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.  Given the events scheduled tomorrow, I've pulled this one forward out of order; it's my 65th published book, the one that got me banned from science fiction conventions (despite 18 SF and fantasy novels currently in print) and dropped like a hot rock by most of the Neopagans I know. No, it's not a work of science fiction, nor does it have much to say about Neopaganism. It's a discussion of why the policies embraced by a bipartisan consensus of the elite classes in the US made the rise of Donald Trump or somebody like him inevitable. Yes, it also talks about magic -- the magical manipulations that were used for fifty years to silence any attempt to talk publicly about what the policies just mentioned did to the working classes in the United States, the magic wielded by a motley band of (mostly) young men living in their mothers' basements who marched off to the Meme Wars beneath the banner of a cartoon frog, and the magic attempted by the so-called Magic Resistance, whose attempts to cast death curses and other equally pleasant spells at the people they hate did a lot to bring about the events of last November and the days immediately before us.

That is to say, it's just a little controversial. ;-)  On the off chance you're interested anyway, you can order a copy here if you live in the US and at your favorite online shop or full service bookstore if you live 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 further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

Dog souls

[baconrolypoly]

Hi JMG, recently you replied to a question about the souls of dogs and the dog afterlife/reincarnation. You mentioned the dog over soul and said, I think, that unless the dog had a notable personality the over soul would take care of things.

There is an Irish guy in Thailand, Niall Harbison, who looks after ill and injured street dogs and during last couple of weeks, the focus has been on one of these dogs, who was named Alba. She had been treated wickedly and Niall and his team were trying to save her life. Thousands of people around the world got wind of Alba and started praying for her and when, after two weeks, she died, they prayed even more. Alba was a very ill and frail dog so she didn't do a lot or show much outstanding personality, but her tail never stopped wagging and she was clearly happy to have been rescued.

Given that she had so many ardent prayers, what might the effect be on her soul?

Other commenters may know the story already so any thoughts are welcome.

astral dream vs enter reality

[earthworm_uk]

Dear JMG,

Trying to consider afterlife metaphors and came across this from Paul Brunton:

"Concealed behind the passing dream of life there is a world of lasting reality. All men awaken at the moment of death but only a few men are able to resist falling at once into the astral dream. These are the few who sought to die to their lower selves whilst they were still alive. These are the mystics who enter reality."

Contemplating it in relation to your and Dion Fortune's metaphors, my first thought was, in relation to the Occult Philosophy Workbook that getting further than the astral would depend on development of the mental sheath.

Any thoughts on what he means by 'fall into astral dream' vs 'enter reality'?
Do you think he was referring to the mental body level as opposed to the astral level, or something more like Inayat Khan's metaphor of heading back to the source via the Jinn and Angelic worlds, or alluding to some other idea?

Thanks.

On edit:
Just found this-
"There are two kinds of immortality (so long as the lower self dominates consciousness): first, the "endless" evolution of the ego, gradually developing through all its many manifestations; and, secondly, the true immortality of the everlasting, unchanging Real Self--or Overself--which forever underlies and sustains the former."

Which may be a hint... or not!

Re: Zen

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but the teachings you've inherited from John Gilbert, for example, although their primary focus is on occultism, include bits magic and mysticism as well. I guess the non-religious side of the New Thought would be an example of the pure "self-power" approach?

Re: The Goat Foot God

[scottyc]

Let's see how the book plays out. Trying not to spoil the plot but I took it to mean that the sacrifice would have to come from someone else but the protagonist would make the decision, even if unsure of the nature of the sacrifice.

Point noted about material offerings for the nature gods. The kami in Japan sure like their sake!!

More Study Recommendation Questions

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Greer,

First, thank you for allowing me into your home-away-from-home again, and thank you for taking the time to answer me last week. Thanks also to those who answered my questions and offered their "unsolicited" advice: randomactsofkarmasc, not_gandalf, jprussel, and robertmathiesen. It was helpful, I assure you all.

My questions:

1) You remarked last week (to another commenter) that you had come to be somewhat embarrassed by your Golden Dawn path of books; could you recommend some remedial study for us newbies following that path, to help shore up what you have come to perceive as the weaknesses of that curriculum?

2) You gave two examples in last week's discussion of the canon(s) of books; I feel like the potential value of Hall's Self-Unfoldment Through Disciplines of Realization is self-evident. Do you care to offer a few words as to why The Key of Solomon is "essential" to the mage? Do you have a particular translation you prefer?

3) In Learning Ritual Magic, you comment repeatedly on the wealth of Will and Memory training exercises in the traditional magical literature. I assume that the cited Art of Memory by Francis Yates is an essential compilation of examples for the latter; assuming question 2 doesn't already answer this, can you recommend a good resource for the former? Not that it's hard to come up with Will Training exercises, but it'd be interesting to see what the professionals expected from their students, back in the day.

Thank you much!

-TMS

Re: Psychedelic Entities

[homeopathic_meditations]

It really is very sad. Lynch's a bright kid, not much older than my eldest, who has worked out of basic principles the same themes developed by JMG in his Archdruid Report days. As a result, his conclusions are often weird, but never far from the mark IMHO.
What upsets me the most is how people go on and assume his experiences while in use are invalid/fake. His recollections make sense absolutely to me, if you consider the caveat that this is a person who is seeking spiritual encounters while intoxicated... and probably has either dismissed or never heard about protection rituals. Even if higher powers are communicating with him, we will only be able to "tune in" to their channels at the "frequency" he's vibrating at the time... and of course, it is more likely that whatever is responding from the other side of the line is an inhabitant of the regions in the astral plane that this guy spends the most of his time at: no demons, probably, but neither a divine being is likely.

Huxley?

[saturns_pet]

Anonymous and JMG:

Re: Q2

Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy?

Although I won't identify it as experimental or optimistic, I'll call the above fair and comprehensive.

I also cautiously suggest Crowley's 777. (Very cautiously... lol.)

I've found both valuable in my effort to see the axle turning the wheel of diverse traditions.

Good luck, Anon.

Saturns_Pet

Re: Afterlife

[(Anonymous)]

I read Dion Fortune's Through the Gates of Death and it said there are purgatories where we burn with negative desires like hate, and a heaven where we achieve our dreams. Do those happen during i the memory-processing or afterwards (or is time not linear there)?

Re: Psychedelic Entities

[homeopathic_meditations]

Yeap, completely agree. Even if you do not get lost in the wilderness (the somewhat reputable places have people not commuting in the ritual to make sure someone can deal with those cases, at least in the material plane), you never know what kind of parasite will make the return trip with you. Once comfy in the office zoo, there's no way to tell what other shenanigans this thing could amuse itself with.

By the way, your "facilitator" comment made me think of a certain Disney character: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Dr._Facilier

[(Anonymous)]

Question one:
Are you familiar with what psychologists currently refer to "executive function"? Seems to me it has a lot in common with what you've discussed as "the Will". I'm curious if there's nuance and difference there that I'm missing, if you are familiar with the terminology.

Related observation:
Interesting to me is that the therapists want to teach one how to live with executive dysfunction, but I see you offered a series of posts on training the will. Since I suffer from an incredibly disordered will, and/or executive function, I suppose I will try and combine the effects and report back.

Question two:
Any natural magic you can suggest for chronic insomnia? My will is much stronger when I can sleep. (Everything is better when I can sleep.) I know the standard tricks for avoiding blue light and cooling the room at night, but that is not cutting it. I specify natural magic, since as you might guess since my last question mentioned a disordered will, I've never gotten anywhere with ceremonial magic.

Thank you for this as always.

Re: Akupressure / -puncture and Christians / source

[emily07]

Thank you very much!

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[diletpoly]

I was under the impression that ketamine was kind of lumped into the psychedelics as a theraputic, as a way to get beyond the defenses to address underlying problems like PTSD in a more analytical way, in combination with other therapies. Similar to the frankly miraculous seeming effects that MDMA (ecstasy) and talk therapy seem to have with PTSD in rape victims. But I don't follow that very closely.

[booklover1973]

Maybe the book "Yearning for the Wind" by Tom Cowan, ISBN 9781577314110, is helpful. It contains essays about nature and soul from an Irish-Celtic spiritual perspective, with some spiritual practices.

[diletpoly]

Nothing much to say today. As always, thanks for hosting.

I did happen to stumble upon https://theugc.org/ while looking around on the web. Is this in any way related to the UGC in the complex of traditions you work with, or something completely different that shares a name?

Thanks,

The Dilettante Polymath

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning and thank you as always for hosting.

Are any particular rituals in the GD tradition good for two people of relatively similar grade/level of practice to do together? Obviously the solo work wouldn’t be replaced or disposed of, but I’d love to know if there are good ways for a pair of practitioners to work together and share the tradition.

Re: Handling investments

[(Anonymous)]

"...I don’t have much time for working out or meditation lately..." Since you've inherited a bit of money, perhaps use some of it to have someone watch your toddler for an hour or two a day while you exercise or take a nap?

Re: Time Travel Magic?

[(Anonymous)]

I had a truly unpleasant childhood, and am hoping to address some of these issues. Do you have any suggestions on what would be a good place to start with this?

(I use Hermetic Golden Dawn magic; I can open and close a temple as described in CoP, and have modest experience with scrying as described in PoW.)

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[(Anonymous)]

I can totally understand that. My experience after consulting the naturopath has reduced my trust in mainstream medical doctors as well.

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[anonymoose_canadian]

I also had asthma, probably food allergy induced, but I could not figure out what I was alergic to. A friend of mine suggested I try something strange that cured her peanut allergy: avoid anything aside from water within 5 hours of when I went to bed. This required some fairly dramatic rejiggering of my schedule; but it worked wonders.

I'm not 100% sure of the biological foundation here, but food in the stomach when sleeping is known to wreak havoc on a host of biological systems. My mystery allergy vanished, my lactose intolerance cleared up, brain fog vanished, etc. It was incredible, and when my doctor said he knew this but prefered not to suggest lifestyle changes, I stopped seeing doctors and have never looked back.

Re: Akupressure / -puncture and Christians / source of Ch‘i

[homeopathic_meditations]

What open_space and jmg said. We are more than meat puppets because God willed to insufflate us with his Divine Energy; Ch'i is merely the word the Chinese use for that energy because, unlike the Modern Western Culture, they are not 100% blind to that aspect of Nature. As JMG mention, not being blind is the norm and almost every culture has a word for it. Hell, we do have a word for it! It is called The Force, and it is a modern taboo to speak about it outside of certain Sci-Fi franchise by George Lucas.

Now, there are good reasons why a devout Christian should be cautious about that sort of thing. As mentioned in the thread about WhatIfAltHistory and the Ayahuasca trip, many people pushing those things in our World are impudent profiteers and clueless unbelievers (in Christ or in any religion proper) that do not truly grasp powers they are toying with. That does not make energy healing any more evil that firearms: yes, leaving unattended, loaded pistols within the reach of children is a bad idea; no, banning guns will not make the common people safe, just give more power to those who find a workaround for the ban.

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[open_space]

Good gods that is horrible!

Re: Zen

[ecosophia]

Of course. Most Western esoteric traditions are eclectic in nature, and borrow elements from both the jiriki and tariki side of things -- that's quite common in Buddhism as well, with Zen's pure self-power and Pure Land Buddhism's strict other-power approach being outliers. It's simply a matter of where the primary focus is.

Re: The Orange Monk

[ecosophia]

Nope. He began taking the oath at 12:02 pm, so not even enough to change by a degree.

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[(Anonymous)]

Nachtgurke,
I really appreciate your position that something has to come from inside. One of my mentors frequently says that the energy for the work (in this case unraveling depression) has to come from the client. It's such a bind because the person has to mobilize enough energy to want to change and then ideally it's a collaboration between the healer and the client. While meds can get people over a tough patch, I have certainly seen people use them as a way to avoid taking responsibility for their own healing process. In this space I observe JMG helpfully walking that line of offering guidance while refusing to cross that line.

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's correct.