Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

Midnight is  here, 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've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

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 was my fortieth published book, and the product of an investigation that's still ongoing. I happened to notice back in the early 1990s, as a result of voracious reading in odd books, that a surprising number of temple traditions around the world are connected to legends about increased agricultural fertility. I know, that's supposed to be mere superstition -- but it's funny how often "mere superstition" turns into evidence that the ancients knew more than it's fashionable for modern intellectuals to admit. That launched a quest that resulted in this book. I've come to theorize that woven into the design and use of certain specific kinds of temples is a lost folk technology that boosts agricultural productivity. I've collected physical evidence (including controlled double-blind studies) that there are energies known to science that could have been concentrated and put to use with resonating chambers of stone, designed according to specific geometries, filled with volatile organic compounds, and activated with sound waves. What's more, it's a technology that could be rediscovered and put to work to help plants thrive now.

This book was my first progress report on that investigation.  It's about to go out of print -- Llewellyn, the original publisher, still has a few copies left on sale, which you can get here -- but there'll be another edition in due time, and probably a further book not too long after that, as I'm continuing to find relevant data. Yes, there are also other people busy with this; the prospect of a working model, so that the details of the technology can be tested in real world conditions, may not be far off.

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

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you JMG,
I will continue with my practice.

[scottyc]

Try this link: https://archive.org/search?query=%22elen+of+the+roads%22&sin=TXT

I checked a few of the titles in which "Elen of the Roads" was mentioned. Not much in them but I did enjoy this: https://archive.org/details/western-way-1-native/page/65/mode/2up?q=%22elen+of+the+roads%22

I haven't picked up The Druid Magic Handbook (yet) but just found that Thriftbooks has a better deal than the usual major online retail suspects.

[(Anonymous)]

I think part of the issue is that hate is verboten in our society, and as a result people aren't willing to dealing with their hatred of whatever, leading to these half-conscious self-sabotage efforts.

Re: Question

[ecosophia]

1) As I see it, numbers are hardwired into our consciousness, like space, time, and causality. They don't exist "out there"; they're filters that structure how we experience what's "out there," and so we project them onto everything we encounter. I've often thought that it's quite possible that alien beings that lack a rigid structure with, say, a fixed number of fingers, like the shoggoths in my tentacle stories, would find numbers completely baffling.

2) Kundalini puts enormous strain on the psyche, and so any inherent weakness may get triggered. If somebody has a tendency to egomania, for example, a badly handled kundalini experience can inflate their ego to gargantual size, and so on.

3) As I learned it, learning languages in adulthood is 9th house, along with all other post-childhood education. So you'd check the 9th in any case.

Re: What Could Happen?

[ecosophia]

You ask somebody in a strange city to show you around, and it turns out they're not trustworthy. What could happen to you? All kinds of things! This is the same kind of thing -- it all depends on what kind of entity it is and what intentions it had.

[ecosophia]

I recommend working through Regardie's The Golden Dawn in order, starting at the beginning. Enochian work is demanding stuff and you need to have mastered the rest of the GD system before attempting it.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you!

And what would your advice be for someone who worked with a few systems in the past, but ended up abandoning them? Should I go back and finish what I started? Is there a minimal commitment level below which it "doesn't count"?

[ecosophia]

Granted, but addictions change their nature in different eras. Pluto is Scorpionic and so always manipulative, corrupt, and self-destructive. The Opium Wars were fought on either side of the discovery of Neptune, and in their time addiction had a strong Neptunian/Piscean slant. Doubtless that'll be the shape of things hereafter -- we've already seen Marxism lose the Plutonian character it had under Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, and begin to turn back into a vague and usually ineffectual ideology of dreamers, as it was before the Plutonian influence seized it.

[ecosophia]

I'm trying to make sure that the Octagon Society material and the rest of John Gilbert's teachings get into as many hands as possible, so that once the unraveling of the internet picks up speed, it will be easy enough for anyone who wants to do so to start printing copies. If that's something you want to help with, consider downloading everything and getting it into hard copy formats...

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it. I should check them out more often.

[ecosophia]

Choose one and finish it. That will help you establish the habit of following through on your acts of will, which is crucial for success in magic. Once you've done that, you can decide whether to pick up any of the others, or whether it's time to go on to something else and finish that instead.

[(Anonymous)]

What astrological planetary influence is Zionism under?

LBRP, banishment, invocation

[jeddak]

Wanted to ask a quick piggyback question on this last point.

I'm a CM neophyte, so this is undoubtedly a very beginner-level question.

The LBRP invokes the archangels, so why do you say that the LBRP only banishes? What am I missing?

[ecosophia]

1) I see them as different things. The universe becomes more complex, rich, and strange as you ascend the planes, not less. It's quite possible that at the highest level of spiritual experience, every single soul has a completely unique way of interacting with the Divine.

2) From my point of view -- which is after all just one person's point of view! -- the unity of the individual will and the Divine will isn't a matter of giving up anything. It's a matter of realizing that your true will, freed of all illusion and distortion, is exactly identical to the will of the Divine acting through you. Of course most of us are confused and don't know what we really want or will.

3) Well, that's how I would read the Dodecahedron reversed, for whatever that's worth. I find reversals aren't simply a matter of "no" -- the meaning of the card always has to be taken into account.

BTW, delighted to hear that you're interested in the Order of the Universal Nun. Getting the old UGC monastic orders back up and running is kind of a dream of mine.

Re: Heathen Golden Dawn

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, thanks for weighing in on this.

a) Yeah, I've enjoyed reading your comments here on that project. While I really like a lot of the ideas in the DMH system in theory, I've found that in my personal case I don't take to the SoP at all, while GD-style magic resonates much more with me as "ritual poetry" (to paraphrase Ross Nichols). Would definitely be interested to hear your associations. And might be a "fine theme for meditation" to see how they differ from or match the deity/sphere attributions in the HGD? :)

b) This is very interesting. I have one of Thorsson's rune books, but I never got around to the Nine Doors one. The way you describe it sounds potentially useful for adapting Merlin's Wheel, though: that book invokes one of the Spheres on each station of the Wheel, and of course the HGD system maps the Norse worlds to the Tree of Life spheres.

c) Kvilhaug's book was on my mind too, and in fact I discovered it through your blog and comments here, so thanks for that. I didn't get all the way through it before I had to return it to the library, but I'll probably pick up my own copy at some point. I pretty much agree with your summary of its strengths and weaknesses, but it was such a fresh perspective I ended up liking it a lot. Also agreed that it could potentially be a good basis for a mystery cycle.

Based on Merlin's Wheel, I assumed the cycle should be based on a mythological figure rather than a deity as such, so that's why I didn't look to things like Odin's initiation. Maybe that's mistaken on my part.

In any case, appreciate the well-wishes, and best of luck with your hybrid Druid-Heathen system as well!

[ecosophia]

You would have to create one. I don't know enough about Islam to be able to help you in detail, but you'd want to begin it with a short standard prayer or a suitable Sura from the Quran, and then call on six of the 99 names of Allah, one in each of the six directions. You might use this Christian version as a template to show you what might be done:

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

[ecosophia]

Yes, I saw that! Once again, the evidence shows that the people who built Stonehenge were not the primitive, grunting savages that orthodox archeology has insisted they must have been.

[ecosophia]

Ouch. Yeah, I'd take that as a bad omen too.

Re: Energetic body questions

[ecosophia]

Ouch! I haven't encountered anyone else who's had these issues. Have you considered using divination or journaling to find out what your subconscious thinks of all this? Given the way it responds to those needles, it clearly has strong opinions; if you can get it talking, you may be able to figure out what to do.

[ecosophia]

This is probably going to take a post, or indeed a book. If your Saturn is strong and well aspected he shouldn't be the source of pessimism -- Saturn well dignified is realistic, not pessimistic. If Jupiter's in his fall then you've also got the Moon in her detriment, and so both of those planetary energies are going to be weak, and linked in their weakness. Are Venus or Mercury in decent condition? They can also be used as venues for social interaction...

Re: Heathen Golden Dawn

[(Anonymous)]

1) I'm open to that in principle, and that's one reason I wanted to put out some feelers here, and to see if someone else had already started one. Maybe it could be as simple as a Discord group or the like to begin with, but we'll see...

2) Thanks for the suggestion. Like I said in my reply to Jeff above, I was under the impression, based on Merlin's Wheel, that the protagonist/model of the cycle should be a mythological figure rather than a full-on deity, while those are invoked during the rituals. Of course that could be a misunderstanding on my part.

As for happy endings, I suppose making it to all the way to old age is about as close as you get in the sagas, but you're right that Egil's life might still be too grim to make a good fit. In any case, I'll consider your idea and read up on that myth, and be on the lookout for other happy(ish) endings.

[ecosophia]

Yes, and in fact I've been doing charts for some of these. The difficulty is that we've only had a fairly short time to learn about Uranus and Neptune, and so their conjunctions are still not so easy to use as a source of predictions.

[ecosophia]

1) Glad to hear it.

2) This isn't something I've looked into much, because my relationship with my family ranges from relatively distant to "Oh dear gods I want nothing more to do with that person." Anybody else?

[ecosophia]

Conjunctions of Mars and Jupiter are relatively benign. They signal popular excitement, fads, panics, and other mass phenomena. They also happen every two and a half years or so, so they're not that big a deal.

Re: Scrying & Pathworking

[ecosophia]

1) As far as I know they're the first ones to do it without scrying mirrors or shewstones.

2) If you do this you're very likely to get some kind of deceptive spirit.

3) It's best to study some established system of magical training, which will introduce you to scrying the different levels of being at appropriate points in your work.