ecosophia | Magic Monday

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.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi JMG
Thank you for hosting another MM. I have been reading your occult philosophy workbook and have become fascinated with the idea of developing the mental sheath. To this end, can you please recommend some novels that when read attentively would develop my mental sheath? Thank you.

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.

Thank you JMG. One of my favourite novels as a young teen was Shogun by James Clavell and I grew up reading fantasy literature (The Wheel of Time series was a fave). Although I find it hard to get into fantasy now for some unknown reason. A few years ago I really enjoyed, and was disturbed by, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and the sequel A God in Ruins. I also recently tried to get into Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising but unfortunately found it terribly boring. I'm willing to try anything at least once and have a dream of curating a mid-sized library of novels that I read over and over (something I've never done much before) in order to grow my mental sheath. I haven't read much classic literature and did used to like sci-fi, however I struggle with anything that seems too contrived. I've also had a lifelong fascination with the esoteric and am drawn to things exotic and from the far east.

Okay, first of all, I'd recommend Clavell's other novels -- he wrote other first-rate novels, much of it about the Far East. You might also enjoy Trevanian's Shibumi and Eric Ambler's spy thrillers -- Ambler was the guy who invented the modern realistic spy novel, and his settings are lively and exotic. Also, if you haven't read Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, you're missing a treat.

As for fantasy, that's not surprising. Most current fantasy is derivative and dull. Do you find H.P. Lovecraft entertaining at all? I'd also recommend Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn and The Blue Star -- they're mid-20th century fantasies, vastly more realistic and interesting than anything being produced these days.

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll be heading to the online portal of an ethical bookseller post haste!

I read a bit of Lovecraft a few years ago but wasn't a huge fan. Can I ask what your favourite novels that you re-read are? Say top 5?

Lovecraft's novels aren't his strong suit. He's best in short formats; "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" are good places to start.

Magic Monday

Novels and the Mental Sheath

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Re: Novels and the Mental Sheath

Re: Novels and the Mental Sheath