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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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

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG and commenters,
I hope you are well and healthy.
Thank you so much for this Magic Monday. I always learn a lot.

Some random questions:

1. What would be the best way to ritually greet, honor, and please our ancestors? Candles in front of portraits? Is there anything else we can do?

2. About Italian spirituality: are you familiar with the work of Giuliano M. Kremmerz (1861-1930) and his Fratellanza Terapeutica Magica di Miriam? What is your opinion about him and his esoteric work?

3. And also of Italian origin: the benedicaria?

4. Just one comment: there should be some magical or alchemical study about coffee and how it helps us to read and study! :)

Thanks in advance!

[boccaderlupo]

Not JMG, but...

2. Not hugely familiar with Kremmerz's work, but The Magic Door by Pantano has a good overview of Italian hermetic traditions, and he's included in that lineup.

3. My ancestral folk practice might arguably be aggregated under the umbrella of benedicaria, but my understanding is that this is just a loose term for a variety of different folk traditions.

Axé,
Fra' Lupo

[hearthculture]

I've benefited from the information and practices in Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by Daniel Foor.

His training is of the Yoruba tradition but the work is more broadly applicable and has influences beyond that tradition.

Wishing you well in your journey.

[ecosophia]

In a certain wry sense, you've achieved something notable here. I don't do ancestor work, I haven't gotten to Kremmerz yet (though I know his work has a good reputation), I haven't the least idea what benedicaria is, and coffee gives me migraines so I've never looked into it. Sorry!

[(Anonymous)]

Which Miriam does the Brotherhood reference? The sister of Moses?

[boccaderlupo]

Via Pantano:

The Fraternity of Myriam (or Miriam) is a sodality that practices a lunar-form of spirituality which includes the formation of a collective chain of initiants to exercise rituals designed to cultivate subtle energies for the purpose of distant healing. The Myriam practiced a sophisticated liturgy of rituals that engaged the use of sigils, ablutions, astrological observations, and fasting. The Lunar-based spirituality was intended to cultivate and exercise a maternal form of love (Myriam, Mary, and Isis are Lunar archetypes) or inner fire for the purpose of purifying and sublimating the four constituent bodies (elements or planes of being) of the Self: Saturnian (physical), Lunar (astral), Mercurial (psyche), Solar (spiritual), and held in balance by Hermes (consciousness).

Se legge Italiano, there are copies of Il Mondo Segreto available from various online bookstores, but I don't believe it has been translated into English.

[jprussell]

On 1) I light a candle to my ancestors (almost) daily, offer beer once a week, and offer worship to those who will have it and thanks to all. I don't currently have photos, as the first photo I got for the purpose was from my folks' wedding, and so had all of my grandparents in it, but obviously included my dad who is still alive, and apparently it's a bad idea to include pictures of the living. I also toast to and thank my ancestors whenever I give a drink offering to the Gods. Mostly I've just felt all this out, but I'm somewhat influenced by Galina Krasskova's Modern Guide to Heathenry and a book she co-authored with Raven Kaldera, Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner. If you are interested in Italian practices specifically, you might also check out folks who follow Roman/Hellenist Polytheism, and specifically veneration of the Lares and Penates.

On 4), wild speculation here, but I do know that when coffee was first being spread through the Islamic world, there were theological debates about its suitability, since it clearly changed how you felt, but in a way very different from alcohol. Obviously they went for it in a big way. Since much of western alchemy has roots in the Middle East, maybe that's a direction to look for discussions of coffee? From a more American (and negative) viewpoint, of course, the Mormons came to the opposite conclusion, and I assume there's some discussion of what they believe the spiritual downsides there to be.

Good luck on all fronts!
Jeff

[(Anonymous)]

Fra' Lupo
Thanks for indication. I did not know the book and not the author. Axé (or Asé) is Yoruba. A common greeting in Brazilian lands.

homeculture,
Thanks you very much!
I'm going to look for the book later.
I am quite familiar with Yoruba culture.

Anonymous, I suppose that would be another way to treat Mary.

Prussell,
Thanks for the considerations. This made me think that we don't have studies on the alchemical properties of beers in the same way. I go in search of coffee traditions.

JMG,
Thank you for the space and for the debate that is stirring!

[hearthculture]

Thanks Jeff for the book references, I've been looking for heathen works that have more ancestor practices.

Conjecture moment - I know that cacao was originally used in sacred settings. I also know that tobacco was a sacred plant. (An interesting tangent is that tobacco is used as a medium to send messages to higher planes which is interesting in that western culture uses it to complain and lament on work breaks which I believe is a potent, and not necessarily beneficial magical practice.) I would imagine that coffee, being similar in flavor and effects to cacao, and having been appropriated into a use similar to both cacao and tobacco, would be potentially -if not historically- a sacred plant.