Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Robert Fludd (1574-1637), one of England's great occult figures: philosopher, geomancer, and alchemical physician, not to mention the author of the last great encyclopedic works of Renaissance occult philosophy. By his time it was becoming clear that his side would lose the reality wars of the late Renaissance, but he never backed down, and he died before the long night of "single vision and Newton's sleep" closed over the western 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. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 175,317th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

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

bad habits

[ritaer]

Years ago my great uncle described his self-invented method for quitting smoking. He said that he never told himself that he was quitting. He was just cutting back. He continued to carry a pack in his front shirt pocket. Each time he thought of lighting up he would say to himself "not right now, maybe later." He said sometimes he would have a cigarette all the way to his lips, ready to light before pulling back and returning it to the pack. He didn't say whether he ever lit up and took a few puffs before regaining control. Eventually the pack he had been carrying became so old and stale that he thew them out and never bought more.

My mother's family seems to have a way of developing weird coping mechanisms. When she was dealing with what, from her descriptions, was obviously serious post-partem depression my grandmother spent several months plucking her leg hairs until they became discouraged and gave up. My mother also managed to quit drinking on her own, without any medical aid or 12-step program. It took about 3 tries, but has stuck and that was after about 10 years of seriously out of control consumption. If I asked her how I'm sure she would echo her mother's statement that "you just have to make up your mind."

Many years ago I read a book on the subject of wight loss. It contained the tale of an overweight woman who was visiting relatives in a small Norwegian town. Being fat she was used to the assumption that her obesity was caused by lack of will power. She was praising pizza to them and was astonished to learn that they had never eaten pizza. The next day she went to town--no pizza to be had. Undeterred she caught the train to the capital; no pizza there either. She went to specialty food shops, but no one carried Italian cheese or sausage. Finally she went to the airport, flew to Rome, purchased the ingredients and returned to her relatives to bake and serve a proper pizza. The point of the story was that she obviously did not lack willpower. Nothing was going to stand in the say of showing her kin what a delightful food pizza was. So lack of willpower was not the obstacle to losing weight, some other factor was, some psychological factor that she had to master before she could turn her will power to a healthier relation to food.

Rita

Re: bad habits

[(Anonymous)]

That is funny about your uncle! My Dad quit smoking in a nearly identical way: he hasn't smoked in decades, but maintains to this day that he didn't actually quit, he could have a smoke at any time. He's just not going to do it right now. Maybe later. He kept a pack in his car glove box for many years, to maintain this narrative. Never opened it.