but it resides in the public sphere of the querent rather than in the personal? Or does it mean something like the madness of crowds but with the tone of the madness revealed by the repeated figure?

[ecosophia]

This is a common question. Remember that the judge always takes some of its character from the two witnesses, and Pobl does this more than other figures. If you get the same figure as left and right witnesses, take that figure as the answer to your reading, favorable or unfavorable as the character may be. In many cases, I find that readings with Pobl as judge indicate that something's happening on a collective scale -- for example, Bendith Fach as both witnesses and Pobl as judge means that things are moving very quickly in general, not just for you.

[avalterra]

JMG,

I wonder if you came across this post on Substack:
https://luctalks.substack.com/p/the-coming-age-of-weird

It's not long but I will summarize briefly. The idea is that empires are all about control and that this includes the paranormal. That enchantment never really leaves it just gets excluded and attempted to be controlled by the prevailing powers.
But like sand, the more the grip the more slips through the fingers. And that the flurry of chaos at all levels of our society, aberrant behavior, bizarre displays, illogic and flights from reason are all symptoms of this "leakage."

Thoughts?

AV

[ecosophia]

Interesting. It seems plausible enough, but I'll have to wait until I have time to read it before I can make any more specific comment.

[(Anonymous)]

No real question here, just another Nature Report.

Nature seems to be about a month to 2 weeks behind schedule. Those annoying carpenter bees which should've been hovering and buzzing and drilling back in March - have just barely begun to show up now. Maybe the really cold winter punched them in their little bee faces? Good.

The grass has been slow to grow too (not that I'm complaining) and I'd estimate in general the grass is about 2 weeks behind where it normally is.

The kudzu should've been vining and twisting and being its usual nuisance by now, but it is just beginning to sprout. And it's almost May. I think the really cold winter may be responsible? Not sure. Estimate it's a month behind where it usually is.

The privet hedges and crepe myrtles seem to be convinced frost is behind us as they're fully leafed out and back in action. They are some of the few things that seem to be on schedule.

The weather in general has been colder than normal - by now I should be thinking about shorts and t-shirts but I'm still shivering in long pants and hoodies. And it's almost May.

The weeds that make those "round spiky purple flowers" seem to be on target to bloom in June, the way they always have done. When those start blooming, I mark that as the end of spring and the start of summer.

That concludes this Nature Report.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this!

[tamanous2020]

Hi JMG,

Hope you're well!

1. I was recently reading some Buddhist texts and was meditating on the tradition's insistence
A)that desire in and of itself causes suffering and
B) when a practioner reaches buddhahood, they no longer desire or suffer.

Q- In the western tradition, when a being no longer reincarnates to the physical realm, ie attaining a mental body, do they still have desires and/or suffer? (My initial thought was that desires have been transformed towards a positive, spiritual direction but not eliminated).

2. Have you ever utilized the Ars Notoria system for rapid learning? If so, what was your experience?

3. How difficult is it to maintain a positive egregore in a religious or spiritual organization? Is it simply a matter of maintaining right practices? I can't help but see how many groups in the modern day, both mainstream and fringe organizations, appear to have gone septic in the last few decades.

4. Is there any rare occult book(s) that you've been on the lookout for but have been unable to find/source? Always happy to be an extra pair of eyes for you.

Tamanous

[ecosophia]

1) Buddhism suffers from the usual Piscean-era fixation on treating existence as a problem for which amputating some part of human experience is the cure. From the point of view of Western occultism, desire is a necessary part of existence, and it's to be educated, not eradicated: a person without desire is an amputee, not an enlightened being. One point of spiritual training in Western occult tradition is to bring your desires into harmony with your will and your will into harmony with the cosmos. Does suffering go away when that happens? No, because you can't have joy without suffering, any more than you can have the north pole of a magnet without the south pole; the result of abandoning suffering is numbness, not bliss. Even the gods suffer, you know.

2) No, until recently I didn't have access to a set of complete notae, and since those finally became available I've been up to my eyeballs in other occult projects!

3) It's simple -- but simple is not the same thing as easy. All you have to do is maintain and enforce a strict code of ethics, and discipline or expel those who violate it. That's more than a lot of groups are willing to do these days!

4) Funny you should ask. Yes, I'm trying to track down a set of pamphlets written by Dr. Edmund Berridge under the pen name "Respiro," which introduced the teachings of Thomas Lake Harris to the occult community. I'm pretty sure that they're ancestral to the system of polarity magic practiced by Dion Fortuhe. The titles are:

Internal Respiration
The Divine Incarnation
The Adept of the Logos
The Evolution of the Cosmos
Harmonic Life on Unfallen Worlds
The Inspired Word
The Secret of Satan
Reincarnation
Counterparts

They were advertised for sale in occult magazines in 1918. Any help tracking them down would be very welcome!