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

[(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

[(Anonymous)]

Mocha Amphibious Moose,

Thank you very much for your feedback! It was of great help. I will trust my imagination in what my mind comes up with.

And I'm sorry about your neighbor. I live in a particularly noisy place too and I know the kind of problems you're going through.

Thanks again!

[(Anonymous)]

Mental war games! Yes, I know exactly what you mean, Mocha Amphibious Moose! Such a great term for it.

And the vivid imagination for scenarios and scenery. I, too, have edited nonfiction, though I am usually the writer… so lovely to hear someone else describe my mental landscape so perfectly.

—Ms. Krieger

[(Anonymous)]

I live like this too. Inspiration is instantaneous and constant. One word or impression and I make a detailed, vivid story in my mind, including character’s looks, speech patterns and dialects and smells. The stories tend to meander around things missing in my life. I can also easily narrate from a point of view of changing personas, genders, historical settings etc. At this point most fiction writing is ubiquitous to me as my mind can create better and faster. It’s also gotten stronger with age.
Is that the case for you as well?

[temporaryreality]

Some years ago I attempted the exercises in this book. I encountered a being who was my guide and he guided me to another being who, if not Horus, was certainly Horus-like. He reached out and touched my face with light. Later that day, I had the sensation of effervescence, like spicy ginger, travelling from my spinal cord to the place on my face where I was touched and I subsequently developed an outbreak of shingles in that exact spot.

Now, I tend to be very doubtful of my own ability to engage in journeyting-type inner-imaginings (scrying is still difficult for me to relax into, and I need a lot more practice so I can stop assuming my *conscious* mind is making it all up), but this was uncanny enough that I backed right up and decided that I ought to head over to the bunny slope.

Who knows, maybe I missed an opportunity to make contact with a deity - but the encounter made me realize that I wouldn't have the ability to judge friend from foe in the imaginal realms, so I felt it was best to get very basic protective practices down pat before attempting to make contact in what amounts to a kind of unprotected space.

Not that the method doesn't work for some, but something prompted me to make sure I had the fundamentals down before attempting to just saunter underground and meet whomever.

That said, I really DO need to up my scrying practice, so that's on my "to-do list"... I'll probably just work through the GSF practices again before attempting anything else.

Not sure this helps, but I just wanted to post that you're not the only one who has an experience of "trying and nothing" - that's usually my experience, except for that one striking instance of definitely NOT nothing!