Magic Monday
Jul. 23rd, 2018 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday. (The picture is R. Ogilvie Crombie, a Scottish occultist who helped the founders of Findhorn make their contacts with the elementals.)Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.
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 find my online tip jar here.
***This Magic Monday is now closed to new comments. See you next Monday!***
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Prayer and exercises
Date: 2018-07-23 04:50 am (UTC)You warn against doing magic for people without their consent and I can see why. Prayer is a magical communication and is a spell of sorts. I have been getting great results praying for family and friends and they all like it. What are the ethical implications of praying for someone who does not know and has not given permission?
I am working out of your Druidry Handbook and Druid Magic Handbook. I know beginners tend to over do it and would like to know how many exercises such as a solar current or a telluric current, Druid's Egg or colour breathing would be too much?
Thank,
Max Rogers
Lord's Prayer
Date: 2018-07-23 04:56 am (UTC)Is that prayer a Christian invoking and banishing ritual? It sounds like it to me. Do you think it would be effective as a banishing ritual?
Max Rogers
Re: Prayer and exercises
Date: 2018-07-23 05:03 am (UTC)2) Take up one at a time, practice it until you can do it without having to think about the details, and then add another. You can do everything in both books at the same time, but don't try to learn them all at once!
Re: Lord's Prayer
Date: 2018-07-23 05:04 am (UTC)Filling in the blanks
Date: 2018-07-23 05:16 am (UTC)“Then we go to the other extreme, to those systems of divination that require no special states of consciousness, because they rely on cyclical phenomena that, at least in theory, have objective effects on human consciousness and thus on human affairs. There are a number of divination systems in this category, but the one that I plan to discuss—partly because it’s the one with which I’ve had a decent amount of experience, partly because it has had an immense role in the occult traditions of the western world—is astrology: “the speech of the stars,” to give the combination astro-logos its actual meaning in ancient Greek.”
To satisfy my seemingly endless curiosity, could you possibly enumerate and elaborate on some other systems of cyclical phenomena that fit into the same classification as the various schools of astrology?
Magic, Elements and Sex
Date: 2018-07-23 05:25 am (UTC)I occasionally experience sexsomnia, that is, having sex while asleep. Or, really, initiating sex-- Typically I wake up as the events get underway, by which time both I and my partner are committed to the course.
I discovered during the course of the Ovate grade of the DOGD that my sexsomniac episodes are affected by my magical practice. During the roughly 10 months I spent in the Ovate grade, I recorded 6 sexsomniac episodes in my journal. 4 occurred on nights that I had pore-breathed elemental fire during my meditation, 1 occurred after breathing Air, 1 after breathing Spirit, and no episodes at all occurred after working with either Earth or Water.
Further documentation over the course of the Bardic grade bears out the initial findings. Visits to the Fire grove bring on sexsomnia, as does pore breathing Fire, Air or Spirit. Moreover, regular work with a particular element also affects HOW my sexuality expresses itself. When I work with Fire regularly, I become more aggressive; when working with Water, more receptive. Not, I should note, at the level of deliberate consciousness-- I mean what I respond to sexually changes, depending on my engagement with the elements.
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
Re: Filling in the blanks
Date: 2018-07-23 05:29 am (UTC)Re: Magic, Elements and Sex
Date: 2018-07-23 05:31 am (UTC)Flashes of light
Date: 2018-07-23 05:35 am (UTC)First, thanks for your answer last week. I followed your advice and ended up making several changes on my mentor’s recommendation.
One of the recommendations was to not wear my smart watch to bed, so I quit. A couple of nights after I quit, I turned out the light, but before going to sleep, I reached over with my left hand to move a book into a less precarious position on the bedside table.
As I put out my hand, flashes of white-yellow light edged in green came from my palm and fingers, and lit the darkness a kind of blue. It happened several times, but much more quickly than my description makes it sound.
Definitely a first for me. I asked my mentor while meditating, and apparently I had a glimpse of my light body (which I haven’t run across in my studies). I don’t know the proper terms, because the communication is instant and visual, and I often translate to words later.
No question, just a comment
Date: 2018-07-23 07:29 am (UTC)Kevin
Re: Prayer and exercises
Date: 2018-07-23 08:17 am (UTC)As for a church of Christians praying to convert the Archdruid. Oh my! Dank and slimy energies...maybe they are secretly a church of Cthulhu worshipers? ;-)
Franz Bardon
Date: 2018-07-23 08:36 am (UTC)What are the dangers or issues with his methods which make it not recommended to beginners in your opinion?
What level of training and/or skill would you recommend one should attain to before pursuing initiation according to Bardon’s method as described in Initiation into Hermetics?
Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-23 08:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-23 09:13 am (UTC)2) If I wish to see etheric energies (as a form of clairvoyance I suppose) what is the best exercise/training regiment to achieve this ability?
(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-23 09:18 am (UTC)Are you familiar with the divination system called napoleons book of fate? It appears to be some kind of simplified geomancy which only gives prewritten answers to a handful of prerecord d general questions. (E.g “ shall I gain or lose in my cause?”)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-23 09:20 am (UTC)When you do the beginner grade in the golden dawn how exactly are you supposed to meditate on the zodiac? I’ve been simply visualising the zodiac signs will remember their characteristics, is that the correct way?
An Old Man's Prophecy
Date: 2018-07-23 09:52 am (UTC)Sometime ago you advised me to go to the Theosophical society because of an issue I was having. Its taken some time for me to work up the nerve to ask for help there, but that is ongoing. However, while going there an old man told me in hushed tones that I had an exceptional spiritual gift. I humored him and asked him "how so?" and he said that I had the potential to be a medium. I didn't know what to make of that, and left feeling troubled. Having known a number of people who were told strange things by old men, I took his assertion with a grain of salt. Part of me wondered, though, if there was any truth to what he said, at all. The next day I got out a paper and a pen, and thought of a figure I had seen while meditating, and attempted something I have since learned is called automatic writing. My written queries got responses in a cursive hand and I got really weirded out, and worried that I was getting myself into more trouble. The information I found about automatic writing was primarily either Christians saying it was diabolical, or else people claiming to be psychic saying it was perfectly safe. So my question is, is this something that is safe to pursue, and do I need to protect myself in some way?
Thank you for taking the time to answer all of these questions.
Geomancy
Date: 2018-07-23 10:41 am (UTC)Agrippa’s “On Geomancy” says ”...Caput Draconis is the sixth House increaseth sicknesses and diseases...”
Indeed it does look like Caput Draconis could well mean the beginning or possibility of disease.
In “The Art and Practice of Geomancy “ (page 159) you say "...Caput Draconis indicates the querent’s health is about to change for the better..."
How is that so?
Protective Wash for Carpet?
Date: 2018-07-23 11:11 am (UTC)Do you have any suggestions for executing a protective floor wash in an entirely carpeted house? The place we're renting has carpet everywhere, even in the kitchen and bathroom (yea, it's awful. Even more so with two big fluffy dogs, but it's all we could find to rent that we could afford, close enough to work and would take our dogs. The housing situation in Maine is seriously messed up for anyone who's not elite.) It's become apparent to me while living here that the place os full of some nasty, nasty mojo - the former inhabitants being a long string of thieves, addicts, and general lowlives. I'm hoping it (and we) will benefit from some sort of cleansing, but mopping isn't really in the cards here. It's bad enough sometimes that we've considered sleeping in a tent on warm nights.
Many thanks for any guidance.
CK
Re: Prayer and exercises
Date: 2018-07-23 11:39 am (UTC)The intention was never to control the course of their lifetime in any way, but rather to ask that they not be a target of malefic forces that may attempt to get to me through them. In other words, I want specifically to exclude them from anything negative I may attract by doing the work.
My daughter knows of this and has no problem with it. My two sons are not interested in anything religious, so I did not ask. However, they both know I love them and want them to be well and happy, and would probably roll their eyes and say that mom is being mom. I have no intention of interfering with their lives beyond this. They are all three adults.
Is that OK?
Thank-you.
Myriam
Natural magic and natal astrology
Date: 2018-07-23 11:39 am (UTC)Elemental Cross / SoP With Egyptian Gods/Goddess
Date: 2018-07-23 12:02 pm (UTC)I am at the beginning/practical phase of the "Druid Magic Handbook". In the practical exercises in the Druid Handbook (i.e Elemental Cross, SoP, etc) I would like to know your thoughts on working with a set of Egyptian Gods / Goddesses in place of Celtic's. I find myself more drawn towards Egyptian Pantheons.
Also in the Druid Magic Handbook and The Druidry Handbook there is no mention of working with the different phases of the moon. For example as it regards to invoking the different powers represented by the full moon. Please shed some light on this.
Finally, I have your Sacred Geometry Oracle. How could one use the sacred geometry oracle as a complement to the the Ogham divination?
Thank you very much,
Peace and Blessings from London, UK
Wild Wild Country
Date: 2018-07-23 12:21 pm (UTC)I'm watching the documentary on Osho's former Oregon community, and certainly you were aware of it at the time. The whole thing striked me both as an amazing and absolutely unbalanced work of magic. Such immense and sudden work of transformation was certain to amass imense resistance! What's your take on it from an occult/magic perspective?
Thank you!
The land
Date: 2018-07-23 12:33 pm (UTC)I had the time today to listen to your latest podcast and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to take part in such endeavours. I expect that they're a magical act for you.
I've been curious about something here for a while and would be interested in your opinion, if you could please indulge me?
I'm finding that the land here on the farm, sort of (and I don't really know what the English words are to describe this form of insight) speaks to me. For example, I get insight as to what is possible here. And I have absolutely no idea where such inspiration comes from, but it does. Now of course, as you know, I am adding my own perspiration to that inspiration, so it is all to good effect, but it is a guided act of creation.
But what I wanted to know is, what sort of magic is this, and do you know of anyone who practices it and has written about it?
That's actually three questions... Sorry, I am nothing if not cheeky!
Cheers
Chris
Invoking Deities
Date: 2018-07-23 12:50 pm (UTC)I'm working through the Candidate grade of the AODA using the Druidry Handbook. Two questions:
1) I'm not clear on how to go about invoking deities. A number of other folks have written in here about things not to do, which has been helpful, but could you give a couple of pointers in what to do? Also, is invoking deities something typically reserved for grove ceremonies, or done daily as part of the SOP ritual?
2) I won't bore you with the details, but I've had a couple of meditative experiences linking me to the Celtic deities, specifically from the Irish tradition. The trouble is, the Irish mythology sources seem particularly sketchy and muddled compared to, say, the ancient Greek pantheon, which have a vast amount of material to draw on. So I find myself trying to define a relationship with deities that are quite unclear. Do you have any advice for how to proceed?
Thanks as always for sharing your time an expertise here!