Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

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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I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 

 

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 -- as in, no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

Acupuncture

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome to the distinguished group of Magic Mondays and you, our host, JMG

I'm not sure if this lies in your expertise but I am looking for good books on acupuncture, the flow of energy in the human body, how to heal/enhance it. First and foremost, acupuncture. Anyone got anything?

Re: Acupuncture

[open_space]

Some that I have found useful are Awakening Healing Energy Through the Tao by Mantak Chia for a discussion on the energy system and how to use energy in the tradition of taichi/chi gung for healing (don't do the exercises if you are practicing western magic unless you are under the guidance of a teacher that is aware of it) and The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing by Daniel Reid. It's not complete, Chinese medicine is humongous, but its good.

For a less esoteric and more modern medical book you can check Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni Maciocia

Re: Acupuncture

[ecosophia]

I'll have to leave that to others, as it's not in my fields of knowledge at all.

Re: Acupuncture

[(Anonymous)]

The useful search term will be "Traditional Chinese Medicine." Some key themes include: yin and yang, five elements, surplus and deficiency, the dozen organ systems with their meridians and points, qi and Blood.

Much is metaphorical but it's based on many years of clinical observations, not on abstract speculation. TCM uses Organs when capitalized to refer to a collection of processes, not just the bundle of tissues. For example, the Liver is compared to the general allocating resources, while an overactive Heart system goes beyond happy joy and enthusiasm to excessive mania. I recommend you look up colleges of oriental medicine with a graduate program in acupuncture. They should be able to suggest excellent overview texts.

Acupuncture requires needles and therefore licensing in many places, but you can perform acupressure on yourself by simply learning how to recognize the points (there's a tangible difference) and press on them.

A full view of TCM includes not just acupuncture, but traditional herbs, nutritional guidance, qi gong, and lifestyle and attitude recommendations. A modern practitioner should have no problem honestly saying if a particular issue tends to be more effectively handled by standard Western medicine. Unfortunately, this professional courtesy isn't as well returned, but there are some research papers comparing costs and outcomes for some conditions.

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