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.)

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

Comments

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.

Re: Astrological questions

[(Anonymous)]

On the subject of “2”, if I recall correctly didn’t the Romans once have a 10 day week before transitioning to 7? I definitely remember many ancient cultures having “weeks” of more than 7 days.

J.L.Mc12

Re: Astrological questions

[ecosophia]

That's correct. There have been many different week lengths in history, so a nine-day week would be well within the range of possibilities.

Re: Astrological questions

[slithytoves123]

Oooh, the idea of a nine-day week is intriguing. I could easily see a week with six working days and three days of light, different, or no work — one for the gods (might vary by religions but I see polytheists going for the day of Jupiter, our current Thursday), one for yourself (Uranus), and one for contributing to your community (Neptune).

Re: Astrological questions

[vitranc]

2. I have been recently putting my mind to dealing with Uranian, Neptunian and since Pluto is well dignified in my chart, Plutonian energies. The only mention of the transsaturnians in classical times is in some old Yoga writings, a speculation about 3 planets, that will be discovered after the Kali Yuga sets in. For the most part the characteristics of the transsaturnians were loaded to Saturn.
These days Saturn is the “Lord of the Threshold” once you learn it’s lessons you are ready, you have the spine, to handle the neptunian and Uranian energies.
Think of the Saturnian rigour as the thick spine, that allows you to be a chanel for Uranian energies, without frying you into a complete eccentric lunatic. Or a Saturnian anchor that allows you to be uplifted by Neptune without you being swept with the tide into illusions and delusions.

Re: Astrological questions

[xcalibur_djs]

I've read speculation that there could be a brown dwarf in the outskirts of the solar system, in which case the Vedas would be correct!