ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2023-05-07 11:28 pm

Magic Monday

Vera ChapmanIt'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 hereAlso: 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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Bookshop logoI'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 -- as in, no further comments will be put through. (Ahem.) See you next week!***

Re: Werewolves

(Anonymous) 2023-05-08 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
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.

Re: Werewolves

(Anonymous) 2023-05-08 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.