Magic Monday

[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, and at this point we've reached a genuine man of mystery, Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually. Nobody knows when Martinez de Pasqually was born or where he came from; what's known about him is that he showed up in southern France in 1754, taught an extraordinarily rich system of Gnostic esoteric philosophy and practice to a circle of pupils that included Louis-Claude de St.-Martin and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, and then sailed away to the Caribbean in 1772 and reportedly died there two years later. The image I've posted is one of the very few portraits of the man.

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With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

Sub-natural contamination

[(Anonymous)]

I find myself wondering about the internet, and varying degrees of sub-natural contamination.

I like your hypothesis that the internet is itself somehow possessed-- it explains its obsessive draw, the awful interactions, and the unseemly nature of so much 'content' floating about on the web. That said... is the internet special in that regard? I think it may be.

Look at writing, for example: take a typewriter, a fully analog device. Take a wordprocessor. There's no real difference in the writing experience. The editing experience, yes! Very much so! But just writing draft on a typewriter or a draft on a computer... having done both, I can't tell the difference in my work. If the subnatural realm contaminates, it's very subtle. While fashion and the general level of education have lowered the content of popular books to some degree, I think that's more recent than the use of computer word processors. You can't often tell when in the 1980s a particular author picked up a word processor by looking at their oeuvre, or at least, I cannot. (Occasionally the prose improves due to the ease of editing, or their production went up, or you see where they mentioned it in an interview somewhere or the end-notes of the book-- but in terms of "oh, there is now demonic influence in this author's works", I just don't see it.)

In fact, aside from the internet, I cannot think of where the contamination of the sub-natural is particularly obvious. I can list many counterexamples OTH where the introduction of digital technology hasn't changed much at all. And yet! The shift from letter writing to Usenet and BBS immediately led to new heights of piracy, pornography, and the invention of the flame war. I don't see that dramatic shift anywhere else. Maybe I am missing something. Does anyone have other examples?


If you can agree (at least provisionally, hypothetically) agree that the internet is the real problem, not the underlying microchips, that leads to a few (very speculative!) questions:

1) Might it be possible, if the whole thing does not come crashing down, to exorcise the internet, or perhaps later on to exorcise what's left of packet-radio etc networks people might put together?

2) Any guesses if the possession will be able to move to isolated machines as the great network comes crashing down? (My intuition is we'll get more gremlins, but that's about it.)

3) Is there any protection one might put on a computer to keep the subnatural influence of the internet spilling out into it? I'm sure a personal protection ritual will do much to keep the gunk off the practitioner, but not every member of a household will have such practice. Dunking everyone's phones in a bucket of holy water will surely fix the problem, but not in a way they'd be happy with. Is there anything of that nature (via natural magic or religion) that might be accessible without years worth of occult practice?

[pleiadesdreaming]

I do a lot of active imagination/ scrying in my practice with the purpose of deepening my prayer life and exploring my unconscious. While I was doing the latter, I met a friendly warrior clad in animal skins who urged me to strengthen my mind and body and gave me a totem? Amulet? To help- it was a skull and feather of a bird prey as far as I could tell. Before accepting it, I carefully looked it over and basically scried (spelling?) Within a scry to see what this totem was about. The planet Mars seemed to have blessed it. So my questions:
1) what effects would an astral totem like this have versus a physical one?
2)are there things I could do with it that I couldn't with a physical one?
3) besides treating the totem/ amulet with respect, are there any guidelines that can help me handle this well?

Thank you

[(Anonymous)]

I've been thinking about material use for the statues on personal altars. If you feel there's no way in which it could matter, why-- reply with that and skip the rest of my post.

I don't know, and certainly would never seek to limit a god or spirit who is beyond my full conception, but! I suspect that some materials just as they have a certain feeling to our weak astral and etheric senses, might be more attractive to certain divine or spiritual entities one would wish to attract to an altar. (I'm working here in the conceptual framework common to Hinduism and ancient paganism that the statue on the alter/in the temple is in some way inhabited by the god depicted.)

Would you want to posses a hunk of plastic? My first reaction was: no, gross! Upon further reflection, well... maybe, if it was suffused with the love and prayers of a supplicant, that could make up for the plastic-y-ness. Perhaps a statue made of plastic in a worshipful way is more pleasing to a god than a stone or wooden figurine created only out of the profit motive. Gods are individuals of course, and de gustibus non disputandum est, so I suppose the only answer can be found in prayer... but I wonder if you've put any thought into this, or noticed anything in your practice?

(Question is for JMG and any commenters who feel they've something to add.)
Thanks!

Influence of events of objects

[(Anonymous)]

(1.) If a calamity happens in a home, can the furniture in the house bear the residue of it?

(2.) If so, what would be the mechanism for this? Is it because an 'entity' might be attracted to the negative emotions surrounding the event, or is more of an ‘energy/force’ thing?

(3.) How to remove such an effect from a piece of furniture?

(4.) Is this topic covered in one of your books?

Thank you very much.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,
I want to take advantage of the new moon on Wednesday to integrate some daily activities to help maintain and improve the balance in my life. And i wanted to check with you to see if i am doing anything obviously wrong.

Background: I am 58 single and childless and have previously struggled with a lack of meaning and purpose in my life. I have been very close to my parents; I would go up every Sunday and cook them dinner for at least the last 10 years. Dad died last August, and we buried Mom last week. ( they had long good lives surrounded by people who loved them, so there is no real tragedy to their deaths.)

What i am planning on doing is 4 types of daily activities corresponding to the 4 elements to help maintain my balance in life.

for Air: Start back up doing the Sphere of Protection. ( then over time add in daily meditation and daily Sacred Geometry readings.)

For Fire: daily exercise (I am currently exercising ~4-5 times a week, so just a slight extension.)

For earth : Set aside 28 minutes every day for cleaning and maintaining my house and yard. (thanks Kimberly Steel for the idea of turning house work into a spiritual activity.)

For Water: cook for myself daily. I love to cook but it is hard for me to do it just for myself.

The only activity i am unsure of is the water exercise of cooking daily. (any other suggestions for a water themed daily exercise? )

Other than possibly doing too much too soon ( Sphere of protection, exercise and cleaning should not be a problem to do daily.) do you see anything problematic?



And thanks again for all the help you have provided, you are a big positive influence in my life.

Summoning Demons

[(Anonymous)]

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis recently had a "family friendly" demon summoning ritual.

In addition to the public ritual there was a phone number for texting the word "SUMMON" to contact the demon Lilit.

Details available here: https://alphanews.org/walker-art-center-holds-playful-demon-summoning-session-for-families/

Do you think this sort of thing is dangerous?

Is this an indication that we are engaged in spiritual warfare?

this week‘s honoree

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning/afternoon/whatever,

Hope you all had a pleasant weekend.

Funny about Martinez de Pasqually‘s name - why did he have (or choose? ;-) ) French, German (Joachim) and, presumably, Spanish elements in such a mixed up combination?

But the name made me curious… :D

Do you happen to know if any of his teachings are available in written form, in English or German? Archive.org only seems to have a French book, and I‘m afraid my French is not up to the task.

Thanks, as always, for having us over, and for patiently answering all the question. I learn a lot each week!

If you would have them, my blessings to you and to your wife, and may your week be pleasant and productive!

Milkyway

Unifying intentions

[hearthculture]

I understand that clear intention- better yet clear, focused, and singular intention -is a powerful force.
Through various work I now recognize that my advancement toward goals has been stymied by divided will. For example, though I'd like to be more financially secure, that intention has often conflicted with and "lost" to my intention to be a present parent and partner, my intention to be sensitive to my environment and its needs, and my commitment to listening to my body and spirit and what feels "right."

Are there traditional methods (magical, psychological, or otherwise) by which to unify seemingly divergent intentions? Third-way thinking is of course useful here, and I've wondered if it would be enough to qualify an affirmation (though that likely muddies its power,) i.e. "I work with integrity to earn more than enough to care for my family while having enough time outside of work to enjoy life with that family."
That seems to hit the marks, but it certainly would be a complex intention for a magical working and doesn't have the clarity of "I find opportunities to earn more." (The opportunities I've found with that have often been ones I wouldn't take.)

I recognize that this prioritization is deeply personal and a central question to the living of life, and it will continue to be a topic of mediation and journaling. I am asking in hope of adding to my toolkit - techniques or books/works that explore or address this conundrum.

May you and yours be blessed, JMG and Commentariat.

OSA Preliminary Lesson 2: The Law of SHame

[(Anonymous)]

I’m working on the OSA Preliminary Lesson 2 – The Law of Shame. A lot more has come up for me on this than I was expecting. Nearly all of it comes from feeling shamed because of things that other people did to me. I’ve taken this type of shame to come under Step Two, as it wasn’t directly my actions that lead to the feelings of shame.

Step Two says the for each thing that makes you feel ashamed to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is it about the thing that makes you feel ashamed?
2. When do you first remember feeling ashamed about it?
3. What effect has feeling ashamed about that thing had on your life?
4. What would you have to do to stop feeling ashamed about this?

I’m having no difficulty answering questions 1 through 3, but when it comes to question 4, I’m completely stuck on what to answer.

The lesson goes on to say, “Your spiritual growth and your ability to live life to its fullest depends upon your ability to resolve your issues of shame.”

My questions are:

1. Is Step 2 the right step for addressing this sort of shame?
2. What sort of answer is question 4 expecting?
3. How can I approach answering question 4 in a way that that might help to resolve my issues of feeling shamed because other people's actions?
4. Can the Breath of Acceptance be used when working through the preliminary lessons, or should that wait until starting the 0/1 Octagon Society lesson?

Energetic Purge

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

First off, thanks so much for such a wonderful resource and for giving your time to answer these questions!

1. I was inspired by your articles on the Rising Call and introduced this to my morning rituals. I found that the next 7 days were rather difficult with low energy, bodily indulgence, and a single case of “the runs” but otherwise perfectly healthy. My routine and diet has otherwise been as normal so I can’t blame it on something on the material plane. I wonder if this might be some kind of etheric purge of sorts and would be interested in your thoughts. From day 7 onwards things have felt much better.

2. A neighbour in the community has recently started offering sound baths with Tibetan singing bowls and we attended a session that left me feeling anything but relaxed. I was quite still through the whole session as I tried to relax into it but found my whole body coursing with an explosive energy that was calling me to get up and jump around. I had an awful sleep that night too and couldn’t really settle at all. Again, might this be some kind of etheric blockage being cleared for me? It’s not something I’ve felt before (even at other sound baths)

3. Lastly, I am curious to know if the practitioner can actually cause harm when performing sound baths and the like. I’m sure the intention is for healing and the resonance of the bowls will contribute to that but I couldn’t help but feeling worse and more out of alignment after the session..!

Any insight would be gratefully received. Thank you so much.

AS

A question

[(Anonymous)]

I'm wondering if you or anyone else here has seen the Hellier documentary or brushed up against the "goblin" phenomena it describes and records.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,

My siblings and I have just sold our childhood home. It is a house that great misfortune has been experienced in over several generations of our family. Even the selling process was bedevilled with the most outrageous sequence of legal issues. Irrational as it sounds, I started to get the feeling something was hindering the sale. After 2 years we finally closed the sale today.

Could you recommend a suitable ritual or ceremony for me to break any non-physical link I might have with this property. I do not have access to the property anymore.

Thanks as always this forum,
Dermotok

Energy Healing

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I'm up to Lesson 21, "The Mental Sheath" in "The Occult Philosophy Workbook". It's finally dawning on me that just because we humans have a material, an etheric, and an astral body, this does not mean that those bodies are in equal stages of development. There's plenty of room for improvement, especially in the etheric and astral bodies for the vast majority of us, never mind the mental sheath that we are tasked with developing into a body. I'm in awe of the fluidity of "bodies". It truly isn't one and done, collect your prize, and move on to the next just like that. This is an immense, multi-layered, multi-dimensional adventure. "Moving target" seems to fit.

As this fine book is my meditation fodder after empowering my Healing Hands in the morning, it has me wondering which body/bodies do practices such as Healing Hands and Reiki assist in building within the practitioner? My thought is the etheric body. Maybe the astral as well, as symbols and visualization are involved.

After the death of the practitioner, does the effort made in life carry over to greater healing skills in a future life? Are there any benefits from this during the time between lives? If so, what might those be?

Thanks as always,
OtterGirl

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,
Recently I had an idea for a version of the SOP that would invoke the Four Kings in the cardinal directions. Would you consider that ill-advised?
Thanks very much

Almuten figuris

[(Anonymous)]

When one learns the planet associated to their almuten figuris/HGA, Does that mean the highest scored planet holds the most energy/influence on a person? In sprirtual practice are you essentially working to balance them all out?

[(Anonymous)]

"Have you ever met people who didn't practice any healing modality, but their presence and their touch just seemed to radiate healing energy?"

Yes! And I want to be one of those people. I cannot think of a better aspiration for myself. If it takes a few lifetimes, no worries.

Thanks JMG, for the clarification and encouragement. At the ripe old age of 64, with your help over these past many years, I feel as if I'm just beginning to get my bearings on a much bigger picture. What a long, strange trip it has been...

OtterGirl

[(Anonymous)]

1) A rather technical question: I am finding it problematic to understand sublimation / degradation in the sense that I find it hard to imagine to (physically) dissolve physical matter and put it back together on the astral plane, for example. Yesterday during meditation the thought occurred to me that maybe it's not about sublimating/degrading the matter of any plane (at least not for a tiny human being) but sublimating/degrading configurations of matter?

2) A more personal question: The veil that separates "me" from remembering memories of past lives, perceive beyond the physical senses has always been translucent to some degree. After starting regular spiritual practice, it seems to have become slightly more translucent, which I don't mind at all. Yesterday evening, though, I pondered your answer from last week about the lower/higher self, cosmic atom, etc. Out of nowhere there was an experience that I can only circumscribe with the image of a snail that quickly backs away into it's house when you put your hand or some obstacle close to it. It was basically the opposite experience compared to sudden glimpses of hidden realities. It seemed to be an automatic and rather unpleasant reaction. During the day, the snail has slowly left the house again, so to say. Is there anything you can say about such experiences?

3) More generally: The emotional intensity of memories comes with the identification with the content. How much identification comes with memories of previous lives? Is there, for example, a difference in the experience of painful memories of this life compared to previous ones?

Thank you!
Nachtgurke

[(Anonymous)]

In the scheme that uses seven planes of existence, it is said that only in rare cases something crosses from the three higher planes to the lower ones.

What are these circumstances?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

something struck me as I was performing various pentagram rituals (earth, water, etc) recently. How do they work? How does tracing the lines in the LBRP banish energy?

With thanks for your time.

Qs

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG,

Wanted to ask you a few things today.

1) I have never been formally checked for autism/aspergers, but like you, I've had a lot of trouble with emotions, both my mine, and being able to understand those of others. I ended up having a very cognitive style of problem solving, and my therapist also pointed out that it takes a lot of intense underlying emotion for me to start sensing how I am feeling (so for long time I use to not get angry easily but then completely lose my temper when other were acting poorly).

Interestingly, my birth chart has almost zero water elements, which someone reading it said can cause issue with dealing with emotions. (but I have a grand trine between my moon, sun, neptune and uranus, so I am able to manage without coming across as having aspergers, thanks to solid intuiton)

One question is, if a chart is very heavy on certain things (in my case, earth and fixed, no water), is the general idea in spiritual practices to focus on those elements in as they occur in life, or try to remediate the weakness (water)?

And is there a reason why a chart ends up being so lopsided?

2) I actually found out that the way this manifests for me is via elher danlos sydrome, which I am told causes my nervous system to not communicate effectively between my body and my brain. This actually explains a lot of things that have happened in my life, including health issues I had in childhood, and I posit, why my mind doesn't pick up emotions occurring physiologically from my body easily.

It's made me a lot more interested in the way the brain works through the nervous system with the body, and how the nervous system seems central to mind, emotions, instincts etc. I guess my question here is, from your learnings, how does the nervous system interface with the astral, physical, and etheric bodies?

Any readings you can recommend on this topic + maybe on how to improve nervous system function?

Q2

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry missed a question, I used L9 to ask about doing OSA work on my emotions, it was very positive. Would L9 be applicable to ask about say jungian psychotherapy, or some other signifier?

[pleiadesdreaming]

Another question- I've noticed that when I scry I tend to get tired out very quickly. How can I replenish the psychic energy expended? It makes me not only physically exhausted, but emotionally drained if that makes sense.

Also, are there any books that provide good guidance on sharpening scrying skills?

Masonry

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Greer,

This is not strictly magical but I thought it may be of general interest. I can move the question to the open post if preferred.

In a comment to another dreamwidth post you mentioned how valuable that you have found masonry to be in your life. I've been considering the idea of masonry for some time but as of yet haven't formed any lodge connection. If you have a moment:

1. Generally what benefits has masonry brought you?

2. My understanding is that the rituals in masonry are more formal than magically effective at this point. Do you feel that is so generally? Do you feel like there is still value in the masonic ritual work?

3. Finally, I know a full taxonomy of masonry would fill a book but for the confused could you perhaps outline the main types of masonry active in the US and any substantive differences between them?

Apologies if this is in any way too personal. I don't have personal connection to any masons and so any kind of first hand info would be helpful in knowing whether masonry would be a beneficial experience for me.

Thanks,
shimrod

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

You once said on Magic Monday that "Adepts have accomplished the Great Work of uniting the higher and lower selves." Is that the point at which the mental body is created? Or does the creation of a mental body come before that?

Luke Z

[(Anonymous)]

I've been mulling over something, and have formulated a hypothesis that, while it explains a lot of things, is deeply, deeply troubling, and would like to know if you can think of anything to add. It begins with the idea of Pluto as an overgrown comet; and that therefore, Pluto marks the intrusion of another system between us and the Central Stillness. It then builds off the idea of comets taking the souls of those who are severely imbalanced away to somewhere else.

Now, at some point then, those who still resonate with Pluto will need to leave to join the planet. Pluto, meanwhile, has two obsessions which currently seem to be leading to a lot of people dying: the first is the illusion of powerlessness (and those people being talked into suicide here in Canada seem to be falling victim to it) and the second is the obsessive pursuit of wealth and power (and there are a large number of people ruining their health with medical experiments in that pursuit); and so those who don't embrace their agency, or who seek control over the world, are going to end up dying messily between now and 2036.

The really troubling part of this is that it would, in a weird way, explain why there's been such a strong fear of death since Pluto took hold: if a lot of souls are about to be sucked away from our universe, then this would, presumably, be something a lot of people would sense; and this would even be, in the twisted sort of way I've come to recognize as Plutonian, the fulfillment of the promise of nothingness after death that plays such a large role in the Plutonian worldview...