Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Walter B. Gibson, one of the few professional stage magicians who was also a genuine occultist -- his 1966 book The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences, written with his wife Litzka, is a good summary of the state of popular occultism on the eve of the 1970s occult revival -- and also, of course, the pulp writer responsible for that iconic figure, The Shadow. ("Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows...")

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)]

Dear Mr. Greer,

A happy new year to you! I'm posting anonymously today. I found out yesterday that somebody I know is involved in a domestic violence/abuse situation. I feel shocked and upset and beyond advising the person to seek legal and professional help I was wondering if there was anything I could do within the context of the blog to assist or improve the situation? I'm unsure if it influences anything but a young child is also involved.

As always thank you for providing this forum .

[ecosophia]

Depends on what kind of training and experience in magic you have. In a crisis situation, I don't recommend trying any kind of magical working you haven't already practiced extensively. Ordinary prayer, if you have a relationship with a god or goddess that involves that, is one good choice if you don't have a lot of magical background; if not, it's probably best to stick to helping out on the material plane.

Ceramic knife and property sales

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

1) I took note of the knife discussion during one of your Magic Mondays and then saw a ceramic fruit knife at a local thrift store. I did some research and found out that ceramic blades are made from zircon, a neosilicate. As it's not steel or a petroleum product, might it be useful to use if one doesn't have access or preference to a stone or obsidian blade? You just need to be a bit careful as they're more brittle than metal.

2) I'm trying to sell my house. I've been very active about it, pitching it competitively, scouting widely, updating agents, thinking out of the box regarding the market and marketing, but it hasn't sold for four years now. (I'm outside the USA, where the economic climate is dismal.) It has location and price going for it, but the whole area is depressed. I'm well aware of "intentionality" and how it can backfire and, believe me, I'm pretty desperate right now! (selling the house is pretty much the only way I can get enough money together to reunite with my family at the other end of the world), so I think that rules out any kind of spell. Besides, I'm only a beginner Druidry Candidate, so most things are out of my reach. I was wondering whether green colour breathing might help. You know, something that can make the house look attractive (it's a good, solid house) without pulling my own anxieties into the equation. What do you think and do you have any other suggestions?

Zed

Re: Ceramic knife and property sales

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, that would be a good choice. A ceramic blade of any kind won't have the etheric effects of metal.

2) Since your goal is to reunite with your family, concentrate on that, rather than on the sale of the house as a means to that. Use green color breathing, ten minutes a day, with the intention of having the resources you need to relocate to be with your family. And of course take every practical step you can think of!

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I'm working on the Celtic Golden Dawn and getting into the daily divination. I read your book on Geomancy and it resonated with me, so i'm using that with colored dice that I dedicated to the elements.

However, the chapter on learning Geomancy through daily divination is rather short. Could you give some more pointers? For instance, who is the quesited in that matter? Is it my day? The main event of that day?

Using the shield chart, I'm not sure if the left witness ("future") refers to my future _after_ today and the judge ("present") to the current day or if the current day is the left witness and the judge my disposition toward it.

Thanks for your help and all your writing!

Jonas

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

First, please do take the time to make and use a set of Druid wands for your geomancy readings. Yes, you can also do dice, and it's good to learn various ways to cast geomantic charts, but when following a course of initiatory training, it's wise to follow the instructions to the letter.

Second, if you're using the shield chart, the right witness is you, the left witness is your day, and the judge is how the day affects you. The time factor in a daily divination is less important, since you've already set the specific time interval for which you're casting the chart.

[(Anonymous)]

Hiya John
I’ve been noticing an increasing rate in instances of people claiming everything is fine until they are confronted with facts. Then they (the people) apply the immortal word of the Sicilian in The Princess Bride as if screaming “Inconceivable!” would ward off whatever might interrupt their blissful state of just-fine-ness. I listened to a caller on a talk show insist that the southern border of the US has no problems because he can’t see them from his nice neighborhood in Texas. When the host offered hard numbers from reputable sources, the caller replied each time, “Well – that can’t be right.” Similarly, reporter David Roberts writing for Vox insists conventional economic theories such as “too much debt is bad for the economy” are a great heap of bovine fewmishings in his op-ed “The Green New Deal Explained.” Dismissing these two items as rich out-of-touch-ness and tubthumping would seem adequate, but regular encounters with the ragged edge of the intelligentsia suggest something is amiss in their shared reality. Any ideas what the underlying problem is, is it occult in origin, and how should we aspiring Green Wizards respond? …besides becoming instantly engrossed in giant cups of off-brand soda pop?
Thanks!
Rusty
(Lehman’s hardware in Kidron, Ohio is a reliable supplier of vintage-style soda, by the way.)

[ecosophia]

I've noticed the same thing, and I think what we're seeing is world-class cognitive dissonance. The world is supposed to behave in X way, according to the accepted ideologies, but it's not -- and the more obviously it's not, the more loudly believers insist that X must be true and any evidence that it isn't true must be fake news, etc. Back of the whole thing, I suspect, is the cascading failure of the myth of progress, the primary religious belief of our time -- that's generating vast amounts of cognitive dissonance as people try to square their faith in perpetual progress with the rising tide of evidence that modern industrial society is in accelerating decline. Off=brand soda pop is probably a good response; when you've got someone deep in cognitive dissonance, "back away from the crazy person" is about the only advice that works.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a few questions:

First, last week, you mentioned "lords of karma" in a ritual you provided. What exactly are they?

Second, what exactly is karma? I know it's the consequences of past actions, but what does that entail?

Third, how could I go about breaking an addiction? Sheer willpower doesn't seem to be enough, so should I strengthen it, or is there something else that can be done?

Finally, I don't dream, or at least I never remember my dreams. Do you know any ways to change that?

[ecosophia]

1) There's a magical axiom that runs "every energy is also an entity, and every entity is also an energy." That is, you can experience the phenomena of the spiritual world as impersonal forces or as personalized beings, and both of these are valid ways of experiencing them. The Lords of Karma are the spiritual structures of karma experienced as personalized beings. What exactly they are is hard to say, but they seem to be of the order of things that old-fashioned occultists call "archangelic."

2) Karma works through character. "Sow a thought and reap a word, sow a word and reap a deed, sow a deed and reap a habit, sow a habit and reap a character, sow a character and reap a destiny." Every thought, word, and deed you engage in shapes who you are, and who you are attracts certain experiences to you and repels certain other experiences. There's no one sitting in judgment -- you are, through the way your actions shape who you are, your own judge, jury, and executioner.

3) You need to understand the role that the addiction plays in your emotional life. Journaling is a good way to do this. Get a notebook or blank book and a pen, and start engaging in written dialogues with your addiction. Ask it to remind you why you have it, what it does for you, and so on. Let it remind you of memories you've forgotten and issues you have tried not to deal with. The best way to break an addiction is to outgrow it, and you outgrow it by figuring out what it does for you.

4) Sure. Repeat the affirmation "I remember my dreams" nine times silently before going to bed each night. Keep a journal and pen by your bedside, and when you begin to recall the first faint scraps of your dreams, write down a description of everything you can remember. Keep doing that and in time you'll be remembering detailed dreams.

The sound

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, I was wondering if you could help me categorize, if possible, a clairaudient experience I've had several in my life, the first having occurred when I was an adolescent, probably around 10 or so - I woke up in middle of night hearing what sounded like a rhythmic grinding of gears, a sort of ghastly anti-music. The sound persisted though I was fully awake, and I recall imaging basement machinery coming up the stairs toward my bedroom. I dearly wanted to fall back to sleep and escape it, but every time I began to drift off, the sound would grow louder. I then found that by remaining as alert and attentive as possible, I could get the sound to fade away to nothing. (this tactic helped me immensely in later years when I was confronted by fear and anxiety).

Approx 40 later, I awoke one morning from a dream hearing something of the same godawful sound, though this time it faded away in moments. I think it's impossible to accurately describe the sheer awfulness of this sound in words, save that it seems "anti-life", the antithesis of, say, the music of the spheres. I think it would be impossible to replicate with any kind of material tools or instruments.

Now, I've had many psychic experiences in my day, and I'd say this one pretty much covers the low end of the spectrum. But what exactly was I hearing? I realize the experience could be unique to me, but I have the disturbing impression that this sound may be there all the time transmitting away like some kind of lower-astral beacon and that everyone might be hearing it and be impacted by it on some level of consciousness - perhaps only occasionally does it break through to waking consciousness. I've tried to research it and thus far, I've come up with zip. Do you have any idea on just what might be generating this seemingly insanity-inducing sound? I was wondering if any of your readers might have experienced something similar .... thank you. - Will M

Hmm, you think the Shadow knows?

Re: The sound

[ecosophia]

This isn't something I've ever experienced, but my wife experienced it once in sleep, as part of a premonition of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City on 9/11. Other than that, I have no idea.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm witnessing the implosion of my country's government (I don't live in the US, but we seem to be heading in the same direction). One of the factors that may be contributing is the presence of a group of utterly incompetent mages, similar to the magic resistance (many of whom are casting spells to bind Trump too...). Do you have advice on how to reduce the damage?

I suspect it's too late to keep the fan clean, but the less it splatters the better. I'm also involved in work on the material plane to try to keep things from collapsing, but is there anything else I can do?

[ecosophia]

The first and most crucial step is to stay clear of the craziness yourself. Regular banishing rituals and meditation on themes with a spiritual focus are very useful tools for this. As Dion Fortune comments, this sort of thing is like a aerial dogfight in World War I biplanes -- you win by rising above the other guy.

As you pursue that, it's helpful to take some widely recognized symbol of your nation -- something you associate with positive emotions -- and use that as a focus for blessings via prayers and ceremonies. Here in the US I recommend the Statue of Liberty as a good option; your nation will have some emblem that calls to mind the best things about its history and culture. Focus on blessing and strengthening those things, using the emblem as a focus, while keeping your own mind and spirit clear. That's about the most you can do in times of chaos like these.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG (Do you have a preference for how we address you?)

Per the instructions in Learning Ritual Magic, I picked up a few books from the list in chapter 1.

Because I had the stack within arm's reach the other night, I started paging through The Tree of Life. In the intro, Regardie mentions that potential students should undergo a course of psychotherapeutic treatment to relieve any emotional tensions that magical practice could potentially exacerbate.

What are your thoughts on this?

Some background - I consider myself a pretty stable person, but there have been periods in my life where I've experienced mild anxiety or depression for brief periods. Nothing recent; this was all a years back. It was never severe enough to disrupt my life or work.

I'd love to undergo psychotherapy, not because I feel it's necessary for me, but because I think it's probably something that could benefit anyone. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources.

Is this a barrier for me, as a Magical noob? If so, is there anything I can do myself, to clear the path so to speak?

Thanks for taking these questions.
-Dudley Dawson

[ecosophia]

That was one of Regardie's hobby horses. I don't know anyone else who agrees with him these days. You should be fine.

Hatred of Nature

[(Anonymous)]

Do you think spirits on our world ever communicate with spirits inhabiting other solar systems elsewhere in the galaxy?

Traditional religious lore in some cultures suggests this happens sometimes, like in classical Indian cosmology, in which there are many world systems. It nevertheless seems the gods familiar to us stick to our planet and the local solar system (Sun, Moon, planets, comets, etc.).

Re: Hatred of Nature

[ecosophia]

According to occult philosophy, no -- each solar system is separate from all others for the duration of its life cycle, and the only being in a solar system that has any direct contact with what's going on elsewhere is the Solar Logos of the system.

Geomancy to detect magical attack

[(Anonymous)]

I have been working my way through your book on Geomancy, and it seems to be working pretty well, but I am still feeling my way thru the analysis.

I recently queried, "Is someone working evil against me?"
Shield chart resulted in:
Querent: Acquisitio
Quesited: Populus
Judge: Acquisitio
From this, I gather that the answer is 'yes.'

House chart:
Querent: Fortuna Minor
Quesited: House 6- Cauda Draconis
Houses 11 and 12 are both Rubeus.

Question: I am unsure whether Cauda draconis in house 6 indicates that the attack is at or nearing an end.
Also, could Rubeus in 11 and 12 mean I have an unknown enemy among friends and associates?
Except for the two Rubeuses, an Amissio and a Tristitia, it seems to have a lot of positive symbols. The Cardines seem to say I will be much better off after I journey through this situation.

For the compulsive, here is the full casting:

Mothers:
1. Fortuna Minor
2. Conjunctio
3. Fortuna Minor
4. Fortuna Major
Daughters:
5. Amissio
6. Cauda Draconis
7. Acquisitio
8. Tristitia
Neices:
9. Amissio
10. Via
11. Rubeus
12. Rubeus
Witness 1 - Acquisitio/Querent
Witness 2 - Populus / Quesited
Judge - Acquisitio

Cardines:
1. Fortuna Minor - Beginning of process
10. Via - Middle of process
7. Acquisitio - End of process
4. Fortuna Major - Aftermath.

Re: Geomancy to detect magical attack

[ecosophia]

Okay, first, it's not usually a good idea to interpret one reading using both the shield chart and the house chart. I'm going to take the house chart as the basis for my interpretation here, because it's better suited to yes/no questions.

In the house chart, the significator of the querent is Fortuna Minor and the significator of the quesited is Tristitia, the figure in the eighth house, which is the house of magic. (Sixth is the house of health, not of sorcery.) Tristitia looks dire, right? But any time you ask a yes/no question of a house chart, the answer is shown by whether there's a mode of perfection linking the figure of the querent and that of the quesited. There is none. Fortuna Minor passes to the fourth to trine the eighth, but an aspect won't usually perfect a chart all by itself -- especially when you're asking about something unwelcome and it's a favorable aspect. So the answer is no, nobody's working evil against you.

(If it were a sixth house question, the answer would still be no, because no mode of perfection links Fortuna Minor with Cauda Draconis, either.)

Let's put the "no" in context by looking at the Judge and Witnesses, which are read in both kinds of charts. What that says is that something has happened to you (Acquisitio) which is also happening to lots of other people (Populus), but you mistakenly took it personally (Acquisitio again). Fortunately, as you've noted, the cardines show that it'll all work out for you, though there will be some delays involved (very common when Fortuna Major shows up in the 4th -- "success after delay" is a good summary of that figure's meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

Do all the dead wait dreaming, or is that exclusive to you-know-who?

In a previous discussion about neck romance, when you said 'the deadness rubs off' is that literal as in being collected by the bus driver, or figurative as per spending too much time with plastic?

[ecosophia]

1) There are some stages in the after-death process that approximate dreaming, so to some extent we're all Cthulhus in the making. ;-)

2) Figurative, mostly.

Some vid / podcast suggestions

[wonderingmagic]

Greetings, and congratulations on your part in helping the Earth complete another formalized circuit around the sun this week!

This isn't a question but I thought I'd call your attention to a couple of videos and podcasts and offer you the opportunity to comment, if desired.

Alan Moore, famous fringe writer whom most people probably know here, defines Magic as "Any purposeful engagement with the phenomena and possibilities of consciousness", and connects it in a fundamental, primordial way to all of art and culture, by thinking about the figure of the shaman. His definition is broader than the definition you usually promote, but I think it's kinda cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtbBmIfLYbk

Alan Moore comes to this definition by noting that even dreams and feelings, even the realization of the passage of time and the cyclical nature of the seasons -- to a hominid with emerging, developing consciousness, must have seemed like they came from an outside supernatural source. He cites "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind," a book I'd bet dollars to donuts you're familiar with, but just in case you or anybody else is not familiar with the book -- I haven't read the whole thing, unfortunately, but I've read a lot of clips and summaries... I'll make a pathetic attempt to summarize it by proposing that its central theory states that the instinctive and procedural portions of the hominid brain separated from each other as they specialized, and the instinctive portions became in essence religious (answering the question of the _why_ of the world, with inscrutable dictates: "Take Shelter!" "Hunt for Food!"), whereas the procedural portion ("_how_ do I take shelter from this storm? That cave? _How_ do I hunt that animal? With a rock or my bare hands") became the portion of human experience that we now refer to as intelligence and consciousness.

The book and its theory, I hear, has fallen out of favor with both psychologists and those who study intelligence (such as A.I. researchers), mainly I suppose because it relies on left-brain/right-brain theory which most people consider outdated.

I also ran across another podcast by two people, Phil Ford and J. F. Martel, who sometimes drop hints that they study magical theory while also discussing pop culture and zeitgeist (they even have a Lovecraft episode)... They have dropped the Golden Dawn definition of Magic at least a couple times (I believe this is one of them, where my friend Michael Garfield was the guest: https://www.weirdstudies.com/26 ), and one of their recent podcasts seems to run through your entire Pepe/Kek analysis without attributing you ( https://www.weirdstudies.com/36 ). Maybe you should check if they're readers of your site who "forgot" to give you credit??

I just noticed your recent appearance on the Emerge! podcast, and it reminded me that I was first introduced to you and your work by some podcasts (the Extra-Environmentalists and the C-Realm), but you haven't done a whole lot of podcast interviews recently. I'd love it if you'd make contact with Michael Garfield, host of the Future Fossils podcast ( https://www.patreon.com/michaelgarfield/posts ), because he's a friend of mine in person. I have suggested a few times that he reach out to you, and he seemed like he liked the idea, but he's been busy moving across the country so he probably hasn't done it yet. I'd love to hear the guys from Weird Studies take a look at your opus sometime, too! Preferably in the form of an interview.

Re: Some vid / podcast suggestions

[ecosophia]

I'm certainly open to doing podcasts, so by all means let your friend know he can contact me via any of my publishers. As for the others -- the goal of this phase of my work is to get certain ideas into circulation, and if they end up having the serial numbers filed off, that's not necessarily a problem...

[guillem66]

Im asking for the term in astrology wich defines a situation like this:

Jupiter in virgo in square with mercury in sagitarius, in a natal cart. The two are in detreniment, and in affliction from the ruler of the sign they're occuping.

Also your thoughts, if any.


Thanks,

Guillem

[ecosophia]

There's no specific term for that. You've got a mutual reception (two planets in each other's rulership) made complicated by the other factors you've listed; it's one of godzillions of complex relationships possible in a natal chart. As for comments, since I don't know anything else about the chart -- and an astrological chart needs to be interpreted as a whole -- I'll pass.

[(Anonymous)]

From the "You can't make this stuff up" Dept:

I remember we were talking about attempts by certain elements in the Neopagan community to put binding and hexing spells on Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh.

Well, wouldn't you know it; I just came across a Facebook group calling itself "Witches For Trump". Even funnier is that they have more than three times as many members as the "Witches Against Trump" group...

[ecosophia]

That doesn't surprise me in the least. One of the things the Democratic Party is doing its level best not to deal with is that these days -- whatever it was in the past -- it's mostly the party of a privileged elite and its middle-class hangers-on, and neither the numbers nor the generational tides are on its side.

[jenniferkobernik]

Not a question, but something I wished to share, in case any other readers are interested:

I had spoken on the blog some time ago (during the Mystery Teachings book club) about pursuing watercolor painting as an initiatory practice and/or incorporating it as part of a magical practice. I have since been focusing more on the craft aspects of it (trying to make things look like actual things and not merely overworked blobs, to be honest), and I accidentally stumbled over this lady, Kateri Ewing. She can be frankly a tad woo-woo for my taste (possibly this is a bit rich considering the context, but nonetheless...):

https://youtu.be/qRmcgQ8Ei5M

I’ve no idea of the soundness of her magical practices or correspondences, but for those who don’t want to watch the video, a couple brief notes about things she mentions:

-Burning sage (this could be any incense) before her practice
-Using particular feathers to waft the air around
-Drawing tarot cards for the day as a preliminary
-Burnishing her paper with a crystal
-Placing certain stones or crystals in her dishes of painting water
-Using paint dishes of made of particular stones which have been “charged with intention” in the “light of the moon”
-Just generally displaying and incorporating meaningful and symbolic materials as part of the painting process
Etc.
As part of a daily morning watercolor meditation practice as described in the video.

As I said, it is a bit eclectic white lady woo-woo, narrated in a rather determinedly soporific voice, but I must say it gave me interesting ideas for incorporating magical materials and symbolism as part of the painting process. I am particularly intrigued by the idea of using a painting meditation as part of the process of interpreting/reflecting on my daily Ogham reading, and of incorporating natural magic such as appropriate stones and other materials into the painting process and tools.

Anyway, I don’t know if anyone else is exploring art as initiatory practice, but if so, they may wish to look into Ms. Ewing’s practices.

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Rather too New Age for me in the way that it's done, but the basic idea is interesting.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the occult explanation for déjà vu? When felt particularly strongly, is this an indication of a place experienced in a previous life?

2. You have mentioned before that plastics and other fossil fuel products give off a deathly or necromantic energy. Would I be right to assume this also applies to vinyl records? As an ageing hipster I have a lot of these about, and I'm wondering what to do about them.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

[ecosophia]

1) Deja vu has more than one cause. Sometimes, yes, it can involve past life memories; more often, though, it's the result of forgotten precognitive dreams.

2) How do your records feel to you? Pay attention to whether they have the "dead things" vibe about them or not, and act accordingly.

Enochian magic

[(Anonymous)]

What are your thoughts on Enochian magic? Do you believe that the Enochian entities are Angelic or some other category of entity altogether?

Is Enochian magic something you have you have discussed in any of your books, and, if so, which one?

Thanks!

Re: Enochian magic

[ecosophia]

Enochian entities aren't all of a single kind. The names from the Enochian tablets include divine, archangelic, angelic, spirit, and demonic beings. It's a whole cosmos of magical entities.

No, I haven't discussed the Enochian work in any of my books. I made tablets, used the keys, and did a bunch of work with the Enochian material while I was in my intensive Golden Dawn phase, but I didn't find it especially attractive, and my books on GD magic all work strictly with Hebrew rather than Enochian names and powers.

[booklover1973]

I have read about color breathing. It occurred to me that it is done with some colors, and not with some other colors. I assume that this isn't accidental. What would happen, for example, if someone were to use black color breathing in his meditation?

[ecosophia]

You use that in certain spells to make other people fail to notice you (i.e., what's usually called "invisibility spells") and in certain other kinds of workings. The downside is that it can lead to depression.

The colors discussed in the usual books are fairly safe to work with, which is why those and not others are mentioned.

LRM and ceremonial magic

[(Anonymous)]

A few weeks ago you said that when people start doing ceremonial magic it makes them visible to some entities, so they have to take steps to conceal themselves.

I am studying your book LRM. Finishing chapter 17. I have been fairly slow and a bit erratic at it, but much more consistent now.

Given the above, does that mean that now I am attracting the attention of certain entities? If so which ones? What could be sign that they are paying attention, and what should I do about it?

Note that up till now I have not noticed anything peculiar, yet I feel concerned!

Thanks!

Re: LRM and ceremonial magic

[ecosophia]

If you haven't noticed anything peculiar, you're fine. When you finish the book, if you decide you want to go on to do more magic in the same system, pick up a copy of Circles of Power and learn the Rose+Cross Ritual; do that once a week and you'll veil your aura very effectively.

Harvesting herbs and natal Chart of a marriage.

[sea_spray]

Hi JMG
You mentioned last week that cutting a herb with iron removes its magical properties. What would you recommend using instead?
Can the astrological chart for the moment of a wedding be used like a natal chart to predict the marriage and events in it using transits?
Thanks

Re: Harvesting herbs and natal Chart of a marriage.

[ecosophia]

1) Anything but iron. Some people use bronze blades; some use sharp stone tools; some use ceramic knives.

2) Yes, and you can also do progressed charts based on the wedding chart for the same purpose. Remember to check transits and progressions against the natal charts of both members of the couple too -- this will often clue you into events that affect one person more strongly than the other.

Elemental Cross

[filthywaffle]

In the Druid Magic Handbook you state the elemental cross of the SoP “was done with a gesture like the Christian sign of the cross, but many people—including some Christians—prefer not to do this.”

I was just curious how this worked. Was it one hand instead of two extending from above to the forehead, then to the heart, and then moving right, then left (as opposed to the left then right in the Christian sign of the cross)?

Re: Elemental Cross

[ecosophia]

Exactly.

[(Anonymous)]

Good day Sir!

I wanted to reach out and thank you for your response to my question last week about kids and groves. It provided clarity and clued me in that not all things called groves are the same.

Very grateful,
Matt

[ecosophia]

You're welcome and thank you!

[smwils1]

I was wondering if you could explain the significance of parent/child relationships. For some reason, I think you may be estranged from one or both of your parents. I have some people telling me that the parent/child relationship is significant, and that if I don't work through the issues, I will have to work through them in another lifetime--that our souls will keep meeting until we work through things. For me, I've never been able to disengage from my mother, and she's been an albatross hanging over me. Now that her dementia is advancing, I feel even more trapped by her. I feel totally drained of life force at this point, and unwilling to care for her. I'm wondering if it's possible that this parent/child relationship is less significant than some are making it out to be. My mother is something of a psychic vampire and has never gotten along w/anyone she's close to: her mother, my father, nor me. The biggest understanding I am having now is one of letting go, and of realizing that there's just not much there, and never was.
Along those lines, is it possible for families to be cursed, to have a bad egregore/bad energy that keeps getting passed. Yes, there is depression and alcoholism all over my mom's side, but, besides this clinical stuff, is there some sort of curse at work as well?

[ecosophia]

Quite possibly the thing you need to do, in order to finish working through your karma with your mother, is to learn to let go. As for family egregors, yes, they certainly exist, and can function in some ways like curses; regular banishing rituals are a good start in terms of getting out from under that sort of thing.

[smwils1]

I remember the 80s as a very dark time, and I wonder if a lot of Millennial rage that I see is a function of being born and internalizing that darkness...

Mindfulness

[(Anonymous)]

A good podcast on the dangers of mindfulness :

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/does-meditation-deserve-the-hype/

The current interest in Stoicism, mindfulness, dmt, seems to me is saying that lots of people are disssatified with the life they are given.

Dashui

Re: Mindfulness

[ecosophia]

True enough.