Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's a little 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 these days, so I've decided to do little capsule summaries of them here, one per week. The book above on the left is the current edition of my seventh published book, The New Encyclopedia of the Occult. I'd gotten irritated about the lack of decent reference works on occultism, and Llewellyn, the publisher I worked with in those days was enthusiastic about the idea of helping to fix that. It was a fun project, and includes a certain number of quiet and rather abstruse jokes; there are other occult encyclopedias available these days but this one still stands up fairly well -- though I'd make a lot of changes if the publisher was interested. (This also turned out to be the last book I did with Llewellyn for a long while, due to some issues involving their treatment of another project of mine.)  If you're interested in the encyclopedia, you can get a copy here if you live in the US, and at your favorite book venue 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

Subtle manipulations through occult training

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, I read an interesting article on the Veil Of Reality site: https://veilofreality.com/2018/02/24/altered-states-entrapment-plant-medicine-manipulation/

This bit in particular stood out:

"She said it is not at all uncommon for many of the Ayahuasqueros to place a dart into the luminous body of someone they are leading in ceremony. The dart is placed with the intent to influence that person to go back to their home country and tell many people about the Ayahuasquero, even to organise groups to come and work with the Ayahuasquero."

The article is focused on spiritual guides employing "medicine plants"/drugs, but to speak more generally, I've heard multiple anecdotes about courses of spiritual study with manipulative tools buried within. Things intended to steer students' thought and behavior in ways that are not disclosed up front. Do you have any suggestions on ways to identify such potential hidden mechanisms in occult resources?

In my case I would be more interested in traditional forms of study compared to drug-induced vision quests, which seem especially prone to exploitative behaviors since the participants are in an altered state. I recall discussions of several big glossy magical manuals that steer the reader toward affirming many of the authors' ideas on things that have nothing to do with magic.

Thanks as always for these posts.

Re: Subtle manipulations through occult training

[(Anonymous)]

That's a very interesting observation / question; thank you for bringing it up! I look forward to JMG's and others' responses to this. I've had the same kind of questions about Reiki. I'm sure the great majority of practitioners are ethical people, but I still feel uneasy about the idea of signs, symbols, sigils, whatever, which I don't know about being inserted into my aura by someone else, and I have never used it. I realize that this could happen anyway, through other means, but I prefer not to actually invite it in, myself!

Winifred Hodge Rose

Re: Subtle manipulations through occult training

[ecosophia]

The problem here, of course, is that you already have to have a fair amount of skill in magic, or some other form of esoteric work, before you can perceive the ways it can be used to mess with you. Beginners are really at the mercy of the people who teach them -- which is one of the reasons why I strongly recommend studying and practicing on your own, from books, for a good long while before you go looking for a teacher. Of course books can also have their problems, but it's much easier to tell when somebody's trying to manipulate you through written prose.

As a general rule, however, if somebody's making big bucks teaching something esoteric to you in person, it's wise to be wary, because their income stream depends on a steady stream of clients.