Magic Monday
Aug. 6th, 2023 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
It's 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. Along with Louis-Claude de St. Martin, last week's honoree, the inner circle of pupils of Martinez de Pasqually included this week's figure, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz. A very active Freemason, Willermoz played a central role in cleaning up the mess left by the implosion of the Strict Observance (the most important Templar order in 18th century Europe) and created a new order with its own rituals, the Rectified Rite, which survives to this day. Much of what became the ritual of Martinism came from Willermoz's hands.
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With that said, have at it!
***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***
Military Fiction Recommendations and Three Cauldrons in Grove Ceremony Question
Date: 2023-08-07 04:06 am (UTC)To all here, I hope whatever you're up to is going well and the week brings more of what you need, and less of what you don't.
To Share: Justin Patrick Moore encouraged me to post a comment I made about military fiction over on the main Ecosophia blog as a post to my own blog, and so I cleaned it up, expanded it a bit, and here it is: https://jpowellrussell.com/#books_military_fiction
To Ask: Should the three cauldrons portion of the SOP be used when opening a Grove, and if so, should the wording be changed at all? If it matters, I am currently practicing the version of the SOP with the Three Cauldrons given in the Gradd y Ymarferiwr in the DA and using the Grove ceremony as given in the DMH.
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: Military Fiction Recommendations and Three Cauldrons in Grove Ceremony Question
Date: 2023-08-07 04:09 am (UTC)Re: Military Fiction Recommendations and Three Cauldrons in Grove Ceremony Question
Date: 2023-08-07 06:26 am (UTC)Re: Military Fiction Recommendations and Three Cauldrons in Grove Ceremony Question
Date: 2023-08-07 06:49 am (UTC)Re: Military Fiction Recommendations and Three Cauldrons in Grove Ceremony Question
Date: 2023-08-07 12:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:36 am (UTC)Very good week to everyone!
1. I have 5 brothers from my father's first marriage. They lived in another city and I didn't have much contact with them. Everyone, men and women, had a good position in the audiovisual industry. At one point in their 40s and 50s they all gradually lost their jobs, fell into ostracism and poverty. Interestingly, I also worked in the audiovisual industry and lost my job a few months ago. I recently discovered an Italian ancestor, a nobleman, who worked with theater and painting (correlated to current audiovisual) who, at a certain age, also lost everything and died in poverty. Anyway, how to break this cycle? I know My Saturn retrograde in the 2nd house doesn't help, but it seems familiar.
2. I raised a little cat, from birth to death, for exactly 20 years. He passed him last year. Since then, I dreamed of him once, as if he had come to thank me. And then I dreamed of several cats (including a lion and a black panther) - all of them in difficult situations - asking me for help. The impression I had was that they really needed help, both materially and spiritually. Was I imagining too much? If not, how to help cats in this case?
3. In a planetary invocation ritual, with more symbolic components, better the ritual. However, could I exchange the Orphic hymns for prayers of my own (or perhaps Psalms)?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:44 am (UTC)2) If it happens again, ask the cat how you can help it. It may involve something as simple as saying a prayer.
3) Of course you can use your own, or the Psalms.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 05:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:18 pm (UTC)Thanks for the tip and for your general contributions here on the page. I always learn a lot from you.
What I'm considering now is actually changing professional fields.
Maybe he would really be better off in another profession. But as JMG commented, it's amazing how these familiar patterns catch up. I believe that I still have the opportunity to change.
Divination is one of my weakest aspects... :(
Anonymous:
Yes, some people have not adapted to digital. But this was not the case with my brothers.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:14 am (UTC)Here's my offer of suggestions for your first point.
How do other audiovisual employees deal with old age? If some were successful, consider the option of copying them.
What did your five brothers do to end up in poverty? Consider doing the opposite of what they did.
Open a local job board and see what jobs are on offer in your area. Each week apply to one. Thank them when they reject you and ask them for suggestions. Keeping notes by date produces very interesting material for divination.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:35 pm (UTC)A lot of it is simply that A/V work used to require a whole lot more people, and more expertise, than it does now. It's one of those professions that's been killed/consolidated by the rise of easy-to-use computer editing tools. Stuff that used to require hours in an editing booth with multiple tapes... is now a few clicks on your computer.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:39 am (UTC)I'm interested in making a gold Fluid Condenser - I've noticed that the method for producing a a Fluid Condenser in Circles of Power differs somewhat from the one in Natural Magic and in Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics. The "classic" way seems to be heating the gold until it's red hot and then flinging it into a cup of distilled water several times. The method in Circles of Power seems much more straightforward - putting the gold and the cup of water in a glass saucepan and then bringing it to a boil several times.
From experience, does the product of these methods differ in any significant way? The Circles of Power method certainly appeals to me as it seems to be much easier with less chance for contamination with soot.
Kind regards,
Eric R
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:46 am (UTC)I didn't find any difference in them. These days, I tend to use homeopathic Aurum metallicum instead of doing either of those, and the effects are equally good.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 04:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:01 pm (UTC)May John Michael always be protected from any curses and ill-wishes, whether invoked intentionally, unintentionally, or otherwise.
— Christophe
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 01:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:05 pm (UTC)Changing consciousness
Date: 2023-08-07 04:51 am (UTC)I was talking with my spouse last night and something came up that made her suggest that I ask you. For context, she's pretty much my opposite: very intuitive about people's emotions, loves to talk, not much into non-fiction reading. She's a doctor of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalyst and did years of therapy as part of her training.
She is, however, quite anxious and has many exaggerated fears, especially concerning the health of our children. Therapy has helped her recognize at least a possible source (parental incompetence in her early childhood) but that recognition hasn't helped her outgrow those fears.
I mentioned your comment that magic has been used to change consciousness for thousands of years while psychology is only a hundred years old and still in its infancy. From there we wondered how to work on her anxiety with magic.
So my questions:
1) Do you think the OSA work could be helpful here, even after extensive therapy? She's a pretty much done talking about her childhood so starting anew in writing doesn't seem very attractive.
2) I've started working with the DMH but there has been very little time without small kids in the house, so progress has been slow. Given more experience, what would be the best way to approach this? Me simply banishing her anxieties seems like a candidate for serious blowback, given that there probably are (or have been) good reasons for them. Doing a working to help her trust in the gods or in life seems too remote, however.
3) I won't attempt this without a lot more experience, this is more a theoretical question about the process of healing other people's emotional imbalances (on their request and with their consent). Is that inadvisable anyway and the only way would be for my wife to take up magic herself?
Thank you in advance for your opinion!
Re: Changing consciousness
Date: 2023-08-07 05:03 am (UTC)2) You'd need much, much more experience. Ask me again when you've finished working through the book.
3) The issue with the kind of habitual fears that have no relation to current conditions is that they're usually a distraction from something else. She will have to deal with the "something else" before she can resolve the fears -- and she may not want to do that. Ultimately, she's the only person who can solve this. You can't fix it for her.
The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 05:02 am (UTC)A while ago you posted a few lines from a poem about finding the path you're currently walking to have vanished behind you, leaving forward as the only remaining direction. I've been trying to find that poem to no avail, can you post its name again?
Re: The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 05:05 am (UTC)For mark! no sooner was I fairly found
Pledged to the plain, after a pace or two,
Than, pausing to throw backward a last view
O'er the safe road, 'twas gone; grey plain all round:
Nothing but plain to the horizon's bound.
I might go on; nought else remained to do.
The rest of the poem:
https://allpoetry.com/Childe-Roland-To-The-Dark-Tower-Came
Re: The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 09:10 am (UTC)'Caminante no hay camino,se hace camino al andar....'
'Traveller, there is no road; you make a road by walking...'
Re: The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 06:06 pm (UTC)Re: The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 07:31 pm (UTC)Re: The path poem
Date: 2023-08-07 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:50 am (UTC)To share, for those who wonder what LBRH, DA or DP mean, a list of Ecosophia abbreviations is available.
Thanks for your work!
To ask, the Christian version of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is covered in Learning Ritual Magic, and the druid revival version in The Celtic Golden Dawn. From which tradition and book is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 08:51 am (UTC)Can anyone recommend a good book on Archangel Raphael?
Is prayer the best way to begin forming a relationship with Raphael? I have an infant so no magic allowed here.
Thanks so much
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:08 pm (UTC)2) I don't know of any book on any one of the archangels, but I'd be glad if they existed. Anybody else?
3) Yes. If you can, see if you can get an image of him that you like, and use that as a focus for your prayers.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 08:50 pm (UTC)—Princess Cutekitten
Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 08:59 am (UTC)I have some questions about affirmations, I want to make sure I understand the rules correctly
1. is the affirmation , "I can physically see spirits and energy and can distinguish them from material things".
2. and does the affirmation , "I am beautiful and have beautiful and thick hair" make sense?
Re: Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 06:12 pm (UTC)For the first, you may or may not have the peculiar neurology that enables some people to see spiritual things as though they were physical things. Just as an affirmation won't make you grow back a foot if it's been amputated, there are limits to what you can do with affirmations to change your nervous system. Also, "energy" is potentially problematic; do you want to see electricity? How about radio waves? Or latent heat?
For the second, if your hair doesn't happen to be thick, trying to make it thick by affirmation is unlikely to work.
Affirmations I would suggest instead would be these:
"I can clearly perceive spirits and spiritual forces."
"I am beautiful."
Re: Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 08:04 pm (UTC)Re: Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 09:21 pm (UTC)You can certainly learn to see spirits, however. You just won't see them with your physical eyes. Any training program that develops clairvoyance -- and there are dozens of those -- will give you the necessary ability.
Re: Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 10:15 pm (UTC)Re: Affirmations
Date: 2023-08-07 10:21 pm (UTC)Massage
Date: 2023-08-07 09:03 am (UTC)I recently defended my title as a massage technician and I was curious if I can somehow use magic to increase the healing power of my massages? I've tried with reiki (I even got my first degree of initiation! ) but paradoxically reiki worked less well for me than simply visualizing white light into a patient's body with the intention of giving them relief. (All with the consent of the patients, of course)
Re: Massage
Date: 2023-08-07 06:14 pm (UTC)Re: Massage
Date: 2023-08-07 08:05 pm (UTC)Re: Massage
Date: 2023-08-07 09:46 pm (UTC)Each finger also has its own natural affinity for sending certain energies. If you have the perceptive ability to sense those differences, you can then direct the appropriate healing energies through the most potent fingertip. It's sort of a corollary to sensing where in a patient's body most wants to be worked out and released. Dowsing can be a useful metaphor for both these types of sensing — where am I drawn to clear blockages in someone's body, and which part of my hand is drawn to do that clearing work? Or, for even more complexity, which of my chakra's energies want to travel through which of my fingers to heal which areas in my patient's body?
— Christophe
Talismans
Date: 2023-08-07 09:05 am (UTC)I'm looking for a way to make talismans, but I have a problem with using Yahweh's names (it's not a matter of hostility, I'm just not comfortable with it) do you know of any book that describes making talismans without using Jewish lore?
Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-07 06:19 pm (UTC)Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-08 02:27 am (UTC)Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-08 03:12 am (UTC)Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-08 02:41 am (UTC)Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-08 03:13 am (UTC)Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-07 07:14 pm (UTC)It looks to be a guide for creating amulets/talismans from a mostly Heathen point of view, but seems also to incorporate natural magic and the like. I've gotten some good stuff from Gundarsson in other books, including some very detailed hands-on instruction for making things like hammers for blessing in the name of Thor or drinking horns or the like, so I suspect the "how to" in here should be pretty good.
Fair warning, though, the books I do have from this publisher are not as carefully edited as I would like, so it's possible there are some issues on that front as well.
Anyhow, hope you find something that helps, whether this or something else,
Jeff
Re: Talismans
Date: 2023-08-08 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:11 am (UTC)I will need a short story time here :D
In the past I was involved in demonolatry (let's call it the mistakes of my young years). I ended my practice (already several years ago), thanked those spirits and said goodbye to all the "gifts" I received from them. I cleansed myself properly and quietly practiced natural magic, some alchemy. Some time ago I became interested in Druidism and started my practice using your books (which are fantastic, by the way). In my demonolatry days I took initiations on the witch path. Despite my lack of active practice, the initiation changed something in me, something very fundamental (my astral shell to this day looks quite...devilish?).
And here are my two questions:
1. is it normal that I still feel something like attraction to the chthonic dimensions? (Not to demons or the dead, but simply to the underworld).
2. in spite of my lack of practice of ,,witch'' stuff, is it normal that I continue to feel the influence of this initiation on me?
With best regards
~L
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:23 pm (UTC)This is one reason that it's wise to be careful about what kinds of magic you practice!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 08:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 11:17 pm (UTC)Exorcists being hard to find nowadays, you might find therapeutic journaling about past traumas and whatever fixed attitudes, fears, defenses, etc. those locked in place to be a useful technique. The Octagon Society practices that John Michael detailed on this blog can be very helpful for loosening a demon's grip or even healing enough for the demon to flee on its own. Of course, the latter is an extremely challenging undertaking! Until and unless we clear away the horrors and insecurities that caused us to invite in a demon in the first place, we'll stay stuck with them. That would be the downside to exorcism. While some people do have the ability to cast out others' demons, without ever addressing the fears that caused the victim to invite that demon in, they will just get lured into inviting another one in when similar stresses occur again.
By the way, there are all sorts of demons out there that can infest people, with some being quite benign, some quite weak, some transparently obvious, and some terrifyingly horrid. Also, most of the kind of demons you would have been calling on in demonolatry would have been orders of magnitude more powerful than the types that tend to infest us. The facts that you're here asking John Michael for advice and that you experience your initiatory influence merely as an attraction to the chthonic realms would both point towards any demon you might have dwelling on the friendlier end of their spectrum.
Since your astral body is the one with the devilish affect, if you do have a demon, it's probably of the astral type. The most salient characteristic I've picked up on of the astral type of demon is aggressively competitive status obsession (oh, yes, there are quite a lot of that type infesting humanity at the moment!) Your writing style doesn't come across at all as being a status-obsessed jerk, so this too would point to a more benign demon if you do have one. Also, it is kind of hard to imagine a competitively controlling demon being at all comfortable with you practicing druidry, but who knows, maybe it’s hoping to prop itself up at the head of some druid lineage for an ego boost. After all, it really is very hard to make any sense out of demons’ logic.
— Christophe
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 03:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 04:04 am (UTC)https://www.ecosophia.net/notes-on-the-lemurian-deviation/
Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2023-08-07 09:12 am (UTC)Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below before midnight Monday Eastern time, or in the comments of the post at the first link given above.
This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests.
Nebulous Realms has reason to think they may be in particular physical or spiritual danger for the next couple of weeks (posted 8/7); they request prayers for their personal safety.
Steve T's brother Matt is currently in the hospital after a sudden violent seizure, and his daughter is having extreme panic attacks; they were both in a terrible car accident last fall. Steve asks for prayers for Matt's recovery of health; for the emotional and psychological well-being of the rest of the family, including his wife Megan, his daughter Diana, and his young son Jake; and for the lifting of any spiritual harm afflicting the family.
Freddy, Ganeshling's neighbor's 10 year old son, hasn't spoken since a traumatic hospital stay a few years ago; for Freddy to start speaking again and to help him develop into a functional adult.
Tamanous's friend's brother David got in a terrible motorcycle accident and has been diagnosed as a quadriplegic given the resultant spinal damage; for healing and the positive outcomes of upcoming surgeries and rehabilitation, specifically towards him being able to walk and live a normal life once more.
Lp9's hometown, East Palestine, Ohio, for the safety and welfare of their people, animals and all living beings in and around East Palestine, and to improve the natural environment there to the benefit of all. The reasonable possibility exists that this is an environmental disaster on par with the worst America has ever seen. (Lp9 gives updates here and also here.)
Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are now to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun's rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2023-08-07 06:23 pm (UTC)The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 10:08 am (UTC)I know that people's desire to return to the past won't be helping astral conditions of course, but I often wonder that nothing will really clear it up until a bunch of gods show up, and even then, given the potential disparity between them, it just stays turbulent.
Is this normal for these transitions, or is this something else again?
Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 06:26 pm (UTC)Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 07:10 pm (UTC)Thanks!
JPM
Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 07:16 pm (UTC)Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 07:46 pm (UTC)I'll look forward to reading, and meditating along with that, and your commentary, down the road.
In the meantime I'll look forward to the next post in the Eliphas Levi book club.
JPM
Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 08:10 pm (UTC)Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 07:26 pm (UTC)Re: The cosmic eclipse
Date: 2023-08-07 07:37 pm (UTC)Tarot Deck
Date: 2023-08-07 10:29 am (UTC)I think the following Tarot may be of interest to some readers, it's beautifully illustrated by Lisa Hunt, who has created a number of decks.
One note, it is landscape oriented, which I really like.
Here's a little of Benebell's review:
The Pastoral Tarot celebrates the idyllic life of small towns of New England and the Mid-Atlantic, through the countryside of the Mid-West, and the coastal regions. Each landscape piece is a scene out of Americana, a call back to 20th-century North American life.
It made me think of the Johnny Appleseed posts.
Here's the link, I'd love to hear what others think of it, I've ordered it!
https://benebellwen.com/2022/12/26/pastoral-tarot-by-lynn-araujo-and-lisa-hunt/
One other thing about this week's portrait, does anyone else see the joie de vivre in his eyes?
He looks so happy!
Maybe because he knows he's a bit of a looker! 😜
Kudos to the artist!
Helen in Oz
Re: Tarot Deck
Date: 2023-08-07 06:27 pm (UTC)As for Willermoz, yeah, he's always struck me as someone who would have been a complete delight to know.
Re: Tarot Deck
Date: 2023-08-08 01:42 am (UTC)Usually the people look so serious. Mr. Willermoz looks like he's about to bust out in laughter.
Delightful.
- Cicada Grove
The collective unconscious
Date: 2023-08-07 10:59 am (UTC)Thank you Mr Greer for all your work and for giving up your time to field questions. I credit you with helping me to find a socially useful job to do which has raised my spirits greatly.
Do occulists have a word for people who seem to front run changes in society on an emotional level? There are individuals and small groups who seem to be processing the fads and manias of western society slightly ahead of the herd. I am not really talking about those who are grappling intellectually with the loss of cheap, dense, easily extracted energy sources more a sort of emotional patterning around loss, material insecurity and faint glimmerings of the freedom to do behave differently and choose different priorities.
Is this a phenomena you recognise and does it perform a specific function for us collectively?
Lilac Squarmaus Oyster
Re: The collective unconscious
Date: 2023-08-07 06:29 pm (UTC)Seriously, I don't know of a specific term for such people, but it's a known phenomenon. In every society there's a majority who cling to the status quo and a minority who stray off in various directions. When the status quo becomes hopelessly dysfunctional, the minority on the fringe becomes crucially important, as they're the ones who have the chance to find their way to some more productive path.
Re: The collective unconscious
Date: 2023-08-07 08:54 pm (UTC)Shlomo Riskin
Lol you go off to do your own thing only to find a few years later everyone else is doing it after thinking you were a weirdo, it's just irritating!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 12:06 pm (UTC)In your opinion, what was the influence of Edgar Cayce in the history of esoterism in
America? In what way is his influence felt today, and do you have any particular opinion of
his work? Thank you very much.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:35 pm (UTC)For my part, I read quite a bit of his material when I was a teenager and found it rather more interesting than the competition. He's also in my initiatory upline -- one of his many students was Dr. Juliet Ashley, who was the main teacher of my teacher John Gilbert. I would have to revisit his writings to have any more detailed opinion of him -- it's been a long time -- but I don't recall spotting anything in his work that waved a red flag, and much of value.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 01:49 am (UTC)late 1800s, and she thought Edgar Cayce was the bee's knees. Thank you, it's
good to learn something more about him.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 12:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 12:42 pm (UTC)https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/241747.html?thread=42340435#cmt42340435
I meditated on this this morning, which has led to some questions. The idea makes sense in that if I am anxious about something, I can 'widen out' so that seeing whatever I am anxious about in a wider perspective helps reduce the anxiety.
However, especially when I was younger, I would frequently find that my "good" experiences would undergo something that might be similar. I would be having a great experience of some sort, completely caught in the moment, and then my mind would jump in and say, "hey, it's you that is experiencing this, and at some point this great experience you're having is going to be over and only a memory". I don't know if that is the same thing as 'making an experience the object, not subject, of awareness'.
So is the technique described in the original question meant to be used for negative emotions? It seems like my consciousness has it the other way around. Negative emotions often totally fill my awareness, and positive emotions get distanced.
This has me wondering whether a) that full in-the-moment awareness where the "me" sense is forgotten is a state that some spiritual practices are meant to recapture, or b) whether the goal is rather to see that both "good" and "bad" experiences are poles of the same thing, and spiritual practice is meant to teach one to distance oneself from them. Indeed, I now suddenly wonder if this is what is meant by detachment?
Many thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 01:11 pm (UTC)1. How essential is the rainbow wand for for example the Invocation of the Higher Self from CoP? To be more precise: it a ”boost” or a requirement?
2. Sometimes I see colored ”clouds” or cloudlike ”lights” during rituals. Not always but quite often. It is like my eyes loses focus and these ”light” or ”clouds” appear. Any idea what it is/means?
3. How often do you recommend doing the Greater Middle Pillar? (I have done the normal one +2 years)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:46 pm (UTC)2) It might well be an early stage of astral clairvoyance.
3) Once a week works well for many people. The other six days, do the ordinary version.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:14 pm (UTC)Defunct Traditions and Jungian Psychology
Date: 2023-08-07 01:35 pm (UTC)Thank you for this service you provide. I have two questions this week.
1) I recently came across a copy of The Craft Cup: Ritual Mysteries of the Goddess & the Grail, by Shadwynn (1994). As I think you know it is the primary theological and liturgical manual of the Ordo Arcanorum Gradalis, an eclectic Wiccan tradition combining classic paganism, esoteric Christianity, and Gnosticism using the Arthurian and Grail mythos. Before I was concerned it was going to be another example pop Neopagan slop. However, I'm so far highly impressed with its density (nearly 500 pages) and depth of content. I've been on the market looking for a Craft or Green Ray practice that would complement my studies and practice of esoteric Christianity and Hermetic Qabalah, and this book seems to fit the bill. As far as I'm able to tell this organization seems to be defunct, given your extensive knowledge of fringe occult orders do you know if this is the case? If the order is no more and I still wanted to practice the rites in this book as a solitary would that be acceptable? It has a "self-ordination" rite, but the issue of validity (as in "valid, but illicit") concerns me. Also, is it kosher to wake up a dormant egregore?
2) This may or may not fall under the scope of Magic Monday, but since you consider Jungian psychology to be a form of occultism in disguise I thought it was safe to ask. (And if it is off topic feel free to leave a blank space for the answer). Lately I've been contemplating the thought of perhaps going back to school in order to become a Jungian psychotherapist. It's one of the few professions I can think of that takes spirituality seriously, and if I became a non-stipendiary priest in the Independent Sacramental Movement the two vocations would dovetail with each other neatly. The present sad state of affairs in the university system is a concern, but I hate working for the corporation I'm employed in and desperate looking for a way out. What advice on this matter would you recommend?
Thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer. Have a wonderful day. May the blessings and protection of the Divine be upon you and your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Sanctuary of the Rose and Chalice.
Re: Defunct Traditions and Jungian Psychology
Date: 2023-08-07 06:53 pm (UTC)2) The difficulty here is that it's very, very difficult to make a living as an old-fashioned psychoanalyst these days. Most insurance companies won't pay for that kind of therapy any more -- they've been sucked into the pharmaceutical model, and it doesn't help that too many psychoanalysts got into the maintenance model of treatment, which means that you keep the patient sick as long as possible to get maximum income. Learning Jungian psychology is a very worthwhile activity but if your goal is finding a new way to make a living this may not be your best bet.
Re: Defunct Traditions and Jungian Psychology
Date: 2023-08-07 07:32 pm (UTC)2a) Academic psychology (and therefore the programs that would be training you if you seek a Masters or PhD) has almost entirely rejected Jung as anything other than an interesting historical footnote. The most widely-taught methodology of talk therapy is "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" or its variants. CBT isn't incompatible with Jungian understandings, but just know that you're gonna have a tough time finding teachers that take Jung seriously if part of your goals are getting the more prestigious credentials associated with psychotherapeutic practice.
2b) Depending on what locality you're in, there are a variety of licenses offered for things that might generally be called "therapy," and these will tend to draw different clients. One rule of thumb that I've heard both physicians and regular folks recommend to those seeking a therapist is to seek one out with at least the same level of education, or higher. In other words, if someone has a Masters degree or PhD, they should seek out a therapist that holds an equivalent degree. What this means from the therapist side of things is that having a higher level degree usually lets you charge more and usually means you'll be dealing more with folks with PMC-type jobs, whereas if you get a Licensed Social Worker certification or the like, you'll be more likely to deal with working class and poorer folks, which will have impacts on what kinds of issues you help folks deal with and how much you can make.
2c) All that being said, those folks who do take Jung seriously and practice professionally tend to be very outspoken and willing to educate folks. You might consider doing a web search for "[your city] cg jung" and see what centers, institutes, or the like pop up. For example, my city has a "C.G. Jung Center" that hosts classes, has a library, keeps up a list of local therapists who use Jungian methods, and so forth.
Whatever you end up doing, good luck, and I hope some of this helps!
Jeff
Re: Defunct Traditions and Jungian Psychology
Date: 2023-08-08 03:10 am (UTC)I want to thank both of you for the advice you have given me on these issues. I was afraid that we were fast approaching the point where Jungian psychology would be dismissed as "pseudoscience" by the establishment, I just didn't realize we arrived there already (wishful thinking?). It's hard being an intentional heretic when all the available jobs on the market makes us compliant or willing cogs of the Technopathocracy/Black Iron Prison. How are we supposed to stick it to the Archons AND put bread on the table? My apologies, I needed to rant or let me feelings fester. I'll just keep quiet for now and wish you both a pleasant and blessed evening.
Sincerely,
Sanctuary of the rose and Chalice
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 02:04 pm (UTC)Thanks again for hosting these Q&As. I've begun basic magical practice and have had some good results with divination so far. I'm also working on perfecting a financial day trading method using technical analysis. What types of divination do you think would be particularly good for improving my odds? I'm thinking of something that gives more yes/no type answers than the open-ended interpretations of systems like the tarot.
My aim isn't to use divination as my sole basis for trading, but rather to augment an existing method. Could geomancy (and your associated book) be of help here? I would be asking questions such as "will the movement that just started continue in the direction it's been going or will it reverse itself?" so something that's quick and reflects the short term is best.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 06:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 12:17 am (UTC)This is a rather synchronistic post for me to be reading at the moment. Might our host recommend a good book to get started with along this line?
93 93/93
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 01:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 10:50 pm (UTC)Enforcement, at least what I saw, works the same way as practicing medicine without a license. Most of the time, done on a small scale, there's no real enforcement because it's not possible to detect when it's happening. But when it's done by a big name, or someone gets a lot of money from it, then the law can, and quite often is, used on people who admit to using divination.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 09:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:55 pm (UTC)Securities markets can cause more wealth to exist in the future than would otherwise exist, by efficiently allocating things like resources, capital, labor, and shareholder voting attention, and providing legible and reduced-risk prices for making decisions about future production tradeoffs. Securities markets do this mostly by creating an economic mechanism where people who change an existing allocation or set of price signals in a better direction tend to get some of the wealth thereby caused, incentivizing them and making them more able to have such influence in the future, and people who would tend to change allocations or price signals in a worse direction tend to have less wealth afterwards and are less in a position to have such effects in the future. So, insofar as that theory works in practice, securities markets are distinct from things like lotteries.
Two weeks ago there was a discussion of someone who did do something in relation to lotteries, but it was okay because they weren't very invested in winning and their intention was that the winner be the person who needed the money, and if they won they donated the results to charity:
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/241113.html?thread=42219993#cmt42233049
The potential effects here are mixed. The supernatural effect is to make the "market" more efficient and wealth-producing in terms of people's personal circumstances. But there's still all the overhead of running the lottery that isn't really producing value as such. And, off to the side of this interaction across the lottery, there's still all the other people in the lottery losing money on the basis of false hopes, and those people's avoidable suffering and incremental ruin. Further up that thread, JMG says: "It's been my experience that when people play the lottery in anything but the most casual way their lives grind to a halt and any luck they might have had trickles away. That's true of any attempt to get something for nothing, but lotteries seem worse than most."
So, if you focus less on questions like "are these stock movements over the next little while going to be the equivalent of a winning lottery number?" and more on questions like "would my making this trade cause more wealth to be produced directly, and would that wealth go toward the right people?", you should be more protected from the negative effects of trying to make yourself one of the people that wealth goes toward.
If you do much applied math, one way to get a conceptual feel for this current of wealth-production-increasingness is to think about the gradients of the cost-to-go in a hypothetical optimal control problem describing all the variables in the market across time. (If you do much deep learning, this is sort of like the backpropagated derivatives of a deep network's performance, except instead of network layers it's points in time.)
Of course, the price signal structure in a market economy is only partially aligned with the interests and well-being of humans or other beings: market entities usually also represent concentrations of the usual incentives to profit in disregard of harmful externalities, subvert laws, keep people in the dark so they'll buy craved semblances instead of fulfilling substances, capture regulators, consolidate to get alpha from risk-buffering in a way that compounds advantages against smaller entities, and so on. For that matter, even just the goal of having more wealth is itself only partially aligned with human interests and well-being. So after magic that gets you wading sufficiently deep into the current of wealth-transferring effects of a securities market, eventually you would want to include balancing effects. But then, of course, there's still a reason why activities and people are specialized toward particular distinct purposes.
Another thing about markets, is, normally, there's a bit of a fight between market participants who did some of the groundwork to make wealth producible, to make sure they're the one the resulting wealth goes to. For example, if two sufficiently capitalized traders do the same analysis of fundamentals on an obscure company, the one who makes the corrective trade first is the only one who gets the money. That's partly a directly useful, meritocratic effect (that trade happening sooner is slightly better for everyone else, and people who aren't likely to be first shouldn't expend the effort) and partly a sort of necessity of the system (people shouldn't depend on castle-in-the-air schemes that make the market pay out in unsustainable ways, even if it would be "fairer" risk-wise). I don't understand what principles govern potential negative effects of divination to win that kind of contest, other than to say that it seems like a Martial situation.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 11:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 03:00 am (UTC)I don't have hardly anything in the way of relevant experience, I'm just highlighting some of the ways that principles I do know would connect in ways that other people might not know to think of.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-08 03:55 am (UTC)Now that I've thought about it a little more, I guess the first thing to check would be: if you imagined a typical situation where someone knew where a currency exchange market was going to be some months in advance, but didn't make the corresponding trades, would there be some small marginal effect where some small increment of extra wealth would tend to fail to be produced over the next few years, because resources (or liquidity?) weren't correctly allocated as much or as far in advance as they could have been, across the countries in question? (Then you could think through well-being effects after thinking through that wealth effect.) I don't have great economic intuition here, but probably the situation with countries will prove to be analogous to a situation where there were companies that had unusually fluid mechanisms for issuing or selling stocks.
Numbers in dreams
Date: 2023-08-07 02:05 pm (UTC)I wanted to ask what books you would recommend for numerology.
With adopting practices from your works and others and general steady work on myself in all areas, I gradually found over the last year that I now have more vivid dreams I could actually remember. In the past they vanished quickly like a puff of smoke.
This past week I had a dream where I needed to secure a meeting room and learned there was an unlisted one, so I spoke to the receptionist and was kind and she offered it to me, but I needed the room number and password.
To get the password it flashed on her screen very quickly so it took many tries, and a photo didnt work. During these delays we talked about my life, how things were going, I remember talking of my home and new city along with touching on finances. Eventually the number stuck and I wrote it down, with the receptionist repeating it to me a few times 22:3553. The separation was distinct in the string of 6 numbers.
Those numbers really stuck with me when I woke up and after googling them I found very many advertisement laden sites that were very repetitive and figured it would be good to read a bit about this myself as it seemed an almost too good to be true type occurrence!
Would you or any reader have any thoughts on the above numbers from their own research and work?
And also any recommendations, my library has quite a few I can reserve so hopefully this would help filter a bit.
Thank you!
Re: Numbers in dreams
Date: 2023-08-07 07:01 pm (UTC)http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1911__westcott___numbers.pdf
Re: Numbers in dreams
Date: 2023-08-07 08:12 pm (UTC)When does ensoulment begin?
Date: 2023-08-07 02:06 pm (UTC)I know you have said that with the population growing rapidly, souls now reincarnate sooner than they would have with a lesser population. Is/was there a typical length of time for humans? How about animals, especially dogs or cats, in other words, household pets?
Thank you for your reply.
Re: When does ensoulment begin?
Date: 2023-08-07 07:04 pm (UTC)2) In earlier times the assumption was that you'd spend three times as long between incarnations as you spent in your most recent incarnation. I don't know of any discussion of the reincarnation timing of dogs and cats, but it's likely to be similar.
Re: When does ensoulment begin?
Date: 2023-08-07 08:22 pm (UTC)I know in some parts of Vedic astrology they make a distinction between four different elements of birth time, so that the "fire" birth time corresponds to first emergence, the "air" birth time corresponds to the first breath, the "earth" birth time corresponds to final emergence, and the "water" birth time corresponds to the severance of the umbilical cord:
https://shrifreedom.org/ayurveda-2/birth-time/
Conceivably, someone who is born with an umbilical strangulation that isn't resolved quickly could have an unusual skew in their birth time. (Though in Vedic astrology a nuchal cord is considered a separate indicator of, besides a bunch of technical stuff I don't follow, heightened malefic power of the lunar nodes.)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 02:11 pm (UTC)I apparently have a significant anger issue. Not that I act out, but rather suppress--acting out isn't polite, after all.
However, my spouse is a "sensitive" and something of an empath. For some time now, she has been on the energetic receiving end of my inner life. I get embroiled, regardless of how I mask it, and she embodies physical symptoms. (Some of these symptoms have resulted in urgent care visits but the doctors find nothing wrong. This has occurred on multiple occasions, so I cannot doubt the connection between us.)
But my spiritual path is frustrating. I have been asked to give up a number of things--my idealistic views of "how things ought to be," alcohol, sex, associations and relationships with "bad energy" attachments, intellectualization, any sort of map--and I have complied. Not always willingly and certainly not always joyfully, but I have complied because it has been made clear (through multiple modes of divine communication such as synchronicities, dreams, encounters, and the like) that these things are necessary. But I am cast forth on this path with no text, not tools, no community, no tradition; just my goddess and the handful of prayers I've created. It is a solitary path and I suspect that is for a reason--namely, that I learn to experience existence without the tools I've been accustomed to using. I can understand this and still not be happy about it. (I pointed out to my spouse that Job was deemed righteous and he complained vociferously. Needless to say, she did not look kindly upon that example.)
There is a part of me that feels violated in that I am not allowed to have my feelings on the matter, regardless of how private I keep them. She, on the other hand, feels violated by my energy as she is the one physically manifesting the symptoms. The only solution appears to be to not feel what I in fact feel.
How can I deal with this anger and frustration? My relationship with my spouse is being significantly impacted but I also cannot lie to myself about my feelings around the frustrations I have with my path and pretend that I don't feel what I feel. "Using different words" has been suggested, but that falls under pretending in my book. Do you have any suggestions?
--Sepia Befuddled Dragon
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-07 07:09 pm (UTC)Do you have trouble with depression, by the way? Very often depression is a tertiary emotion -- people get depressed because they suppress their anger, and thus their vitality and joy. Getting through the depression to the anger, and then getting through the anger to the underlying emotion, is a path to healing.
Finally, if you need some guidance and structure for this, the Order of Spiritual Alchemy exercises are very good for this. You can find the introductory steps here:
https://octagonsociety.org/preliminary-lessons/
Desires reflected in the astral light
Date: 2023-08-07 02:16 pm (UTC)Am I correct that I need to be on my mental game, because if I let my thoughts stray to sexual desires behind the scenes, it'll reflect such scenes in the astral light and they'll echo back to me, making it worse? Do I need to try to not think of sex at all to keep this from happening?
I am already trying to exercise as much as possible in hopes of my sexual desires being funneled elsewhere. I also take care of myself in the bedroom but in recent months it hasn't been enough. Is there anything else I can do? Thank you.
Re: Desires reflected in the astral light
Date: 2023-08-07 07:13 pm (UTC)One exercise you may find useful to redirect your energies is in this book:
https://archive.org/details/rosicrucianmanua00plum
You'll find the exercise on pages 44-45. This works best if you have an active spiritual life of some kind.
Re: Desires reflected in the astral light
Date: 2023-08-07 07:28 pm (UTC)Re: Desires reflected in the astral light
Date: 2023-08-07 07:34 pm (UTC)