ecosophia | Magic Monday

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Magic Monday

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 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!***

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That makes a great deal of sense to me. One of the problems I see in current treatments for depression is that depression isn't a single condition but a whole galaxy of different mental, emotional, and physical conditions with a broadly similar clinical presentation. When it's emotionally rooted, the depressed state (as John Gilbert liked to point out) is a layer of camouflage over anger, which is itself a protective shell over fear, shame, grief, or some combination of these. But there are also "depressed" people who suffer from food allergies and can transform their emotional state dramatically by using an elimination diet to figure out what's triggering them, and "depressed" people who have simply absorbed self-defeating beliefs and can be promptly and permanently cured by helping them change their belief system.

Putting them all on antidepressants, irrespective of the details, is bad medicine -- but there's no shortage of that nowadays, of course.

I appreciate this conversation about depression since it has a devastating impact on so many people. I was taught to think about depression that is emotionally root in a way similar to what JMG shared above, a depression of the life force, so in a twisted way when at the time the strategy of depressing oneself develops, it's meant to be self-protective. As someone who struggled with low level emotionally rooted depression for decades, I can say that for me it helped tremendously to develop a healthy capacity to feel anger and healthy protest.

From an esoteric perspective can we think about it as contracting our etheric field? I ask because regular practice of the SOP has also helped me a lot, a practice I find gently expansive.

A Midwestern Doctor wrote an informative piece on depression - https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/how-big-pharma-sold-depression-and-1c0

That's an interesting idea -- depression as a contracted aura. You'd need to check with a good clairvoyant or two, but it certainly makes intuitive sense.

Following up on the idea that certain kinds of depression may be a contracted aura, would that make such a person more vulnerable to energetic/magical attack?

Hard to say. You'd need to do some research using a good clairvoyant.

That whole topic makes me just so angry and yes, that is a layer around the misery that can be both experienced and caused by a "depressive" person which is put on this medication and that medication over decades to NO effect whatsoever, well maybe except for the person to become obese and develop various other health problems that make life even more miserable. I know a few depressive persons very closely and have observed and partly shared their fate over the years. I've suffered some truly horrible episodes myself, for which I would have gotten the stamp "depressive" if I had cared to go to a doctor. How anybody can maintain the belief that antidepressants work as a treatment of the - as you have rightly pointed out - galaxy of wildly different conditions that all get labeled "depression" is unfathomable to me.

There are healers out there who are capable to help a depressive person and I'm sure that some of them are MDs. But the other rather sad part of the story is - at least that's my experience - that in many cases it might not be possibly to really help a depressive person at all - something has to come from inside and some are maybe not ready or capable or strong enough to make the leap at that moment. It's so very weird - one thought that can be said in one sentence can make all the difference - but for how long do many have to wander to find it?

Greetings,
Nachtgurke

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.

Having a close relationship to a severely and chronically depressive person can be a traumatic and depression causing experience all by itself. The hard conclusion of saying "something has to come from inside" for the relative of a depressive person, for example, is that it eventually may become necessary to say "I can't save you - and I won't try anymore." I guess the reasons for this and the possible consequences deserve careful meditation. And I'm not at all sure if most people would be able to go that way without assistance. It's a very complicated topic with a lot of subtle but critical nuances.

The helpless and often heartless and harmful way "society", i.e. the mainstream, the majority, whatever you want to call it, deals with this issue throws a bleak light on our still ruling materialistic paradigm. So it's not really miraculous that you can find some guidance in JMGs writings and I, too, find that he "walks the line" very carefully and effectively. Was it Fortune who said something like "occultism is (the) true psychology"?

Greetings, and thank you for your reply!
Nachtgurke

Yes, the reasons and consequences do deserve a great deal of meditation. One of the most traumatic and depressing causes of severe, chronic depression is when the afflicted invited inside himself a demon, whispering sweet nothings into his ear. Demonic promises are always empty, and the costs are always overwhelmingly staggering.

I have a depressed, demon-possessed member in my family that it was so incredibly healing to finally just walk away from. My partner has one in his family as well, but she still knows how to tug on his heart strings. The last time (Yes, I am praying that was absolutely the last time ever!) she came to visit for a week, his life began shattering apart all around us. It was astonishing how she distorted everything and caused continuous disasters.

The demon-depressed are nothing to mess with — they have super-human powers. Well, technically sub-human, but they can still draw together energies that humans can't, and certainly wouldn't want to. Do try to heal and care for your depressed loved ones, but do not tolerate demonic behavior in anyone. Regular bad behavior is to be expected in the depressed, since we all do that from time to time. But sick, twisted, cruel demonic behavior is a whole other kettle of fish. Unless you're an exorcist, you're unlikely to ever be able to heal the demon-depressed. Sometimes, you're lucky to even be able to escape from them at all.

— Christophe

But there are also "depressed" people who suffer from food allergies and can transform their emotional state dramatically by using an elimination diet to figure out what's triggering them
A little off topic, but food allergies seem to be behind the causes of a diverse number of problems. My partner suffered from depression years ago and a change in diet was one of the things that helped. Recently, I discovered that minor food allergies were behind the problems I was having with high blood pressure. The doctor who put me on a pharmaceutical never even bothered to investigate this possibility. A naturopath pointed it out about 15 years later.

Caldathras

A friend of mine suffered from severe asthma for years -- the kind of thing where she got rushed to the hospital once or twice every year so that she didn't stop breathing. Her doctor had her on the usual drugs, which didn't help much. Then she read about wheat sensitivities as an asthma trigger and dropped wheat from her diet...and her asthma went away. She went to the doctor, all excited about this, and the doctor said, "Yes, I know. We prefer to medicate for that condition."

That is to say, the doctor kept my friend sick and at risk of sudden death for years, when a single piece of advice could have cured her. If you wonder why I generally think so little of the medical profession, that's one of many reasons why.

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

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.

I have found that eating at 5pm, even though it is so very early, helps my stomach clear by bedtime. I no longer have problems with acid reflux. I have food allergies, but as long as I stay away from them, I am pretty darned good.

Good gods that is horrible!

On the other hand, I have known physicians and surgeons who were quite flummoxed by the fact that patients refused to make straightforward lifestyle adjustments, changes to diet, therapeutic exercise, and so on, and much preferred drugs or surgery.

I suppose it's jiroiki and tariki in medicine.

LeGrand

This must be said. I had depression. And I am still liable.
A wretched experience, where I decided, that I was worthless. Our society has no scruples in grinding you down and kicking when you are down. Then, if you are as lucky as me, you get to see your friends and family either ignore you, or even kick you further. You cannot be healthy, if your environment is toxic. I have seen people burnt down and there was no way they could get up, because the moment they were ready to go home, they were given over to toxic family members.
So there I am, sitting in a doctors office and getting a prescription for an antidepressant.
For how long? For six months as a start. Are they addictive? We are not going to worry about that now.
Most people, that I saw, that took the meds were permanently on the meds and not better, but reduced in ability.
But I got an ace up my sleeve. There was this Archdruid dude from whom I somehow, at that time got the notion, that „good magic is what makes you stronger, more capable“ and „black magic is what weakens and depraves you“, so I down right decided, that the whole institution was a garbage pit for humans run by black sorcerers.
But I could not function.
I used the meds, for 6 months. They really do numb the mind, and get you set at a neutral mood. But I also gained 10 kg and had some other side effects. I went trough the therapy that was provided. Then straight out, and used the period of clarity to apply myself at school and job. I went and joined a martial art club, and stuck to it. And 3 months later I showed my doctor a diary, that protokoled my experience over the last 4 weeks of getting of the meds. „I‘m out of the hole. Thank you, but I do not need them anymore.“
I went and finished my degree.

That is to say; thank you JMG.
My life would not be the same without you.

Thank you for this -- I'm delighted and grateful to have been of service.

As someone for whom depression has been routine part of my life for decades now, I have an observation and then a half-baked theory of my own.

Observation: there does seem to be some "natural" component to depression - whether it's attributed to planetary influences, karma, genetics, or something else, "some people are much more gloomy and easily worried than others" seems to be observed across cultures and times.

Theory: depression seems to be characterized by broken feedback loops in the brain and mood. Just like a diabetic can feel hungry, but eating doesn't help much, someone who is depressed can have good things happen, but it doesn't help much. This makes me wonder if some forms of occultism might help, by balancing/strengthening/rebuilding more beneficial patterns of feedback between actions, results, and moods. This theory also points toward something that is very much my experience: depression is fairly protective when you are in a situation with a lot of pain and no obvious way out. But it isn't helpful at getting out of the situation.

SamChevre
Lilac Vexatious Llama

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