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.  (The picture is Dion Fortune, by the way -- the author of The Cosmic Doctrine, among other things.)

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

Astral Affects of Sleeping and Love

[(Anonymous)]

How sharing a bed affects the astral light of both parties? Does this apply to children, or are the shielded?

Is there a analog to "You imitate what you hate" for love? Do we imitate what we love as well? How you would you fill in the blank for "You ___ what you love."

Do you think psychedelics have a place in magical practice? Forgive me if I am stepping on your tail. I recall Alan Moore saying he started his with them and eventually found they were unnecessary.

Re: Astral Affects of Sleeping and Love

[ecosophia]

1) Depends on whether "sharing a bed" includes sexual contact or not. If not, there's a certain attunement of energies, simply because you tend to resonate with the energy of anyone when your aura and theirs are in close proximity, and sleeping within a few feet of each other every night will do that. Children are certainly affected by it, and so are pets.

If sex is involved, that takes things to a much more intensive level. When two people make love, if both are aroused and especially if there's love involved, there's normally some degree of fusion between their auras. When the auras divide again, during the "afterglow," some of each partner's energies end up staying in the other's aura, so you get a much more dramatic degree of attunement and mutual resonance.

2) The maxim I was taught is "What you contemplate, you imitate." That works no matter what your emotional state is when you contemplate. When you hate someone, your attention is fixed on them, and so you start to imitate them; when you love someone, ditto; admiration does the same thing, and so do all the other emotions that focus your attention on the other person.

3) No. Dion Fortune's famous comment still applies: drugs may loosen the girders of the mind but they don't tighten them up afterwards, and unless you want to go through life rattling like a cheap automobile, using psychedelics isn't a good idea. I dabbled in psychedelics back in the early 1980s, but found that I could get much more interesting places using nonchemical means.

[(Anonymous)]

Can the Middle Pillar be done astrally, like after an astral pentagram ritual? If so how would you do it-- would you picture the energy centers in your physical body and your imaginal body at The same time?

[ecosophia]

Yes and yes. I do this fairly often while traveling, or in other settings where it won't work to do the ritual physically.

Finding lost object

[(Anonymous)]

(Tolkienguy)

What would be a good way (usable by someone with no magical training) to find a lost object? My car key snapped off its fob several weeks ago and dissapeared, and the dealership is insisting I have the car towed to them before they'll do anything.

Re: Finding lost object

[ecosophia]

Um, that's a little like asking what would be a good way (usable by someone with no surgical training) to remove a gall bladder. If you don't have the training, there are things you simply can't do.

You might want to try contacting a locksmith, though. They have the necessary tools to pop open a locked car, and may even be able to rekey it for you; what's more, locksmiths usually do house calls. Be prepared to prove that you own the car, though!

Animation, et al

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry you’re feeling morose. Dion Fortune looks a bit that way too - she appears *very* serious-minded indeed.

I want to correct a mistaken impression I seem to have given last week. I am *not* doing a mashup of Golden Dawn with the Druid Magic Handbook. I’m working with Hellenic deities using Golden Dawn structures, informed by material from the Celtic Golden Dawn (your elemental pentagrams there are *far* easier to remember than the GD ones).

I’ve given some thought to the question I raised last week, which has been on my mind for a long time, and have decided that I’ll go ahead with creating the elements of the temple I’m contemplating, one at a time. However the images I have in mind will be devotional only; I will not attempt to animate them for the time being. One writer on magic with whom I’m acquainted suggested that such images might, after much ritual use, tend to become ensouled; I don’t think I have a problem with that.

This is a long term project. I’ll start with a layout for the floor design, which I think you may have seen:

https://instagram.com/p/BRJ7E9PghH_/

It’ll be a couple of meters in diameter. The ideal material would be a high quality cast cement, or even cut stone; but building budgets being what they are, I’ll start with a simple painting on canvas drop cloth.

Kevin

Re: Animation, et al

[ecosophia]

I found your comment in last week's Magic Monday -- the one where you quoted John Opsopaus -- and I didn't find any reference there to your doing a mashup of GD and Druid Magic Handbook material. Was it perhaps an earlier conversation? With regard to your present comment, I think that's probably the better option. If appropriate entities descend into your magical images of their own accord, that's a lot less potentially problematic than it would be if you conjure them into the images, with all the same benefits.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG
if people reincarnate after a month or so after death, then when someone tries to use mediumship to communicate with an ancestor that died decades ago who are they really talking too?

[ecosophia]

Most people don't reincarnate a month or so after death. It can take up to several months just to pass through the Second Death, the point at which you shed your etheric body, and most people spend at least a few years, and sometimes much more than that, between one life and the next.

That said, there are a lot of low-grade spirits out there who are perfectly willing to pretend to be your Aunt Mabel in a seance if it gets them a free lunch of life energy from the medium. Spiritualism is an extremely mixed bag, even when fraud isn't involved (and it very often is -- Lamar Keene's book The Psychic Mafia is a useful exposé on the subject).

Is money a form of magic?

[(Anonymous)]

The anarchist writer Hakim Bey, also known as Peter Lamborn Wilson, has written that minted money, once invented, proved to be a highly successful form of magic, perhaps the most successful ever.

The historian Morris Berman has written that he was present at the fall of the Berlin Wall, or very shortly thereafter. Near the newly breached Wall he encountered a table where Soviet artifacts were being offered, for sale or given away - I forget which. They were things like red badges and commissars’ hats, symbols of authority that until very recently had stricken fear into the hearts of a great many people. But now that the Soviet Union had fallen, wrote Berman, they were dead objects, empty symbols devoid of power.

I imagine that a devalued currency might be much like those objects, a symbol of value denuded of its once formidable potency, and now turned into a joke, like Confederate money. To what extent, if any, may our collective belief in the efficacy of money be considered a form of magic?

Kevin

Re: Is money a form of magic?

[ecosophia]

I'd describe it as a very debased sort of magic, the sort of cheap thaumaturgy that plays on the weaknesses of human thinking -- much like advertising in that. The composer Richard Wagner wrote a fascinating little essay in which he traced the legend of the Rhinegold, "the treasure of the waters," back to its primordial myth-origins and forward to a disastrous split, in which the spiritual content became embodied in mysticism and legends such as the Holy Grail, while its unspiritual side became embodied in money. I should probably do a post about that one of these days.

[(Anonymous)]

In the Encyclopedia of Natural Magic you said astrobiology showed how the planets affect things on earth. A quick search only showed stuff about the origin of life and the possibility of life on other planets. What sort of effects do the planets have on earth and what sources are ther on this?

When you said that to affect a large area with natural magic you would need resources similar to those that built Stonehenge, a thought jumped to mind what the modern version of that would look like. You could cook up large vats of infusions, load them into spray tanks on aircraft and disperse them over the target area. Only unlike Agent Orange it would make the crops flourish and the land and people prosper. Instead of chemtrails it would be alchemtrails. :)

[ecosophia]

I don't recall mentioning astrobiology at all in that book, and I don't find it in the index. I did talk quite a bit about astrology, and that's what you should look into if you want to know more about how the planets affect life on earth.

As for "alchemtrails," hah! I suppose that would be an option, but I prefer the old-fashioned approach -- you know, the one involving big standing stones and earthen mounds, establishing alignments along which the subtle energies of the land can flow. You could call them "alchemtrails," though the traditional term is "leys"...

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever come across somebody who breaks astrology - you look at their chart and it just doesn't match the person you're looking at at all? Also, does astrology ever predict neurodiversity? For example does your chart in any way suggest that you would have Aspergers?

[ecosophia]

Not since I learned how to read a chart properly. It's very easy to find cases where a simplistic interpretation of the chart (say, just the sun sign) doesn't fit at all. As for neurodiversity in the chart, sure, though there's a lot of further research to be done on that subject, as in everything related to medical astrology. My chart has several placements in it that suggest a predisposition to some kind of chronic neurological disorder, though.

Performance and Perversity

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG and readership,

If I may and this is an appropriate place to do so, I wish to check in about the essay I wrote about the aesthetic and ethical confusion creating perversity, which to be fair, had an occult dimension. Basically, I want to acknowledge that I lost steam on the project pretty quickly when: a) I saw clearly that it wasn't something I wanted to meditate on for an extended time, and b) I realized that I was attempting, essentially, to put the ideas of Transactional Analysis into more metaphorically opulent drag. Perversity, as I defined it, is precisely identical to crossed transactions and contamination of ego states. I'm not a fan of writing that says, "here are some concepts already presented, and now look, they are dressed up in different words!" which, with additional research, I saw I was doing. When I understood this more fully over the course of a few months, the urgency I had was lost and by then I had moved on to writing fiction. For whatever it's worth, on my end I'm glad I undertook the project; the practice of writing started me on to writing several pieces of fiction that I'm very happy with. Also, by virtue of the project, I learned more about TA which is, of course, very useful.

Re: Performance and Perversity

[ecosophia]

Fair enough.

forgot to log in, posting this for additional clarity

[violetcabra]

The Performance and Perversity comment is mine. Also, for clarity's sake I feel I should offer a link to the essay: https://hitherandthitherwhenceandwhither.blogspot.com/2017/10/performance-and-perversity.html

Violet

Re: forgot to log in, posting this for additional clarity

[(Anonymous)]

Violet,
I wonder if your essay wants to be more than one text. Alternately, the readers seem to be thrown by the discussion of transactional analysis. You seem to feel that you were rehashing TA, and in that sense not adding anything new to the conversation. And yet, the some readers don't appear to be highly familiar with TA, (I wasn't until recently) so perhaps the essay does have a place in the conversation. (Also, were you trying to get Mengle to speak like Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquistitor-that might be a good angle.) I commented on your blog but I'm not sure if it took or not.

Geomancy

[casmen900]

Good morning JMG,

I've some questions on your personal Geomancy practice:

1) Do you follow the lore when it comes to Rubeus or Cauda Draconis in the first house, I mean do you throw everything away or do you still read the Shield Chart?

2)If you still wanna go on and draw a House Chart anyway, do you opt for the Golden Dawn house layout where the 1st mother goes to the 10th house?
That is, provided the 2nd mother isn't either Rubeus or Cauda Draconis...

Thanks.

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

1) I discuss this in my books on geomancy. The traditional lore regarding Rubeus and Cauda Draconis is far more subtle and useful than the simplistic version of it that found its way into the Golden Dawn papers. Rubeus in the first house means that your querent is lying to you -- if you're doing a chart for yourself, it means that you're not being honest with yourself. Cauda Draconis simply means that it's too late to do anything about the situation. Neither one prevents you from reading the chart.

2) I also discuss this in my books on geomancy. No, I do it the old-fashioned way -- the first mother goes in the first house, the second mother in the second house, and so on in order until the fourth niece (it's not a nephew in the medieval texts!) goes into the twelfth house.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a few questions about energy in magic and spirituality that may be related.

Galina Krasskova described going to a Pagan shop where several groups did rituals that siphoned energy out of the surrounding area leaving the plants sickly and dying. What sort of magic risks doing this?

What sort of imprint is left on an area where a massacre or other major act of violence has happened, and what is best to do about it?

Energy rituals like the Middle Pillar and Central Ray don't involve as much body movement as yoga and tai chi. Does this change the effect they have?

[ecosophia]

1) Good question. The kind I wouldn't want to practice, certainly! I'm not up on every kind of magic being practiced these days, and I'm not familiar with any magic that would do this, but Galina's more than capable enough to know what she's talking about and I see no reason to doubt her.

2) The same kind of imprint that's left on the psyche of someone who survives such an experience. The best thing to do would be to plant a lot of trees there and let the processes of nature dispell the horror over time/

3) There are plenty of varieties of yoga, and several forms of qigong, that don't involve movement either. Whether a working includes physical movement or not is a matter of subtle details of technique, based on exactly what effects you're trying to get.

[(Anonymous)]

I've recently done a trip to one of the really big, bloated cities our civilization builds, and I hated it. Yet, some part of me has this feeling that I need to move there. I'm not sure what it is, since the city has no obvious perks over where I live now, and plenty of obvious negatives.

The one possibility I can think of is that my higher self has something in mind it can best express there. Is this a possible explanation?

[ecosophia]

It might be that; it might also be that someone else wants you to move there and is thinking that thought at you. I'd encourage you to consider the matter very carefully and seek divination if possible.

[(Anonymous)]

In the Galabes post 'What Magic Can't Do' you mentioned the concept of occult anatomy. What kind of anatomical and physiological changes does practising magic cause?

[ecosophia]

That's a subject for an entire book, and before it could be written you'd need grant funding to do quite a range of studies. For the time being, you might consider reading Dion Fortune's The Circuit of Force and Manly P. Hall's The Occult Anatomy of Man.

[(Anonymous)]

With that Buddhist statue that had been really well consecrated, what does it feel like to sense someone else's magic? Are there some types of magic that are obvious and others less so or undetectable?

[ecosophia]

That's really hard to describe, as the English language is very poorly supplied with words to describe magical perceptions. Have you ever been in the presence of a human corpse, and sensed what a body is like when there's nobody there any more? This statue was alive. Yes, some types of magic are more detectable than others.

[mmelvink]

Hi JMG,

Again on Uranus, if I may: As the strongest planet in my natal chart, in Scorpio in house ten almost conjunct Midheaven, I've found the effects of its move last month into Taurus in house four to have been rather startling and quite immediate, and the same has been true for a number of close friends whose Uranus also features prominently in their charts. In particular, over the last four weeks everything home-related has suddenly been thrown into question, and I still don't know where I'll be living and working come fall -- quite disconcerting for this homebody academic! Is this normally the case, whereby the stronger an outer planet is in one's chart, the more immediate the manifestation of its transit energies in one's personal (i.e., not just collective) life?

Further, on the theme of "the wise man rules his stars": Given how treacherous the academy is these days (and only getting worse!), especially for junior historians, for the last several years I've naturally been regularly checking in on my career trajectory by means of geomantic and astrological forecast; they have consistently pointed to this year or the next at the latest as being one of a major professional transition, involving a change of jobs and significantly increased pay and influence in my field. The same has been independently confirmed by a talented palmist and tarot reader respectively. With all occult-scientific indicators converging on this single theme, then, I've been mentally and emotionally preparing myself to make the leap (I really do love where I am and have precisely zero desire to move), though was still surprised at how quickly the ground has given way beneath me over the last four weeks. However, being in such a state of mental and emotional preparedness for major change has, it would appear, rather magically brought about an even more unexpected and delightful result: the opportunity to make this professional leap up right here at my current institutional home. Yet were I to go this route -- and it seems right and good and prudent that I do --, this would ostensibly contravene several years of remarkably consistent occult data.

Now the Persian grimoires I work on constantly repeat the maxim that one must know the future (divination) to change it (magic), though heaven knows I haven't consciously tried to do the latter in this case. Might this be the principle at play here nevertheless? Can mere inner preparation and explicit, conscious surrender to the fate-destiny process magically unlock new and unforeseeable possibilities in this fashion? More specifically, has geomancy, in your experience, ever told you what you needed to hear to guide you toward a specific course of action -- one that resulted in the invalidation of the reading?

[ecosophia]

1) That varies immensely depending on the nature of the planet, the aspects it makes to your natal chart, what factors are in play in your progressed chart and your current transits, and so on.

2) How does it contravene any of that? You're still facing a major transition and a career boost; it's just that the journey is taking place in a slightly less material form.

3) Very much so. If a pattern needs to work itself out, it can do so on any plane, from the material to the spiritual. If you've already made the inner transition, the outer transition may not need to happen at all, or it may happen in a much less traumatic way. Remember that matter is the outer husk of spirit...

Workplace Bullying Closure

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering if there was any sort of ritual for someone that has no magical training at all to finalise or bring closure to the bullying and harassment I experienced at my last workplace.

I left almost 2 years ago after suffering from serious stress and depression. It was very destructive and insidious, so I didn't realise what was happening until I almost had a breakdown. Afterwards, I could not even think about doing the same job (engineering) as it maxe me feel sick, so whilst trying to recover (diagnosed as PTSD, so I've done therapy, read a lot of books on the subject and so forth) I have also started a career change. I feel much better now, most of the anger has subsided and it's only my confidence that is still missing somewhat, now that I have started to consider applying for jobs.

I kept some work clothes intending to burn them later on together with some paperwork, but wonder if there is something better to do with it in terms of a ritual?

Also, is there any way to know if there was foul play involved? My career and work relationships were going great until a young couple joined and they started to manipulate the higher ups and undermine me and my work. It was a small company, so I guess it was easy enough, but nobody really liked them the first few months, then all of the sudden things changed...

Thank you so much for your time!

Re: Workplace Bullying Closure

[ecosophia]

A bonfire is a very good ritual approach to such things. Find a place where you can safely build a really big fire, well away from anything flammable. (You can do this all by yourself or with friends, depending on what's more comfortable for you.) Get plenty of wood, set the fire, and as you light it, say aloud, "This is a fire of cleansing, a fire of purification, a fire of endings. I light it with this intention."

Feed it with wood until you've got a good roaring fire. Then take the first of the items from your workplace you want to burn, and say, "This is the bullying I suffered at (name of workplace). I give it to the flames. Let it be consumed in the fire." Throw it in and let it burn.

Take the next item, and say, "This is the (whatever you want to say here) I suffered at (name of workplace). I give it to the flames. Let it be consumed in the fire." Throw it in and let it burn.

Repeat this with as many items as you want to burn, and as many bad experiences as you want to burn with them. Once you've run out of things to offer, sit or stand there facing the fire. Call to mind all the pain and misery and humiliation and wretchedness you felt at that workplace, and give those, too, to the fire to be burnt. Stay there until the flames have died down to coals, and then get water, lots of it, and extinguish the fire, drowning every ember. As you begin pouring the water, say, "The fire is done. Its work is accomplished. What is burnt is behind me now." Then go home by a different route than you came, and bathe in water that contains a pinch of salt, a pinch of hot pepper, and a splash of vinegar. That completes the ritual.

As for determining if there was foul play involved, that would take either a good private investigator or an equally competent diviner. If you know one of those, talk to them.

Tracing the 3 rays

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, Regarding the CGD, I notice that the rays are traced in different order when purifying (evoking form) & consecrating (invoking form) the temple in the Ovate Grade, in comparison to the way it is instructed for the OIW Ritual.

1. Am I correct in noticing this difference?

2. If so, is this difference important/significant?

Thank you

Re: Tracing the 3 rays

[ecosophia]

Good. Try changing the way you trace them in each ritual and see if you notice the difference.

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering if you had an opinion of John and Caitlin Mathews work? A broad question I realize as there's quite a lot of it...

[ecosophia]

I haven't kept up with their work, so don't have an overall opinion. The material of theirs I read early on -- primarily The Western Way and some of John Matthews' Grail material -- left me unimpressed, but that may simply have been a difference in approaches.

[lunaraprrentice]

Hello JMG,
I can’t believe I’m writing over such a ridiculous little issue, but I did learn of it from you, so here goes:

I wish to adopt the polytheist version of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram that you described on Jan 15, 2018.

You mentioned that the names of each of the four deities should have four and only four letters in their spellings (at least if you are interested in best results). Does this 4-letter rule also apply to the patron deity? What does one do if there are no such spellings? Can you make up your own? Could/should one adopt a different alphabet (the Greek spellings are no help, and I’m considering the Coelbren) and contrive a 4-letter spelling?

Hermes is my patron, I will be working with the ancient Greek Pantheon, and the only deities with four-letter spellings are Zeus, Ares and Hera. I feel that Poseidon, Athena and Hestia (with Zeus of course) would be appropriate for my LRP. What do you suggest?

[ecosophia]

First, when I say that the names of the deities in the quarters should have four and only four letters, that applies only to the name of the deities in the four quarters. If I'd wanted to extend that restriction to the patron deity I would have said so.

Second, as for deities with names of four letters in the Greek pantheon, come on! I'm not even a Hellenic Pagan, and I know better than that. You could add Gaia to your three and have a good set, or Rhea, or Tyche -- the "ch" is one letter in Greek, after all. You could swap out Ares with Eros, for that mater. You could use Hades (four letters in Greek), or Aion, or -- well, you can look up the others yourself. It really isn't that hard.

Phosphenism

[casmen900]

Another subject if I may,

What is your opinion on Francis Lefebure’s Phosphenism?

What about the affirmations below?

“...In Orthodox worship, the priest sways while praying and focusing on a candle. Clairvoyants also use that rudimentary and instinctive practice when they place a candle near a crystal ball. Again, they obtain a phosphene using the reflection of light, the ball acting as a magnifying glass. As all reflected light is more or less polarized, that explains the origin of flashes of clairvoyance. The ‟magical mirrors” are absolutely not magical: it is their capacity for reflection that matters...”

“...Nostradamus used the reflection of the moon on a silver tray, when he wanted to provoke phenomena of clairvoyance and transmit them to Catherine of Medici...”

Re: Phosphenism

[ecosophia]

I'm not familiar with Lefebure's ideas so have no opinion on them at all. As for the quotes, yes, there are techniques like that used by some schools to develop clairvoyance; other schools, including the one I trained in, use techniques that don't involve reflective objects at all.

Amulets

[(Anonymous)]

With regard to amulets, how long do the effects of an amulet tend to last? If it’s one that is worn on the person, should it be worn daily or only when in a situation that would call for the amulet? If an amulet is not being worn, where is a good place to keep it? Once an amulet is no longer needed, or if its effects have diminished to the point of no longer being useful, what should be done with it? Should it be burned, buried, taken apart ceremoniously? Thank you for any information about the handling of amulets. I have not made one yet but am planning to put one together soon.
Thank you,
Yanocoches in Colorado

Re: Amulets

[ecosophia]

You're asking for general rules in a subject where there are only specific recipes, and a lot of varying opinions. I'd encourage you to pick up a few good books on making amulets, follow the directions, experiment with the results, and develop your own set of habits for working with them -- that's what everyone does sooner or later anyway.

Omens

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have any book recommendations concerning the interpretation and meanings of omens? Perhaps you have even written such a book yourself?

Re: Omens

[ecosophia]

I haven't written such a book, and don't happen to know of any books on the subject. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[(Anonymous)]

John--

In the DA construct, we speak of the seven grades/levels/mysteries, broken generally (?) into the first four and last three. In my attempt to better understand the structures involved, a couple of intertwining questions re this:

1) Is this notion of "4-and-3" division common to seven-fold esoteric systems? (This question is more out of curiosity than anything else.)

2) I noticed that the structure of the language changes at the Fourth Cantref -- namely, the banishing aspect excludes the component relating to a specific unbalanced expression (e.g. "inappropriate thoughts" in the First, or "misguided intentions" in the Third) and that the verbiage alters to "unbalanced manifestations." I recall that Earth is acts as something of a bridge between the first three Cantrefs and the latter three, but is there a specific rationale behind the alteration in the form/language here?

3) Finally, the latter three, I noticed, have no banishing component. Is it that the manifestations of Spirit (Below, Above, Within) cannot be unbalanced and hence there is no need for banishing?

Again, thank you for this regular Q&A forum.

David, by the lake

[ecosophia]

Yes, yes, and yes. ;-)

Banishing while Jewish

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

About a year and a half ago I began a daily meditation and divination practice. I did not intend to practice ritual magic, but figured that a daily banishing would be a good idea, too. As I am an observant Jew, I assumed the Kabbalistic Cross would be most appropriate. But every version I found seemed somehow weirdly Christianized and felt bad to me. Eventually I adapted it, substituting some more familiar Jewish names chosen pretty randomly and a phrase from the Amidah, a foundational prayer in the daily liturgy, for the opening and closing phrase. And I used this for a year and a half. It helped me focus and clear my mind and that was all I needed.

Until a few months ago, when I started having disturbing dreams that suggested I needed a better banishing ritual.

I looked at the Sphere of Protection, but was stymied by the age and gender requirements for the divine names. Some Hebrew names for the divine are grammatically plural or feminine, but I had always been instructed as a child that that was meaningless. A learned friend of mine suggested I read Aryeh Kaplan’s ‘Meditation and Kabbalah’ for more background and perhaps inspiration.

But instead of inspiration, as I read it I realized that the foundations of Kabbalah are rooted in the same biophobic milieu as early Christianity, and it was this that made the Kabbalistic cross seem so icky to me. The idealization of spirit and rejection of matter is not a good mode for my practice, it seems.

I tried meditating on this several times and it messed terribly with me—kept getting very upset, couldn’t do my divinations, had a general crisis of faith, etc.

You always suggest that a person who has a good relationship with a particular deity stick with that deity in one’s magical practice. And I do still feel that I have a good relationship with the Jewish god…but it’s become obvious that the Kabbalah is not good for me or my relationship with that god.

So I have questions for you, and for any readers who might have insight to share:

1. What are the Jewish names (if any) for the male and female aspects of god that are typically used in the SoP?

2. Would it be appropriate to just use the Druid names suggested by AODA and consider those gods and goddesses manifestations of the divine, and thus not in conflict with my faith? (The SoP, and Druid names in particular, appeal to me because of the embrace of Earth and matter as being just as important as spirit.)

3. Is there another banishing ritual I should consider instead? Ex. my same learned friend who recommended I read Kaplan has translated a Jewish grimoire and sent me a banishing ritual he found in it to cleanse a house of a demon, thinking perhaps that was what I needed…but it was very much along the lines of natural magic. But perhaps natural magic would be a good body of knowledge to cultivate instead of a banishing ritual if I am not planning on practicing any additional ritual magic?

Thank you for your patience and any insight you may share.

--Ms. Krieger

Re: Banishing while Jewish

[daveotn]

You might consider calling on angels during the Sphere of Protection as one option, which would let you draw on Kabbalistic tradition without directly invoking divine names. JMG answered a question March 19th on here about the angels to use in the elemental gate portion - I'm not sure who you would call on for the elemental cross.