Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just past 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. Last week's honoree, Dr. Gérard Encausse, who wrote about magic under the pen name Papus, didn't act alone in reviving the Martinist tradition and founding the Martinist Order; he had the capable assistance of this man, Augustin Chaboseau. Papus and Chaboseau were medical students together, and were startled to discover that each of them had received the Martinist initiation by way of two different lineages. They each initiated the other, and thereafter worked together to preserve and transmit the Martinist tradition. Chaboseau's wife Louise was famous in her own right as a leading French feminist, and one of the first female pharmacists in France.

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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.

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

Comments

Pure GD framework

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John

I am very interested in your Celtic Golden Dawn System and the work you and your colleague has done on the Heathen Golden Dawn. This has my wondering if there exist a template Golden Dawn framework this is “pure” in the sense of not being tied to a particular symbolism as such?

Can such a system even work or will there need to be a symbolism in place? Can it work with a universal symbolism, i.e., the highest force, the paternal force, the natural force, etc. but unnamed as such?

Re: Pure GD framework

[ecosophia]

1) There's no such template. What I've done, and what the person working on the Heathen GD is doing, is to take the Hermetic GD as a model and extrapolate from there.

2) Such a thing would be sharply limited in its effectiveness. Magic doesn't work well with bare abstractions; it needs the rich fare of symbols, myths, and traditions to generate power in the deep places of the self.

Re: Pure GD framework

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for the answer. One follow up then, how does the convection of the practitioner affect the outcomes? That is, should your always strive to find symbolism as close to your personal beliefs or if it enough to “act” if done convincingly? I guess it is a question precisely who should be convinced and to what degree. If, let’s say, a devout catholic practices the Celtic Golden Dawn or a Druid Christian mysticism?

Re: Pure GD framework

[ecosophia]

In my experience, if you're respectful to the spiritual powers invoked by a system, you can get good results with it. I did the Golden Dawn system straight out of the book even though the god of Israel is not my god; I treated the divine names and forces invoked by the classic Golden Dawn system with respect, and had excellent results.

Ultimately, your opinions don't matter much to anybody but you. Your actions are what counts.