Magic Monday

[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.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

study recomendations

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Greer,

1. In your opinion, what are the books that would constitute a Canon that any well-rounded occultist should read? Especially one that is getting their start from your books? I assume already that Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine and Eliphas Levi's Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic should both be on that list, as should the Right Reverend Joseph Hall's Art of Divine Meditation.

2. Can you recommend a reading path for someone that has zero alchemical knowledge that wants to try a deep dive into alchemy?

3. I know that scrying and crystal gazing "ain't your thang" (to use the vernacular), but can you recommend some reading on the topic that isn't, uh, impacted by contact with Mr. Crowley or his lineage?

Thanks much.

Re: study recomendations

[ecosophia]

1) That's an intriguing question to which I don't have an answer. A canon is a complex thing to formulate; I'll have to put some thought into it.

2) Start with Mark Stavish's The Path of Alchemy and Frater Albertus's The Alchemists Handbook. After that, I recommend trying your hand at actual alchemical texts: the Splendor Solis and the Book of Lambspring are more accessible than most. Oh, and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. After that, you should be prepared to plunge into the literature on your own.

3) Since I don't have a talent for that kind of work I don't have a good sense of the literature. Anyone else?

Re: study recomendations

[randomactsofkarmasc]

As I started my deep dive into alchemy, I kept a list of books and websites that were helpful. I have the list (and links) posted here: https://druidalchemist.com/bibliography/ (I haven't started on spagyrics yet. Someday...)

Unsolicited advice, if you'd like some. :-) There is not a consistent vocabulary in the texts I've read. I started an index card for each important word and would add descriptions, common symbols, etc., as I read different texts. In time, you get to the point that everything on the card helps you figure out what the meaning really is, and if an author uses a different word or symbol, it doesn't seem as confusing.

[booklover1973]

For those, who are interested in the subject: In 2020, I did to inauguration horoscopes for the German chancellor Olaf Scolz. The first date usedwas 10:15 am, November 8, 2021, when rhe inauguration ceremony was held in the Bundestag. The second date was at the same day, at 12 midday, when Olaf Scholz swore his oath. Both ceremonies were done in Berlin. It seems to me that the second date gave the more accurate inauguration horoscope. The horoscope predicted, among other things, a loss of power for Olaf Scholz, economic difficulties and unpopularity.

[ecosophia]

Interesting. Thank you for this!

[milkyway1]

If you should happen to do an inauguration chart for the upcoming government, would you consider sharing your results e.g. on an Open Post?

Thanks,

Milkyway

Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, thanks as always for hosting this Q&A! I have a few questions today:

1.
I've been practicing discursive meditation off and on for a while. Over the past few months I've taken up a more focused daily practice, working my way through Gareth Knight's Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism. It seems much easier to stay focused in discursive meditation compared to breath-focused or mind-emptying meditation - so much easier, in fact that it makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong! How can you tell the difference between focused discursive meditation and simply "sitting quietly and thinking"? Is there a difference? I'm used to meditation feeling like a grueling mental exercise in which all insights are hard-won, and I'm having trouble trusting the apparent ease of the discursive style. Am I just overthinking it?

2. A few weeks back, you fielded a question from someone about an old method of magical combat. The gist was that one person attempts to "outbid" another person's offering to a god with a more lavish tribute, in hopes of denying them their desired outcome. Do deities, in your experience, really operate in such a transactional way? It seems at odds with the claim that they're more spiritually developed than we are. Unless perhaps the method of "outbidding" is more about working to realize the deity's worldly priorities (e.g., oil spill cleanup as an offering to Neptune) than about giving the god "more stuff". What's your take on this way of understanding deities?

3. What, if any, is the relationship between kundalini energy and the telluric current? I've seen lots of spiritual exercises that seem to involve calling on one or the other, often using similar imagery (rising serpents, up-thrusting pillars of fiery force, etc.) Is this simply a morphological similarity, since both are rising currents of power, or are the energies linked in some way?

Thanks again and hope you're well!

- Fred

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[ecosophia]

1) To most Western people, discursive meditation is much, much easier than most other kinds of meditation -- but then meditation shouldn't be a grueling struggle! What differentiates it from just sitting quietly and thinking is that you're not just letting your mind wander. You're paying attention to what you're thinking, following it with attention the same way someone doing other kinds of meditation follows the reciting of a mantra (or what have you) with attention.

2) No, that's not my experience with deities at all. I'm not sure I want to argue with the experience of generations of Roman priests, though.

3) There isn't one. The telluric current flows naturally and normally through all things, though it's especially concentrated in trees, natural springs and wells, and certain landscape features. Kundalini discharges are artificially caused, and dangerous -- though they can also be a powerful spiritual tool. The similarity is purely a matter of upward motion.

[diletpoly]

Hello JMG and Commentariat,

In OPH, week 19, you call out species that have evolved a mental sheath as humans, whales and porpoises, and "some other species" which got me wondering. The three groups that I suspect might fall into other species are octopuses, possibly corvids, and maybe some of the great apes. Though those last two may just be close enough that they often have individuals that "finished" evolving a mental sheath while incarnated as those creatures. And I don't have enough direct experience with octopi to know if this might be accurate or not.

On to the questions:

1) How many books do you anticipate in the GSF series? I've got the first three, and intend to buy the rest, I'm just curious what the overall structure looks like. You seem to be alternating one "Way of" instructional book and one "Workbook", each of which (so far) is about a year's worth of material. And the Way of books are one degree of initiation, so after the forthcoming WST, we'll have 3 degrees, and I won't be getting to that one until at least August of 2026.

2) Actually, that brings up another question. I've been assuming that I should work through the Workbooks and the Way of books separately, but I realize that, at least the W4E doesn't offer daily meditation topics, so in theory they could be worked through at the same time, with some space granted for the scryings and related meditations that are called for. Would you recommend against that for any reason? Obviously WGS has it's own meditations, so you'd have to finish those before taking up any of the Workbooks. Which I have, though I'm currently working through the OPH.

The Dilettante Polymath

PS: I'll point out again that the top of this post calls out the MM FAQ v 1.2, but the actual FAQ shows v 1.1. Just FYI.

PPS: The formatting in the preview looks good, but when I see it in regular mode, it shows the 1 and 2 of the questions on their own line. Annoying. I think I've fixed it, however.

[ecosophia]

1) There will be a total of seven books, counting the one that comes with The Sacred Geometry Oracle:

The Sacred Geometry Oracle
The Way of the Golden Section
The Way of the Four Elements
The Way of the Secret Temple
The Occult Philosophy Workbook
The Earth Mysteries Workbook
The Life Force Workbook (which I'm still writing)

I'm also considering a set of four books of quadrivial studies, tentatively titled:

A Book of Sacred Number
A Book of Sacred Geometry
A Book of Sacred Harmonics
A Book of Sacred Ecology

2) The W4E doesn't offer specific topics but it does say to meditate on themes drawn from the elemental symbolism, your reading and study, and your experiences with the other practices. I recommend giving each book a year by itself.

Dream

[bruno86]

JMG, I had a dream last night different than anything I've had before. I was drowning; ok, so far that's common. The thing about it is that the sensation felt incredibly real, and no, I've never been even close to drowning before. I recall vividly how it feels to be drowning, the failed attempts to fill my lungs with air, the blurring of my vision as I gradually lost consciousness. When I woke up, the sensation lingered on for much longer than a common nightmare. I really don't know what to make of it.

Re: Dream

[ecosophia]

I once had a dream like that and it turned out to be a past life memory. Still, your mileage may vary.

Re: Dream

[(Anonymous)]

When I started ending my morning shower with 30s under pure cold water a very similar thing came up for me. After considerable work I eventually realised in a previous life I most likely drowned in a frozen lake. Since acknowledging that my life-long fear and dislike of water has substantially decreased.

Might be something for you to explore.

Inaugurations when the Sun and Uranus were in mutual reception

[slclaire]

In your Patreon/Subscribestar posts on the Trump inauguration, you discussed the effect of having the inauguration take place on January 20th, when the Sun is in its detriment in Aquarius. Since the President in inauguration charts is represented by the Sun, this means that the President begins his term with a large astrological strike against him.

However, for a short time in 1955 and then again from June 1956 until August 1962, Uranus was in Leo, meaning that the Sun and Uranus were in mutual reception during those years. That would give the Sun the same dignity as if he were in Leo, the sign he rules. There were two inaugurations during this period, Eisenhower's in 1957 and Kennedy's in 1961, in which this was the case - I verified this by generating the charts for Inauguration Day for those years. Since Eisenhower had two terms and his first term began in 1953 when the Sun and Uranus weren't in mutual reception, if the charts for the two inaugurations were otherwise the same (which they weren't, of course), my hypothesis would be that Eisenhower's second term would have been more successful than his first term. Have you taken a look at the charts for these two inaugurations? They might make an interesting test case for the effects of having inaugurations take place when the Sun is in detriment.

Re: Inaugurations when the Sun and Uranus were in mutual reception

[ecosophia]

Fascinating. No, I haven't looked at those, but it would certainly follow.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,
There are mentionings of Saturn today. I'd like to add to that. Marc Edward Jones said people with Jupiter square Saturn in their chat have a "last chance lifetime". I'm not sure what it means. Would you care to comment?

[ecosophia]

I have no idea what he meant by that, as it's a perfectly ordinary aspect to have -- remember that since Jupiter and Saturn are both slow moving planets, their squares apply for a couple of months at a time, so everyone born on earth during those couple of months would fall into that category! Jones had some good ideas but he also shoveled a lot of smoke.

[(Anonymous)]

good afternoon, dear Papa!
i waited for the proper-ish place to thank you for saying what you're doing in the open post because it focused me. i was fighting inertia like Atreyu's horse sinking into the quicksands of despair or whatever that was.
one of the things i loved about what you wrote back to me was that you were human vulnerable clueless like the rest of us, as much as you fxcking KNOW!, you were clueless. and that made me giggle inside. we're really on an adventure and we don't know if we'll go splat or sail.
so funny.

good.

temporary reality and i are doing well. she told me she loved me. whew.

with her love and your clueless faith and audacity, yeah... i can ride with this.

breathing in and letting back out with a push. you're right how they do this on purpose. i'm a fighter but there are so many rounds beyond the initial 15 and i don't know how to pace myself. but time... we've only so much TIME.

this is like a relay race but you never get to stop running even if you've long since handed off the baton.

like decades ago.

xxxxx

[ecosophia]

I get that. I spent years trying to hand off various batons to various people and having them stick to my hand like superglue. Now I just keep running -- and I have no more clue about what's further ahead on the route of the race than anybody else. Human existence is weird!

Astral travel and such

[xcalibur_djs]

Some dreams are just strange images and experiences, but others are much more intense. I've had a few dreams recently where I seemed to be traveling in the astral plane; in one I was zooming through a very pleasant meadow, in another I was floating in a large, strange, blue-lit chamber with giant mirrors. I get the impression that the first was higher up in the astral, and the second was lower. The second also had some sort of entity lean me close to a mirror, a pattern I've experienced in another vivid astral dream, in which I saw a much younger version of myself in the reflection. But in the two recent dreams, unlike past ones, I had a feeling of numbness when I returned to my body, and a feeling like a vibrating motor in my head, until I fully awoke. I've astral traveled other times, but didn't experience this when returning to my body.

While I'm at it, since you've taken up dreamwork, I'll add various other things I've seen/experienced:

* A rabbit hopping around outside, but it kept shifting its size and shape, and left rainbow after-images whenever it moved.
* The experience of being in some vast underground prison of earth and stone, for what felt like weeks or months, before finally getting out and awakening.
* Recently, staying in a fancy eastern style palace, a bit like a pagoda or Shinto temple; a conflict broiled up, leading to warfare, with bullets, shells and artillery; the building was damaged but not destroyed, and I sensed that the right-wing/anti-liberal side won. I wonder if that's a prophecy of some sort...
*Within some sort of aztec/mayan temple complex; random things like a huge owl, but mainly this foreboding, dreadful sense of being in a spirit world with the presence of the dead; there was a sense of returning to the living world (changing clothes to do this) and not being the same afterwards.
*A disembodied hand holding up a large black cube (palm facing up), floating in midair, and I had a foreboding sense of horror and dread, as if it were evil.
* I thought I had died, it wasn't unpleasant, just floating; it was like an imaginary place made real; worried about getting back to my body, tried to get back in, and woke up.
* The kid from Captain Planet with the heart power finally got fed up with being made fun of, so he summoned Amaterasu the Japanese sun goddess, who hit the earth with brilliant white laser-like beams of light, each one spawning a reptilian alien-like sun being which could fly through the air; these beings conquered the world and there was an eternal sunrise (or sunset).

That last one is a bit dramatic, really escalated quickly, but anyway, I'm just supplying this stuff as raw material to work with.

Anyway:
Is this feeling of numbness/motor vibration a normal aspect of astral travel? Any reason that happened specifically on those recent occasions?
The times I've drifted out of my body, I have a strong urge to get back into it. Is this normal self-preservation (because I'm not ready to leave this incarnation yet) or something else?
Finally, anything else you can tell me about the stuff I've dreamed, or the feeling of an entity zooming me around or leaning me into a mirror, would be appreciated.

Re: Astral travel and such

[ecosophia]

1) It's something some people experience when they've fully detached their astral bodies from their material and etheric bodies.

2) That's normal in the early stages. You'll get over it -- your physical and etheric bodies will be fine when you get back.

3) Interpreting dreams isn't one of my gifts! Those are fascinating dreams but I haven't the least idea what they mean.

[(Anonymous)]

I’ve written and rewritten this question many times because I really do take your writings on magic seriously, and I understand that you’ve accomplished several orders of magnitude more with it than I have.

I asked a question earlier that I think got deleted under the latest topic ban.

In your response to a question about a canon of writings, you mentioned that your focus is occultism and not magic. Meditation and divination are essential to my practice, and the apprehension of their value I have has come to me through your work. I’m really grateful for that. But I want to do things that cause very obvious changes, and it’s unusual to me, on a certain level, how little discussion of such things I see here.

The people who seem to be reporting results of this type the most nowadays are those into the grimoires. I wanted to avoid the pitfalls of that path, but get results on that order. I come here because concepts such as spiritual hygiene and growth are also important to me. But I am wondering if I should just go somewhere else. If I can’t figure out how to do what I want to do right now, I’m sure I’ll be able to eventually.

[ecosophia]

It's entirely up to you whether you find the discussions here useful or not; not everyone will. I would point out, however, that there are plenty of ways to cause very obvious changes that don't require you to get spirits to make those changes for you. You have just as much power over your own life as spirits do, if you choose to use it. It fascinates me that so many people in the magical scene these days will not hear or process that.

Narcissism and Karma

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

1) Regarding narcissists, from what I understand, most narcissists are fully unaware of their own narcissistic behavior and especially its negative effects on other people, and this seems to be substantiated for me by the several narcissists I know, who regularly run roughshod over people without any awareness that they are doing so. Is there a karmic consequence for narcissists for their narcissistic behavior, even if it is unconscious to them?
2) Between lives, does a soul choose to be narcissistic in its next incarnation?
3) Perhaps I am cherry picking data, but it seems like the world is overrun by narcissists these days. Does this glut of narcissists serve a purpose from an occult perspective?

Re: Narcissism and Karma

[ecosophia]

1) Narcissism is a product of karma, but yes, it also creates more karma. If you deliberately ignore the needs of other people in one life, you're likely to end up being unable to notice those needs in another life, and heaping up karmic pain as a result.

2) You have to be very, very far along the path of inner growth to choose anything in your next life. No, as just noted, being a narcissist is a karmic penalty for bad behavior in a previous life.

3) I think a lot of it is the collective karma of our civilization, which did a lot of riding roughshod over everyone else. That's going to be reflected in the behavior, and thus in the karma, of people who can't or won't turn a reflective eye on their own society and refuse to participate in its follies.

Medical and psychiatric issues

[(Anonymous)]

A family member is suffering from very severe psychiatric symptoms that appear related to concurrent medical problems of a gynecological nature.

I have a history of invoking planets, Hellenic GD-style. Would it be a good idea to ask help from some of them? I am thinking Venus, Mercury and maybe the Sun. Is this a good idea, and if so have I got the right planets to address those kinds of afflictions?

What I have in mind is simple invocation, perhaps accompanied or followed by requests, with no fancy rituals but maybe an offering of appropriate incense or oils.

BTW, I am already doing everything possible to address these problems in more conventional medical ways. It is a huge responsibility and is exhausting.

Re: Medical and psychiatric issues

[ecosophia]

Venus rules gynecological issues, the Moon rules psychiatric issues, Mercury is the god of healing. Yes, you can certainly do that.

Inauguration date

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Reading your comments on the problems posed by the Jan. 20 date for presidential inauguration led me to wonder about the earlier dates. I found that Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789 and that subsequent presidents were inaugurated on March 4, except when that date fell on a Sunday, in which case the ceremony would take place on the following Monday. I also found that after the date was changed to Jan 20 that date fell on a Sunday in 1957, 1985 and 2013 and in those years the oath was administered privately on Sunday and then repeated in the public ceremony on Monday.

My question is, do you think that the selection of March 4 was influenced by astrology? Is it particularly propitious? How much difference would the one-day delay make in the years in which the 5th of March was used?

Rita

Re: Inauguration date

[ecosophia]

On March 4 of 5 the Sun would be in Pisces and therefore in neutral dignity -- better than having him in Aquarius, but not optimal. Other than that, the heavens change with every year's chart, so there probably isn't any aggregate difference.

Thoughtforms

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG
Have you used servitors or thought forms? They could be used for simple routine tasks or protection etc. What’s your take on them? Thanks!

Re: Thoughtforms

[ecosophia]

Nope. Here again, I do things myself, I don't rely on other entities -- even created ones -- to do things for me. Why use a crutch to walk with if you don't need one?

Invoking on the GD System

[(Anonymous)]

Hi there. Apologies if I for some reason am mistaken in this, but I vaguely remember reading somewhere that in the higher grades of the GD system when the adept summons an aspect of the godhead, like a higher angel, that they automatically summon/invoke the dark aspect of that entity’s which makes necessary the art of exorcism/banishing. Am I remembering that right? And if so, why is it that the demon equivalent comes along with the light aspect? Is there no escaping battling negative entities on the way up the tree of life? Are you comfortable speaking about whether you’ve had to banish an entity in your path working and what you gained from that experience?

Another question: I saw an aspect of pan around the tree of life in a vision once. His countenance seemed dark. What’s your take on him?

Thanks so much John. Appreciate your work.

Re: Invoking on the GD System

[ecosophia]

1) My experience, for whatever that's worth, is different. When you start working with any sphere on the Tree, you have to deal with its negative dimension in yourself -- what Dion Fortune calls the vice of the sphere. That comes up simply because when you awaken the sphere's energies in yourself, everything corresponding to that sphere becomes more active, including the vice -- and you need to master it or it'll master you. So, no, I haven't had to banish entities on the Tree of Life -- I've had to clean up my own act and do a lot of reflection, meditation, and journaling to bring this or that set of bad habits under control.

2) Well, of course! Pan is one of the great archetypes, and all those are on the Tree. He has a dark face because he represents unassimilated unconscious forces.