Magic Monday
Jan. 12th, 2025 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
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 sixty-first published book and my third anthology of short pieces, including all my best essays from my post-Hermetic period (the Hermetic essays were released earlier in my 2019 book The City of Hermes). It's probably the best one-volume introduction to the whole range of my ideas and interests, for anyone who wants to risk plunging down that N-dimensional rabbit hole. It also includes my most widely cited essay, "How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse." On the off chance you're interested, copies can be purchased here if you're in the United States and here 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.
***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***
New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 05:43 am (UTC)https://queeniemusic.bandcamp.com/track/orphic-hymn-to-saturn-new-version
Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 05:51 am (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 06:07 pm (UTC)We got to see Saturn once during a trip to a children’s science museum. The colors were so vivid and it hung there against the impossibly black background of space, beautiful, unique, uniquely beautiful.
—Princess Cutekitten
Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 06:19 pm (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 06:30 pm (UTC)On the one hand, I can't believe I never found this stuff fascinating before.
On the other - I don't think I *would* have found these celestial bodies as interesting if I had not come to appreciate astrology first.
-Bofur
Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 08:52 pm (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 06:00 am (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 03:24 pm (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 05:22 pm (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-13 07:12 pm (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-14 03:01 am (UTC)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v0ELUifXRBoPkWHfA017FZYuIh5DdPvWqh6CS_AH8k0/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-14 12:56 am (UTC)Re: New Version of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn is now live on Bandcamp!
Date: 2025-01-14 01:24 am (UTC)Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 05:45 am (UTC)If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or in the comments at the current prayer list post.
This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests.
May Sub's Wife's upcoming major surgery on Wednesday 1/15 go smoothly and successfully, and may she recover with ease back to full health.
May David/Trubrujah's 5 year old nephew Jayce, who is back home after chemotherapy for his leukemia, be healed quickly and fully, and may he, and mother Amanda, and their family find be aided with physical, mental, and emotional strength while they deal with this new life altering situation. (good news update!)
May Mindwind's dad Clem, who in the midst of a struggle back to normal after a head injury has been told he shows signs of congestive heart failure, be blessed, healed, and encouraged.
May Corey Benton, who is currently in hospital and whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won't be treated surgically, be healed of throat cancer. He is not doing well, and consents to any kind of distance healing offered. [Note: Healing Hands should be fine, but if offering energy work which could potentially conflict with another, please first leave a note in comments or write to randomactsofkarmasc to double check that it's safe] (1/7)
May Christian's cervical spine surgery on 1/14 be successful, and may he heal completely and with speed; and may the bad feelings and headaches plaguing him be lifted.
May Viktoria have a safe and healthy pregnancy, and may the baby be born safe, healthy and blessed. May Marko have the strength, wisdom and balance to face the challenges set before him. (picture)
May Open Space's friend's mother
Judith be blessed and healed for a complete recovery from cancer.
May Linda from the Quest Bookshop of the Theosophical Society, who has developed a turbo cancer, be blessed with a successful surgery under a steady hand when she goes into the operating room in mid January, and with well-being and a speedy recovery.
May Bill Rice (Will1000) in southern California, who suffered a painful back injury, be blessed and healed, and may he quickly recover full health and movement.
May Peter Van Erp's friend Kate Bowden's husband Russ Hobson and his family be enveloped with love as he follows his path forward with the glioblastoma (brain cancer) which has afflicted him.
May Daedalus/ARS receive guidance and finish his kundalini awakening, and overcome the neurological and qi and blood circulation problems that have kept him largely immobilised for several years; may the path toward achieving his life's work be cleared of obstacles.
May baby Gigi, continue to gain weight and strength, and continue to heal from a possible medication overdose which her mother Elena received during pregnancy, and may Elena be blessed and healed from the continuing random tremors which ensued; may Gigi's big brother Francis continue to be in excellent health and be blessed.
May Jennifer, whose pregnancy has entered its third trimester, have a safe and healthy pregnancy, may the delivery go smoothly, and may her baby be born healthy and blessed.
May Scotlyn's friend Fiona, who has been in hospital since early October with what is a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, be blessed and healed, and encouraged in ways that help her to maintain a positive mental and spiritual outlook.
May Peter Evans in California, who has been diagnosed with colon cancer, be completely healed with ease, and make a rapid and total recovery.
May Jennifer and Josiah, their daughter Joanna, and their unborn daughter be protected from all harmful and malicious influences, and may any connection to malign entities or hostile thought forms or projections be broken and their influence banished.
May Giulia (Julia) in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland Ohio be healed of recurring seizures and paralysis of her left side and other neurological problems associated with a cyst on the right side of her brain and with surgery to treat it.
Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun's rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 05:50 am (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 05:50 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-14 01:45 am (UTC)—Ms. Krieger
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 07:16 pm (UTC)We have lost our house in the Altadena fire as have many others. I would like to request that a prayer of blessing and healing for all who have been affected by this terrible fire be added to the list.
Thanks,
Frank
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 07:48 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 08:12 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 08:12 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 08:26 pm (UTC)My wife spent her childhood in Altadena, and (like most of the city) her former home on West Poppyfields Drive, her older relatives' former homes and her whole neighborhood are now just expanses of ash. It is (and was, and can again be) a lovely little city. May its residents find the strength and resources to rebuild it, and keep it safe from the land-sharks of gentrification! Courage and whatever occasions for joy there may be!
Altadena was also the home of the largest and most comprehensive archives of the Theosophical Society anywhere in North America, with manuscript materials going back to its earliest days in New York in 1875-76, before Blavatsky became its sole leading light. Alas, the entire Archive and Library (which was on Lake Avenue) went up in flames -- nothing is left of it.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-13 08:52 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List
Date: 2025-01-14 12:01 am (UTC)Ron M
MOE Master attunement; blessing offer
Date: 2025-01-13 06:04 am (UTC)And thanks a lot for hosting MM again.
1. To MOE practitioners:
I'm offering a Master attunement at two different time slots this upcoming Sunday (19th). Note that I will only perform the attunement at one or both of these times if at least one person RSVPs by Saturday:
https://thehiddenthings.com/moe-master-attunement-2025-01
2. And to everybody, I'll again perform a formal blessing this Wednesday for the people who signs up:
https://thehiddenthings.com/categories/weekly-blessings
I'm grateful to all the participants, as they give me a chance to practice.
JMG, my blessings to you, too, if you'll have them, and I hope you'll have a good week ahead of you,
Milkyway
Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 06:11 am (UTC)There is talk on the webs of a strange behaviour of the two planets Saturn and Neptune. Not only are they to have a conjunction, but they cross into Aries sign together, have a conjunction, then they both become retrograde and go back to Pisces sign, and then cross a second time for another conjunction.
A nice jig.
Do you have any thoughts on Saturn-Neptune conjunctions?
Best regards,
V
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 03:22 pm (UTC)0° Aries is the beginning of the zodiac, the reset button on all the greater and lesser cycles of time. Any outer planet conjunction within the first four degrees of Aries punches that button. Jupiter and Saturn conjoin there every 960 years or so, and that's the beginning of one of the great cycles of history -- the last one was in 1604, so we have another five or six centuries to wait until it happens again. As for a Saturn-Neptune conjunction at dead-on 0° Aries...that hasn't happened before in recorded history. The closest match I can find is a conjunction at 2° Aries in 593 BC, which marked the birth of philosophy and scriptural religions, the transformation of literacy from the prerogative of a small class of scribes to something that many people learned, the invention of democracy, and a cascade of other changes all through human society and culture.
That makes sense. Saturn represents the ground rules, the basic framework of hard limits and proven structures on which society rests. Neptune represents the deep mind, the realm of dreams, visions, and the collective unconscious, and it has a dissolving and transforming effect. So we can expect significant shifts in those basic ground rules after the conjunction in 2026. That doesn't mean utopia is about to arrive, and it doesn't even mean those changes will be fast -- Saturn and Neptune are both very slow-moving planets -- but changes there will be.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 06:07 pm (UTC)So Neptun transits to Aries this March, alone, Saturn follows in May and because Saturn is faster they meet in 2 degrees Aries in July.
Then they both reverse and separate, because Saturn is faster, and go back to Pisces.
And February 2026 they both meet and pass to Aries within 1 degree from another.
That is a good point about 593 BC. I wonder how the people back then saw it?
Interesting times, interesting times.
The closest that I can imagine is WoH: Chorazin; Owen getting a reading from Sallie Eagle. Where she looks up from the cards and says: „… but nothing stays as it was.”
The fourth book, and twelve chapters later. Fittingly we are talking about Neptune.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 06:22 pm (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 09:39 pm (UTC)If someone would find a tarnished antique sword, a black book of spells. And invite a friend with a rose gold family heirloom ring, to which she has an extraordinary attachment.
And then go to some seaside vantage point somewhere on the east coast on 14. February 2026 at about 8:00 and ritually cleave a clay fashioned five pointed star in half.
Things might get interesting 🤔.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-13 09:47 pm (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 12:47 am (UTC)Changes in the ground rules of the collective unconscious, the birthplace of influential dreams and visions, would be quite the magical transformation (in the Fortunian sense.) Those changes will inevitably unfold in accordance with the greater wills of the universe, but lesser wills do somehow manage to exert a tiny pull on greater wills. With this type of conjunction promising such sweeping changes in consciousness, there’s an awful lot of will to get in accordance with, and not a lot of time to do it in!
Given the truly creepy number of vision-starved tiny wills currently focused on no real change to the status quo, perhaps our willing a little visionary counterbalance to their visionless inertia could make an oversized difference. Certainly offering our prayers up to any currently disregarded greater wills could have far-reaching outcomes. For those who feel up to it, a little concerted effort on shifting the fulcrum between the visionary and the visionless could quite possibly knock our prayers right out of the park.
A little imagination, a tiny dream, a wee bit of vision can become the decisive point around which the whole universe turns. All that is required is for us to align our tiny wills with the greater wills around us. And let us not forget to give thanks for the crucial passive inertia to which so many have now chained their vital will, thereby providing the essential opening needed for our own tiny dreams to be able to shake the cosmos. (As always: Results may vary. Author makes no guarantees or warrantees of any kind. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Etc.)
I have to admit, trying to imagine anything as sweepingly transformative as classical philosophy or democracy or widespread literacy is a daunting challenge. I tend to be more preoccupied with things like reupholstering a chair, or making guacamole before the avocados go bad. Somehow, I can’t see Saturn and Neptune conjuncting just to help me with my guacamole problems! Setting aside the dubious importance of perfectly ripened avocados, I guess it’s high time for me to up my game in the dreams and visions department. Anyone have any suggestions for visionary transformations of the underlying patterns of the collective unconscious that Saturn and Neptune might actually consider to be worth praying for?
— Christophe
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 01:01 am (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 02:50 am (UTC)I don't know, maybe you don't like hearing about that, but that observation seems like an important starting-point to include in speculation. I know you're expecting the whole phenomenon to blow itself up and choke itself off in a Plutonian way, but what if that still leaves a Minervan remnant?
For my part, if I knew that the development wasn't going to get any farther than Piscean dreamlikeness, so that it would not extend also to include Mercurial precise cunning, planning, and strategizing, or Solar coherently focused intention -- at least, that it wouldn't do so other than in net-benefic ways, anyway -- then that would be a big load off my mind. (It would also mean you had been right, at least as regarded what ended up happening in practice.)
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 02:52 am (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 03:50 am (UTC)— Christophe
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 04:58 am (UTC)Also, the way you say that makes it seem as though you think I'm using astrological justifications to buttress my hope, and then in turn buttressing the astrological justifications with complicated jargon so I can get lost in the details and miss how the picture doesn't make sense. No. What?
This came into focus for me, in this form, far before I was really giving any attention to astrology. (Also it's mostly dread rather than hope.)
If you want complicated jargon, look at the arguments over the Church-Turing thesis. Ask yourself why the Universe goes so far out of its way to give skeptics so much ammunition, in the form of "decline effects" and "evasive psi" in parapsychology, which is the one place where you would normally have thought to expect science to discover that the Church-Turing thesis was false if the Universe wasn't playing unexpected games with humanity's states of knowledge. And then ask yourself how safe you should feel about your certainty that the Universe will abruptly stop imitating that same semblance of materialism being true, just at the point where people start leaning a lot harder on certain implications of the Church-Turing thesis.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 03:16 am (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 01:42 am (UTC)If so, I wonder if it may actually be a discovery related to the historical Jesus, that in turn creates huge ructions at the heart of the mainstream Christian tradition.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 02:53 am (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 03:04 am (UTC)As to how that might present itself to us tiny humans I have no idea. Will just have to roll with it.
As always, occult training helps.
Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 03:59 am (UTC)Re: Astrological dance
Date: 2025-01-14 04:59 am (UTC)I have been drawn to your post about Karma, especially the part about personal and collective karma.
Could we see something like the masses being flushed along, and some individuals using this in other ways? I am not formulating this right, but it is early in the morning.
Colors, John Gilbert
Date: 2025-01-13 07:58 am (UTC)My wife is getting ready to paint the bedroom/office where I do most my meditation and practices. Any colors in particular one might prefer from an occult perspective for such a space?
Regarding John Gilbert. I keep going back to the two books of his you edited and published. Learning the frameworks and methods he used for teaching tarot has been very helpful in learning astrology. Next up alchemy which feels more likely to hold my interest than astrology is doing.
Mysticism and alchemy with a sprinkle of magic. Not sure where all this is heading. Getting there though is a lot of fun. And so much to meditate upon!
Thank you JMG and John Gilbert.
--
Eric
Re: Colors, John Gilbert
Date: 2025-01-13 03:23 pm (UTC)Re: Colors, John Gilbert
Date: 2025-01-13 06:09 pm (UTC)Some folks in my local community have approached me about leading a small meditation group. I am considering the request.
Any tips or cautions?
Thanks again.
Re: Colors, John Gilbert
Date: 2025-01-13 06:23 pm (UTC)Re: Colors, John Gilbert & meditation groups
Date: 2025-01-14 04:13 am (UTC)In the first case, you would be serving the group and the group agenda (whatever it might be); in the second, the group would have decided in some way to entrust itself to your agenda. Being clear about what they want you to do, and what you want to do, would be a useful first step.
By an odd turn of events, I once found myself, for a few years, in more or less the former role in a small vipassana group, initially because the other, more senior members had retired, and I was the only one who could reserve the room. (Not a qualification that is likely to make one order a larger size in hats!) The format was very simple, involving reading from a book by a Burmese teacher, and then doing quiet sitting for about half the time, with a bit of check-in at the end. Other than slightly shifting the reading component toward something like group discursive meditation, the only influence I had was setting an example by showing up every time, and marking the sections of the session (reading, sitting, finishing.) Even here, though, the "work" consisted of maintaining a clear, unambiguous presence and sequence, so that the sessions were or felt more or less inevitable. When new people came in, I would orient them a little. When one or no people appeared for a session, I would go through the stages on my own. (This made a point for the occasional late arriver.)
The cautions have to do with having a clear sense of what you intend to do, and what it will consist of. And not allowing it to get derailed by other agendas. Also, it's important to have a regular schedule, and stick to it (eg, once a week, once a fortnight, or month, at a set time).
Another kind of "meditation group" involves careful, slow reading of a text, and then doing explicitly discursive meditation with elements of the just-read text, with perhaps a little debriefing afterward, and perhaps a light snack.
In general, this kind of activity shouldn't be a surrogate or substitute for a simple social get-together.
It's good to frame it work, rather than hanging out. Because it's always possible that some deeper energies could get stirred up, it's good to have a very firm container for the work, and an approach to recognizing and grounding-out stray energies (and drama).
To borrow from Flaubert, "Be regular and orderly in your group work, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your inner work." Not completely true, but useful to remember as a rule of thumb.
Encourage this attitude, so that there is a double focus: in the meditation, and on reflection on the meditation. This double or parallel awareness is worth cultivating, and in a certain sense it is often the aim of meditation work.
(I suppose I should close like the Critical Drinker!)
All the best,
LeGrand Cinq-Mars
Re: Colors, John Gilbert & meditation groups
Date: 2025-01-14 04:27 am (UTC)Mea Culpa!
Date: 2025-01-13 08:15 am (UTC)I asked for Saturn's help to clear a lot of negative Karma regarding multiple things, one of which was relationships.
It seems to have worked, but I then screwed up badly--basically, a person I wanted a relationship with and whom I haven't spoken to in over a year actually called and asked me to meet her, and only after I declined (and pissed her off in doing so) did I realize that I rejected what quite literally may have been a gift from the gods.
Aside from accepting the fact that I am likely an evolutionary dead end, is there something I can do to atone to Saturn for this? I read your response a few weeks ago about sticking a $20 bill into an envelope on a Saturday, but this time around we are talking about making amends for a relationship, not for giving away money.
Thank you for any insights
Re: Mea Culpa!
Date: 2025-01-13 03:25 pm (UTC)Re: Mea Culpa!
Date: 2025-01-13 07:28 pm (UTC)Re: Mea Culpa!
Date: 2025-01-14 01:12 am (UTC)There's plenty of folks who can't accomplish any one of those things, after a lifetime of practicing endless bitterness and resentment. So don't let your remorse slowly twist itself into shame and recrimination. Go public with your remorse, and watch as the world around you and the people in it transform beyond your wildest of dreams.
— Christophe
Book publications
Date: 2025-01-13 08:23 am (UTC)1) When the overs change from one edition to the next, what is the reason/who initiates it? And do you have any say and/or final say in how the covers appear?
2) Is there any chance that your books would ever be packaged into sets (based on theme) for purchase instead of individually? Or does that require a certain volume of sales, or would it otherwise hurt your existing sales?
Re: Book publications
Date: 2025-01-13 03:39 pm (UTC)2) That's an intriguing idea; I don't know of it being done in recent times, however. Is there a particular set you'd like to suggest?
Re: Book publications - sets
Date: 2025-01-13 03:54 pm (UTC)I also wonder if getting the differnt path books but that are on one path in a "set" but I wont know how to do that. DA purchaser might not benefit from the book on the start of the list and vice versa.
Re: Book publications - sets
Date: 2025-01-13 06:25 pm (UTC)Re: Book publications - sets
Date: 2025-01-14 04:27 am (UTC)I am not sure how interested/interesting other people would find this idea, and you may not want to mix this type of idea with your site, but maybe dedicate a single post to such ideas that we can discuss over a week instead of by Monday night deadline?
If there is any reasonable consensus, I would be pretty happy to write to the publisher and even pre-order such a thing as a way to thank you for all you've done by way of responses, etc.
But I may be in a very tiny minority--unless there is ample room for discussion, I can't know either way.
Re: Book publications - sets
Date: 2025-01-14 04:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 09:22 am (UTC)you sometimes write that this or that person has a lot of work to do in the interim. Could you explain in more detail what this work looks like in the period between two incarnations?
Thank you very much!
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:46 pm (UTC)That's the main work a soul does between life. The more awake the soul has become, the more capable it has become of reflective self-knowledge and clarity, the more it can interact with other souls on the inner planes and, under some conditions, with the incarnate as well. As clarity and self-knowledge increase from life to life (and death to death), the soul can also start taking a more active role in its own learning processes, and can start to help shape its future lives. But the basic process remains the same as long as we continue to reincarnate.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 05:20 pm (UTC)I'm guessing we only know these things at all because of souls that have become 'awake' enough to return into physical incarnation with intact memories of these processes. Is that right?
And the more we can become aware of our unconscious habits, make amends for past mistakes, and process repressed emotional pain during incarnation, the fewer nasty surprises we face after death when we have to review it all with eyes wide open?
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:33 pm (UTC)2) Exactly. You can do the work now or you can do it later, and the more of it you do now, the easier of a time you'll have when you have to tackle all of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 04:29 am (UTC)For example, does my dog revisit his life as well? How about the higher mortal beings?
This entire topic could make for a fascinating fictional movie or TV series...
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 04:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 09:49 am (UTC)To share, for those who wonder what JMG, WOG or LSRP mean, a list of abbreviations used on Ecosophia.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 02:41 pm (UTC)Does anyone have a suggestion for a book to start with for modern Heathenry?
Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:05 pm (UTC)I would also say, ignore anyone who tells you to "Just read the Eddas." The Eddas are our source for most of the myths so you will want to read them eventually, but honestly a beginner is better off with retellings, unless he or she already is a reader of medieval literature. There are lots of retellings, and it's not a bad idea to pick a few and compare information and tone (one that, for instance, treats Thor as a musclebound idiot will lead you astray in your relationship with the Thunderer, Who once tricked an evil dwarf into remaining aboveground until the sun turned him to stone). The Eddas also will not tell you anything about the contemporary practice of Heathenry, which is kind of important if you're going to be a contemporary Heathen.
--Sister Crow
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 04:04 pm (UTC)My current pick would be:
Hammer of the Gods: Anglo-Saxon Paganism in Modern Times Second Edition Paperback – February 9, 2010
by Swain Wodening
It is anglo-saxon flavored rather than norse, but I believe it translates well to any heathen practice. What I love about it is that it walks a middle path giving some history, some cultural householding practices, touches on some magical practices, and (most important to me) gives significant time to metaphysics which helped me see around and out of some blind spots where christian and secular metaphysics were hanging on simply because I'd rarely to never heard of an alternative view. I think it would make a good entry point before diving into something deeper like Winifred Rose Hodge's Heathen Soul Lore. Though if you are ok with electronic reading, her website is a treasure trove with offerings both broad and deep.
Early on in my neopagan journey, I also stumbled upon Mark Ludwig Stinson of the Jotun's Bane Kindred in Kansas. He has multiple free pdfs that are interesting starting points (it is it's own flavor of heathenry and I don't currently agree with everything there, but it could be helpful.)
I also heartily recommend Sweyn Plowright's Rune Primer. It is straightforward and clear with little anecdotal nor magical embellishment, which left room for me to develop my own mystical connections and experiences as I read runes daily for a year.
Wishing you well.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 05:12 pm (UTC)For a long time A Book of Troth by Edred Thorsson was pretty much your only option, but it remains a pretty solid one. It's emphasis is mainly on larger, communal rituals, things like seasonal celebrations and weddings and the like, but it includes some thoughts on personal practice as well.
My current all-around favorite is A Modern Guide to Heathenry by Galina Krasskova. It's an updated edition of her earlier Exploring the Northern Tradition, so don't bother buying both (as I did, not realizing what was up), and the updated one is the better one in this case. It has a good blend of cosmology, theology, and personal practice, with a bit on larger rituals as well. If you don't anticipate having anyone else around to practice with for a while, she co-authored with Raven Kaldera Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner, which has a lot of very solid advice on individual prayer and devotion. One thing I especially appreciate about both books is their even-handed discussion of some of the fault lines in modern Heathenry (such as whether to worship the jotnar or not, or whether the religion should mainly be the purview of descendants of its historical believers or not) - this can help you evaluate groups and authors that you might consider as you learn more.
Path to the Gods by Swain Wodening has a specific focus on Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, which can be useful if you are interested in that particular flavor, but some of the assertions and interpretations in the book are not as carefully backed up as I might prefer.
If you are interested in a more magical approach and open to the wider world of Western Occultism, Edred Thorsson's Nine Doors of Midgard is an initiatory path that is clearly derived from a lot of traditional Western occultism, but re-worked to be explicitly Heathen. Some folks look askance at his involvement in "left-hand path" groups and worry that some of that perspective has leaked into his work, but there are folks who I respect who have gotten a lot out of Nine Doors of Midgard. The much more recent Heathen Golden Dawn by Isaac Hill hews much closer to what the traditional Golden Dawn was about, but with Heathen Gods and symbols, and builds on rituals that were originally worked out by our host and a commenter here who hasn't been seen in some time before Isaac took up the work. I haven't pursued either, but from what little I know, they both look promising.
If you're going to get much into Heathenry, you'll likely want to read the mythology and related old works (sometimes referred to collectively as "the lore" by Heathens, some of whom are a bit fundamentalist about it, but I won't get into that right now). Snorri Sturlusson's Prose Edda is your best starting point here, and once you've read that, you'll have the context you need for the Poetic Edda to become useful. Pretty much any translations will work fine, but for the former, Jesse Byock's (the current Penguin edition) is pretty universally well-regarded, and for the latter, there's more disagreement. For a beginner, I'd likely recommend either Jackson Crawford (very straightforward, but lacks some poetic/religious "punch") or Carolyne Larrington (gives a bit more nuance on religiously significant terms, but has a bit of a feminist slant). Imperium Press put out an annotated edition with side-by-side Old Norse and English translations that has a helpful introduction and annotations, as well as being the only side-by-side edition I'm familiar with, that might be useful for study, but it uses an old-fashioned (and thus out of copyright) translation that might be a bit tougher to read for most modern readers.
If you're looking for a modern "guide to Norse myth," to synthesize and be a bit more approachable than reading the myths from the above two sources, E.O.G. Turville-Petre's Myth and Religion of the North is usually regarded as the best, but it's priced for college classes and so can be a bit steep to buy, but you can likely find it at most big libraries, especially university ones. Hilda Ellis-Davidson's Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Norse Mythology by John Lindow, and Myths of the Pagan North by Christopher Abrams are all also good, but have different emphases and leave out different parts, but on the plus side, can be had for decent prices new or used.
I have a much more extensive annotated book list on many things Heathen here if you're interested: https://jpowellrussell.com/#list_of_books_on_germanish_belief_with_thoughts
Hope this helps, and let me know any questions you have!
Jeff
Heathen Beginner books
Date: 2025-01-14 01:39 am (UTC)I would not recommend any of the above authors to anyone in the "100 level of Heathenry". I would recommend going to the local library and finding a translation of the Poetic Edda that you can digest (the vast majority of those I work with find Larrington to be the easiest read) and I would recommend volume 3 of the third edition of Our Troth - available in electronic format for USD 9 at lulu dot com. And then maybe later, Volume 2 (available electronically USD 10) and Volume 1 (same price)
Sadly, it will be nigh onto impossible to find any book that does not bring politics into it. As was suggested above, it is up to you to decide the degree of it you are okay with. I find the more porgressive ones to be easier to mentor with.
For similar reasons, I would not recommend Fire and Ice by Ryan Smith.
Now for the "why nots"-
beginning with Nine Doors- I would not recommend this to anyone in the first few years of a path, to begin with it is actually the fourth book in a series. The 3 previous books are necessary to properly do the work of the Nine Doors ( Futhark, Runelore, and At the Well of Wyrd) with "Futhark" being a *must have worked through* and the others a *good familiarity with*.(Introduction of the edition published in 1991).
Krasskova, Kaldera, Stinson, etc- (without getting into the socio-politics ) it is difficult for the reader (again I am discussing someone in the 100-200 level) to know what is UPG and what is drawn from sources. We should have reached a certain level of discernment first.
I admit I have issues with each of these author's stated viewpoints on stuff, but i do not have to agree with everyone and no one has to agree with me. Religion/ spirituality us such a personal thing that I really hesitate to state "you are doing it wrong" in personal practice- if we are discussing public stuff, then there is more room for discussion.
In Frith,
Strongbear
Re: Heathen Beginner books
Date: 2025-01-14 04:27 am (UTC)Also, fair point on the "pre-work" needed for Nine Doors of Midgard - I found my way into Heathenry via the Runes, so I had read and worked with those other books before checking it out, and I might have over-estimated the newcomer-friendlieness of NDoM's "on-ramp."
And the UPG point for Krasskova and Kaldera (not familiar with Stinson) is also fair - they could be clearer on what comes from their own experiences versus what's grounded in lore/archaeology/reconstruction. Personally, I've found the fact that they address the personal and experiential side of Heathen religious practice valuable enough to mostly be okay with that, but that's another place where my own prior more academic non-religious familiarity with the material might have given me some tools someone wholly new might not have, and so I might have not given it enough weight.
As for the socio-political stuff, yeah, I mostly also tried to steer clear of that, as I think it's largely distracting from finding a relationship with the Gods. Krasskova and Kaldera have some very strong views on those matters, obviously, and a lot of that is implicit in some of the material in their two books I mentioned, but I appreciated the way that the two books I mentioned laid out "here are things a lot of modern Heathens argue about that are tangled up in both religious and political things" without explicitly saying "and this is the right way" (at least as I remember it, it's been a couple of years since I read either). That strikes me as helpful for working out how much you might want to engage with or avoid such hot-button topics, and how to evaluate writers who have definite views on them.
Anyhow, as I said, thanks for providing the OP with a different opinion and some other options, I hope he or she finds it useful.
Cheers,
Jeff
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:44 pm (UTC)I've been thinking on your essay a few weeks back commenting on alchemy as presented by Levi in chapter 19 of Doctrine and Ritual; particularly focused on flows in two directions and the Doctrine of Hermes in which the visible and invisible are in proportion. This called to mind something that I've noticed happen in two pursuits of mine - soccer and guitar playing. After some significant time doing both in adolescence, I got older and they turned into sporadic hobbies, but I continued having breakthroughs in both as long as I just practiced a bit and kept them in mind. In each there came a point where other people (often younger) noted my skill and asked how to get better, it seemed funny at the time because I certainly didn't feel skilled enough. In both cases what I settled on was that along the way I gained the ability to simultaneously play and observe myself playing. Even though I didn't know many songs nor had crazy solo skills, I could listen to my guitar and adapt the dynamics of playing to my intent, I could move the ball and adapt my body to the situation. The ability to intend and perceive in equal measure with both responsive to the other waxes and wanes, but it's changed both pursuits for me. (I believe this is likely tied to the modern psychological study of flow states.) A key to this is focus on the task, as with each pursuit there was also a period of time where the actions could be done without much thought, but the reapplication of focus once past that point eventually unlocked this new state. This also seems to be related to the three rays. When learning something new, there is the Light of wonder and exploration, practicing is the action/reaction state of powerful flux, eventually there is an action-focused perception-reaction state which paradoxically ends up being a place of focused yet still flowing harmony.
This got me thinking that spiritual work and magic are akin to sports as much as anything and helped me understand your emphasis on practice. I believe that there is a cultural habit (or even an egregore) around spirituality currently that others it, and I've often fallen into mentalizing the work and thinking there's something I will read and understand, or that I will happen upon an outside force, and it will change everything. I can see where our stories have reinforced that with the prevalence of Joseph Campbell's Hero Journey influencing me to study up and wait for gandalf/obi-wan. Those magic moments have occasionally happened, and I can see where it is beneficial to openly seek and welcome those moments; annnnd I'm coming to understand that the practices become portals of openness that allow those experiences and the practices themselves can become part of an alchemical awakening (almost any practice I suppose if done long enough with intent, perception, and focus.) I can see that discursive meditation is almost a direct practicing of perceiving and intending at the thought level building the "flow state" capability within me like finger picking guitar chords built it outside me; and that the sole act of years of a daily SOP has begun shifting my ability to perceive shifts in subtle planes and energies thereby changing my performance of the SOP. Anyway, this has been gently and quietly blowing my mind. I appreciate your work and how many tools and works you've made available.
1. Does the above resonate with your experience? I find it humorous to think of you as a Michael Jordan of magic, churning out playbooks and coaching guides each year, rather than a sagely academic guiding others through stuffy stacks of ... though perhaps that image is closer to the truth.
Two additional questions:
2a. In my understanding, the SOP is specific in what it invokes and banishes, whereas the Lesser Pentagram rituals are less specific. This, along with my experiences, suggests to me that the SOP primarily works on the individual with attendant effects on the space, and the Pentagram rituals work primarily on the space, with effects on the individual who is in casting within that space. Does that conflict with your understanding?
2b. Hypothetically, could the invoking and banishing phases in the Celtic Golden Dawn Ovate temple could be in separate locations or times. For example there if there is a space that I want more energy to flow through as I do mundane work, but also want cleansed at the end of the day; could a temple be opened in the morning and the primary magical work completed, but then close out the temple but delay the banishing for a few hours?
3. Your Polarity Magic book mentions that a practice comes partly from a Universal Gnostic Church communion ritual. I've read the Gnostic Celtic Church communion, but I've been searching and I haven't found the UGC ceremony anywhere in the documents and articles you've published. Am I missing something? Or, is that a piece that is revealed at a later stage, or self-created?
Thank you as always for this space and your counsel.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:50 pm (UTC)2a) It's an interesting interpretation and worth exploring further.
2b) I'd encourage you to experiment with that.
3) It hasn't been published yet. Very little of the UGC material has seen print so far.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 04:52 pm (UTC)Follow-ups-
1) My primary Aikido instructor regularly mentions that time in training is not necessarily time training. Someone could be at a two hour practice 20 times a month but because of distraction not have nearly that much time training. Zanshin -being present, focused, and aware- while in practice is key to that practice counting toward your time training. So, perhaps through this lens, occult training could be seen as the broadening and deepening of perception and focus to the point that one can more clearly see the links between intent and outcome and thereby better understand both their own being and their ecosystem through seeing the ways they intercede between the intentions and outcomes; and thereby one could formulate future intentions more clearly to produce desired outcomes.
2. Will do.
3. Is there any timeline or plan for those materials, particularly for those working within the UGC seminary? I realize you are quite busy on multiple projects and multiple fronts, and I'm not intending to add pressure, just checking in.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:44 pm (UTC)John Cowper Powys
Date: 2025-01-13 03:53 pm (UTC)Question: have you encountered the work of the English novelist John Cowper Powys? I have recently started reading his very long book A Glastonbury Romance and I have been astonished and delighted by his sheer skill as a writer (there are many passages of wonderful beauty describing the natural environment), by the seriousness with which he handles the Grail legends and a good deal of other mythological material, and by an narrative voice that accepts the existence of non-human consciousness in the most straightforward way.
Best wishes to everyone!
Re: John Cowper Powys
Date: 2025-01-13 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 03:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:06 pm (UTC)The Story of Lot's Wife
Date: 2025-01-13 04:09 pm (UTC)Re:
"The soul bound towards the eternal goal -- as it is called, the top of the mountains -- then proceeded towards the mountains. And before they reached the top of the mountains there was the cave, which is called heaven (in metaphysics, "capacity;" in Sanskrit, Akasha) which has the power of holding the soul from going to the top and using the soul for some purpose. And the soul which was bound for the eternal goal remained, so intoxicated by the ecstasy that it received from the plane of joy and the plane of wisdom.
'the cave' strikes me as referring to the astral hereafter rather than heaven per se, where, depending on what we've been up to, we experience 'heaven' or the 'other place', as some refer to it.
The idea that we create our own afterlife seems amusing, sobering and a reason for optimism all at the same time.
No question as such, just to say I am very much enjoying contemplating the various metaphors and to thank you and the other posters for making this place what it is.
Here's a link:
http://www.hazrat-inayat-khan.org/php/views.php?h1=43&h2=3&h3=28
Re: The Story of Lot's Wife
Date: 2025-01-13 06:41 pm (UTC)Modern Order of Essenes Healings
Date: 2025-01-13 04:29 pm (UTC)To sign up for healing hands again, or for the first time, please reply to this thread with your name and request or PM it to me and I will add you to the list. Thanks!
Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healings
Date: 2025-01-13 08:18 pm (UTC)I could use some central nervous system healing.
Thanks!
Matt
Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healings
Date: 2025-01-13 09:55 pm (UTC)Best regards,
V
Dreams
Date: 2025-01-13 04:39 pm (UTC)I wanted to thank you for your CGD practice and books. In particular, the big book & the litany have become daily staples and have changed my life in many ways, in the short time I’ve embraced them. Celebrating Merlin’s wheel has been something I look forward to all year round. These have been deep gifts for my soul.
Onto my question - dreams! I went from not dreaming at all, before the CGD, to dreaming almost nonstop every night. I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. Some of the dreams would make fantastic science fiction books! They are so detailed and vivid. Any feedback on this? I assume it’s due to drudging up the murky waters of the subconscious?
Many thanks!
Jon
Re: Dreams
Date: 2025-01-13 06:47 pm (UTC)As for dreams, you're awakening your ability to perceive the astral plane. That's what dreaming is, you know: the normal process of perceiving the astral plane in sleep. Dreams are always a mix of personal and transpersonal material, because the aura (the outer layer of the astral body) is like a screen on which two movie projectors are projecting at once -- one that's from your subconscious, and one that's from the big wide world out there.
Have you considered keeping a dream journal, and writing your dreams down first thing in the morning? It's an interesting habit, and can teach you various things about yourself.
Re: Dreams
Date: 2025-01-13 07:34 pm (UTC)Cheers! Appreciate your time and interactions on here with us.
Jon
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 04:59 pm (UTC)And seriously: I asked my staves if there was a supernatural cause and effect at work in the LA wildfire disaster. I was thinking past, but my staves said Ioho, upright. TDH says, “consequences of present actions,” so I’m wondering if the stave points to the aphasiac response of California’s government and the possibility of some kind of unstoppable tail-chase. The other thing that comes to mind is the deafness of the California government as business-as-usual overrides calls for disaster response. I’ve seen a few concussions and their effects, including a fellow’s ears stopped up by a sudden outflow of black wax; so, I wonder if said government is suffering from the supernatural (or maybe psychological) “Nah, I’m fine” response to a blow to the head while barreling right towards a fatal case of secondary impact syndrome. I’d welcome some guidance on my interpretation if you and the commentariat feel inclined.
Rhydlyd
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 10:25 pm (UTC)Thank you for pointing out the next circle wider - I wasn't far enough back to put the BMC and, say, the French and German aristocrats in the same category.
R
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 10:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 03:32 am (UTC)Somehow, I had never put it together that all of that affected posturing was not actually directed at any of the rest of us, but was instead directed at the issues, dilemmas, and burdens he was facing. His contrived performances were simply to placate all of the energetic parasites and imbalances his parents or friends or enemies had managed to lodge within him long ago. That shouldn't have been that hard for me to figure out, since my own pathetic posturing tends to rear its ugly head whenever I'm faced with my own unresolved parasites.
At last, it finally makes sense why all the globalists and deep-staters are so clueless about how revoltingly they come across to the rest of us. They don't actually notice us, and they're not performing for us as their primary audience, nor in fact are they performing for each other. They're simply posturing in front of all the myriad problems they carry around inside themselves, which any real-world dilemmas just tend to reactivate. They’re habitually reenacting a practiced set of ritualized poses and genuflections that have consistently failed to free them from their captors in any way. But hope springs infernal! Thus, they keep endlessly trotting out the same exaggerated postures no matter what real-world dilemma they happen to be facing.
That explains why Que Mala's shrieks of joy fell on deaf ears in the real world, while perfectly posturing at all the worries and parasites eating away inside her and members of her failed class. Thank the gods for healthy magical practice and making the changes within oneself that one would like to see out in the world. Without some kind of spiritual/magical practice to restore balance and clear away accumulated parasites, any one of us could easily crash and burn as messily as Que Mala. May our failed courtier class learn to heed the dire warning that Que Mala’s shrieking really ought to be able to teach them. Don’t bet on it, though!
On the bright side, my partner’s clearing away of internal imbalances has never before progressed so rapidly, and his contrived posturing has reached an all-time low. Most importantly, he can now laugh about it, rather than just falling into a state of grumpy denial. Often, he even succeeds in mimicking my own affectations back at me, leaving us both rolling on the floor laughing. I wonder if that might be the real kind of joy that Que Mala convinced herself she could somehow shriek into existence?
— Christophe
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 03:56 am (UTC)Aspects of People
Date: 2025-01-13 05:04 pm (UTC)Some of them seem obvious. For example, if I am square or opposite a person it means we are causing each other friction, grief, obstacles. Conjunct would probably mean that I am in the same boat with someone, whether I like them or not, and for that time we move together and either benefit or harm one another according to our natures, but whatever happens to a degree happens to both of us until we separate.
Can you give me an example of what a trine or sextile would look like in human relations, and any other aspects that occur to you off the top of your head?
Re: Aspects of People
Date: 2025-01-13 06:56 pm (UTC)Re: Aspects of People
Date: 2025-01-13 07:45 pm (UTC)Re: Aspects of People
Date: 2025-01-14 02:36 am (UTC)Art egregores?
Date: 2025-01-13 05:14 pm (UTC)Re: Art egregores?
Date: 2025-01-13 06:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 05:15 pm (UTC)Are you familiar with Stephen Jenkinson, a retired Canadian palliative care practitioner who is traveling about speaking about death and how our culture is 1) death-phobic and 2) bereft of elders. His claim is age doesn't confer elderhood automatically, rather it's a learned skill presumably from other elders.
The experience that he commonly saw on people's deathbed was a terrorizing fear of ceasing to exist. He reports that many people at their end had to be drugged up to a point of half-consciousness to escape that all-consuming dread.
One of Jenkinson's issues with current popular thought is the pervasive theme of limitlessness. If I understand him correctly, he chafes at the idea that we continue on after death, that it's a transition. I think I get what he's going at, but esoteric philosophy teaches that some part of us does indeed carry on beyond incarnation.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on this as you (JMG) used to worked with elderly people. I'd also like to hear from others what they think of this one aspect of Jenkinson's observations.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:04 pm (UTC)In my experience with elderly people, a recognition of the reality of life after death is a very important factor in mental and emotional health. It's not just a cure for the terror of nonexistence, it also helps encourage the old to explore their memories and make sense of their lives, and it gives them a framework to deal with the paranormal experiences that so often occur to the dying. Since there's plenty of evidence for an afterlife, too, it's only reasonable to encourage people to take it into account.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 08:14 pm (UTC)Does this have anything to do with the "Attraction of Outer Space" in the CosDoc?
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 08:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 08:31 pm (UTC)fear of death
Date: 2025-01-14 02:39 am (UTC)Rita
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 03:32 am (UTC)Then, of course, there's the problem of where we might be encountering Jenkinson with respect to his initiation of the nadir or whatever. If someone is under a carefully-managed maya where they think the responsible thing to do is "admit" the limitations of blank materiality, and try to reason forward from that premise as to what chimerical hopes it makes the world better to tell people not to invest any resources or hope into, of course they're going to say things like that.
I can't really speculate usefully beyond that point since I haven't read anything by him.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 03:38 am (UTC)Surely there's something that hits its wall at death, if it hasn't already found it in itself to stop short of its own accord. Perhaps Jenkinson feels it necessary to tell people "everything hits a wall", because he unconsciously sees the alternative message as being "nothing you're actually attached to hits a wall, just some things you can safely blithely tell yourself you already don't care about and go on without having to change anything about yourself".
Then, of course, there's the problem of where we might be encountering Jenkinson with respect to his initiation of the nadir or whatever. If someone is under a carefully-managed maya where they think the responsible thing to do is "admit" the limitations of blank materiality, and try to reason forward from that premise as to what chimerical hopes it makes the world better to tell people not to invest any resources or hope into, of course they're going to say things like that.
I can't really speculate usefully beyond that point since I haven't read anything by him.
Thank you
Date: 2025-01-13 05:31 pm (UTC)After weeks of avoiding it, I finally plunged into the next lesson and finished it. The first session was like popping a cork- as soon as I sat down to write, the memory I didn't know I needed to work on came right to the surface, and I wrote and cried simultaneously for twenty minutes without interruption. And I felt better afterwards.
I would liken the experience to being seven years old and standing on the edge of the swimming pool. It can take so much willpower just to make that little jump. The first big splash is indeed going to take your breath away. But as soon as you're in and moving around, you start to feel better right away.
Every little success builds confidence and momentum. It's worth celebrating and I wanted to share that thought here for anyone who needs it.
Re: Thank you
Date: 2025-01-13 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 05:33 pm (UTC)2. Conversely, is there a practice to counter extreme Summer heat?
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 09:21 pm (UTC)In addition, in cold weather, I take a hotwater bottle into the bed. One gets placed directly over the liver.
This is my personal experience offered in response to our host's invitation to offer an answer. (I am not doctor, and so on & so forth.)
Also, a final thought: I find that "oversleeping" is, for me at least, a wriggly term since I have times when my body needs more sleep (11 hours or more) and times when it needs less sleep (6-7 hours). Of course the problem comes when the amoubt of sleep I require doesn't align with what I've got in my schedule / what other people expect from me.
The most I ever slept in my life was one winter in Iceland. The darkness was what did it to me. So there's that.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 04:45 am (UTC)It doesn't seem to be the addition or subtraction of outside energies that makes the difference, so much as the opening and activating of my own energy centers. Of course, many of the energy centers act as portals between the planes, so opening them naturally allows energies to spill back and forth. That warming effect is the same from prayer, ritual, incantation, vision work, scrying, and healing.
Once I begin moving energies through my energy channels on any of the planes, my physical body begins heating up. The only exception is that sometimes while combating a potent magical attack (whether coming from inside or outside) I will get significantly chilled. I assume that that chilling comes from the attacker trying to block my ability to channel energies. Once the attacker relents, I go right back to overheating again and have to throw off all of the extra clothes I put on.
— Christophe
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:51 pm (UTC)I have no clue what features might matter; but I find it much easier to acclimate to different climates if I eat closer to how the people who lived there traditionally ate; taking into account such things as "this was good at this time of year".
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:58 pm (UTC)The two main techniques are specific breath pattern characterized by rapid, sharp in-breaths followed by "releasing" (rather than forcing out) the air, to a count of 30 or so (or until your head starts feeling a little tingly, whatever comes first), and cold-exposure. After getting comfortable with both (his course recommends very gradual and gentle ramping up of both over the course of a few months, before combining the two). For most folks, the most convenient form of cold exposure is cold showers and/or ice baths (buy a few bags of ice from the grocery store and dump them in your tub - these are very intense and you should not jump right into them, especially if you're at all worried about getting sick).
Wim's method is pretty much purely physiological, but I believe the discussion of the Buddhist practice mentioned visualizations of an "inner fire" in the belly energy center. You might want to be careful with this one if you do any other kind of energy/visualization work.
Interestingly, Wim's experience with cold exposure has been that his body is also very well adapted to heat - apparently training your body to handle temperature extremes can go both ways, once it knows how to adjust, so this might help with both 1. and 2.
Not part of Wim's method, but I have also found alternating extreme heat and cold (as going from a sauna to a cold plunge, or following a hot bath with a cool/cold shower) to be extremely relaxing, and also seems to help my body cope with changes in temperature, but I try to pay attention to how I'm feeling, and avoid very extreme differences, especially quick switches, when I'm not otherwise feeling well.
I know "subject yourself to cold" might not be a very welcome cure for coldness, but I have found it helps quite a bit for dealing with normal cold conditions.
Anyhow, hope this helps!
Jeff
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 03:02 am (UTC)The current trend in diet science off the self-captured institutional mainstream is that plant-derived oils (including flaxseed) other than olive, avocado, and coconut are bad for you (feeding into one leg of the metabolic syndrome cycle) when they make up a staple proportion of your diet anyway, and that fat from industrially raised animals other than ruminants like cattle is basically just a way of laundering cheaper plant oils through animal feed. (And that even avocado oil is sometimes adulterated with cheaper plant oils.)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 04:28 am (UTC)I'd tried various ways of pretending not to feel the cold. Visualizing warm surroundings, "thinking warm thoughts," and the like. Those were never effective and often seemed to make it worse. So at a loss for anything more sensible sounding I started trying the opposite, and eventually figured out a mental technique that did work, and why it worked. I called it "Resist Cold" (I was an avid D&D player at the time) but it's not the way one would usually think of resisting something. It's really more like "Accept Cold."
My technique is to focus on feeling the physical sensations of the cold. It's valuable information provided by your senses about your current surroundings. Try to experience it as truly and thoroughly as you can. The feel of the temperature, the movement of wind against your skin, the cold of the ground through your feet, wetness from rain or mist or melting snow, all of it. At first, I had to really concentrate hard on this, but by experiencing the cold entirely as information about the world, I wasn't experiencing it as a painful condition of myself. Especially, and this is where the concentration comes in, you're separating what you feel physically from all the emotions you might be feeling about it: resentment about the circumstances that are causing you to be in a cold place (damn train is late; gotta shovel this snow at the crack of dawn; cheapskate employer sets the thermostat too low); fear (possibly subconscious and instinctive) that the cold will kill you before you can reach safety; bad memories of other times you've been cold; self-recrimination that you didn't choose a different plan or a warmer outfit; distraction and unbalance from trying to face away from every puff of wind. Concentrate on how the cold actually feels instead, which is much easier to tolerate. If you know any of those insufferable people who stride through subzero wind chill with their jacket open and flapping in the wind while saying things like, "ooh, feel that breeze!"... chances are they're applying some version of this same approach.
What does "I feel cold" mean anyhow? What it should mean is that you feel that your surroundings are cold. But what it often means instead is that you feel yourself as being in a stressed condition due to your own physical and emotional reactions to your surroundings being cold. It's true that inescapable cold conditions can be dangerous and hypothermia is a real thing with serious consequences, but if you're dressed reasonably for the weather you're not going to suffer frostbite or hypothermia from having to wait for a bus on a cold windy day. Most of the time you don't need to feel cold in that second way. Concentrate on the first way until it becomes your normal way of perceiving cold conditions.
Generalized, this approach does work on other kinds of pain or discomfort too. It's a bit more difficult to apply to heat at first, because heat (unless it's really extreme) doesn't create strong immediate external sensations to focus on. But once you've experienced and practiced the underlying concept of detaching sensation from emotion, it will work. Be cautious, though; in many people overheating can reach harmful levels without them feeling it much.
Follow-up on Saint-Germain
Date: 2025-01-13 05:41 pm (UTC)He cites a 1988 book by Jean Overton Fuller, The Comte de Saint Germain: Last scion of the House of Rákóczy. Fuller also wrote well-researched historical works on espionage in addition to biographies of Blavatsky, Krishnamurti, and one Victor Neuberg who was for eight years closely associated with Aleister Crowley. I found her book riveting. She treats the Count’s musical and chemical work in depth and sifts through the welter of sources, dismissing most of them for what seem to be solid reasons while noting how some of the legends probably originated.
She offers a persuasive explanation of his enigmatic forays into diplomacy and proposes an ingenious hypothesis connecting his enigmatic birth with his involvement, technically as a Russian General, in the Orlov brothers’ campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1769-70.
As you said, he does not appear to have played any role in the occult societies of his time. Moreover, he did not claim to possess supranormal powers or miraculous longevity, and was neither a Freemason nor a Christian. He may have had an inclination to mysticism inspired by the Law of Nature and Nature’s God. On balance, I think the evidence Fuller marshals suggests that his beliefs and motivations were honorable and fundamentally secular, but — perhaps because she was influenced by Theosophy, which exalted him as one of the great Masters — she plays up the mysticism. To this end she accepts as authentic an unfinished sonnet published about a decade after the Count’s death.
CURIEUX scrutateur de la nature entière,
J’ai connu du grand tout le principe et la fin.
J’ai vu l’or en puissance au fond de sa minière,
J’ai saisi sa matière et surpris son levain.
J’expliquai par quel art l’âme aux flancs d’une mère,
Fait sa maison, l’emporte, et comment un pépin
Mis contre un grain de blé, sous l’humide poussière,
L’un plante et l’autre cep, sont le pain et le vin.
Rien n’était, Dieu voulut, rien devint quelque chose,
J’en doutais, je cherchai sur quoi l’univers pose,
Rien gardait l’équilibre et servait de soutien.
Enfin, avec le poids de l’éloge et du blâme,
Je pesai l’éternel, il appela mon âme,
Je mourus, j’adorai, je ne savais plus rien.
Pratt links to a good translation (https://poetryintranslation.wordpress.com/category/mysticism/rose-croix/):
but it does not include alternate endings in the (apparently unfinished) original.
Je pésais dieu lui-même, il appela mon ȃme,
Le cadavre tomba, j’adorai, tout en bien.
or
Je pésais l’éternel, il appela mon ȃme,
Le cadavre tomba, je ne savais plus rien.
and as a final line
Je redeviens dieu même et je m’en doutais bien.
These lines prompt Fuller’s most outré speculations at the end of her book; it must be admitted that they would account for the way the Count recalled parts of the elder Racoczy’s life as if he had lived them himself.
Pratt also cites a work issued in 2004 by a cultural society in the town of Saint-Germain’s death, Wer war ‘Graf Saint-Germain’? Eine historisch-kritische Bestandsaufnahme. I found the three essays contained in it terribly disappointing: the tone throughout is one of sarcastic debunking, treating Saint-Germain as a mere con artist.
These readings have left me with a sense of wonderment at the powers of projection which (starting during his life and gathering momentum later) have made of this man either a crook or a quasi-divine wizard, instead of the gifted, lonely, and ambitious idealist that he probably was.
Gray Hat
Re: Follow-up on Saint-Germain
Date: 2025-01-13 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 06:30 pm (UTC)-Bofur
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 09:23 pm (UTC)SDPM
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-14 04:59 am (UTC)— Christophe
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 07:38 pm (UTC)a) Do you have any suggestions on how to keep a red amulet bag in place while sleeping? I find that sometimes it will fall off when I move, and end up somewhere other than on my chest; and the nights that has happened my sleep is much less restful.
b) Is it safe to wear the bag during the exercises from LRM, and during prayers? I'm planning to start doing more religious and magical practices, and am wondering which exercises, if any, might work best without the protective red bag.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-13 08:35 pm (UTC)2) Nothing in LRM will be inconvenienced by it, and prayer works on a plane high above the etheric plane, where the red bag amulet does its work. If you go on to Circles of Power, and work with the elemental and planetary invocations in that book, you'll want to remove the amulet while doing those.