Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just before midnight, 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've finished the sequence of my published books; while I decide what I want to do next, I have some memes to share.)

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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

Gods are good so pray for anything and its probably fine

[(Anonymous)]

I, an adult, have an older relative who has decided they know best. This relative has turned to prayer to pray the things they've decided I need into my life to my detriment. An example: they have been bothering me about moving closer to home. Out of nowhere, I get a text with the underlying assumption that I am in some kind of trouble along with a prayer they and their prayer group have been suddenly praying for me revolving around being "on fire" for what is "good." Three days later, I have the only kitchen fire I've had in the better part of two decades I've been living on my own and had I not controlled it I would have had been in real trouble.

Complicating matters is that the relative has a hard time separating their faith and their ulterior motives, insists their faith is unfailingly good so if something happens it must be for the best, and has the low key secular attitude of its not really real, the important part is feeling like they're sending "good" vibes, and nothing could possibly be actually going on especially any bad things they certainly aren't responsible for. They're also not particularly well disposed to the idea that prayer is magic with underlying physics and therefore ethics. So its a difficult situation to address on an interpersonal level.

I was wondering what someone comfortable with Golden Dawn practice and natural magic could do to address the immediate concern of the unwelcome spiritual imposition so as to get some breathing room to sort out the underlying situation.

Re: Gods are good so pray for anything and its probably fine

[ecosophia]

Yeah, there's a lot of seriously evil magic being done by people who think that they're on the side of good and can therefore pray for whatever they want, no matter how grubby the motive. I've dealt with that more than once. Here's what worked for me.

1) Keep up your daily practices: in GD terms, LBRP and Middle Pillar exercise, daily meditation, and daily divination.

2) Invoke protective powers. Look at your natal horoscope and see which of the following planets is strongest there: Sun, Mars, or Saturn. (Talk to an astrologer if you have doubts.) Look up the archangel ruling the strongest planet. Invoke that archangel, using standard GD ritual methods, and ask him for his help defending you against evil prayers. If you prefer to work with gods, invoke them instead. Do this weekly on the appropriate day.

3) Natural magic is very strong in this context. The red bag amulet and the hoodoo bath included in the Magic Monday FAQ will help considerably. You might also get a bottle of Florida Water -- a scent much used in hoodoo for its protective powers -- and splash a little on the four corners of your home.

4) Consider making a talisman of protection -- again, the strongest of the three planets listed above, in terms of your horoscope, is the one to use. Standard GD talisman rituals make good robust talismans, and those will help quite a bit.

5) If you know which god the person is invoking, talk to that god in prayer. Let him know that you're not happy about what the person is doing. Go into detail about why it's wrong and hurtful. Ask the god to deny the prayers. This can work remarkably well.

Learning Ritual Magic

[linden_matryoshka]

Good Evening JMG,
Thank you for being here tonight. Hope the night will cure you of your tiredness. I recently finished ploughing through Learning Ritual Magic and completed A Ritual of Self-Initiation. The additional reading from your list of books was The Mystical Qabalah. My plan is to continue learning ceremonial magic. I'm pondering my options. Would you say working through Revisioning The Tree of Life while adapting the work to the version of the tree I'm familiar with is a good idea? Should I just follow the sequence outlined in FAQ and move to Paths of Wisdom? Any other wizardly advice?

Re: Learning Ritual Magic

[ecosophia]

First of all, congratulations! That's a step most people who start that book never reach.

Second, I recommend going straight on to Paths of Wisdom and Circles of Power -- the two are meant to be done in parallel, with the first providing fodder for your daily meditations and the second teaching you the next stages of your ritual work. Those will give you a few years of work and teach you plenty about ceremonial magic, and then you can start on Regardie's The Golden Dawn for your graduate course.

Ethnicity and Magic

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Archdruid John, and all esteemed members of the community.

I am interested in discussing how ethnicity, cultural, religious, and educational backgrounds influence a person's esoteric and magical path. How does it affect the connection to the egregore? I am especially interested in whether any of you choose to work with traditions from a different ethnic, cultural and religious tradition.

Does anyone here have experience or knowledge of Islamic magic (besides the Picatrix). Islam is dead set against magic, yet many do practice folk magic. In Malaysia we have "bomohs" who are part shaman, part witch doctor, whose activities predate the adoption of Islam. Once Islam became established (took hundreds of years), these bomohs adopted an Islamic gloss but the underlying work is animist.

Felix

Re: Ethnicity and Magic

[ecosophia]

1) My direct experience is that the gods and the powers of magic literally couldn't care less about your background -- that's purely a human fixation. Most of the world's Christians, for example, aren't descended from the people who lived in the eastern Mediterranean in the first century CE, nor are most Buddhists from northern India! I have known people of Chinese and African descent who practiced Druidry and got good results from it, and I have practiced traditional Southern hoodoo, poured ale as an offering to Thor, and participated in Shinto services, all with good results, even though I don't belong to any of the ethnicities that originated these practices.

2) There I can't help you. The Picatrix is my only serious exposure to that, and I work with the Latin version from medieval Europe, not the Arabic version (because I don't read Arabic).

[k_a_nitz]

No question today,, just something to offer the commentariat from a thought-provoking link Mary Harrington gave in her latest post: the internet as the astral plane.

Also, some datapoints now that I've just passed a year of doing the letter practice of Krebs/Kerning. I've found that as I have moved up from feet to knees and beyond, the prior points tend to get activated by the later ones, i.e. when I work the letters in the knees, I find that my feet get the magnetic tingling as well. Also once I've become quite practised at one point, I find that the energy seems to want to move on to the next of its own accord.

[ecosophia]

Thank you for the link and the data points!

Objective Clairvoyance

[open_space]

To David P.

You had asked a couple weeks ago about you experiencing reading something, for it not be there later. They way you described it, appearing in the corner of your eye and all is how I have experienced this too. One of those times it was readin g The Secret Doctrine and veered me into something very important that is still part of my life, though not all were like that. In my experience stuff like that is divinatory in nature, or rather a form of clairvoyance. It also seems to be the beginnings of what is called objective clairvoyance, I think, which means that the inner vision can overlap with the material vision as if you were seeing, what you are seeing with the inner senses, with your own eyes open and all.

Re: Objective Clairvoyance

[(Anonymous)]

How very interesting, thank you! That would match up with the one example I can remember off the top of my head (the one I gave in that comment), where I'm reasonably certain the intent behind the text shone through.

I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one. This and some other visual phenomena had me worried I might be going mental. On the other hand, the "beginnings" part sure sounds like I should expect more of this, which I'm not necessarily pleased with—I quite like being able to trust my material vision, thankyouverymuch.

Curiously enough, I need to close my eyes to receive visual answers to prayers. I wonder if that's because there's not much in the material world those visuals could form around, compared to text appearing in "letter soup" in the corner of my eyes? Or, I suppose, it could simply be a matter of not having much practice with prayer, especially when it comes to listening for a response.

—David P.

[gnosticlombe]

Mr. Greer,

Thank you for offering this space for questions, it’s a great resource and service to the community always.

First, I would like to share I’ll be offering an apprentice MOE attunement next Sunday at Noon Eastern Time. The following months on the second Sunday, I’ll be offering the subsequent attunements. (While not necessarily to RSVP or communicate if you’re attending, please feel free to reach out if needed.)

Second, I wanted to share this paper about how Mary Poppins, philosophically and metaphorically, can act as a reflection of Taoist spirituality: https://taocurrents.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/disneys-mary-poppins-a-classical-taoist-world/#bopen

Third, with the excessive preamble disposed of-I wanted to ask if there are any fictional narratives you feel similarly reflect Druidic spirituality or philosophy? (Particularly interesting would be any-like Mary Poppins in the linked paper above-that do so organically rather than by the creators explicit intent.)

[ecosophia]

Thank you for these. No, I don't know any spontaneously Druidical fictions -- there's quite a bit of good myth and legend (the Mabinogion in particular), and Evangeline Walton's 1970s-era four-volume retelling of the Mabinogion, Prince of Annwn, The Cauldron of Llyr, the Birds of Rhiannon, and The Island of the Mighty are about as close as I know, but they're rather deliberate.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you tell if a past life has started surfacing? I recently read a Japanese short story, Grave of the Fireflies by Nosaka Akiyuki, set during and after the bombings of Kobe in World War II. The whole thing felt far too real, more so than fiction normally does for me. It almost felt like I could remember the sound the planes made overhead, the fear of being burned alive, the desperate horrible feeling of starvation, and other details of the story.

It would make sense of some things about my life: I've long had an aversion to anything related to World War II, especially the Pacific Theater; I've always felt that only idiots think there's anything good about war in general; I have a profound and inexplicable fondness for traditional Japan; and quite a few of my personality quirks are (or were) normal behavior in Japan.

I highly doubt I'm Nosaka for a large number of reasons; but one of the reasons that the story caught on is that a lot of Japanese had similar experiences during World War II to what he based the story on. I also have no idea why I felt the moment I heard of the story I needed to read it: normally my reaction to anything related to World War II, especially the Pacific Theater, is to avoid it.

Is it possible that my reaction to the short story is a past life starting to surface?

If so, do you have advice for how to integrate this lifetime? I have no idea what the rest of the life looked like, but right now, the only thing surfacing is profoundly unpleasant....

[ecosophia]

It's hard to tell, but this sounds at least possible. I'd encourage you, despite the unpleasantness, to write down everything you remember. Then set the whole thing aside. If it's a real memory, more bits will surface over time.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a follow-up to your post from last week:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/343321.html?thread=57410585#cmt57410585

You mentioned that brain-computer interfaces may attract demons. Could it be possible to ward and protect digital systems against such interference? Perhaps with the help of divine powers one has a relationship with? Also, are there ways for a programmer who's aware of the spiritual to place such protections on a piece of software in a way that's unobtrusive to the general user audience? Thanks.

And then my two cents on whole-brain emulation. It's not remotely possible with today's technology, and on top of that nobody has any clear idea of how consciousness actually manifests in the brain. Strokes and injuries have shed some light on how the nervous system works, but the nature of consciousness is a mystery and no attempt to implement consciousness has remotely succeeded.

It's helpful to understand how a computer is different from a brain. A computer can execute instructions extremely quickly (the gigahertz number associated with your CPU tells you how fast), but each instruction can only act on a few pieces of data at a time. So the amount of data that's changeable at any given moment is tiny. The data a computer is processing must all flow through a narrow bottleneck.

Meanwhile in the brain, everything is mutable and all parts talk to each other constantly. The behavior of neurons is so complex that each one may as well be considered a computer in its own right. These cells are constantly exchanging amounts of data through their electric signals that would slow any computer network to a halt if you tried to digitally emulate neural activity.

Emulating the brain would require dozens of phenomenal breakthroughs in computer hardware, software and psychology. Anyone claiming they can do it now is probably just selling LLM snake oil.

[ecosophia]

1) I know of none. It's quite possible that this can be done, but a great deal of experimentation will be needed to develop and test the necessary methods. What kind of magic do you know how to do?

2) Thank you. This was certainly my impression, but it's good to hear that confirmed.

[linden_matryoshka]

Got it, will do, thank you.
There is also something I'd like to share, not entirely unrelated to magic. I just went for a walk around the block. As I was approaching a street, I saw a guy on a bike on my right. As I was about to cross the street, he suddenly stopped with one foot on the road, lowered his head, and became completely motionless, kind of reminded me of The Headless Horseman. Did he stop to let me cross? I wasn't sure in the darkness. I veered a bit to the right to cross the street behind him. As I got closer, I understood - he was staring at his phone. Just imagine, an empty street, dark, almost full moon, and a motionless rider transfixed on the screen of his phone. Suddenly, Guy Debord's Spectacle seemed quaintly old-fashioned...

[ecosophia]

Seriously spooky!

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning and thank you as always.

1. Does the GD Opening/Closing ritual work well when done on the astral, in your experience? I will not have access to much space or any of my tools for the next couple months and would like to keep up with doing it every now and then. I also wonder if mixing an astral and physical approach can ever make sense--for example, doing the Opening in the imagination while seated, then doing the Middle Pillar physically since that doesn't require much space or any hardware, and then completing the Closing in the imagination while seated again.

2. Does wood hold etheric charges well? I would guess that it does since trees are full of it, but I'm not sure how well it holds in dead timber. If so it would be a convenient way to make talismans.

[ecosophia]

1) Yes and yes. Astral ritual is rarely as effective as physical ritual, but it's still effective, and excellent training as well. You can certainly combine astral and physical ritual -- many ceremonies do this explicitly.

2) No, not at all. Wood is an excellent conductor of etheric charges, which is why magical wands are usually made of it, but etheric charges flow out of it just as easily as they flow into it. You need a crystalline substance to hold onto the charges -- stone is good, metal is good, paper that's been soaked in herbal tinctures (and thus has various mineral microcrystals all through it) is good, but wood, not so much.

Occult Planes

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,

Occult philosophy states that there are planes of existence from the spiritual down to the material. Divine influences cascading from the upper to the lowest planes.
Now can lower planes exert some influence on the upper planes, for instance the material onto the etheric and so on.
Regards and Thanks

Re: Occult Planes

[ecosophia]

Not really. You can use material objects to shape magical energies -- for example, putting herbs in an amulet -- but it's the etheric and astral dimensions of those objects that do the work. The material form is just a handle to work with.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I'm missing something really obvious here or Ive got something confused.

As Ive been told,In the outer order grades of the Golden Dawn you 'saturate' yourself in the 4 elements one by one. Then you do the element of spirit.

According to some sources you then move onto invoking the sun.

Why do you move onto the sun next and not the moon for yesod?

I understand that each of the outer order grades is assigned toba sephirot and also introduce you to thay sephirot through pathworking. But aren't the 4 elements and spirit all really part of malkuth? So wouldn't it be a 'more complete' experience to then proceed to the moon, and invoke the planets in order until you reach the sun?

Also, assuming for each element do you invoke the element in the morning and then perform a banishment of the element in the evening, or is it a standard LBRP in the evening? How does one become 'saturated' in an element if you banish it at night (or is this not the right term/idea)?

[ecosophia]

1) This notion of "saturating yourself" in the elements isn't the way the original GD did things. It's a recent innovation, and strikes me as potentially problematic. In the original system you worked your way through the outer order in a little over a year, covering the basics of magical philosophy and attuning yourself to certain egregors and energy patterns; the real magical work didn't begin until you got to the Portal grade.

2) Excellent! You've just noticed the central flaw in the classic GD system. Sun without Moon is why so many GD adepts turn into flaming, arrogant jerks. This is one of the reasons why I no longer practice the classic GD system, and it's also why the successful offshoots of the GD tradition (such as Dion Fortune's order) typically scrapped the sephirothic system of initiations altogether.

3) I don't recommend doing this at all; it will mess over your psychological balance and may give you health problems. Do the regular LBRP together with the Middle Pillar exercise once a day; this will expose you to the elemental forces in a balanced fashion, so you can develop spiritually without plunging into imbalance.

Cutting hindering influence from family

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I am considering doing a practical working together with my wife to cut away negative hindering influence towards us from both of our extended families. We wish them well, but we feel like there are hooks and knots to them that hinder who we might become.

We do not wish to be cut out of their lives entirely. Merely to shield us from their unhelpful attitudes and occasional misguided schemes.

We both maintain regular banishing practice, though they are of different traditions. The kind of magic I practice is what you lay out in CGD. Currently working the bardic grade. The lady does chackra work with visualisations and affirmations, more ad hoc rituals.

Suggestions?

Re: Cutting hindering influence from family

[ecosophia]

Hmm. The magical ways I know to do this will pretty reliably cut you both off from your families altogether. That may happen anyway if you push back against their negative energy, btw.

Help understanding a phenomenon

[(Anonymous)]

Hello. I would like to ask for help in understanding a phenomenon that happened to me yesterday. I don't practice magic nor do I intend to for the time being (having realized the path takes more dedication than I'm capable of giving it now), so this is a question that comes from a layperson. As a note of preface, there's this thing that happens with me in which when I look at certain people's pictures I get strong feelings of, for lack of better vocabulary, of their "vibe" being off. I hesitate to use the word aura since it's something more on the domain of a "physiological" reaction, a sort of serious discomfort; also, I have a big pot full of salt and bent nails in my room, where this happened.

With that being said, I was talking with a friend yesterday and she wanted to share with me some person whose research on past lives she was liking a lot. I have learned my lesson from acting like a total idiot in the past and suffering the consequences, so I don't go looking around for such things at all, but it didn't seem like it would be a big deal to just take a brief look at this researcher's website. When I did so, there were some pictures of people in séances and I got some major bad vibes and quickly scurried off; having told so to my friend, she wanted me to take a look at a photo of this researcher to see if I had the same reaction; I didn't really want to do so, but it didn't seem like nothing too bad could happen and, though I had a split-second instinctive reaction that I really oughta not do that, I did so anyway (obviously an idiotic decision on my part). What happened was the worst case of "bad vibes" I've ever had; my skin crawled, I started shivering and after a little while I was having trouble thinking coherent sentences. And though usually these things pass quickly, this time it started getting worse and worse.

In a moment of lucidity I managed to quickly look up an online version of the LBRP that I liked, having been out of practice and needing a reminder; I executed (very incompetently) the ritual and almost as soon as I started the bad vibes went away. With all this having been said, I'd like to ask for some advice or knowledge from smarter and more knowledgeable people as to what exactly might have happened, if it was of a "metaphysical" nature at all and how should I go about with this problem with pictures that at times is really inconvenient (since it happens with some famous people's pictures and sometimes their pictures just show up in variable contexts on the internet).

Re: Help understanding a phenomenon

[ecosophia]

You're psychically sensitive, and specifically have a talent for psychometry -- the psychic gift of being able to read "vibes" from objects and images. That's a very mixed blessing, as you know well! I can certainly understand that you don't want to take up serious magical practice -- and that's probably wise, as your sensitivity would be a liability in that work -- but I'm going to recommend that you learn the LBRP and practice it enough that you can do it without too much fumbling. No, you don't have to do it daily, but you should have it handy for clearing away very nasty vibes. Those are unpleasantly common these days.

Oh, and don't ignore your intuition! (But then you know that now...)

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, you referred to Vatican II as a 'modern heresy'. I agree but can you expand a bit on that? No doubt, the authors of Vatican II didn't see themselves as heretics and were very unconscious of their parallel belief in the religion of Progress.

One of the things V II was specifically designed to do was bring the Catholic Church closer to Protestantism which is interesting given your theory about how Protestantism was influenced by Islam.

[ecosophia]

No, Vatican II isn't a heresy. The heresy in question is Modernism, which was formally condemned by Pope Pius X but which has largely taken over the Catholic hierarchy and clergy since his time. You can look up Modernism online (use the search string "Modernist heresy") if you want to learn the details.

Grave dirt question

[brenainn]

I collected some grave dirt about a week ago, with the usual routine (leaving a silver coin offering, took a different route home, etc.). The cemetery was a bit peculiar, and I could not tell from the headstone which side of the stone was the actual grave (I've never been in a cemetery this odd before; the other graves were similar). So I collected soil from the base of the headstone on both long sides of the stone, and merely mixed the soil in my jar. Do you think this will be okay? I would think that the etheric energy would be present in both spots, since one side was the grave and the other would be mere inches from it.

Re: Grave dirt question

[ecosophia]

That should be fine. The etheric effluvia from the grave extends out a modest distance from the coffin itself.

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,

Once again, my GSF practice has fizzled out to the point where I can no longer pretend to myself that I'm just being a bit irregular about it right now but once the current situation has changed, I'll definitely return to a more regular practice, it's just not possible right now. There have been circumstances that could be used to explain my actions (or rather, lack thereof) but if you've taught me anything, it's that circumstances largely serve our true motivations, not run counter to it.

So I set to journaling. Said motivation seems to be fear. Specifically, fear of regaining past-life memories and being confronted with my actions. I even got a rough idea what those actions were. I'd ask you if that was plausible but quite a few aspects of my life make an uncomfortable amount of sense when viewed in that light and a no, that can't be true divination leaned a lot closer to actually, it is than I like.

The titular rock, then, is that, actually, my subjective mind has quite a good point when it doesn't want me to regain those memories. Plus, I most likely have not come as far on the path of spiritual evolution as I had hoped. According to The Occult Philosphy Workbook, that might mean I would be wasting time trying to understand occult philosophy.

The hard place, though, is that I just can't imagine going back, so to speak. Within the last five years or so, I've gradually become were that, ahem, there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in my (now former) materialism. I can't just know that that's true and not try to learn more about these things.

—David P.

Re: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[ecosophia]

Ahem. If you're beginning to remember scraps of past lives, yes, you're far enough along on the path of spiritual evolution to handle regular practice. The question is not whether you should, but whether you will -- and that, of course, is one of the first great tests of the student of the Mysteries. Only you can decide whether you will pass it, or fail.

Solar & Telluric Current in Hands for Blessings

[cs2]

I do a daily blessing candle with separate spheres around a family and their recently departed loved one. I've been putting the departed one on the right since in the DA curriculum the right hand is the solar current. The still living people I put on the left, and then visualize the white blessings coming out of my palms. Do you think that is unbalancing or ill-advised in any way?

Also do you think I am unbalancing my food when I bless it- I'm right-handed so I've been drawing the three rays with my right hand since the early days of Magic Monday. Thank you.

Re: Solar & Telluric Current in Hands for Blessings

[ecosophia]

Those are both fine.

Bindings and Ethics

[(Anonymous)]

I was curious about the ethical dimensions of binding. I don't plan on doing one (I don't really want that kind of raspberry jam on me) but I recall that you mentioned doing one on behalf of someone else to stop someone who was interfering with the other persons life (I don't recall all the details). With all the talk of cursing here and on your main blog... it got me thinking on this.

I would think if you bound someone else, you would get that binding in your own life, correct? There might be useful ways to employ that to your advantage if you are careful.

I was curious on what you thought about the ethics of binding?

Thank you.

Re: Bindings and Ethics

[ecosophia]

Good. Bindings are suitable if you accept the same binding on yourself, because that's going to happen whether you accept it or not. In the case I mentioned, I was binding a known rapist to keep him from raping someone I knew, and I freely welcomed the corresponding binding on myself! I'm fairly sure that my conscious acceptance gave additional strength to the working -- certainly it worked extremely well.

[(Anonymous)]

Do corrupt religions sometimes place spells or even curses on their followers? Several years ago I watched the documentary Wild Wild Country, which is about the Rajneeshi movement's time in Oregon and is structured around a series of interviews with opponents and followers of Rajneesh. Watching the latter group, I got the extremely creepy impression that every follower of Rajneesh had been in love with him: the ones who were still loyal to him talked about him like a beloved romantic partner, and the former followers all seemed like people who'd gotten out of an abusive but intense romantic relationship. This impression was strongest with the female Rajneeshis, of course, but I definitely got it from the men as well.

Is it possible Rajneesh had some kind of working going on to make all his followers fall in love with him, and do other corrupt religions (or cult leaders, cause I guess that's what we're talking about here) do similar stuff?

[ecosophia]

Oh, good heavens, yes. Every cult of personality has a working of that sort at its heart.

[(Anonymous)]

i just wanted to share this and ask, do you think this ritual will really make a difference to, well, anything?
i have seen ppl joking that the pope blessed ICE.. lol

Pope Leo Blesses Giant Ice Block at Bizarre Climate Change Conference

https://protestia.com/2025/10/02/pope-leo-blesses-giant-ice-block-at-bizarre-climate-change-conference/

[ecosophia]

Well, it certainly was a powerful spell to weaken what little respect the world still has for the bishop of Rome, but I don't see it having any other results.

Precision and ambiguity in words

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG

When doing a magical working, how far does one need to take the instruction to be precise and unambiguous in wording?

For example if someone wants to be more attractive, and has meditated on this goal and figured out how it relates to the ritual elements, is it necessary to specify in words "romantically/sexually attractive" rather than just "attractive" to avoid the technical ambiguity that "I am attractive" could mean "attractive as an employee" or "attractive to blood sucking insects"? I.E if the person is internally sure what they mean and feel the simple description expresses it, is that enough?

Thanks

Re: Precision and ambiguity in words

[ecosophia]

It depends on the working. If you're doing something with your own power, or working with gods and goddesses, as long as you know exactly what you mean and put that feeling into the words you use, you're fine. If you're working with other spirits, and especially with evil spirits, you have to be absolutely precise, because most spirits will take your words absolutely literally, and evil spirits will go out of your way to twist your words to your downfall. (This is one of the many reasons why trying to mooch favors from spirits is a bad idea.)

[jenniferkobernik]

Are there alternative metals for Mercury and Saturn besides mercury and lead? I seem to remember reading something about this in one of your books, but can't recall where.

[ecosophia]

For Mercury, brass is traditional any time you want a solid metal. For Saturn, there are alternatives -- antimony is one of them -- but they're all as poisonous as lead is.

[thinking_turtle]

To share, for those who wonder what SGO, ADR, or RW mean, a list of abbreviations used on Ecopsophia. Now with a new entry for BOTA.

And here is a list of the books our host published so far.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this as always.

A Question of Language

[(Anonymous)]

Your encouragement brings me to another question. I've asked you about translating the SoP before and you said it was fine. Does this also apply to the rest of the GSF rituals? What about other systems of occultism/magic?

—David P.

Re: A Question of Language

[ecosophia]

The GSF rituals translate well. Other magical systems? It really varies.