Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

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-seventh published book, a study of the utterly unfashionable approach to sexual energies in magic that Dion Fortune and her fellow occultists of the Society of the Inner Light pioneered. You can always get a lot of interest by telling people to engage in orgiastic excess, and curiously enough, you can also get a lot of interest by telling people that sex is bad and God will spank them for thinking about it. Suggest something in between these extremes and nothing like so many people want to hear about it. Be that as it may, this is a practical handbook of magical practices that use redirected, sublimated erotic energies; the participants sit several feet from each other, usually with an altar in between them, and stay fully clothed. How dowdy? Nonetheless the methods work extremely well, and I give full details. If you're interested, you can get copies here in the US and here elsewhere. 

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I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 

 

I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!

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

Comments

Affirmations and Ageless Wisdom

[hedgerow]

Good evening JMG and all.

1. In my day job, I help people overcome addiction. I've personally worked with your affirmation instructions with great success — spending a year on one affirmation, then over two years on another, both with strong results. When working with addictions like alcohol, cocaine, or compulsive pornography use, is there a reliable structure for affirmations that avoids negative phrasing? For example, Addictive Voice Recognition Technique uses: “I will never drink again, and I will never change my mind.” I’ve considered: “I overcome all temptations to drink alcohol.” Do you think this kind of structure is effective?

2. I recently attended public lectures in Glastonbury on Ageless Wisdom and Esoteric Psychology, which I found aligned in some ways with your Occult Philosophy Workbook. The speaker was very critical of "occultism," including tarot and divination, yet recited The Great Invocation (written by Alice Bailey, I believe) and explored the Seven Rays — material I recognise as Theosophical, and thus part of the Western occult tradition. Is such an aversion to the term "occultism" common in these circles, or does this seem more idiosyncratic to that group?

Re: Affirmations and Ageless Wisdom

[ecosophia]

1) I've never seen a structural approach to this. Your affirmation is good; depending on the person, another might be "alcohol belongs to my past, not to my present or future." It interests me that the technique you cited uses "never" -- that's not quite the same as a standard negative, and repeating it that way might work well. Say it aloud a few times and see what vibe it gives you!

2) Yeah, there's a whole subculture of people who are into occultism but refuse to call it that. "Ageless wisdom" is one common euphemism; fans of Rudolf Steiner prefer "spiritual science."