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. 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. Both of the last two honorees, and most of the other Martinist lineages in existence, were also taught and influenced by this man, Robert Ambelain, a prolific writer and occult scholar whose work extended from astrology and Freemasonry to Druidry and Martinism. Ambelain was born in 1907; he became an astrologer in the 1920s, proceeded to become a major figure in the Martinist scene and a bishop in one of the French Gnostic churches, played a central role in reviving several defunct occult orders, published 42 books, and earned the Croix de Guerre for his service to France during the Second World War. He died in 1997.

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

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

You're welcome and thank you!

It depends entirely on how high you can reach. To begin with, the student is entirely in Malkuth and is calling down the life force from Yesod. Once the student has accomplished the work of the Outer Order and embodies the four lowest sephiroth, the light descends from Tiphareth. The work of the Second Order makes it possible to begin calling down light across the Abyss from Kether. the Ain Soph Aur? That's where it all comes from ultimately, but if you can call that down into manifestation you are an Ipsissimus and don't need instruction from me!

Thanks for the update, Patricia! That’s excellent news. I’ll give it a week or so and then take her off of the list.

What would be the difference in focus between the Order of Spiritual Alchemy and the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose?

You might enjoy this website: Linguistuc, not religious. But....

https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf#

And its news site: https://theanglishtimes.com/

Sample: "The leader of the Wagner sellswords has called for a meeting with Russian leadership, or else will take his fighters straight to Moscow...."

Dear John,
I had no idea about these issues with fairies. And other elementary?

My friend Jay claims to have a good working relationship with the Fairie folk. From his descriptions and painting,I think he;s seeing Devas. Plant spirits. I have no reason to doubt him. He and his nephew both have The Sight as well. I've worked with Jay for a good long time, and he has worked in Victor Anderson's Faerie tradition, then later, with the Radical Fairies. The latter because his identity as a gay man seems to be his primary identity. Since he grew up in an evangelical, or at least conservative Protestant faith in the midwest, this is no surprise. But the god on his altar is the Green Man. And he is an avid gardener; his tiny patio is full of vegetation.

I've lived in Providence since 1967, after spending my 'teens and early twenties in Berkeley. Providence does have a wonderful "subtle flavor" to it, which I have never found anywhere else I've traveled.

After many decades of reflection, I wonder whether this may be due to RI's unique geography and history among the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard: it has the most fertile land in all of New England; it never hunted witches, heretics, or Indians*; and its inhabitants were free from the beginning to profess any faith or none -- and even to study and practice occult and esoteric disciplines.

* There were even a few early European-ancestry Rhode Islanders who preferred the company and society of the Indians to that of their fellow immigrants. One of them not only took a native wife, but also fought with the Narragansetts against his fellow Englishmen during the Great Swamp Massacre of 1676. His name was Joshua Tefft. He was captured by these English troops a few weeks after the Massacre, was convicted on a charge of treason, and was executed by hanging and quartering. It is to be noted that the English troops in question were drawn only from the Puritan colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut, and that they were hunting Indians without leave on the territory of non-Puritan Rhode Island.

So, I also find it kind of off-putting, but I haven't really come to a firm answer. Here's my understanding of their position and the history of it (as remembered off the top of my head - so I don't have direct sources for each claim/summarization, and doubtless I introduce some errors):

- Garman Lord had some kind of visionary experience involving Woden, who basically said "go start up my worship again!" This was apparently in the 70s and he was not directly involved in the burgeoning Neo-Pagan movement for some time, nor was it an offshoot of Asatru, which originated with Icelanders reviving their religion, but spread to the US pretty quickly
- From the start, Lord and the other early Theodsmen maintained that the social organization of personal oaths and service that made up early Germanic groups was an integral part of the religion - the religion and the social organization supported each other, and the Kings were literal descendants of the Gods, and so had a key sacred role to play
- So, for many years, Theodism was arranged as a basically feudal system, but the spot for King was left open, as Lord didn't feel like it was right for him to do that. New members of the Theod would come in with lower status titles, but as they proved good members, could be elevated. They used Old English titles for this, starting as a thrall, becoming a churl, and maybe eventually a Lord. Crucially, though, these roles were based on personal oaths to a specific person, and they had to be approved by the Witan (council)
- From what I can tell, they never made any attempt to make this temporally significant - like, if you were a "thrall," the guy you swore your oath to couldn't make you come clean his house or something. But having higher position was seen as having more spiritual responsibility (provide more of the food for the festivals, do more in the rituals, and so forth)
- At some point Lord did as the other folks in the "Winland Rice" (Kingdom of North America) and took on the title of King
- Now, I'm inferring a bit here, but it seems like Theodism kinda fell on some hard times in the 90s - maybe the broader Neo-Pagan movement attracted folks who had otherwise been there, maybe Americans were squicked out by feudal oaths and titles, maybe they were embroiled in some of the drama of the wider Heathen world, I dunno all the details, but I think it might have gone nearly dormant
- Then, from what I can gather, Thorbeorht Ealdorblotere basically took it upon himself to revive things - reaching out to Lord, forming a new, but subordinate group, and so forth. One key innovation he brought was the idea that trying to mirror mannerbunde-style warbands as the form of organization might not have been the best, and instead introduced the haliggild (Holy Guild) model. Historical research suggests that guilds used to be used for all kinds of things besides craft, including religious observation and organization, and they may have had pre-Christian roots
- In the last few years, Lord stepped down as King and named Ealdorblotere as his successor, who was approved by the Witan and sworn in

So, that may be way more detail than you were looking for, and some of it is my speculation from reading between the lines in some of Lord's and Ealdorblotere's books. I think there's a strong case to be made that the role of "king" had a very important religious function in pre-Christian Germanic societies, and that if you are going for strict reconstructionism, you just might have to grapple with that. But as an American, I'm deeply suspicious of anyone being a "King." That being said, from checking out the Ealdrice Theod page, it looks like being "King" mostly just means Ealdorblotere runs the organization and heads the seasonal rituals and does weddings and stuff, and I haven't heard of anything untoward, but I also haven't seen any of this for myself, since it's up in Virginia and I'm in Texas.

_Being Viking_ by Jeff Calico is a history of Norse paganism in the US. It is a bit dated, published 2018, but is pretty extensive on the history of AFA and other groups, allegations of racism, teachings and practice, etc.

Rita

Sorry I spewed text about it! It's a somewhat touchy subject. Christians have done a lot of great things. Christians have also done a lot of ugly things. In either case... not all of us were involved! We can't take credit for Saint Francis (even though we like him), and we can't be blamed for Pat Robertson.

Girard... eh. I did mention potlach cultures below. They seem to have solved the problem independently. I'm not convinced that Christianity-- the Bible adopting cultures/religions-- really did solve it though. Certainly it's something we work on, but with varying degrees of individual success.

From what I've read of the witch-burning trend, it had quite a lot to do with envy, and perhaps not that much to do with witchcraft. I've read fairly convincing arguments that it may have been, at least in some places, *primarily* about punishing members of the community who were perceived to have either gained wealth at the expense of the community, or gained wealth and not fulfilled an obligation to share largesse with the community (eg inheritance, business success). Ill-gotten gains, improperly hoarded. Envy. Moderns naturally read this as irrational, because we tend not to band together and murder people for not sharing the wealth... but I don't think Christianity can be the explanation for either the witch-burning or the lack of it, in that case. I'd sooner credit geographic and social mobility for the decline in neighbor-on-neighbor violence. When people stop living their whole lives within 10 miles of where they were born, knowing the same people all the while... the Joneses don't loom so large. You might move away from them eight or ten times-- voila! Now you don't have to kill them. There are some downsides to that, of course, but maybe that's one of the pluses?

2) At least for me it seems to work quite well

It was a really nice thing to have that happen to me :-) He was peaking out the shell almost like a cartoon!

Eden grays book is available on kindle and ibooks, for around $8.99 AUD atm.

J.L.Mc12

"Civilized values of accumulation"

Lord, have mercy!

No wonder US culture is such a trainwreck, when it comes to material goods. Maybe they cursed us.

Blessing an animal and the animal clearly responding to the blessing is one of the most beautiful things I've experienced! Though it also made me a little sad to ponder on the subjugation we are putting nature to...

As for ignoring them, Archdruid's orders!

Forget about Larry Totter speaking to snakes in parseltongue, I bless axolotls with Healings Hands, no special lightning bolt needed :-)

Edited 2023-06-27 01:47 (UTC)

Hello JMG

A report and maybe a question or two.

I began doing the foot and hand reflexology in January. I have had several benefits, these are the two most significant.
a) About once a month or perhaps every 2 weeks I would begin to partially vomit in my sleep. I could feel it coming and would sit up quickly, and be coughing, choking. This has not happened even once since I began the Reflexology. It has been surprising as I did not expect the reflexology to affect digestion.
b) For over a year I could not walk. Therefore when I began the foot reflexology I could barely reach my feet. And even trying hurt. Nevertheless I would persist as long as I could, but I couldn’t sustain long, and would switch to reflexology on my hands as it was far easier. For months now I have had no trouble bringing my feet up to the base of my hip and doing my foot reflexology. I can now cut my toenails easily and wash my feet far better in the shower. It is quite pleasing.

Do you have any insight or observations into the following circumstances?
I could not walk because I had a hip infection. A natural doctor told me that and sent me to the hospital. I don't normally believe in antibiotics or hospitals but he told me to go and I went.

I am not sure how I got the infection. I have a suspicion it might have began on my birthday. I was despondent and feeling suicidal and laid on the rocks by the ocean. (After you JMG mentioned dying in your previous life in a car crash, I instantly thought or remembered I died from drowning in the ocean. Don’t know if that's really true, but the ocean draws me to it, fascinates me, and also terrifies me.)

A couple of hours after laying on the rocks I woke up with a pain in my right hip. I expected it would go away within a day or two, but it stayed for a few months, and then finally seemed to be gone. The first day I felt the pain, I felt as if some evil or not good spirit had entered me in my hip. But several months after that I felt normal.

Then one day out walking I met a man about 5 years older than me, who was a very extreme evangelical minister, who had claimed he wanted to learn English from me, then angrily cast me aside when he found out I didn’t want to or wouldn’t be converted. This was fine with me, but then I didn’t see him walking for a few months, and I was worried for him, until I suddenly met him one day. at first he told me he had something wrong with his right leg. And then he said, he had a hernia, but was better.

Not even 48 hours later I could not walk. I remained unable to walk for over a year in varying degrees of ill health, and sometimes quite close to death.

Antibiotics kept me alive. If I did not take them I could not stay awake more than an hour. Some antibiotics worked better than others. The bacteria, Staph, it was even on my skin, kept adapting, becoming resistant to each of the antibiotics one after another. Prayer, faith, belief, positive thinking, nothing was working. I was running out of types of antibiotics the bacteria wasn’t resistant to. I was preparing, making preparations to die. If the bacteria didn’t kill me the antibiotics would quite likely destroy my kidneys.

I remembered they used to put silver drops in children’s eyes after birth to protect from possible infection in the vaginal canal. As a Hail Mary effort, to please my son, I decided to try non-ionic Colloidal Silver. Within 2 weeks of ingesting, I was visibly better to myself and everyone who saw me.
I can’t say for sure the Silver made the difference but I believe it did.

But whether or not that is true, there is also this circumstance:
Within 4-5 months of my healing, the person who I felt triggered or caused my infection died himself. Suddenly. He had seemed healthy, and used to walk many miles.

When I first met him he had invited me, under the pretense of learning English over for afternoon tea. But when I arrived he tried to perform some sort of weird religious ritual which felt evil to me, which I more or less rejected, but nevertheless felt like a violation at the time. He also gave my wife some sort of cloth he said had been prayed over.

I don’t really know if these events were connected, but from the very first day I felt like they were. And when I heard he died I felt sad for him, but finally relieved. I didn’t have to worry any more. His influence was over.

Observations?

From what I understand, a "Sacral King" is a prehistoric European formulation of a High Priest or Hierophant; not to be confused with a secular King or other type of chief executive political leader. My impression that a lot of ancient European cultures had a system of dual-kingship The Romans seemed to have preserved this with the Rex Sacrorum, an ancient priestly position they likely inherited from the Etruscans.

In this case, if we're to take the autobiographical account of Theodism's founder, Garman Lord, at face value, it was Woden Himself who taught GL the concept of Sacral Kingship, and (grudgingly) approved of him taking on this title, for lack of a better candidate at the time. Then when Lord stepped down, a new "King" was proposed and then approved after many rounds of divination. The organization does seem to be in good hands now.

1) Thank you for your reply. That makes me feel better about it. I'm glad to be able to finally stick with something. Nothing wrong with what I had tried before, just didn't feel ready for some of it and this is "comfortable" enough for me at this point in my occult study. I hope to have time enough to go back and start again with some of the other orders when I am ready. So much to learn, so little time.

2)I will keep an eye out once they are up to pre-order. Looking forward to reading them!

Regards,
Bert

Ha! Very good - thank you. From the little I’d read about it, I thought it was any eclectic style/type of magic - using bits and pieces from various traditions, old or new, and weaving them together. However, realize now that just might cause said anticipated explosion:)

What is the process by which old dysfunctional egregors get destroyed?

Hello! As a practicing yogini I would say the vayus (winds) and nadis (channels) might be considered the “ etheric body” They are the denser components of the yogic subtle body:the pranamaya kosha ( life-force sheath).
However, the Chakra system I believe to be more of a broader metaphysical system for Hatha Yoga that incorporates not only raw life- force associations and correspondences but what a magician may call the astral and mental ( thoughts, feelings, desires, imagination, intellect etc)?

Hope this was of help.

https://bigserge.substack.com/p/russo-ukrainian-war-the-wagner-uprising

This seems to me to be a very good analysis of the Prigozhin affair.

Is there a relationship between the etheric body and exercise?

Buuuuuuut... WAGTFM !!!

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Magic Monday

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