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

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.

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[(Anonymous)]

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

Re: The Stranger Side of Ketamine

[(Anonymous)]

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