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 not be put through.  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 eighty-first published book, the third entry in my series of occult detective novels starring eighteen-year-old Ariel Moravec and her adept grandfather Dr. Bernard Moravec. As I think I mentioned here already, I didn't intend these to be young-adult novels -- I simply wanted a protagonist who was in a good situation to begin occult training, and had plenty of entertaining problems of her own. Nonetheless I was delighted a while back to hear from a reader whose young daughter, a fan of these novels, has begun calling them "Nancy Druid stories." 

In this third installment, Ariel and her grandfather are caught up in a mystery surrounding a strange artifact from pre-Roman Italy, a bronze plaque with wolves and an inset moon of carnelian. The Heydonian Institution wants it for their collection of ancient magical items, but somebody else is after it, too -- and circumstantial evidence suggests that the somebody in question might just run on all fours and bay at the moon on certain nights. As Ariel researches the truth behind the old myth of the werewolf she hurtles toward a dangerous confrontation on the night of the full moon...

Copies? You can get them here if you're in the US and here elsewhere. Owoo! 

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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! 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What do I do in order to pray to a deity?

[ecosophia]

Talk to them. Don't grovel; simply sit or stand, whatever's comfortable for you, clear your mind, turn your attention to the deity as you imagine him or her, and talk as you would to a much older and wiser friend. When you're done, remain silent for a time, and then do whatever.

Have you by any chance read The Weird of Hali: Kingsport, the second of my tentacle novels? The way that Jenny prays to the Great Old One Tsathoggua, and her experiences with that practice, are based on my own experiences praying to pagan deities.

[vitranc]

Second the WoH: Kingsport method.
I modelled my prayer practice on that novel and inserted some deities that appealed to me. And TSW.

[ecosophia]

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I have an altar with images of deities on it, where I burn a little incense, place certain offerings, and repeat ancient prayers. They're not in Aklo, however! ;-)

Dowsing and common courtesy

[vitranc]

Hi JMG,

1.) You mentioned a couple of weeks ago, in person, that archaeologist are probing ground with metal rods. So I am certain you know quite a bit about dowsing. Would you have any recommendations regarding good starter guides, or books? Does one treat it similar to a divination tool like an Ogham oracle, MOE pendulum, or rubbing fingers?

2.) Obviously earth energies have been on my mind as of late. What is the proper courtesy when approaching spirits of the land? Any recommendations of how to get on their good side; to befriend them?

Best regards,
V

Re: Dowsing and common courtesy

[ecosophia]

1) Dowsing's not one of my talents, so I don't know as much about it as all that. I do know that Christopher Bird's book The Divining Hand and Tom Graves' The Dowser's Workbook are both well recommended.

2) Find out what the local country people do to keep the spirits happy, and copy them. People who have been living on the land for generations pick up a lot of helpful lore on that subject, and it's important to listen to them because earth spirits from one area don't necessarily have the same habits as those from other places.

Thought Transference - Edmund Shaftesbury

[(Anonymous)]

I have a deceased relative who was very widely known in the family to be "psychic", and almost everybody who spent time with her have their own stories about her abilities.

I always thought that she was just naturally born that way, but I recently spoke to one of her very close friends who told me that she actually just picked up a book called Thought Transference by Edmund Shaftesbury and developed her skills/abilities by simply methodically working through all of the exercises.

My questions:

1. Are you aware of Shaftesbury's work? If so, do you have any thoughts about him/his work?
2. Before I try to hunt down his books or find them online (the copyright has long expired by now), do you have any other recommendations in lieu of this particular work?

Thank you!

Re: Thought Transference - Edmund Shaftesbury

[ecosophia]

Good heavens -- Webster Edgerly! That was the real name of the guy who wrote under the name of Edmund Shaftesbury. I have, and learned quite a bit from, several of his books on "magnetism" (aka the life force). Here are some of his works, available for free download:

https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Edmund+Shaftesbury%22

His methods are good, but his books are rather long-winded and freighted with attitudes many people find distasteful these days. Another author of the same era worth reading along these lines is William Walker Atkinson. Here's his book on learning telepathy:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41358

Re: Thought Transference - Edmund Shaftesbury

[ecosophia]

Let me add one more comment here: everyone is psychic. This notion that some people have psychic abilities and others don't is nonsense. Some people simply figure out how to use their innate abilities in early childhood, while others don't, and have to learn how later on. Books like Shaftesbury's and Atkinson's are good textbooks.

Re: Thought Transference - Edmund Shaftesbury

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you very much--hugely appreciated!

Full Moon

[rhydlyd]

It might be auspicious that this week’s summary is about a red Moon… Did you or the commentariat notice a decline in energy around the Strawberry Moon on 11 June? I assumed I was tired and put down The Dolmen Arch beyond the TOL for a week. Everything, as far as I can telll, is back to normal. Since then, a number of Reki practitioners have commented about low energy, charge crystals and other weirdness.
Any ideas?
Many Thanks!!!
Rhydlydd

Re: Full Moon

[ecosophia]

On the 11th I'd just gotten home from England; I was very tired, but assumed it was the consequence of the trip. I didn't notice anything unusual about it, no.

New Orphic Hymn to Nyx

[kimberlysteele]

Another Orphic hymn is hot off the presses! This time it is the Orphic hymn to Nyx, goddess of night. Here is a link to the YouTube, which includes chords for anyone who would like to cover it. Someone finally covered my Orphic hymn to Hermes on TikTok. It was a young woman who sang it acappella. I found out about it earlier today and I was on Cloud Nine all day.

Regular YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GIqXp3RPo

Here is the YouTube link that is 120 minutes of the same song over and over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GIqXp3RPo

Here is the link on Bandcamp where it is available as a free, high quality download:

https://queeniemusic.bandcamp.com/track/orphic-hymn-to-nyx

Re: New Orphic Hymn to Nyx

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear this!

big questions on heavy matters

[kallianeira]

Dear JMG and readers,

Once I was walking by a house for sale so was looking closely over the fence. Dogs on chains were being kept in the open and they had gone mad. They had no shelter, short haired breeds out in the wintertime, and they barked at everything. It was horrible to witness.

The pain, despair and outrage of my last few months have not abated. While my sorrow over the loss of my partner is likely to diminish naturally with time and ordinary healing, there are emotional effects from witnessing the awful treatment he received in the medical machine which bode fair to stay with me forever. These are very much sentiments on the lower astral and I want to exorcise them. Let their energy be transmuted into something healthy and bright. Offer it to powers who will do that with it.

I feel swamped by this energy, like a feeding trough for negative entities, in danger of being posioned myself, or going mad. How can people heal from horror? If this is (just) PTSD it is of a far direr kind than the version I had previously met. I am not alone: veterans get it, those who have experienced or witnessed medical malpractice and negligence are legion. People on this list have had such experiences of real horror and trauma. I don't want to call them out personally here, but could anyone point to what might have helped them?

Trauma counselling would not seem to be up to the task.
The Octagon Society work does not appear on spec to be designed to deal with it.
Daily banishing is ineffectual.

Other observations on the subject:
Music transforms, composers transmute suffering into beauty. Listening to much classical music does give me momentary peace.
"Wings of Desire" the film depicts a compassionate angel whose job it is to witness humans' suffering. But not heal it.
Probably other works of art are created under similar circumstances and the empathy contained in them can reach the audience. Tchaikovsky and Brahms come to mind.

What I did last time the awfulness hit me was beg my Guardian Angel to send the energy to beings who would be able to transform it. I did sense some waves of light descending to me at that point, rather than the suffering itself doing anything particular. It has felt slightly lighter since then. But I worry about it coming back.


Addendum to my query from last week re all sorts of things going wrong in my life - I have been reminded that it is not only for me, and not only now; boccaccio mentioned this in February concerning the energy coming down the planes:
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/316974.html?thread=54075950#cmt54075950
And others on the thread confirmed.

Re: big questions on heavy matters

[ecosophia]

I don't have an answer for you. I'm still dealing with my own griefs, using the tools of meditation and magic; we'll see how that works out.

Recovering from depletion

[(Anonymous)]

Due to a sustained period of great psychological stress lasting easily thirty months, I am experiencing much weariness, physical and otherwise. The causes of stress are thankfully now much reduced, but I still feel drained, and seem to be recovering more slowly than I would like. My vim, confidence and enthusiasm are at a low ebb.

I’m already following a fairly full agenda of ceremonial magic and would prefer not to add to it. Is there any simple, fairly easy natural magic I could use to help restore my vitality?

Re: Recovering from depletion

[ecosophia]

In my experience, what's needed in such times is not magic but the simple, basic things the body needs: absurdly large amounts of sleep, good food, plenty of clean water, and regular massage if you can afford it. Those will do you more good than any amount of spells.