Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's almost midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of L.W. (Lauron William) de Laurence, one of the pioneers of the mail order occult business in 19th century America.  Born in Ohio in 1868, he moved to Chicago when that was the heart of the US occult scene and established a mail order company that supplied books and "spiritual" (i.e., magical) supplies to practitioners across the country. He had (and earned) a reputation as a book pirate, but his editions of The Long Lost Friend and Secrets of the Psalms played a major role in getting material from Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic into African-American magic. Late in life he was consecrated as a bishop in one of the esoteric Christian lineages, and passed on the consecration to the pastors of several African-American Spiritual churches, helping to start lineages that survive to this day. 

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 post is now closed to new comments. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

1) Are there steps, other than practicing a banishing ritual and avoiding it that can be taken to reduce how much impact cacomagic has on you? I ask because I’m taking both of these steps and still find myself quite susceptible to it.

2) I have some anecdotal evidence that suggests you can use dementia patients to tell what’s happening on the astral plane: I practice a banishing ritual regularly, and am currently visiting my grandparents. It happens tolerably often that my grandpa, who has quite severe dementia will get upset about something, and then I’ll go over to help deal with it, and when I get there he calms down almost instantly. Aside from quitting it for a bit, how could I go about telling if this is related to the banishing ritual or something else?

3) How does the Discordian SoP work? More broadly, how does Discordian anything work? It all just makes my head hurt trying to make sense of how something like that could work at all....

4) What sort of health effects come from starving the etheric body? From first principles, I’d assume it would look a lot like starvation, which has symptoms including fatigue, apathy, impulsivity, irritability, skin conditions, weakened immune systems, and heart disease. What strikes me is that all of these are remarkably common in lots of people, so is this part of why so many people have mental and physical health issues?

5) Since you mentioned that the etheric and EM are tied, what kind of effects do you think G5 technology will have, and are there ways to protect myself from them beyond physical actions?

[ecosophia]

1) Regular meditation is essential. You need to strengthen your capacity for reflective awareness and self-knowledge, since that's the solvent that makes cacomagic come apart.

2) Fascinating. I'd say don't worry about proving it one way or the other; if you can help your grandfather calm down and deal with things, that's good enough.

3) As you learn more about Discordianism, you will understand less. I have no idea why it works, or how it works. I only know that it works.

4) Yes, exactly -- and yes, exactly.

5) I have no idea, but I doubt it will be a good thing. As for protection, hmm. I don't know. Some research might be useful.

Geomantic Spirits

[brianantbur]

Greetings, Mr. Greer


I have some reservations about working with the Geomantic Spirits. Sources such as Cornelius Agrippa list them as demons, and the lore says one shouldn't interact with them without the intercession of the Celestial Intelligences which rule over them.

In your manual on Geomancy, you instruct the Geomancer to draw the sigil of the Geomantic spirit before asking a question. How much danger can the Geomancer expose himself to by working with these spirits, and can a invocation to a planetary intelligence be said before consulting a Geomantic Spirit?

Re: Geomantic Spirits

[ecosophia]

I'm guessing that you meant to end that sentence with something like "...intelligences help?"

Okay, first of all, if you don't feel comfortable working with the geomantic spirits, then don't work with the geomantic spirits. Plenty of capable geomancers don't invoke them; it's been years since I've used the ritual method of preparation for a reading, and I still get good clear results.

Second, there's a difference between evoking a spirit in a full-blown magical ceremony, on the one hand, and making a much more casual contact with the same spirit's energies on the other. The method given in trad geomantic books is the latter. All you're doing is attuning yourself to the planetary energies as they are reflected in the energy body of the Earth -- that reflection, btw, is basically what the spirits in question are. People have been doing that safely for a very long time. Still, as already noted, if you don't feel comfortable with that kind of working, don't do it.

[(Anonymous)]

You've mentioned that when one calls on a deity the deity or being that responds corresponds to the mortal's spiritual state. My question is how can the canny mortal honestly figure his or her spiritual state prior to calling on any gods? How can said mortal know that he or she is actually at the point requisite for the real deal and not some astral hustler?

[ecosophia]

That's not always easy. The one bit of helpful advice I have to offer is that the people who are certain they've achieved some very high spiritual state are more likely to be down there in the muck, while those who have serious doubts about their own spiritual state are usually far enough along to deal safely with gods.

[(Anonymous)]

If cacomagic makes the people using it incapable of thought, and it's in use all over the upper levels of society, who/what's making the decisions there?

[ecosophia]

I've had the experience, at several times in my life, of getting to meet really rich people. One and all, they were the most feckless, cosseted, detached-from-reality human beings I have ever encountered, moving in a bubble of serene cluelessness while their nannies -- er, personal assistants -- scuttled around prompting them and making sure they didn't trip over their own feet. Now of course I have no way of knowing how representative my experiences are, but I notice that Toynbee talks about the same thing in his analysis of dominant minorities, so it may be fairly typical. If that's true, the decisions are being made by minor functionaries working for the supposedly powerful and influential, passed up the hierarchy to be rubber-stamped by the big guy, and then taken back down to the levels where things actually get done for implementation.

[ganeshling]

Hi JMG,

You are probably already familiar with this. If not, this article might be of some interest to you or MM readers: https://hareesh.org/blog/2016/2/5/the-real-story-on-the-chakras

Similarly to what you do with medieval Latin, Christopher Wallis is digging through old Sanskrit texts and shares the gems he finds there with others. In this article he gives a few thoughts on how chakras, chakra systems, and related practices were described in the original Tantric texts. They look suspiciously simiral to the way the Tree of Life is approached in Cabala. It is quite possible that Tree of Life is a not-too-distant relative of one of these old chakra systems.

I also have a question this week.

W.E. Butler mentions briefly in 'The Magician, His Training and Work' that the aspirants who display any talent in the Magical Arts are put through a more rigorous training discipline than 'normal' people. Contemplating this idea I could think of two reasons for this.

First, these talented people would be more likely to stumble into stronger blowbacks earlier than the rest of the students, so training slower and more deliberately would be a basic safety precaution for the sake of everyone within the possible blast radius. Giordano Bruno looks like a victim of this trap. His Magic system was so heliocentric that even his death came through exposure to concentrated sunlight.

Second, someone for whom Magic comes too early and too easy, particularly at a young age, has all the chances to slip into a runaway ego-trip. Taking a slower route would help them to build healthy humility early on and, as a result, to go deeper and achieve more in the long run. It looks that Aleister Crowley might have been an example of the opposite in action.

Does it sound fair? Is there anything else to it?

[ecosophia]

1) Thank you for the link to Christopher Wallis' blog! I'm intrigued to note that several of his points -- for example, the multiplicity of systems and the prescriptive rather than descriptive nature of the symbolism -- are conclusions I reached some time ago while exploring the Middle Pillar exercise and other systems of Western energy centers.

2) Those are certainly factors, but there's another one which applies to any subject of study. If you take up playing the piano, for example, and your teacher realizes you have serious talent, you're going to get a far more intensive training than your ordinary not very talented student. In magic, training the will is essential -- the stronger the will, the stronger the mage, and a really rigorous training discipline will develop that better than anything else will.

[(Anonymous)]

Brother Greer,
In regards to last week's discussion on movements gone awry and corruption of the leaders, it occurs to me that following a leader blindly and wholeheartedly is directly opposed to the concept of tamanous, isn't it? Or do I understand tamanous incorrectly?
The one American religious and residential movement I am familiar with that didn't self-implode in an ugly way and has managed to adapt for over a century, and bearing in mind that I'm not familiar with very many such movements, would be the LDS church, and of course their leader was killed and new leadership took over.
If I'm understanding this correctly, following a leader in any sort of spiritual undertaking is a poor idea in the Americas, or at least in North America, and the more one avoids being responsible for oneself the worse off one is, which bears a striking resemblance, to, well, much of modern society, as well as every imploding cult. Perhaps if one wishes to found an ongoing centralized movement, here, one must die for it to endure.

On an entirely different topic, I find myself quite comfortable with the lessons of Experience of the Inner Worlds, and while intellectually curious about other paths, have no interest in pursuing anything else, or in pursuing anything further on this path. I suspect this is related to where I am in my life, with many responsibilities I have chosen or accepted, and that this will change at some future date. Is this a common situation, that a person would reach a point where she simply says, this is sufficient for now, or is this as unusual as it seems? You seem to get many people asking about adding this practice or that to their current practice, and not so many saying that they're finding themselves at a point of contentedness with what they are doing.

BoysMom

[ecosophia]

Sister BoysMom, no, you understand tamanous very well, and blindly following a leader is the antithesis of it. The LDS is an example of a movement that managed to get past its early fixation with charismatic leadership, though there have been others.

I'm delighted to hear that you've found something suitable as a continuing practice! That's a good place to be, and it's not as uncommon as it seems; I've met a fair number of people down through the years who have established a practice that works for them and have just kept on doing it. It's simply not something a lot of people talk about, as the myth of progress militates against settling down with something that works and just working with it.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a reason we're running into resource limits right before we got the chance to make things really, truly ugly for ourselves? It seems like someone/something made sure we had just enough to reach the edge, but not enough to get over it....

[ecosophia]

It certainly does seem that way. Every religion and every tradition of occultism has it that there are spiritual powers that watch over humanity and the earth, and it's probably a safe bet that they've arranged things that way.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have advice on getting to sleep? I find that it takes me a long time to fall asleep, and that I tend not to sleep well either. I've tried everything I can think of on a physical level, and it doesn't seem to help. I've tried journaling without much luck as well, so I'm curious what other steps I could take.

[ecosophia]

If you figure something out, please let me know! I rarely get to sleep before the small hours. My usual approach is just to stay up and keep writing.

Demon at a friends house

[sea_spray]

Hi JMG

A friend of mine has a demon living in her house. I'm also concerned that some drug issues she's suffered from in the past have made her more vulnerable. I and another friend who is sensitive and has a close sprit guide have been trying to help.

My other friend has been using crystals and a protective sphere of light, along fighting it more directly with her sprit guides help.

I have been recommending vinegar in cups to evaporate, the hoodo bath and floor wash and practices from Dion fortune's psychic self defence. She is new to any kind of occult practice. The vinegar has been put out in cups,  and the floor had the salt and cayenne pepper on the carpet which helped a lot.

I also went to her house and fumbled my way through a protective circle from "psychic self defence" and a druid grove and SOP as described in the DMH, with help from my other friends sprit guide. I felt like there was a strong effect at the time. I haven't practiced the druid grove much unfortunately.

The demon is stepping things up in response although the dark feeling in the house is less than it was. I think its fighting back hard because it is loosing its "food".

Do you have any advice? Is this the right approach? Any other risks to be aware of?
Thanks.

Re: Demon at a friends house

[ecosophia]

Is your friend willing to learn the Sphere of Protection? The best way to chase off a noxious spirit is to perform daily banishings, and it's best for the person who lives in the place to be the one who does that.

Geomancy & Relationship

[(Anonymous)]

Dear generous host and fountain of wisdom,

Every time I ask Geomancy about my new relationship, I get Acquisitio in the 7th House. Does this mean that the person is more interested in material gain than in love?

Otherwise, there are favorable Judge/Witness combinations, but denial of perfection (all the questions were formulated positively about different aspects of relationship). Is this a yes or no?

And what does it mean in this case when both witnesses are Albus?

Re: Geomancy & Relationship

[ecosophia]

1) That's not at all a good sign for love questions, so you may well be right.

2) In a house chart, the judge and witness tells you the shape of the overall situation, the presence or absence of a mode of perfection gives you your specific answer. Since I don't know what questions you were asking, I can't tell you what the answer was, other than "No," but the judge and witnesses suggest that you'll come through it okay.

3) Depends on what the question was.

Rainbow thaumaturgy

[(Anonymous)]

As a gay man in a twenty-year committed relationship and raised by a lesbian mother and, I have been participating in gay events in some form or another since I was a wee child – playing with legos on the floor at the gay community center as pride events were being planned above me, singing in gay choirs, swimming with gay swim teams, marching in pride parades, attending pride parades and parties. But this year's gay pride events have more than left me cold, they have left me with a sense of foreboding.

I was in downtown while the booths and concessions for Pittsburgh's pride weekend were being set up, and I walked past a trailer with a bank of telephones, comfortable couches, and a sign asking "How much unconscious bias is in your thoughts? Listen to find out." I have no idea what gimmick they were using with the phones and recordings, nor why anyone would subject themselves to that kind of brainwashing, but it was disturbing enough that I avoided the pride events altogether.

Back home in New York City I saw endless rainbow flags and odd photos from past pride events flashing up on the city's public information video kiosks. Cacomagic, indeed, but it didn't have the desired effect on me at all. Again, I avoided the pride events altogether.

I texted my partner, "Rainbow flags are everywhere in New York – the gay mafia has taken over. Restaurants and salons are afraid they will lose their customers if they don't fly the colors. Bodes very ill for the next swing back of the pendulum. This must be similar to how Germans felt when not putting up swastikas could get your shop boycotted. We are frighteningly close to a majority cheering a fascist bully into office. As always, that particular flavor of lunacy comes from overreach by the left. Strange times!" That is a text written by a liberal queer to his liberal boyfriend.

Stephen texted back from Paris, "It has been so much more restrained here. I didn't even know it was the Big Queer Weekend until I saw some kids in gender-bender clothes on the metro and realized that there are a lot of fit young men wandering around together. I had thought they were here for the Women's World Cup."

So my question is how can you protect yourself and your larger community when the cacomagicians take over? The corporate tie-ins, self-appointed thought police, and competition to be the most gay friendly city in the US are dangerous. Who had the cojones to put up rainbow flags when that could lose you customers or get your windows broken? What is the point to these phatic emblems, now sanitized of all risk, other than to draw in greater profits? When that profit engine stops delivering, who will be blamed? When the magic symbol of the rainbow can't answer prayers, what curses will be heaped upon it?

Is there a way to insulate oneself from the exploitative energy of narrative hijackers? Is there a way to protect the gay community from the blowback that will follow from letting parasites feed off a too-successful social movement? Or is distancing oneself from a corrupted movement the best protection?

–Christophe

Re: Rainbow thaumaturgy

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Christophe,

There is another issue as well, the new pride flag, "more colors more pride," as can be seen here: https://morecolormorepride.com/

The issue is that having a black stripe brings in evil energies. Imagine if a rainbow with a black and brown stripe should actually disfigure the skies for a moment. Children would start crying and adults would cower in terror.

And so with some sadness, I've decided to in every way to distance myself from the community that I have participated in for my entire young adulthood. I think it has morphed into something evil and is horribly corrupted. Now I do not define myself regarding my sexuality and avoid people whose auras scream "QUEER".

[(Anonymous)]

When trying to get something with magic, part of the process is imagining you already have it. What do you do if what you want is something you've never had, so while you know you want it in an abstract sense, you don't actually know what it will really be like?

[deborah_bender]

That is not the only way to get something with magic.

sense of unease

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

1) This videos of Germany's Chancellor Merkel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMLH1uhDf0c / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFcfIV5XcyI) reminded me of Hillary Clinton and the curses that were coordinated on 4chan in 2016 causing her all kinds of trouble. Could there be a magical element to it? Merkel is not super popular in Europe right now...

2) Every couple of weeks I have to travel about 500km by long distance train and stay for a weekend in one of the larger European cities, having meetings related to my job. Riding the train and my accommodation in the city is comfortable, everybody I meet during my travels is generally very nice to me.

However, during the train rides and the stay in my room I always get the most morbid thoughts, am worried about my health and have a general sense of impending doom. This is in no way corresponding with my actual experiences there - as I said, the meetings are successful and people are as pleasant as one could wish. This has been happening 3 or 4 times already.

When I return home and spend time with my family it takes about 24 hours and everything feels normal again. No fear for my health, no dark thoughts.

I am in the process of learning the SoP (I am at the gate of fire right now), and did the banishing in my hotel room. however, I was not able to get rid of this sense of unease.

Is this just a psychological effect of being outside my familiar environment, or could there be some kind of premonition, telling me to stay away from this place?

Thank you for Magic Monday!

Re: sense of unease

[ecosophia]

1) It's at least possible.

2) See if the situation improves when you finish learning the banishing ritual. If it doesn't, I'd treat it as a premonition, and find a way not to go there.

[(Anonymous)]

If silk and linen are magic insulators, would clothes made of them act as a kind of etheric body armour against a martial artist who uses chi in their attacks? Would dousing yourself in vinegar have a similar effect? :)

[(Anonymous)]

Speaking as a martial artist with some experience here: I’ve never seen someone capable of doing a meaningful amount of damage with qi to a peer or stranger. The people who double over in pain, get the shakes, or are knocked off their feet are the “qi master’s” own students, who share an energetic and psychological bond with the master thanks to their openness to being taught. If that describes your situation, Run Away Now. My normally jovial sifu spits venom when this subject comes up: someone who conditions their students to be vulnerable to qi manipulation, instead of making them stronger, in order to show off is an abusive bully.

The Watcher

[(Anonymous)]

Hey hey JMG,

I'm curious about the Watcher and its nature and function. It seems like a flake filter, but I suspect it has another role. Is it there to make sure that access is always tempered with adequate discipline? Is it an entity or just the name for something that happens fairly often? If one has enough umph to push past it does that make it safe to do so or is there for a good reason?

Thanks,
Tim

Re: The Watcher

[(Anonymous)]

Every entity is an energy, and every entity is an energy. So it's both an entity and just the name for a thing which happens fairly often.

Hemi-Sync Gateway experience/binaural beats

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG

1. Have you heard of/have an opinion the Hemi-Sync Gateway experience guided meditation thing? Seems to be fairly famous as the original of "binaural beats". Essentially seems to be a kind of guided meditation that helps you relax and tune into some kind of resonant vibrations and go to other states of consciousness/astral travel etc? By Robert Monroe of the Monroe Institute?

If you haven't heard of it:

a) Here's the experiences doing it of a random guy on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/C_S_T/comments/6r04az/my_experiences_with_the_hemisync_tapes_as_of_yet/

b) Here's a famous old CIA/NSA/Army report on the Hemi-Sync Gateway experience from 1983 (this is reposted on Medium for easy reading but I double-checked and the document is available on the CIA website in the "Reading Room"):

https://medium.com/accessible-foia/analysis-assesment-gateway-process-army-cia-foia-1983-human-consciousness-d7fa332ef404

c) Here's the Monroe Institute's own page on it:

https://www.monroeinstitute.org/node/3641

2. Any potential negative consequences or things to worry about by doing the course? In particular, any particular problems combining it with a Discursive Meditation practice? I have recently started doing discursive meditation regularly following your instructions in various different places.

3. Regarding Discursive Meditation - You wrote somewhere that one should be sitting down with feet on the floor, but not leaning back in a chair. Does it really matter if I occasionally lean back? Or even get up and pace around the room while thinking? I often do my best thinking while pacing (or even in the shower, although I'm not suggesting meditating in the shower)

4. Does the subject of the discursive meditation really matter? I've been picking very "down to earth" subjects and problems (not really "philosophical" or "meditative" topics) that really benefit from some deep thought and setting aside time for them. For example, thinking about a potential career change and all my alternatives in some depth, or how to tackle a tricky office politics issue in some depth -etc.

Re: Hemi-Sync Gateway experience/binaural beats

[ecosophia]

1) Heard of it, never found it of interest. Crutches are great if you have a broken leg but if you aren't injured or disabled, they simply create dependence.

2) Don't mix systems. I don't know whether or not there will be a negative outcome, but do you really want to take the risk that your nervous system will be the bad example I use in response to future questions?

3) The point of sitting straight with feet on the floor is that (a) it allows the etheric energies to flow freely, and (b) it forces you to become aware of, and then let go of, all the useless tensions you're packing into your body. Shifting, wiggling, walking around, are all ways to avoid the latter. So yes, it does matter.

4) That's okay for a beginner's level. The value in working with symbolism and other, more spiritual themes is that they teach you how to think in ways that transform your experience of the world -- and yourself.

Divination for timing

[(Anonymous)]

Years ago I used to time magic and rituals simply by days of the week and moon phases, as recommended in most Neopagan guides.

You recommend additional divination for maximum effectiveness.
In the past I suffered from anxiety associated with some forms that are recommended for this, including astrology. Ignoring personal astrology has been beneficial for my state of mind. I have been wondering about ways in which I could do quick and specific divinations asking "how good a time is it to do a working related to...?", with minimum risk of dwelling on them otherwise, rather like rolling a dice to make a decision.

This forum may not be the best place to find out about digital tools, but if there were a magic-focused astrological webpage into which one could put this stuff, e.g. dates plus general intention, that would be ideal. Does anyone know of such a thing?

I have also considered Oghams, but I know would keep wondering about the astrology (and can see that as an echo of the problem which led me to keep away from astrology).

Re: Divination for timing

[ecosophia]

If you, personally, have anxiety issues that make divination for timing a bad idea, then stay away from divination for timing. You and you alone know what you need to live comfortably inside your own head!

Geomantic Chart

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG. I have been studying Geomancy with assistance from your book the Art and Practice of Geomancy for around 3 months now. And, if I may, may sk some guidance as to the accuracy of my interpretation for a reading to the Question: Sould I buy the house at address x?

1st house: Rubeus
2nd: Amissio
3rd: Fortuna Minor
4th Puela
5th Capur Draconis
6th Amissio
7th Acquisitio
8th tristitia
9th cauda Draconis
10th Caput Draconis
11th Puer
12th Rubeus
RW Carcer
LW Carcer
Judge Populus

I interpret the chart as a firm ‘no’, even though I am not quite certain how to interpret Populus as the Judge. Rubeus on the first indicates I might not be thinking things through, and that based on the 2nd and 7th houses I seems I would be overpaying and the sellers would be doing quite well.

Thank you for your guidance and for Magic Monday in general.

Re: Geomantic Chart

[ecosophia]

The answer's a very firm no. Carcer twice means that you'd end up stuck in a bad situation; Populus simply means that other people will be in the same fix. Don't buy the house!

Spiritual love and sexual energy

[(Anonymous)]

Can you please elaborate on the connection between spiritual practice and sexual energy and how a person can keep sexual energy in balance or even use it to help with spiritual practice?

I am having an issue: when I stop talking to my angel like a life coach and actually try to listen, I resonate with love because I am so grateful to have a guide. However, that love almost immediately switches into sexual energy, which seems inappropriate, even though I know sex isn't something to be ashamed of. This also happens with the Welsh gods. When I catch myself, I give an "Oops, sorry about that," and try to return to listening, but I'm wondering if there is anything else I can be doing within the DMH-SOP framework. Since I can't even convince my brain to listen, I also can't receive consent for the wanderings of my imagination!

To be fair, this sexual energy feels high level, like the richest form of "making love," and then a step above that. I appreciate any advice you might have, thank you.

Re: Spiritual love and sexual energy

[ecosophia]

Have you talked to the angel and the gods about this? There are modes of sexuality that don't involve physical contact, and you may be being invited to that.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, you wrote about mental sheaths, mental bodies and spiritual sheaths. Is there a phase in the development of a soul where its task is to develop an astral body?

Booklover

[ecosophia]

Of course. It's called "being an animal." You built the capacity to take on an astral body in your animal incarnations, just as you built the capacity to take on an etheric body in your plant incarnations, and the capacity to take on a physical body in your mineral incarnations.

[(Anonymous)]

In traditional Christian and Buddhist thought the evolution of a human soul is thought to be in the direction from a purely material way of living towards rejecting earthly things and towards a purely spiritual way of living. In contrast to it, Druidry (and, I assume, some other religions) don't see the material world as something to get away from. What does this mean for the development of human souls towards Gwynfydd, regarding earthly and material things?

Booklover

[ecosophia]

Christianity and Buddhism share the pervasive distrust of the flesh common to all the prophetic religions of the Axial Age. That distrust is not shared by modern Druidry, which I tend to think of as a post-Axial spirituality. The dwellers in Gwynfydd, the Luminous Life, don't run away from embodiment; they've simply reached the point that they can participate in the world in a richer and more conscious way. Those in Gwynfydd have physical bodies -- the difference is that where our souls are contained in our bodies, their bodies are contained in their souls, and thus are much more flexible, polymorphous, and responsive to the soul.

The Spirit and the Sword

[(Anonymous)]

Good Morning! I got The Spirit and the Sword for my birthday a few days ago, and in looking through it I realized [as I had suspected] the sword I own is not suitable for practice, being too long and too heavy [it's a broadsword]. I can barely draw the thing, as I'm on the short side. I was wondering if you had any advice as to how to get a proper 'fitting' sword. If you covered it in the book I haven't reached that part. I was thinking about starting with the basics, footwork and such, and possibly picking up a walking stick for starts. Thanks!

Re: The Spirit and the Sword

[(Anonymous)]

Have you tried the cheap wooden ones in various lengths? Once you find THE length there are companies that will make you one (not cheap).

Inner Daemon

[(Anonymous)]

With all the talk of invoking demons and protection, I am wondering how one would know if one's thoughts and decisions were or were not being dominated by demons. That is how do we know we are not in some sense possessed, or not?

And related, is our consciousness not in some sense daemonic, that is are we not spirits (daemons) inhabiting or in symbiosis with a physical life form, perhaps even dominating or replacing whatever soul would "naturally" arise there?

Re: Inner Daemon

[ecosophia]

1) Good. Your consciousness is influenced by all kinds of critters, demons among them. That's another reason why daily banishing rituals are so important.

2) Not so. William Blake put it best: "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age."

Divination for business purposes

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

As a side business, my family runs a small men's wear clothes shop. Due to an oversight on our behalf, we forgot to register out trade mark.
A far bigger group registered our trade mark and is now threatening to sue us!
We have taken legal advice and our case is strong. We will most probably go to the trade tribunal in the near future.

In the meanwhile, I did a geomancy divination on whether we shall get a favourable ruling or not.
The results are very interesting.

LW: Caput Draconis - Judge: Carcer - RW: Cauda Draconis.

Way of the points: 4th mother: Laetitia

7th house (related to court matters): Cauda Draconis.

My reading is that we lost something, the trade mark, (Cauda Draconis, the past) and this acts as a restriction on us as we can no longer use it legally (Carcer, the present) but although at first it will be difficult, we might get end up in a favourable position later on (Caput Draconis, the future).

I further infer that the initial court ruling may not necessarily be favourable to us, but should we persevere, we might end up in a favourable situation.

The way of the points: Laetitia - favourable tidings.

The 7th house (Cauda Draconis) is not favourable so my reading is that the tribunal will not give us a favourable ruling.

Have I missed something?

Regards and Thanks!

Re: Divination for business purposes

[ecosophia]

My read is that you're probably going to lose (Cauda Drac) and this will be a source of difficulty (Carcer) but you can take this as an opportunity to rebrand and grow (Caput Drac).

Astral Projections and LBRP

[(Anonymous)]

Hi!

You mentioned sometime ago that astral projection is safe, however you also mentioned that LBRP protects from nasty astral entities.

If there are nasty astral entities prowling around, can astral projections really be safe? Or am I missing something there?

Thank You!

Re: Astral Projections and LBRP

[ecosophia]

That's why you should practice daily banishings for a good long time before you start working on astral projection!