ecosophia | Magic Monday

Midnight is upon us 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 seventy-fifth published book, the sequel to The Witch of Criswell and thus the second Ariel Moravec occult mystery.  Once again, it's eighteen-year-old Ariel and her adept grandfather on the case, investigating the theft of a rare magical book and a trail of clues that might lead to a pirate treasure hidden somewhere in the odd old East Coast port town of Adocentyn. Ariel and Dr. Bernard Moravec aren't the only ones on the trail, though, and the others will stop at nothing to get there first...

In case you can't tell, yes, I'm having enormous fun with these. You can get a copy here if you're in the United States and here elsewhere.

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~~With that said, have at it!~~

***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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.

Magic Monday

Re: Meeting dead people in dreams

Re: Meeting dead people in dreams