Magic Monday
Feb. 16th, 2025 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.)
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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!***
Re: Obelisks - their role and function
Date: 2025-02-17 06:03 pm (UTC)Monday is Presidents’ Day.
Although you’d never know it from the ads on TV, this holiday was not established to sell cars and mattresses. It specifically honors two of our greatest leaders, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and by extension, all those presidents who served their country and kept their inauguration.
I invite you to join me on Monday for a ritual in which we can invoke the spirits of those presidents as honored ancestors in the American Civil Religion, calling on them to protect the Federal system they helped create and the Constitution they obeyed, and asking their help as we try to do the same.
A Ritual for Presidents’ Day : Monday, February 17th, Presidents’ Day, 5 pm
Online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83439685118?pwd=sjgaWbxaE8dac3MbIt5DsN6HDSmUro.1
Diana Paxson
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Diana has been working on bringing out and developing the pagan and magical elements already present in the American civil religion. She has a book about this coming out this year, Carrying a Torch for Liberty (Concrescent Press). One aspect of her work is treating some of the worthier historical figures as ancestors worthy of veneration. She noticed that the Capitol Mall is laid out with a group of temples and monuments honoring some of these people. Some years ago, she led a group walk visiting the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, etc. and led the group in singing an appropriate patriotic song or hymn at each one. Some of the other tourists joined in.
Re: Obelisks - their role and function
Date: 2025-02-17 07:23 pm (UTC)Re: Obelisks - their role and function
Date: 2025-02-17 10:15 pm (UTC)This is open to anyone. Based on my previous experience participating in rituals led by and designed by Paxson, it will be polytheist. A Deist who is not actively Pagan will probably not find anything offensive but might choose not to participate in every invocation. Christian occultists will not be unwelcome but might or might not find that this ritual crosses a line or them.
The intent of this particular ritual leads me to expect that it will draw somewhat on Greek and Roman models of ancestor veneration, and may include invocation of semi-immortal heroes, in English. There may be Heathen elements if Diana thinks they fit.
I have participated (in meatspace) in one of Diana's rituals for the Ladies of the Land as a Priestess of Minerva.
I have not seen the text of this ritual. Diana sent me the announcement a couple of days ago. She's a gifted and knowledgeable ritualist in person, but I have no idea how well this is going to go as a hybrid in-person and virtual rite.
Re: Obelisks - their role and function
Date: 2025-02-17 11:58 pm (UTC)- Fred N.
Re: Obelisks - their role and function
Date: 2025-02-17 11:41 pm (UTC)I hadn't made an account before posting my inquiry to JMG about the obelisk. If I am able, I would love to attend the ritual via Zoom. I am in Colorado in the corporeal, but will attempt to attend via Zoom in the ethereal. Is this the same Diana Paton as the author of "Taking up the Runes?" I have been using that book for over a decade!
What is so interesting, is that whilst visiting the Washington Monument, I sat and meditated some at it's base, and felt/sensed/experienced other persons coming there to meditate on peace, justice, and order. They seemed a brethren of eternal peace, or that was what they seemed to be meditating on. I could not get it out of my mind, even months after the visit (I went in December).
It seems highly synchronistic you extend this invite to me on this day, as I was hoping to connect with persons of similar intent! What a wonderful thing to discover in asking this question - thank you! /|\