ecosophia | 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!***

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Potlach cultures found a way to solve this problem by attaching social status to what you could *give away* rather than what you *had*.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/potlatch

Related, there are/were native north american cultures where this takes the form of... if someone compliments something you own, you must give it to them. Keeps everybody in the group basically equal, and discourages the accumulation of goods. Probably a net plus in nomadic cultures in particular, where anybody having too much stuff is going to be a drag on the whole group when it's time to make the seasonal move.

This is also quite common in feudal cultures around the world and throughout time. The aristocratic class is expected to display its nobility by constant displays of generosity.

I recall the first Queen Elizabeth used this very effectively as a political tool-- at the first sign of dissent in the ranks, she'd up and move her whole court to pay an extended "visit" to the offending noble-- who was required to extend lavish hospitality at his own expense. He'd be "visited" until he was practically bankrupt and could no longer afford to even *think* about any kind of rebellion against the crown. She visited very extensively.

Thanks for this! I've heard of potlatch cultures and know a very little bit, but I'll have to look into them more. As JMG says, conspicuous generosity has been a workable mode of social organization in a lot of places, so it's not an alien idea to me - the English word "Lord" comes from "hlaford," which means roughly "loaf warder" - in other words, the guy who provided your bread. And throughout the Germanic world, especially in the migration period and into the early middle ages, Kings and Lords were praised for being "Ring Givers" - the deal was ambitious young men would show you insane loyalty and fight to the death for you, but you had to give them room and board and shower them with treasure. A lot of feudal relationships evolved out of that earlier model.

Yes indeed. And that is almost certainly why one of the first things the US state governments did when it seized the Pacific Northwest was to outlaw the holding of potlaches by the Native peoples. Ugh!

I did not know about that! Thanks for the reading topic!

You're most welcome. Potlatches weere banned in the 1880s in Canada as "wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to 'civilized values' of accumulation" (from the Wikipedia article, citing Douglas Cole and Ira Chaikin, An Iron Hand upon the People: The Law against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast (Vancouver and Toronto 1990). A similar ban was instituted in some states of. the USA just a little later

"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.

Magic Monday

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