Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for 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? A wooden disk. In the traditions of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose and the orders and systems related to it, the disk or pentacle is the emblem and working tool of elemental earth.  The disk is traditionally painted or decorated with a symbol the individual initiate considers sacred, whatever that happens to be -- I saw pentacles made by Christian initiates that had an image of Christ on the cross on them, for example, surrounded by Christian holy names and words of power. The disk can be used as a means of magical protection, imposing the unyielding solidity of the element of earth between the initiate and any hostile magical force

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With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- in other words, no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm curious about something, and am wondering if there might be an occult dimension to this. I've noticed a while ago that there is a sharp divide in the "LGBT" community, between the LGB, and the T. A lot of gay and bisexuals (myself very much included) have mixed or outright hostile attitudes towards transgenderism. Even many of us who support people's right to be trans are against a lot of things like puberty blockers and the like.

However, ever since the middle of the 2010s, it suddenly became very, very common to insist that the LGBT community was monolithic and start gliding over the differences between sexual orientation and gender; and suddenly it started to get hard to discuss the issues affecting the gay/bisexual community as opposed to the trans community. What was totally surreal is that on more than one occasion, people have stared at me blankly when I tried to explain to them that there is a difference between the gay community and the trans community, and then started repeating the same talking points. This has happened with both people supporting and opposing the "LGBT community". It's frankly been more than a little creepy.

Is there an occult dimension to the weird way that so many people seem to have lost track of the fact that there is a major difference between gay people and trans people, and that in some cases our interests and values are not identical?

[ecosophia]

I don't know of an occult dimension to it, but certainly a lot of people in recent years seem to have lost the ability to perceive any nuance in much of anything. That's tolerably common among people suffering severe stress, for whatever that's worth.

[(Anonymous)]

If it were merely extreme stress, then I'd imagine they'd lose the ability to see nuance in much of anything. However, I know people who have lost track of this difference but are perfectly capable of being very nuanced, insightful thinkers on other topics...

[ecosophia]

That's very odd.

[escorcher]

I'm no expert but it seems to be what happens when a sense of 'complex' self forms using perceived 'trusted' subcultures when no other anchor exists and emotions are high, which then get 'hardened'. Narcissist tendencies are definitely up in certain strata of western societies - in particular Id say too many screens make a house of distorted mirrors.

More ideas on this here:
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/a-mechanism-for-narcissism-part-2

[(Anonymous)]

There's only an occult dimension to it in so far as you're talking about the degraded magic of thaumaturgy, better known as advertising, astroturfing, propaganda, etc. A handful of billionaire oligarchs identified the most bombastically unhinged claims coming from the most unstable members of the trans community as their best weapon to keep all of us non-oligarchs fighting amongst ourselves in a state of impotent rage and confusion. Those billionaire oligarchs have, from the get-go, been bankrolling the very expensive media bullhorn that has been so incessantly amplifying extremist trans activists' messaging.

The ragingly resentful, far-flung fringe of trans activists never possessed anywhere near the money or influence necessary to magically corner all media-coverage of their tiny fringe issue all on their own. Their ability to cancel J.K. Rowling, a billionaire herself, was completely bought and paid for by other billionaires. Trans activists’ unhinged, divisive rhetoric is just what the oligarch ordered to keep the rest of us angrily focused on these pitifully gender-confused false enemies, rather than focusing our brewing discontent on the oligarchs themselves. For a very good article on their sponsors' tactics, I highly recommend:

https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/trans-messaging-is-too-sophisticated

Those same oligarchs were also looking for a way to delegitimize the gay community after our success over the marriage-equality issue. They were scared by our cohesiveness and inability to be co-opted, so they paid all the fees necessary to insert their black, brown, and pastel wedge into our coalition in order to get us fighting each other, before we could find a new issue that might unite us. Back in the day, LGB and T used to have had considerable overlap in their concerns; however, the only T concerns that have gotten amplified recently are quite intentionally those most in conflict with LGB concerns. Hopefully, the rapid implosion of the ESG and DEI weapons, which we are currently witnessing, will put a serious dent in the oligarchs' ability to weaponize their trans shock troops.

— Christophe

[(Anonymous)]

I would propose that this has a straightforward explanation as a political issue. The woke crowd has developed an inability to have a nuanced discussion about any topic, including the relatively new trans issues. It seems like trans rights has been swept up as the newest champion of woke ideology, probably as a means of keeping both people on the right and woke people riled up.

As a separate point, my own mother defined woke yesterday as "everything opposite to Donald Trump." I almost spit out my drink and moved the conversation away from politics.

[(Anonymous)]

I am trans and I would point out that there are trans people who have a real problems with the trans movement, especially with what is happening with children. The trans movement has changed a lot in the last 5 years and it has become unrecognisable to what it used to be and I think a lot of this has been driven by big Pharma,the establishment , NGO's like Stonewall etc and many trans people have been fooled into thinking they are on their side.

Anon 1