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 via slightly less evasive routes. The last two honorees, Constant Chevillon and Robert Ambelain, both received part of their many lineages from this week's honoree, Jean Bricaud. Bricaud was a student of Papus and a leading figure in the French Martinist movement, as well as a major figure in the French Gnostic church of the time. He became head of the Martinist Order on Papus' death in 1916, and played a significant role in many other alternative spiritual scenes of the time. He died in 1934.

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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

Red bags; GFS Initiation

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning JMG, and everybody else!

No replies up yet, and you‘re in a creative mood - I hope that bears well both for the amount of sleep you got, and for your next book(s)… ;-)

Thanks, as always, for having us over today and patiently answering all the questions. I really learn a lot each week, and treasure this space very much.

A few questions today, if I may (however many you feel ready to answer):

About the red bags and jars with salt/nail:

1. Is it advisable to wear them/put them up all the time, or would this be too much? Or, in other words, does the „occult immune system“ need some training, and constant „disinfection“ isn‘t healthy either?

2. I presume there is some (healthy) energy exchange e.g. between close couples or between parents and their children. Does a red bag suppress or prevent this? Could wearing such a bag lead to issues in that regard?

3. Since a lot of people don‘t even seem to be aware that they are drawing energy from other people: How does one notice? Does this directly correlate with e.g. drawing attention or time, being needy, being dependent, etc? Or are there other, less obvious, cues to look out for in oneself?

And about the GSF Initiation and lodge:

4. In the initiation, there is a composition of place, but no un-composition. One second, you‘re in the grove, and the next second, you‘re back in the lodge, just like that. Does that have a specific reason, or did it just happen to end up that way?

5. Why is the lodge closing done in the same order as the opening, and not in reverse? I.e. why doesn‘t one „unroll“ things in reverse order?

Thanks, and if you and your wife would have them, my blessings to both of you - may you have a healthy, enjoyable and productive week!

Milkyway

Personal Spiritual Path and Religious Organizations

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

For my fellow Americans, a very happy Fourth of July. For everyone else in the northern hemisphere, a happy early-mid summer. For anyone in the southern hemisphere, I hope whatever stuff you're up to is good :)

To Share: A more personal post from me this time, I talk through my own spiritual path: https://jpowellrussell.com/#how_i_came_to_believe_what_i_do

To Ask: I'm thinking a lot about the role of religion in today's America, and into the future. I'm especially interested in the role of religious organizations. I feel like we all understand the role churches play/have played in the West and in America, but I'd be especially interested in hearing any thoughts on what other religious organizations may have been like/may be like today - for JMG or the commentariat.

As always, thanks very much to JMG and everyone else here for all that you do.

To any who will have them, I put forth my blessings and best wishes,
Jeff

Re: Red bags; GFS Initiation

[ecosophia]

1) I don't recommend wearing them all the time, because...

2) A red bag amulet would interfere with this.

3) It takes practice, but one useful hint is to watch what happens when you're alone for a while. If you start feeling depleted, and perk up suddenly when you get near another person, you may be parasitizing them.

4) So that the composition flows into the astral structure of the lodge itself.

5) What a fine theme for meditation! ;-)

Re: Personal Spiritual Path and Religious Organizations

[ecosophia]

The main alternative to churches has long been initiatory organizations. I knew a lot of old men in the Masons and Odd Fellows for whom lodge meetings are their church services; I also know a lot of people in the occult scene for whom lodge meetings are central to their religious life. There are others, though -- it's an interesting question.

Temple technology and Kozyrev devices

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG & all,
I have stumbled across some material that may be relevant to your studies of temple technologies--
The book reference is:
Kaznacheev VP, Trofimov AV. Cosmic Consciousness of Humanity; Problems of New Cosmology. Elendis Progress Publishers, Tomsk, Russia, 1992.
Chapter: Part II, 2, 1. At Thracian Gods. Expedition through Sanctuary Places of Bulgaria. Pg. 75.

The chapter describes experiments in an ancient sanctuary of the goddess Kabile in Bulgaria, from about 1000 BCE. It has magnetic anomalies in the rocks which, when you pass along the passages cut into the stones, induce changes in consciousness that allowed transmission of images from a person in the Kabile sanctuary to another person in Novosibirsk (Siberia).

This has something to do with Kozyrev mirror devices. I don't understand much of it, but thought you might want to look into this, since a team of researchers apparently figured out how to use some of the special features of an ancient temple.

Do you, or do any readers, know about this or have comments about it?
Has anyone tried a Kozyrev mirror device?

Thanks for any information you may have about it!

Anyone interested can download a copy here:

https://kupdf.net/queue/cosmic-consciousness-of-humanity-problems-of-new-cosmogony-vpkaznacheev-v-trofimov-_5b171606e2b6f5ef68b78ba2_pdf?queue_id=-1&x=1688362911&z=MjQuNjcuMzcuMjc=

[(Anonymous)]

Huh... I wanted to ask a red bag amulet question, opened the thread and... the first question I read was about a red bag amulet. Something's in the air :)
Anyways, hello JMG. Thank you for hosting Magic Mondays.
Here's my red bag amulet question. HOW does it work? On an etheric plane? On an astral plane? Do I have to be in the presence of a "well-wisher" for it to work?
Kirsten

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you as always for providing this space and answering our questions. I have had a few questions building up for several weeks but I can't remember all of them just now. Here are a couple.

1) With regard to using planetary days and hours for important activities, should I make more use of my better placed planets (Mars and Jupiter) even if they don't correspond as closely to the activities? (Many things I do are probably Hermes related)

2) I suspect I am overthinking some things and using planetary timing where not necessary. I have sometimes ended up with a build up of things to do at certain times on a Wednesday with a waxing moon, not got round to all of them and left things which are less urgent, but would still be better done sooner, and waited two weeks. Example, subscribing to an educational website for something I'm studying, which I wanted to use regularly as soon as I became aware of it.

Re: Temple technology and Kozyrev devices

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Thanks for this; I've downloaded a copy and will read it as time permits.

[(Anonymous)]

What sort of activities build our mental bodies?

If the mental body is our first 'permanent' body does that mean it stays in the same polarity (male/female) as it was in our last incarnation?

How do you know when there are no more repressed emotions in your physical body? Can you even reach this point as an 'average' person?

[ecosophia]

It's etheric, and no, it doesn't require anyone's well wishing. Etheric forms unanchored to physical forms are vulnerable to sharp points of a conductive metal -- they pop like bubbles when they contact an iron point. The salt is to absorb the energy released by the discharge, so it doesn't affect the wearer.

[ecosophia]

1) That hasn't been my experience, certainly. The planetary hours are relatively impersonal.

2) That's a common bad habit of people who've just found out about planetary hours! With practice you'll learn when something's important enough to need that planetary boost.

[ecosophia]

1) Anything that exercises the capacity for abstract consciousness. For example, mathematics and philosophy will do it, meditation will do it, and so will experiencing arts, literature, and music that don't primarily appeal to the bodily passions.

2) Not really. The permanent bodies don't have to go through death and rebirth to change polarity.

3) Maybe such a paragon exists somewhere, but I've never met one. I'd say don't worry about it; clear away the blocked emotions you can manage, knowing that more will probably surface later.

Re: Red bags; GFS Initiation

[(Anonymous)]

3. This is why extroverts must be stopped. :)

Out of copyright book resource

[hwistle]

Hi John,

no questions just now, just wanted to share this site with you and the commentariat, in case you weren't aware of it.

It's the work of one Englishwoman who has been uploading electronic versions of out of copyright books to an ever increasing online library. Crucially, the library includes a large collection of Occult books, including a few hidden gems...

https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/category/ebooks/occult-page-1.html

Manuel

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG

Im looking for a good books about European alchemy and energy magic with European background. Any recomendations?

Have a wonderfull day

[(Anonymous)]

Good day to you JMG!

Hello JMG!

I don't know if this belongs to your expertise and knowledge but I am looking for sources that will help the western reader understand and enter the occult world of Hinduism. It would be wonderful if you could recommend a book to me.

And a question from a friend of mine who is not here. What is your opinion on chaos magic (from the Carolla school). Can it be called , "effective" magic?

Best wishes

[thinking_turtle]

To share: if you wonder what abbreviations used in Magic Monday mean (like APG, PoW, or EDEM), the list of abbreviations might interest you.

To ask: my experiment with wearing the red bag from the FAQ is interesting. It seems to reduce the drain I feel when reading news or when talking to certain people. So I'm curious to learn more about the red bag.

What tradition does the red bag come from? Where can I read more about it?

Re: Red bags; GFS Initiation

[thinking_turtle]

1. Is it advisable to wear them/put them up all the time, or would this be too much? Or, in other words, does the „occult immune system“ need some training, and constant „disinfection“ isn‘t healthy either?

Working out the same question! I'm currently wearing it only when I expect negative interactions. There's a lot of that currently, so I'm wearing it a lot. So far it seems to have a beneficial effect.

Curious to learn what your experience will bring!

[brigyn]

Dear Archdruid,

I wanted to ask - in the Druid Magic Handbook, each of the 8 stations has an emblem - a circle of candles, a crown, a silver branch - and so on. I was wandering how these were obtained - are they references to stories, obtained though scrying or meditation, or some other source?

I see how Ceridwen's emblem would be a cauldron - but why a circle of candles for Imbolc / Ana?

(The same question goes for the associated "Inner Place" of each Station, I suppose!)


All the best,

- Brigyn

Divine names

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG and other friends here,

I hope you are all healthy and that you had a good weekend!

Thanks for this space!

1. Based on what principles was the association between the divine names in Hebrew and the sephirot made? I guess it wasn't a random association.
2. Likewise the Archangels and angels.
3. And why exactly the use of Psalms to invoke the Divine Names when these names are present in other parts of the Bible such as Genesis and Exodus.
4. Would just visualization, meditation and repetition of the names bring consistent results? (this question came to me while typing the question...)

Thank you very much!

Astral travel history and dangers

[(Anonymous)]

I read a fascinating, if chilling account of the 'astral war' between the Soviet Union and the USA during the cold war. The article is here if it is of interest to yourself and your readers https://medium.com/truly-adventurous/the-hades-environment-fab4434e8bdd

Essentially, it seems that both governments actively encouraged astral travel for various means, including warfare, but that chillingly, the amount of travelers awoke something ancient and nasty from the past, a name I won't repeat, which began killing people or trapping them whilst out of body.

It also seems that both governments became aware of the dangers, and rapidly closed down their programmes and actively censored the astral travel methodology that was in circulation at the time.

This all occurred around the time of the rise of the arch skeptics and angry atheists, and it has me wondering if that movement originally began as a psyop literally because of the dangers of the astral at that time. I can see that being a tactic employed by a desperate CIA and Pentagon to shut down a portal they were losing control of.

It's a chilling read actually, but a side of history I thought needed to be shared.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
Thank you for all you do. I hope you will agree to comment on a reading, on a banal but important issue. We have committed some money to a trip and are getting alarmed that the weather forecast is worsening. We must decide soon whether to cancel or risk losing the money we have paid. I asked the oracle "what will happen if we go ahead with the trip" and received the following:

1st House Puella/ 2.Amissio/ 3.Fortuna Minor/ 4.Amissio/ 5.Via/ 6.Albus/ 7.Puer /8.Laetitia/9.Tristitia /10.Conjunctio /11.Puer/ 12.Acquisitio.
The Judge is Via, The First Witness Caput Draconis, the Second Witness is Laetitia and the Reconciler is Rubeus.
To my inexpert eye it doesn't look a very positive chart. The journey is quite a short one (less than one hundred miles.)
Apologies for such a banal question.

[jeremys]

Dear John Michael Greer,

It seems most magic/ritual practices these days use either The Golden Dawn or Wicca as their foundation. This is hard for me to fully grasp, that a group in 1 country that broke up over 100 years ago, that only lasted a 2-3 decades, during a time so different from our own, still holds such a foundational purpose for so much, instead of just being one of many groups that passed through history. You do a great job explaining this in the Introduction in your Celtic Golden Dawn book, but I still have trouble fully comprehending the concept.

In any case, it seems the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram ritual or some form of it, acts as a foundation for many other ritual practices, I believe even in Wicca/Neo-Pagan type groups like clearing the 4 corners of the circle, or something. I know, circles don't have corners. My guess is this is solely a creation of the Golden Dawn in the 19th Century.

If the Golden Dawn and Wicca never existed, what do you think the standard opening and closing temple ceremonies (or any use of the Lesser Pentagram Ritual) would be like today, which in turn other ritual practices would be founded on?

This line of thinking also makes me wonder how people would be approaching the Kaballah today outside of Judaism, with no Golden Dawn Qabalah modification. And then it makes me wonder, if the Golden Dawn and Wicca never existed, how would magic in general be practiced today?

Anyway, hope you are having a great day!

Thank you!
Jeremy

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, and thank you, again, for all that you do. I read with interest your recent post about your decision to re-animate a path for ordination in the UGC. At some point during the past year or so, I asked you a question about the UGC, and you recommended The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement, which I read with great interest. (I've begun to explore some new spiritual paths after a bad experience at my former Quaker meeting.)

As I read Plummer's book, (and some of the back in forth in the comments following your post) the phrase "valid apostolic succession." frequently appears. I have to wonder why this is considered important. Is it not analogous to bragging about having at least one branch in one's family tree trace back to ancient royalty? Quakers traditionally don't care about apostolic succession or even ordination, so this egalitarian background no doubt contributes to my confusion.

And I hope this question does not come across as disrespectful of the tradition. It's just that as the length of the chain (and the number of possible paths) tracing back to the original apostles continue to grow, it seems that by simple geometric progression, the number of possible paths to "valid apostolic succession" would increase tremendously and thus become less significant. Why does the idea still hold such importance, especially in a church that stresses independent, personal gnosis, not obedience to a set of rules allegedly tracing back to the year 32 AD? If I understand correctly, gnosis is not something handed down like a spiritual baton, which is how I'm stuck in thinking about apostolic succession. Thank you JMG.

Religion or set of ethical beliefs?

[(Anonymous)]

Some religions seem to consist mostly of a set of ethical beliefs, i.e., be good according to the religion's definition of good and you get the prize. Are there religions that care less about how you act and more about whether you worship?

There seems to be a scale with one side being "act how I tell you to act" and the other side being "worship and honor the god/gods/goddess/goddesses." Religions fall all along the scale. Does this make sense to you, or is my understanding off?

This has been on my mind a lot because the secular religions, like Branch Covidian, cares about how you act and what you do and you only occasionally have to bow down and declare pharma financed guys in white coats infallible gods. In fact, best not to worship or meditate on those white coated gods because if you even look a little, you will see the lies. Surprising to me, a fairly unreligious person, I find myself looking for something that provides for worship and meditation. I think that Christianity once had a more worshipful side, especially in the monastic tradition, but where is that today? All the organized religions I am familiar with are over on the "do what we tell you" side of the scale. Was there a time when worship was more of a thing or has religion always been just a way to control the population? Thanks, just looking for your thoughts because I respect your views on religion and faith.