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. I'm currently tracing my Martinist lineage.  That's rendered complex by the Martinist tradition that one does not name one's initiator, so we'll have to go back through less evasive routes. Last week's honoree, René Chambellant, became head of the Eglise Gnostique Universelle on the death of his teacher and consecrator, Constant Chevillon, whom I'm honoring this week. Martinist, Rosicrucian, Freemason, and Gnostic bishop, Chevillon was born in 1880, showed remarkable intellectual gifts in youth, but went to work in the banking industry while devoting his free time to occult and spiritual pursuits. He wrote seven books and many essays about Gnostic theology and practice, and his integrity and spiritual qualities won the respect not only of his fellow Gnostics but of Catholics and nonreligious people. In 1944, he and other leading citizens of Lyon were taken hostage by the Nazis in revenge for activities of the Resistance, and shot to death. He is considered a saint and martyr by most modern Gnostic churches; the day of his martyrdom, March 22, is his feast day.

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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.

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

Comments

[wizard_in_the_woods_1949]

Greetings JMG and All,

I had sort of a multi-part question over the last couple of weeks, and the
feedback from JMG and a few others on those has been pretty interesting.
I want to thank JMG and all the other responders for their replies to those
ponderous and possibly cumbersome questions! ;^)

Today, I'd like to put forth the final part of that conglomerate, so I'll
have a lot of stuff for discursive meditation, so to speak.

Postulate:
At the end of a physical incarnation the "persona" (insert traditional name),
is withdrawn from the "physical/etheric" (insert Your traditional names),
and through the so-called "second death" is integrated into the "soul/higher
self, lower genius, et al) so to speak.

N.B.
According to Dion Fortune sometimes etheric "vampirism" is practiced in order
to forestall the inevitable "second death". This is usually a big 'bummer' for
everybody. Once discovered though it's curable enough, if a trifle messy.

Time seriously passes*..., on the inner and outer planes, various and sundry
marvelous conditions culminate to resolve many things, or not.
Eventually, the "soul / higher self" feels conditions are right, and is drawn
toward the dense physical again. Unless, that was the final incarnation needed
to "graduate", and stay on the inner levels. So far, so good...

Which leads to the "summum arcanum" of this whole question, for "me"!
This also has possible "mystical" as well as "magical" ramifications.

Once the "Individuality" is freed from the "necessity" to incarnate, can it be
in actuality "Individual", though of course connected to, and a part of
"ALL THAT IS"? Will there come a time when it's dissolution into ALL THAT IS,
is inevitable? That is in contrast to the mystic's voluntary "Union with God".

When will everyone in this life wave attain the summum? I haven't particpated
in the "Cosmic Doctrine" discussions, hope to though. I'm aware JMG has high
regard for her production of that work. I've studied just about All her work,
while we are all "products of our time" to some extent, she's pretty remarkable.
Unless you're "Mina Mathers"! Thanks JMG for the link to that PhD dissertation!

I'm not asking to have this stuff answered, just garner some thoughts.
Why would anyone want to understand stuff like this? Seems Mighty Strange.
We all likely get intuitive insights from time to time as we practice.
Does anyone practice the "Bornless (Headless) Invocation" on a regular basis?
Or, for that matter even once? That's one you gotta work up to, whew! Inflame!

That's it, no more "dumb questions" from me!

* Ala, Douglas Adams: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".
* A Great Book! ;^)

[ecosophia]

Let me see if I can pick out the questions from this.

1) The idea that the self finally dissolves into the Divine is a belief of some mystical traditions, but it's not supported even by most mystics. It's more a matter of realizing that you've been a part of All That Is all along; you don't stop being an individual, you realize what "being an individual" doesn't keep you from being part of the All.

2) Everyone in this life wave will achieve the summum bonum when they get there. There's no fixed time frame. You have all the time there is; have fun.

3) I dunno, I suppose some of us are just curious. ;-)

4) Good heavens, yes. I've done it weekly at certain times in my life for years at a stretch. I know other occultists who do it several times a week. It's potent stuff, but well within the reach of anyone who's learned to do serious ritual work.

[(Anonymous)]

What is and what are the effects of the Bornless Ritual?

[ecosophia]

Er, you might try looking it up in a search engine; it's widely enough known that even Wikipedia has a page for it.

[lukedodson]

Regarding 1):

Just a thought: it occurs to me that this preoccupation with dissolving the individuality has a very Piscean quality, perhaps related to the Neptunian collapse of spiritual distinctions into a mirage of oneness. It will be interesting to see if it fades into the background as we move into the Aquarian.

[ecosophia]

Yes, it's a very Piscean notion! I expect it to become less common as we proceed around the wheel of time.

[(Anonymous)]

Not the OP - on 4) is there an SOP / DMH based way to do the Bornless One ritual? I have worked through the DMH, but after a search, it appears that ritual is Golden Dawn based.

[ecosophia]

I've got a version of it set up for the SoP which I'm currently testing. Once I'm sure it has all the bugs worked out, I'll publish it.