ecosophia | Magic Monday

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Magic Monday

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. Two weeks ago I started on the OBOD end of my lineage with past Chosen Chief Philip Carr-Gomm. During the time of his teacher, last week's honoree Ross Nichols, the remarkable Vera Chapman, shown here, was the Pendragon of the order. Chapman was one of the first women admitted into Oxford University -- the two big British universities kept women out until well into the 20th century -- and in her pre-Druid days was an influential member of the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, the most interesting offshoot of the Woodcraft back-to-nature movement, which we'll talk about a little more next week. (That's the Kibbo Kift seal below on the right.) Later still, during her Druidical years, she also helped found the Tolkien Society and was an influential figure in Tolkien fandom until her death.

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~~With that said, have at it!~~

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- as in, no further comments will be put through. (Ahem.) See you next week!***

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For what it's worth, the person on the imageboard was more or less quoting material I put into circulation in the Golden Dawn community, first in an article titled "Lycanthropy in the Golden Dawn Tradition, or G.H. Frater Lon Chaney Tells All," and then in a chapter of my book Circles of Power. The poster got some of the details wrong, though. The method of lycanthropy I discussed there involves etheric rather than astral projection, via the creation of an etheric body of transformation. That's not simply an illusion; it's a fairly robust form, on the verge of material manifestation, and the practitioner can either leave his material body in a coma somewhere and place his consciousness in the etheric body, or he can wear the etheric body over his physical body. The Moon rules etheric tides on earth, and silver disrupts etheric energy very effectively, thus those two bits of folklore, while iron doesn't disrupt etheric forces to anything like the same extent. As for the rest, seems to me you've got a good research project ahead of you...

The method of lycanthropy I discussed there involves etheric rather than astral projection, via the creation of an etheric body of transformation. That's not simply an illusion; it's a fairly robust form, on the verge of material manifestation, and the practitioner can either leave his material body in a coma somewhere and place his consciousness in the etheric body, or he can wear the etheric body over his physical body.

Interesting... it seems that I have a category error, then, where the difference should be wearing the projection over the physical body versus sending the projection apart from the physical body, rather than "magic illusion" versus "astral projection". Thank you for the clue.

This also supports the possibilty of a "fey curse" scenario, assuming that fey could conjure an etheric form and attach it to a human's body... we probably can't do that but that doesn't mean they can't. Or perhaps not the fey but some other non-human entities... hopefully not the really grubby ones...

Thank you for pointing a way here. This looks like good material for more meditation practice.

silver disrupts etheric energy very effectively [...] while iron doesn't disrupt etheric forces to anything like the same extent

Iron is also a relatively poor electrical conductor. Is silver unique in this way or do electrically conductive materials generally disrupt etheric forms?

I suppose I'm asking how closely etheric energy is related to electricity, or if that is not known, the Western esoteric tradition having been developed before electricity was understood and not yet expanded to include that understanding. (I was using lycanthropy for meditation practice but this is way more interesting...)

As for the rest, seems to me you've got a good research project ahead of you...

Indeed I have a few projects... but many of those questions were simply products of meditation. I certainly have no desire to research casting curses! :-)

Thank you for the answer and thanks for hosting this forum.

The relationship of etheric energy to electricity is one of the great maybes of occultism. Some research, most of it done a couple of centuries ago, suggests strongly that there is a definite connection between the two, but nobody followed up on those experiments and so we simply don't know. If you're interested, the writings of Franz Mesmer and Carl von Reichenbach are the places to start.

Thank you.

does that mean that it is a bad idea to wear silver jewelry?

Not unless you're a werewolf.

I thought sharpened iron was the supreme weapon against malevolent fairies and fairy glamour, and that the fair folk were mainly anchored on the etheric plane? Or does iron disrupt their astral bodies rather than their etheric bodies?

Er, fairies aren't werewolves. The reasons why iron works in their case are complex and rooted in history as well as subtle physics; what they do may have more in common with magnetism than electricity, for example.

Oh I see. I assumed with all the nails used in hoodoo and witch bottles, and the sword's presence in golden dawn magic, that it was a property of iron itself as a general purpose etheric plane disruptor. But it's actually Silver that has that role? Could any conductive metal fill that role, or is it just Silver?

The tradition says silver, and it's wise to follow that, until and unless you do experiments proving that copper or aluminum are just as good. The ancients knew copper very well, and didn't recommend it for werewolf hunting!

This also suggests, that if fey magic is readily dispelled specifically by iron, yet iron does not affect werewolves, then the fey are innocent of casting werewolf curses and other entities are responsible for those cases.

Are there any known entities other than werewolves whose magic is dispelled by silver?

This entire notion of a "werewolf curse" contradicts most of what I know about the subject. Lycanthropy is hard work; it requires the practitioner to master some demanding spiritual and magical disciplines, and put in a great deal of effort in order to manage the etheric projection. Yes, I know such curses show up here and there in folklore, and are pandemic in modern fantasy fiction, but I suspect something very different is going on here.

Have you ever known a werewolf?

—Princess Cutekitten

I've known people who have created etheric bodies of transformation in animal form, transferred their consciousness into them, and gone for a stroll that way. I see one of them in the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning.

Watch out for Jeeves, then.

—Princess Cutekitten

Do any of your books teach how to do this?

Yes. The classic Golden Dawn method is given in Circles of Power, and an adapted version of it is given in The Celtic Golden Dawn. It's an advanced technique, however, and requires several years of intensive magical practice before you can do it.

Yes, I know such curses show up here and there in folklore, and are pandemic in modern fantasy fiction, but I suspect something very different is going on here.

That's a surprise, but a very pleasant one, that cursed werewolves are firmly in the "fantasy" category of stories told around the campfire.

Thank you.

Whatever you read about in fantasy fiction, assume it's not true. You'll be right that way far more often than you'll be wrong.

Is that article available anywhere?

I don't think so. You can always pick up the book, though!

Thank you! I have the book of course, I'm just fascinated with this topic and interested in any scrap of information I might find. :)

The material in the article was copied almost verbatim into Circles of Power. I expanded it a little and removed a couple of puns, but those are the only changes. So you're good.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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