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 1.3 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-sixth published book -- I've passed over The King in Orange, which was pulled out of order by the eldritch attraction of Inauguration Day and appeared in January -- and the beginning of my most ambitious publishing project to date: a complete system of occult training, original although based on the material I studied with John Gilbert, which fills roughly the same role as the correspondence courses offered by old-fashioned occult schools but is published for everyone to read.

I stress the word "occult" here. Occultism and magic are not the same thing, though they're related to each other and can be compatible. Magic uses ritual as its primary tool, and has power as its theme and goal; occultism uses meditation as its primary tool, and has wisdom as its theme and goal. (Both contrast with mysticism, which -- in its western forms, at least -- uses prayer as its primary tool, and has love as its theme and goal.) The Way of the Golden Section and its sequels teach very little in the way of ritual and even less in the way of magic. They focus on meditation, divination, sacred geometry, and certain other standard occult practices, and their goal is to achieve wisdom, revelation, and enlightenment. This book -- which requires The Sacred Geometry Oracle for some of its work -- is the first step on that path. Interested? You can get copies here if you're in the United States and here elsewhere. (I recommend the hardback edition, btw:  it's sturdy, and will stand up to the hard use you'll give it.)

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 more comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[kylec]

Hi, I'm once again offering free healing hands work to anyone in need of a little help. Nothing is required of you other than replying here or via PM with your name and request. You can always sign up as many times as you like, I just ask that you renew the request each week. I don't do standing requests because I like the recipient to exercise their willingness to heal by making a quick reply each time. Thank yall for the practice.

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for your work the past two weeks Kyle. I am feeling a lot better.

Justin Patrick Moore

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[oakus]

Hi Kyle,

I would like your healing hands work. Thank you for all that you do here.
Peter

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[vitranc]

Thank you for your continuing efforts. May I request another round of healing energy,
Best regards,
V

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kyle,

I would like your healing hands work for physical and spiritual vitality.

Thank you!

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[(Anonymous)]

I could use healing hands, thajk yo
—Princess Cutekitten

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[jenniferkobernik]

I would like healing hands this week, please.

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kylec -

I would like to request a healing hands treatment.

Thank you,
Dave

Re: Modern Order of Essenes Healing Hands

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, Kyle. The healing you did for me a couple weeks ago really did the trick. Thanks!

Ron M

[(Anonymous)]

What are some good methods one can use to train their imagination?

[ecosophia]

1) Use it! Spend five or ten minutes a day imagining something. Start with simple things -- say, a bright blue balloon bouncing leisurely off the ceiling, letting out an audible squawk whenever it hits -- and then work up to more complex ones -- say, three drunken capybaras in full medieval armor dancing the can-can to music played by a string quartet of weasels. Come up with something equally preposterous each time, and work at it until you can imagine it clearly. (You don't have to see it clearly, but you do have to imagine it clearly.)

2) Use it some more! Imagine yourself taking a short walk along a route you know well -- say, from the room where you're sitting out to the mailbox to check the mail, and back again. Imagine everything you would see, hear, smell, feel, etc. en route. You'll discover that you haven't been paying attention to such things, of course; the next time you go to check the mail, pay attention and notice as much as you can. Rinse and repeat. When that's easy, try a longer walk.

3) Use it even more! Take a picture that you like -- a painting, a photo, it doesn't matter -- and imagine the picture turning into a doorway. Imagine yourself walking through the doorway. Observe what you see, hear, feel, smell, etc. on the other side. Talk to anybody you encounter there. Then say your farewells, go back through the doorway, and imagine it turning back into a picture.

4) Practice some kind of magic. The visualization exercises will give you even more practice with your imagination.

[(Anonymous)]

I have recently added prayers to the planets to my daily routine, and have noticed that I "feel" an odd sense of "heat" and "pressure" just above my nose. This seems like it might be related to thew third eye centre. Is it normal for prayers to cause something like this?

[ecosophia]

It's not common but it does happen. Yes, it's your third eye center; you most likely did exercises to awaken that in a previous life, and so it's easily stimulated.

[(Anonymous)]

I have one of your books on geomancy but I wanted to doublecheck an interpretation, if you don’t mind.

I asked, “Can I trust this person?” and the resulting shield chart was Via as both witnesses with Populus as the judge.

My interpretation was “yes” but “the outcome doesn’t matter because things are changing.” The context of this person is that they have a role in a religious rite I’m partaking in. My immediate intuition is that they are trustworthy within this role but planning to leave the area/this group shortly.

Or maybe it’s “no” because Via is unfavorable for anything but journeys?

Thanks!

[ecosophia]

The answer is "no." In the simplest kind of reading, with a yes/no question, you pay attention to whether there's a majority of positive or negative figures among the judge and witnesses. Via is negative in most contexts and Populus is neutral. In a question about honesty, Via is especially negative, because it tells you that the person is fickle and can't be relied on.

Ways to Think About Evil

[(Anonymous)]

After listening to Joe Rogan's recent conversation with Mike Benz in which they discuss at length the USAID stuff that's being exposed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPc8OVNngg ), I was grappling with how to think about evil. So I went diving into the Magic Monday archives and found a very helpful thread that Jeff initiated last year (thank you, Jeff): https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/269432.html?thread=46878840#cmt46878840

In particular it reminded me of the difference between Luciferic evil (defined by JMG as raw spiritual arrogance) and Ahrimanic evil (defined by JMG as sheer blind craving for sensory experience and material goodies). It seems to me that both forms of evil are being broadly exposed right now and having a spiritual frame for it helps me maintain agency rather than hopelessness when I recognize the sheer magnitude of the evil.

Additionally, in the thread I referenced above Jeff shared a link to an article by Brandon Smith entitled "To Understand The Globalists We Must Understand Their Psychopathic Religion." https://alt-market.us/to-understand-the-globalists-we-must-understand-their-psychopathic-religion/ The last paragraph:

"If you want to see something truly demonic, imagine a world in which all inherent truth is abandoned for the sake of subjective perception. A world that caters to the preferences of psychopaths with no ethical imperative. A world where the ends always justify the means. This is the luciferian way, and the globalist way. And no matter how much they deny it, the reality of their beliefs is visible in the fruits of their labors. Wherever they go, destruction, chaos and death follow.

This is a remarkable time for me to really put into practice JMG's instruction "pay no attention to what you don't want." I am doing my best to keep an eye out without letting what's going distract me from my own spiritual path.

I am curious if anyone else has been grappling with the concept of evil amidst this titanic shift we are in.

Re: Ways to Think About Evil

[ecosophia]

The globalist ideology is in fact a classic Luciferian belief system: "nothing is true unless I want it to be true." Of course a lot of them also wallow in Ahrimanic evil. Yes, I also find Steiner's distinction extremely useful.

[(Anonymous)]

Can we do the Sphere of Protection two times or more per day?

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend it. Put the time and energy into doing something else constructive and you'll have better results.

Astrological questions

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,

I am sorry because it is likely that you have answered these questions before:

1. I am just beginning to read your book on Pluto, and it has me thinking in a variety of ways. For example, the Vedas (I think) mention that our sun is actually part of a binary system, with the other star a dark star (which is why we don't see it). According to the Vedas, our sun's position with respect to this dark star is the reason for the cyclical Yugas (gold age, silver age, bronze age, and the dark age, which is our current state).

If I get your arguments about Pluto correctly, presumably we will rediscover this other star when humanity is about to or in the early stages of undergoing a large transition. Is this correct?

2. I understand that Uranus and Neptune don't have days of the week associated with them because they hadn't been discovered until recently, but if I decided to honor them,
(a) what days/times makes sense in their cases?
(b) what would be involved?
(c) What would I be seeking in particular from these gods?
(d) Based on the arguments about Pluto, presumably if I chose to do this before they were recognized as planets, there would have been basically no effect, correct?

I just want to clarify that I am asking sheerly out of curiosity because your Pluto book has my mind jumping thoughts around like a pinball machine.

3. If I want a good romantic relationship and a better sense of aesthetics, I would want to honor Venus, correct? If so, (a) How? (b) Do I just focus on one of Venus' traits at a time, or does honoring Venus provide improvement in all of Venus' traits automatically?

4. Can one honor each of the 7 gods successively on the correct day of the week, or is it more typically pick a single god (e.g. Mars) and honor that god exclusively for a period of time, stop doing so, and at some later point in time go to another god? Again, I am asking out of curiosity as to how the mechanics work/how they are supposed to play out.


Thanks!

Re: Astrological questions

[ecosophia]

1) No, as far as I know, the Vedas don't say that, though there are people who find ways to read that into the Vedas. (I'll accept correction, but only from people fluent in classical Sanskrit who can cite me chapter and verse.) If in fact we do discover another star in relation to the Sun, that would indeed mean a very significant change, though a slow one -- if the other star is out there well past Pluto, it moves very, very slowly in relation to our sun.

2) Nobody knows yet. All this has to worked out by experimentation and contact with spiritual sources. My working guess is that a couple of thousand years from now we'll have a nine-day week, so there will be days for Uranus and Neptune.

3) No, if you want a good relationship you need to work on yourself to become the kind of person who attracts a good relationship. Venus can help but she won't do the work for you.

4) Many people invoke the seven planets, each on its proper day.

Potential past life realization?

[(Anonymous)]

Last year I came across a documentary about a certain somewhat famous figure, and while watching it I was struck with an intense sense of agitation. So I read about his life, borrowed his work from the library, and I have gotten a weitd hunch that I might have been that person in a previous life.

I gave it some thought, and there are some strange facts which would corroborate this intuition, but no memories have surfaced so far. So,

is this something that happens? Or is the lack of memories proof that I'm just projecting? Is there any way to verify this feeling?

I know that regardless, the life I have before me is the one that matters.

Thank you for hosting this platform.
J.T.S

Re: Potential past life realization?

[ecosophia]

It's very hard to tell. Sometimes it's projection, sometimes it's actual past life memory, sometimes you knew the person in a previous life but it wasn't you, and the possibilities go on. If you were that person, however, you should have that person's skills as inborn talents -- not things you wish you could do, but things you can do easily, and probably have done quite a bit of in this life. If you don't have those talents, it probably wasn't you.

[(Anonymous)]

If the Sun is in his detriment in Aquarius, what is he in Pisces?

The Grey Badger

[ecosophia]

Nothing in particular. He's in his rulership in one sign, his detriment in one sign, his exaltation in one sign, and his fall in one sign, and in the other eight signs he doesn't have that kind of overall dignity.

Occult Earthquakes and Genghis Trump (oh, my!)

[(Anonymous)]

Something out of the ordinary to share: While searching for information on the nearly continuous earthquakes presently happening in the area of Santorini, Greece, I chanced upon Youtube videos produced by a geophysicist by name of Stefan Burns. He caught my attention because he goes beyond the usual geophysics and into the occult with discussions of solar, lunar and other planetary influences (such as Uranus and the lunar nodes!). He also talks about the telluric current. A few of his videos seem to get quite into the occult, but I have not watched them. Nor have I found anything published by him other than a children’s book. Anyway - those who like videos with a wider-than-normal view of earthquakes, volcanoes, etc., may want to check him out.

Also, not so much a question but a somewhat occult observation about current political affairs. About a week ago I came across a well-educated real-politic kind of commentator seriously refer to Donald Trump as the Genghis Khan of the current era – a leader to transforms the world so that it is never the same again. The Changer, indeed! Well, since that time I have come across the name Genghis Trump used by various commentators. The name seems to be gathering steam! Being one who likes to watch the ebb and flow of images, memes, archetypes and the like for the purpose of meditation, it has grabbed my attention. Just a heads-up to JMG and the gang!

Ron M

Re: Occult Earthquakes and Genghis Trump (oh, my!)

[ecosophia]

1) Interesting. I hope he publishes a book.

2) Also very interesting. It would be easy enough to generate the image. ;-)

Divination vs. Omens

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Do you know of any systematic way of interpreting the omens that a person may randomly come across in their daily life, like a written set of rules-of-thumb? Or, is it more of a talent that a person can gradually unfold by regularly practicing one of the well-established divination methods?

Minervaphilos

Re: Divination vs. Omens

[ecosophia]

I know of no rules of thumb for that. The people I know who are any good at it got there by practicing some other divination method.

Saturn Meditation

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG, I have an additional question today if you don't mind. I've felt for a while now that I could benefit from an increase in self-discipline, particularly when it comes to procrastination/distraction at work. Do you think that a brief daily meditation on Saturnine themes would be helpful in this regard? I was thinking of doing 9 minutes of meditation per day during the hour of Saturn, preceded by a short prayer to God the Father and the Archangel Tzaphqiel. I realize this is a pretty modest daily practice, but I'm trying to avoid biting off more than I can chew since I'm also performing a daily run-through of the Experiences of Inner Worlds exercises and reading/meditating my way through A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism.

A) Do you think this would be effective and worthwhile?

B) If yes, are there any obvious pitfalls to watch out for?

C) I'm currently working through the Binah section of Knight's book. Should I until I've moved on to Daath before starting the practice described above, to avoid an overdose of Saturnine influence?

Thanks as always for your help!

- Fred N.

Re: Saturn Meditation

[ecosophia]

1) Saturn's not really helpful for procrastination, because he's so focused on limits and slowing down. If you have problems with procrastination and distraction, the planetary energy you'd want is Mars, who activates, energizes, and focuses.

2) If you do a Mars meditation, work on learning to control your temper!

3) I'd wait until you were finished with Geburah, for exactly that reason...

re: Magic Monday

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG;

Sometimes I get visions and dreams that seem straightforward to interpret because they are consistent with familiar symbolism or personal resonances, or they are direct results of rituals. Other times the visions are foreign. Most prominent are visions of Asian beings: human, demonic, and deific. Some are pure (as much as a non-Asian can assess that) and I can relate to them in context (eg when a demon or hungry-ghost appeared to me as a Kabuki mask during sitting meditation). Other visions and dreams are a blend of various symbols personified as an Asian figure or scene. Not sure what if anything is to be done with these visions. I would call such experiences anomalies, yet they seem important for that very reason. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

Re: Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

None at all. How very odd. Anyone else?

Occult history - nukes

[xcalibur_djs]

I came across an account in the Sanskrit writings of India that seems to fairly accurately describe the use of nuclear weapons in an ancient war. It's in the Drona Parva, a book of the Mahabharata, which along with the Bhagavad Gita seems to be a collection of later texts, with the Vedas going back much further (this can be a little confusing btw, I had to sort this out, and search engines don't quickly explain the two clusters of texts).

Anyway, what's your take on this? I'm aware that occult history makes it clear that there were modern technologies in the past, but I'm not sure where nuclear weapons fit in. If this was from a previous civilizational cycle, I'd expect that story to be in the Vedas, not in the later collection that dates back to the Late Roman Republic, unless the "later" collection included older materials. Anyway, the account in the Drona Parva seems too accurate to be fantasy, so what does occult history tell us?

Re: Occult history - nukes

[ecosophia]

I'm familiar with discussions of that text in Western languages, and also the very odd and extensive textual evidence for aircraft in many Asian literatures. It really does look as though somebody in central Asia during late Atlantean times (that is, before the end of the last ice age) had some fairly advanced technology, including electricity, aircraft, and at least the concept of atomic explosives.

The Mahabharata, by the way, is as far as I know the world's largest epic poem -- if I recall correctly it's something like six times the length of the Bible. The Bhagavad-gita is one small episode in it. It contains some extremely ancient material, stuck in there like flies in amber; the Vedas were finalized much earlier, but it's quite possible that the Mahabharata contains material that's older.

Question about the US

[nicky11]

Hi JMG - thank you for this as always.
Is Magic Monday closed yet? If so, I can wait! Here is my question - just in case.
Over the last few months I have come to a deeper understanding of what it mean to be American. I am the first in my family to be born in the United States (my mom is a naturalized citizen). We are all from the Caribbean.

Anyway, I've been doing a great deal of contemplating lately and realized that although I was trained to be very anti-American in grad school (left-coast uni), I actually enjoy being American and that's not a bad thing. It made we wonder whether part of being at peace in the US is about being willing to participate and acknowledge that the United States has an egregore and that one can choose to participate in it in a healthy way. I suppose that this is related to the trouble that some ethnic groups have that are staunchly anti-assimilationist. Are they rejecting that the country has a spiritual consciousness in which we need to actively participate?

It seems as if MAHA and MAGA might be excellent phrases to inspire people and make the idea of greatness and healthiness their own.

On another level, it feels really good to be alive right now. What an incredible time of change.

Thank you for listening!
Nicky

Re: Question about the US

[ecosophia]

No, you're half an hour before the cutoff time -- midnight Eastern time is when I stop taking comments.

I'm glad to hear this! The United States is a very strange place and its egregor has problems, like those of all the other nations on the planet, but it can be a very good place to be. My family's been here for a while -- my father's people came over from Scotland in the early 19th century -- but it's not just a good place for those who've been here a while.

The community in Rhode Island where I live has a lot of legal immigrants -- quite a few Portuguese-speaking people from the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, a large community from the Dominican Republic, and a fair number of Koreans -- and those I know personally are thriving and seem very happy here. So I think there's good reason to be part of the national egregor, and those two acronyms seem very sensible to me just now.

Null - mind exercises

[numinosum]

Good evening,

I am currently doing exercises in the Bardon system where the practitioner must attain a completely blank mind while maintaining full awareness for a period, in order to develop magical focus for later working I guess. I think you describe similar exercises in your book Learning Ritual Magic?

My question is: as I have progressed in this exercise it feels like I am generating or accumulating energy in my body (specifically third eye area, it feels like). Can that energy be put to work or else be siphoned off somehow? I am concerned it could be an issue letting it just accumulate - I don’t really know, and he does not go into many details about what might come up in this exercise that I am aware of.

Re: Null - mind exercises

[ecosophia]

Let it accumulate. It's bringing about changes in that center that will be useful to you in later aspects of Bardon's system.