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

Re: Personal Spiritual Path and Religious Organizations

[(Anonymous)]

If you watch TV or movies, pay attention to how many of them feature characters at AA-type meetings. There is a reason for that-- the 12 Step tradition is HUGE in California. When I lived in Santa Barbara there was something like 200 meetings every week. Tons of people were a part of it, including lots of people involved in the entertainment industry. Most of the people involved treated it either as church, or as the thing that was more important to them than Church even if they were a member of one.

In the groups had a very tribal spirit, which to my mind is very suggestive of "tamanous" does JMG has described it. Egalitarian, but with charismatic leaders dominating. A fission-fusion structure, like hunter-gatherer bands. An emphasis on personal spiritual experience. And strongly supportive networks formed among the members, who routinely found each other places to live, jobs, and so on.

To my mind it's a very American form of spirituality, democratic, egalitarian, franchisable, puritanical, bibliolatrous (every program has its Big Book). It has its drawbacks, but I can see a modified form of the 12 Step program having a big influence on the religions of the future on this continent, and I hope that it will.

[jprussell]

Huh, I didn't think about 12 Step Programs, but now that you mention them, I'm embarrassed I didn't, for all of the reasons you enumerate. Thank you for the avenue for further research!