Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for 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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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!

Comments

[ecosophia]

Before we begin, something mildly amusing to share. Last week's Magic Monday post had a meme involving the spraypainted words "May all bad energy sent to me be turned into cash." Weirdly enough, the last week has been remarkably lucrative for me, with an early royalty payment and a bunch of other sudden infusions of cash showing up unexpectedly...

Oh oh oh it’s magic, you know….

[(Anonymous)]

Memetic magic for ya! What a pleasant surprise!

[(Anonymous)]

Good to hear! Maybe I should post the picture on my website too!
Hope you had a real nice time in the mountains of NC.

-JPM

[(Anonymous)]

Is there an Orphyic Hymn (or equivalent) that I could recite to invoke my higher self?

[ecosophia]

Excellent! Yes, and I recite it daily as part of my morning worship of the gods. It's Hymn 72, to the Genius. Here's the version (lightly revised from the Thomas Taylor translation) that I use:

Thee, mighty-ruling, Genius dread, I call,
mild Jove, life-giving, and the source of all:
Great Jove, much-wand'ring, terrible and strong,
to whom revenge and tortures dire belong.
Mankind from thee, in plenteous wealth abound,
when in their dwellings joyful thou art found;
Or pass thro' life afflicted and distress'd,
the needful means of bliss by thee supprest.
'Tis thine alone endued with boundless might,
to keep the keys of sorrow and delight.
O holy, blessed spirit, hear my prayer,
disperse the seeds of life-consuming care;
With fav'ring mind the sacred rites attend,
and grant a happy life, a blessed end.

The guardian genius is the Pagan version of the holy guardian angel. As the hymn shows, it was understood in ancient times primarily as the dispenser of what we call karma and they called fate, but I've found that regular use of this hymn helps open channels of communication with the guardian genius.

Geomantic Temples

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, I've been working on the practices in your geomancy book. When I started my meditations on the figures, I began to envision imaginal temples for each one. For example, the temple to Albus takes the form of a giant goblet-like tower made of white stone. The "goblet" is filled with water, and this placid pool ripples intensely when disturbed in any way. At the middle of the pool is a platform housing the temple's vestibule, which for Albus is a space for contemplation. One can sit here and endlessly ponder the rippling of the pool. Getting to and from the vestibule is difficult and it feels tempting to just stay there forever.

The pool contained within a tower expresses the elemental correspondences (water within air), the shape of the tower resembles the figure, the rippling water suggests mental activity and the isolated vestibule conveys the insular and unassertive character of Albus. It's the same basic idea as the imaginal temples of the spheres that you describe in Revisioning the Tree of Life. I didn't base my envisioning of the temples on that book, though, this activity is something that just sprang into my mind as I began the series of geomantic meditations. I wanted to know, in your study of the Renaissance literature on geomancy did you come across any work describing imaginal locations for the figures? If there are original sources on such things I'd like to find out how close my imaginings are to others.

Perhaps at some point I can create renditions of these temples as I imagine them. I'm not the best at drawing or sculpting though and I don't want to use AI for something like this.

Also, I have another question. I've been working on this at the same time as some GD study using other books of yours; I'm still in the early stages. Does doing these meditations at the same time as I work through LRM compromise the work I'm doing there? I'm not planning to try geomantic magic until I get a good grounding in GD work, just the meditations and divination using the figures for now. You've cautioned against practicing multiple forms of magic at once but I don't know if this geomantic work meets that threshold and I get kind of bored just doing one course of study.

Thanks for reading.

Re: Geomantic Temples

[ecosophia]

1) No, I haven't encountered anything of the kind in the older literature. That said, imaginal temples of this sort can be extremely useful in many kinds of occult work. I'm very glad to hear that you're developing a set for the geomantic figures and encourage you to find some way to make them publicly available when you're satisfied with them -- having multiple people working with them will put power into the egregor.

2) Geomancy was a key Golden Dawn practice, one of the few modes of practical work introduced in the Outer Order and developed further in the Inner Order. Thus you can combine geomantic meditations and divinations with GD work with no trouble -- and indeed with excellent results.

[(Anonymous)]

How could this meme be used as a mantra/working? Maybe I am asking the obvious but I am not familiar with any of your work that touches on this type of transmutation.
A friend

[ecosophia]

That's the amusing thing about it. I posted it as a joke, and exactly what drove the resulting synchronicity is a fascinating question I can't yet answer. Doing it as a dead serious working may not be a good option!

Where East Meets West

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,
I am East Asian yet am very drawn to western esotericism especially the golden dawn tradition. I realize, there’s nothing wrong with that nor is there any cultural/ethnic/or any other identifying prerequisite for my preferences. But I do often wonder, why am I not more interested in Taoist magic or Korean shamanism or other esoteric Far East practices? Other than a feeling I was probably a Tibetan monk scribe in a past life and want to try something new. Do phenotypes matter when it comes to magical practice, i.e. one better suited than another? If you were to speculate, why would I desire such a crossover in this life?

Re: Where East Meets West

[ecosophia]

In my experience, there's no necessary connection between the genetic or cultural background of your current material body and the spiritual or occult traditions that are best suited to you in this incarnation. Very likely there are elements of the Golden Dawn tradition that your soul needs to develop its innate powers and potentials, and can't get from currently available East Asian traditions.

[katylina]

I've started working through Gareth Knight's Experience of Inner worlds and i have two questions.
1) which GSF practices i need to drop? For now i've replaced SOP with Sphere of Light
2)the Fiery spear and other further exercises should be kept entire duration of the sphere of light?

[ecosophia]

1) The SoP is the one you need to set aside. All the others can be continued as given.

2) Yes. The exercises in Experience of the Inner Worlds are cumulative; each step is added to the ones before, so you do the sphere of light, then the sphere of light plus the flaming spear, then the sphere of light and the flaming spear plus the serpent flame, and so on.

The Carnelian Moon

[open_space]

I usually wait until the next in the series is out for me to set on finishing the previous iteration of anything but I just had the chance and finished The Carnelian Moon in a sitting since I had the chance and April is not too far away.

The series is picking up! Thanks for writing it. It had me going at an increcendo pace since chapter one up to the end, to thinking I was about to finish only for there to be a last few notes which were very welcome. The funny thing for me is that just before I started reading it, I was reading Papus, so it was a pleasant surprise when I noticed our occult student protagonist was also. I alternated between Papus and the Moon at times when Ariel did just for fun. I also like that the way you portray some of the characters, have, well, a lot of character. There really is a shortage of uncles of the likes of Theophilus Cray and Dr. Moravec out there.

Will we get to know more about Cray's time in Siberia down the road?

I had heard about repercussion between the practitioner and the body of transformation --which is why pointy metals are dangerous-- but I had not heard of bits of physical matter being carried by the body of transformation. Is that last bit also true in practice?

I look forward to reading more of Ariel's adventures in a month or so.

Re: The Carnelian Moon

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed it. I have no idea what Theophilus Cray will or won't say about his past, though -- he's one of those characters of mine who does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it.

I've never tried doing a dense etheric body of transformation, though I've done such workings with the fine ethers a few times. The evidence from early modern werewolf trials consistently mentions that blood, mud, etc. were found on the material body of the werewolf, so I decided to take that seriously.

Crossing the Abyss!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, hope you're doing well. Thanks for another MM!

What is your view on the operation of "Crossing the Abyss?" I find it funny that after getting in touch with your Higher Self (or Holy Guardian Angel in thelemic parlance) you still "cross the abyss" to "destroy your ego." But destroy the ego if you have contact with your Higher Self and got in touch with your individuality? Or is the angel a separate entity?

Thanks a lot!

Re: Crossing the Abyss!

[ecosophia]

My views here are very idiosyncratic; they're derived from material I learned from John Gilbert, and he cheerfully admitted that most occultists disagreed with him. (He got the material from his teachers, who apparently had the same attitude.) The only justification I can offer for my view is that it works better than the alternative.

The view in question? Human souls can't cross the Abyss. That's simply the way things are. The three highest spheres of the Tree, the primal triad in John's terminology, belong wholly to the Divine; the seven lower spheres are the realm of created beings; the Abyss is the boundary between them, and it is the Ring-Pass-Not for us, and for all created entities.

As for "destroying the ego," I wrote about that here:

https://www.ecosophia.net/the-no-ego-ego-trip-an-interlude/

The short form is that everyone I've ever met who claimed to have destroyed or transcended their ego behaved like a raging egomaniac. Thus I don't think they actually did away with their egos -- I think they just repressed their egos, and the return of the repressed had its usual effect. The genuinely enlightened people I've met have egos; their secret is that they don't take their egos seriously. They treat their egos with the kind of amused compassion you'd direct at an unusually clumsy puppy. They're also much better company, and much wiser teachers, than the self-important types who go on and on about how they've gotten rid of their egos.

[goakangarooo]

Hello JMG,

Currently, I'm studying both of your books *Revisioning the Tree of Life* and *The Doors of Tarot*. John Gilbert's and your approach on tarot is different from the classical Golden Dawn System. And I really love it. It makes my life much more enjoyable because I am less dissociated from my actions and my subconscious. Thank you therefore! But I wonder, how it combines with the (classical) astrological system.

The (classical) astrological system is quite different from the tarot system of JG and you!? Because we have different planets and signs associated with the keys, right? In your book you mention the Golden Dawn reference and Clifford Bias. That's where my confusion sets in. How to differentiate (or connect) those both system (JG and your tarot & classical astrology), therefore how to integrate those both systems. I wonder because in the classical astrology system we have 'decan, planet and signs' related to the minor cards. But in the tarot book the minor cards are not related to any planet or signs but to their parent-key! Like the 3's of the minor are related to III. The Empress—are they therefore related to the planet [[♃ Jupiter]] and to the sign [[♐ Sagittarius]]?

How does the classical astrological system and cabala/tarot system relate to each other. Or are those complete different systems. I'm kinda confused here. How do I know the planet and sign and decan of the 3 of swords for example?

Insomnia and SoP

[(Anonymous)]

I have a couple of questions today. First, when I wake up in the middle of the night and want to go back to sleep, what is a good mental habit? Sometimes I concentrate (or try) on my hara chakra and maybe that works. I have tried various affirmations, or prayers. Sometimes I get up and do something on the computer, like I'm doing now.

Second question concerns the SoP. I'm using the Greek Pagan pantheon. For personal reasons, I'd like to replace Apollo with Helios for fire. Would it be more apt to use Helios for Spirit Above?

Thank you.

Re: Insomnia and SoP

[ecosophia]

1) That depends on lots of individual variables. For me, sometimes it works best just to lie there and still my mind, but other times I need to get up, drink some green tea (which relaxes me), and read for an hour before going back to bed. Experimentation is the only way I know of to find something that works.

2) Of course you can make that change. Apollo and Helios were identified with each other in late classical times, so it's not even a drastic change. You can place him in either position, depending on what seems best to you.

Natural magic book

[(Anonymous)]

What beginner level book on natural magic would you recommend?

Re: Natural magic book

[ecosophia]

At the risk of tooting my own horn, my book The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic covers the ground well and has been used successfully by many beginners.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
Somewhere or other, possibly here, I came across English-language versions of some of the material in the GD tradition, which is the one I work in. This involved the use of the words of the Lord's Prayer for the Cabalistic Cross, but also English (or Greek) Names of and expression related to God for the LBRP and the MP Exercise. But everything I have been able to find insists on Hebrew. Can you offer any wisdom on non-Hebrew alternatives, but within the GD tradition?
Thank you so much for your work.

[ecosophia]

People have been modifying the basic GD rituals since before the GD itself was founded! The LBRP itself began as a modification of Eliphas Levi's "Conjuration of the Four," for that matter. As for Hebrew, that's a popular option but it's not the only game in town. One of my books, The Celtic Golden Dawn, reworks the whole system using Welsh divine names from the Druid tradition, and it works very effectively indeed. If you want to do a wholly English GD system, go ye forth and do that thing, and don't let those who suffer from the hardening of the orthodoxies slow you down.

Vocalizing invocations

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Thank you for Magic Mondays and apologies if this question comes across as a bit confused.

I have a question about invocations that are said in the mind, i.e., not out loud (for example, invoking the archangels when performing the LBRP). When I do such invocations, I could either 'think linguistically' the words of the invocation (with no involvement of the voice apparatus), or I could sound these words without moving my lips (sub-vocalizing?), in which case, I can feel the movements of the uvula--or even the tongue--in rhythm with the syllables of the invocation.

I would like to know if there is any difference in terms of the power of the invocation between these two methods.

I guess this could be applied to even regular reading, actually: in this case, the effect seems to be a tradeoff between speed and retention/understanding of the material, at least for me.

Re: Vocalizing invocations

[ecosophia]

This varies from person to person. Why not experiment, paying close attention to your own perceptions and intuitions, and see what you learn?

A divination question: The Dodecagram reversed.

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings!

I got this card a couple of times lately during divination, and after I was done with thinking about how it might apply to my day, something came to me about the general meaning of the card.

I'd like to meditate on it myself for a while, but would like to see if there is a solid base before I build a metaphorical tower of pisa on sand, so I am reaching on to you, the creator of the deck.

What started this whole thing was the following notion, so I was wondering if you could please answer the following:

Am I right in thinking the construction where three equilateral triangles are combined to form the star (or, significantly, an additional triangle is added to a hexagram) corresponds to the reversed "Complexity" while the star (I mean the dodecagram) formed by three squares, the upright "Completeness"?

Thank you and I wish you a nice day.

Re: A divination question: The Dodecagram reversed.

[ecosophia]

Okay, first of all, there are no wrong answers in interpreting symbols. Second, there are no wrong answers in interpreting symbols. Third, and most importantly, there really are no wrong answers in interpreting symbols. You've had an insight that reflects the meaning of the card to you; don't worry about whether it's right or wrong. Follow it out and see where it leads you.

For what it's worth, what you've suggested makes sense to me. That shouldn't matter to you, though. What matters is that it speaks to you and has the potential to teach you things about the cards and their symbolism.

Unexpected energy states

[(Anonymous)]

I have observed a general feeling that occurs around 8am UTC – a sort of low level wave of anxiety that has no obvious root. It’s almost like something gets ‘switched on’ around eight am – sometimes before, sometimes after.
Possibilities include: it’s internal to me, it is external to me, some combination on one or other, something else.

Internal to me could be some imbalance of emotion or energy expressing as anxiety.
External to me could just be picking up the state of the world and anxieties of people around.
Combination e.g. that something external triggers something internal, or something internal resonates with something external.
Something else? e.g. something to do with conjunction energies or something else altogether?
The regular timing of it is weird and not something I’ve come across before.

The experiment I'm doing started at new moon on Feb 17th just before conjunction on the 20th. This last week I backslid by looking at some reports on Iran, but this has been going on since big conjunction and before Middle East kicked-off.

Sunday Feb 8th around 7am I began contemplation/meditation – all as usual. Noticed anxiety state rising and caught it. In five elemental processes worry is associated with stomach/spleen but rather than working there, I wondered about heart centre and lungs which sit either side in the cycle – moments after focussing on those two I became aware of a tightness on the left (spleen area), moved the hands over the area and applied focus, the tightness began dissolving and I had a charged feeling ‘very awake’. While thinking about this in relation to emotions, a sudden conception came up, like part image part idea where I was looking at a sphere of emotions, then a feeling of expanding and the emotions are there like a ‘constellation’; the anxiety was completely gone and it sparked a whole set of thoughts and ideas that kept me busy all day.

I’m going to change my pattern so that I am outside working by 8am and see if the anxiety is my subconscious telling me I need to be working on all the backed-up physical jobs that need doing, and it may just be that. Time will tell.

But I also wonder, whilst conjunction effects can take years to play out, have you or anyone else been aware of unexpected energy states popping up since the conjunction?

Thank you.

[earthworm]

[(Anonymous)]

"Sunday Feb 8th" should have been Sun Mar 8th.

haha - I got the day wrong for the conjunction and now it seems I don't even know what month it is! Onward and upward...

[earthworm]

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I noticed last week one or two people talking about the difficulties of working with Metatron, and checking back it seems that this has been discussed in the past as well.
I do the version of the LBRP developed by Damien Nicholls which features Metatron above and Sandalphon below. I therefore wondered whether it wouldn't be more prudent to leave those two out, and tried the experiment.There was an extremely irritable reaction from Metatron demanding to know why I'd left him out, so I've reverted to my ordinary formula. I have attempted to contact him, but can't get anything more than residual irritation.
Does this have any wider significance in your view, and should I try to cultivate something with Metatron even if its tricky, or is it best left as an error on my part which I've now, I hope, repaired?
Thank you for any light you can shed.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

In a recent post about New Thought on your other blog you said that you rarely agree with Mitch Horowitz about anything. Is there something in particular you don't like about his work?

Thanks for Magic Monday.

Yeat's Wheel

[3bmend_135]

At one point, if I remember correctly, you wrote that the final leap off the Wheel can happen at any point on the second half of the Wheel.

How can that be when there are phases when unity of being breaks apart? In the phase after yours, The Assertive Man, the soul "desires to be strong and stable, but as Unity of Being and self-knowledge are both gone, and it is too soon to grasp at another unity through primary mind, he passes from emphasis to emphasis." I don't see how that person can unite with his Higher Self, or a deity.

So were you oversimplifying when you wrote "second half of the wheel?"

Patrick H

Water vitalisation

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
After some positive experiences with homeopathy, I started reading about the work of Victor Schauberger and Johann Grander. It seems to me, that their insights are very valuable, and I found some devices that claim to "vitalise" water by swirling it in a specific vortext, with crystals nearby, based on their findings.

Would you care to comment on these devices to bring life back into water, whether they may be useful, and how they might work? It seems to me, their function is similar to homeopathic preparation, and although I have no doubt that homeopathy works, part of me still cannot grasp how.

The most promising devices I have found are:
https://www.blueearth.nu/en/product/watervitalizer-vita-blue-32/

and

https://umh.at/en/

Thank you in advance.

[(Anonymous)]

Two different clairvoyants, who don’t know each other and weren’t aware of each other’s insights, told me they felt my young daughter was a persecuted Christian monastic in her previous life. (One of the clairvoyants is a practicing Anthroposophist.) For various additional reasons (among others, she knew the structure and mysteries of the rosary at age 4 with no previous exposure), I am inclined to agree.

She’s struggled a bit physically since her premature birth. Getting her baptized and regularly receiving the Christian sacraments has helped tremendously, but she still suffers from certain physical weaknesses. She is very small and thin for her age, and prone to illness, and not very aware of her material body. Highly creative and intelligent. We homeschool.

Do you have any other specific advice for a child like this? Have you come across writings anywhere about former monastics in current incarnations?

Thank you!