Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's nearly 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've been tracing my lineages back as far as I can, and last week took my Martinist lineage back as far as they can be documented. The next step -- and it's the last step in the entire process -- involves a fair bit of speculation, but it's speculation backed up by some evidence. It's been suggested by some historians, Marsha Keith Schuchard foremost among them, that the mysterious Knight of the Red Feather who conferred the Templar lineage on Baron von Hund, last week's honoree, was none other than Charles Stuart, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of Scottish song and story. The claim is that in the years immediately before 1745, when the House of Stuart made its last (and disastrously unsuccessful) attempt to reclaim the British throne, Charles and his inner circle of supporters used various forms of clandestine Freemasonry to raise funds, engage in espionage, and gather arms and supporters for the planned rising. Baron von Hund's initiation was an incident in that process. Martinez de Pasqually, who was honored a couple of weeks back, also claimed to have a charter signed by Charles Stuart as the basis for his occult Masonic order. So it's possible that what lies behind one of the great traditions of Western occultism is a failed political intrigue that got picked up and repurposed by a couple of canny occultists. Stranger things have happened in the history of occultism.

...And with this, the rambling tale of the odd lineages that I've inherited comes to an end. Now I'll have to think of something else to use as illustrations to Magic Mondays!

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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.

With that said, have at it!

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

***Please note -- when Magic Monday is closed, IT'S CLOSED.  I just had to delete a flurry of attempted comments posted up to eleven hours after I shut things down. I do need some time to write and do other online chores, you know, so please don't keep trying to post after 12:00 am Monday night/Tuesday morning -- there'll be a new Magic Monday in a week, you know. ***

Comments

Re: The Line of Work for the WotGS

[ecosophia]

1) Only a very little, in the second instructional book, The Way of the Four Elements. If you want to add magic to your GSF work you can always use the methods from my books The Druid Magic Handbook and The Dolmen Arch, which are wholly compatible with the Golden Section work.

2) Yes, though that's primarily in the third volume, The Way of the Secret Temple. The energy work included in the initiate's version of the Sphere of Protection in the book you've got is preliminary to that.

3) Theosophists were obsessed by the notion that magic was all about evoking spirits. They were quite wrong, and a good close reading of Eliphas Lévi would have taught them that, but they weren't listening. No, the evocation of spirits is not very important in high magic. It's something you can do with the tools of high magic, but there are many other ways to do practical magic with those tools; in terms of the core of high magic, the work of self-transformation, the only spirit you're working with is your own higher self.

Re: The Line of Work for the WotGS

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you!

Can you please recommend a good introductory book on high magic?

I appreciate it!

Re: The Line of Work for the WotGS

[ecosophia]

Depends on what kind of high magic you have in mind, and how practical you want it to be. As a good theoretical overview, Eliphas Levi's Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic is hard to beat. If you want something practical, and are working in the Golden Section tradition, The Druid Magic Handbook is a good place to start, and you might also benefit from studying the FHR papers, which are available for free download:

https://octagonsociety.org/archives/fhr/

(Publish at your Discretion) blog promotion included.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I’m looking for answers about a subject I am definitely ignorant of.

I’m mostly Gurdjieffian and Tibetan Buddhist in orientation and have devised a personal approach to higher self development which you can find here:

to-be-able.blogspot.com

I am excited to incorporate the WotGS in my path. I love that the SoP works with the elements, but I am looking forward to work on the higher self, too.

My own approach (in the blog) basically identifies the higher self with the higher bodies: astral, mental, and divine in Gurdjieff’s system. Work on perfecting the higher bodies is the same as work on one’s self. In my next blog installment I plan on addressing the aspect of mind, as viewed by the Tibetans.

Interested in your thoughts on the blog, and its relevance to the GS system…

All the Best

Re: (Publish at your Discretion) blog promotion included.

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I'll put your blog on the stack of things to read when I have the time.