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John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2025-02-02 09:42 pm

Magic Monday

Merlin's WheelMidnight 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. 
 
Bookshop logoI'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!***

Mental Plane

(Anonymous) 2025-02-03 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello JMG,

Thanks for your clarification last week that thoughts are of the astral plane. That unlocked a lot. In my meditations this last week on the Cosmic Doctrine and your own writings, I have developed this rough understanding of how the planes relate. I'm going to relate it to a personal goal of mine, which is developing greater clarity in my writing. My question: is this close enough to be reasonably functional, or is there anything you’d say is worth adjusting? - Tony C.

- Abstract mental (above the veil) - the Platonic Idea (so to speak) of clarity in writing.

- Concrete mental (above the veil) - the Platonic Idea of a clearly written short essay.

- Astral - Hod - My particular thoughts about what form clear writing should take including specific instances that spring to mind. These thoughts, if meditated on, can give intuitions of the form, structure and limitations of clear writing - a reflection of its Geburah aspect.

- Astral - Netzach - My particular identification of how clear writing should feel to the writer and reader. Through this, I can get intuitions of the power of clear writing, its reason for being, and the ways in which it drives to manifest - a reflection of its Chesed aspect.

- By synthesizing these in meditation, including studying the etheric sense that clear writing creates and physical manifestations of it (Yesod and Malkuth) and then attempting to recreate these, I should be able to cause “impactation” (in Dion Fortune’s sense) of the idea, and then if successful, allow its physical manifestation to sublimate into a deepened understanding of it.