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.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

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

Comments

On Gurus

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, thanks as always for hosting these. Last week you mentioned paying little attention to the recent "bumper crop of gurus." I've come to see the concept of a guru in an almost entirely negative light because of the recurring patterns of abusive and exploitative behavior that seem to be linked to the guru/seeker dynamic. Do you think there is any reason to believe that this dynamic was ever different or is it simply a matter of viewing the past with rose-colored glasses? Could the spiritual dynamics of pre-Piscean ages give rise to more positive forms of these kinds of relationships?

Re: On Gurus

[jprussell]

Perhaps synchronicitous, but a writer I have gotten some good mileage from in the past, Dave Chapman, just this past week wrote about the problems with the guru relationship in Buddhism, but how the valuable parts of it might be salvaged here: https://vividness.live/evolving-ground-learning-relationship

Fair warning: I haven't read the piece yet, and he's coming at this from a materialist Buddhist standpoint, but he's a careful thinker and reasonable person who takes the concept of "Meaning" very seriously, so maybe this can be helpful.

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: On Gurus

[ecosophia]

The guru concept works very well in the culture that created it. In the Indian subcontinent, everyone knows how to handle that kind of relationship, and so abuses -- while they happen -- are limited. Transplant the same concept into European or American culture, where it's not native and nobody knows how to handle it, and it becomes a steaming mess of abuse and exploitation.

Re: On Gurus

[(Anonymous)]

Do you know of a good source to substantiate this take?

I recently got into a conversation with a friend over this point, and they disagreed, and I realized I had no other substantiation but instinct and the fact that you and another practitioner I respect have made similar points.

Re: On Gurus

[ecosophia]

I wish I did. I base it on what I've observed as a spectator of the US alternative spirituality scene, and what I've read of Indian spirituality.