Traces of a Lost Tradition

[ecosophia]

I field questions now and again about the origins of the material I put into my book The Druid Magic Handbook and my forthcoming two-volume set The Dolmen Arch, and they're questions I have a hard time answering in any satisfactory manner. The very short form is that after I became head of a nearly defunct Druid order in 2003, I got handed various documents, some of which had to do with the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), some of which had to do with AODA sister orders such as the Order of Spiritual Alchemy and the Modern Essene Fellowship, and some of which had nothing to do with any of these but got sent to me anyway. 

It was a real gallimaufry, and one of the projects I've had in mind for a while now is getting more of it in order and in the hands of people who might be interested in it. The relaunching of the Order of Essenes correspondence course, a fine presentation of the best of the New Thought system, was part of that, and I'm delighted to report that that's been well received -- there's been a steady stream of students for the lessons, and some have already finished the first course with flying colors and qualified for the more challenging second course. 

The things that fascinated me most, though, were scraps of teaching that had to do with a system of Druid Revival philosophy and practice I'd seen referenced here and there. There's a system of correspondences that assigns things to seven symbolic Cantrefs, which I'd seen referenced but never described in a classic occult work by David Conway; there's an odd series of hints about Rosicrucian connections -- "the mistletoe on the oak is also the rose on the cross," and the like; there were portions of two lessons of an old mimeographed correspondence course, which I expanded into the Dolmen Arch course, soon to be published in book form; and running through the whole thing, there's a distinctive take on magical energies, which focuses on the interplay between the solar or cosmic current descending from the heavens and the telluric current rising from the earth. 

I'd also encountered that before, in hints and scraps. The late John Michell, who knew an extraordinary amount about occult tradition and wove any number of hints into The View Over Atlantis and his other books, talked learnedly about the two currents here and there, and explored their symbolic numbers. Some years back, my fellow archdruid Gordon Cooper succeeded in tracking down an odd series of essays from the early 19th century, "Letters on Tellurism, Commonly Called Animal Magnetism," which were written by Swiss mesmerist Gioacchino de Prati and talk about the two currents in some detail; and there are also things in Dion Fortune that suggest a knowledge of it -- when we get to the relationship between the Solar Logos and the Planetary Spirit in my monthly commentary on The Cosmic Doctrine, we'll get into that. 

Now I have another few scraps. 

For quite a few years now I've practiced a system of acupressure self-treatment called Do-In -- that's pronounced "dough-inn," and it's the Japanese version of the Chinese term Daoyin. Most of the books I have on it were published in America, and when they get into philosophy at all they mostly talk about the macrobiotic diet. There are a few books by French authors, though -- Jacques de Langre and Jean Rofidal -- that head off in their own direction. Both of them drop plenty of references to the Druids...and both of them talk at some length about the cosmic and telluric currents. 

The connection's not hard to trace. There's been a very large Druid Revival scene in France since the late 19th century at least, and it linked up in various ways with Asian and especially Japanese spiritual traditions when those reached Western Europe -- the macrobiotic teacher George Ohsawa and the controversial Breton nationalist Druid Neven Henaff even co-wrote a book on the health benefits of vitamin C, which was published in 1977. French Druid traditions adopted a version of East Asian yin-yang theory, using the Gaulish words samos and giamos ("summer" and "winter" respectively) for yang and yin. Thus de Langre and Rofidal had plenty of chances to learn a Druidized version of Do-In, and that's apparently what they did. 

So clearly whatever teaching de Prati knew in the 1830s was still known in France in the 1930s, in the US somewhere around that time (the mimeographed pages I got didn't have dates on them but I'm guessing from context), wherever John Michell got his knowledge in the 1950s and 1960s, and in French macrobiotic circles in the 1970s and 1980s. (I've also got a lead on some kind of neo-Templar tradition along the same lines, which identifies the solar and telluric currents with Sophia and Baphomet respectively, but that's a whole 'nother story.) 

Piecing things together, bit by bit...

Comments

Hypnotism

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, aren't tellurism and animal magnetism terms for the early forms of hypnotism, along with Mermerism? I have some hypnotherapy textbooks, and these terms are in the historical introductions.

I've certainly noticed that hypnotherapy texts have very substantial overlap with the visualisations of certain qigong practices, which helps explain the direction and effects of qi.

If French and Breton druids go their hands on it, that would be very interesting! Not knowing anything about those traditions, do they refer to Barddas, or is it completely separate?

BTW, is there any chance that you could post the Table of Contents of The Dolmen Arch?

Thanks,

Bogatyr

[fringewood]

I too am intrigued. I am very interested in solar cycles and earthquakes as manifestations of solar and earth energies. When searching for solar and telluric currents, I found this article about using telluric currents for geological mapping for drilling

https://www.geologyforinvestors.com/exploration-using-telluric-currents-mt-and-csamt/

and this one about electrical power and geomagnetic storms.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/electric-power-transmission

I will be very interested to know what you coalesce from disparate sources on telluric and solar currents!

Two more:

https://healersofthelight.com/using-telluric-fields-to-recharge-your-energy/

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/earthenergy.htm

Re: Hypnotism

[ecosophia]

Hypnotism is a portion of Mesmer's original system, pried loose from its context and carefully scrubbed of all references to the life force and to the broader esoteric context in which Mesmer developed it. What he did had more in common with what Franz Bardon taught than with modern hypnotherapy.

I once published Mesmer's original theses on animal magnetism in a little occult quarterly I used to run. I should see about finding those and reposting them.

The French-language Druid material I have refer to Barddas and the Welsh material constantly, though they put their own spin on things.

As for The Dolmen Arch, once I have a release date, yes, I'll be posting the table of contents for all to drool over. ;-)

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for these! I haven't looked into how solar cycles and earthquakes tie into all this, so I'm intrigued to hear about your interest.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it safe to do the Dolmen Arches and Order of Essences at the same time?

[fringewood]

I have been looking at the solar cycles for about 7 years now, though a solar cycle is around 11 years according to https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question17.html

http://spaceweather.com/ is a good site to follow sun cycles. On the left hand side about 1/4 of the way down is information on sunspot activity and a list of years from 2006 until now. I also check https://tesis.lebedev.ru/en/sun_flares.html a Russian site that has some nice diary entries from 2009 around the last solar minimum (Also on the left side of the page). Very similar to this year's activity.

I have primarily been interested in how temperatures on earth are affected by the minimum and maximum. From my experience here in the NE U.S. it was cooler and wetter in 2009/10 during the minimum and hotter and dryer 2012-2016 during the maximum. But for the last six months, I have been getting to know the sun on a different level and am working daily to understand what seems to be the decade long in breath and out breath of the sun. That is a crude analogy, but it is what I have at the present. :^~

I am also trying to correlate earthquakes to sunspots/storms, but my timing is off because I don't yet think in earth and/or sun cycles and how they might click together. Kind of like putting two planetary cycles together in astrology. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ You can adjust the settings on this site.

On top of that I am interested in the hum. https://thehum.info/
https://newrepublic.com/article/132128/maddening-sound Wondering if it is connected to the low frequency telluric current.

That's enough for now. Thanks for sharing what you learn and teaching me how to be a student.
Linda

Re: Hypnotism

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John Michael Greer,
I for one would be very interested to read your article on Meser's original theses on animal magnetism. I do hope you will post it.
Kind regards,
ML

[ecosophia]

Yes. New Thought ideas mesh very well with nearly all 18th, 19th and 20th century occult systems. The combination of the Order of Essenes work and the Dolmen Arch is one I have particular experience with, as I developed the Dolmen Arch course from the fragmentary materials I've got at the same time as I was working through the Essenes materials for the first time.

Re: Hypnotism

[(Anonymous)]

Seconded!

solar and telluric currents

[(Anonymous)]

JMG wrote: "I once published Mesmer's original theses on animal magnetism in a little occult quarterly I used to run."

Yes please!

(1) What are the nature of solar and telluric currents?

(2) Any thought of reviving any occult quarterly? Or are there a few existing quarterlies you could recommend already?

Regards

Karim

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for sharing this!
I am very interested in the history of the DMH-suite of practices. If you uncover anything else in the future, I hope you'll share it again.

Yours in Druidry,
Brigyn

[(Anonymous)]

youtube user https://www.youtube.com/user/dutchsinse has been tracking earthquakes and solar activity for a long time, you could ask him. Here's his page https://www.dutchsinse.com/dutchsinse-faq/. His 3D earth model showing earthquake activity is really cool too :-)

Ying-yang, power, knowledge and peace

[(Anonymous)]

It's curious. A couple of days ago, while meditating in DMH first triad,specifically the gifts of Knowledge, Power and Peace that unfold upon arriving to Gwynfydd, it occured to me that the ying-yang symbol catches this idea with great beauty.

We learn to bring to the world our own Awen, and to take from it Awen as well, and in this interchange there is peace. I'ts very resumed, but you probably know well.

Yours,

Guillem.

Re: solar and telluric currents

[ecosophia]

1) They're currents in nwyfre, the life force.

2) I don't have anything close to enough spare time to launch one. I don't know of any these days -- the internet has made life hard for magazines of all kinds -- but I'd read one if it was available. ;-)

[ecosophia]

I'll certainly post something. There may be an article in it -- do you subscribe to Trilithon, the AODA's annual journal?

Re: Ying-yang, power, knowledge and peace

[ecosophia]

A fine meditation for the equinox!

[fringewood]

From spaceweather.com Northern spring began with a bang. On March 20th at 1118 UT, new sunspot AR2736 exploded, producing a C4-class solar flare that lasted more than an hour.

You can see the flare on spaceweather.com and the graph on https://tesis.lebedev.ru/en/sun_flares.html

According to the graph, it is still active today.

Hope you had an excellent equinox celebration.

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed I do!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I asked you a question about Philéas Lebesgue in this week's Magic Monday.

I forgot to include this link to some samples and commentaries on his work:

https://www.lesditsducorbeaunoir.com/le-druide-phileas-lebesgue-pensees-extraits-tout-est-vibration-2017-14-09-septembre

I posted it on this section of your site in case I forget to post it on next week's MM. This section deals with lost traditions, so it might be relevant

I apologize for any inconvenience. Also, it appears that Lebesgue inspired Paul Bouchet, whom you mentioned in MM. See here:

https://www.lesditsducorbeaunoir.com/phileas-lebesgue-de-l-awen-du-drudisme-et-autres-pensees-suite-bran-du-2017-16-09-septembre

Many thanks.

[ecosophia]

Thank you very much for this!