Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's a few minutes before midnight, so we can launch into 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 mine only to a limited degree. Most of it was the work of my wife Sara under the pen name she used then, Clare Vaughn. We sent it to the publisher with the authorship as "Clare Vaughn, with John Michael Greer." The publisher used to make a big deal about being feminist, liberated, etc. -- but somehow that didn't extend to giving a female author the credit she deserved, at least in this case. So my name got put first, where it didn't belong. (We also had to deal with a sustained attempt by an editor to sandbag the book; turned out the editor had a friend who was writing a similar book, and wanted ours to fail.) There are reasons I haven't placed anything with that publisher for years. Nonetheless, Pagan Prayer Beads came out very well. Yes, it's about exactly what the title suggests: how to design, make, and use prayer bead strands and rosaries for the deity or pantheon of your choice. The publisher's kept it in print, too, which is more than I can say for some publishers; if you're interested, you can get a copy here if you live in the United States and at your favorite book retailer if you're elsewhere.

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

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. See you next week!***

Comments

HGA or Higher Genius

[(Anonymous)]

Could you discuss the relationship between the Holy Guardian Angel and the Higher Genius? Are they the same? Is this the being that attends us from lifetime to to lifetime, rather than one of those that accompany us for a particular lifetime?

I am haunted by certain faces of preternatural beauty, human yet also angelic, as from a higher order of being. I wonder if this is not an expression of a desire for contact with the Higher Genius, or perhaps an aspiration to rise to that condition. I seem to recall Socrates (and hence Plato) saying something like that in The Symposium. What’s your take?

Re: HGA or Higher Genius

[ecosophia]

Yes, these are the same, and the being in question is distinct from the higher self or the individuality. The short form is that your current personality or ego is a reflection in this incarnation of your individuality, the self that remains from life to life. The individuality, in effect, falls asleep and dreams, and its dream is an incarnation. Watching over it and guiding it is the higher genius or guardian angel, which is a spiritual being who has taken on the task of guiding you from life to life.

That does sound like Socrates in the Symposium!

[kimberlysteele]

I have Pagan Prayer Beads in my collection and I will lend it for free to anyone in the Continental US, please visit the link below to view my available book list:

https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/96400.html

P.S. -

[(Anonymous)]

Glad you’re feeling okay.

Re: P.S. -

[ecosophia]

Thank you.

MOE Master Attunement; Blessings; Five Rites; etheric vision

[milkyway1]

Good morning (or good night) to JMG and everybody else! Hope everybody had a fabulous weekend and a good start into this week! :-)


1. Just a short reminder for those who missed the anouncement last week: I am going to perform an MOE Master Attunement on

Sunday, February 4th, at 6pm German time

All the details can be found here:

https://thehiddenthings.com/moe-master-attunement-on-sunday-february-4th-2024

Please post any questions or discussion about the Attunement over at my site, so that JMG doesn't have even more comments to handle on top of all the other ones. And remember that you can also be "re-attuened" if you already received the Master attunement - the first few re-attunements will usually have an additional effect.


2. I offer weekly blessings. These are open to everybody, i.e. not only for MOE practitioners:

https://thehiddenthings.com/categories/weekly-blessings

(I want to practice my blessing skills, so you'd do me a favour in signing up... :-) )


3. JMG, I own a 1997 German translation of the Five Rites which is presumably based on the 1985 edition, but also contains the extra chapter. There are quite a few changes compared to the text you quote in your book (i.e. the 1939 edition), but by far the biggest change seems to be the switch to the seven chakras as energy centers.

Do you know (or are you able to guess) a. if that has already been one of the changes in the 1946 edition, and b. the reason behind this change? (although the latter might have been as trivial as "it's all the rage in new age circles", of course...).


4. Last week, somebody reported developing etheric vision/clairvoyance after "some exercises online involving concentration and visual focus" (cf. https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/261830.html?thread=45725126#cmt45725126 ). The OP was trying to develop their astral clairvoyance, i.e. apparently the labels on such exercises are not always the most fitting... ;-)

Can you recommend any exercises to develop etheric vision? Or, alternatively, any pointers on where to look, or what to look for in such exercises?

Thanks! :-)

Milkyway

Re: MOE Master Attunement; Blessings; Five Rites; etheric vision

[ecosophia]

3) No, that wasn't in the 1946 edition, which I also have. It was made in one of the recent reprints aimed at the New Age market.

4) The exercises I know of for etheric vision involve looking at a strong magnet in complete darkness, until your vision adapts to see the lines of force. There may well be other methods I don't know of.

Astral Aura Emotions

[(Anonymous)]

Any plans to change Pagan Prayer Beads to show Sara's own name as primary author?

I'm glad for the opportunity here to discuss a deeper view of emotions.

JMG, last week you shared this illustration of an astral view of auras of people experiencing various emotions. https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/file/231132.jpg If I understand right, I need to ask you to include the picture here.

You explained that the astral aura patterns are the cause of emotions. Physical psychology is useful, but deals only with the effects.

1. Is this the same for animals who can experience emotions? For a contented cat, a determined dog, an enraged elephant, a loving llama, does the astral view of their aura look like a human's with that emotion? Is this why people and their animals tend to look and act more alike over time? Someone like Cesar Milan decides he's the bold pack leader, and dogs fall into line. In the astral, is he projecting his aura condition into the aura of the dogs?

2. What causes these aura patterns in the astral?

3. I know of two ways brought up in your work to deal with emotions.
First, Octagon Society (and similar) material instructs how to psychologically introspect, to review when and how we chose meanings that shape our emotions.
Second, archetypes metaphysically, symbolically link our emotions with greater spiritual forces. Rituals and meditation can guide us through these connections. Divination, from a system with a big enough vocabulary of symbols, can help show us what's going on.

Do these work because they use are mental plane actions, using the more comprehensive and powerful mental plane to rewrite the subordinate astral plane? Are there other major techniques to work with our emotions, or do the useful methods all fit into these two categories?

Christopher from California
Mocha Amphibious Moose

Re: Astral Aura Emotions

[ecosophia]

0) It's still with the original publisher. If they ever let it go out of print, you bet I'll get the right name put on it when it goes to a new publisher; I wasn't confident then of my ability to find new venues, but of course that's changed.

1) I don't happen to know. You'd probably have to develop astral clairvoyance and then go see.

2) The astral plane is where emotions happen. You're seeing the emotions themselves.

3) The Octagon Society work functions on the mental plane. Ritual and other symbolic methods are astral in nature, though they can tap indirectly into otherr planes. Are there other major techniques? Yes, quite a few of them, ranging the planes from mental to physical.

5 rites question

[(Anonymous)]

Even though I had read the book, evidently I think I misunderstood how many times to do the first rite, the spinning. Somehow I thought I was supposed to spin until I got dizzy and count that as one repetition, and of course I was supposed to do 3 repetitions of each rite to start with. The first night I was dizzy after one spin, so that was fine that I then waited and did that 2 more times, but as I can do it slightly more each night, last night it was too much to repeat that amount 3 times as I felt some dizzyness then keep on thru the rest of the rites. So today I went and re-read everything again, and think I now may have it straightened out.

So, I am supposed to spin no more than 3 times around total at this point, correct ? And in general, the first rite is done either until too dizzy or until the amount of spins corresponding to the repetition level one is at ( for example, 3 at the beginning) ? In re-reading I see in the appendix, eye of revelation further information that he says it is fine to up the other reps of rites 2-5 even if rite 1 is more limited. I do get dizzy in general very easily, so I dont think I could spin 3 full times right now, we will see as it is almost my time to go do it.

I havent done the solar plexus part yet, so was also re-reading to figure out where it is. I was thinking on the level of my belly button, but back towards the spine, the internet seems to say that it is on the level of where my rib cage stops meeting in the middle, but back towards the spine. As you can tell, I dont realy know were my actual stomach is inside, anyways, which outside markers that I can use to find where the solar plexus is ?

I have been doing a wash cloth tepid water wash after the five rites. I think I have come up with a way to do it and not get chilled. My bathroom runs too cold to take a tepid shower. I am using the trick I had to do when all I had was absolutely cold water for 2 winters and I just only expose half of me at time. Maybe this is obvious to others, or maybe this will be a helpful hint for others in the winter. So I first take off my wool hat and use a boar bristle brush on my hair, brush my teeth, and wash off my face and neck with the tepid sink water and towel off. Put my hat back on. take off all my day clothes top layers and wash off, towel off and put on a pajama top. Same for the bottom half. This has worked well, no chills, refreshing.

Re: 5 rites question

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, you got it wrong. One repetition is one rotation only, and it's best to do it slowly enough that you don't get dizzy at all.

2) Forget about dizziness -- that's not the point. Turn around three times only, slowly, so you don't get dizzy. Then do three of each of the other exercises. When you're ready to go to five, five reps of each -- meaning you turn around slowly five times.

3) Don't do that yet. The "sixth rite" is to practice once you've gotten up to 21 reps of each of the five rites.

4) Press your fingers gently under the bottom of your ribcage on both sides. Now slide them toward each other in front, still keeping your fingertips against the bottom edge of the ribcage, until your hands meet. Your stomach is directly behind your hands, and your solar plexus is between your stomach and your spine.

5) You can certainly do that if you like.

The Twilight of Pluto

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

I recently read your book The Twilight of Pluto and enjoyed it very much. My knowledge of astrology is limited to the parts (planets, houses, aspects, etc.) but not how they work together as a whole. You could say that I have the vocabulary but not the grammar.

Looking at my chart after reading your book, I notice that Ceres is at 18 degrees of Taurus in my 6th house. (Maybe on the cusp. There are some questions about my birth time.) Ceres is square Pluto at 19 degrees of Leo in my 9th house. Ceres is otherwise unaspected but Pluto has aspects to my Sun, Venus, Jupiter and Neptune.

You said that when Ceres is significantly placed and/or aspected, it shows as issues around food and nurturing. I would say that I have had significant issues around both food and nurturing. Would it be, in your opinion, Ceres’ square to Pluto and Pluto’s aspects that has made those issues loom large in my life?

Eclectic Pollywog

Re: The Twilight of Pluto

[ecosophia]

Interesting. Without looking at your entire horoscope, however, I wouldn't be able to judge that -- and since I'm not a natal astrologer, you might be better off consulting with someone who has more skill in that field of astrology.

Karel Weinfurter's Textbook of Magical Thinking

[k_a_nitz]

Just a gift this time, no question. I've started posting chapters of my translation of the Czech Karel Weinfurter's little book Textbook of Magical Thinking on my dreamwidth blog starting with the foreword and first chapter here. The aim is to put up a new chapter every Sunday. It was first published in 1935 and is quite a neat practical little book which you and the commentariat might enjoy.

Re: Karel Weinfurter's Textbook of Magical Thinking

[miow]

Thank you!

Review of Spellcraft and Non-Occult Books that Help with the Occult

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

For anyone affected by the cold weather sweeping down much of the US this week, I hope you and yours find ways to stay warm and safe!

To Share: This week I wrote up a fairly short review of Spellcraft by Robin Skelton: https://jpowellrussell.com/#book_spellcraft

To Ask: What is one or a few books that are not ostensibly about magic or occultism that you have found nevertheless very helpful for occult practice? If anyone from the commentariat has thoughts, I welcome those as well. For my own part, I might say Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson, as it has provided a "way in" to a lot of the symbolism that I have found myself meditating on in the course of practice.

As always, thanks very much to JMG and everyone else here for all that you do.

My blessings to all who welcome them,
Jeff

Re: Review of Spellcraft and Non-Occult Books that Help with the Occult

[robertmathiesen]

The books (not specifically about magic or occultism) that were most important for my own development were written by anthropologists and linguists: Franz Boas's Primitive Art, Edward Sapir's Laguage and Selected Writings, Benjamin Lee Whorf's Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings, and Bronislaw Malinowski's Coral Gardens and Their Magic. I should also include S. I. Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action, though the author was not an anthropologist or a linguist.

Microcosmographia Magica

[realmscryer]

Hi JMG,
I have been reading and rereading Robert Mathiesen’s newly published Microcosmographia Magica this week. I am stunned. Turns out my Higher Self has not been sitting this incarnation out letting me wander about unattended.

To my surprise, Robert described a number of elements of my path in his book. Even helping me see a bit of structure or a semblance of a map of my wanderings.

Most surprising is how a rather subtle realization from 15 to 20 years ago turns out to be an important key. It was one of those things which while interesting at the time was something I didn’t know what to do with so left it on the back burner.

Now with meditation, SOP, and divination practices well established I might be seeing what to do with that realization as I take my next step.

BTW: The realization from years ago was that if I drop away everything about me except my core whatever. That core whatever is my being a unique perception in the Cosmos. I don’t know if this is ultimately true but I find it to be useful.

Next on my list of things to do is finding mystical and philosophical works for meditation and other abstract thinking and perception developing works and activities. Of which, The Glass Bead Game, abstract mathematics, and Zen Koans might be good examples. Maybe the Ars Notoria will be useful too somehow?

Plenty of exploring to be done. Lots of searching forum archives.

I want to offer a big thank you to both you and Robert for the resources you’ve each provided. Nice to be putting this little puzzle together after all this time.

Thanks,
Eric

Re: Microcosmographia Magica

[robertmathiesen]

Eric, you're very welcome. It's good to hear that my small book has been so helpful to at least one person.

As for the slowness of one's own wanderings, that's how it was for me, too. I moved quite slowly through many areas of study on my own path; it wasn't until I was in my 50s that I was able barely to start putting all the many pieces together into a coherent understanding of what small tasks I had been born to do during my life, which few people I had been destined to meet, and what modest things I was able to do to help them along their own paths. I seem to be just a tiny pawns on a vast cosmic chessboard in a sort of "quasi-game" that had been going on since the creation of the universe and would continue until the end of time. Nothing grand at all, and that suffices me.

Also, from everything our host has said here about his own life, I suspect it has gone something like this for him, too.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

How far do you think the beneficial energies from a mages rituals would extend from their homes, not including any deliberate blessings of the neighbourhood? What other subtle benefits would there be in having a local mage? Have you noticed any local effects anywhere around where you've lived?

[ecosophia]

All that depends on a galaxy of variables, including the nature of the magic being practiced and the skill and power of the mage. The only thing I've really noticed in my neighborhood is that birds seem to like the vicinity of my homes -- this morning the starlings were having a grand time bathing in the clogged gutter along the roof next to the room where I meditate, and letting the world know about it. ;-)

[robertmathiesen]

On last week's Magic Monday I mentioned my decision to make a small book of mine on magic freely available at archive.org (ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/261830.html?thread=45721030#cmt45721030).

I uploaded it the next day as a PDF, and it is there now. The title is Microcosmographia Magica, or a Microcosmography for Magic. Anyone who wants to read it can search for it by title or by my name. (Anyone who downloaded it very soon after I uploaded it may have gotten a DOCX version of it rather than the PDF. You might want to replace that by the PDF that is there now.)

Tunesmyth, you can find my email in the book (on the back of the title page).

[ecosophia]

Duly downloaded! Many thanks for this.

afterlife

[chaosfrog216]

Hi John!
Do you believe in an afterlife? if so, can you give any detail as to why, and what resources you take as inspiration for that belief?
In my research the idea of an afterlife very much predates the Abrahamic religions, yet those three religions seem to have a monopoly on the idea of an afterlife... The ancient Egyptians believed such things (as did some pagan Greeks), but I assume Moses took a lot of inspiration from the Egyptian religions because his entire youth was spent in the court of the Pharaoh. And I assume he then took those teachings with him after he left them, and used them to teach his people, the Jews, seeding some of these spiritual teachings he learned from the Egyptians into their culture. Am I wrong?
The train of logic we assume today is that many of these Jewish ideas, which then informed Christianity... and then came Dante, etc. etc. and the rest is history.
Also, what do the Druid's think of an afterlife?

I have also heard arguments, good arguments, that I am more in tune with actually, that the idea of an afterlife is more so swirling around the idea of "memory", that is theories of the Akashic records. And when someone passes away they become a part of this record, that can be channeled and accessed. How accurately? I'm not very sure...
I've also seen you post on this forum about the idea of "demons" we think of today, as the beings who existed in a universe before ours... which would mean that all these magical ceremonies, the incantations, the magical practices many people go through, most of it all, are just a means of accessing their memories. Am I on point?


Thank you!

Re: afterlife

[ecosophia]

Druidry includes the concept of reincarnation, which is the most widely held view about the afterlife worldwide. I accept it because I have a fair number of memories of previous lives. There's also quite a bit of research supporting reincarnation -- you might look into the writings of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who filled 14 books with case studies.

The Abrahamic religions have no monopoly on afterlife beliefs -- quite the contrary -- and Jewish ideas about an afterlife have very little in common with the teachings of ancient Egypt in the subject. As for the Akashic records, that was a hypothesis that has been pretty well disproven by the last century or so of occult experimentation. Sorry.

Past Life Memories and the Exercise of Will

[egyptianvulture]

Hello JMG,

Happy Monday! I have two questions this week. the first concerns recent discussion during Magic Monday, by you and other members of the commentariat, of past life memories which have resurfaced in meditation or in early childhood dreams. While I do not seek such memories as I am content that I will be led to what I need to know for my spiritual development in good time, I was curious under what conditions and circumstances, and by what means past life memories resurface. Did these memories spontaneously surface during discursive meditation on other topics throughout your routine meditations and magical practice, or was there a specific type of meditation or exercise done for the purpose of gaining insight into one's past? Perhaps something entirely different? I am merely curious about the phenomenon. Also members of the commentariat, please feel free to share your experiences.

My second question concerns the static will exercise given in Lesson 6 of Learning Ritual Magic, in which the practitioner sits with a clock in view and attempts not to move whatsoever for a period of time. I have practiced this twice and i am able to stay still rather easily as a I have some background in meditation that involves stasis of this kind. However, I noticed that without moving my eyes, my vision begins to fade out as my eyes acclimate to the unchanging stimuli. I understand this is a normal physiological process in response to repeated or unchanged stimuli of any kind but I have found some discomfort later in my eyes if I remain still enough for the vision to start to fade. Is it possible to practice the static will exercise given in Lesson 6 another way? I could hypothetically set an alarm for the chosen duration and perform the exercise with my eyes closed but want to make sure this doesn't conflict with the stated goal of the exercise.

Best regards,

Emerald Officious Frog

Re: Past Life Memories and the Exercise of Will

[ecosophia]

1) In my experience, the way this happens is that regular practice of discursive meditation primes the mind to begin recalling past lives, but the recollections don't surface during the meditations -- just as with other memories, some casual encounter stirs a recollection, and up comes the memory. My first past life memory happened long ago when I worked in a nursing home and had the job of taking a patient out onto the porch so he could smoke his daily pipe. I've never smoked and I loathe tobacco, but as I was sitting there making sure he didn't set himself on fire, I suddenly remembered exactly what it felt like to draw the smoke into the mouth and hold it there, without letting it go any further down. I already knew that the thing to do with such a glimpse is to sit with it and let details surface if they want to, and over the next hour or so that unfolded into a fairly clear set of memories of an old and rather fat man in a residential hotel in New York City right after the First World War.

2) You needn't practice that exercise any further as you already have the skills it teaches.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you happen to know of a systematic approach to drawing power, as in emotional oomph, greater aesthetic value - the "that" which you know it when you see it - into your physical arts and crafts?

[ecosophia]

If there was a formula for that, there would be a lot less lousy art around! No, I don't know of one.

[(Anonymous)]

Can you recommend a book on shadow work, or maybe mention some basic steps that worked for you? I'm tired of unnecessary torture and am really interested in unlocking the creative energy.

[jprussell]

Not JMG, of course, but in case these help:

If you happen to be a man, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Doug Gillette might be helpful. It describes the four masculine archetypes in the title, along with the "boy" versions of each that are appropriate in childhood, but become inappropriate in manhood, and how the shadow version of each archetype is often due to the boy archetype failing to develop the maturity needed to express as the adult archetype. It includes some active imagination exercises for working with each archetype (short version: address one of the archetypes at a time and have a conversation with it via journaling). What I found helpful about this is that it gives a bit more of map than just "the shadow," and instead suggests specific experiences, behaviors, ways of thinking and so forth that might be a part of your shadow and not expressing healthfully.

I also recently came across a recommendation for Feeding Your Demons by Tsultrim Allione as a good book for shadow work (it was recommended by Cat Heath in Elves, Witches, and Gods), but I haven't checked it out yet, so I'd be interested if anyone here has an opinion on it.

Hope these help, and good luck,
Jeff

Ashes

[miow]

Dear John Michael
As an emigrant I face the following problem: what do I put in my Will about my ashes? I think my family, who all remain in my birth country, will not even think about it, they will repatriate my ashes. But I left for a reason and feel truly at home in my adopted country. On the other hand I don't want to hurt my family's feelings. So my question: does it matter where your ashes go after death?

Re: Ashes

[ecosophia]

It doesn't matter at all. Your body is constantly drawing in and letting go of matter -- within seven years, not one atom of the matter that currently forms your body will still be part of you, so if you've been here seven years you've already donated an entire body's worth of matter to the place you live now. What happens to the atoms that happen to be part of your body when you die is nothing to worry about.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,
I was the one who was here last week asking for help with the Magi; I couldn't come back and thank everyone and so this is my "thank you, everyone" :)

Doors of Tarot

[frittermywig]

Dear JMG, a data-point and a question:

Last week I fell into a conversation with a new acquaintance that ran unexpectedly to the esoteric. She volunteered that she has psychic gifts and can read people's energy-- but around me she sensed a "gentle wall" and was choosing to respect it. After long neglect, I have been doing the SoP daily for three weeks. I can't think of anything apart from the SoP that would generate a 'wall' detectable clairvoyantly; I'm taking this as evidence that TSW.

Tarot question: I just bought The Doors of Tarot and my first deck and am preparing to do an elemental clearing of the cards. Gilbert emphasizes the wide latitude we have to interpret his instructions, but I want to make sure I get his basic direction correct. When he says, "As a rule, only one form of Elemental Clearing is used," which does he mean?

1. Choose one element and perform all the listed instructions
2. Choose one element and perform one of the listed instructions
3. Choose one instruction from each of the four elements

Thank you for your patience and willingness to help us neophytes!

Re: Doors of Tarot

[(Anonymous)]

The gentle wall might be how you innately conduct your interaction with the world.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG
Dear commentators,

I hope you are all well and healthy!

A few weeks ago, some people asked for information about Inner Guide Meditation, by Edwin Steinbrecher. Has anyone tested the method and had success? I ask because I've been trying and nothing... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I would like to exchange ideas and information with someone who has been successful.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm the one who recommended the book here.

I have always had a very easy time picturing settings, events, and conversations in my imagination.

There are descriptions from authors and from musicians about how stories and characters, songs, etc. just showed up for them. I've had similar experiences. Now working on a first novel, I find that for most of my writing I don't have to push to design the plot, although I've got a good background in literary theory so sometimes I do analyze it. Most of my writing time, it's like the characters are asking me, "Didn't we tell you about the time when...? No? Well here's what happened! And check out what she said to me about that! Can you believe that's how he put it?!"

As a musician, I can almost always hear additional musical lines in my imagination. For example, if a song does not have a guitar, I can usually imagine a really great guitar part even though I couldn't play it. On the instruments I can play, if there's a mediocre or bland part, my imagination fills in a more emotional and interesting part, spontaneously. This is usually not something I work at, it just happens.

In a first visit to a building, I spontaneously think sometimes of what else would look good and be convenient to have in there. It's this way for me with most of life. Dealing with products, opportunities to improve them come to mind. When I did some nonfiction book editing work, "this explanation should go over there" came easily and was appreciated by the authors.

I only learned as an adult that this naturally vivid imagination is rare, that most people don't have scenarios or mental "wargames" (I could do this, and then they could do that) come to mind, as they go through life.

An imagination-based ritual appealed to me.

A first attempt got nowhere but I think this was from neighbor noise. A few days later, I then had a profoundly moving session that ran about an hour.

The author mentions that after a meditation session, the contents can be lost to the conscious mind. I turned on a voice recorder before my session. I had my eyes closed and described out loud what came to my imagination as the setting, what I said, and what was said by the Guide and by the Sun, the first archetype I talked with. I also had my favorite note taking setup right beside me, to jot some things down as soon as I was done. This turned out to be an excellent combination.

I had the "I'm just making this all up" feeling at first, but a sense of loving acceptance and concern for something deeply traumatic in my past made me feel it might well be more than just making it all up. If it was just imagination, it was an emotionally healing portrayal by the subconscious of a new way to think of an old calamity.

I want to do more. But with a neighbor who is a 20/7 Subwoofer Enthusiast (not 24/7 since he sometimes takes a break from around midnight to 2 am and again from 3 to 5 in the afternoon), I've not been able to sustain concentration for more sessions. If I can find a place and time to likely be able to sit quietly and undisturbed for an hour, I'd like to continue with the book.

Mocha Amphibious Moose

Metaphysical emotional weather

[earthworm_uk]

This is a bit stream of consciousness, ignore if asking too much bandwidth...
TL;DR
Are you aware of any discussion on the current metaphysical weather?

***
In material incarnation we appear, in the main, to have limited senses and a good deal of work is aimed at expanding senses; often through 'intuition' in conjunction with getting the objective (superficial) mind to pay attention and communicate with the subjective (deeper) mind.

Much effort is also spent on working with emotions and developing dynamic equilibrium - in the system I was first taught this was through using the five elemental processes to transform energy states not wanted to more useful states - put simplistically, essentially shifting energy from a 'downward' spiral to to an 'upward' spiral. The net aim being toward spiritual unfolding/development (for want of a more down to earth term).

At the emotional energy level, the basics were about shifting what are called negative emotions into more useful forms; yet since emotions do not exist in isolation and appear more like a continuum (e.g. hate and love being different ends of a continuum or 'poles'), I have been thinking about the ebbs and flows of emotional states and concluded our human form perception separates much that is not separate.

Granted all is metaphor and human capacity for understanding and putting things into words is limited in this realm, but what I am wondering about is, like trying to develop 'intuition' and communication between brain and solar plexus [and beyond] levels of mind, is there any reference to exercises to cultivate emotional energy states beyond the corporeal level and the seemingly simplistic view of emotions that we have while in meat sacks?
Obviously whilst incarnate we each experience different kinds, intensities and levels of emotional activity, and for those on a particular path, some emotional states are considered more useful than others.

In the metaphor you use in The Occult Philosophy Workbook it is explained by way of saying once done with the material level our consciousness will IIRC work with three bodies which still includes the Astral level.
And if the astral level is divided into 7 sub-levels and the lower levels are more about things 'such as anger and sexual desire' whilst the highest is about 'creative thought and feeling', this suggests that emotions will play an ongoing role.
Perhaps this is why the astral realm is sometimes referred to a place of illusions where sometimes things may not be as they seem and some beings are trickier than others... (much like this earth actually!).

My main thought is that discussion of 'expanded' emotional (vibration) states may be difficult because currently we simply don't have the capacity/language for it, but at the same time, here we are in the material and putting things into action here serves a purpose.

Recently been considering the nature of love - a four letter word that is much used but seemingly little understood and grossly unsubtle in English, where it is used for the lowest and highest levels of astral activity that is reflected in the material plane.

The Greeks helped with all their words for different kinds of love - agape is the most intriguing since it seems to try and describe an energetic state (vibrational level) of interest.

The majority of writings I have come across have been various forms of new age guff talking about unconditional love etc - mainly using vacuous (to me at least) collections of empty cliches and serving a nutritionally poor and tasteless word soup.

If the astral plane is in great flux, I guess it might explain some of the emotional craziness here in mud world as the lurching instabilities get reflected in physical actions - like climate instability as the system tries to find a new dynamic equilibrium, the humans are getting extreme 'weather variations' at the emotional level which is resulting in some serious tendencies toward insane behaviour here.

Are you aware of any discussion on the current metaphysical weather?

Re: Metaphysical emotional weather

[(Anonymous)]

In addition to whatever JMG has to say, earthworm (he's not got to your comment yet as I write this), I'd like to point out that emotional clarity is an ongoing topic of interest around here. In last week's Magic Monday, I was one of several commenters who discussed emotions. In this week's comments, see my follow up questions about emotions in the astral aura. JMG already answered those follow up questions. That's all on the comments page a bit above your note here.

The previous week, the Magic Monday starting on December 31 had several commenters check in on New Year's Day about the current metaphysical weather.

If you haven't had a chance yet to read some of these recent discussions, you might find some other readers who already discussed these themes. You might like to join some of these conversations already in progress.

Mocha Amphibious Moose

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG and commenters,

A good week for everyone.

There is a character who always presents himself to me in some way: Jules-Ernest Houssay or Abbé Julio. Someone talking about it, a book that they recommend to me. I confess that I have a certain curiosity about him.
Your prayers are very interesting, your talismans catch my attention. Has anyone worked with him, paid devotion, used his prayers and talismans?

tks

[ecosophia]

I haven't but I know certain people in the Martinist scene who have.

Celtic Golden Dawn - Dice to replace Wands?

[inykane]

With traditional d6 dice of four colors, red, yellow, blue and green, one could generate a geomantic figure rather easily. Even numbers are (..) and odd numbers are (.). While practicing the Celtic Golden Dawn curriculum, would there be problems if the wands were replaced with dice in this manner? Or would something be lost in the process?

Re: Celtic Golden Dawn - Dice to replace Wands?

[(Anonymous)]

In Timaeus, Plato presented an association of cubes with earth, icosahedra with water, octahedra with air, and tetrahedra with fire.

Qs

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings to our host and other fine folks!

1) I wanted to ask about the differences in monist idealism of Steiner vs critical idealism of Schopenhauer, subconscious mentation, and how it affects perception of reality.

Linked to above: You'd discussed Steiner before and some of the mistakes he's made, but also his imagination and his projects. Where exactly was he receiving his ideas? Were they projections of his subconscious or something else? This idea of using imagination as an instrument of perception, does it imply external influence on your imagination or just high openness to subconscious mentation?

Re: Qs

[ecosophia]

1) That's more than enough for a book. Did you have anything more specific to ask about those?

2) In occult philosophy, the imagination is understood as a twofold organ; it can perceive the astral plane and it can also shape the substance of that plane. When you create an image in your mind's eye, you're shaping the substance of the astral plane; when you allow images to rise spontaneously, you're perceiving the astral plane. Steiner was very skilled at both these functions.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Hopefully not a silly question based on the FAQ, my wife and I are planning to have kids soon. I am currently just starting out with Learning Ritual Magic but am wondering if the advice for pregnancy would refer to me also? I am involved, of course, but I think very differently than incarnating a soul!

Second, is there any sort of ritual you would recommend related to conception, pregnancy, birth etc?

I am probably way out of my depth with these questions but just curious and hopeful that I can continue with this work without concern.

Thank you,
Dan

[ecosophia]

No, I don't recommend any sort of ritual for those purposes; let the process happen naturally.

Aside from that, please reread the FAQ and remember that each statement there is to be taken simply and literally. If you do that you'll find that I've answered your questions.