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.

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

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

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: More Study Recommendation Questions

[ecosophia]

1) That's a complex question which would require quite a bit of answer -- at least a blog post, and possibly an entire book. I'll consider the project.

2) I don't use it at all, but I know a lot of ceremonial mages who swear by it. You might ask them.

3) You might consider this for a starter, as it's based on traditional sources:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/tag/will