Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

 Midnight is just a few minutes away 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-eighty published book, and -- like some of the other things I've written -- it landed me in a certain amount of hot water. I noticed, not long after I started doing the kind of intermediate astrology that involves tracking transits of planets across natal chart positions, that most of the resulting predictions worked very well, but that those involving Pluto didn't. I then noticed that political and economic predictions involving Pluto -- not mine, in this case -- also flopped spectacularly. That launched me into a research project that convinced me that Pluto is in fact not a planet, but that it functioned like one in birth charts and mundane charts during the short period while astronomers mistook it for one. That led me to write The Twilight of Pluto, which talks about the complex way that planetary discoveries and downgradings relate to astrological prediction. 

The reason this got me into hot water is that Pluto has a huge astrological fan club. It's weird; no other planet has that kind of frankly addictive emotional hold on people. No other planet sees people make one false prediction after based on its movements, and just keep on doing it, without ever noticing that they're making fools of themselves. I didn't get into that in this book, but Pluto fans took offense anyway because I dissed their favorite planet. The book's sales have been slow, though a remarkable number of people seem to know about it. I still think it makes a valid case, I don't use Pluto in my political astrology...and, ahem, my predictions are more accurate than those who do. If you're interested, you can get copies here in the US and at your favorite book outlet elsewhere. 

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

Comments

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

This is sound advice. A great deal of upper-end Vajrayana work is extremely dangerous do to without skilled guidance from a competent teacher.

Re: Thoughts on A Short History of Ethics and Question on Etheric Effects Thwarted by the Red Bag Am

[ecosophia]

Take any convenient glass jar. Fill it with rock salt, kosher salt, or any other form of salt that's relatively pure. Into this, put several bright iron or steel nails that have been bent to a right angle (or thereabouts) with two pairs of pliers.

This is the large-caliber version of the red bag amulet described in the Magic Monday FAQ. It will soak up quite a bit of nasty etheric substance. You know you need to replace the contents of the jar when the salt discolors and/or the nails rust or corrode.

Re: Upper Planes and Flames

[ecosophia]

Yes, very much so. Fire is the closest form of matter to the etheric, so it's more manipulable by etheric means than most other material phenomena.

Re: Ecosophia Prayer List

[ecosophia]

Thank you for this as always.

Re: Novels and the Mental Sheath

[ecosophia]

It's impossible to give a list without knowing something about the individual who asks for it! Any novel that makes you think will help build your mental sheath. If it's the kind of forgettable popcorn reading that you read and then barely remember a week later, it's not useful for this purpose, but if it's the kind of story that you think about afterwards, remember vividly, and even reread from time to time, then it's doing the job.

Can you name some novels and some genres that you like? With that as guidance I might be able to be a little more specific.

[ecosophia]

Huzzah! Delighted to hear this. I hope you enjoy it.

[ecosophia]

1) Dreams reflect whatever's going on in and around your aura when you sleep, so yes, karma is one of the things that can be mirrored in them.

2) The Key To Your Own Nativity is an introductory work for laypeople. How to Judge a Nativity is a textbook for people who want to become astrologers. They cover much the same territory but in different ways, given their different audiences.

Re: SOP and illness

[ecosophia]

It's really a matter of personal needs. I do my daily SoP no matter what, but that's not necessarily appropriate to everyone; I'd encourage you to experiment and see what works for you. (Thank you for the compliment, btw.)

Re: The subconscious/The Shadow

[ecosophia]

1) Dream journaling might be very useful for you. The book I recommend -- still widely available on the used market, though I think it's out of print -- is Strephon Kaplan Williams' The Jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual. It's packed with methods to enable you to start listening, through your dreams, to the unconscious.

2) If you're having problems with repressed contents breaking through, the last thing you want to do is repress them even further! That's what your proposed measures would do. Too much fire is your problem; you need to loosen up, relax, and let things flow a little more freely, so they don't get clogged by your too-controlling mind and burst out in sudden explosions.

Re: Mindset of ceremonial magick

[ecosophia]

In ceremonial magic you don't surrender to the energies. In some kinds of ritual, the kind that involve invoking divine energies, you allow the invoked energy to flow into you, but you are not "surrendering into" or "merging with" -- your will remains in control of the whole process, welcoming the energy into you, directing it toward your intention, and then releasing it with gratitude. Changes in consciousness happen quite adequately under those conditions!

dreary comment

[walt_f]

Okay, I gotta ask about the unconventional ordinals. "This is my sixth-eighty published book." You mean sixty-eighth, but it sounds like a poetic way to write eighty-sixth. The previous ones have been "sixth-seventh," "sixth-sixth," and so on. Probably one copy-pasted typo now compounded with another.

Also, a comment I missed the window to make last week, Union Square Publishing really came through on the cover art for The Druid Path, IMO! I might have preferred it printed in regular matte ink instead of the foil, but I'm still getting a copy to face-out on my shelf (and to read, though I already own and use your main druidry books).

- Dreary Oscillating Snail (*sigh*)

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[not_gandalf]

Precisely as has been pointed out, in Tibetan Buddhism there is the concept of the Diamond Body or the Rainbow Body. It's said that when some highly advanced Lamas "die" they leave NO physical remains, except perhaps for a tuft of hair or some fingernails. They are said to have simply changed their physical bodies into a body of pure diamond or rainbow energy, a vehicle which, as Malaclypse the Elder says in Wilson's Illuminati trilogy, is "to all intents and purposes, immortal".

I find it interesting that, in western Christian religion, the equivalent of this, the mark of true sanctity, is leaving behind a corpse that never shows any signs of decomposition, the exact opposite of the Tibetan ideal. This, by the way, was also claimed of the body of Paramahansa Yoganada. Inconveniently, the fact is omitted that he was actually embalmed immediately after death, and the so called miraculous preservation of which the LA mortician wrote and which is quoted (abridged) at the end of Autobiography of a Yogi was that no mold formed on his face, since a special cream that was usually applied to prevent said mold hadn't been applied to PY's face. The "miracle" is slightly more easy to explain given that the corpse of PY was displayed in an open casket which was covered by a heavy glass lid that kept his face and body quite isolated from contact with outside air.

The scandal of the non-incorruptible corpse of the holy man also figures in The Brothers Karamazov.

Re: Mindset of ceremonial magick

[threerays]

That is supremely helpful in understanding the approach. Many thanks to you good sir!

Re: Q

[ecosophia]

The experience of "nondualism" happens any time you get a temporary glimpse of a plane where you don't yet have a vesture (a body or a sheath) for your soul. Since the vesture is what defines the distinction between the soul and the cosmos, when you access a level where you don't have a vesture, there's no boundary between yourself and your surroundings. If a cabbage were to glimpse the astral plane, it would have a nondual experience of that plane, since most plants have no astral vesture.

That sort of experience is apparently useful in some forms of spiritual training. Too many Westerners who have it, though, make the mistake of treating it as a glimpse of ultimate reality rather than recognizing it as simply one of many phenomena that consciousness can experience. It can also become addictive, especially if there are things about your self you don't want to deal with -- subjectively dissolving the self in the cosmos is a great way of hiding from those.

Aphantasia

[(Anonymous)]

Some of us are completely unable to create mental images.

Do you have any general recommendation for practice on that case? For instance with the SoP?

Thanks

Edwin C. Steinbrecher & Astrology

[(Anonymous)]

Out of curiosity, are you familiar with the work of Edwin C. Steinbrecher, in particular, his book, The Inner Guide Meditation?

If so, he has a section later in the book where he talks about people he calls "adepts," in relation to their natal charts. These are people who have no planets or points placed in an element or modality. He suggests that such people have an innate mastery over the things represented by that element or modality in their chart, rather than any sort of lack. For example, quoting his paragraph on Fire Adepts:

Fire Adepts (Neither the Ascendant, Sun, Moon, nor any planet in fire signs) are experts in areas having to do with Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, the first house, the fifth house, and the ninth house (e.g., spirituality, initiation, love, creativity, performing, appearance, play, joy, all new beginnings, higher education, children, way-showing for others, philosophy, foreign travel, religion, theater) in terms of helping others with concerns of these life areas. However, their expertise cannot be applied to their own lives until the Adept is brought into consciousness within themselves.

Are there similar ideas in other forms of astrology you've studied? Or rather, since I know you focus primarily on mundane astrology, is there any special significance you've seen to a lack of placements in either an element or modality?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1) Is there an occult term for the 'neutral observer', meaning that part of yourself which is able to watch emotions pass through without repressing them, or which is aware of being aware?

2) Do you happen to know how closely, if at all, John Gilbert's Tarot system is connected to Manly Hall's? I ask because I seem to dimly remember that you once said that John Gilbert drew on Manly Hall's work. I might not be remembering that correctly, though.

Thanks!

Seiza posture

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

How does sitting seiza affect energy flows in one's body?

Re: Request for Advice: Escape from Q

[ecosophia]

It's a useful cautionary tale, but I'm sorry to say I don't have any particular advice for you. Since stories like yours are starting to pop up here, I think it's probably time to explain why.

Stories of the kind you've posted are legendary among professional occultists, and not in a good way. Two of my teachers taught me about this sort of thing at great length. They told me the signs to watch out for; I'm not going to name those, for obvious reasons, but your story has nearly all of them. They also explained that it's an utter waste of time to offer advice or help in such cases.

What my teachers said is that when somebody comes to you with a long, involved story of spiritual and magical persecution that persists despite repeated visits to occult professionals, one or more (and quite often all three) of three things are involved. The first is mental illness on the part of the supposed victim. The second is masochism -- the victim, that is, gets some emotional payoff from the persecution, and thus is motivated to make sure it continues. The third is a version of that classic interpersonal game, the Rescue Game, in which one player, the Victim, gets attention by parading their sufferings and the other players, the Rescuers, are expected to do something about those sufferings -- subject, of course, to the rule that nothing the Rescuers do can actually help. This would end the game, and the game must go on.

You can read about the same thing at great length in books about the occult scene written in earlier eras. In the hands of dishonest occultists, it was a lucrative racket; they would do rituals and the like for such people, for pay, in the serene confidence that the mark would be back in another week or two for another round. Honest occultists would do their best to direct such people to therapists -- though it's only fair to say that a good many therapists, then as now, play their own version of the same scam.

The reason my teachers were so insistent on this is that anyone with even a basic knowledge of occultism can clear away a magical attack. There are plenty of good books on the subject, of which Dion Fortune's Psychic Self-defence is of course the most famous. Thus the long story of the person whom nobody could help is a dead giveaway, and in this case one of many. Since I don't propose to get into a second-level Rescue Game by trying to rescue you from the habit of playing the Rescue Game, I'll simply apologize for the fact that I can't help you, and send you on your way.

Astrology

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG!

My most likely natal chart would have Neptune in the twelfth house conjunct the ascendant. What effects would that have on me? Planets near a house boundary are supposed to affect both houses, but the twelfth house represents secrets and the unconscious and the first house represents outgoing personality.

I'm confident that Uranus is in my first house since it appears to be a dominant influence on my personality.

Patrick

[ecosophia]

Two comments.

1) Angels are beings of unconditional love. No, your guardian angel doesn't dislike you. It may want to bend you over its radiant knee and give you a good spanking, but that's another matter!

2) That is to say, you won't use silverware but you're too proud to eat with your hands, and then you complain of hunger...

Re: Thoughts on A Short History of Ethics and Question on Etheric Effects Thwarted by the Red Bag Am

[jprussell]

Out of curiosity, is there any traditional guidance on how many "several" nails should be? Is this a "more is better" situation, or perhaps symbolic considerations are helpful (I went with 9 as a holy number in my own beliefs)?

Or is this all in "experiment and find out" territory?

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: Thoughts on A Short History of Ethics and Question on Etheric Effects Thwarted by the Red Bag Am

[jprussell]

Thanks for this, that's an admirably straightforward experiment I might conduct - so far, I've been wearing the bag pretty much at all times except when doing etheric-focused work like the Judson Exercise or when taking a shower.

Cheers,
Jeff

Re: dreary comment

[ecosophia]

That's a kind of typo I produce tolerably often when I'm in a hurry -- I swap the lat letter of two adjacent words. (Imagine "adjacent words" being written "adjacens wordt." This time I didn't catch it, O Drearg Oscillatinl Snaiy!

Glad you like the cover. Union Square has a great art department.

Cultivation of Virtues in Western Occultism

[(Anonymous)]

Steinbrecher-anon here again; apologies for the second post, but another question came to mind.

Various schools of Buddhism have meditations for cultivating the Brahmaviharas, four mindsets or virtues: metta, karuna, mudita, and upekkha, i.e. friendliness/loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity.

The most common version I've seen involves repeating a set of four phrases with the breath, visualizing specific persons or classes of persons. For loving-kindness, you might say, "May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be safe. May you be at peace," starting with visualizing yourself, people you feel positive towards, people you feel neutral towards, people you feel negative towards, and ultimately all beings.

Are there practices in Western occultism that could be used to such ends? I'd think the cardinal virtues: temperance, courage, justice, and prudence, would maybe make more sense in a Western occultist setting. If not, would it be misguided to try adapting that basic Buddhist practice to other virtues? What would one need to look out for, from an occult perspective?