ecosophia | Magic Monday

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Magic Monday

Midnight is almost here, and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note: Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will just be deleted. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.2 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. This was my sixtieth published book, the second volume of the sprawling study course in Druidical occultism I assembled from fragments, scraps, and a lot of William Walker Atkinson's more obscure writings, as chronicled in the intro to last week's Magic Monday. The Lesser Mysteries comprise four grades, the Greater Mysteries three more, finishing up with the grade of Gwyddon Rhydd or Free Loremaster, which brings with it the right to teach the system. There's a modest but significant number of Free Loremasters running around these days, and some of them do in fact teach; most students of the Dolmen Arch, however, simply learn it from the two books. One way or another, if you're interested, you can find copies for sale here in the US and at your favorite online or brick-and-mortar bookseller elsewhere.

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

1) Does our limited evidence indicate whether an agalma must be a particular type of divine image (statue, icon, etc.)? I am thinking that I might attach images of the deity to the hollowed base, essentially creating a whole new image that holds up the deity's statue.

2) I am in possession of a Jung relic. I am wondering if that might not also up the potency of a Carl Jung agalma? At least within Catholicism, relics have long been venerated as objects of great spiritual power. That said, I also know that classical polytheists and all the modern ones I know (well, besides me!) don't find the practice very appealing. Not sure what kind of overlap might be possible in this particular case.

And thanks very much for mentioning agalmata. For some reason, I find this to be deeply fascinating, and something that I feel a strong desire to actually do.

Denis Tezza, request healing for teeth gums problem (periodontal disease) Many many thanks

There's an author of folklore and the paranormal called Varla Ventura who's said in old British and Scandinavian folklore trolls are the guardian spirits of bridges over water. I believe the toll, or originally an offering was meant as thanks for safe passage. Not sure on the original sources but I've heard her mention it in podcasts a couple of times over the years.

This offering could possibly later be getting conflated with paying a toll to cross a bridge.

Hello Sir Tunesmyth,

Normally don't ask for help but JMG stated should ask. I'm going in on spinal surgery on the 14 but have been having headache and just feeling bad. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Christian

Hi JMG and everybody here!
I hope that 2025 be a good year for all.

I have recently physically moved office in my work. I'm now the next office of the CEO of the enterprise. This person is a heavy tobacco smoker. The floor is always covered with smoke. The rules of non-smokers don't apply here and I'm wondering if there is some kind of amulet or special work I could do for protecting myself from smoke. I'm using a facemask but find it not that useful. I was thinking of lighting up incense of some kind.

Please, I could use some information about this!

Your divinations might still be giving accurate readings, if your questions were particularly broad. Their short-term outcomes could align quite well with your interests, while their longer-term consequences could be dramatically opposed to your interests. Depending upon how your will and soul interpret your conscious ponderings, your divinations could easily be providing answers to the broadest interpretations of your questions and intents. To find out if something like that is taking place, try breaking your inquiries down into several more limited queries, such as "would this align with my short-term interests?", "are there any long-term drawbacks?", and "will this end up having more downsided than benefits?"

Should that line of questioning yield more reliable readings, then you would come away with more nuanced data by which to plan your best course of action. Should divination reveal that your parents' resistance to or resentment of your autonomy were sufficiently detrimental, you might want to consider taking some protective actions, like getting a P.O. Box to receive any mail that might upset them, or opening a new email account that you never log onto from computers they can access.

Should more bite-sized divinations yield no better results than before, then the task before you is more challenging. That would point to your will being deeply divided. Most certainly, your parents don't have a greater influence over the life force than the gods do (in other words, divination works.) However, your parents may well have that potent of an influence over you and your subconscious. Whatever energetic parasites they have succeeded in implanting in you could easily be distorting your divinatory efforts by making you too afraid to ask, too distracted to hear, or too doutful to trust the wisdom if the divine.

Magic often feels like someone whammying us from outside, but we have to have the vulnerabilities inside of us for that to work in the first place. Clear away all those parasites that are not you, and only your own energies will be left to shine through in their divine truth. Have a blast scouring yourself clean!

— Christophe

Yes, "Many are the arguments of scholars"!

I suspect Abbé Louis Constant, both in his education and his work on Migne's Patrologia, as well as his contact with the émigré occultists of the "Great Emigration", was very aware of the ecclesiastical channels through which the esoteric traditions flowed. Not explicitly mentioning that background was probably part of his art of silence.

In an amusing sense, one of the biggest secrets of the Secret Tradition is the extent to which it was not particularly secret, and in fact was largely publicly shared, through the middle ages.

Smaragdine Senex

I once joked to a friend that she didn't want to be initiated into Wicca because then she would have to get control and follow the rules. Totally a coincidence that her ex-husband became ill and sh*t himself when he remarried. Riiiight.

Rita

By the way, the travels of a member of the Czarnacki family came up a while back: I'd be delighted to see something of that show up on an Ariel Moravec story. There might also be something there in connection with the Polish Haitian community -- for example, the influence images of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa on the iconography of Ezili Dantor, and perhaps some eastern European Martinism as well.

All the best,

Smaragdine Senex

I have nothing helpful to offer directly, but you might want to reach out to William Hunter Duncan, who is an Ecosophian who I know to also be a hunter. I don't know if he's on dreamwidth, so I can't tag him here, but here's a link to his substack, from which you should be able to find a way to reach him: https://williamhunterduncan.substack.com/

Cheers,
Jeff

This intuitively feels like the right answer, at least its the best explanation I've come across. If I have the occasion to cross an old stone bridge, I'll consider dropping a bit of change to honor the old custom.

I recommend reading the Asclepius, then, and looking into the Neoplatonist approach to worship -- Iamblichus is your starting place here.

Hi JMG and Fellow readers,
A nice lady I am acquainted with is being slandered on my little island. She asked me what to do about it and among my suggestions was that I should make her a red-bag amulet. We met today and I gave her the amulet, tying it around her neck in the names she chose of Kwan Yin, Kali Ma and the Virgin Mary.

I think there must be very strong magic in these amulets as I felt a great deal of tingles right from my feet travelling up to my head. She didn't feel anything. I had this experience the last time I gave a friend an amulet.

Maxine

1) I know of no reason to think agalmata were limited in form. Mine are deliberately simple, pieces of tree with the images of Druid deities carved on them in a style that would have fit in very well in northwestern Europe in 1000 BC, and so far have worked very well. In the classic Neoplatonist style, I burn incense before them and offer wheaten cakes and pure water, and recite prayers. The results are good.

2) An agalma is what you use when you don't have relics. The classic Catholic practice that requires at least two relics in an altar on which Mass is performed comes straight out of old Pagan practice, specifically the worship of heroes. (Heroes, remember, are the Greek Pagan equivalent of saints, human beings who on account of their great deeds and personal power were raised by the gods above the human level and, after their deaths, continue to benefit the rest of us.) If you have a relic of Jung you can set up a heroon (pronounced "hero-on") or hero shrine in the classic style, and invoke Jung's spirit with incense and libations.

3) Glad to hear it. I'm working on a book on the practical application of Neoplatonist teachings to modern polytheism, and agalmata will feature in it.

Yep. They knew what they were doing.

Nah, what's going to happen is that Trudeau is going to fall off the edge of his seat in the Canadian House of Commons...

1) It's very ancient -- I believe it's Sumerian originally, but don't quote me on that.

2) Yes, exactly.

Your point 3) is the secret to point 2). If you know what you want to do, getting out of bed full of enthusiasm is easy!

Thank you for this!

If I may piggyback off of this: I remember reading an account, somewhere back on 00's internet, of a cave in Italy where ppl went spelunking, and found intelligent humanoids in some deep cavern. I remember it described them as rather large, and walking in a line, or some such thing. I wonder if anyone knows what I mean...

JMG,
I injured my lower back several weeks ago - bulging disk pushing against a nerve. I have constant pain and discomfort. Needless to say, this condition is monopolizing my life. It is rather difficult to focus on much else. I had Quin add me to the Prayer List and have been working with a chiropractor, who has only been performing very mild therapy so far. I would like to avoid regular doctor (drugs, or surgery, or both). Anyway, today, I realized that I should be performing an affirmation. So, I devised the following: "I am strong and healthy." Does this seem like an appropriate focus or can you, perhaps, suggest a better one?
Thank you,
WILL1000

Dion Fortune on her Practical Occultism in Daily Life, on the chapter of karma says:

It is open to anyone who can rise above a self-centred attitude to do what the initiate does, and invoke the Lords of Karma. Before he ventures upon this, however, he must have reached the point in spiritual development where he desires the good rather than the pleasant-the ideal of perfected character in preference to the pleasure-pain principle When his heart is really turned towards the ideal, the Dark Angel which according to Qabalistic tradition stands behind his left shoulder, becomes an initiator and shows him the Path.

What is she referring to when she says the Dark Angel? I first thought that she might be talking about the sephirah corresponding to the shoulder location, but it doesn't seem to be that to me.

I honestly don't recall if I did or not. The basic concept's simple enough, though. A group that works with spiritual energies, if it falls into some set of bad habits and does nothing to reform itself, will establish patterns of consciousness in its egregor that will cause those same bad habits to repeat indefinitely, and those remain in place even if the original organization falls apart -- any other organization that uses the same rituals and symbols will get the same habit. That's why Golden Dawn order are so reliably plagued with egotistical power struggles -- the sphere of the GD is tainted. To avoid the taint you have to change the rituals and symbolism thoroughly -- which is why some of the GD offshoots have done just fine.

The classic way to do it, as in the old AODA ritual, is to use no imagery at all, and simply let you, the altar, and the central space of the grove function as the symbol.

Yes, you should. You will have better effects if you visualize the sun inside yourself.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 7 of 10

Magic Monday

Re: End of Year Lookback and Anything Learned/Excited about for Past/New Year?

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healings

Re: Paying the Troll toll

Re: Ecosophia Prayer List

Protection against tobacco

no subject

Re: Diagram tradition in esotericism

Re: Magic users

Re: Diagram tradition in esotericism

Re: Magic for the Wilderness Outdoorsmen

Re: Paying the Troll toll

Re: End of Year Lookback and Anything Learned/Excited about for Past/New Year?

Magical Amulets TSW

Re: End of Year Lookback and Anything Learned/Excited about for Past/New Year?

Re: The failure of spirituality

Re: Planetary alignments

no subject

Re: Affirmations, Willpower, and Sundry Comments

Re: Affirmations, Willpower, and Sundry Comments

Re: Help me track down this short story?

no subject

no subject

Re: Julius Evola

Re: Grove ritual SOP

Re: I may have been doing the LRP wrong...