Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of George Washington Carey, another American occultist too rarely remembered today. One of the major figures in the end of homeopathy that uses the twelve biochemic cell salts, he worked out a detailed system of spiritual and physical healing using those twelve remedies, assigning them to the signs of the Zodiac. For much of the twentieth century, most of the correspondence courses offered by occult schools included lessons on the cell salts lifted with or without credit from Carey's work, and the kind of old-fashioned health food store that catered to alternative spirituality as well as alternative diets inevitably had all twelve cell salts in stock. (Longtime Seattle residents may recall the charming Mari-Don Healthways store on 45th street in Wallingford; that's where I got my first cell salts, back when I was first learning to use them.) The wheel below on the right, which can be found in various places online, is one of Carey's creations. 

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 143,916th 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

[(Anonymous)]

1a) Any sources on cacaomagic? I have a strong sweet tooth and would love to use it productively. ;)

b) Porn sites tend to be covered in ads, which suggests there’s some serious cacomagic involved. I also think the “superpowers” which appear so often on the nofap reddit (among other places) about looks an awful lot like improvements from avoiding some serious cacomagic, so I’m a little intrigued by the connection.

2) Ah, ok. I was mistaken as to the nature of the course. Thank you for clearing that up.

[ecosophia]

1a) I'm the wrong gender to be a specialist on that subject! ;-)

1b) Okay, that makes sense. I don't do porn sites, so I didn't know.

[(Anonymous)]

Another tidbit of evidence: I pay attention to a few serious occultists and none of them use porn. Many tried, but it seems like picking up occult practices kill interest in porn.

[ecosophia]

Makes sense to me. The energy channels that are activated during sex are the same ones you use for magic, and so -- as Dion Fortune points out somewhere -- magic's a great way to work off otherwise unused libido.

[isabelcooper]

To be a touch TMI, that hasn't been the case for me. Granted, I suppose it's debatable how serious I am about the occult, and I've never been compulsive about porn--it's like any other form of entertainment and/or sex, in that it amuses me for a while and scratches various itches, but eventually I get bored and focus on other things for a bit.

But, if anything, my interest in that sort of thing has picked up since I started a daily MP/CP/discursive practice.

ETA: On the other hand, my tendency to get serious consuming-type crushes has definitely diminished, so it may be a general balance thing--someone who was spending hours and hours on porn sites or blowing (heh) a lot of money at clubs might well find that occult practices reduce that. If nothing else, a lot of them forcibly redirect the thoughts for a while, which I find to be a useful first step in breaking out of obsession or compulsion.

(And also, I basically write both--albeit fictionally--for spare cash, so that might be a contributing factor to an ongoing interest.)

[(Anonymous)]

Reading this I realized that my intake of slash fanfic (which, let's be honest, is mostly porn) has declined markedly, and that the decline can be dated to when I added deity names to my practice of the SoP. I've even found myself skimming sex scenes to get to the plot, which is just kind of weird...

[(Anonymous)]

Given this is some powerful cacomagic, what advice do you have for people who use porn, and feel addicted to it but want to quit?

[ecosophia]

Well, are you willing to take up a daily practice of ceremonial magic? That's probably the best way to get to work redirecting the energies. Use an ad blocker so some of the cacomagic doesn't get to you. Then start taking a day off porn here and there; increase the number of days off, and start taking weekends off. Spend less time on the internet generally. Taper it down, and one day you'll suddenly realize that you haven't watched porn in weeks and have no interest in doing so again.

[(Anonymous)]

I’m already on it. I’m slowly working through LRM, adblocker is up and running, and I currently need the internet for my income but am setting up alternatives. This sounds quite doable. Thank you for the advice.

[(Anonymous)]

As a personal insignificant data point:
Since I started practicing from the DMH I can't

[ecosophia]

Can't what?

[(Anonymous)]

For what it's worth, I also have found that practicing a daily banishing ritual has significantly reduced my desire for porn. Ive even logged on a few times, scrolled for a minute, and then closed the window due to boredom. It's as if I've already directed that particular energy into something more...interesting.

Here's another thought that has come up for me a few times. Maybe it'll help. I discovered pretty quickly after starting my practice that I have a knack for visualization. I'm a very visual person in general who is easily turned on by porn, (as I suspect many porn addicts are), but because of my visualization skills I have started experimenting with making my own porn in my imagination.

This seems to have several advantages.

One, you're exercing your imagination instead of being fed images while functionally brain-dead. Win-win.

Two, your "partner" can be anyone. I find specific women I know who are good-looking but completely off-limits to be good options - my wife's friends and co-workers, my friends' wives, the hot new bank teller, etc.

Third, if someone were to interrupt your...session, you only have one thing to hide quickly instead of 2 or 3 (volume and video on your Android or what have you). Although I'll grant that even that's a bigger job for some than others! 😉

Fourth, I end up falling soundly asleep more often than actually getting anything...um...done.

Two potential problems I see with this though:

1) The whole "what you contemplate you imitate" thing. I certainly have no interest in crossing those lines in the material plane.

2) Getting good enough at it that I actually intrude on somebody astrally. Which could be really hot...or could really mess with somebody.

Any additional thoughts on the subject? JMG?

Your very great friend in Rome,
Biggus Dickus

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend using images of real people for this sort of thing, as yeah, you could intrude on someone astrally. Wholly imaginary partners don't have that issue. Still, that's the only difficulty I know of.

-- Naughtius Maximus

[(Anonymous)]

Promised me the known world, he did...all the gold I could eat...

Thank you, good sir! That confirms my suspicion...although the idea of an actual astral tryst with a consenting adult sounds mega-hot...

Isabel? Have you written anything of the type? I think I would find that to be unusually...stirring.

Best,
Biggus

[ecosophia]

Oh, if it's with the other person's knowledge and consent, that's another matter. I like to point out that consent is as important in magic as it is in sex, and when we're talking about combining the two, well, there you are.

Have you considered writing something of the kind yourself? Perhaps you and Incontinentia Buttocks could give it a try.

-- Naughtius Maximus

[isabelcooper]

Haven't yet, but I very much like the idea--and it'd be a decent way of getting around the thing where the characters cannot be physically in the same place for plot reasons, but my publishers want sex halfway through the book or earlier. Thank you!

FWIW: I've, er, made use of a number of men I knew RL for Purposes, always with a sort of "if you're interested...." mental/emotional caveat. I'd say, unless I'm remembering wrongly, I ended up sleeping with the guy all but once, which was fine by me--but I've never been in a relationship I wasn't willing to step out on (and other people's are not my problem as long as I'm not being a stalker or infringing on anyone's will) and haven't been monogamous in general for years. :P The other time, that sort of thing was part of a very intense and possibly-unrequited, possibly-just-badly-timed crush.

These days, I stick to guys who I know are interested, fictional characters, and celebrities (who I think probably get enough of that sort of thing that one more won't hurt).

[(Anonymous)]

Count me in the group of guaranteed readers if you do! But maybe let's not include Incontinentia Buttocks as the love interest...

M. Dickus

[(Anonymous)]

the idea of an actual astral tryst with a consenting adult sounds mega-hot...

A natural magic means to that ends I came across: grind some dried linden (aka basswood) leaves/flowers to a very fine powder, and both you and your intended partner powder yourselves with it before going to sleep. Can't vouch for its efficacy but thought it worth mentioning.

[(Anonymous)]

Sweet. So I'm not the only person who thinks about crazy stuff like this I see...

Linden (pronounced "lime" in England) is fairly common around here (Rome;). I'll have to give that a shot!

Biggus

[(Anonymous)]

”I don't recommend using images of real people for this sort of thing, as yeah, you could intrude on someone astrally” Could this be a reason that so many celebrities seem really messed up? Because they are constantly suffering intrusions beyond their privacy in the material world.

[ecosophia]

Among other factors, yes.

[robertmathiesen]

In the beginning, the celebrity you see in performance is not at all the real person behind the performance in real life, but a role somewhat like an actor's role on stage. One of the genuine dangers in acting, however, is the danger that you might get stuck in your most recent role once you're off-stage for the day (or the show has had its run). Over the years, former students who have gone into acting have told me a few ... interesting ... anecdotes from real life along those lines ...

It should be the same for any celebrity--or even worse, if the celebrity has only one role that s\he plays over and over again every time s\he gets up on stage.

The analogue for a con-artist is getting conned by one's own con and taking it as seriously as you want your marks to do. That's when you really, really, really need to retire that particular con game, or better, retire from the trade.

A professor is a kind of performer, too, and faces the same dangers. That's one of the reasons I tried to reinvent myself every ten years or so and reboot as a teacher in a new field or sub-field among my academic interests. Even so, you can get trapped in performance mode ... A lot of professors can't bear to think of retiring, even someday down the road.

[(Anonymous)]

How would one recognize being astrally intruded on?
Will a SoP block this?

[ecosophia]

1) Erotic dreams or fantasies of a repetitive nature that don't seem to relate to your own desires are a pretty good hint.

2) Daily banishings will block most of this sort of thing. If you get a severe case, some natural magic could be useful.

[(Anonymous)]

1) Huh. Might this relate to the way so many celebrities keep getting caught in sex scandals? They’re intruded on all the time, so it might be easy to decide they’re perverts and act on it...