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 twenty-first published book, my second published book-length translation, and my third co-written project.  It's also one of my most famous projects. How to describe Picatrix?  The easiest way to explain it is to say that it's a fabled book of forbidden magic written by a mad Arab sorcerer in the early Middle Ages, packed with strange incantations that can call down eldritch powers from the heavens when the stars are right. You know, the Necronomicon!

The big difference is that Picatrix is quite real.  It was a manual for professional wizards penned in Muslim Spain in the 11th century by an anonymous Arab author about whose sanity I don't propose to speculate, and it does in fact teach invocations for calling down stellar and planetary powers using astrological magic when the heavens are in an appropriate condition. In its Latin translation, prepared in the 13th century at the court of Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile, it was immensely influential in occult circles all through Europe until the end of the Renaissance, but until Chris Warnock and I got to work on it, there had never been a usable English translation of the Latin text.

Chris and I spent years slogging through the awkward half-Spanish medieval Latin of the text and turning it into readable English, but it finally saw print (via Chris's house press) in 2010. It's been enormously successful, both in terms of sales and as a pair of shock paddles applied to the once-prostrate form of classical astrological magic, which is now once again a widely practiced tradition; it's one I still practice from time to time, though it's not my usual approach to magic. It's only fair to say that this is emphatically not a book for beginners, and requires a good solid knowledge of medieval astrology, Platonic philosophy, and herbalism. If you're up for it, though, you can get a copy here.

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I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 

 

I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed--as in, no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the suggestion, Robert. I was wanting something that delved into the unconventional, madman side of Blake rather than a run-of-the-mill biography. Damon seems like a perfect companion for my study of Blake's works.

KT

[bofur_the_dwarf]

Not a question, just a comment: not a cloud in the sky in ol' New Brunswick, Canada, for the eclipse, which was worth seeing.

IMHO you can't experience one of these - the spooky, otherworldly darkness - without feeling that there's spiritual import of some kind, in the heavens.

Re: Eclipse

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Sonkitten and I were out watching the eclipse, are we doomed? We used a pinhole viewer. Are there any post-eclipse precautions we should take?

Re: Alchemy & Economics

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, me too.
Found this:
https://professorwerner.org/pubs/obituary-hans-christoph-binswanger-a-true-economist-and-social-scientist/

Nom du jour: Mocha Paradoxical Jellyroll

[(Anonymous)]

After 96.5% totality here in my area I took a walk downtown. The light was still "subdued" but the shadows of the bare tree limbs were odd: almost like the skeletons of shadows. I had a beer downtown. Walking back home an hour later, the shadows were normal again.

[(Anonymous)]

What an interesting approach you've suggested here! Sounds like a great idea to juxtapose Blake and Dickinson and see what emerges from it.

And I'm tucking that word "bedtome" away for future use!

[(Anonymous)]

Natural magic such as Hoodoo? I've been told that even that is astrological because it calls on the same angels as in the solomonic tradition.

Which part of Agrippa's level of existence does the GD fall into? Also, are you an initiated member of the order or are you entirely self taught?

[furnax]

Hey JMG,
I'd like to ask if I'm still welcome to ask questions here. I understand perfectly if that is no longer the case, and if so I won't bother you again.

In any case, I'd like to add that the experience made me swear off piracy for good, something which seemed hitherto quite unimaginable. I spent some time thinking about the way in which the same dynamic of taking-without-giving played out in many parts of my life, and decided it was a pretty bad idea in general (wish I had known that earlier, but alas; guess my common sense isn't very sharp). So here's to a another belated thank-you. As an aside, the SoP and discursive meditation have been working very well, so thanks for that as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Is self-knowledge and reflective consciousness similar to introspection?

[ivn66]

Hello JMG. Hope you've enjoyed your eclipse party! I'm happy to hear that local libraries somewhere - since they certainly don't seem to in my corner of the country - still function as places where people meet.

My question is one about sympathetic magic. I have a book which was gifted to me, with love, by someone very dear to me. She ordered it online, though, and had it shipped directly to me which means she's never actually touched it. As I understand it this makes the object somewhat less connected to her than, say, a piece of clothing she once wore. And yet, when I hold the book in my hands, I feel a strong sense of her and the spirit in which she gave it to me. I therefore wonder about the efficacy of evoking, say, Chesedian prosperity into the book in order to effect her, rather than doing the same into a piece of old clothing.

In your experience, is past physical contact essential for sympathetic magic of this nature to work? Or is the book's symbolic value, as it represents the connection between the two of us, meritous in this case too?

(Edit - I have her consent to do workings on her behalf to aid in a certain few situations)

Edit 2 - as a postscript, this makes me realize that since the two of us have been in physical contact ourselves and are in fact connected in a certain manner for at least the next seven years, any magick I perform on myself is functioning at least a little as sympathetic magick on her as well. Huh!

Re: OCD

[(Anonymous)]

Not JMG, and not a doctor, but feel moved to share that many decades ago I suffered from OCD for about 6 months and it came directly after a bout of strep throat. I did not connect the dots... but it sure was weird at the time. I never could perceive any psychological reason for the OCD; just, after I recovered from strep, very all of a sudden I needed to count things, and check things, and so on. The OCD faded away eventually. A few years ago I read somewhere that it turns out that strep throat can cause problems in the brain, a specific sort of inflammation, that, after the strep is gone, can cause OCD to manifest-- my childhood case sounded like something quite typical!! I was astounded to read that, and to me, it made perfect sense.

So if I were in your shoes with persistent OCD I migth start looking into whether there might be some anti-inflammatories that could help.

One anti-inflammatory that I take just for general health purposes is fennel tea or ginger tea with a little bit of raw honey. I find that very very soothing generally.

Again I am not doctor, this is not medical advice, just sharing.

I myself wiill be very interested in JMG's response to your question.

Re: Realistic Fictional Books re: astral plane

[(Anonymous)]

Bentley Little has brushed up against the topic here and there.

—Princess Cutekitten

Re: OCD

[ecosophia]

This isn't something I can offer any help with. To be frank, professional help may be appropriate.

Re: OCD

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you.

[ecosophia]

It depends on how interested she is. If she's already decided she wants you in her bed, it might accelerate the process a little. If she's unsure, she might feel pushed toward sex, and decide to back away. You're basically building and charging an astral image of the two of you having sex, and the result of the image will depend on how she responds to that.

Re: Addiction

[ecosophia]

That's a fascinating question, but it's not one that the occult traditions I've studied happen to address. Anyone else?

[ecosophia]

Yes, I went out and joined the eclipse party at the library. It was quite something to see.

Re: Eclipse

[ecosophia]

Nope. If you read some of my other answers you'll find that I've addressed that, and it's not an issue. It's just not a good time to do magic.

[ecosophia]

Yes, your own practices can be powerful, but they'll always tend to reinforce your own imbalances and bad habits. That's why it's useful to do practices that were created by a variety of other people; whatever imbalances and bad habits they had, they probably won't be yours.

Re: The destruction of Atlantis

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, that's what Dion Fortune taught, certainly.

2) It's not strange at all. Atlantis has a massive presence in popular culture, and occult teachings about Atlantis are all over the place. Did you know that Robert E. Howard's stories about Conan the Barbarian were heavily influenced by Theosophical writings about prehistory? So was a lot of the other early to mid-20th century fantasy literature, including Tolkien.

Re: Wounds to physical and etheric bodies

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, thank you. I imagine this has very interesting implications for the loss of a limb, e.g. the phantom limb experience that many people feel.

[ecosophia]

I don't produce my own podcasts -- I appear on podcasts by established hosts. If you have any favorite podcasts, drop them an email and ask them to do something along those lines; I'm always glad to be on a new podcast, as it's free advertising for me.

Re: Acme Brand Blessing

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, this has been very enlightening. This same woman was pretty open about her mental health struggles and was constantly adjusting doses of medication to try to manage her problems. Clearly there was a lot going on there… I am grateful to my intuition for sounding the alarm early, and also for the years of experiences on this forum I've benefited from that helped me to recognize that it was something worth paying attention to. Many many thanks.

Re: Aphantasia

[(Anonymous)]

I have aphantasia and am a couple of years into CGD (up to Work of Fire in Bardic Grade). My inner sight is slowly improving from practically nothing - I get flashes of actual images plus quite a lot of "oh, there's a coin with a gate on it and the year 1847 on the back" (from yesterday) without actually seeing the coin, the gate or the year. This doesn't stop my imagination, it just means I can't really visualise things in detail. Rarely and wonderfully, I can see scenes - the Inner Grove of Earth was one where I could visualise drawing pentagrams in colour. I can see the colourless outlines of the pentagrams being traced in other inner groves. I try to not stress about it and let what happens happen. Interested in other people's takes on the condition!

Re: Cosmogenesis etc

[ecosophia]

From my perspective humans aren't a separate kingdom, we're simply one expression of the transitional stage between the animal realm and the next realm up, which is that of beings who no longer need material bodies (their densest body is on the etheric plane). All beings in our swarm of souls start out on the mineral level, work up through the plant and animal levels, and then pass on to the next realm. That higher realm -- call it the realm of spirits if you like -- is as diverse as the mineral, plant, and animal realms; just as the animal kingdom includes everything from paramecia to blue whales, the spirit kingdom includes an equal range of complexity -- and yes, humans who "graduate" from our transitional status are in the paramecium category. (Furthermore, there are levels above that one, which we can't even imagine yet; we'll get there in due time.) Blavatsky was very specific that her mahatmas were incarnate human beings, so they didn't belong to the spirit realm (though they may have gotten there since her time).