Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

Midnight is in just a few moments, and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and 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.  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.  And further:  I'm going to draw a line, a hard one, under questions involving the evocation of spirits. Down the road a bit I'll be doing a post on the blog about why that's far less important than it's been made to look, and how the way of occult initiation takes a radically different path; in the meantime, I'm tired of fielding repetitive questions from people (or, quite possibly, one person using many sock puppets) that rotate gyroscopically around that one habit.

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-eighth published book, and one of the oddest. On the blog I was doing then, The Archdruid Report, I ended up doing a whole series of posts on the relation between magic and peak oil. It became very popular among my readers, and so I decided to risk the experiment of assembling them into a book, adding such additional information and reflection as seemed appropriate, and offered it to one of the small presses that were pioneering the new business model of fine editions of occult books. Much to my surprise, Scarlet Imprint accepted it and brought it out in two editions, one good hardback edition and one over-the-top bound in black goatskin with gilt edges. Even more to my surprise, it sold out, and did so promptly enough that the publisher then issued a paperback edition, which is still in print. As with so much else that emerged during the heyday of the peak oil movement, it's unfashionable these days but no less valid than it was; you can get a copy from the publisher here.

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, and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

Review of Transforming Darkness and Tolle's Pain-Body

[jprussell]

Good Evening,

If you're in the US, I hope you're making good use of the holiday weekend, but amongst the merriment, I hope you'll join me in raising a toast to those who have given their lives for this country.

To Share: After someone asked about working with Jung's Shadow last week right after I read an excerpt from a book on that very topic, considering it's Jung we're talking about, I figured synchronicity must be afoot, and so I ordered a copy of the book and read it. It's very short, so I was able to collect my thoughts on it here, for anyone interested: https://jpowellrussell.com/#book_transforming_darkness

To Ask: I learned of a concept of Eckhart Tolle's called the "pain-body" in the book on shadow work I mentioned in my "to share" above. Apparently, the "pain body" is supposed to be a semi-autonomous part of your subtle body made up of pain, negative feeling, and so forth, and since it is semi-autonomous and needs more negative feeling to "feed," when it gets triggered (stuff that you've repressed or don't identify with comes up), the pain-body seizes control and makes you act in ways that guarantee its supply of negative feeling (picking fights, succumbing to addictions, seeing everything in the worst possible light, et cetera). Davis proposes that the Pain-Body is basically another way of looking at the Shadow, and that Tolle's methods for dealing with it can help with Shadow work.

Two questions on this, if I may, mainly for JMG, but I welcome anyone else's thoughts as well:
1. Does this map onto anything you know about the subtle bodies? If accurate, it sounds like a primarily astral phenomenon, possibly with some effects on the etheric.
2. Does this strike you as having any validity as either an explanatory framework or a method of dealing with repressed/rejected aspects of the self?

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 Transforming Darkness and Tolle's Pain-Body

[ecosophia]

To the fallen. (Clink.)

1) The interface between the subtle bodies in occultism and the various mental structures in psychology is extremely tangled. Physical pain leaves traces in the etheric body, emotional and mental pain leaves similar traces in the astral body; I suppose you could probably treat the interaction among these traces as a "body" if you wanted to.

2) The only question that matters, to my mind, is whether techniques associated with that approach work. If they do, that's the only justification they need.

[(Anonymous)]

I recently stumbled on a weird TV show called Hazbin Hotel. As odd as it might sound, I think it's an important piece of media, because it's a major step forward in the process of people redefining their old views to make a conversion to fundamentalist Christianity easier. Specifically, I think it is a sign that Progressives have begun to redefine Progressivism itself as evil and demonic.

I can't help but note one of the defining features of the show is that it is set in a Hell that it portrays as a thoroughly modern city. It is also, as the show goes to remarkably great lengths to demonstrate, a thoroughly miserable and terrible place to be. Heaven meanwhile is shown to be a much more pleasant place to live: it has its dark side, but overall, seems far better; and it is portrayed as an old fashioned kind of place.

The show also seems determined to try to portray Lucifer in a positive light. This is not new, but it does so in a way I find quite fascinating: it essentially makes him into a failed Progressive. He is an idealistic dreamer who sought to make the world better; but made some mistakes and was condemned to Hell because of them, and led innocent others into it; while the residents of Heaven are ignorant of such basic things as how people get into Heaven, and are stuck in a weird kind of stasis.

And this was made, marketed, and is being heavily pushed by Amazon, and is being lauded by the mainstream media, who seem to be unaware of the subtext of the entire thing.

a) Do you think it's possible that I'm right about the subtext?

b) If this does seem plausible to you, how much further do you think things can go before we see people finally snap and adopt the Christian identity they seem to be so eager to adopt? I can't help but worry about the implications of living in a society governed by people eager to redefine their views as literally demonic, and so as bad as a mass conversion of the elites to Fundamentalist Christianity will be, think the sooner it happens, the better.

[ecosophia]

1) It's certainly possible.

2) I'm far from sure it will be the elites as such who convert. It's those below the pinnacle, the managers and overseers who make things happen, who are more likely to make the switch. My guess is that it'll take some kind of collective shock to kick off the mass conversions. That could be something as simple and relatively harmless as one more major media figure becoming a Christian; it could be something far more traumatic, like a lost war or an economic crisis. It's by no means certain that they'll convert to fundamentalism, by the way, if by that you mean conservative evangelical Protestantism; trad Catholicism and Orthodoxy are getting plenty of converts these days. But we'll see.

Time and reincarnation

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, do you think it's possible for a religion or other metaphysical system to steer the direction of practitioners' reincarnated souls, in particular making it more likely for them to be reincarnated as someone who will likely become a practitioner in the next life (i.e. born to parents of the same religion)?

One more question:

Do you think that reincarnated souls are subject to strictly linear time? I.e. that a person could only be reincarnated after their chronological death, and that their soul could not move backwards in time and reincarnate as a person who lived prior to the last incarnation? Authors I've read discussing the subtle planes like Arthur Powell seem to assume that all levels of reality are subject to linear time as people typically perceive it, so I was wondering if you've encountered anything suggesting that time may work differently on those other planes.

Thanks again for these posts.

Re: Time and reincarnation

[ecosophia]

1) No, what determines that is what your karma needs. If your karma is best resolved by doing a few lives in a given religion, then that's what you'll get.

2) I'm probably going to have to put something about this in the FAQ. All I know is that all my past life memories, and the past life memories of those who I've had good reason to think were remembering clearly, are in strict time sequence.

Daily affirmation exercise

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Thank you for hosting Magic Mondays.

A question about combining the daily affirmation with the visualization of the Tree of Life, if I may.

I have created an exercise where I mentally intone the Sephiroth name and visualize the corresponding coloured sphere at the respective location of my body. I then say the affirmation "I am one with the life of the universe, it flows through me and accomplished all my worthy desires". I start from Kether and end with Malkuth. Is this fine, or would I be doing something non-kosher (e.g., messing with the flow of the life force through the body, and so on)?

Regards

Re: Daily affirmation exercise

[ecosophia]

That's very close to several classic occult exercises -- close enough that I don't expect you to have any problems at all. Quite the contrary, my guess is that it'll work very well for you.

Psychic ability and Magic

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Jmg, Some time ago I recall you saying something to the effect that if a person has natural psychic abilities then Magic isn't a good path for them and they're better off not learning formal Magic. I don't recall your exact words but that was the gist of it I think. This resonated with me because I had attempted learning/performing formal Magic a few times and it just felt all wrong, and I do have a decent amount of natural psychic ability. I feel/hear/see (it's difficult to describe) a lot of information that it took me a long time to realize other people don't pick up on. Included in this is sensing the movement of energy and feeling, or not feeling, future events. However, it wasn't until you made that comment about psychics and magic that I realized WHY I had such a problem with formal magical training. It was like trying "learn" how to do something that I already could do but in a completely different and more convoluted way.

Back in about 2011 I joined the AODA and started working through The Druidry Handbook. This was when I ended up deciding that formal ritual etc wasn't right for me. I still talk to trees, other flora and fauna, and other nature spirits. I also make offerings, do my own protection rituals, and similar things. I think the main difference is I follow what feels right to me rather than a formal pre-written ritual. I also practice a couple forms of divination, though at least half the time the messages come from my psychic sensing or reading of signs and omens.

I recently checked in with the AODA and it turns out my membership is for life. My question is, is it appropriate for me to call myself a Druid despite the fact that I don't practice formal magic?

Thanks,

FSH

Re: Psychic ability and Magic

[ecosophia]

1) The important thing to keep in mind is that magic is only one subset of occultism; magic is to occultism what chemistry, say, or biology is to science as a whole. You can be a scientist without being a biologist -- ask any physicist, astronomer, or geologist, for starters! -- and in the same way, you can be an occultist without practicing magic. People who have strong psychic gifts are generally better off not practicing magic, since in many cases formal magical ritual doesn't play well with psychism.

2) Magic isn't that important in Druidry; in fact, it's fair to say that most Druids don't practice magic. Thus you can certainly use the term for yourself.

Wish to discharge familial karma

[(Anonymous)]

There are undesirable patterns in my family relationships that I think must come from past life involvements. One family member has a very aggravating habit that I find *incredibly* annoying. It’s persisted for 50 years, so I don’t think it will ever stop. It’s a constant daily torment. Another family member has psychological issues from the deep past that I’d be a lot happier not having to deal with.

It’s not all bad, I don’t think any of us is a hardcore narcissist or sociopath, but I really, *really* don’t want these patterns to follow me from lifetime to lifetime as I suspect they have probably done up to now.

Is there anything I can do to free myself from this karmic burden a little faster? I really dread the thought of having to recapitulate this again and again.

My magic background is in Golden Dawn, Hellenic style, with no ritual more complex than the Rose Cross. I also invoke the violet flame fairly regularly, though I am pretty new at this.

BTW, I can’t just walk out on these people. They are heavily dependent on me, I am the de facto caretaker and abandonment by me would lead to very bad practical consequences for them. I’d like to be able to arrange for help with my responsibilities, and hope to do so in future, but right now it’s not practical. I am pretty much on my own.

Re: Wish to discharge familial karma

[ecosophia]

You're dealing with the karma in the classic way right now: accepting it, dealing with it, and not trying to run away from it. The violet flame invocation's a useful tool here, btw, as it can help clear away karma -- you might consider finding or creating a decree that assists in that.

That's the easy part of the answer. What follows is the hard part.

Carl Jung used to point out that whatever irritates us in others is always a reflection of ourselves. That's the projection of the shadow: the things that annoy us in others are our own bad habits that we can't bear to notice. I'm going to suggest that you spend some time every day doing journaling about the irritating habit you mention, with the intention of seeing how it reflects your own attitudes or behaviors back to you. Realize that, and first of all, the habit will stop bothering you -- and second, you'll release the karma that keeps that interaction stuck in place.

Dreaming

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,
I remember recently that you mentioned that you started to keep a dream journal again. What results are you going for? If you are interested in lucid type dreams we should share recommendations. For me it was simple to learn and although there could be other reasons for that, I am still surprised others haven’t had the same experience.
A friend

Re: Dreaming

[ecosophia]

My goal is simply to see where the process leads. I don't have specific endpoints in mind -- it seems more useful to me to open myself to that side of human experience and let the process unfold as it will.

So far, the most unexpected thing is that some of my dreams have become divinatory in nature -- as in, I get the same kind of near-term practical advice from them that I get from, say, tarot readings. It's quite interesting to watch!

Recent Questions

[(Anonymous)]

Some weeks ago a question about finding a spouse drew an answer mentioning that sexual attraction, romance, and unconditional love are etheric, astral, and mental plane phenomena. Dogs are generally said to exhibit unconditional love. Does this imply that dogs have mental sheaths?

Re: Recent Questions

[ecosophia]

Dogs don't exhibit unconditional love. They've been bred for tens of thousands of years to become emotionally dependent on their human owners. Not the same thing!

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, JMG! Once more, thanks a lot for answering our questions.

Today I'd like to know your opinion on the plethora of, shall we call them, "neo-gnostic" movements within occultism, mostly of a dark and "left hand path" bent.

They seem to believe in a demiurge or demiurgical deity/condition they seek to escape from, but instead of "returning to the pleroma" like regular primitive christians later deemed "gnostic," they seek to "escape the cosmos," diving into chaos and becoming deities, getting "deified" like they say. Is anything like this even remotely possible? I find the concept quite abhorrent and juvenile, but a lot of them deal in very dark modes of sorcery, like Quimbanda or Palo Mayombe, not to mention the nietszchian undertones they graft into everything. They seem to mean business and get "somewhere."

I wonder if all they really manage to do is go hopping at the edges of the cosmos among the discarded shells of previously formed individualities, calling them "gods" and managing the stay there in much the same condition, much like Dion Fortune describes in her Cosmic Doctrine if I understood that part correctly. If this is so, am I right to assume they will eventually snap out of it and continue with the "proper path" of evolution? Also, if one manages to achieve such a state, am I right to intepret that state as just "pausing" their evolution and remaining as just plain "human level" conscious beings living outside the "regular cosmos" (or at the borders of it)?

Thanks!

[ecosophia]

I think Dion Fortune's analysis is a good one here. These people fling themselves to the outer edge of the cosmos in an attempt to break through the Ring-Pass-Not into the Penumbra, the "heap of broken images" left behind by the dead ends and might-have-beens of Cosmic evolution. Some of them will make it, though the great majority won't. Those that do will add to the collection of dead ends and might-have-beens, and stay there until the Cosmic cycle swings over from day to night and what Fortune describes as "the waters of the Cosmic tide" flows over them. Then whatever's left of them -- for they'll have been unraveling themselves bit by bit the whole time, as they react against the order that maintains them in existence -- will be dissolved down to basic components, and those will be recycled in other forms by other beings.

The majority, those who can't get through the Ring-Pass-Not, will stay stuck on the outer edge of existence until it finally sinks in that they're wasting their time and could go do something less dull. It may take a while.

Blessings; GSF books; locating essay

[milkyway1]

Good morning! :-)

Thanks a lot to everybody who signed up for a blessing last week, that was very helpful. I‘m offering blessings again this Wednesday, and would, again, very much appreciate people signing up as it gives me a chance to practice:

https://thehiddenthings.com/weekly-blessings-21

And two questions to our gracious host:

1. In the last MM, somebody wrote:

„I read on one of your blogs that you can use a metal implement to get rid of astral detritivores that sometimes latch onto us“

Would you (or anybody else) happen to know where I can find this blog post of yours?

2. Again last MM, you mentioned in passing that the GSF series will not just have the 7 books which have been mentioned previously, but also „probably four additional volumes as well“.

What would these additional volumes be about?

Thanks for your replies, and if you will have them, my blessings to you, too. :-)

Milkyway, who is still waiting for her pre-ordered-months-ago copy of the Four Elements to arrive (harumph!!).

Re: Blessings; GSF books; locating essay

[ecosophia]

1) I think it was probably this one:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/22235.html

2) The four branches of the Quadrivium, the old Pythagorean sciences of number: numerology, sacred geometry, harmonics, and -- well, I'm not sure about the fourth. Back in the day it was astrology, but for various reasons I'm considering a volume on sacred ecology instead.

3) I'm still waiting for my author copies!

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to work with a single god in his different manifestations in the Sphere of Protection?

[ecosophia]

Of course it is. Here's an example of how to do it from a Protestant Christian standpoint:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/68693.html?thread=5975125#cmt5975125

Re: little houses in German forests

[angelica5804]

Following up from last week re: little houses in German forests, about 25 years ago I received a small, elaborately painted, wooden house (5” tall X 7” deep X 4” wide) as a gift from my cousin whose family has Silesian roots in a town near what is now Breslau. Yes, her family was relocated at the end of WWII. I have the tiny house in my garden and I can only imagine who has lived there over the years….

Protections while re-watching a Horror Movie; Healing

[aekeenatia]

Dear JMG, healers and readers of MM,

I am asking a question (and in 3 asking for healing energies) about what protections I might want to (and be able to) put in place while re-watching a horror fairy-tale.

Background story:
Last night, I was thinking about some of my weird sensitivities, particularly that all childhood I was scared or at least disturbed by TV noises (and my parents would watch TV in the next room every evening). It was not the first time I was pondering this, but an unexpected answer came to me in the form of a very old memory: as a very young child, not yet able to speak (about 1 year old?) I accidentally watched a horror – my mum sat me in front of TV, read the title “fairy-tale” in TV program and went cooking in the next room, occasionally checking on me. As this very early memory emerged, it came with intense fear, and as I checked – and found the information about the horror online (it was "The Sorcerer's Apprentice, animated horror fairy-tale from 1978, directed by Zeman"), more feelings and physical pain in my throat and upper chest appeared and only slowly have been going away; I also had a bad dream, bordering on nightmare last night.

I do not remember much else except that as a young child I experienced this horror also bodily – I could not move with the fear.

Now, I would like to resolve this:
1) Do you think it is a good idea to watch, process the fears and perhaps do the LBRP whenever I might feel overwhelmed by them? (I am intensely emotionally involved, so divination would probably not work.) Or would another approach be better? (But I cannot think of any.)
2) Can you think of any other simple protections I could put in place? (I intend to pray to two Deities – I know, this probably sounds overblown and silly, but the pain yesterday was pretty intense and is lingering…)
3) I would also like to ask healers willing to send me healing energies to send them, as my throat and upper chest continue to hurt, and my hands are still quite shaky, even now.

Thank you.

With regards,
Markéta

Re: Protections while re-watching a Horror Movie; Healing

[ecosophia]

1) Only if you feel ready for it. Some intensive journaling on the subject might be a good idea.

2) Offer a blessing to everyone involved in that production. Look up the actors, the producer, etc., and offer it to them personally. That will change the dynamic with which you encounter their work.

3) Positive energies incoming.

This kind of thing can be a major issue. Sara spent years having nightmares about hideous blobby things, and only in her forties finally remembered that they were all based on a horror movie her brother had on the television when he was babysitting her, back when she was three or four.

Research on the properties of pyramids

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

A few weeks back there was mention that you had done research on pyramids and gotten some positive results.

(1) Can we have a brief summary on what you did and found out together with any references to pursue?

(2) Could there be any links with the temple technology you have been researching all those years?

Thanks and Regards

Anonymously yours.

Re: Research on the properties of pyramids

[ecosophia]

I did that in the mid-1970s -- say, fifty years ago. I remember that I was doing the experiments based on one of the paperback books on pyramid power available at that time; if I recall correctly, it was this one:

I also recall that I got some positive results, but -- ahem, that was fifty years ago and my research notes probably got lost around the time I went off to college in 1980. As for its possible relation to the temple technology, none of the temples I know of that used the temple technology had a pyramidal shame -- even in ancient Egypt, temples that generated fertility were sharply different -- so probably not.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have a profession activity abroad which involves visits organised by desperately overworked people on the ground, who in turn have to work with locals themselves inundated with urgent and important matters. These trips therefore take some time to arrange and complicate planning for the rest of my life. I'm waiting for proposed dates one such visit now, and it may take weeks before the pieces come together.

I wondered if I could use planetary charity to unstick the system, perhaps Saturn as the planet of restrictions and discipline. (I'm an Aquarian, a sign traditionally ruled by Saturn, and my Saturn is exalted in Libra.) I asked the geomancy oracle if this was a good idea and the reading was Judge Fortuna Minor, 1st Witness Carcer, 2nd Witness Acquisitio and reconciler Populus. I'm not asking for wealth or riches, just help in getting some progress out of the system. Since it was a Saturday, I began donating immediately to a charity providing food for the homeless.

I hope this makes sense. If I've got it wrong, at least a few homeless people will get fed. Grateful for your views.

[ecosophia]

That's a favorable reading. Be aware that Saturn may get you out of the situation by forcing a sudden change of jobs!

Occult & astrological history

[xcalibur_djs]

(my query is in the last paragraph)

I've always been into history, but until fairly recently, I was limited by rationalist history, which peers back dimly to the Bronze Age, and not far beyond it. Now, I've learned of civilizational cycles: Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, Atlantean, our own fifth cycle, and two more yet to come. I'd come across legends and whispers of course, especially in mythology, and fictional worlds like Middle Earth or Conan's Hyborian Age. I never entirely ruled out such tales, but now I have a far better grasp of the grand scheme of things.

I've also become familiar with astrological ages, such as the preceding Piscean Age, represented by major world religions and especially by Christianity, and the Age of Aquarius which we're entering. Despite the hippy-dippy-trippy interpretations of Aquarius, we won't all be enlightened, singing kumbaya surrounded by oceans of lemonade (to reference one of your blog posts from awhile back); instead, flawed human life will go on, just under a different set of principles, new virtues and vices.

I also noticed that our current civilizational cycle seems to have begun with either Leo or Virgo, when Atlantis fell; in which case we'd be about halfway through the dozen signs. Then there's the signs themselves: I gather that Leo melted the glaciers, Cancer was a time of growth, Gemini brought trade and cultural exchange, Taurus was a time of stability/construction/bull worship, Aries brought imperialism, and the recent Pisces was a time of spirituality and paradox (oversimplifying here).

So my questions are: do the 7 civilizational cycles each last for 12 signs/ages? And what will be the character of the Age of Aquarius? I'm thinking it'll be a time of innovation, of destroy & rebuild, as industrial-technological civilization crashes, and we find new ways forward, piecing together modern tech in a far more sustainable manner, but that's just my speculation. Also, I think the astrological ages would be worthy of a blog post, in due time after other priorities of course.

Re: Occult & astrological history

[ecosophia]

1) Whether each cycle lasts a full twelve signs isn't clear from the evidence. I don't think so, since Sundaland (the core region of "Lemuria") sank much less than 25,920 years before the date Plato gives for the fall of Atlantis -- if I recall correctly, Sundaland flooded in stages around 14,000 BC -- but I don't see any reason to be dogmatic about that.

2) As the age of Pisces, ruled by Neptune the planet of mysticism and unity, was an age of mass movements dominated by religion, so the age of Aquarius, ruled by Uranus the planet of invention and individuality, will be an age of eccentric individuals going their own way to triumph or destruction. It'll be a Promethean age, which means that a great deal of it will be spent the way Prometheus ended up in the myth, chained to a mountain with an eagle chewing on his liver. It will be an age of great discoveries and great disasters, in which the one thing nobody will be able to do is to get everyone else to listen up and pay attention. Only when we reach the age of Capricorn will people finally be tired of all the confusion and bizarrerie, and buckle down and get to work practically and collectively to make the world a better place. (And of course that will fail too, in its own way.)

3) I'll consider it.

[thinking_turtle]

To share, for those who wonder what DA, LRM or LIRP mean, a list of abbreviatons used on Ecosophia.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this as always.

Personalities of divination systems

[(Anonymous)]

As a relative newcomer to occultism, divination is one of the things I find most fascinating and enjoyable. That doesn't mean I'm especially good at it, but hopefully time will help there. In one of your answers here last week, you talked about how geomancy tends to give very specific answers. I've also seen ogham described as having a tendency to shift the answer towards spiritual matters. (Unfortunately I can't remember if that was you, Jeff Russel or Kimberly Steele.)

So my question is: if different divination systems have different "personalities", or tendencies, or whatever you prefer to call it, could you briefly sum up how some of the systems you've worked with differ in that respect? I'd also be happy to hear any experiences from the wider commentariat here.

As always, thank you for answering our questions.

Re: Personalities of divination systems

[ecosophia]

It wasn't me who said that about Ogham, certainly. I'd characterize the oracles I've used regularly like this:

Geomancy: very down-to-earth and practical, but don't expect it to take your feelings into account. Not very good for spiritual questions.

Tarot: talkative, almost a chatterbox, and sometimes evasive. The fewer the cards you draw, the more likely you are to get a straight answer.

Ogham: friendly, with a tendency to understate things. Tends to be swayed by your emotional state.

Coelbren: very good for practical questions and interpersonal matters. In my experience, better than any other oracle for career questions. If you've misunderstood the situation, though, it's easy to misread.

Horary astrology: precise but detached, as you'd expect from an oracle that works with outer space. Not so much evasive as excessively subtle.

Gypsy Witch oracle (this is the one that features in my tentacle novels): pleasant and practical. Very much like sitting down with an elderly woman who's just taken the bread out of the oven, and offers you good advice over tea.

I Ching: austere, dignified, mildly amused at best and at worst cold and silent. Treat it with great respect and you'll get better results.

Equilibrium and divination questions

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning all,

I have been practicing a daily meditation and tarot reading for several months now, and have finally started to be able to see what the cards are telling me, but along with that understanding I have been feeling a sense of disequilibrium in regards to magic the last few weeks as I have gotten a number of very accurate divinations. It has been a feeling of a sort of cognitive dissonance I guess. On some conscious level I accept that materialism is false and that there are layers of reality that I have been ignoring/denying, but also I haven't fully accepted it on some gut level and it is creating a very uncomfortable sensation of being unbalanced. It's like I'm in Plato's cave and have accepted that the shadow of materialism on the wall is just a shadow and not reality, but I am unable or unwilling to step out of the cave at the moment. Is this the main danger of magic that I have seen written about, unbalancing ones internal state? Does anyone who went through giving up disenchantment have any themes for meditation that can help bridge this gap?

As a corollary to the first bit, I have concluded that the time has come to add ritual practice into my routine to try and regain balance, and I had picked up a copy of Celtic Golden Dawn so that i would have access to instructions on the LBRP, but I have been enjoying the other practices since I started reading it a week or so ago so I feel like I should just continue with the book as written. I know CGD uses geomancy though, so my question here is whether it is advisable/possible to practice two types of divination at once? I don't have any problem with learning a new form of divination, but I also am disinclined to give up tarot right when I'm starting to understand it, like switching to trumpet right when I'm starting to play piano with both hands. Would doing two divinations interfere with each other, to where it is advisable to shelve tarot while I am folling CGD and come back to it after?

Thanks,
Sub

Re: Equilibrium and divination questions

[ecosophia]

1) Everyone goes through this at some point. Relax, and let yourself move through this process as slowly as you need to. There's nothing to be gained by rushing it.

2) You can certainly practice two modes of divination at the same time, though I don't recommend doing more than that. Just don't neglect geomancy in your CGD studies, as it plays a very important part in the work.

Q

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning folks! Some questions for JMG and the commentariat:

1) Is a Tiphareth / Tiferet initiation the same as a kundalini awakening or are they at different points of the spiritual journey?

This is what you'd said about tiphareth initiations before:
"On an individual level, it represents the union between the lower self and the higher self -- in other terms, between the personality that's developed during this one incarnation and the individuality, the self that remains in and out of incarnation -- in a useful Zen phrase, "the face you had before your mother and father were born." When you achieve it you have finished the work of material incarnation."


2) If we have 3 bodies where do our memories go after death?

3) What does balancing the psyche elementally via SoP actually mean?

Re: Q

[ecosophia]

1) They're different points on different journeys. Even if all spiritual paths go to the same destination, which I doubt, they don't all follow the same route! If you drive from Seattle to Philadelphia by one route you go through Chicago, if you go another route you go through St. Louis, and those two cities are not the same.

2) Your memories aren't in your bodies. They're in your soul.

3) The only way to answer that is to experience it. Give it a try!

Magical Dating Advice

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

There is a girl in my college who used to show me a lot of interest. I didn't make a move to her at the right time, I was too shy. Now she is acting cold towards me, after I reciprocated her interest too lately. Maybe I came across as too needy or insincere. I really like this girl, but I messed it up inadvertently. As far as I know, she is not dating anyone right now and her school workload is very heavy this term. From a magical point of view, what would you recommend me to do to regain her attraction?

Re: Magical Dating Advice

[ecosophia]

Never, never, never do magic to try to attract the affection of a specific person. This is one of the two classic beginner's mistakes in magic, and it always ends the same way. If she isn't interested, and you do a working to attract her, she'll go through half an hour or so of feeling unexpectedly warm and affectionate toward you -- probably when you're not around to benefit from it -- and then shake herself and think, "What the hell was I thinking?" and slam back the other way.

Then the spell, having failed, will rebound on you. So you'll end up hopelessly besotted by her, and she won't be able to stand you. Talk about a miserable way to spend a couple of years! I've watched it happen more times than I want to think about, and most of the people I know who teach magic have their own wealth of stories along the same lines.

My advice instead is to stop being affectionate toward her and be friendly but a little distant. If there's any attraction there, she'll proceed to reach out to you.

Lambspring

[randomactsofkarmasc]

When you first published the Octagon Society lessons online, you included a picture from the Book of Lambspring with each section.


1. Are the correspondences between each image and section historical, ie, does each image really align to the specific lesson? (Because some of the images seem to go better with different lessons, except then they would be out of order. But maybe it is a more "these are spiritual alchemy pictures that relate" and I'm trying to impose a Splendor Solis interpretation on the text and images and I shouldn't be...)

2. If the correspondences are historical, why were the 1893 images used instead of older images?

3. I am finding lots of overlap of the images (especially from the Salamander on) with the Five Rites and Hall's Man: Grand Symbols, which is quite fun. I am slightly stuck on one thing (the mountain of India) that I have not found in the Five Rites (and the only mountain reference I've found so far in Grand Symbols is 'in the Himalaya'). Any resources you could recommend that would help me in figuring out which mountain Lambspring is referring to? (Hindu has a lot of sacred peaks, all with slightly different lore. So far, I am leaning toward Mount Meru. But there are two versions of Meru. The spiritual one has five peaks; the one in the Himalayas has three.)

Thank you very much!

Re: Lambspring

[randomactsofkarmasc]

And one more question, if I may. Is the work in the Five Rites (with the Centers and Vortices) and the process that Hall describes (with the Dew and the glands, etc) referred to as "Spiritual Alchemy" or does it have a more specialized name? (I have in my notes that you referred to something as "energetic alchemy", but I'm not quite sure you were referring to this.)

Magic Circles vs. Sphere of Protection

[(Anonymous)]

Good Morning,
Five or six years ago, I began to do the Magic Circle defense described in Dion Fortune's Psychic Self Defense. This was in response to personal and spiritual attacks by two different people in the city where I live. I did them twice a day, and was able to resist and turn back the attacks, to the extent that both people moved away--

I just kept doing the twice daily Magic Circles, increasing their size and scope to include the community and invoke protection on family members, with good results until about the beginning of 2024.

Since then, a lot more trouble has entered my life, and the lives of my family and community. It feels like the Magic Circles are no longer that effective. I was hospitalized for 2 weeks and narrowly missed having to get gut surgery. Fell ill the day before a family vacation, and had to cancel. Many disruptions at work, and the emergence of ill feelings and passive-aggressive behaviors among my coworkers and customers that didn't seem to be there before.

1) Do magic practices have a pull date? Perhaps I need to go on to something like the Sphere of Protection.

2) Are we entering a period of generally increased spiritual distress and attack? It could be that I am just detecting a flood of bad stuff that is overwhelming my defenses, but hitting everyone else as well.

Thank you in advance for any insights you can offer!

Murky Anthropoid Mongoos

Re: Magic Circles vs. Sphere of Protection

[ecosophia]

1) No, it's just that a coat that will keep you comfortably warm in September may not be warm enough for January!

2) Yes. People I know have been talking about that for a while. It's getting very messy out there.

Aquarian Age

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

It's my understanding that we will be fully in the Age of Aquarius in the year 2117. Of course we hear much talk about the "New/Golden Age" with its dawning. Assuming we (humanity) have not gone extinct or blown ourselves up by then, are there any hallmarks you expect Aquarius to usher in, such as some of the qualities associated with its sign (e.g. boom in scientific discovery, emphasis on group work/collaboration and outer (vs inner) work, new paradigms)?

Also, any suggestions to help prepare for one's second Saturn return, or expectations surrounding it?

Many Thanks.

Anthony from Pittsburgh PA

Re: Aquarian Age

[ecosophia]

1) All that prattle about the New Age or the Golden Age is a matter of an overblown sense of entitlement. If we were worthy of a Golden Age we'd be in one. The Aquarian age is ruled, in traditional astrology, by the malefic planet Saturn, and in modern astrology by the equally malefic planet Uranus; that means that we're in for a rough time.

I accept the Uranus attribution, so I expect the Aquarian age to have the strengths and weaknesses of Uranus. He is the planet of the individual and of liberty, but also of eccentricity, derangement, sudden change, and disaster. Expect 2,160 years of great discoveries and great catastrophes. The mass movements based on the emotional acceptance of beliefs that featured so strongly in the Piscean era will give way to a vast number of eccentric individuals and fringe groups each going their own way, as people get tired of the Piscean model of "believin' what you know ain't so" -- or else! One result is that getting people to organize for any purpose at all will become increasingly difficult.

More generally -- well, if you know people whose sun sign is Aquarius, you know that when they're not at their best they tend to be muddled airheads full of impractical notions. Imagine 2,160 years of muddled airheadedness and impractical notions! In some ways that will be a relief after 2,160 years of "I'm only sadistically torturing you for your own good," the downside of Pisces, but by the time the age of Capricorn comes around people will be desperate to actually do something -- and the next stage of the cycle will dawn.

2) I went through mine a few years ago and no preparation did me any good; as far as I know, it never does. All you can do is deal with it as it happens.

[(Anonymous)]

John--

How does suffering further develop one's soul?

[ecosophia]

By forcing you to confront everything about yourself you don't want to admit, including the ways you contribute to your own suffering.