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

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.

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[(Anonymous)]

My thoughts feel faint and fragile if I'm trying to focus on a theme without letting my mind wander or doing something like driving or showering between thought-bursts (including thinking the same thoughts again). I probably would have made more progress if I was more diligent about practicing meditation.

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[ecosophia]

That's normal. It takes time and practice to turn thinking into a powerful tool -- but daily discursive meditation will do it.

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, that's very helpful. I have a couple of follow-up questions, if you don't mind:

1. In Experience of the Inner Worlds, Knight seems to suggest that his Serpent Flame visualization, practiced regularly without the specialized breaths and postures of kundalini yoga, will awaken the same capacities in a slower, safer way. Do you think he's correct?

2. As far as I can tell, the EOIW exercises include a solar current component (the Flaming Spear) without a corresponding engagement with the telluric current. Could this create a risk of imbalance? If so, how might one correct for it? I was previously performing a daily SOP but have paused it while my wife is pregnant. Currently, the EOIW work and my daily meditation are my only occult practices.


3. Until I resume the SOP, would you recommend taking any additional protective measures besides the EOIW work (and regular prayer and church attendance)?

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[ecosophia]

1) Yes. There are quite a few exercises in the Western tradition meant to do a gentler and safer version of the kundalini experience, and Knight's is one of them.

2) It's not an imbalance so much as a choice of methods. Christianity tends to be solar in its focus, though there have been exceptions historically, and Knight is in tune with his tradition.

3) No, the exercises in Knight's book should be quite adequate, especially when combined with prayer. If you feel you need it, a prayer to the archangel Michael might be worth adding to your daily schedule.

Re: Meditation, gods, and kundalini

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks once more for your help!

- Fred