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Magic Monday
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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***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***
Celtic Golden Dawn
I hope on this magic Monday that you and yours are well.
I’ve begun work with the Celtic Golden Dawn, and as I continue work with this, I intend to gain some rough familiarity with the welsh language. I was curious about the word mae; having worked with multiple versions of the sphere of protection, I was assuming it referred to a god, or the one life of the universe, or was some other form of invocation. I found that it is just the beginning of a phrase (“there is”) which precedes the naming of the three rays of light. I worked on translating the rest of the rite of rays back and forth and found that the sources of translation I’m using are all confused by the words alawn and plennydd, and come up with quite different words and phrases from those in the book.
1. Are the words in the book a different or older form of welsh, or has there been some modification of welsh to fit within syllabic or other magical requirements to work within golden dawn frameworks?
2. Also, do you have any recommendations for someone who is used to SOP based traditions (Druid Magic/Way of the Golden Section) as they branch out into exploring and learning within the golden dawn tradition?
3. Is it perhaps reasonable to continue a weekly SOP in order to maintain those channels and habits of motion and mind, or would that be likely to muddy the waters of the new practice?
4. Would grounding work, like martial arts, be advisable as a balance to these energies, as was suggested in the way of the golden section; or are there other practices that you would deem advisable/acceptable for someone who is moving into ceremonial magic from study and practice that has heretofore been more mystical and theoretical.
When familiarizing myself with the Norse and Greek deities, in addition to reading myths, I learned their correspondences and in daily life thanked or called to them while performing corresponding activities or engaged with corresponding things. I’m having trouble doing this with the Welsh deities as their correspondences are more narrow and less comprehensive.
5. Any recommendations, beyond meditation and prayer, on how to incorporate the Welsh pantheon into daily life in order to build relationship?
Thank you for this space and for your counsel.
May you be blessed.
And to the commentariat whom I have grown to value as much as my shelves of books; may you be blessed.
Re: Celtic Golden Dawn
2) Set those aside completely and go into the GD work as a complete beginner.
3) Most people find that these don't play well together.
4) That's something you'll need to sort out based on your own needs. Divination is a useful tool here.
5) We know very little about these deities; prayer and meditation are basically the options we've got.
Re: Celtic Golden Dawn
I have gone into this as a beginner, and this is a challenging lesson in itself! It's been a willpower workout trying to quiet my mind and focus on a lecture as multitudes of other correspondences and potential connections ping through my brain. I've had a few moments of seeing potential connections and then an outlier appears and I want to chase down the why... and... deep breath... back to the task at hand. It is also a lesson in willpower and patience to see the map ahead and, because of previous work, to feel "ready" for a full temple ceremony, and to withhold that do a single summoning or banishing LRP. Though I trust that as you wrote "the structure raised, however exalted, will never be stronger than the foundations laid."
Follow up questions:
6. Would it be inadvisable, as I'm slowly building up to the full temple working, to do a summoning LRP in the morning and a banishing LRP in the evening, rather than alternating days?
7. I have been working through the MOE material, and though its SOP is far simpler and less ceremonial, it does share symbolism and philosophy with the druid magic system. Is it appropriate to continue with MOE work, or advisable to set it aside and focus more fully on the healing system with the Celtic Golden Dawn.
8. I read tarot and, though I've practiced Geomancy from Earth Divination Earth Magic, it has yet to be part of my daily practice. I don't remember there being any prescriptions against using multiple divination systems. As I learn geomancy, would it be problematic to still read tarot.
9. Do you recommend having and referencing Regardie's Golden Dawn big book while working through the Celtic GD or better to leave it for later exploration.
Thank you again for your time and efforts! Also thank you for the many podcasts you participate in; I've had a few long drives recently and quite enjoyed listening to a few of them.
Re: Celtic Golden Dawn
7) The MOE system is entirely compatible with any Golden Dawn tradition.
8) Not at all.
9) No, not yet. The differences between the Hermetic GD and the Druidical GD are substantial enough that you'll want to start studying Regardie's book when you've reached the Druid grade and have a basis for comparison.
Re: Celtic Golden Dawn