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 sixty-ninth published book, and I'm annoyed to say it's currently out of print, even though it's been in print for only a little over two years; the original publisher, Llewellyn, dumped it a short time ago without warning or explanation even though there were still hundreds of copies in the warehouse, and the new publisher, Aeon, is waiting on my revisions and edits before bringing out a new edition.  There are still copies of the original version in the sales pipeline for the moment, but if you want a copy you'll either need to move fast or wait a year and a half or so. 

This started out as a sequel, more or less, to my earlier volume The Secret of the Temple. As so often happens, though, it spun away into unfamiliar territory, touching on the Gnostic origins of the Grail legend and the survival of the ritual at the center of that legend into relatively recent times. In the process I worked out the Greek gematria of the Grail stories, explored the fascinating history of a region on the border between England and Scotland that may have been the last surviving Pagan sanctuary in western Europe, and was able to draft a reconstruction of the original Grail ritual itself. It was a wild ride. My Bookshop store is out of copies and so are some other venues; if you want a copy, you'll have to see what you can find online or off. 

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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

Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning everyone,

I had a thought the other day that I thought I would share/ask about in the context of occult philosophy. I can't remember where I read the concept(maybe JMG's Cosmic Doctrine writings), but basically it was about how when cosmic cycles change, and a new way of thinking needs to be introduced to humanity, it will start just bubbling out all over the place. This got me thinking about the obsessions the world has had since the computing age, and whether this was a mechanism to get people thinking about there being more than just the material plane.

For example, the way the cybersphere is imaging in popular culture, as kind of an alternate dimension that people can journey to through their modems, seems akin to a concept of the astral plane. Or the obsession the last few years about AI and UFOs, as a means to introduce the idea of non-human intelligences. I'm thinking specifically about how there is persistent belief in parts of the UFO community that extraterrestrials have saved us from launching nukes at least once, but if you were to suggest that it was angels or higher plane entities, you'd probably get a lot of skepticism even from people with religious beliefs open to that.

I was just curious if this would make sense to people who are open to those ideas, or if I'm being crazy in this line of thinking.

One other thought I had since it's topical. I recently listened to a book of Celtic Mythology that included the Christian saints of Britain, and I guess I was not that familiar with St. Patrick, but it feels like half of his career was putting death curses on people. I would bet money that if you changed the names and details so it was about Baltazar the sorcerer of Marduk, many Christians would think he was a black wizard instead of a holy man. It was a good example of the relative nature of good and evil, death curses being acceptable depending on context for some people.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[ecosophia]

1) I don't think you're crazy at all. The last century has seen a lot of cracks open up in the walls of materialism, and the various tech-fantasies have been among the vehicles for that.

2) Celtic saints were like that! Yeah, a lot of "holy people" were holy only if you ignore what they did to the people who disagreed with them.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[geoffg]

Decided to stop being lazy and make an account, since I failed to sign either of my posts this morning.

It seemed to me like a material-adjacent introduction into non-materialism would be a good vehicle to open minds in a world as materialist as 21st century Earth.

I can just imagine the Solar Logos thinking, "I know you guys thought you would be getting sentient machines. Higher planar entity is the best I can do."

I continue to be fascinated by how many people who were around in '99 have bought all the way into this AI bubble, which seems to be collapsing as we speak.

"New technology which shows high potential to increase human productivity generates huge speculative bubble despite being more than a decade out from fulfilling that potential" seems like it could apply to either 1999 or 2024/25 without any difficulty. This isn't even history rhyming, it's pretty much full repeat.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[ecosophia]

If you haven't read it yet, please run, don't walk, to get a copy of The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith. I've said this before, but in this case it's not just that it's the funniest, wittiest, most side-splittingly hilarious book of serious economic history you'll ever read. It's that this line...

"New technology which shows high potential to increase human productivity generates huge speculative bubble despite being more than a decade out from fulfilling that potential"

...is exactly, precisely what drove the 1929 bubble too!

As for the introduction, quite probably so, but someone else will have to write it -- I don't speak the jargon well enough.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[geoffg]

I expressed myself poorly, I meant that the solar system itself was using these cultural movements as an introduction of the ideas to humanity, whether through Bronydom or the latest non-human actor du jour. I wouldn't wish the gibbering silliness of the AI sphere upon you.

I have read excerpt of Galbraith's book but not the whole thing. I don't know how everyone affords all of the books that come with esoteric thinking! The history of finance is surprisingly interesting, The Great Courses offers a course on the Great Financial Disasters in History, and it was one of the best courses I've heard.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[geoffg]

Replying to myself to add for anyone following this thread.

I suspect that this is going to be the week that the big banks try and do what JP Morgan did in 1929, and throw everything they have at the stock market to try and stop the skid before it gets into the general consciousness. I also suspect that after a couple days they will have to concede defeat and slink if like JPM did too.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[ecosophia]

That wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[brenainn]

2) This reminds me of a question that I've been exploring as of late. One person that I follow online is a former Theravadin monk who is now a married lay dhamma teacher. In some of his videos, he mentions an idea he's been wrestling with, that of the holy scoundrel. He mentions how orthodox Theravada, among others, tend to imagine that holiness, enlightenment, union with God, or whatnot, comes only after going through various stages of increasing moral purity or saintliness. Then he mentions various holy people who nonetheless appear to have been, well, scoundrels in some respects. He muses that perhaps something like enlightenment or spiritual development does not always require ever increasing levels of moral perfection. To his list, I'd add figures that I venerate, such as Joseph Smith. It is an interesting thought.

Re: Technophilia as a means to introduce ideas abou non-materialism

[ecosophia]

He's right, of course. Moral purity and spiritual insight are by no means identical, and it's not at all hard to find people who have either one but not the other. If you can find someone who has both, you've got an exceptional teacher!