Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Apollonius of Tyana, one of the most famous occultists of the ancient Roman world, who was among other things one of the first people we know of who revived an extinct occult tradition. As a teenager he read about the Pythagorean Brotherhood, and decided that he wanted to be a member. The minor fact that the Brotherhood had been extinct for most of five centuries didn't slow him down at all; he found out everything that was known about them, and proceeded to put himself through the traditional course of training, including the five year vow of silence. Approach occultism with that kind of determination and I promise you that you'll get good results; he certainly did. 

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 I'm going to have somewhat limited email access tomorrow and it may be Tuesday or even Wednesday 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. If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here.    

With that said, have at it! 

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- and yes, this means you. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

1)I want to get into astrology, and part of this is working with my own chart. I'm unsure of when I was born: my mom says I was born around 9:00 pm, while my grandparents insist they arrived the day I was born and I was already born when they got here; my dad says that doesn't make sense since he is adamant he brought me to the airport when they got here, so he's pretty sure they got here later.

I started the process by looking at the possible ascendants. There's one ascendant that fits me quite well, and places the significator in an accurate spot: it has Uranus and Neptune conjunct the ascendant, Neptune in the 12th house and Uranus in the 1st; and Saturn in the 2nd. This fits me quite well: finances are important to me, but I've never been very bold with them; while I'm clearly eccentric, spirituality is important to me, even if somewhat hidden.

This also gives me a fifth house stellium (The Moon, Mercury, Venus and the Sun), which fits quite well as well; the areas ruled by the fifth house are very important to me, and my identity and emotions are strongly connected with them.

However, this chart has a sun-moon conjunction in Cancer, within less than one degree; anything which moves the moon out of that range moves either Uranus into the 12th or the sun into the 6th. Neither of these fit me at all. However, a conjunction between the sun and moon also fail to fit me: I can easily take my emotions as a study of thought: they are not central to my identity at all.

Additionally, I seem to fit a Gemini moon much more than a Cancer one; and yet by the time of this ascendant the moon is clearly in Cancer. I thus thought about looking at a chart for a day earlier, and found it fits me perfectly: it gives me a Moon-Venus conjunction, which seems to describe me to a T.

I'm a little hesitant though, because this means I was born at around 10:15 the night before the day on my birth certificate. When I looked up how often the time on a certificate is wrong, though, I found one article talking about it, which featured a woman sharing my birthday.

a) Am I right to think the article might be a synchronicity telling me I'm on the right track?

b) How can I go about checking the chart? Is it best to look at transits to the spot the moon would be in this case?

2) Tomorrow, I'm going to start to work my way through the SoP and meditation exercises you've posted, and learn divination. Would there be an issue if I posted weekly updates here for a few weeks so you can warn me if I'm making any beginner mistakes?

[(Anonymous)]

If, as someone suggested last week, Pluto is the demon associated with fossil fuels, then it follows that Plutonic themes should be apparent prior to 1900, at least in wealthy countries.

Do you think the moral panics around sex in the Victorian era, which were take to the most extreme in the US and UK, could be such a manifestation? It lead to a fairly large increase in secretive behaviour, and organized crime was tied into the prostitution business. The phenomena also looked like prior attempts to suppress a basic element of human existence, but taken further than any prior....

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks very much for doing this, John!

What do you think the main advantages/disadvantages are to pursuing magical and occult studies vs other spiritual disciplines? In other words, if there are a lot of roads to gwynfyd, what recommends one road over the other, in your opinion?

Some background on my question: I’ve been reading your blogs for several years, mostly for your political and philosophical content, but I’ve found these magic Monday sessions to make for fascinating reading. I’ve had very little spiritual practice in my life for the last few years (having three small children more or less eliminated my free time), but I’d like to reengage. I was reading some of your essays from the Well of Galabes this weekend, and the description of Eliphas Levi’s view of the astral light reminded me so very much of Gregory Palamas’ views on the uncreated light of God that I thought “well, they’ve clearly interacted with the same phenomenon, but I wonder what would make High Magic a better choice than Hesychasm if one is trying to develop spiritually?”

Thanks again!

Pathworking

[(Anonymous)]

Hiya JMG,

I've been meditating on the Tree of Life and am path working a bit now. I've done the 32nd path and am about to start on Yesod soon. I hope to use this as a way to gain guidance and knowledge from the beings there, particularly for information on astral travel and rituals for increasing motivation, etc. Any tips or suggestions, particularly about if it's generally safe to test out any ritual work received from inner-plane beings like that?

[ecosophia]

1) Mothers are notoriously inaccurate as a source of birth times. That's understandable, as they're usually very busy doing something other than watching the clock! Of the witnesses, your grandparents are least likely to be flustered at the time, so they tend to be a little more accurate. Still, you need to do some rectification to find out. (a) might be a synchronicity or it might be chance. As for (b), that's one way to go about it; another is to learn how to progress your chart -- the basic rule is that each day (as in, exactly 24 hours ) minutes 0 seconds) after birth corresponds to one year. Take the year of your first serious illness, progress your probable birth charts to that year (by taking the chart as many days after your birth as you were years old at the time), and see if that brings the Moon or one of the swift-moving planets into a hostile aspect with another planet in the chart. Do the same for the year you lost your virginity and see whether you get an aspect involving Venus, and so on.

2) Sure, but the mistakes are part of the learning curve!

[ecosophia]

That's an intriguing question which would need very close astrological study. I may find time to do that, as I'm working on a fiction project that focuses on the bizarre sexual-spiritual demonization of women in late Victorian culture -- it's a rewrite of Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan," to be precise -- and thus reading a lot of studies of the era.

[ecosophia]

That's a valid question, of course, but the answer has to come from within you. To put things in Christian language, each soul is called to God along a different path; mystical paths such as Hesychasm, magical paths such as the Golden Dawn, and the path of ordinary service in everyday life are among the countless options. Since I'm an occultist and not a mystic, I'm not really qualified to compare what I do with Hesychasm, or any other mystical path.

What I'd encourage you to do is read books from various paths that appeal to you, and read biographies of people who've committed themselves to those paths. Ask yourself: are these practices the sort of thing I want to spend my life doing? Is this person the kind of person I want to become? Combine that with prayer -- lots of prayer -- and you'll find the right path for you.

[(Anonymous)]

1) Well, I'm a tad hesitant about taking my grandparent's word either, as my grandma has never remembered my birthday (She's always been convinced it's a day later than it really is....), and my grandfather has some fairly bad dementia these days.

b) I very nearly died from pneumonia when I was about ten in 2005, so just prior to Pluto being downgraded; my progressed moon, ruler of the sixth house of my chart, was square Pluto at that point. Does that sound like a good indicator?

2) Well, still, I want to avoid making the really dumb ones! ;)

Re: Pathworking

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to do ahead and pursue Pathworking as an initiatory practice first, letting the opening of each Path have its natural effect on your subtle bodies. Don't get into the practical applications right away, or you'll hinder the broader process of inner development. Also, be careful about that slippery word/concept "motivation." Motivation is a means, not an end; what are you trying to motivate yourself to do? Are you sure that it's a good idea, and that there aren't good reasons why you're not motivated to do it? Meditation, divination, and journaling on questions along those lines may just spare you some grief.

[(Anonymous)]

b) Also, worth noting, Pluto was opposite my natal Moon by transit at the same time....

[ecosophia]

a) Fair enough!

b) That's the sort of thing astrologers look for when rectifying a chart, so it's a very strong indicator that whatever chart you progressed and got that result is accurate.

2) If you follow the directions carefully, you won't. Still, by all means let me and the commentariat know how it goes.

[ecosophia]

Another good indicator. What was going on with the ruler of the natal house with Gemini on the cusp, or alternatively the natal third house? Both those can indicate the lungs.

[(Anonymous)]

b) So looks like it's about 10:15 pm the day before my birth certificate says. My significator, Saturn, in this chart is also entering a trine with Venus, the ruler of my fifth house right now in the progressed chart here; and my love life and higher education have both gone much better recently than I was expecting, so I think I'm on to something here.

2) Is it really that simple?

[(Anonymous)]

My third house was ruled by Mars; Gemini was on the cusp of my fifth house in both natal and progressed charts; the two were squared each other in the progressed chart.

It's also worth noting my natal moon would be in Gemini in the fifth house, which had Gemini on the cusp, under this chart. So, I think this fits quite well.

[ecosophia]

I think you've got a birth chart, then. Good!

[ecosophia]

2) In the beginning stages? Of course. That's why this sort of training could be taught effectively by correspondence course, as in fact it was -- and still is. A couple of centuries of hard work and experimentation went into working out modes of training that a) had solid results, b) couldn't easily be misused by the clueless, and c) wouldn't blow up in the faces of people doing it on their own. (There were still some bugs as late as the 1960s, which is where The Secret and similar self-defeating misuses of affirmation techniques came from, but those were caught and corrected more recently.) There are systems of training you can use to mess yourself over badly, but this isn't one of them.

Day and hour of Mars

[(Anonymous)]

What are they actually good for, if you are not involved in competitive activities like sports, or physical labor employment?

I am not and avoid using them for anything important, including communicating with family members who have a history of bad temper, or anything I'm concerned could turn into a struggle.

Mars seems to be the most dignified planet in my chart but I don't see Mars related things as my friend. Irritability is something I have to work hard to control and I have been actively doing so for a number of years.

[(Anonymous)]

b) I have another one I think might fit quite well: I was emotionally used by someone from 2013-2016. She was horrible to me, and I was deluded about who she really was; I loved her, but she didn't love me. I managed to convince myself I didn't actually love her. Things blew up rather messily when I finally had enough of it, and suddenly decided I needed to confront her about how she was treating me and also I was done pretending I wasn't in love with her. It was odd I realized both of those things at the same time.

In my progressed chart, Neptune (which, as it's conjunct my ascendant, I'm quite sensitive to) was in opposition to my progressed sun during this period. My sun ruled the 7th house in my progressed chart, and so of course this would show up there, particularly with Pisces being intercepted at the time. What's fascinating is how suddenly I saw things clearly, both that she was using me and I loved her; this happened when the 7th house of my progressed chart shifted from Leo to Virgo, and yanked the blinders the Neptune opposition my sun had placed.

This is also evidence for the day earlier; had I been born on the day I've always thought was my birthday, then the 7th house cusp would've moved to Virgo too soon.

[booklover1973]

When doing divination about a magical working, there can be a positive or a negative answer. But what does it mean when the divination spread consists of a mixture of positive and negative symbols, for example, when a Ogham divination for a working results in Beith reversed, Ruis reversed, Onn?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. I recently started reading Dion Fortune's novel The Sea Priestess. What a great book! Early on, her protagonist Wilfred writes: ...and it seemed to me that there were two worships, one of the sun, and one of the moon; and that my love of the moon and the sea was the older and was to the other as the other is to us. And I could believe that the druids, priests of the sun-cult, must have looked upon the strange sea-fires of a forgotten worship as we look upon the barrows and dolmens.

Is the lunar/sea magic described in the Sea Priestess similar to the Druid magic system in the DMH, given the importance of the lunar current in Druid magic of that system? I'm curious why she refers to Druidry as a sun-cult (and thus a solar-current based system).

2. I recently came across this quote by a scholar named Gregory Cajete which alludes to your posts made about tamanous on the other blog, and also neatly connects the 5 elements of the DMH: It is in the landscape that contains the memories, the bones of the ancestors, the earth, air, fire, water, and spirit from which a Native culture has come and to which it continually returns. It is the land that ultimately defines a Native people. I can't find the source. Have you come across this quote before?

Thanks as always!

Sphere of Protection questions

[(Anonymous)]

Does it matter in what direction the sphere spins, or if you change directions?

Is it ok to use Awen in the final part if you are not invoking Celtic gods?

[(Anonymous)]

Hello. I've been doing SOP for a few months. Today I did it by visualisation when traveling by train. I noticed for the first time a pressure between my eyebrows when I visualised the light from above. It lasted the the entire time I was doing the SOP. I took it to be a positive sign. A couple of questions;
1. Does it sound like a good indicator?
2. It leads me to wonder if doing SOP by visualisation is actually more powerful than I expected. What's your view on that?

[(Anonymous)]

You often refer to the 'subtle bodies'. May I ask what that means - what are the subtle bodies? Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Would you happen to know what the significance is of Mars being conjunct Antares on a Natal chart?

On the one hand they are both malefics, so might strengthen each other, but on the other hand I believe that Antares is the opposite of Mars, so I wonder if it weakens the effect of Mars.

Energy centers

[(Anonymous)]

Last week you wrote that the throat center was the center that allowed for communication with beings above the human level once awakened. Could you please give an explanation of the powers associated with the rest of the centers of the middle pillar in the same fashion?