Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's almost midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Ross Nichols, founder of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD) and, alongside Lewis Spence, one of the two most influential 20th century authors on Druidry in the English-speaking world. 

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)]

I have a few questions: Is the mental plane eternal like the spiritual plane?

I've seen some writings talking about demons coming from "below" the material plane. What does that mean?

Finally, are there ways to know details about future lives?

[ecosophia]

1) That's the usual teaching, as mental plane phenomena like the laws of logic and mathematics don't seem to change over time.

2) The idea here is that the planes we usually talk about -- spiritual, mental, astral, etheric, material -- are the ones that human beings can experience. There are planes above the spiritual plane which are out of our reach, and planes below the material plane likewise.

3) No, because they haven't happened yet. What you do right now, and in the rest of this life, will have a powerful influence on what your future lives will be like.

Cunning in a bottle

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,
Not a question, but uncomfortably close to witnessing:
Some years ago you had put the idea across my bow of looking into learning about curanderismo due to being located in the American southwest. This past summer I did a comparative study between curanderismo and English cunning work. As it seems to me that curanderismo is very family, ethnic, and neighborhood-oriented I don’t see much of a future in trying to force my way into a culture which I have a fondness and respect for, but am nevertheless an outsider to.

For a simple beginning cunning-work I decided upon a witch bottle/charm against the evil eye. Something every house should have as a matter of course, yah?

Feeling that the old ways are often the best ways the bottle mixture was urine and 9 bent pins, with 3 extemporized incantations over each pin as it was placed into the bottle. The bottle was corked and hidden at the northernmost point of the house, which is also the northernmost point of my workshop.
One week later I came home to find my brother pacing nervously in and out of the house, glaring daggers at everyone in the house, cursing at the empty air, and behaving in a generally terrifying manner. He had been living rent-free in the back room of the house for the last year after the meltdown of the latest in a long line of failed relationships and lost career opportunities (he is an extremely talented musician). On confronting him about his alarming behavior he began ranting about sexual jealousies imagined, phantom plots directed against him, and rapidly descended into completely irrational accusations.

The evening ended two hours later with my mother-in-law, wife, and daughter barricaded in the back rooms, and my brother transported to the ER and then to a jail cell for domestic violence charges. After the incident we found the fuel for the evening’s events: an empty sixpack and a liter bottle of tequila half empty.

Everyone in the house was blindsided by the entire incident because it seemed to have come out of nowhere. Then I remembered the working.
On the night of the working, Sunday, October 14th, the moon was a waxing crescent, 30% visible.
A week later, the night of the incident the moon was waxing gibbous, 95% visible sliding into full after midnight.

I really only made the connection between the working and the incident upon reflection over the next two days as I had let the working fade into the background of my memory, and because the original intent of the working had been to repel the malicious eye from forces outside the house not inside.
And then the final piece fell into place. I eventually realized that the bottle used in the working was a mini antique tequila bottle.

Magic works, but not always the way we expect it to.

.:E:.

Re: Cunning in a bottle

[ecosophia]

Yes, it does. If your brother was the principal source of negative energy in the household, your spell will have banished him -- as indeed it did. I hope nobody got hurt.

illness and magical practice

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
My health is improving with the solar and telluric current exercises and benefiting from my Druid practice in general. That said, i still do get ill and sometimes overtired. I try to do my meditation and ritual workings early in the day to compensate for that.

What should one do during an acute illness such as a bad case of the flu? Is it similar to intoxication?

Maxine

Re: illness and magical practice

[ecosophia]

Pretty much, yes. It's been a while since I've gotten sick enough to need to skip my practices, but that's the best thing to do if you're too ill to go about the ordinary activities of life. Say a prayer or two to your deity of choice, and leave it at that.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm reading some Buddhist philosophy, and keep coming across the Buddha's parinirvana, and it means "blowing out", and when the Buddha obtained it, he stopped being reincarnated. This raises a question: is it possible for a soul to will itself out of existence?

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to butt in, but it really depends upon what you mean by existence. The Buddha stopped being reborn, which is different in Buddhist thinking from non-existence. In fact, in many Buddhist traditions it is believed that he will return as the Maitreya Buddha, but not until the teachings of the last Buddha are no longer practiced. Parinirvana just means nirvana, or awakened state, after death, and it is achieved by expiating the karma that leads to rebirth.

[(Anonymous)]

When doing the Spirit Above and Below receptive workings from the DMH, I originally coordinated my breath with the energy flow direction--energy into fingertips on inbreath, and out of fingertips into midline on outbreath.

Then I realized that the instructions say to spend *minutes* on both of those steps, and of course I cannot breathe that slowly. So I tried to disconnect my breath from the energy flow direction, but have not been able to do so completely.

For example, I can intake energy on the inbreath, and then intake more energy on the next inbreath. Or I can intake energy on the inbreath and then just as the outbreath is about to reverse the energy flow, decide that I will intake energy on the outbreath too--but each time I breathe in or out I have to recalibrate. (I hope I am describing this intelligibly.)

Is it alright to have the energy flow coordinated with breathing? Do you have a reccommended way to do this? Or would it be best to disconnect them?

(Thank you for Magic Mondays!)

Breathing in energy

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
Thanks for asking because I do that too also with Solar and Telluric current work. It just seems natural. With the Solar and telluric currents, I release the energy into my body on the exhale. I bet many of us are doing this so it is good you asked!
Maxine

Rose Cross-style rituals

[(Anonymous)]

Hello

(1) What are Rose Cross-style rituals?

(2) And what are they for?

Regards

Re: Rose Cross-style rituals

[ecosophia]

1) You can read instructions for the Rose Cross ritual here. There are several other rituals of the same kind keyed to different magical systems -- for example, in my book The Celtic Golden Dawn, the OIW Ritual corresponds to the Rose Cross ritual.

2) Here's what the Golden Dawn lecture on the subject says:

"1. It encloses the aura with a protection against outside influences. It is like a veil. The Pentagrams protect, but they also light up the astral and make entities aware of you. They are more positive for magical working. When much distracted, use the Pentagrams to banish and the Rose-cross to maintain peace.

"2. It is a call to another mode of your consciousness and withdraws you from the physical. It is a good preparation for meditation and, combined with the Key-Word, a form of invocation of the Higher Wisdom which is helpful when solving problems or preparing for a difficult interview, or in order to be calm and strong to help another.

"3. When you are quite familiar with the Ritual, but most certainly not before, it can be done in imagination while resting or lying down. Part of yourself goes out, and you get all the sensation of walking around your own quiescent body. Used thus, with rhythmic breathing, it will withdraw your mind from pain (if it be not too severe) and release you for sleep. You can do the analysis of the Key-Word standing behind your physical head, and you can call down the Divine White Brilliance, watching it flow over your body and smooth out the tangles in the etheric double, bringing peace and rest.

"4. You can do the Ritual with intention to help others in pain or difficulty. For this purpose, you build up an astral image of the person, in the centre of the room, and call down the Light upon him, after surrounding him with the six crosses. When the ceremony is done, command the astral shape you have made to return to the person, bearing with it the peace of Yeheshuah.

"5. It is a protection against psychic invasion from the thoughts of others or from disturbed psychic conditions, such as there might be in a place charged with fear, where terrible things had happened."

[(Anonymous)]

I've been leaving vinegar out at night for a few weeks now. I found you don't need much of it. Just pouring a bit onto a plate and swirling it round so the flat of the plate is wet is sufficient. As long as a bit is still liquid in the morning, you had all night protection. If you want to enhance the effect or need it in a room in a hurry, you can open the bottle and blow into it, which spreads the vapour around quickly.

Within a day or two of starting, my digestion improved. That was very welcome, although the implication that a ghost or malicious wizard has been interfering with my bowels is...unsettling. :)

Apart from if you're trying to have an out of body experience, is there any other time you shouldn't use the vinegar?

[ecosophia]

Any time you're doing magical workings of a kind that requires you to condense etheric energy into a dense, nearly physical form, the vinegar gets in the way. Thus if you're practicing Franz Bardon's elemental workings, for example, do it in an unvinegared room! Other than that, you should be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Would the hoodoo bath mixture be suitable for washing a dead body? Would it help the dead person's spirit and if so, would the tree still want the leftovers?

[(Anonymous)]

Wow! Cool question. I'd say an "Evil Dead" kind of question.
I'm eager to read JMG's answer...

Race and spiiritual/magical practices

[(Anonymous)]

What are your thoughts on certain spiritual or magical practices being suitable for specific races and less suitable for others?

It seems to be a common idea in older books on magic and spirituality. Of course, the modern idea is that everybody back then was a misguided racist and there can be no discussion on this matter, but I do wonder if there is not some nuance that we have lost in our desire to be seen as much more progressive and tolerant than anyone before us.

Thanks again for providing this forum for questions,

B

Re: Race and spiiritual/magical practices

[(Anonymous)]

I think, whether biology matters, culture would play a huge role, which is also "racist" these days....

Meditation, Essenes, Bath and Caffeine

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for Magic Mondays.

1. I have been doing the relaxation meditation described in DH in the mornings. I am the poster a couple of weeks ago who felt uncomfortable calling upon deities and asked if I could just work with my guardian angel. You said to ask my angel. If I'm not hearing a clear answer on this, I'm assuming it's because I'm such a beginner at meditation, and I just need to continue?

2. I have begun the New Thought Order of Essenes newsletters you linked to. Is that something where I should focus on it completely until I finish it? Doing that for six months might be a good way to put off my deity issue with DH, but still feel like I'm working toward more spiritual practice and comfort. I'll be six months into my morning meditation by that time too.

3. I am wanting to do a hoodoo bath, but when I went to the park nearby and mentally explained the bath and asked if I could dump the water by a pair of robust trees, I didn't hear anything, even after a long time. I'm assuming this too is because I'm too much of a beginner at meditation. But dumping the water on them anyways is kind of rude, right?

4. I have been meditating in the morning, before my first cup of joe, based on the recommendation in DH to not consume caffeine. I am assuming you don't drink coffee or espresso. Do you recommend herbal tea only, so no black or green tea?

Thank you.

Re: Meditation, Essenes, Bath and Caffeine

[ecosophia]

1) Relax. You don't need to hear the answer consciously. Just keep practicing and let the results show up when it's time for them to show up.

2) No, one of the interesting things about New Thought is that it blends very well with most other kinds of esotericism. You can work with the Order of Essenes material while you do the DH work.

3) You may not perceive the answer in terms of hearing. Did you get a feeling one way or the other?

4) The point is simply not to take in caffeine when you're trying to calm yourself for meditation; you can certainly have a cup of coffee afterwards. I don't drink coffee because it gives me migraines, but I drink a lot of tea -- just not right before my morning meditation.

[(Anonymous)]

Based on your recommendation I have commissioned a natal reading from Christopher Warnock. I don't know much about astrology, so was wondering what kind of questions would be pertinent to ask him as followup when I receive it?

[ecosophia]

That depends entirely on what's going on in your life that you might want to know about!

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings,

Long(ish)-time lurker here, breaking my silence for a moment to ask something that may have an obvious answer, but I just wanted to double-check...

You’ve mentioned before that sitting cross-legged makes something like a closed energy circuit in the body, thus preventing energy from coming up from the Earth. This has gotten me thinking - I use casting sticks for my Geomancy divinings, and as part of the casting, I try to envision a connection between the sticks and the Earth (through me as a conduit of sorts) while I focus on the query. Since I do it this way, would sitting cross-legged in any way impede my ability to perform a successful casting? Perhaps not preventing it entirely, but at the very least making it more difficult?
I'm still a beginner and the last thing I want to do is make things harder for myself than I need to, heh...

-Shadow

[ecosophia]

Nah, that shouldn't be a problem at all. This thing we call "energy" includes many different levels and modes of activity. Sitting cross-legged affects energy exchange on the etheric plane, while divination mostly involves the astral plane, with some input from the mental plane; it's a little like worrying whether closing the blinds will keep out radio waves.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello and happy Monday,

Have you listened to Rune Soup's latest episode with Mitch Horowitz? They talk a lot about New Thought, it's an interesting discussion.

Hope you have a good day.

[ecosophia]

No, I don't have time to listen to a lot of podcasts. Glad to hear that Mitch is out there getting some publicity for his new book!

[(Anonymous)]

John—

What are the differences, if any, between a sorcerer, mage, priest, and shaman? I’ve seen these terms used in many contexts, some interchangeably, and I’ve often wondered if there were formal distinctions.

David, by the lake

[ecosophia]

Nope. They're just words, and like most words, they're used in contested and confusing ways by different people. Your dictionary will be as useful here as anything else.

Number meditation

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning John Michael,
I've gotten stuck on the numbers exercise in lesson six of the LRM where we are to meditate on 1-10. I've found an article by WW Westcott about Pythagorean mathematics that describes some useful perspective but I seem to be especially thick re the subject. I am wondering if there are other authors or sources you would recommend to help improve my understanding.
Many thanks.

Re: Number meditation

[ecosophia]

Don't worry about it. In this work you're not required to get the right answer; in this work, very often, there is no right answer. The goal is to wrestle with the properties of number and see if those provide you with a useful vocabulary of symbols. If they don't, leave them for future reference.

Temple of the Ovate Grade

[hwistle]

Dear John,

after setting the temple of the ovate grade for the first time and performing a LRP in that space, Should every daily performance of the ritual afterwards be done in the temple or is the altar to be dismantled until further needed down the lessons? I'm thinking here of the logistics of having to use the same room for different activities at different times, and also of the consequences of burning incense daily in the same room. In connection with the latest, I take when you speak of incense it's frankincense you're referring to?
As usual, many , many thanks, I'm enjoying the work through the Ovate grade (slowly!) and just got through the post your encyclopedia of the occult, looks superb!
Manuel

Re: Temple of the Ovate Grade

[ecosophia]

I take down the temple and put everything away as soon as the ritual's over with, as I don't have a spare room to devote purely to magical practices. (I do my magical work in the same study where I write.) As for incense, you can use any kind of incense you like; I personally prefer Japanese and Korean incenses, as they have a lighter smoke that yields less dust, and the scents also conduce to meditation.

Egregores

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG. A question, perhaps whimsical, perhaps not. But I have been wondering: would a political 'movement' have an egregore? If so, what would would the egregore of the SJW left look like right now? Angry? Splintered? United? Out of control? There is obviously a huge, onward-rushing energy there, but it seems fuelled by righteous anger, and not healthily. How might we understand this in esoteric terms?

Re: Egregores

[ecosophia]

Good heavens, yes. Any group of people united by common passions and a common goal forms a group mind, and when a group mind exists for a prolonged period and is regularly reinforced by emotional energy, it gives rise to an egregor. One of the major difficulties in politics is that egregors feed back the emotions that created them into the people who participate in them, and if those emotions are toxic enough, you can get a really impressive crash dive into dysfunction, violence, and madness.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG
Last Wednesday we seemingly picked an auspicious time (moon phase for a start-up) for a meeting in London of discussion group EEE Ecosophia UK. ‘EEE’ refers to the contingent coming in from the 2014 course & conference organized by Matt & Hugh McNeill, which was addressed by your good self back then. Several of us came from reading your current Ecosophia blog. We raised a glass to JMG and other absent friends!

We intend another meeting in London from some time early next year. We are so far a bit short on practiced divination. Can you give us any advice on choosing our meeting date? We are probably heading for a weekend this time, but not necessarily so.

best
Phil H
PS Last Wednesday it was suggested that I floated this query on MM. And for good measure, anybody who would like to join in with our British Isles online discussions can contact me philsharris2002 at the usual yahoo.co for uk address.

[ecosophia]

Now that you've got it started, astrology is probably less important than practicality; it's the beginning of anything that needs careful timing. The last three days before the New Moon are probably worth avoiding, but other than that, it's not a big deal.

LBRP

[(Anonymous)]

Any suggestions for Welsh goddesses that have the requisite four letters? I've found a handful of gods-Bran, Math, Lleu, Beli-but not goddesses. Would it be more beneficial to pick two goddesses and never mind the number of letters in the name rather than go with four gods? Many thanks!

Re: LBRP

[ecosophia]

Well, Elen of the Roads is one easy option! The other name that's commonly used among Welsh Druids is Sulw -- this is an old Welsh form of Sul, the Celtic name of the goddess of Aquae Sulis aka Bath. She's a goddess of healing and of the hidden sun beneath the earth, and is a daughter of Beli.

Alphabets

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

Are you aware of any attempts to use the Bobileth and Beth-luis-non alphabets in magic, or know of any arguments against doing so?

I encountered them both in “The Magical Arts of Celtic Britian” by Lewis Spence. The Beth-luis-non he shows an image of is nothing like Ogham.

My searches online turned up nothing.

Yours in Druidry,

Brigyn

ps: If I may be so bold, a second question: I see you reference Franz Bardon in your book about the Coelbren. Have you considered that the Coelbren might be an excellent candidate for a system of Quabbalistic speech?

Re: Alphabets

[ecosophia]

Now there's a blast from the past! I'm pretty sure that the circle of Scottish Druids that gathered around Spence used both of them, and so did some other early to mid-20th century Druid groups. Your challenge will be working out the symbolic meanings of the letters.

PS. It's already in process. Bardon's one helpful reference for comparative purposes; another is kotodama, the Japanese system of word-magic.

[(Anonymous)]

From what I can tell, the mind training of occultism, New Thought and stoicism all involve a degree of alienation from your own emotions. You either control your emotions or distance yourself from them. Is this accurate?

[ecosophia]

No, that's putting the cart before the horse. You don't distance yourself from your emotions, you recognize that the distance has always existed -- that you are not your emotions, and that when emotions drown your capacity to think or sense or act effectively, it's because they're running amuck. Nor do you need to control your emotions -- you just control how you react to them. I can get as angry, or as lustful, or as grumpy as the next guy; I just know that these are things I'm feeling, objects of experience in the same way that a bird flying past my window is an object of experience, and decide on the basis of a broader range of things how I want to respond to them.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Due to my mistake several animals that I was in charge of unnecessary suffered before they died. Can you recommend a ritual that can help me to let them know that I'm very sorry and ask for forgiveness?

I don't practice any magical system regularly but I've studied The Druidry Handbook and generally feel drawn mostly to Druidic and Northern European polytheism ideas and practices.

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

One of the standard things to do in Western occultism is to make an offering to their spirits in the form of an appropriate donation -- for example, to a charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals, or one that rehabilitates animals that would otherwise be killed. Make it large enough that you have to give up some casual expenses in order to afford it. When you are making the donation, speak to the spirits of the animals you harmed, and ask for their forgiveness.

Some clarification

[degringolade]

I remember that in one of your posts (here or over at the "big" Ecosophia or maybe even back in the Archdruid Days), that the first part of the 20th century were the most robust of years for magic in "Black" America. I have been casting about for some reading or articles on this subject.

Brother, can you spare some knowledge?

All the best, and thanks in advance.

John
https://mightaswellliebackandenjoyit.blogspot.com/

Re: Some clarification

[ecosophia]

The book you want is Spiritual Merchants by Carolyn Morrow Long, a fine history of African-American folk religion and its evolution into the "spiritual products" business. Enjoy!

Karma

[(Anonymous)]

What, if any, are some recommended divinatory practices that would help give insights into karmatic connections between friends and couples?

Re: Karma

[ecosophia]

That depends entirely on what kind of divination you, personally, are good at. Some people can read karmic connections very clearly in Tarot; others can't. The same is true of astrology or, well, any other oracle you care to name. The personal equation is the one that matters most.

[(Anonymous)]

Just a word of thanks...I'm undergoing radiation therapy for a recurrent cancer. My first week was pretty awful, with significant complications. Then I remembered your TSW™ and 800-lb. gorilla posts and enlisted my Catholic heritage. I had the therapists turn off the radio and started saying the Rosary during my therapy. Within two days my symptoms had cleared up completely and now I'm sailing through as if I was visiting a spa, not getting bombarded by high-energy radiation. TSW, indeed!

RPC

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to hear it. May you make a complete and painless recovery!