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. 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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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.

With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[(Anonymous)]

In perusing Natural Magic I have been studying (but not practicing) Hoodoo and came to a thought that may apply here.

It seems we have two systems of Hoodoo, Open and Closed. Now I MUST stress this point every clearly - Open is not superior or inferior to Closed and visa versa. Let me say this again one is not better then the other.

If you forbears practiced a form of spirituality that you are rediscovering and you are very fortunate to have a living mentor or written instructions then you can approach that spiritual discipline with a different slant then someone who has no cultural connection with it.

Now reading about the AFA - I get the sense that we may have two concurrent systems that embody what Buddhist call the "Two Truths". How that would play out would depend upon ones starting point.

For example if you decided to connect with Odin and you had no ethnic connection, no in depth knowledge of the theology and no connection with people who practice then you would need to follow an "Open Odin" path - initiation, cultural study, dialogue and respect for those who practice would be baseline behavior. If in the process you get the hint that this is not for you then be respectful and move on.

If you were born into AFA and know people who practice and have a good, if unrefined idea of it and follow the culture then you can participate in the "Closed Odin" path - I would presume a lot of the formalities would be unnecessary but it would require a different process of study and spiritual dialogue and untimely an evolution of the very meaning of the AFA faith for yourself.

There are a lot of shades of grey in this - I am half Scandinavian by blood but culturally I grew up in multicultural polyglot southern California. I would not presume the "Closed Odin" path at all.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[brenainn]

That is an interesting way of looking at it. One thing that did occur to me before is that it is possible to have both a folkish and open version of Asatru, and for both to be legitimate forms of the religion. This is especially so if there is more than one god who answers to the name Thor or Odin or so on. I suspect the situation of multiple Jesii isn't limited to deities named "Jesus."