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! 

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

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! ;-)

[vitranc]

Oh no, not at all.
Myself, I had to adapt to being an occultist living with normal people. So I minimised the clutter. I have a candle, preferably bees wax but not necessary, stashed somewhere. That’s it. I just light a candle and make an appropriate sign over it. Then I recite the ancient prayers, translated for my convenience, and pray.
While travelling even the candle can be omitted.
I dream of a peaceful shrine at home… I did have an idea for a project…

[open_space]

Yesterday at the Musée d'Orsay I found this sculpture of a sassy toadlike being, in a section called "monsters" and couldn't help but whisper to myself...

...Iâ, Iâ!

[ecosophia]

Very Tsathogguesque!

[(Anonymous)]

Hopefully this is an okay place to interject this question, but which deity in the CGD system would be most appropriate to pray to for a reduction in the nuclear Sabre rattling that is going on right now? I live somewhere that most certainly would get multiple warheads, so I would like to see a decrease in the silly brinksmanship with very powerful bombs.

I was thinking that Modur would make the most sense with the correspondece to Mars, but then I started second guessing whether a war god is the right one to pray to for peace. I could make an argument either way whether peace is in the bailiwick of war gods or not.

Thanks

Geoff

[ecosophia]

I would recommend invoking Beli, the god of the fourth sphere, for this purpose. Peace is very much part of that sphere's symbolism.