Toward Ecosophy

I’ve heard bury them in front to keep bringing those things in, in the back to let them leave. Similar with throwing liquids—to the east to bring in, west to get rid of. But your mileage may vary.

From:

ecosophia

That's what I was taught, certainly. You bury something in the back yard if you want the energies to stay with you, you bury it in the front yard if you want the energies to disperse.

From: (Anonymous)

Interesting! I was taught burial in the front yard to attract (because that’s the direction things enter your house from). I’ve heard back yard to disperse, or back yard to keep things close and secret (contradictory, I know). For negative work (if I did it) I wouldn’t bury in my own yard, just for things I worked for that have served their purpose. For anything I felt had negative energy I’d probably take it to the crossroads.

From:

Whoops, that was me—somehow got signed out.

From: (Anonymous)

Dear JMG, what is your take on the current astral/etheric disturbance, as in, do you think it's landed fully on the physical plane. I am certainly noticing some odd behaviour in people, almost as if they are disconnected from reality, and a lot more of the blue screen of death stare in response to anything other than rote or routine activities. I feel myself a vague anxiety or foreboding, although, as I've ramped up practices (SoP) since the beginning of the year, it seems to be largely occuring around me, as if I'm in an odd sort of bubble that's harder to penetrate. Negativity doesn't seem to land as easily on me.

But that's just my take. I'd be interested in knowing yours, and other readers?

From:

ecosophia

What I've seen suggests that it's well into the astral, quite possibly hitting the middle astral now. On the one hand, that means that many people are responding even more in that weirdly mechanical way we've discussed in this journal, with "blue screen of death" reactions becoming more common; on the other, as the uppermost parts of the astral begin to clear, people and groups that are more aligned with the spiritual side of things seem to be coming out from under a cloud. The next thing to watch for is sudden odd disease outbreaks, especially those that seem to involve a sudden collapse of health in large numbers of people; that's one way things could work out on the etheric plane.

The SoP really does help, doesn't it? I really do recommend a daily protective ritual for everyone as a basic necessity during times like these.

From: (Anonymous)

Thank you, I will put extra power into my SoP. I also wonder too that the more people who do the SoP means a stronger egregore attached to it. I can't imagine it'll ever get as string as the LBRP, but a bit stronger would be nice.

From:

ecosophia

Yes, it'll pick up strength as more people practice it. It's subtler than the LBRP and will never be as flashy, but it's already got considerable strength.

From:

Anon: 'I am certainly noticing some odd behaviour in people'
Yes - odd behaviour like people are distracted or something - like they are in a holding pattern and not quite functioning in the world.

"I feel myself a vague anxiety or foreboding"
A feeling that 'something' is 'in process' has been coming and going for a while but has picked up just recently - but that might just be me looking at the state of the world.

Usually I do meditation practices first thing in the morning, but this morning I woke from a deep sleep and was surprised to find myself already working/practising; accompanied with a very (very) strong feeling of the importance of doing so.

JMG: "seem to be coming out from under a cloud"
Practices have been getting increasingly strong and almost like taking on a life of their own. This morning particularly so where it seemed my waking self was picking up on and continuing something but I'm not exactly sure what!

If coming out from under a cloud includes changes in and intensity of work, then yes (but not in the form of sunny happy clappy weather); this started towards the end of last year and has picked up speed in the last month or so. However, it has been going on at the same time as having a strange sort of 'disconnected from the world feeling' myself - it feels fine and I'd just put it down to the some of the practices I've been doing... but this morning was definitely something new and made a big enough impression that my first words to the missus were "It's really important to do stuff' (where 'stuff' is whatever internal/spiritual practices one might have).

Edited (clarity) Date: 2025-04-28 11:17 am (UTC)

From:

ecosophia

Yes, that's one of the things I had in mind when I mentioned "coming out from under a cloud." My practices have taken on increased power and my dreams have become more vivid, for example. The sense of disconnection is also relevant: there's a lot of trouble coming, and standing apart from it is a good thing!

From: (Anonymous)

For those who cannot magic their way out of a paper bag, and those who have relatives spiritually inclined but perhaps magically reluctant, would daily prayer be an adequate replacement for a banishing ritual?

From:

ecosophia

Daily prayer is always a good idea. (It's part of my daily practices, for example.) It won't do quite the same things as a protective ritual, but it'll benefit you a great deal in times like these. Be sure to ask for protection against evil and for clarity of mind.

I recommend, if you aren't an occultist, combining prayer with study of holy books -- for example, if you're a Protestant Christian, read a chapter of one of the Gospels every day and then pray. That'll help you attune your mind and spirit to the Divine.

From:

ecosophia

You also might want to check out St. Patrick's Lorica, which is a Christian prayer of protection -- BoysMom cites her experience with it further down the page.

From:

Here is an adaptation, perhaps of use to those who do not follow a Christian tradition:
https://earthworm-uk.dreamwidth.org/

The framework opens itself to adaptation (of words) and also unfolds beyond simple prayer as the outline of a 'working'

From:

Even if you are an occultist, this can be a a great help; I've found that reading myths about the gods I worship before prayer helps a great deal with attuning myself to them.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi JMG,

If I may ask, what would be your recommendation for a Roman Catholic?

I'm curious if you would add a third item to prayer and study, or if the second item would be changed.

Why I'm deeply interested in your answer: In my religious and spiritual wandering, from 1) at-birth/youth cultural (and cafeteria) Catholicism to 2) 20s and early 30s material agnosticism/unspoken atheism, then to 3a) 12 Step meetings and 3b) dabbling at Protestantism, as well as either 3 or 3c) taking more seriously your writings about religion/spirituality--I believe I started reading your blogs around 2008/9--and then 4) recently back to Catholicism through regular attendance at Mass, I have a commingled and confused sense of IBM-compatible Christianity.

Incidentally?, I'm really looking forward to your Wednesday post on your other blog. I assume it's about Protestantism's Islam envy.

-Eugene

From:

ecosophia

The Catholic tradition has a very rich devotional literature and an even richer body of spiritual practices, so you have a much larger smorgasbord to choose from. For those Catholics who don't have any established practice, I tend to advise a daily practice of a reading from some devotional work that appeals to you, followed by praying the rosary, followed by an extempore prayer to your patron saint. Do that every morning as soon as you get out of bed, before anything else, and you'll be well prepared for whatever the day throws at you. Of course you can add more to that, but I suggest establishing that as your baseline practice.

As for Wednesday, we'll be talking about stimulus diffusion in religious history, and yes, the rise of Protestantism will feature largely in that.

From: (Anonymous)

If I may ask one short follow-up question, if I also wanted to do the Sphere of Protection in addition to what you suggested, where in the sequence that you suggested should I do the SoP?

Thank you,
Eugene

From:

ecosophia

At the beginning, before the reading. The SoP produces a cleansed space in which spiritual practice of all kinds works better.

From:

charlieobert

The traditional Catholic night hour of Compline makes a very good banishing and protection ritual. I prefer the older translations, but the modern rite keeps most of the important prayers and is workable. The centerpiece is Psalm 91 (modern numbering) which is a protection rite in itself.

I use the closing prayer to open my morning and evening ritual.

Visit we beseech the O Lord this habitation, and drive far from it all the deadly power of the enemy; let thy holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in peace; and let thy blessing be upon us always. Through Jesus etc...

Psalms 27 and 42 among others can be used as protection rituals.

From: (Anonymous)

You might have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours which is a standard devotion with prayer and study components. If you're trying to just hit the study component you can focus on the Office of Readings hour.

From: (Anonymous)

I'm starting to notice results from my banishings (though part of that could have been me fixing a visualization mistake a couple weeks back).

Patrick

From:

emily07

As you might know I´ve been doing the DA SOP part 1 for about 5 years (on and off due to hormones, but more on) and there is a difference in where I do the SOP: at home it´s difficult, I think the house is "cluttered up" with a lot of negative energies, at my parents and parents-in-law place much easier, still I almost always have a nice and hard time to get the rays go where they should go or the rotations going as fast as they should. Sometimes at home any speed at all is almost not possible with the first circulation. This might tie in with me having difficulties to roll forward a few times without the room starting to spin.
Anyway last year we visited your country, Denver to be precise.
And boy was the SOP different there! The rays (mostly) went from laserthin light to broad and enscrolled blue-white beams of light with a nice golden sphere to rotate. I thought: so that is what it means to have a strong Egregore!
Now the question:
Since the downstairs neighbour at first was a bit underwhelmed by our moving in with ensuing difficulties that we managed to navigate after some time, I had the feeling that the ray to earth should not go through her space: I let the ray go in a bow. For a few days now I have been experimenting to let the ray go down directly and I get the feeling that somehow as if a corpse is buried under the cellar or something and it felt quite unclean. I didn´t whant to bring that energy down to earth so I started using the bowline again. I just wonder, is that something you have heard of? Or is it probably just me being squeamish because the cellar is also part vacation-home and the ray goes through a toilet, which I find...kind of strange?
Thank you and best wishes,
Emily07
ps: since Milkyway1 recommended the Essene blessing walk, I´m doing it on my way to work (on a bike) and I´m phrasing the blessing as: may you be blessed if you want to be blessed (mögest Du gesegnet sein, wenn Du gesegnet sein magst) but - this is way to slow for when I get past the spot where people get on and off a metro. I tried to to it with multiple people but then the telepatic connection is ...not there?...different?...with one person at a time I can also feel a bit on how healthy people generally are or dunno where problems or energy-tie-ups lie. So the questions are: how can I speed up to bless all metro goers and is the "energy-info" I get an intrusion that I should stop?

From:

ecosophia

1) That's fascinating, that the SoP is so much stronger on this continent!

2) You can certainly direct the ray in any way that works for you. It doesn't have to go straight down.

3) I don't know anyone who can bless everyone in a crowd one at a time with reasonable concentration! I usually do it on whole groups in that situation, even though it's not quite the same.

4) No, the energy-sense that you have is part of a healing gift. When you get to the Dolmen Arch system of energy healing, work on learning to direct healing energy toward the imbalances you sense.

From:

emily07

re 4)...um doesn´t that contradict all the don´t work on people unless you got permission thingummies? Ah, thinking about it: I probably only feel something if there is permission, and I could also phrase the healing as an offering (In the "Angebot" sense).

From:

ecosophia

Oh, I'm not saying that you should heal people without their permission. I'm saying that when you heal someone, that same awareness will guide you in healing them.

From:

open_space

I have been banishing twice a day for a few weeks now, otherwise I feel angry for no reason related to myself. It might be a local thing, mexicans are pretty angry at trump for some reason I can't understand. Well, the guy is a jerk with us in commentary, granted. But is he really a terrible man for, you know, enforcing the law? I will never wrap my head around at someone really trying to demand rights when entering a country illegally and then being offended for being kicked out; or being angry at someone putting tariffs in their own country. Anyway, so yeah, banishing distances me from that and other aspects of the astral.

In my experience it is still trickling down to the material and at least were I live, its manifesting as more than usual brutal violence and forest fires. A lot of blessing work is being done but damn, things do feel like they are coming apart in big chunks and most of what I can do is see the splash. I am fortunate to be far away from the thick of it; it doesn't seem to be slowing down yet to me.

From:

ecosophia

Thank you for the data points! Yeah, that unreasoning anger is showing up in various places, and keeping a physical and spiritual distance from it seems very sensible to me.

From:

open_space

Of course! It has been interesting to see how the same phenomena (this current downward trend in the decline) manifests in two very different societies. I've been learning astrology from your patreon and a course I am taking with the Fraternity for two years now and I am really interested in seeing the ingress charts for mexico and comparing them with the ones you make for the US. I think the Wulmnath have made their lairs in some egregores and I want nothing to do with them. Physical distance is very important in my case because I tend to pick up things very fast --one of the downsides of having psychic tendencies, its good for learning, very bad for such scenarios. Not that I need that many reasons to step out of situations I dislike though.

By the way, regarding blessing a forest. I don’t expect one group is enough to bless the 1500 hectares that disappeared to the flames in a few days, but is the appropriate deity Hesus or Esus perhaps? He is the chief of tree spirits and corresponds with water after all.

From:

ecosophia

Yes, Esus is the deity I'd invoke for that. As for the Wlmnath, they're infesting a lot of places these days!

From:

open_space

Thank you. Yeah they are, and they make of their hosts' mind the same the cordyceps fungi does of the bugs' nervous system they inhabit. It's quite strange, for as much as this is metaphorical, ish.

What is the difference between Esus and his aspect as Hesus if there is one? I recall that Esus is used in the DMH and in the CGD it seems to be indistinct.

From:

ecosophia

That's a good comparison. In the dream, what made the Wlmnath dangerous was precisely that once you start fighting them, you get caught up in a frenzy of rage, lose track of everything else, and keep trying to fight them until you collapse from sheer exhaustion and they swarm over you and devour you. I'm far from sure that's entirely a metaphor.

As for Esus/Hesus, the difference is subtle. In some Druid traditions Esus is the chief of tree-spirits while Hesus is the same being, but acting as a messenger of Hu the Mighty.

Edited Date: 2025-04-28 10:39 pm (UTC)

From:

open_space

Aren't parasites lovely? Given that astral parasites really do like the stench that rage (and the addiction to it) creates, I certainly don't see it as a metaphor only. In my experience their auras already have bite marks, and they feel to me like a tire where the protective layer is damaged and the tube bulges out at the slightest provocation. Ride that a few miles and kaboom, lunch is served. I also note that a lot of people I know with anger problems tend to be alcoholics... because they can't stand themselves and numb their attention away from the astral with it, only to create more holes... Going for the clearing really is the right move. Or as Mrs. Granger did to escape the Devil's Snare strangling her and Berty Scrub's twin, "just stop moving and relax!".

As for Esus, I think I prefer that name, because it creates less of a ruckus on people insisting it's the same as Jesus (he is not that similar to me. For starters Jesus doesn't have eyes that shine like beams of cosmic light). Celtic gods seem very fluid to me, I don't think he will mind me calling both aspects the same.

Edited Date: 2025-04-28 11:29 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

"Hesus" reminds me too much of how Spanish-speaking people pronounce Jesus.

From:

ecosophia

A Greek Pagan friend of mine liked to insist that they were actually saying, "Hey, Zeus!"

From: (Anonymous)

I'm not the OP: I've been doing SOP for a couple of years faithfully -- once a day. Is it acceptable/advisable to do it more than once a day?

From:

ecosophia

I don't recommend doing it more than once a day. If you feel that you need more practices, you might consider taking up a system of occult practice that includes the SoP, such as the Dolmen Arch, the Golden Section Fellowship, or the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose systems.

From:

vitranc

Hmm, yes, yes it is. I see a lot of resignation in doing what the system tells them they should be doing. The whole society feels like it is forcefully frozen into a 2023 state. I do not see overt blue screen signs, but the low key resignation adds up.
It is like a sinister fog and I can second the feeling of anxiety and foreboding, it is trough the roof.

jmg
I have had good results with SoP, prayer and MoE practices in bracing myself in this times. It gives me a feeling of being a bit removed from the madness.
But what can one do for others like close friends and relatives, partners, who are not themselves performing, or are even interested in performing banishing rituals, devotions or such. Most of them are not even in the know that I do them, either out of interest or for occult reasons.

Best regards,
V

From:

ecosophia

I wish there was some way to help people like that. If they're willing to give you permission to pray for them, you can certainly do that. Otherwise? They have the right to pursue their own fate, no matter how dismal that seems to you and me.

From: (Anonymous)

I'd like to add a few observations - I don't really know if they relate to this - do they?

1) Breakdown of old structures - Starting in late spring / early summer last year, many old structures finally broke down. This covered a wide range of things from chicken-keeping to old friendships. We were forced to restart and reinvent, sometimes almost from scratch. Some attempts failed, but most things are slowly picking up steam again.

2) Coming out from under a cloud - yes, maybe. Sometimes it can be described as standing on a hill watching the mists pooling in the valleys below. It becomes increasingly clear (to me, at least), how thin the layer of rationality that is crusted over something different really is for many people - which might become a source for a lot of confusion and turmoil in the time ahead, even more than it already is. This perception comes with a sense of pity and compassion, but also fear.

3) A singular, but weird perception - I have a not-quite visual sense which might perceive on the astral and/or etheric plane. Sometimes, especially before falling asleep this occasionally turns fully visual. A few days ago I "saw" something like a very brief, but very intense flash while standing in full sunlight in a quiet environment. Startling.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Nachtgurke

From:

ecosophia

Fascinating. I've seen both of the first two -- old structures breaking down, new possibilities beginning to emerge, and that same sense of distance from people who are caught up in the fog of hatred and fear. I've also been reflecting on just how thin a veneer rational thinking actually is; I'll be doing a post on this, having watched some very intelligent people get caught up in reactions we share with the baboons and make fools of themselves. As for that flash -- hmm. That's unnerving, though I don't know what to make of it.

From: (Anonymous)

One data point I can offer is that Tarot readings done this year seem to keep coughing up the Wheel of Fortune card - the card of destiny, change, fortune, karma, etc. I've gotten it far more than chance would dictate in my own readings, as well as in a reading done for me by an experienced practitioner. It could be just be me, but it's turned up in more general readings about less personal queries as well. For whatever that's worth.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi JMG,

My to-the-point question: Is there a history of elocution as a form of magical training/practice?

It’s dawned on me, after having watched a lot of British television shows via PBS in my youth, then eventually VHS tapes, DVDs, and now video on demand, that I often feel soothed (disarmed/pacified?) when listening to particular British accents, and certain British actors and actresses in particular.

I have listened to British audio recordings of royal biographies, many spy thrillers, various short stories and novels, as well as a Trollope novel that I have no interest in, and still I am soothed when I’m listening. I’m guessing I’d come under the same effect with an autopsy report and a crochet book.

This, plus my amusement that the British Royal Family seem to have an unusually large fanbase in countries that gained independence from their Empire, has led me to grossly speculate that the Received Pronunciation accent/elocution of the British Empire’s ruling class was a deliberate and conscious magical practice.

I have a similar feeling/attitude with the RP-related Transatlantic Accent.

I often wonder if a politician whose views I disagree with would get more persuasive traction with me if he or she spoke like FDR or Orson Welles.

Thoughts? :-)

-Eugene

From:

ecosophia

That's a fascinating question to which I don't have an answer. I've never encountered anything suggesting the conscious practice of elocution as part of a system of magic, but secret traditions tend to be, well, secret...

From: (Anonymous)

Maybe this is why some people go on and on and on about David Attenborough's voice!!! I never got it personally, but different strokes...

(I don't mind the posh British accent but I'm more soothed by those who speak in cockney rhyming slang ; ) I also like the voices of Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson... I think it has something to do with being from the westside of Cincinnati)

There might be something to this though. In my research for my book The Radio Phonics Laboratory, I learned about Melville Graham Bell's work as an elocutionist and how his creation of his system for Visible Speech, to help the deaf, linked back to the quest for a universal language, that itself had been part of various hermetic and occult traditions. In my research throughout the book, what Joscelyn Godwin called "the mystery of the vowels" came back as a thread over and over again, in the development of communication technology, and the electronic instruments that were an outgrowth of that.

If nothing else, the active use of will in speaking a certain way may have certain effects as opposed to speaking "unconsciously." As a broadcaster, I know I talk differently when I'm on the radio than when I'm not. (Though I can slip into that mode.) Or the different ways you speak when giving a talk or reciting poetry. There is something potentially Bardic that can emerge.

Certainly I think that whether or not elocution had a magical dimension or not, a magical dimension could be brought into it now. But it would be interesting to see if there is anything in the literature about elocution. I imagine there might be something connected to the New Thought movement at least, as speaking well might have been an aspect of self-improvement.

Justin Patrick Moore

From: (Anonymous)

I personally know one teacher of magic who had a strong drama background, and who used to give her students advice in how to speak, especially when teaching or speaking to a group. I don't know that she ever worked up a formal system of magical elocution; however, in connection with speaking, she did have clear ideas about the role of magnetizing, the solar plexus, polarity, and so on. But they were dropped into discussions in a "casual" way, and as far as I know were never written up in manual form.

LeGrand

From:

Bene Gesserit - The Voice?

From:

ecosophia

It's occurred to me more than once that occultists in the future might take Herbert's ideas as a set of goals to work on. That strikes me as a good idea!

From:

jprussell

Not necessarily occultists, but Ron Hale-Evans explicitly wrote Mind Performance Hacks as a "how to become a Mentat" guide, and I found a pdf manual years back on "How to Become a Bene Gesserit" (from my skim, it seemed mostly to be a combination of stuff claiming to be ninjitsu and practical psychology), so such efforts may be even closer still!

Jeff

From:

ecosophia

Good. I expect the first skirmishes of the Butlerian jihad to break out by, oh, next Wednesday, so the sooner we get Mentats and Bene Gesserit witches in training, the better.

From: (Anonymous)

That's sort of what the Yudkowsky generation of the rationality movement was trying to do, and for more or less that same reason. But bridging from a STEM intellectual toolset to the necessary kind of introspection would have required people with knowledge of some combination of cognitive science, (differential) game theory, signal processing, and stochastic control engineering. There weren't enough people interested in those topics for there to be a self-sustaining community of practice. There were people enough who were interested in decision theory and universal algorithmic probability, which in theory should have motivated many of them to acquire an engineering understanding of those other things, which are the details of how efficient implementation would work "close to the metal", so as to be able to find the corresponding patterns in what their brains were doing. But I guess they didn't know about the necessary connection, or at least they didn't know about that deeply enough to find it motivating.

(The general field of study at the point of connection there is called "computational cognitive science". But I only know of one person in the movement who actually recognized that there would be a point in going into into that part of academia, and then mostly only for other reasons. And, instead of becoming a mentat, they just eventually ended up in a social circle which had what I surmise to be a substantially-malefic spiritual contact, did a lot of LSD with the intent of demolishing their ego, had a psychotic episode (including a part where they believed they were a demon), picked up that social circle's typical creepily-disjointed(-as-though-unconsciously-extrinsically-puppeteered) judgementalness, and started using bizarre self-referential framings of other people's motives and shoulda-knowns to post accusations against that social circle's local competitors for moral authority. (Weirdly, they somehow unconsciously stated the accusations using phrasings precisely misleadingly worded and vibed so as to enable third parties who didn't care about whether the details added up to use them as ammunition for takedowns and hit pieces, but still consciously believed that they were against ostracism dynamics and weren't actively trying to play into ostracism dynamics at all.) And of the three other people I know who knew some of the close-to-the-metal details and were vaguely interested in inner development, one fell in with the Zizians (with their related strain of judgementalness) and then left over the katana incident and went to ground, and while the other two seem to have done okay, they weren't really into the intersection. Come to think of it, two of the people who I was in a vaguely related study group with went crazy a few years after we stopped meeting, in two other ways related to judgementalness.)

Or maybe it's my fault that nobody ended up learning the closer-to-raw-psychology mathematical and engineering principles of rationality? Maybe I did very wrongly by not being more involved myself, to promote that connection using what I knew? But I had a lot of other problems going on that might have made that a bad idea.

(A lot of those problems were caused by the situation where rationalists mistrust the judgement of people who can't back up their positions with evidence that would have been less likely to be available in some alternative scenario, and where the universe in Its inscrutable judgement had meanwhile left me in the position of the guy in Carl Sagan's thought experiment who had the invisible flour-permeable dragon in his garage that refused to inflict burns or leave footprints in a third-party-observable way, unless it could tell in advance that it would do so only in such a way as to force plausible alternative explanations to exist. I needed to avoid visibly doing anything that might raise questions about why I believed in a supposed phenomenon, if that phenomenon hid itself from the eyes of other rationalists by purposefully and consistently weaving circumstances around itself to cloak its manifestations behind a very plausible appearance of human delusion. That was radically crippling for me, far beyond what someone who hadn't thought about it might imagine. It was like being an illegal immigrant who couldn't afford for any disputes to rise to the attention of the police, and so correspondingly couldn't do anything that might potentially lead to disputes at all, even indirectly. Never in fifteen years was there anyone functional and knowledgeable whom I could seriously talk to safely about the intersection between the supernatural and the norms and judgement-principles of rationality, who could afford the time.)

The rationality movement tried to buy us Mentats and time to prepare for [discouraged topic] so that nothing like a Butlerian jihad would be necessary. But what it got us instead was a bunch of attention and runaway investment in [discouraged topic], and an ironic situation like that joke with the Torment Nexus:

> Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
>
> Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

The more developed people in or near the scene now, looking back, say things like "the collective attentional processes of humanity seem to be unable to effectively represent the concept of 'don't'," or "[Yudkowsky's] whole thing is about not raising eldritch super power gods, and I think he learned a lesson about how hyperstitioning elides negations".

I guess I wouldn't be going on at such length about this, but I don't even really currently have anywhere to tell anyone my regrets about having not somehow managed to square enough of the circles in question.

From:

ecosophia

To my mind that entire movement approached the whole question from the wrong direction. The crucial point, it seems to me, is to start with the human body and mind as they are and work up from that, rather than doing it from a top-down abstract understanding of how things ought to work. The latter approach almost always fails in practice, and not just in training minds -- there's a reason why an experienced plumber who doesn't know a bit of physics is much better at repairing plumbing than a theoretical physicist who knows, in the abstract, all about the laws governing water under pressure!

I think it's one of the corollaries of Murphy's Law that any large system that works will be found to have grown organically from a small system that works. Building the small system is therefore the first step.

There's also the far from minor fact that we don't have to begin from scratch. An ordinary Renaissance intellectual who had mastered the seven liberal arts and the art of memory, could process ideas using the conceptual algebra of the Lullian art of combinations, and had a working knowledge of three or four languages and so could compare different linguistic structures for understanding any phenomenon, could run rings around most of our modern hotshot thinkers. That might be a workable small system to start with; once it works, build from there.

That is to say, your regrets, real as they are, may be misplaced. The entire approach may have been fatally flawed from the beginning. That being the case, it may be worth considering another try from a different direction.

From: (Anonymous)

Well, it works for some things, like using the laws of mechanics for setting up finite-element analyses to validate the design of a bridge, right? (At least, as long as you have data from materials science that runs for as long as the intended lifetime of the bridge. And you manage to shut down runaway-feedback errors that invalidate your analytical ontology, like the wind resonances that made the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stop being correctly analyzed as a problem in static mechanics and start being only correctly analyzed as a problem in dynamic mechanics, and shortly thereafter stop being a bridge at all.) And I was mostly hoping to figure out how to convert the systemic scale-independent norms to implied special-case implied norms at the smallest intellectually graspable bottom level.

I'm still in "true X has never been tried" territory, but now it's more like "turns out to require a lot more effort to correctly try than it's realistic to expect almost anyone else to independently produce".

Here's a claim related to yours, that came up for me earlier when I was trying to source one of the quotes above. It's from one of the secondary leaders of the movement, looking back on what went wrong:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Jash4Gbi2wpThzZ4k/cfar-takeaways-andrew-critch?commentId=vEBouTPEzwqP2kBsG

> [...] I have a theoretical model in which there are supposed to be cycles of yang and then yin, of goal-seeking effort and then finding the goal has become no-longer-compelling and resting / getting board [sic, should say "bored"] / similar until a new goal comes along that is more compelling. [...] people today seem to me to often try to stop this process—people caffeinate, try to work full days, try to have goals all the time and make progress all the time, and on a large scale there’s efforts to mess with the currency to prevent economic slumps. I think there’s a pattern to where good goals/wanting come from that isn’t much respected. I also think there’s a lot of memes trying to hijack people, and a lot of memetic control structures that get upset when members of the professional and managerial classes think/talk/want without filtering their thoughts carefully through “will this be okay-looking” filters.
>
> All of the above leaves me with a belief that the kinds of not-wanting we see are more “living human animals stuck in a matrix that leaves them very little slack to recover and have normal wants, with most of their ‘conversation’ and ‘attempts to acquire rationality techniques’ being hijacked by the matrix they’re in rather than being earnest contact with the living animals inside” and less “this is simple ignorance from critters who’re just barely figuring out intelligence but who will follow their hearts better and better as you give them more tools.”

From:

ecosophia

1) It does, but only because we have thousands of years of practical experience with bridges undergirding those analyses. Abstractions that work are always developed out of concrete experiences that work; abstractions that don't rest on that kind of basis very often turn out to be empty air.

2) That's also a useful model, since it takes into account the real social and economic contexts in which these theoretical structures have to work. Once again, a more gradual evolution would make that easier to function. I also note that in Herbert's universe Mentat training had to begin in early childhood, when the mental structures are more labile -- just as languages are much easier to learn then, cognitive habits might be easier to establish. Less pressure and more play, too.

From:

baconrolypoly

That's a very interesting idea, Eugene.

How people speak is something that I've thought about a lot and whilst I wouldn't necessarily say that a person's voice can 'do' magic, working on the tone and delivery of what's said can greatly increase its persuasiveness - for men, but especially for women.

This first occurred to me back in 1980s when I was sitting in a lively Student Union meeting. Most of the speakers were male but there was one woman speaker who had good ideas but was incredibly strident, to the point of being shrill, and almost everyone dismissed what she said. This happened at every meeting which must have been very frustrating for her. On the other hand the deeper tones of the male voices were listened to.

At that point I started to think seriously about my own voice and whether or not I was listened to. I'd heard that the then PM Margaret Thatcher had taken voice training classes to lower the tone of her voice in order to appear more authoritative, a tactic that worked very well for her. I read that her male MP's often called her 'Mummy' and many feared to contradict her. I tried it out myself, though without the classes, speaking more from the gut, and it has worked for me too; I'm treated with more respect. I call it my School Ma'am voice - slightly deeper than a woman's voice often is, warm, measured and a bit RP - but whilst using this method does get results, I wouldn't call it magic.

I've seen speaking that way called The Voice of Authority and there's a bit about it here: https://maryhartley.com/how-to-speak-with-authority-and-impact/

From:

jprussell

I teach public speaking and we talk a bit about this. Higher-pitched voices with more tonal variation (i.e. stereotypically feminine) tend to carry longer distances and over background noise, tend to be found more interesting, and tend to convey more warmth and friendliness, but as you've said, tend not to be taken as seriously as authoritative/powerful. Deeper voices with less tonal variation (i.e. stereotypically masculine) tend to be perceived as more authoritative/powerful, less okay to interrupt, and more reassuring that the person has things under control, but on the downside, can be heard as boring, discourages others from speaking up even if that would be helpful, and doesn't carry as far/over as much background noise.

Trying to tweak these things consciously often runs into a lot of resistance - our voices tend to be wrapped up with our self-identity (just think of how much most of us hate hearing recordings of our voice, since it doesn't sound "right"!), but I like to point out that we subconsciously change our vocal tone by context all the time. Think of how folks talk in a high-pitched voice to babies, or listen to the difference in a man's tone when he's talking to his wife or girlfriend versus his coworkers (this was especially noticeable with me when I was in the Army, when my work voice was rather deeper than my normal voice).

If anyone wants to give it a shot at home, here's what I recommend: pick a way you'd like to consciously change your voice (higher-pitched, more tonal variation, lower-pitched, whatever), then record yourself trying to change your voice in that way and exaggerate it to the point of absurdity (if, say, trying to talk lower, talk in the lowest possible tone you can). Then listen to yourself and see how you did, and repeat. The goal isn't to learn to actually talk in such an exaggerated way, but to change things obviously enough that you can tell whether you're making the intended change or not, and then it's easier to "back off" to something more natural if, say, you want to speak in a slightly lower tone to convey a little more authority. Finding specific people to imitate (like Margaret Thatcher, as you mentioned) also is an effective way to practice, and again, recordings can be helpful to figure out if you were actually doing what you were trying to do.

Cheers,
Jeff

From:

emily07

On this: when I am trying very hard to explain something that matters to me, I tend to talk faster and more shrill (that I already do :) This was pointed out to me a longish time ago and since then I foud that it was also a kind of muscle relaxation that did the trick of being better heard an not stress people out with my shrillness. After some years it even changed my singing-voice.
Emily07

From:

robertmathiesen

What you call "the voice of authority," Robert A. Heinlein called "the voice of command."

One of the formative influences in Heinlein's younger life was Captain (later, Admiral) Ernest J. King, of the Lexington. Captain King had mastered that voice fully. Heinlein later described it as "the authentic 'voice of command,' the flat tone of voice that conveys absolute, convincing conviction that there is no possibility of not being obeyed." (See William Patterson's 2-volume biography of Heinlein.)

So I guess one might develop it in the course of one's military career.

From: (Anonymous)

This is more of a data point than anything else, though if y'all have ideas . . .

I have a devout Catholic friend who has been enough of a public figure to attract some hostile attention in politics and arts. My friend has been incrediably ill for some years now (definitely not CoVax: very much finds that using products developed or tested with fetal stem cells is being complicit in murder). Today my friend found out another close friend and professional associate had been badly burned in a housefire a few days ago. A couple others from the group have also had events . . . "once is bad luck, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action."

Now, a couple months ago my friend and my friend's spouse were woken on a clear, stary night by their housecats throwing a hissy-fit (five housecats, large hissy) at their sliding glass door, while their surveillence camera insisted there was something there. Then the cats ran and hid. There was nothing visible to the human eye, but the surveillence camera footage shows what appears to be a driving blizzard. Again, clear starlit night to the eye. The storm vanished at the pre-dawn twilight.

I urged them to get their house blessed by their priest at that time, and they said their priests did not believe in doing that sort of thing as it encourages superstition.

Today my friend connected the dots and asked if I thought someone might have cursed this group of associates. I said that I was certain that some of their adversaries had tried. Scratch half a dozen politically active arts folks and you'll find at least one who will attempt such folly, after all.

St. Patrick's Lorica, prayed by a larger group of friends on the hour, helps quite a lot, and we spread the hours among us. When we started it was to help the child of these friends deal with a hostile professor, and the child became effectively invisible to the professor at that point. The intent was that the child know that the child had support. The result was surprising and completely unexpected. I can highly recommend this discipline and prayer. We chose this prayer because our types of Christians are very different, and some find prayers addressing saints or angels to be idolatrous. St. Patrick's Lorica met the essential religious requirements for all participants while not violating anyone's principles.

However, what is up with Catholic priests refusing to do house blessings? Is this not a contender for most absurd thing of the year? They wouldn't even do blessed chalk! A priest who is not prepared to do house blessings or give his parishoners the tools for it, seems to me (not a Catholic) to be failing in his trust.

BoysMom

From:

ecosophia

A lot of the Catholic clergy, especially in the US, has fallen into what old-fashioned theologians call the heresy of modernism, and yes, it's causing them to fail in their trust and neglect the duties they owe to their congregations. I'm delighted to hear that St. Patrick's Lorica helped! Is this the version you use?

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/p03.html

I'll keep it in mind to recommend to Christians who need spiritual protection.

From: (Anonymous)

This one: https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/st-patricks-breastplate.html

We really shouldn't've been surprised at the invisibility: that's what the prayer was first known for, but . . well, moderns, right?

BoysMom

From:

ecosophia

Thank you -- I've bookmarked that version so I can recommend it to Christian readers. It's a good solid incantation.

From:

readoldthings

JMG got it right: The hierarchy at this point is thoroughly Modernist, and many are effectively atheists. They don't believe that sacramentals like house blessings actually do anything, so why bother? The laity go along with it out of force of habit; because, for many American families, the Catholic church is their last link to their culture of origin (Irish, Polish, etc); and because the only alternative is a "Traditionalist" movement whose tradition is actually Jansenism.

From:

ecosophia

Jansenism? Good gods! I didn't happen to know that. What on earth happened to the central traditions of Catholic theology?

From:

readoldthings

They'd deny it but the shoe fits. At minimum, "culturally Calvinist" is a term Europeans use for for American Catholics and it's completely accurate.

From: (Anonymous)

A lot of the traditionalist Catholics in America are converts from some form of Protestantism and they bring a lot of the Protestant assumptions and baggage to American Catholicism, which is why it ends up looking like Jansenism and Calvinism in Catholic garb.

From: (Anonymous)

Part of the "Jansenist" current, I've heard, came to the US with Irish priests -- because posting to Ireland was a way to get rigorist clergy out of the hair of the continental communities. And the Jansenists were up for the challenge of Ireland when other continental clergy preferred not to. But I haven't looked into the
actual history: just relaying rumors that may serve as useful pointers.
LeGrand

From:

open_space

I have been hearing weird things about Catholicism in the U.S, like the host is given in the hand and not the mouth(!), mass is a social gathering with close to zero power (I attended one and I don't want to repeat the experience ever again, it was incredibly disrespectful to see people in it as if it was not a church but a school gym) and used as a formality for choir practice or some other thing and now priests not doing house blessings! What's next, an app where you get experience points every time you give money and are able to use it as points in the church store? I am not picking on the U.S, and I am sure it's not everywhere, but wow.

From:

ecosophia

My late wife, who grew up Catholic, used to say that the Catholic church in this country is basically in freefall. We're all just waiting for the "splat!"

From:

open_space

I hope it splats! That's better than having people believe that is what religion is, and it might make room for other things. I am saying this as a Catholic myself, a weird one, but still Catholic. If it stinks, it's better to get rid of it, otherwise it spreads...

I didn't talk with her much, but her sense of humor was great. I still laugh at "enradishment".

From:

ecosophia

Oh, yeah. That's one of the many things I miss.

From: (Anonymous)

Dear Mr Greer,

I'm going on a trip of a few weeks and I was wondering if there was a simple working I could do to protect my home against theft, break-ins and other calamities.

Thanks in advance!

From:

ecosophia

Well, what kind of magic do you know how to do?

From: (Anonymous)

I am a complete novice, perhaps working wasn't the correct word to use. If there is something simple that I would be able to do I would be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

From:

ecosophia

As a complete novice, your options are very limited. I recommend burning a white candle on Saturday during the hour of Saturn, and asking Saturn to keep everything safe while you're gone. Then, when you get back, if everything's fine, make three donations of a dollar amount that's some multiple of 3 to three different charities that benefit poor people or the elderly -- Saturn rules both of these, and this will be an offering to him.

From: (Anonymous)

I sometimes add my home to my visualizations and banishing of things when doing the sphere of protection. At times I try to extend the light across my property and while banishing I'll mention theft as one of the harmful influences "and about me". Probably not John Gilbert's intention but, at the minimum, I feel better for doing it.

From:

ecosophia

John did things like that all the time. You're well within the tradition!

From: (Anonymous)

Would the Sphere of Protection work, adapted to the seven planetary spirits?
"teal malodorous oroborous"

From:

ecosophia

Yes. I know people who pray using the Orphic Hymns to the planets, who also invoke the planets in their SoP workings, and get good results.

From: (Anonymous)

Hello JMG,

Someone in my housing block (close to me) committed suicide in his house. It is someone I don't know we'll. I feel that it might have left bad energy. It is now some weeks ago. What can I do to cleanse the environment? My house and maybe other surrounding. I am not sure I can get into his house.

Greetings

From:

ecosophia

This is one of the many reasons it's a good idea to practice a basic protective ritual, such as the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram or the Sphere of Protection, every day. Doing that will dispel such energies.

From: (Anonymous)

Dear JMG and commenters,
Have a good start to the week, everyone!

Do you think we will simply leave this planet to head to another planet or another spiritual plane together, as if we were a swarm of souls?

From:

ecosophia

That's the claim made by Theosophy and related traditions. In the Druid teachings I follow, no, we don't go en masse -- we evolve one at a time, by our own personal efforts, and rise to other planes of consciousness as we earn the right to be there. Which version's right? We'll probably have to wait the few million years necessary to find out!

From:

You've trained me well: as soon as I say this, my first thought upon reading these was "Hold up. That's a binary!" Hmm. Well, one obvious way to make a ternary would be to note that our actions help and hinder others as well as ourselves; which means that those souls that advance faster make a path for others to follow; while those that fall behind can count on help from those further ahead. This maps out with Dion Fortune's tracks of space rather well....

I'm going to have to mediate on this, aren't I? ;)

From:

ecosophia

You certainly can do so if you like!

From: (Anonymous)

JMG Thanks for all you do. I have a question about symbolism, but first a pre-amble.
I am 60 this year a late convert to a magical view. The first magic book I read was " The Druid Magic Handbook" I am a practicing Folkish Odinist running a small hearth in Glastonbury,but I also follow many aspects of your type of Druidism. A particular focus for me is ancestor veneration.
I live in a beautiful part of England the Cotswolds. Locally in and around the surrounding villages and towns, it's still a high trust society and still mainly unspoiled.
I have been protecting the local area with enchantment rituals for 8 years or so, things like being against housing developments and keeping natural areas natural. recently thought I would go to the head springs of the local rivers and streams and drop into them talismanic Crystals to aid this purpose.
My main ritual site is in some woods overlooking an ancient lake, both my parents ashes were scattered here and also of other relatives and faithful pets. Across the valley is the local church the site of my Grandparents resting place.
I should have realised that the springs feeding this lake are the Bisley Wells. The wells were reconstructed in the 1860's and every year since they have held a procession to the well by the school and locals on ascension day. A fine looking traditional event of which i approve, loads of picture online, google "Bisley Gloucestershire dressing of the wells".
My world view is Zionism in all it's forms causes many of the world's ills .Looking at last years photos, the female priest wearing a rainbow sash/scarf thing well I'm not Christian so.. But the children make floral symbols and letters as they always have, the words ascension the letters AD and two Stars of Davids, as far as I am concerned Zionism's symbol. So the questions I have are 1. How is this Star symbol affecting the unaware people. It's obviously affecting me.
How can I transmute my perceived negative feeling that I feel are flowing into "my" ancestral lake. Should I just bless the Wells beforehand and afterwards? maybe on behalf of Aqua Solus or Nerthus or a counter symbol of some sort either something unobtrusive at the wells, or closer to the lake. Any thoughts?
Cealin.

From:

ecosophia

Okay, first of all, remember that the hexagram was an ancient holy symbol long before it was picked up by the Zionists as their emblem, and it's been revered in many lands; it's one of the ways that Chinese Taoists, for example, symbolize the interplay of yin and yang. You might meditate on it until you can see it, not as an emblem of a political movement you dislike, but as a geometrical symbol with its own rich heritage of meaning unrelated to politics.

Second, Dion Fortune makes a crucial point in her book The Magical Battle of Britain -- you overcome evil magic by invoking a stronger good, not by descending to its level to fight it. That was the basis of her successful magical defense of Britain during the Second World War. (Notice that the other side, despite having a much more robust and government-funded occult branch, failed; that happened because they got mired in fighting what they hated instead of supporting what they loved.)

Third, and crucially, always remember that what you hate, you imitate. Keep your attention firmly on the gods and virtues you want to uphold, not on who you blame for this or that bad thing in the world. Bless the wells by all means, in the name of every appropriate deity, but don't do it to squabble with the Christians; do it to bless the wells. That way lies power and peace.

From:

"Third, and crucially, always remember that what you hate, you imitate. Keep your attention firmly on the gods and virtues you want to uphold, not on who you blame for this or that bad thing in the world. Bless the wells by all means, in the name of every appropriate deity, but don't do it to squabble with the Christians; do it to bless the wells. That way lies power and peace." -Emphasis added.

I'm suddenly reminded of the old Roman habit of making offerings to the gods of their enemies. There's obviously a political element here (if you can win the gods over, or even just convince them to sit the fight out, you can weaken your enemies); but it's suddenly occurred to me that there might be another sound reason for it as well: viewing those other gods as enemies would mean that you would be fighting a god. Not just is this a very bad idea from a practical perspective, but it also makes it easier to fall into negativity and evil because the gods are always more virtuous than us in at least some sense.

How can one avoid that particular trap? Simple: all anyone needs to do is make a point of worshiping the gods that would otherwise be "enemies". This has all kinds of unusual implications, and I might have found a month worth of meditation themes, as soon as I clear the things already on my list! ;)

From:

ecosophia

That's a very good point -- and, yes, a fine theme for meditations!

From: (Anonymous)

Thanks for that, the meditation on the Hexagram seems such a good idea. Hopefully I will able to see the symbol for what it is.
I have recently re-read the Magical Battle of Britain and also Paul Weston's similarly titled book. All my rituals are aimed to "build up" Rather than "tear down".
Pre my meditation. What would a local provincial priest in 1860's England understanding of the Hexagram/Star be? Is the star of Bethlehem historically shown as six pointed?.
As to worshiping "enemy" Gods that seems alien to me. Respect maybe, but Worship no not for me.
Cealin
Cealin

From: (Anonymous)

Do you think the epic poems of Homer would be good material for training the mind? Thanks

From:

ecosophia

Yes, and in fact they were used for that very purpose for centuries in Greek and Hellenistic cultures, so they've still got a robust egregor along those lines that will help you out.

From: (Anonymous)

Of possible interest, a new book on the Fox sisters marketed to teenagers. Fairly solid tome though at 300 glossy pages, illustrated.

American Sisters: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad that Haunted a Nation by Barb Rosenstock. Rosenstock is a multiple Caldecott winner and picture book writer, and this is her first nonfiction...

"In March 1848, strange "rap" sounds were heard at the Fox family's home in Hydesville, New York. The family's daughters, Kate and Maggie, discovered they could communicate with the spirit responsible, who claimed to be a murdered traveling peddler. This event sparked a media frenzy, and the sisters, guided by their older sister Leah, became famous spirit mediums, holding public exhibitions and advising celebrities. However, questions about their legitimacy arose, especially as the demand for spiritual communication grew during the Civil War, while media campaigns against the sisters also gained momentum."

Justin Patrick Moore

From:

ecosophia

Hmm! Fascinating. I'm delighted to hear this.

From: (Anonymous)

Super noob question here: your books seem to indicate that one does not vibrate the names of the archangels in the LBRP, only the divine Names. Is that correct? Thank you!

Very much enjoying the Ariel Moravec series and looking forward to the next installment, btw!

--Indigo Tangential Ostrich

From:

ecosophia

Depends on who you ask. The way I learned it, you only vibrate the divine names, but I know other people who also vibrate the archangelic names, and they also get good results. My advice? Experiment and decide which you like best.

From: (Anonymous)

Andrew Tate wrote a screed about using the energy provided by his haters: https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1878820585154732378

It sounds to me like deliberate use of somewhat grubby magic, is this the same thing you described President Trump doing? What kind of karma is he generating for himself here?

From:

ecosophia

He's using it in a grubby way, but it's a natural and normal process. When people focus all their attention on you, whether they do so out of love and admiration or hatred and loathing -- and love and hate are not that far apart, of course -- they're pouring out their energy toward you, and you'd have to be a complete turnip not to pick it up on some level. I discuss some of that in my book on polarity magic.

I'm not at all sure Tate was wise to admit the secret of his power in public, though. Now that he's done so, it wouldn't greatly surprise me if he suffered a sudden fall from grace...

From: (Anonymous)

Because now we know the flow can be skimmed from the top for different purposes, or because someone wants to trip him up?

From:

ecosophia

Among many other things, yes. Also because that's an archetypal pattern -- when the hero with the magic McGuffin gets arrogant and boasts about the source of his power, hubris turns to nemesis before you can say "Sophocles" three times.

From: (Anonymous)

Happy Monday, JMG,
I have a few questions.
1. What is the difference, if any, in the action of a jar with salt, pepper, and nails and a jar with vinegar?
2. I'm working through your book Learning Ritual Magic and noticing that the Middle Pillar exercise works much better for me than SOP, which I practiced previously. SOP felt kind of vague. MPE feels like a metal brush, and the space around me feels like an old rusty Griswold restored to its original black shiny glory. It feels great. I would appreciate your commentary on such a stark difference. Why is that so?
3. How to evict someone who lives rent-free inside my head? I see this person once a week at a social gathering of about 100 people. We used to be friends. Not anymore. Any affirmation that would be appropriate? I also know some natural magic. I am about to finish Learning Ritual Magic. Any advice?
Thank you for being here this Monday!

From:

ecosophia

1) The difference isn't much. Both dissolve etheric forms, though they do it in different ways.

2) Some people get much better results with one than with the other. If the LBRP and Middle Pillar work better for you, by all means use them!

3) You need to do some journaling and figure out why you remain obsessed with this person. Get a notebook and a pen, write the person's name at the top of the page, and then let yourself write whatever comes to mind. Don't edit or censor anything. Do this for fifteen minutes a day and let the bottled-up thoughts and feelings out; many of them may not have anything to do with the person in question, but will relate to unresolved issues from your past. Keep doing this until the emotional charge around the person has been released.

From: (Anonymous)

Thank you, JMG. I just followed your advice in #3 and got some things sorted out. I have a follow-up question. It feels right to me to do something in the material world. I printed out a screenshot of our last exchange of texts, so I have a piece of paper. I'd like to do something with it to symbolically part ways with this connection of mine. Burn it? Throw it into the nearest public garbage can? Throw in the nearest creek? Anything else?

From:

ecosophia

If you want to break the connection, cut out all of your texts from the exchange, take the remainder with the other person's texts, put it in a small bottle or jar, go to a river that flows away from the place where you live, and throw the bottle or jar into the river. Go home by a different route than you took to get there.

(You can do whatever you like with the bits of paper with your texts on them.)

From: (Anonymous)

My dad died a few months ago. A few weeks after his death, I met him in a dream: I suddenly was in his house, and saw him puttering around as usual. I ran towards him to greet him, really happy, and he was just as happy to meet me. When I tried talking to him, the connection broke and I woke up. During the whole time, I was aware both that I'm dreaming and that he was dead and it was his ghost I'm interacting with, although ghost is the wrong word, he was as solid as people can be in a dream.

A few days ago, I had a very similar occurence with a cat in a dream, again suddenly being in my late dad's currently empty house, and the cat being there etc. I'm not a cat person, nobody in the family had or has a cat, and I don't know this particular cat e.g. from the neighbourhood, but I 'knew' it had recently died and had come back to visit. (As to why it visited me and this house, my best guess is it noticed an open door somehwere, and being a cat...) Both occurences were towards morning, when I wasn't sleeping deeply anymore, but somewhere between sleeping and waking.

So once is just happenstance, and twice only coincidence, but I feel I should probably prepare for the possibility this is going to happen again.

1. Are there methods to develop such a skill actively and in a controlled way, including the ncessary security and boundaries, and how? (Pointers to books welcome, too)

2. Are there any drawbacks or dangers to actively developing the skill of 'meeting' dead people like this? Anything I should think about long and hard beforehand, besides the usual level of caution and divination?

3. And can you recommend any books to learn more about this phenomenon and the related skills in general? Talking to dead people or animals hasn't been that high on my radar so far...

Thank you!

From:

ecosophia

This isn't a field I've studied at all; I'm doing dreamwork these days, but it's a relatively new venture for me, and I haven't worked with the dead at all. Thus I'm not qualified to advise you. Anyone else?

From: (Anonymous)

Thank you anyway!

Just for completeness sake, since both times happened at that weird time when one isn't really sleeping anymore, but also not awake yet either, I suspect this could also, or maybe even better, be cultivated as a 'daydream' practice, i.e. by going into a deeply relaxed state while being awake. Maybe somebody has (or you have, of course) any pointers about this, too.

From:

ecosophia

You might look for books on "active imagination," which is the Jungian term for exactly that practice. Those books have a psychological rather than a magical bias, but the practices are the same, and (whisper this) the psychology's not much more than a thin layer over the top of occultism.

From: (Anonymous)

1. My experience is limited to some basic folk practices.

- Daily prayers for the dead. 'For' them rather than 'to' them is what I was advised, but both are super common in many cultures. Interestingly, I think our host has mentioned that some occult traditions discourage these entirely. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

- Dedicate a small area of your home (mantle, etc) to pictures and mementos of the dead. (Many 'old world' Catholics have been doing this longer than anyone can remember, including my Dad).

- Offering fresh, cool water in a glass at that spot. They say "the dead are always thirsty." I hear this is common in parts of Latin America. Never really tried it myself.

2. Drawbacks? Simply put, doing this stuff WILL make your life a little weirder. It can be disruptive, eerie, and emotional. Personally I think if you're going to try these things, daily protections are a necessity.

On one hand, I know at least one person who has a gift a little like yours, doesn't work at it, and lives a pretty normal life except for the rare occasions when it pops up.

But here's an extreme case. I had a friend with a serious natural aptitude for this. I don't really know much about her spiritual practice, but I know it's much more elaborate than what's listed above. (It's been a few years since we were in touch). Her apartment gets constant "visitors," many of whom are lost and need directions, so to speak. She has a really, really tough time living in the modern world, struggles to separate fact from fiction, and her health has been poor for decades.

Possibly related, though much less extreme if so: trying to post this comment was significantly more difficult than usual. I ended up rewriting it to exclude certain details, and now it's acting fine. Go figure.

3. Can't help much there - I hope someone else can make a good suggestion. But food for thought: nearly every culture on Earth, past and present, has a better relationship with their dead than the modern West. You might want to look for good sources on what your own ancestors would have done a few generations ago.

Noodles

From: (Anonymous)

Noodles,

Thank you. About 2): Your second example is what I feared when I asked. On the other hand, if it should develop naturally anyway, which is far from sure yet, I might be better off developing it in a controlled way, including protections and barriers. I wouldn't fancy having uninvited visitors regularly interrupting my sleep, and certainly not certain kinds of visitors. It is also the reason I was asking for methods which work in a waking state.

I will need to think this through a lot more and also use divination before I decide anything, but this helps, thanks.

From:

athaia

The books by Robert Moss might be something you'd find useful for this.

From: (Anonymous)

Thank you!

From:

readoldthings

Hi JMG and Commentariat,

In a comment above the issue of Christian protective magic came up, including the unwillingness of many modern Catholic priests to even provide house blessings for parishioners in need of spiritual support. On my substack blog I've begun the process of publishing versions of traditional magical rituals using Christian, and particularly Roman Catholic, symbolism. If you don't mind, I'd like to share the link to the pentagram ritual, which some here may find helpful. The ritual itself, with both banishing and invoking forms, can be found here:

https://sacramentalmagic.substack.com/p/christian-ceremonial-magic-the-pentagram

This is a revised version of the ritual. An earlier post, with slightly sloppier Latin, has a detailed discussion of the structure of the pentagram ritual, which some might find helpful:

https://sacramentalmagic.substack.com/p/christian-ceremonial-magic-part-1

(I should probably note: Like most traditional pentagram rituals, this includes four angels, with Uriel at the northern quarter. Since many Catholics are under the impression that they aren't allowed to invoke Uriel anymore, I should probably take a moment to point out that this isn't correct. There is at least one manual with the church imprimatur which provides prayers for the seven highest angels, written by Antonio del Duca in the 16th century and recently translated into English by Father Robert Nixon. Even more to the point, however, Uriel is invoked by name in the Byzantine rite within the Roman Catholic Church. If you could legitimately invoke Uriel at, say, the Church of Saint John Chrysostum in Pittsburgh, you can invoke him in your own living room.)

From:

ecosophia

Thank you for this.

A.E. Waite also taught his own revision of the Pentagram ritual in his Christian version of the Golden Dawn, which uses most of the same words as the standard version but traces a cross instead of the pentagram in each quarter, and ends with "And above me the Holy Shekinah, the glory of God in His temple." It appears to work quite well. So Christianizing the ritual is certainly an option.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi JMG, I saw you talk about learning divination with some other people and I recall you advised that for someone learning tarot it often takes a couple years before they start making draws that they can interpret in any sensible way. I've been using tarot for a bit over a year now and I started consistently getting meaningful draws a few weeks in and now for the vast majority of my draws I can easily see what they're indicating about the query. Only around 1 in 20 I'd say are "duds" that lack a clear meaning. It's been a great tool to steer through some sticky situations. Would you say my learning process has been unusually fast? Thanks.

From:

ecosophia

It really varies from person to person. I've known people who started getting good clear readings practically as soon as they picked up the deck, and people who had to spend years getting to that point. Your learning process is faster than average, but not out of the range of normal variation -- and what that means, of course, is that from here on, your abilities will be limited only by how much work you're willing to put into the tarot.

From: (Anonymous)

Thanks for this, that's interesting.

I had a similar experience with Tarot - it felt "right" almost at once, and I started getting surprisingly accurate readings with just a few weeks of practice. I was rather stunned by how "easy" it was.

Until I tried to do divination with literally any other method but Tarot. Ogham, runes, Sibilla cards, diving rods, pendulum - nothing had the same almost immediate "oh, I get this!" feeling I had with Tarot. I know I will have to really put time in with any other method in a way I feel like I almost got to "skip" with Tarot.

My guess is that I (and maybe also you) worked with Tarot in a past incarnation.

Could it be that Tarot remembers, even if we don't?

From:

ecosophia

Yes, but the deep levels of yourself also remember. That's why Mozart was playing the violin on the concert stage at the age of five -- everything below the conscious level of himself remembered music from many previous lives.

From:

If you have a character flaw or harmful habit that seems to be related to an afflicted planet in your nativity, what approach have you found most useful:

1) strengthening the afflicted planet

2) propitiating the afflicting planet if there is one (for instance a malefic aspecting the planet in question)

3) pretty much ignoring the problematic planets and just working with the strong/dignified planets in your chart

From:

ecosophia

If you strengthen the afflicted planet, you strengthen the character flaw. The other two tend to work well, especially in combination: do some planetary charity for the afflicted and afflicting planets, and other than that, ignore them and build on your strengths.

From:

Thank you!

From:

isaac_hill

Not JMG, but from the perspective of the tradition of Vedic astrology I study in, you also don't strengthen an afflicted planet, but you can "pacify" or shanti it. One way, as JMG suggested, is to do donation for that archetype - say Venus is afflicted by Mars and Saturn in the 4th house - you donate to help house girls who are victims of domestic abuse. Another way is that there are planets that balance out malefic planets, for instance, if Rahu, the North Node is causing problems, boosting Jupiter can help keep Rahu in line. Sun keeps Saturn in line, Moon or Venus keeps Mars, etc. Remediation is a very complex process though, as you're fiddling with your karmic framework. That's why my tradition is cautious about using gems/talismans to boost a planet - you want to be sure you're not causing bigger problems! Donation is always safe. Mantras for Vishnu avatars are usually safe.

From:

Thank you! This is helpful .

From:

a) I know you're fond of Dion Fortune's definition of magic as "The art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will". Do you happen to remember where you got that from?

b) Do you know any good places to look for how will is understood in occult philosophy? I'm looking into Arthur Schopenhauer, planning to mediate on the topic, and looking through the bibliography of the occult books I have; but I'd like to know if you can think of any other good resources on the topic.

From:

ecosophia

1) I just happened to cite that in an article, so you're in luck. Here's the footnote:

Fortune, Dion, “The Rationale of Magic,” The London Forum 60:3 (September 1934), p. 179.

2) Eliphas Lévi's Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic has a lot to say about it. I haven't seen anything more recent that I'd recommend, though.

From:

tunesmyth

At this link is the full list of all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts. Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.

If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or in the comments at the current prayer list post.

* * *
This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests.

May Ron M’s friend Paul, who passed away on April 13, make his transition through the afterlife process with grace and peace.

May Corey Benton, whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won't be treated surgically, and who is now able to be at home from the hospital, be healed of throat cancer. Healing work is also welcome. [Note: Healing Hands should be fine, but if offering energy work which could potentially conflict with another, please first leave a note in comments or write to randomactsofkarmasc to double check that it's safe]

May David Spangler (the esoteric teacher), who has been responding well to chemotherapy for his bladder cancer, be blessed, healed, and filled with positive energy such that he makes a full recovery.

May Giulia (Julia) in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland Ohio be quickly healed of recurring seizures and paralysis of her left side and other neurological problems associated with a cyst on the right side of her brain and with surgery and drugs to treat it, if providence would have it, and if not, may her soul move on from this world and find peace with a minimum of further suffering for her and her family and friends.

May JRuss's friend David Carruthers quickly find a job of any kind at all that allows him to avoid homelessness, first and foremost; preferably a full time job that makes at least 16 dollars an hour.

May Princess Cutekitten, who is sick of being sick, be healed of her ailments.

May Pierre in Minnesota be filled with the health, vitality, and fertility he needs to father a healthy baby with his wife.

May Viktoria have a safe and healthy pregnancy, and may the baby be born safe, healthy and blessed. May Marko have the strength, wisdom and balance to face the challenges set before him. (picture)

May Liz and her baby be blessed and healthy during pregnancy, and may her husband Jay (sdi) have the grace and good humor to support his family even through times of stress and ill health.

May 1 Wanderer's partner Cathy, who has bravely fought against cancer to the stage of remission, now be relieved of the unpleasant and painful side-effects from the follow-up hormonal treatment, together with the stress that this imposes on both parties, and may she quickly be able to resume a normal life.

May Jennifer’s newborn daughter Eleanor be blessed with optimal growth and development; may her tongue tie revision surgery on Wednesday March 12th have been smooth and successful, and be followed by a full recovery.

May Mike Greco, who had a court date on the 14th of March, enjoy a prompt, just, and equitable settlement of the case.

May Cliff's friend Jessica be blessed and soothed; may she discover the path out of her postpartum depression, and be supported in any of her efforts to progress along it; may the love between her and her child grow ever more profound, and may each day take her closer to an outlook of glad participation in the world, that she may deeply enjoy parenthood.

May Other Dave's father Michael Orwig, who passed away on 2/24, make his transition to his soul's next destination with comfort and grace; may his wife Allyn and the rest of his family be blessed and supported in this difficult time.

May Peter Evans in California, whose colon cancer has been responding well to treatment, be completely healed with ease, and make a rapid and total recovery.

May Debra Roberts, who has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, be blessed and healed to the extent that providence allows. Healing work is also welcome.

May Jack H's father John, whose aortic dissection is considered inoperable and likely fatal by his current doctors, be healed, and make a physical recovery to the full extent that providence allows, and be able to enjoy more time together with his loved ones.

May Goats and Roses' son A, who had a serious concussion weeks ago and is still suffering from the effects, regain normal healthy brain function, and rebuild his physical strength back to normal, and regain his zest for life. And may Goats and Roses be granted strength and effectiveness in finding solutions to the medical and caregiving matters that need to be addressed, and the grief and strain of the situation.

May Kevin’s sister Cynthia be cured of the hallucinations and delusions that have afflicted her, and freed from emotional distress. May she be safely healed of the physical condition that has provoked her emotions; and may she be healed of the spiritual condition that brings her to be so unsettled by it. May she come to feel calm and secure in her physical body, regardless of its level of health.

May Linda from the Quest Bookshop of the Theosophical Society, who has developed a turbo cancer, be blessed and have a speedy and full recovery from cancer.

May Frank R. Hartman, who lost his house in the Altadena fire, and all who have been affected by the larger conflagration be blessed and healed.

May Open Space's friend's mother
Judith be blessed and healed for a complete recovery from cancer.

May Peter Van Erp's friend Kate Bowden's husband Russ Hobson and his family be enveloped with love as he follows his path forward with the glioblastoma (brain cancer) which has afflicted him.

May Scotlyn's friend Fiona, who has been in hospital since early October with what is a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, be blessed and healed, and encouraged in ways that help her to maintain a positive mental and spiritual outlook.

May Jennifer and Josiah and their daughters Joanna and Eleanor be protected from all harmful and malicious influences, and may any connection to malign entities or hostile thought forms or projections be broken and their influence banished.

* * *
Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.

If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun's rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.

From:

ecosophia

Thank you for this as always.

From:

Hello, and thank you all for your prayers!

Eleanor seems to be recovering well from her surgery and is healthy and happy. Continued prayers for her optimal health, development, and oral function are most appreciated.

We also received welcome news that she is not in fact affected by some issues we were worried about based on prenatal indications (hip dysplasia and possible short-limb dwarfism). Wonderful news!

Unfortunately my postpartum bleeding is continuing for an abnormally long time, and I am going in for an ultrasound. Depending on what it shows, they say I might need a D&C. If our family can take up yet more room on the prayer list, I would appreciate prayers for myself:

“May whatever is causing Jennifer Kobernik’s postpartum bleeding be resolved with the best possible outcome, and may she be completely healed.”

Thank you!

From:

kylec

I'm offering healing hands this week to anyone who would like to receive them. This is a free spiritual healing modality conducted at a distance. All you need to do is leave your name and your request in a reply, or PM me. Thanks for helping me practice.

From:

I would like to receive healing hands this week, please.

Unfortunately my postpartum bleeding is continuing for an abnormally long time, and I am going in for an ultrasound. Depending on what it shows, they say I might need a D&C, which I would really like to avoid!

Thank you!

From:

open_space

Me please. Thanks Kyle!

From:

vitranc

Thank you Kylec,
Would love to receive some healing energy.
Best regards,
V

From: (Anonymous)

I would like one this week too -- Thanks !

Atmospheric River

From:

oakus

Hi Kyle,

I will take you up on your offer of healings directed my way. As always, thanks very much for your work.

Peter

From:

cs2

When I do my daily blessings I imagine something similar to the Circulation of Light around the person (all with permission). However, for a family who has recently lost a pet or loved one, I'm wondering whether I should imagine separate spheres around the newly departed. I don't want my lumping them together to result in them struggling to move on. My instinct has been to do separate spheres.

Is there anything in Western esotericism about this or do you have any advice? Thanks.

From:

ecosophia

Your instinct is correct. Yes, it's best to do a separate sphere for each of them, so you charge their individual auras rather than simply reinforcing the egregor of the family unit.

From: (Anonymous)

I’ve been working my way through your Natural Magic book (thank you). I work a job where I’m exposed to grubby energies on a daily basis. In addition to a daily banishing, I was thinking carrying an amulet would be a good idea to keep the unsavory stuff from sticking. I follow Druidry and have a lot of dried vervain sitting around. Would putting some in a red pouch do the job? Or should I opt for St John’s wort (or mix of the two)? Ideally something small that I can carry in my pocket.

Thank you for helping us rookies out every week. You are always so patient and kind. If you’ll have a blessing - may you be blessed in the light of the divine

From:

ecosophia

Thank you! It's traditional, at least in the traditions I studied, to use an odd number of ingredients in herbal amulets. To vervain and St. John's wort I'd add angelica, a very powerful protective herb and one that (to use the terms I was taught) helps raise the vibrations of the person who carries it, thus shielding them from the whole range of lower energies.

From: (Anonymous)

For those who want to support Britain's astral pyramid, Kimberly Steele is currently singing the former British national anthem "God Save the Queen" every day, and you are welcome to join her:

https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/144376.html

For those who want to instead support America's astral pyramid, you can sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" every day. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" has the same melody as "God Save the Queen" and was one of many de facto American national anthems back before the United States adopted their current official national anthem in 1931.

From:

ecosophia

I have to admit I've always preferred "America the Beautiful"...

From:

brendhelm

After some meditation on the subject:

"The Star Spangled Banner" is triumphalist, both in the lyrics and in the music itself - better suited for the bombast of brass rather than the comparative serenity of strings and woodwinds. A celebration of victory, very suited for an imperial power, delineating an astral pyramid with a martial and somewhat solar focus.

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is, as pointed out, the same melody as "God Save the King/Queen," which suggests that it's probably still tied in with the British egregor in some sense. Some might want that; some might not. Note that nowhere in the song - including the verses hardly anyone knows - is the name "America" ever actually mentioned. That said, the emphasis on liberty and freedom espoused in the lyrics of the song would seem to support the building of an astral pyramid focused on those principles. It seems to have strong Saturnian (harkens back to Britain in its melody, "land where my fathers died," etc.) and Uranian (liberty/freedom) vibes (although all these songs have liberty/freedom vibes in them).

"America the Beautiful", besides actually mentioning the country, actively invokes a divine blessing ("God shed His grace on thee"), is strongly Venusian ("beautiful" in the title, lots of nature imagery, "crown thy good with brotherhood"). There are some Martial themes in the obscure third verse, but they evoke images of heroism rather than simply victory - Mars at his best, in other words. The same theme of freedom is present in other verses, too.

"God Bless America" should also be mentioned. Obviously a divine invocation, but a briefer one - as far as I know there is only the one verse. The song references America's natural beauty and therefore has some Venus in it. The imploration for God to "guide her...with the light from above" sounds quite Jovian. There is however no mention of freedom or liberty, so it's probably better used in conjunction with one of the other hymns.

From: (Anonymous)

I will start singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" because I like liberty over military adventurism.

Patrick

From: (Anonymous)

That song works too, as does any other American patriotic song like "Hail, Columbia" or "The Star Spangled Banner". I mostly chose "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in my comment because it has the same melody as the British national anthem so you're at least singing the same melody as Kimberly Steele every day.

From:

ecosophia

For the reasons Free Rain brought up, I'm by no means sure I want to be singing the same melody...

From: (Anonymous)

An interesting idea - but did you see post #142 by Free Rain on the main blog?
https://www.ecosophia.net/april-2025-open-post/#comment-134304

From: