Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. (The picture is George Winslow Plummer, co-founder and for many years the mainstay of the Societas Rosicruciana in America, a lively and still-surviving American esoteric school.)

Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

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 the button below to access my online tip jar.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed to new questions. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That you know off. Do the beings we call gods communicate to other entities outside of the solar system?

[ecosophia]

I have no idea. I don't think any human being knows.

[violetcabra]

Many, many thanks for Magic Monday,

I've been doing regular mediation and ritual now since February and it feels like more and and more gunk has been expelled from my subtle bodies in a 'detox'. It's exhausting! But feels very important to my development as a person. It really is wonderful even if it is simultaneously hard and extremely painful at times.

As this process continues, I've been feeling by a sense that there is something I need to *do*, that feels important for my Individuality -- but I have next to no idea what that is! Again, I imagine that this experience of a spiritual 'waiting room' is normal and healthy (although of course I'm not sure), and I so I ask you do you know of a good way of figuring out what that important thing that needs doing is? Or if it's just a matter of doing *something*? Or is it best to wait until there is clarity? Meditating on some different ideas has led me to think many of the ideas are worthwhile, but I've not yet had the emotional satisfaction of finding the 'right' one, the one that clicks and makes my life make more sense. This too, though, could be an unduly limiting illusion, and so I'm asking for your experienced opinion.

[ecosophia]

It isn't about "doing." The best metaphor I've yet encountered for the work of spiritual development is the way you grow a plant from a seed. You don't have to "do" the growing; you provide the seed with the conditions it needs -- soil, water, a suitable temperature -- and it does the growing all by itself, without strain or stress. In the same way, you provide your spirit with the right conditions through appropriate practices, and it unfolds in its own time.

In the same way, and even more importantly, there is no "right" idea. The process of meditation will lead you to explore many ideas, and one of the things you'll learn is the very imperfect fit between human ideas and reality. The process is the thing that matters.

[(Anonymous)]

What is the general internal outcome of western esoteric practices? You said "Eastern" goals of "enlightenment" or "awakening" aren't the only game in town last week. I know each tradition probably leads to a different mountain but if Buddhism is aimed towards "awakening" an individual through, for instance, direct experience of "no-self" what is the aim of, for instance, Golden Dawn training?

[ecosophia]

In the Golden Dawn tradition, the self we normally experience, the ordinary personality or ego, is called the Lower Self. There are two higher aspects of the self, one of which is called the Higher Self, and the other the Higher and Divine Genius -- the word "genius" used to mean a guardian spirit before it meant somebody with unusual mental talents. The Higher Self consists of all the potentialities of the individual that we don't yet experience, while the Higher and Divine Genius is our link with the divine. The goal of Golden Dawn training, then, is to unite the Lower and Higher Selves, so that the initiate is able to access the whole range of his or her potentialities and is no longer stuck in the limited views of the ego. When this happens, the combined Self is in direct contact with the Higher and Divine Genius, receiving its guidance and energies.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear jmg
Have people ever used magic to discipline or control their children? (E.g. make them stop having tantrums, want to succeed in the career the parents chose for them ect)

[ecosophia]

No doubt, but I don't recommend it. Dominating anyone's will using magic is a slippery slope that leads to very unwelcome places.

Meme Wars

[(Anonymous)]

What do you think of fashionable liberal women invoking Kauket to “counterbalance” Kek and restore the old order that supported their worldview?

Re: Meme Wars

[ecosophia]

I think they need to learn a lot more about Egyptian mythology. "Counterbalance" does not mean "oppose;" Kek and Kauket are a syzygy, a pair of balanced energies sharing a common function, and if they invoke Kauket and strengthen her influence, that'll simply make it easier for that common function to manifest itself in the world.

It's quite possible that the Kek-Kauket syzygy is luring them into this work...

Egregor?

[(Anonymous)]

I’m the cheerful fool writing a fraternal rite for the Green Wizards’ Benevolent and Protective Association. The project is getting its own dark and harvest-y personality. (Possibly because we are gleaning ideas in the autumn of modernity…?) So, should we arrange meetings around harvest aspects of the Moon and astrological signs? Rusty

Re: Egregor?

[ecosophia]

In a perfect world, sure. In the world we live in, it usually works best to choose a date on the ordinary calendar -- for example, the third Thursday of every month, or what have you.

3 questions

[(Anonymous)]

1) what do you think of Aurum Solis? Are they credible? And would you recommend certain individuals avoid them for a specific reason (like mental illness, for example)?

2) In the spirit of the other blog, what is the earliest use of magic by European settlers in the Americas that you know of?

3) (this one is for the community at large) in a previos magic monday, a poster conplained about their tarot deck which was air-wands and fire-swords. What deck was that? Or can anyone recommend tarot decks with those associations?

Thanks!!!
Sincerely
Jessi Thompson
anotheramethyst

Re: 3 questions

[ecosophia]

1) To the best of my knowledge it's a solid and fully functional magical system, very close to that of the Golden Dawn. As with any other system of ceremonial magic, it should be avoided by people who have mental problems sufficiently severe that they need more than the mildest kind of medication, or any kind of serious heart problem.

2) All the European settlers who crossed the Atlantic brought their own folk magic with them; I don't recall what exactly the oldest magical working was, but the English settlements, for example, had plenty of ordinary English folk magic going as soon as they arrived.

3) I'll leave that for the readership!

Atlantis redux

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Continuing with the Atlantis theme: I've come across speculation that at some point in their civilizational development the Atlanteans acquired a great racial pride, probably stemming from their tech/psychic prowess which gave them easy sway over other nations and peoples. Flash forward some 16 thousand years or so to late 19th-early 20th century when, it is speculated, a great number of former Atlanteans were incarnated in .... Germany. Great racial pride? Check. Tech prowess? Check. Fascination with the occult and the psychic realm? Check. Desire to hold sway over Europe, if not the entire world? Definitely.

I know that in German occult circles, "Thule" was considered the Germanic mythic Homeland, but could they have been conflating this with Atlantis? Do you suppose such a mass incarnation of former Atlanteans could have occurred in Germany, even though there may have been no bloodline ties with Atlantis? Or did the rise and fall of Nazi Germany basically manifest a destructive Atlantean archetype, a fate to which all peoples might be subject?

Thanks in advance - Will M

Re: Atlantis redux

[ecosophia]

Hmm. Where did you encounter this? Dion Fortune insisted that a lot of Atlanteans were incarnating in late 19th and early 20th century Britain, and I think it was Edgar Cayce who believed that lots of them were incarnating in early 20th century America. Given how long ago Atlantis was, I'd doubt that anyone who was around then is still around now...

[(Anonymous)]

What happens with magic and karmic backlash if the working you do won't kick in until after your death? Like the Ancient Egyptian 'if anyone messes with my tomb, may he be eaten by crocodiles' kind of thing.

[ecosophia]

The act of will and the movement of energies still take place in the present, and so the Raspberry Jam Principle applies at once, irrespective of when the spell is meant to take effect.

[(Anonymous)]

With your understanding of reincarnation, how does the Buddhist goal of getting off the wheel of life and death work? Is it another way of describing reaching Gwynfydd or is it something else entirely?

[ecosophia]

I'd probably have to sit down with a Buddhist and work out the comparison from first principles. According to Druid lore, the dwellers in Gwynfydd no longer lose the thread of consciousness and memory when their bodies change, and of course their bodies are of a different kind than those of dwellers in Abred, but there's no end point, no point where things just stop -- no upper limit to the power and wisdom and grace you can earn by your own efforts.

Druidry and Hermeticism

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

Your comment on converting Hermetic spiritual techniques into Druid spiritual techniques has left me thinking over the weekend.

So far I have found no trouble in applying Hermetic principles to my Druidical cosmological views. The same goes for most classical occultism I've studied (but not practiced), from Regardie to Fortune to Butler to Bardon.

What are, in your view, the most noticeable differences between Hermeticism and Revival Druidry? (I understand a book could be written on the topic, but is there anything that stands out in your mind?)

Respectfully yours,
Brigyn

Re: Druidry and Hermeticism

[ecosophia]

Druidry tends to value material existence and the biological side of life very highly, unlike many Hermetic schools -- the Golden Dawn adage "quit the material and seek the spiritual" would find few takers among Druids! (We'd rather awaken the spiritual within the material.) That's the one difference I can think of that matters; since modern Druidry has close ties to the Pythagorean tradition and a longstanding involvement in alchemy, the principles are mostly the same and the variations are no more extreme than those between different branches of Hermeticism, or for that matter Druidry.

[(Anonymous)]

Concerning the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram for Heathens ritual you posted - you wrote in an earlier post on doing this ritual as a polytheist that you can perform it by using the name of your patron and four deities with four letter names. Does that apply here too, could I, for example, use the name FREY instead of RIGR? And if so, should I substitute the objects named later in the ritual ("Before me the Spear Gungnir...") as well or are they chosen for a specific reason? Thank you!

[ecosophia]

You could make such changes if you want to. On the other hand, if you do it the way that other Heathens are doing it, you benefit from the egregor that their practices are building, and your working will be much stronger as a result.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you protect another person from a known energy vampire? Is there a natural magic approach that can disrupt it?

[ecosophia]

Okay, to begin with, it's a basic principle of magical ethics not to do magic for another person without their consent. Does the other person know and approve of what you're doing? If so, there's quite a bit you can do; if not, prayer is an appropriate tool.

[booklover1973]

Hello, JMG! Am I right to assume that in the course of reincarnations as a human, the Individuality ripens from a state of ordinaryness and primitiveness by human standards toward wisdom, character and ripeness; in a similar way to the ripening of an individual human being from the ebullinence and naivete of childhood to the wisdom, knowledge and restraint of old age? W. B. Yeats wrote something roughly to this effect. Thanks!

[ecosophia]

It depends very much on the individual. Since the process of reincarnation leads each soul to become most perfectly itself -- the meaning of the title of the highest grade of initiation, Ipsissimus -- the soul as it reaches ripeness will be whatever best expresses its own nature, whether that's wisdom and restraint (characteristic of a Saturn soul), greatness and generosity (a Jupiter soul), or what have you. I'd describe it in general by saying that the soul in its human lives starts out as a generic human, indistinguishable from the mass of other humans, and life by life becomes a unique individual, the kind of person you could never mistake for anyone else.

Whispers

[ferngladefarm.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

Thanks again for providing us with your thoughts and wisdom.

The other day I was reading about a business, a very large business in fact, that to my opinion has quite exploitative employment practices. It was quite shocking to read the firsthand accounts of the people who worked there, and I knew that I would not cope with such an environment, and would probably employ a Sun Tzu technique. Anyway, the person who runs the place is extraordinarily wealthy.

I was quite outraged at the goings on, and then something whispered into my minds ear that the wealthy person in question is labouring under a curse.

And then the whole situation looked different somehow.

I won't mention names or anything like that, but it was such a strange way of looking at the situation. And it made a weird sort of sense. You mentioned years ago that you spotted a bumper sticker which claimed something along the lines of: "if you had enough, how would you know?"

It seems like an important question for sure and one worth asking - and also one that I have reflected upon long and thoughtfully. But I was curious about whether you reckon some people labour under a curse? And whether they're even aware of it? Sorry, that's two questions.... Oops! :-)

Cheers

Chris

Re: Whispers

[ecosophia]

There's an old and useful saying among occultists: "character is destiny." Who you are determines, to a huge extent, what you experience. Elon Musk -- just to pull out a name at random ;-) -- is a classic study in the kind of character that Greek dramatists used to put at the center of their tragedies. He's got genuine arete, excellence, but his excellence is also his hamartia, his fatal flaw; the result is hubris and then, in due time, nemesis.

Is he under a curse? I'd say, rather, that he is his own curse; his character is such that he was pretty much guaranteed to rise far and fall hard. I'm quite sure he's not aware of it, but awareness, to borrow another occult maxim, is the universal solvent; if you get to know yourself, study your flaws as well as your strengths, and get to work changing your character, you can either avoid the worst outcomes or, if they happen, handle them with some degree of grace and land on your feet.

[(Anonymous)]

John--

I recall you once declining to interpret a frog :) so I won't ask you to interpret a parting sea of frogs recently experienced (which I totally asked for -- and was answered pointedly). My sense is that I am being directed to balance myself in terms of thought/logic versus feelings/emotion (frogs being associated with Venus, the planet of Netzach, the sphere of feelings/emotions/etc). My first thought is that entails a focus on Netzach and the 29th path (Malkuth-Netzach). For one focusing on balance in the realm of personality (the lower four spheres), are there other sequences of path-workings that are appropriate? Or other specific practices that might be helpful?

Thanks.

--David, by the lake

[ecosophia]

Have you done a complete set of pathworkings as far as Tiphareth yet? That's the first thing to do, so the paths are open in your astral body and balancing can take place through them. Once that's done, I'd encourage you to work on the 28th, 28th, and 27th Paths -- all three paths leading up to Netzach. In your place, I'd do those one at a time: start by meditating on all the symbolism of the 29th Path, relating it to feelings and emotions, and then do a series of pathworkings on that path; then do the same with the 28th; then do the same with the 27th. Then, crucially, connect it up to Tiphareth, so that the emotional life doesn't become an end in itself.

Geomancy books

[jpc2]

John
Picked up a couple of books on Geomancy on ABE. 'Astrological Geomancey' by Priscilla Schwei and Ralph Pestka, put out about 1990 by Llewellyn. And, 'Geomancy: A Method for Divination' by Franz Hartmann. Haven't received them yet. Waste of money or more background?
I think I found them indirectly through your 'Lost Symbol...' that I also picked up.

Coop Janitor

Re: Geomancy books

[ecosophia]

The Schwei and Pestka book presents a very complex and rather fussy system of astrological geomancy; some people have really good results with it, others don't. Hartmann's book is a good basic introduction, though it leaves out some of the core interpretive methods. They're both worth reading.

Ogham cards

[hwistle]

I am eagerly awaiting a set of the Murrays' Celtic Tree Oracle cards which I ordered second-hand recently. My question is, Does these cards need to be treated like Tarot cards in terms of handling and storage(like keeping them in a purpose-used cloth, not leaving anybody else touching them, etc.)or not really? Also, since it's a second-hand set, Is there anything I should do to cleanse them from any previous influence?

As usual, many, many thanks!

Manuel

Re: Ogham cards

[ecosophia]

Not everyone who uses Tarot cards handles them in that way, you know! As for the Ogham cards, different people do things in different ways; I treat mine the way I treat my Tarot decks, but not everyone else does. As for the cards themselves, see how they feel to you when you get them. If they have a grubby feeling, burn some frankincense, and hold each card in the smoke for a few seconds; that ought to take care of it. Otherwise, just start using them.

[isabelcooper]

Questions on the sphere visualization for the Polytheistic Middle Pillar exercise:

1) Is it more important to get the right size or have it be inside/corresponding to your body? (...as the actress said to the bishop?) The description of the rite says eight inches diameter, but my head's maybe six inches across, and my throat maybe two, so should I shrink the spheres accordingly or have them expand beyond my actual body?

2) I'm tending to visualize the heart sphere as somewhat leftward, and the genital center feels like it's "hit" more when I pass energy down the front of my body than down the back. Is that normal, or should I try and center everything a little more?

Thanks very much!

[ecosophia]

1) Different people do this differently. I don't worry about keeping it inside my body, as the spheres are centers in the energy body, which extends 2-3 feet out from your skin. You might try visualizing the centers at different sizes and see what feels best to you.

2) They should be centered as much as possible. The heart center isn't the physical heart, and the genital center actually centers on the perineum rather than the genitalia themselves. Try to make the Middle Pillar run right down the midline of your body, front to back as well as side to side.

Atkinson's Dynamic Thought

[dfr1973]

You asked me to bring my book recommendation over here for further discussion from the other blog (late in the comment cycle) so here we go:
LibriVox does volunteer-read audiobooks, and they finally finished up William Walker Atkinson's Dynamic Thought. I am still ruminating (appropriate as I have goats) over the implications, but after listening to the last chapter a second time, I hunted up your two-part series on nature spirits and realizes you basically said the same thing but from a different direction. Part One and Part Two

The LibriVox audiobook is free and so are copies of the book for those preferring to read.

I'll post things to my own DW journal once things start to crystallize into coherent thoughts, but I got the impression you are wanting to discuss this where it will be better seen.
(I hope my html works in this comment form.)

Re: Atkinson's Dynamic Thought

[ecosophia]

Partly it was that, and partly I figured that there isn't a 100% overlap between readers here and readers on my blog! Thank you for this; Atkinson is well worth close study, and it doesn't surprise me that there are a lot of echoes of his thinking in mine -- the Kybalion was one of the first works of occult philosophy I ever really studied.

Gods

[(Anonymous)]

In your experience, do we choose our Gods or do they choose us?
I ask because as an unorthodox Christian, I'm sure at least some of the Olympians have reached out and blessed me recently. With no objections from the Trinity I'm pleased to say.
Many, many thanks for the fine curriculum in Learning Ritual Magic also.
A token of my gratitude can be found in the tip jar shortly.

Re: Gods

[ecosophia]

Thank you! Very often the gods do the choosing, and when they do so, it's good manners (if nothing more!) to respond appropriately.

Planetary Intelligence vs. Spirit

[(Anonymous)]

In your experience, what is the difference between the Planetary Intelligence and the Planetary Spirit named in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy?

Henry Cornelius Agrippa seems to suggest that the Imtelligence be used for "good" or benefic purposes, and associates them with a planet that is dignified, while the Spirit be used for "evil" purposes associated with their respective planets ill-dignified. However, in the Golden Dawn systems of magic (and their offshoots) I have heard that the Spirits are used for material purposes while the Intelligences are used for visionary or astral type results.

Can the Spirits be used for "good" material results or would you use the Intelligence instead?

Thanks,

Ben

Re: Planetary Intelligence vs. Spirit

[ecosophia]

In my experience the Golden Dawn approach seems to be correct -- of course that's the system of magic I've used the most, so I'm biased! The spirits aren't evil; rather, they're potent but very nearly mindless. To work on the material plane for good ends -- and I don't recommend ever doing anything else -- you first contact the Intelligence of the planet, interact with it, and ask it to direct the Spirit of the planet to bring about the material goal. That way you get the results you want. If you want to work on the astral or mental planes, you just evoke the Intelligence and leave it at that.

A couple of examples might help clarify things. If you want to consecrate a talisman of Venus, let's say, you'd make the talisman during the day and hour of Venus when Venus is well dignified; then, in a different day and hour of Venus, Venus not being afflicted at the time, you'd summon the Intelligence of Venus in the appropriate Divine Names, speak to her, and ask her to command the Spirit of Venus to place Venereal energies in the talisman. (This is a *very* potent method of talisman consecration, btw; some of my most effective talismans were consecrated this way.)

If you want to work on making yourself more lovable, on the other hand -- which is of course the most effective form of love spell -- you'd simply choose a day and hour of Venus when Venus is unafflicted, do a working to summon the Intelligence of Venus, and ask her help in your work. Since your personality is an astral phenomenon, and the attitudes that usually keep people from being lovable are on the mental plane, that's well within an Intelligence's ambit.

Kundalini yoga

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
We have a couple of really lovely yogis on our island and they teach Kundalini yoga. These people are so bright and sweet that they seem to shine and they seem extremely innocent. I study yoga with them and have had some interesting experiences, flashes of visions and such.

Is their system of yoga a suitable practice for someone studying Restoration Druidry? What is your opinion of Kundalini yoga? I have heard that the yogi who started the practice was quite corrupt but cannot see anything of the sort in these two people.

Thanks,
Max Rogers

Re: Kundalini yoga

[ecosophia]

Kundalini yoga is a very powerful system, and very dangerous if it's done wrong. It should never be mixed with any other form of magical or subtle-energy practice -- if you take up kundalini yoga, in other words, it would be wise to stop doing magical rituals and anything else that moves subtle energy, and restrict your Druidry to prayer and seasonal rituals.

[(Anonymous)]

I managed to miss last week, when the huge news item, at least in my social circle, was the burning of the Museum in Brazil due to a lack of physical maintainance. I wonder, though, if there might not be more to that, as the archologists are going on about priceless treasures lost, and those would certainly include religious and magical items.

First, it seems to me that if gods were annoyed at the paraphanalia of their worship being in collections or on display, that influencing politicians not to allocate repair funds would be a fairly simple matter if the politicians had no protections from that influence (say, from another god). Is this something gods can do?
Second, it seems to me that most religions-probably all-require sacrifice. Is a sacrifice of this sort of collection something some gods would appreciate, and ask their worshipers for?

If either of these are true, it would behoove those of us who value some local museum to consider taking precautionary measures, wouldn't it? What sort of measures would be useful?

BoysMom

[ecosophia]

It would depend entirely on the local museum, and the local gods. If the gods whose holy things are on display in your museum are pissed enough, yes, they could certainly do that, possibly to receive an offering, possibly to take back the sacred powers embodied in the objects. If you're concerned about your local museum, find out whose artifacts are there, and talk to the people who follow the same traditions to see if there's anything that should be done.

Deities

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,
Do you have particularly deities you prefer to work with, and if so why? Or conversely do you choose deities depending on what your magical intensions are?
Many thanks
AJ

Re: Deities

[ecosophia]

I find it easiest to work with a single pantheon, and as a Druid working in the Druid Revival tradition, it makes sense to me to work with the rather odd mix of Welsh and ancient Celtic deities that Druid Revival traditions generally work with. (You can find these discussed in some detail in my book The Druid Magic Handbook.) Any reasonably complete pantheon has gods or goddesses who correspond to anything you might need to pray for or work magic for. So, like old-fashioned Druids for the last couple of hundred years, I invoke Hu the Mighty, Ced the earth mother, and Hesus chief of tree-spirits as a matter of course, and then call on other deities from the same pantheon for workings specific to their natures.