ecosophia | Magic Monday

It's just before 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 1.1 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 image? I field a lot of questions about my books on magic these days, so I've decided to do little capsule summaries of them here, one per week. The book on the left is the current edition of my fifth published book, The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic. I got tired of the torrent of wildly inaccurate books on herb and stone magic, and decided to write one based entirely on medieval and Renaissance sources -- granted, it helped that I'd gotten fairly good at reading Latin by the time I got to work on it. I wrote this before I studied hoodoo with Cat Yronwode, or it would have had much more traditional American conjure in it. It's still a solid book, and one I use myself whenever I need to look up the magical properties of an herb or what have you -- and it's the oldest of my books that's still with its original publisher, for whatever that's worth. If you're interested, you can get a copy here if you live in the US, and at your favorite bookstore if you live elsewhere.

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~~With that said, have at it!~~

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It doesn't have the negative associations I get with the whole Xmas glurg, and has many positive associations. Family, food, music, friendship. I want to extend my blessings to any and all who will accept them for a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Though I think of the bardic arts often, all throughout the year, the dark half of the year is a time when I often want to return to my love of folk music, and the folk music revival. There is something about the Autumn and the Winter that makes me want to trace the roots of the tree of song back along the lines of transmission, into the earth and the deep waters below.

Music has been a continuous, and often magical influence in my life. At certain times in my life, when I needed extra help, a song has come into my mind, and I have been able to sing it, and have the help I needed to move further along my path of fate and destiny. One of those songs was "Now Be Thankful" by Fairport Convention. The lyrics are by David Swarbick and Richard Thompson.

"When the stone is grown too cold to kneel
In crystal waters I'll be bound
Cold as stone, weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know
When the fire is grown too fierce to breathe

In burning irons I'll be bound
Fierce as fire weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

When the stone is grown too cold to kneel
In crystal waters I'll be bound
Cold as stone, weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know"

To me, this song gives strength, with its reference to the wheel of fate, and the hardships of life down here on Earth. Yet even when we are weary of the wheel, bound among the elements, there is something within us and beyond us that yet can bloom. The rose, here the rose of the western mystery tradition, the rose of the Rosicrucians, does yet bloom and imparts its beauty, even as we are wary of the thorn.

When I listen to this song, and when I sing it on my own, I like to remember those times when the wheel of fate has turned in my favor and remind myself of all the good things here below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFi9qjCOf_U

From JMG and the commentariat, if any are willing to share, I'm curious if there are any songs you have found yourself drawn to at key times in your life, that turned out to have a stronger power than "just a song"?

Justin Patrick Moore

Thank you for this!

Most of the songs that have been important to me in that way tie into highly personal events in my life, which I don't really want to discuss in a public forum like this one. One that isn't quite so personal is John Denver's piece "The Eagle and the Hawk;" during am unusually miserable period in my early teens, that helped me focus on the future and keep going:

"I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky.
I am the hawk, and there's blood on my feathers.
But time is still turning, they soon will be dry.
And all those who see me, and all who believe in me
share in the freedom I feel when I fly.

"Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops.
Sail o'er the canyons and up to the stars.
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
and all that we can be, and not what we are."

It was a potent incantation and I still get a rush when I play it -- not least because I can look back now and realize that I've achieved every single one of the dreams I had back in those days, even the ones I was sure were forever out of reach.

John,

Thanks for sharing. I understand about not wanting to share certain songs, due to their personal connections. I have several more that I'm also keeping to private. I do appreciate you sharing John Denver's incanation (I always loved his Garden Song that he sang with the Muppets).

As I listen to the Eagle and the Hawk, it's great to know this helped you along on your own path. I'm glad all of those dreams have come true for you. It's interesting to think of how songs can act as spells, for the composer and singer on one level, but hiding in plain sight until they reach the listener and listeners who activate that song.

Justin Patrick Moore

A happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you as well, and thank you for sharing this song! I've been poking around folk music lately, as it sometimes seems to better mesh with the spiritual directions than the kind of music I traditionally listen to.

As JMG said, most of my "whoah" moments with songs are pretty personal, but here's a slightly different approach: I found "Sunne" by Wolcensmen via the Survive the Jive youtube channel, which uses it as its theme music, and now every morning, I sing the lyrics as a prayer to the Goddess of the sun in my tradition, so I suppose you might call it a hymn:

"Hail, hail Sunne
Howe rising from below
Hail, hail Sunne
Shine bright so we may grow!

Hail, hail Sunne
Light up the farthest shore
Hail, hail Sunne
Steer us forevermore!"

Cheers,
Jeff

That's a very fine hymn Jeff! Thanks for chiming in.

I find that some of the music from the Norse neopagan tradition has a lot more umph to it, than new music made for those working with Celtic deities (Damh the Bard being a notable exception.)

As for different musics meshing better with spiritual energies, I find this to be true to, to a degree. It seems that different styles might be better for certain modes.

Ambient music, drone and instrumental guitar in the American Primitive tradition are some of my go to things to listen to as background for certain types of work, and workings, and wordless music is better when I'm writing. Lyrics get in the way of that next line coming through.

Metal and punk or electronica with a nice beat might help me get through an otherwise lingering afternoon when working on the computer at the day job.

Of course to Listen to Silent music is also golden.

Hope you are well!

JPM

Magic Monday

A Blessed Thanksgiving to All

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Re: A Blessed Thanksgiving to All

Re: A Blessed Thanksgiving to All

Re: A Blessed Thanksgiving to All