Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  

Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

With that said, have at it! 

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

Comments

Non-religious folk magic

[rationalist858]

Hello JMG. A couple of months ago, one of your readers here asked about removing verbal curses. You advised them to take a black candle, magically "download" the curse from the invisible worlds into the candle and let it burn. Although I haven't performed this ritual (haven't seen much of a need), I really like it in theory, and was wondering if you could recommend any books which contain sensible, non-religious folk magic like this. Hoodoo has good magic, but it's a little too religious for my taste. And none of the currently available books on candle magic have impressed me.

Re: Non-religious folk magic

[ecosophia]

Folk magic is heavily religious, because atheism is a habit of the urban intelligentsia -- that is to say, not the people who practice folk magic! -- and religious people reliably do the smart thing and explore the magical dimensions of their religious faith as a way to make their magic more potent.

Thus you're pretty much out of luck. If you're willing to study folk magic as it actually exists -- that is to say, with the strong religious element it normally has -- and then adapt it to your own set of beliefs, that would be an option, but other than that, I'm not at all sure what to suggest.

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG,

Last Monday you mentioned that ritual magic is, among other things, a way of developing one's "capacity for greatness." You also said that many (most?) never discover their potential for greatness and lead mediocre lives. But how are we defining "greatness?" Does it have to do with one's accomplishments? Or is it more along the lines of leading a fulfilling life, however the individual defines that? Your comments reminded me of a quote from the Zen teacher Kobun Chino: "Look closely and you will realize that you too are mediocre." While I'm guessing that might be true of everyone from a very zoomed-out perspective, I'll grant that some lives do seem less mediocre than others (mine is quite on the mediocre end at the moment.) What say you?

[ecosophia]

I didn't define greatness, and that's quite deliberate. One person's greatness may involve accomplishments, another's may not. You have a clear sense that your life is mediocre right now; fair enough. What would you, personally, have to do in order to feel that you'd achieved some level of greatness? Only you can answer that, and your answer will not be valid for anyone but you.

Drat! More Curses!

[wonderingmagic]

Interesting, I have a "curse" question too. I'm not skilled enough to have a clue about verbal versus other types of curses.

I've been reading your writings about magic and civilization frequently (not 100%) for years -- but I haven't committed to any formal practice yet -- can you advise me how to detect (and hopefully counter) whether I might be under a curse in the first place? I don't recall you discussing curses to any real depth on your blogs, only mentioning them in passing. I'll have to bare some personal details, but I'll try to keep it as succinct as I can. I'd like to think I'm more interested in _screening out the possibility_ of a curse, than "blaming" a curse for my own problems.

My understanding of what you're writing about magic leads me to believe that "random chance" doesn't play as much of a role in people's lives as people think; "luck" (good/bad) is not as arbitrary as we often believe. It's about subtle pattern recognition versus (intentional/unintentional) blindness.

In the first three months of this year I had several "unlucky" medical problems on top of each other, starting with a very sudden, out of the blue, near-fatal attack of Diabetic Keto-acidosis despite many years of eating fairly healthy and simply. Pretty much soon as I got out of the hospital I stepped on a used syringe at the beach (turned out to be nothing, but that was a stressful two months of waiting for AIDS and Hep tests) and subsequently was diagnosed with a double hernia despite little physical exertion. This comes on top of years of slow financial degradation; it's been 20 years since I've had a job that didn't turn into a nightmare, financially _and_ emotionally, after initially seeming promising. Never much luck with romance in my life, either, FWIW.

I find it unlikely that I'm the victim of intentional work against me by a practitioner (the "witch's curse" in pop fantasy). Obviously there could be a million ways that I create a pattern of self-sabotage ("bad luck") for myself, and I try my best to work on that with stoicism and persistence and your blog advice. But if I (as an outsider) understand your magical system correctly, I _could_ have attracted the interest of extra-personal malign forces -- perhaps as a result of my occasional nonserious dabble in magic: reading Crowley type stuff as an adolescent, or trying your TV/Pen Knife experiment lately, stuff like that on and off for a long time.

Could there be a hereditary curse, in your magical system? Both my parents seemed to have had more than their share of financial un-success and "random" medical ailments. I suppose that all three of our stories could be simply a feature of living in the twilight of a dying Empire. I'm quite aware that I enjoy historical "good luck" as a modern American middle class citizen: from drinking as much water as I want without a thought towards dysentery... to, visiting multiple foreign countries, blithely free from any orders to kill people while there. Still, within the context of the American middle class -- as Charlie Brown said, I never seem to get a break.

In short (if it's not too conceited of me), what magical advice would you give to Charlie Brown if he described his life to you? Charlie Brown may carry a poor pessimistic attitude around with him, but the fact that "by co-incidence" he ends up with rocks in his Trick-or-Treat bag while his friends get candy does indicate that forces of some sort are arrayed against him. If I were to seek specific advice on this from a local practitioner -- any tips (amplifying stuff I've read on your blog in the past) about finding sincere ones and avoiding charlatans?

If this is a deep enough subject for a separate column, I understand... just please don't leave me hanging long!

Re: Drat! More Curses!

[ecosophia]

Hmm. The magical advice I'd give to Charlie Brown would probably not be welcomed by him, and may not be welcomed by you. If you look over his cartoon life, you might notice that a huge number of his misfortunes were self-generated -- how many times did he go ahead and try to kick the football Lucy held for him, even though he knew she was going to snatch it away? How many times did he fly his kite near the kite-eating tree? As the saying goes, "the one common factor in all your problems is you." Except for situations where there's good reason to think you've come in for the attention of a hostile practitioner, it's most likely that what's going on is a combination of the ordinary troubles of human existence, on the one hand, and the effects of various dysfunctional habits and attitudes, on the other.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer,

I did the Small Cards Exercise from Learning Ritual Magic yesterday and being in the Southern Hemisphere I was wondering if I should change the Summer and Winter Seasons around? The reason I ask is that I had to 'force' the images for Winter in the North and Summer in the South while the Autumn and Spring sides were fine. When trying to focus on the thoughts and feelings for Summer for example, while facing South, thoughts of cold and wet kept intruding. Should I persist with the instructions as they were given or do I change them around based on my location

[ecosophia]

I'd say try it reversed and see what results you get.

Bankruptcy and Karma

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I have an acquaintance who has both student loan debt, which she does not plan to pay back, as well as a business bankruptcy.

The student loan was for a degree that proved worthless, and the bankruptcy was perfectly legal.

Karmically, is either debt still owed? I’d be very interested in your take on this.

Thanks for hosting Magic Monday!

OtterGirl

Re: Bankruptcy and Karma

[ecosophia]

I'm not one of the Lords of Karma, and I don't know the person in question, so my likelihood of providing an accurate answer is probably no better than yours!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG
You say that one should do the LBRP daily. What would happen if instead you replaced it with the lesser hexagram ritual? Would you get the same benefits?

[ecosophia]

Nope. It's a different ritual with different effects.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,

Could you work magic on yourself, e.g. to break a bad habit, for better health, to cure a phobia? If so, what would be the best way to go about it?

[ecosophia]

Yes, but you need to become a competent operative mage to do work of that sort. Thus what you need to do is to take up a functional system of magic, and study and practice it until you know enough about magic -- and about yourself -- that you can figure out how to do what you want to do.

It's as though you had a complicated chronic disease and decided to become a doctor in order to treat yourself. You could do that, but the best way would be to go to med school and learn medicine, so that you would have the knowledge and the background to treat yourself competently.

Planetary intelligences.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for magic Monday.

Is it objectionable to attemp contact with planetary intelligences outside of sequence advised by Bardon or Golden Dawn practices?

Does one need a base in a certain sphere to be able to reach the next one?

Re: Planetary intelligences.

[ecosophia]

That depends on what kind of training you've already done, and whether you've yet worked with planetary energies in any way. It also depends on what purpose you have in mind for the working. If you have something in mind in the way of practical magic, you can do a working to evoke a specific planetary intelligence for that purpose; if you want to awaken the whole set of planetary energies in yourself for the purpose of self-initiation, you're better off doing them in the traditional order.

[(Anonymous)]

By chance I came across the theories about people who regularly see the number 11:11. It involves angels, spirit guides and ascended masters. I don't see it regularly, but it reminded me I used to seek it out. Between the ages of about one and four I was fascinated by those numbers and didn't go to bed until the clock said 11:11. (That may seem late for that age but because of my weird sleep cycle, my mum was happy to go along with it as a considerable improvement.) Just wondering if it has any significance and if that number has any meaning in your system of numerology.

[ecosophia]

That's part of one of the New Age belief systems, and it's not one I've looked into. No, 11:11 doesn't mean anything in particular in the systems of number symbolism I use.

[(Anonymous)]

You've previously been dismissive of the concept of indigo children (and as an Indigo Starseed this offends me :) ). If you put lists of the supposed traits of indigo and starseed children next to lists of the traits of gifted children you realise it's just a rebranding exercise. Because of that they would only ever continue to be a tiny fraction of the population, not a whole generation. But my question is, in a more modest way than the indigo theory suggests, do outside forces ever mould people to fulfil roles those forces think need to be done?

[ecosophia]

Nah, if you put a list of the supposed traits of indigo and starseed children next to a list of those traits in children that will make them glossy spiritual status symbols for their parents, you'll get an even closer match! ;-)

As far as I know, nothing so clumsy is ever necessary, nor would it ever be appropriate. The human world is what it is, lurching endlessly between growth and decline, war and peace, love and hatred, intelligence and reality TV; it can't be saved because it was never lost, and outside forces don't intervene in it because the whole point of it is to give souls at the human level of spiritual evolution the opportunity to deal with the consequences of their own actions, and thus learn and grow.

Ecstatic Body Postures

[casmen900]

Good morning Mr. Greer,

You say the old, original druid practices are lost and what we have now is a revival which is being drawn from the insights of today's practitioners

Are you acquainted with Felicitas D. Goodman's research on ecstatic body postures, have you read her book "Where The Spirits Ride The Wind"?

I wonder if these techniques wouldn't be a way to reclaim old lost rituals. Kind of a window or 'time tunnel'to the past...

Re: Ecstatic Body Postures

[ecosophia]

Except it's not a window into the past. We have no way of knowing whether or not our nervous systems will respond to those postures in exactly the same way that the nervous systems of people ten thousand years ago did.

Trust me, all kinds of gimmicks have been tried in an attempt to recover scraps of the old Druid practices. When mediums were fashionable, people tried to get the spirits of old Druids in seances; when hypnotic regression became fashionable, people tried to remember their past lives as Druids; Goodman's methods could doubtless become the basis of another such attempt. What happens in every case is that what gets "recovered" is a precise fit to the beliefs and expectations of the people doing the "recovering." Since that's the case, we might as well be honest and go ahead and invent things.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,

If humanity moves to another planet, how would our magic change?

[ecosophia]

Nobody knows. Since our likelihood of establishing a colony on any other planet doesn't look good at the moment, nobody may ever know.

Geomancy

[casmen900]

Mr. Greer,


I agree that it is a waste of time to interpret a geomantic chart based on answers from a table but I am starting now so I use them to give me a starting point.

Today I cast a chart for the day’s outlook and I got Cauda Draconis as both Right and Left Witnesses which yielded Populus as the Judge.
A table classifies this judgement as “very evil in every aspect including death from sickness or in prison”.

Now I woke up today with a rather strong feeling that I must change my ways, look for another kind of life. That feeling of "do something man!"
So I was thinking if this judgement could be forecasting the death of the old me to bring forth the birth of a new one.

Am I tripping?
Should I get real and watch for black clouds, take extra care when I cross the street or drive a car?

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

If you really agree that it's a waste of time to interpret a geomantic chart based on answers from a table, why are you even asking this? Learn the meanings of the figures -- there are only sixteen of them, it's not that hard -- and you won't have this kind of problem.

Cauda Draconis for both witnesses, yielding Populus for judge, means that something is coming to an end -- that's what the figure means -- on a collective level, affecting you and other people. Maybe what it's saying is that the life you're living -- along with most other people in this society -- isn't fit for a badly behaved dog, and it's time for you to do something else with your life.

[(Anonymous)]

I like the sound of CO2 fertilization, where power plant or other industrial exhaust is scrubbed and ducted into greenhouses to make the plants grow and lock up the carbon. But if fossil fuels carry death energy does that mean instead of getting eco-tomatoes you'd get necromancy tomatoes? Or does feeding the carbon dioxide straight back into the life cycle revitalise it and get rid of the death signature?

On the Magic Monday illustration it looks like the lower face is saying something really condescending. :)

[ecosophia]

Good question. You'd have to have a competent clairvoyant have a look at the tomatoes.

"curse" update

[violetcabra]

a few weeks ago I mentioned a set of bad dreams, coincidences and intrusive thoughts that may have indicated some malefic magic being directed at me. After a profoundly creepy dream I decided that I had been being too passive during this affair; I made some additional protective amulets, did floor washes with protective herbs several times a week, and have vinegar evaporating in several cups around my room. The night before last I dreamt someone who had been directing negative energy, visualized as knives piercing my heart in the darkness, withdrew the knives and offered a heartfelt apology which I accepted in good faith. It appears that these measures are working, and it bears noting that my sourcebook for dispelling whatever hostile energies I was experiencing was The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic, which is, coincidentally for those who are interested, currently 20% off when purchased from the publisher with a discount code that one JMG has provided here: https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/24474.html ;-)

Re: "curse" update

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this. Malefic magic does exist, of course, and it's worth learning to sense its presence and respond with appropriate protective methods.

On Elementals, Fae, and Humans

[packshaud]

I think it is better to post this here than as a reply to an open post at the main blog.

I have a theory that some elementals, fairies, and humans are part of a continuum. Roughly, elementals evolve into fae, and those into humans, in what is not a one way path up. Thinking on what would be needed for this to work may provide explanations for a number of features in fairy folklore.

For starters, in principle it is not difficult to think of fairies as upgraded elementals. Add the missing elements to an elemental and you have a fay. But an elemental of a given type is blind to and incompatible with the other three elements. A path to connect an elemental with these would be fairies or humans with elemental imbalances. Hybrids may be way easier to form in discarnate realms than in our physical level. In case of contacts with an elemental of a single type, a human starts to develop an imbalance, in essence becoming an elemental by shedding the other elements away. But where the elements that the human lost would go to? I think they are not destroyed; instead, they merge with the elemental, which for all intents becomes a human soul, while the former human self goes to the elemental realm.

In less extreme cases, the elemental will become "more of a human," so to say. As such, the elemental becomes a fairy. Contacts with the fae also have the same risk of making a human "being sucked into Fairyland to never return." In the case of the infamous fairy food, I always thought of it as a formula that triggers the first death while preventing the second death.

Here we have two things explained, why we have so many encounters with these beings (there is an affinity), and how humans can become captives of Fairyland and the elemental realm. I want to stress that I believe the difference between fays and elementals is more of degree than kind, which would explain why it is difficult to tell them apart. It is also of interest that this provides a way for a human self to be downgraded into a fairy or an elemental. I always thought that the narrative of the one way path up into Gwynfydd reeks of eternal progress. This possibility of fall also leads to another feature of folklore, that sees the faeries as fallen angels. That might be the way a mind trained in the ways of Christ would understand and perceive a fallen human. Others would equate the fairies with the dead, that is, with what was perceived as former humans.

Now let's consider another broad folklore theme, "fae are in a permanent state of decay, and they need contact and intercourse with humans to inject new life into their faltering bloodlines." If we are dealing with a cousins continuum that would explain a lot in both ways, of problems that can arise from this (large servings of taboo included free of charge), and how the inherently unstable fae would benefit from communion with humans. Fae and humans hybrids would be much more stable, and highly desired.

The failures in Fae glamour illusions, where there is always a telling flaw, may reflect our perception of them as incomplete humans.

Another thing to ponder is that "contact" can occur in many degrees; for example, as possession. Or changelings. The higher self of a baby has a looser connection to the physical body than an adult, and hostile takeovers are a possibility. I guess Dion Fortune would describe these as the work of Left Hand Path fays.

Speaking of good old Violet, I suggest everyone to read chapter seven of her Psychic Self-Defence book, "The Pathology of Non-Human Contacts," with this "theory" in mind. Actually, my own reading of her book a couple of days ago was the final block that made me connect all these pieces together.

To end this as a question, what do you think about it?

Re: On Elementals, Fae, and Humans

[ecosophia]

Hmm. It's at least worth exploring.

spirit animals

[(Anonymous)]

Any thoughts on spirit animals? I was thinking about this last night and it occurred to me that everything I had ever read about 'everyone has a spirit animal [if not an entire menagerie] and you can find it by [insert everything from meditation to pulling cards out of your...hat...]. My knowledge of native cultures is meager, but I can't think of any that say everyone has a spirit animal, and I don't know of any who assume what is true for their tribe is true for the whole planet. With older European cultures it sees animals are associated with particular families, not necessarily individuals.
I'm also unclear what exactly you're supposed to do if you have one. A depressing amount of my information, I'm realizing, comes from popular new-age-pagan stuff from the 80's...

Re: spirit animals

[ecosophia]

What I've seen about "spirit animals" comes from the same New Age sources you recall, and as far as I can tell it's not based on anything real. Certainly in those Native American traditions I've looked into (via academic sources only -- quite frankly I'm too proud to join the Wannabee Tribe, or even risk being mistaken for a member), you don't "have" a spirit animal, or a spirit guardian at all (because not all of these take animal forms by a long shot) -- if anything, the spirit "has" you. I always figured the whole "spirit animal" business in the New Age scene was an unusually cloying example of the ongoing quest for pseudospiritual status symbols among the bored well-to-do.

Spiritual practice

[(Anonymous)]

What do you hold that an ecosophical spirituality is actually for? I do not mean as opposed to what it is against: that is clear--planetary death is worth being against. But since you have used Stoicism as a method of dealing with hard times, why is that not a sufficient practice? Why magic, and what it is for? Balance? Health? Feeling clean, like taking baths? Or something ineffable and incommunicable?

Re: Spiritual practice

[ecosophia]

The basic thesis of ecological spirituality is that human beings in industrial societies are like plants that have been uprooted, and kept more or less alive by having their roots soaked in water dosed with cheap commercial nutrient mixes. We are only half alive because we lack a living connection with the world of nature. The point of a ecological spirituality is to become fully alive, to participate richly in the life of the biosphere on all its levels, including the nonphysical ones, and thus to heal the "sickness unto death" that pervades contemporary industrial culture and its inmates.

Twin flames

[guillem66]

Jmg,

What's your take on the "Twin flames" matter? Do you find the concept sound or usefull in some sense? Or is simple make believe?

Also, in my present situation, im reminded of something you said once, about learning to choose not to get things you crave or yearn to have.What advice you can offer in this matter?

Many thanks,

Guillem.

Re: Twin flames

[ecosophia]

It's another version of the old "soul mate" theory, which mostly functions as a pick-up line in New Age-themed singles bars. As Dion Fortune pointed out, it's really quite remarkable how reliably somebody's "twin soul" turns out to be married to someone else. No, I don't find it sound or useful.

I was speaking, in the comment you mention, about ways of training the will. If you crave something, and you have the ability to get it, one effective way to train the will is to deliberately not get it, and don't tell anyone. The latter is crucial; an embarrassing number of people turn self-discipline into an opportunity to posture in front of others.

I'm reminded of a guy I knew many years ago who was doing the faux-Buddhist self-discipline thing, complete with the classic no-ego ego trip ("I'm more egoless than you are!"). He went so far as to boast (in a very humble tone of voice, of course) that nobody in the group he was addressing could name an austerity too severe for him to do. I said, "I know one." He asked me to tell him, and I told him to gain five pounds and keep it on for a year. He lost his cool completely, because of course he realized what I was saying -- that the one thing he was utterly unwilling to give up was his vanity.

This is why perfect silence about the training of your will is so important. Let nobody know what you're doing -- and that in itself will help you build a powerful will.

Occult practices when taking public transit

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG. Thanks again for fielding and generously answering such a plethora of occult questions every Monday. I, for one, have learned oodles from the Q&As!

If I recall correctly, you once mentioned that you quietly and ‘invisibly’ perform your rituals when taking the train and none on board is the wiser. Both before and after having read that comment, I have tried activities while on board a commuter train: primarily discursive meditation and the druid’s egg. I’ve even tried the meditation AFTER creating the druid’s egg. While I have found the druid’s egg exercise to be fairly productive (despite the cramped physical space that I am dealing with), I have found discursive meditation to be fruitless most of the time and at best mediocre. I suspect that the mental chatter of the 150+ people who are sharing the train car with me (all, of course, glued to their i-thingies) to be a major interference; and/or the fact that the train so tenuously “grounded” with the Earth to be the culprits.

Am I on the right track (sorry for the pun) re: the explanation? Or is something else going on that makes such meditations-while-commuting lacklustre?

Ron M

Re: Occult practices when taking public transit

[ecosophia]

Meditation on a crowded train takes practice, and if you're unusually sensitive to other peoples' thoughts, it can be very hard. I mostly meditate on trains when I'm traveling a long distance, and so have a little room in a sleeper car -- that's actually a very good place to meditate, at least in my experience.

[(Anonymous)]

How do logographic writing systems like those of east asia differ from our alphabetic system in terms of magical properties?

[ecosophia]

Good question. You'd have to research the magical systems of several different logographic cultures and compare that with those of several different alphabetic cultures to have a good shot at generalizing. I haven't done this, so am not qualified to make a guess.

Alternative/energy medicine for fatigue

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG.

I’m starting to realize that sleeping 9-12 hours per day, becoming sleepy after many foods, suffering chronic constipation and requiring way more clothing and/or enviromental warmth than my peers is probably not normal. Of course, I have had the usual medical exams done and they haven’t shown anything unusual.

A couple of years ago, I used to do an energetic meditation consisting of inhaling white astral light from Kether, letting it fill my aura and a couple of lineage-specific details. When I was doing this meditation regularly, I had more energy, my vision improved, and my body smelled nicer. I’m no longer a member of the school which taught this meditation, so I probably shouldn’t go back to practicing it.

Based on what I’ve described, what course of action would you recommend? Taking up the Middle Pillar, 8 Brocades, Tower of Light, Embryonic Breathing? Or, perhaps I should find a good practitioner of TCM to diagnose me first?

P.S. As I’ve said, I have had medical tests done, and also tried following conventional medical advice for these problems, so your response will not be taken as medical advice. And I’m not even from the USA...

Re: Alternative/energy medicine for fatigue

[ecosophia]

Er, this isn't Medical Monday, you know. If you want to ask questions about your health, you need to talk to someone who's qualified to deal with that subject. I'm not. I'm also not qualified to advise you about your legal affairs, your love life, or the blocked drain in your kitchen sink!

Daily ritual.

[churrundo]

I realized after your last reply that I was having a major confusion between the polytheist lbrp and the SoP! So, I feel like it's early enough to correct my course and get on with the Golden Dawn rituals you've been sharing. Now, with the restriction of four letters tops in the names of the deities, i looked up which ones I could use, and I found Zeus, Hera, Ares, Leto and Maia. I need another god... Any help?

Re: Daily ritual.

[churrundo]

Not sure if the other comment I wanted to post did so successfully, if it did, feel free to ignore it and answer over here. So my question is, can you tell me what advantages do the druidic and GD systems have over each other? I mean, it feels like a decision as important as the university where one wants to study. As someone who knows both, what would you say to someone who's choosing between them?

OIW Ritual

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings:

From The CGD page 273, At "Seventh, set aside the incense & perform the Analysis of the Grand Word."

Should one do this back at the center of the ritual space facing east (as in the beginning of the ritual) or at the southeastern corner of the space (continue there where one ended from the previous instruction)?

Thank you

Re: OIW Ritual

[ecosophia]

Back at the center of the ritual space facing east.

[youngmanontv]

Thanks so much for doing these Q&As!!

I'm wondering what you think about walking meditation versus sitting meditation. I've been practicing discursive meditation along with my progress in the SOP, following your guidelines in the Druid Magic Handbook and I find when I sit my mind wanders and I spend quite a bit of my time following the train of thoughts back to my theme.

However, if I meditate on a theme while walking along a trail in the woods where I live I have no trouble staying on theme. I can spend a solid 20 minutes focused and go back to my journal with a very productive result. While sitting I constantly feel tension and shift posture and can never get to that relaxed state, but after a walk I feel none of that, just plain good in my body and my thoughts go where I want them rather than straying.

Do you think I ought to keep at sitting and working with that until I can get better results or should I use my walking as part of my daily practice since for me it is already working very well?

[ecosophia]

Walking meditation is entirely traditional -- Bishop Joseph Hall's books on discursive meditation, which are a major source for the practice, treat it as an equally valid approach to sitting meditation. If you want to incorporate meditation into magical work you'll have to make some adjustments, or learn to do sitting meditation in ritual well enough to get by, but if that's not a concern, don't worry about it.