Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

Midnight is breathing down our necks 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 is my sixth-third published book, and you'll have a little trouble finding it right now, because its former publisher let it go out of print last year. The upsides are, first, that this gave me the chance to revise, expand, and improve it considerably; second, that I was able to give it the title I originally assigned it, Merlin's Wheel -- did you know that authors have no control over the titles and cover art of their books? -- and third, that I had it placed with a second publisher less than 24 hours after the old one let go of it.

The book -- well, it's a sequel of sorts to my earlier book The Celtic Golden Dawn, providing a set of eight seasonal ceremonies inspired by ancient mystery rites, celebrating the legendary life of Merlin around the cycle of the year as a system of spiritual self-initiation. The new version has been expanded so that it can also be practiced within the ritual system of the Golden Section Fellowship and its related traditions, including the Dolmen Arch system and the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose. It'll be out later this year, and I'll make an announcement here and on my blog once it's available for preorder.

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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: It just keeps coming

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks, I will try it. I may also ask a local diviner, as there are several in this town, unless you recommend against it.

Re: Golden Section Fellowship

[(Anonymous)]

Freaking fantastic...

"O! the one Life within us and abroad,
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,
A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,
Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere—
Methinks, it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a world so filled;
Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air
Is Music slumbering on her instrument." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Eolian Harp

JPM

[(Anonymous)]

Good afternoon and thanks for hosting!

I found a place near me that offers introductory blacksmithing classes in which you learn how to make a basic iron knife. I’m thinking that this would be ideal for use as a magical sword (GD style) since I’d have made it myself. Is there anything you would advise doing as part of the crafting process to get the best results? The consecration process would be entirely separate but I would guess there might be a magical aspect to the crafting as well.

Synchronicty

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG and all!

When reading your jung post on the other site, I thought to myself, "I really should read some Hesse, and lo there was a copy of his "Journey to the East" on the charity table in the local supermarket, which usually only holds trashy romances and similar. I also in another, 'think it and it happens' momemt, I got invited along to a meetup of likeminded women recently... do you believe in this kind of meant to be' 'on your right path' stuff or is it a bit too Paolo Coelho for you? (Btw in case you don't know PC wrote a new-agey novel called The Alchemist, which was v popular with young trendy alternative types in the uk in the early 2000s, and made 'symchronicity' a buzz word amongst them)

Re: Odd Goings On

[(Anonymous)]

Though leaving out a wee dish of milk is sometimes done I believe

Re: Egregores

[not_gandalf]

Super interesting topic. Egregores also come about often when a group does ritual work together, or even when a group does joint meditation work. Every member of the group contributes to the egregore, and the egregore can and does "donate" energies to the individual members. One upshot of this is that a group that really bores in to doing great ritual together can sustain some time where the leadership of the group is quite inept at ritual, or unconcerned with it. Everything will continue to "just work out" for awhile. But it's like drawing money out of a savings account without putting any in; sooner or later it runs out. A major drawback to egregores is that they can cause behavior patterns to "mysteriously" reappear that can be quite destructive. JMG has frequently cited the reoccurring problem of grandiose egotism that always seems to resurface in GD groups that causes them to implode, although, to be fair, a certain amount of that also comes from the type of occult work they are doing.

Jean Dubuis was always dubious about egregores,feeling that the liabilities usually outweighed the benefits, and feeling that a better approach was for students to become strong on their own two feet (or whatever) without the extra energy coming from the group mind which always comes with a consequence, good or bad. That said, lots of people climb up the ladder with the help of the egregores of the groups that instruct them. They then have to be able to graduate, which means ending the dependence on the egregore. Also, being able to do this with minimal incident requires a clear idea of whom you really are and good discernment. But those are alwys requirements on the esoteric path no matter how you approach it.

Hope this was useful and not just a tiresome ramble...

Re: Odd Goings On

[ecosophia]

Yes, or some other offering. Find out what people used to do in your area, and do that; the local spirits have very long memories.

Re: Lesser Polarity Magic

[ecosophia]

Yes. It's actually quite common.

Re: It just keeps coming

[ecosophia]

That would also be a good idea.

[threerays]

Here I was, impulse buying copies of “Merlin” out of fear. Glad to hear you’re adding the other systems in the new release too. Though I’m partial to the DOGD, Merlin’s Wheel is just too good not to share !

The cover art for Merlin, CGD & Litany are all very beautiful. The subtle designs, color schemes & fonts have a powerful effect, too. I’ll be excited to see the art for Merlin’s Wheel. Do you have one artist you use ? Or is it different for every book or publisher?

Happy Calan Myri !
Jon

Re: Golden Section Fellowship

[ecosophia]

I got the original four volumes published by Wooden Books when they originally came out, and still have them. That said, thanks for this -- others may find these as valuable as I have!

Re: Golden Section Fellowship

[ecosophia]

Nice. I've just been reading S.K. Heninger's Touches of Sweet Harmony, the classic study of Pythagorean symbolism in Renaissance poetry, which you should read if you haven't yet; Coleridge is in the same tradition, of course.

Re: An interesting effect of an amulet

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's one of the lovely things about the red bag. It clears away any stagnant etheric forms, no matter where they come from.

Re: MOE Healing

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kylec,

Since you are offering, I'd be grateful to receive some healing hands. I impinged my right shoulder about two weeks ago lifting some dumbbells and the like at the gym in a session I should have eased back on a bit. I'm giving it some of my own healing hands as well as treating it with tiger balm, and some exercises /stretching to strengthen it, which has been helping. It's not the worst shoulder pain I've had, severe or constant... but it is effecting me.

Thanks for your attention to my right shoulder and arm.

Justin Patrick Moore

saturn returns

[(Anonymous)]

They've been on my mind, for obvious reasons - number 2 happening... And I've noticed a few questions the last weeks but not quite answering what I'm interested in.

My question is about what are good things to do(in a general sense) during this time? For myself, Neptune has trundled over my Saturn and now Saturn will trundle over then back then over again over the coming year. And how many degrees does it need to be past to consider it over once it does that last pass? Would it be a good time to do the OSA work during this time?

Bonus question - when the 0 degree conjunction takes place early next year - what is the orb for that? and does it have just a general effect or does it get up close and personal if it's hitting a sensitive spot in a personal chart? Fun fun fun >;)

parion in the uk

[vitranc]

I would chime in if I may. I was raised Roman Catholic. And in my school days we used to visit museum houses of famous people, poets, writers and so on. Those houses turned museums used to feel fake in an interesting way. Obviously someone used to live there, 100 years ago, but they are gone now and no one lives there anymore.
I started to notice this feeling I get when I wisst a church. Like being in the house of my father; turned into a museum. Like there used to be something living there, something great, but now it is a museum.


And some modern ones feel wrong.

[ecosophia]

1) No, I haven't, and you've inspired me to go looking.

2) He did indeed! Au Pied des Menhirs is a very good summary of Druid Revival teaching.

3) The Cabala didn't find its way into the Druid scene until it was brought there by refugees from the breakup of the Golden Dawn in the 1920s. The older Revival tradition was a wild mix of Celtic traditions, ancient Greek Neoplatonism and Pythagoreanism, and various oddments of mystical Christianity. As for resources, the anthology I edited, The Druid Revival Reader, is a good intro to the older strata of the tradition.

Re: Donald Michael Kraig

[ecosophia]

Yes, it's a tolerably good place to start.

Amber, stones

[rhydlyd]

Does amber have any particular significance to druids? I found a handful of unpolished amber chunks in my ancestral manse. It is a relative’s unfinished craft project that sat for years until I looked in an old paper bag sitting on a shelf along with the sandpaper to shine it up. I think my staves said relax and enjoy shining them up, but I’d like to know a little more about the stone.

Re: MARS vs VENUS as goals for space travel

[ecosophia]

If we made a connection to Mars via space travel, I'd expect many more wars, but also a forceful revival of classic masculine ideals of strength, self-mastery, and hard work in society, since Mars rules all those. Venus? In that case you could expect a lot more art and a further increase in the feminine aspects of society.

Re: MOE Healing

[vitranc]

Hi Kylec,
If I may, I would like to request some positive energy this week.
Best regards,
V

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this as always.

It all depends on your contract. If you're a writer and have the brains the gods gave goldfish, you insist on a reversion clause in the contract -- i.e., a clause that requires the publisher to revert all rights to you once the book has been out of print for some fixed period of time. I've always insisted on those, which is why I can get the rights back and place them with someone else. If you don't get a reversion clause, a publisher can take your book out of print and then just sit on the rights, and you're screwed. One of the things that makes the big corporate publishers so toxic these days is that they offer "reversion clauses" with various loopholes -- a lot of authors have tried to use the reversion clause and found that the publisher won't return the rights to their books no matter what. My guess is that they're using the notional value of the book rights to play games with the paper value of the company.

Re: Golden Section Fellowship

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks John, as ever. I'm not familiar with the author or this book. Coleridge's poem came up in a series of lectures I'm listening to from the "Great Courses" company called Emerson, Thoreau and the Transcendental Movement by Prof. Ashton Nichols (Two good names combined there -perhaps that's also why I was reading about Zothique earlier and had a dream about Druidry.) What I am finding interesting so far is how the Romantics inspired the Transcendentalists (among other threads of thought)... but I hadn't know that Coleridge had been a translator of Kant. This interest in German Idealist philosophy on part of the Transcendentalists also had me thinking of the Levi book club and the influence of Schopenhauer. And the influence of the newly available eastern wisdom scriptures on both Schopenhauer and Emerson.

Also of note from the lectures is how Transcendentalism was "a cluster of ideas that spread out like ripples on Walden pond" according to the prof. I'm thinking here of the idea from you, of how intellectuals are better suited to getting ideas into circulation, rather than the fantasies of managerial rulership and top down planning so many have entertained.

The aeolian harp itself is something I have written about in what will hopefully be my second book. Fascinating instrument in itself... and I love this image of the One Life playing its strings...

The library doesn't have this book, but a few others of his. I will see if I can get a copy though.

JPM

[ecosophia]

I've heard the same thing from a lot of current and former Roman Catholics.

Re: Golden Section Fellowship

[ecosophia]

Heninger's book is available in a trade paper reprint for a reasonable price, and it's worth its weight in thrice-refinéd gold.