ecosophia | Magic Monday

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. Papus and Chaboseau, the honorees of the last two weeks, each got their Martinist lineage by a tangle of mostly forgotten figures, so we can jump straight back to one of the founders of the tradition, Louis-Claude de St. Martin. St. Martin was born in 1743 in an aristocratic family and became a student of the elusive master Martinez de Pasqually, learning the distinctive system of theurgic magic Pasqually taught. Later in life, after Pasqually's death, he focused more of his attention on Christian mysticism, studied Jacob Boehme's writings, and penned a series of influential mystical tracts under the pseudonym "The Unknown Philosopher."

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~~With that said, have at it!~~

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good Evening,

To any who observe it, a happy Lughnasadh! May you begin to enjoy the fruits of your work so far this year.

To Share: Hopefully of some interest to a few others here: I'm starting to work my way through Maria Kvilhaug's big ol' book The Seed of Yggdrasill. The very short version is that it's a good book full of helpful insights that could have been truly great with better editing and organization: https://jpowellrussell.com/#book_the_seed_of_yggdrasill_1_introduction_and_the_books_of_old

To Ask: Another question on humoral food characteristics: I know you're not an expert on this JMG, but if you (or anyone else) knows - is it common for folks of a certain predominant humor to have more fondness for foods that exacerbate it than they should? I think that I must have a Choleric disposition, and reading the list of foods cholerics ought to avoid in Humoral Herbal was practically a list of all my favorite things - fatty meat, salt, dairy, spicy, caffeine, spirits. Is this a common kind of imbalance?

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

That's not unbalanced. It's normal and healthy, according to the old books, for people to be drawn to foods that maintain their usual humoral balance, e.g., if you're naturally choleric, hot and dry foods will appeal to you, and it's healthy for you to eat them. Only if you become excessively choleric will you want to eat more cool and moist foods for a while.

Ah, this is what I get for only skimming Humoral Herbal thus far, thanks very much. I thought I was looking at a lifetime need to balance things with a more cool and moist diet by default. That being said, cutting back on the hot and dry foods and drinks has helped me clear up some mood and general health issues, so I'm sold on paying attention to such things from here on out.

That's one of the places where the humoral system contradicts modern assumptions. The basic rule is that no two people have exactly the same natural balance of the humors, and therefore no two people thrive on exactly the same diet; one size emphatically does not fit all. The important thing is to find the point at which your body, with its inborn choleric temperament, is healthiest -- and that'll inevitably be on the choleric side of the midpoint.

It would be interesting, or at least fun, to humorally classify magical systems/practices, and to think about them in terms of how they complement and support personal humoral balance.

I have a dearth of earth in my chart which reflects in my life and I had been trying to forcefully balance that by choosing telluric energies to work with. I recently recognized that I have struggled at this and have pivoted to trying more solar, ceremonial work. Perhaps, as with food, it's beneficial to lean in to my nature for balance, rather than thinking it must be balanced by things counter to it. (With the understanding that there is always risk of leaning in too far and becoming unbalanced.) It's surprising to think about "balance" in general being fraught with dualistic thinking.

That's certainly my experience. You incarnated at the time you did for a reason, quite possibly because you'd overemphasized earth in previous lives and need to work on the other elements for a while, so it's more useful to accept that and work with it. A hawk does not prosper by trying to be a groundhog, nor does a groundhog prosper by trying to be a hawk!

I've been taught this lesson the hard way for the last decade or so and am finally internalizing it. Even if I can fit a hawk body in a groundhog hole, it is a needless martyrdom and I'll never excel. Thank you for the validation.

Magic Monday

Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods

Re: Seed of Yggdrasill Review Part 1 and Being Drawn to Humorally Unbalanced Foods