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. 

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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!***

Comments

The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, Mr. Greer,

I’m interested in any alchemical or magical theories that elevate or transform the elements of the physical body.

Is there such a thing; and if so m can you please direct me to some resources??

Thank you

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

That depends very much on what you intend to do with the elements of the body. Perhaps you can be more specific about what you hope to accomplish.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Very good. (I just saw the title of the music you’re listening to!)

Yes, according to Gurdjieffian alchemy, the physical body’s elements are simply on a different “octave” from the astral body, though admittedly lower on the elemental scale.

My idea is the impossible idea of transforming the four bodily elements to the astral realm.

(Impossible?)

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

Er, there's a common term for that: death.

Let's cover some basics. You have three bodies -- a material body, an etheric body (that is, a body of life force), and an astral body -- and you're evolving a fourth, a mental body. (It's a mental sheath right now, since it hasn't yet evolved organs of perception and action on the mental plane.) All these are vestures surrounding the soul. You can learn to put your soul and mental sheath in a portion of your astral body, and move it away from the material and etheric bodies; that's astral projection, and there are plenty of manuals to learn how to do that if you want to.

To dissolve the material body into astral substance, though, would deprive you of your link with material reality -- that is to say, you'd die. The etheric body would dissolve or detach after a short delay, and then you'd be in the afterlife in the normal condition, with an astral body and a mental sheath surrounding your soul; then you'd get to process the memories in your astral body, and proceed with the normal post-life process. You're going to do that soon enough anyway, and having a material body has certain advantages, so why rush it?

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you,

My current belief is that there are beings of a higher caliber who live very long lives in the astral world. I sort of ascribe the Buddhist “ form realm”, with its higher “gods”, as similar to the Western astral realm.

Apparently the Buddha might have ascended to his parinirvana from the highest region of the form realm. The Buddhist idea is that the layers of the form realm correspond to attained meditative states; and the way in to them is through a certain non-degenerating type of meritorious deeds.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

That's also correct in terms of Western occult philosophy. The way you get there, according to the teachings I follow, is through daily meditation combined with the development of reflective thought, self-knowledge, and compassion in everyday life. These things develop the mental sheath into a mental body with its own organs of perception and action, and once that happens you no longer need material incarnation -- nor, once you shed your current material body at the end of the current incarnation, do you need to go through death again.

None of this, however, is done by doing things to the material body; that dies once it wears out, in the usual way. It's achieved by working with the higher vestures of the soul, in the manner I've just outlined.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

1. Reading bits and bobs here and on occasional uploaded books, I've accumulated this vague impression that the term "mental sheath" was coined during some particular historical milieu that cultivated a lot of clairvoyants, where the clairvoyants tended to perceive an unformed mental-planar vesture as (relating to the "space" metaphorically presupposed by the clairvoyant quasi-visual imagery, and thereby indirectly also to material space, roughly as) if it were a thin ellipsoidal shell. Is that mostly right?

2. If something like that is true, would the reason that the shell didn't seem to enclose distinguishable mental-planar contents mostly be that a primary developmental task for such a mental-planar vesture is the stabilization of a self-other distinction, ahead of working out what the contents of the "self" would have to be?

3. One other thing I half-remember reading is that when someone has a mental-plane body (implicitly, the text seems to have been referring to a body developed enough to have a relation to material space beyond just "wherever the material systems are that your attention is currently on the structures of relationships of"), it tends to have an effective radius somewhere around 300 feet horizontally (and less vertically). Would this be something other than the shell thing?

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

1) That's quite possibly the case. I simply use the term because it denotes a distinction that's useful in practical terms.

2) Good. Yes.

3) That's typical Theosophical symbolism, and yes, it's something distinct from the "shell." It's the range of effective action mapped onto material space.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

In regard to this, I find the above very relevant for myself currently.

1. My old guru was an example of someone who was uniquely himself, no matter what was happening or whomever else was around him. Sort of like Gurdjieff attesting that a person treading the path has to go against the grain of the world, “against God”.

2. In my own system, the etheric body is attached to the organ of the mind (Sanskrit “manas”), and it is the intellectual center and body that we lack, but need to develop. — I have been noticing more and more often that individual people in society subtly influence each other on an etheric/mental plane. My current task has been to remain myself, emotionally/intellectually/spiritually, amongst the inner influences around me.

3. I would assume that, as the above writer says, we should create as positive a mental sphere around us as we can.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

3. I don't know who you're referring to, but I would say that, if there is a version of the concept of "positive" that would make your assumption true, it would be quite a subtle concept. Beyond a certain intensity of cultivating "positivity" according to whatever concept was your best guess at the moment, you might not be able to predict how any subtleties you'd gotten wrong might blow up in your face if you went any higher with the intensity. In that case, it would probably be better to give up there, and develop something else instead.

I'm given to understand that deities are safer to do that kind of cultivation with than a concept like "positive" is, but I'm not sure how to relate to that thought.

... That reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask about something the Charismatic Christian Agnes Sanford reported in her autobiography "Sealed Orders", about four different incidents where someone involved in Spiritualist mediumism unexpectedly died shortly after she prayed with them or for them. Guessing from the Christian-inflected explanation she relayed, in the terminology I see around here, it would maybe have something to do with how badly solar/telluric conflicts tend to go in a "state of nature", or maybe with how low-grade the chthonic powers associated with Spiritualism tended to be (at least at the time toward the end of the movement, around 1930-1950). However, the passage is several pages long and it would take a while to condense it into a single comment to ask about that in more detail. But it was a category of situations where bringing in more of a generally-speaking good divine influence actually made things at least superficially much worse.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

Interesting. Keep in mind that to Christians, death is not necessarily a bad thing, if it leads to salvation; that "generally-speaking good divine influence" is certainly compatible with sudden death.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Sanford did come away from all of it with the impression that it was better to go to some length to prevent the two currents from coming into contact in the first place, but of course the process by which she came to that conclusion was fallible.

She did mention that the effects were for some reason generally not catastrophic when it was a larger group that just had one person who was later discovered to have been Spiritualism-involved in it, although in all such cases the group prayer had no distinguishable effect, even when it had gone off at the time in just the same ways that other group prayers that did prove efficacious later would have.

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t necessarily mean “positive”, in the sense of “The Power of Positive Thinking”. But, yes, in the terms you were referring to — in the sense of working with a deity.
However, my approach starting out with that effort is working with a deity’s qualities. So, the qualities I try to cultivate tend towards compassion, loving-kindness, etc — in relation to Buddhism.
But in actuality, the inner result produces a tint of general positivity…

Which also reminds me: Mr. Greer, would you say that in experiencing the solar current, that it creates an emotionally insulating and uplifting effect on oneself? A boost to the etheric body? Or perhaps an experience of mental clarity and energy, maybe? I haven’t had much experience with either the telluric or solar currents.

Thanks again!

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Something along the lines of what you are looking for exists, and it's in Tibetan Vajrayana. Do none of it until you investigate on your own AND you find a credible teacher.

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: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

It’s the original questioner again. I just finished reading chapter 4 of your polarity magic book, here in the library…
I feel convinced that a man can receive a “charge” of etheric energy from a woman. But are there other ways, ways that don’t require such a personal interaction, that a person can receive ether or recharge their ether? Perhaps in nature? Are there breathing exercises one can use? (maybe I will encounter some later in your polarity book.)
I do have your 5 Rites book, but I don’t recall what it said about recharging one’s ether. I will go back and check…

Thanks!

Re: The Body’s Four Elements

[ecosophia]

Good heavens, yes. Sunlight, fresh air, and cold water are good sources of ether. If you want breathing exercises -- and that's a good option -- William Walker Atkinson's Science of Breath is a good place to start:

https://archive.org/details/hinduyogiscienc00atkigoog

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: The Body’s Four Elements

[(Anonymous)]

This is a large question, with rather loose boundaries.

First, the "rainbow body", or the transformation of the body at death, is a feature not only of certain sorts of Buddhism, but also Taoism. Of the several sorts of Taoist immortals, some leave nothing behind except nails, hair, and perhaps a kind of film or residue). And not all Vajrayana/Dzogchen rainbow body transformations are absolute: in some cases the body is greatly diminished or otherwise transformed. It also seems to exist in certain Indian subcontinent traditions.

Analogous to this are the products of what might be called "holy suicide" or "attainment suicide", in which practitioners will adopt a regimen that will gradually embalm their bodies while they are alive, with the result that their cadavers are lighter, incorruptible, and so on. This is documented at least in Taoist contexts in China, and in certain Buddhist contexts in Japan. No doubt other examples exist. Certainly some of the Taoist mineral elixirs can give this result. Yogic suicide is also documented in Indian/tantric contexts -- from the more gross (throwing oneself off a cliff) to the more subtle (meditative dissolution of the energetic structure of the body).

There is at least some indication that the "rainbow body" or "light body" cultural complex came into central Asia, and thus into Tibet and points east, in connection with the spread Nestorian and Manichaean influence -- see Francis V. Tiso's Rainbow Body and Resurrection: Spiritual Attainment, the Dissolution of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo A Chö. Tisot provides an erudite survey of the history, and suggests, not at all mischievously, that the first documented case of this transformation is widely celebrated in a holiday coming up in about a month.

By now there are a scad of books and other items about rainbow body practices, and teachers of the same, to which one needs to apply what is sometimes called "the first virtue of the path" -- discrimination, or critical evaluation.

LeGrand Cinq-Mars