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

[jprussell]

Somewhat at the borderline of esoteric and physiological, but you might find Wim Hof's material interesting. He helped one of his students write a book called Becoming the Iceman that talks a bit about some of the Tibetan breathing practices that (I can't recall) either influenced Wim Hof or he found to be remarkably similar after basically inventing the same thing on his own.

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