Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just a few minutes to midnight, so we can launch 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 was my eighteenth published book, and it happened via a chain of accidents that still has me fielding baffled questions. Here's what happened. 

My first book on geomancy, the fourth book I published, was released by a certain rather clueless publisher. I warned the marketing people there that they needed to make sure that their sales staff didn't get confused and think that it was a book on Wiccan feng-shui. Sure enough, their sales staff got confused and marketed it to all the little witch bookstores that thrived in those days as a book on Wiccan feng-shui. Once they got their copies and found out that it was a book on a somewhat fussy Renaissance method of divination, of course, they shipped their copies back to the publisher with irate letters; as a result, Earth Divination, Earth Magic became the first book of mine to go out of print.

Fast forward to 2008. Hot on the heels of the success of The Druidry Handbook and The Druid Magic Handbook, I tried to place Earth Divination, Earth Magic with Weiser. They weren't interested in a reprint but said they'd be happy with a new book on the same subject. So I wrote them a new book that covered exactly the same ground as Earth Divination, Earth Magic, and they snapped it up. Much later, Aeon Books picked up Earth Divination, Earth Magic and brought out a new edition. And that, my children, is why I have two books on geomancy from two different publishers covering exactly the same material, in head to head competition with each other. Most prolific authors end up with some such bizarrerie in their backlist sooner or later...

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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)]

'Oh Sandalphon, archangel of Malkuth, Prince of the Countenance, Co-Brother who was Elijah, in the name of ADNI Melekh (godname of Malkuth), I conjure you by the sacred rites of GD magick to manifest thyself within this Table of Art, upon which thy sigil rests.' Then I follow it up by 5 minutes of repetition of Sandalphon's name while I concentrate on the sigil that rests in the middle of the Trithemius Table of Art. I cannot go higher than 5 minutes for it causes my throat to parch up.

After my alarm goes off, I welcome Sandalphon and tell him to send unto me, say Mikael, elemental archangel of fire and then I conjure Mikael the same way - in the name of ELHM and also Sandalphon itself, and 5 minutes later, I assume Mikael and Sandalphon are both there and I give my charge to Mikael to either consecrate the paper talisman with its purpose, or the petition alone. I then give them the license to depart and close off with an LBRP and a Kabbalistic cross.

So far, it seems this approach is working. Sandalphon is showing up, the elemental kings and angels are showing up. The only problem is, results are not being seen. It is testing my faith to death.


This of course is primarily sourced from your Circles of Power book with the addition of Sandalphon as my own reasoning.

[ecosophia]

Have you asked them why the results aren't showing up?

[(Anonymous)]

The last time I tried this, they told me that it's working or that it will work an 'explosion of power' and the results never flowed and the deadline of the talismans passed. Then I inferred that there is something else at work here that (a) either might be blocking them from being conjured in my room or (b) they don't care enough to see it through.

If you remember from that thread, I consecrated a talisman via Phorlakh for a purpose related to House 10 and divination showed that neither Phorlakh nor its power made it into the talisman. You told me to wait and see what happens. A week passes and nothing happens, and the talisman is discarded. This is basically my story with talismans.

[ecosophia]

In that case I would reflect very carefully on the purposes for which you are making the talismans, with the intention of seeing if there's a common thread -- a divided will, a karmic issue, or simply the fact that you're trying to accomplish something that for one reason or another will not work.

Or you may just not have a gift for talismans. There are other modes of working -- and other ways of using occultism to have a successful life that have nothing to do with ceremonial magic. (One of the reasons that so much of my work these days focuses on occultism rather than magic -- if you will, the way of wisdom rather than the way of power -- is that I get better results that way.)

[(Anonymous)]

I have a natal Sun-Saturn applying square, which is all I can say about the karmic implications that might be behind all this. I know that Saturn abhorrently hates the Sun because the Sun wants natives to grow, expand, explore and merge with God whereas Saturn wants to erode all life.

As for the purpose of the talismans, I've never done magick for anything I have never wanted. If I were having success with those things without magick like everyone else in my life, I would have never wanted anything to do with magick.

[ecosophia]

1) No, Saturn just loves limits, and limitless expansion offends his sense of propriety and order. (I have Sun trine Saturn in my natal chart so we're kind of buds.) That square does mean that you will face repeated frustration in your life any time you let your ego get involved.

2) That may be your problem. Magic is not a wish-fulfilling machine. A relationship with the forces of magic is like any other relationship: if your sole interest is what you can get out of it, the relationship's sure to sour.

[(Anonymous)]

Sandalphon is someone I feel far more comfortable with. I know we should pursue magick with a relentless daily practice so that our subtle senses can awaken and we grow in authority to stand with the spirits, but I have never asked him/her (let's go with her) for anything other than to act as an intermediary and she fulfils that task. I have never spoken to her via scrying in spirit vision but I plan to, maybe once I have regained my confidence back.

I believe in the idea of relationships too but the fact that FIRST time conjurations yield no results is a bit disappointing. Do I have to make introductions with each new spirit/angel each time I wish to work it?

In the grimoires, they encourage magicians to build relationships with the spirits we wish to work with and I've been told, perhaps by you or someone else I can't remember, that the relationship builds up automatically by constantly conjuring them and charging them. At least that is an Abramelin initiate told me. 'Spend day after day, time and time again calling the spirits.' Do you agree with all of this?


Someone personally told me that they build a relationship with an angel by doing just that and now that angel comes to him by the mere repetition of its name and fulfils its task, and the number of workings he gave me was 5. So 5 workings - successful workings - strengthen the relationship and maybe that is what I have done with dear Sandalphon.

Your Cicles book discourages from threatening angels, well because, angels can't be threatened and so conjuring them and giving them tasks is all I know, besides spirit vision of course.


I've met more and more people each time I ask this question who tell me that now the spirits come to them by the mere repetition of their name.

I wish I could do that too by now.


Oh I just noticed you said trine, not opposition. You once said on Reddit you have Saturn well placed in your natal chart. The trine (positive aspect) explains why. Mine is not a trine, mine is an applying square - an opposition between Sun and Saturn. My natal Jupiter is in retrograde as well.


Nonetheless, I still won't give up because I've been on this path for 3 years and I don't won't to quit now. So I have been trying to make relationships with these angels as best as I can in the hopes that finally results can flow in and my confidence in the path becomes as constant as yours.

[ecosophia]

Why not invoke Sandalphon and ask her to teach you what you're doing wrong? Angels are a lot smarter and wiser than we are, you know, and archangels even more so. I also recommend a daily practice of discursive meditation, to clear away the barriers to wisdom and clarity. Here's a set of convenient online instructions:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/tag/discursive+meditation

[(Anonymous)]

I never thought about it because in the GD we are taught to seek the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and/or our natal angel.

Angels are 100% smarter and stronger than we can ever hope to be. I've seen people tell me of how a Shem angel they conjured and tasked ended up going far more overboard with its task and delivered results that they will never forget for the rest of this incarnation. Just last week, a story circulated in an occult group about a Shem angel that caused a miscarriage in a woman after she asked to be free of her burden. The Shem angel in question was the Piscean Shem angel Yabamiah. This is celestial magick levels of power and yet not a word of astrology was followed by the person who conjured him.

I will try invoking Sandalphon and charge her to teach me to right my wrong in my steps via spirit vision because clearly something is going horribly wrong here. Prior to this I was invoking Virgin Mary via a Hail Mary in all my conjurations but it never felt right, so I have decided to replace it with Sandalphon which feels more resonating.

I made her sigil on the Lunar kamea because the Moon is the planet that stands in for the plane of physical material (Malkuth) just as Saturn stands in for kether, Chockmah and Binah and the space I tune my room to Malkuth is done by doing the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram of Malkuth which makes use of the Lunar hexagram, traced in Malkuth colors, with the symbol of Malkuth - an encirled cross - in the middle charged with ADNI MELEKH in all 4 corners.


As for my Sun-Saturn natal square, is there any magick that can be done to keep it mitigated and as less involved as possible?

[ecosophia]

1) Ahem. Please stop and reread what I wrote. Don't "charge" Sandalphon to do anything. You don't have the power to do that anyway, any more than a lieutenant in the army can boss a general around. Archangels outrank you. You don't establish a relationship with somebody by ordering them to do things -- you talk to them, listen to them, interact with them, and see what they bring to the discussion. One of the most disastrous flaws in modern magical thinking is this bizarre notion that spiritual beings are there to be told what to do!

2) Of course you can learn to manage your Sun-Saturn square. Meditating on your natal chart is a good basic discipline -- once you understand all your placements and aspects, it's a lot easier to figure out how to work with them. A square can be a source of strength and stability rather than a source of frustration -- once you know where your limits are, you can rest on them, brace yourself against them, and use them as thrust blocks to push off from.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe there's a difference in terms here. I use the term charge to mean 'conjure the angel and ask them to do such and such'. There is no bullying there.

Also I have a proposition. Do all grimoires carry the same weight in terms of conjurations/invocations? The invocation in Circles is simple and kabbalistic making use of the highest and working its way down to the lowest. There is nothing with that. The heptameron is similar, first using the string of godnames, then the heavenly angel, then finally the archangel of the planet.

Since I could not find a traditional conjuration for Sanadalphon in the grimoires - she really doesn't do anything in Kabalah besides just watch us from that heaven xD, I think I might have to edit the Heptameron conjuration for Moon and adapt it to Malkuth with its god name. Does this make sense?

We don't have this problem with Metatron who has hundreds of names in the grimoires and one conjuration as well.

[ecosophia]

1) It's quite possible that there's a verbal confusion here; "charge" is used in a technical sense in some magical writings with the meaning of "command."

2) I don't use grimoire methods so I can't really help you there. I use Golden Dawn methods pretty much exclusively when conjuring spirits, and the GD system encourages the student to write their own conjurations and invocations.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, the GD encourages self exploration after reaching a particular grade and that is what I have done. Obviously we are not going to find invocations for millions of angels, from the zodiacal archangels, to the Levi 4 kings and all. You seem quite confident in your GD methods as you have mentioned many times here and there.

I should write my own conjuration then and see which brings the heaviest shift in manifestation. John Dee wrote his own conjurations despite having access to the grimoires.

[ecosophia]

What you term my "confidence" in GD methods is simply a reflection of the fact that that's what I use. If you have a hammer that does the job of pounding nails, you don't need to go looking for another! In the GD system as I learned it, it's not a matter of "after a particular grade" -- you should be crafting your own conjurations as soon as you begin working with practical magic. Dee was of course a core inspiration here, but so was Pietro d'Abano, who held that after 50 years or so every grimoire becomes obsolete.

[(Anonymous)]

That's the one thing I like about the GD. It came so late that it had pretty much all the material in the British library to pick its curriculum from. Yet prominent members of the order such as Aaron Leitch still maintain that the grimoire procedures hold all the power because they are the way the spirits and angels want to be called. I humbly disagree as practitioners have found out, all one needs is the name of entity, along with its sigil and a containment structure such a table on an altar in accordance with Agrippa's 3 books of philosophy much of which is already within the GD.