Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just past midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Giordano Bruno, the great Italian master of the Art of Memory and student of occultism, who was burned at the stake by the Catholic church in 1600. Bruno grew up in the town of Nola, near Naples, and became a Dominican monk in boyhood -- the usual career track at that time for smart boys from poor families. He learned the Art of Memory and studied Platonist and Aristotelian philosophy in his teen years; unfortunately for his prospects in the church, he also studied ceremonial magic, and apparently managed to obtain a copy of the Picatrix, the most strictly forbidden of all magical handbooks just then. In 1576 he got out of Italy just in time to escape trial by the Inquisition, and spent the next twenty years traveling all over Europe, writing books and teaching his mnemonic method to students. In 1592 he was unwise enough to travel to Venice on the invitation of a Venetian nobleman, who promptly turned him over to the Inquisition. Eight years of slowly grinding ecclesiastical bureaucracy later, he went to the pyre. 

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. 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

amulet autotoxicity

[(Anonymous)]

I've had great success using the red-bag, salt and nail amulet you describe in the FAQ and have employed a new bad consistently every two to tree weeks for the past year or so. Something I noticed today is that while wearing it I felt really, really bad. I already had felt that it was no longer so effective, and so I thought that I should change it, but kept on forgetting. As the day wore on I felt worse and worse until I took it off. After taking off the old amulet I felt immediately better. I disposed of it in the normal way and made a new one, and did extensive purificatory rites and now feel fine.

If the amulet absorbs sufficient nasties, does it start to backflow into the etheric body of the person wearing it? That's what it felt like was going on today. I'm also interested if other folks have experienced this effect.

Re: amulet autotoxicity

[ecosophia]

Yes, if the salt absorbs enough nasty energy it begins to radiate it. You must be spending time in spaces where the etheric energy is really toxic!

[(Anonymous)]

How was your Halloween? Did you get an adequate number of junior tentacled horrors? Around here it was cold, rainy, windy, and snowy, so we got none.

Everybody, don’t forget Mercury will be transiting across the sun tomorrow, at about 0730 EST. It’s going to be clouded out here, we’ll have to watch on TV and Internet.

[ecosophia]

None at all, fortunately. I'm not particularly into that. (Yeah, I know, I'm being old and grumpy. Bah humbug et al.)

[(Anonymous)]

While meditating on the runes yesterday I had an odd experience. A figure "appeared", for lack of a better term, in my mind's eye. It approached me and I wasn't quite sure of what to do. I feel like I've seen snippets on these magic monday posts of "challenging" beings you encounter while scrying, but I wasn't sure how to do that. I gave it a try anyway and drew a reverse pentagram in front of the figure and said something along the lines of "I banish you". The figure replied with "as if you could" (not in a nasty way, just... bemused). At this point the figure became much clearer and appeared to me like Grimnir. He proceeded to talk with me and then offer me an interesting bit of info on the rune I was meditating on.

My question is, is that the appropriate way to "challenge" an entity you encounter? I never really worried about it before, as I have not gotten to the point of actively attempting scrying, but given this interaction, now I'm wondering.

Thanks in advance and as always thank you for hosting this forum!
HV

[ecosophia]

When I was into the Golden Dawn, I used to use the very elaborate way of testing entities taught in that tradition. These days, I find it works better just to talk to them, and to ask them to speak the name of the deity governing whatever path, realm, or symbol I'm working with. Malign entities can't do that.

SoP again

[(Anonymous)]

If when sick, it's a case of either having the physical energy to get up and do the movements or the mental energy for reasonable visualization and mental focus while sitting still or lying down (not managing both while moving about) is it ok to do the ritual while still? Maybe alternate on different days?

Re: SoP again

[ecosophia]

Of course you can do it while still, when you're sick or when some other factor makes it better to do it that way. In fact, it's a good exercise now and then to visualize yourself doing the ritual, imagining every detail as vividly as possible, as though you were actually doing it physically. There are few better ways to develop the capacity to visualize, and with practice it becomes as effective to do it that way as to do it on the material plane.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,
In your Magic Monday FAQ you write, “in most traditional cultures it’s common to use various forms of natural magic to protect and bless children from the moment they’re born.”

My wife recently gave birth to our son and I’d like to do what I can to magically benefit him and his older sister. I own your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic and have found that chalcedony can protect children from drowning and malachite can protect children from spiritual attack, but I can’t find anything else of a more generally beneficial nature for babies/children. So, my question is: do you know of any uses of natural magic that are particularly beneficial for blessing and protecting babies/children, or are the usual methods of blessing and protecting best here?

Also, now that there a quite a few Magic Monday posts, I thought I’d share a search technique I recently found that could help your readers find answers to questions that have already been asked, since there isn’t a search bar for this website (at least not on the mobile version...). By typing “site:” before a URL address, results are limited to that particular site. So, a person could use this template in their favorite search engine: “site:https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org keyword(s)”

Many thanks for these ongoing opportunities to receive answers for our magical questions!

-Colter

[ecosophia]

Beads of red coral are the classic thing to use for natural magic to bless a newborn. Why that should be is an interesting question, but it's found in a number of different cultures; I suspect that the combination of red (emblem of life energy) and the oceanic quality of coral calms and comforts them, since it has an energy like that of the womb. Beyond that, the usual methods are good -- you might consider using an appropriate stone to charge water and then adding that to the water used to wash your child.

Congratulations, by the way!

Horoscope Correction

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

If this is not too much to ask:

I’m trying to find my friend’s ascendant. He was lost at sea in a floating mattress at age 6, floating far from the coast, and being rescued last moment by sheer luck. Would you look for something with Neptune crossing a main axis in a progressed horoscope?

Thank you very much,

Njura

Re: Horoscope Correction

[ecosophia]

Despite the name, Neptune doesn't rule oceans -- the Moon does. In a horoscope like that, I'd expect to see the Moon very strongly placed in the chart for the sixth day of your friend's life, and there should be multiple major aspects for that year which more or less describe the event. (Say, Moon squaring the ruler of your friend's natal ascendant and Jupiter trine your friend's natal Sun, or something like that.)

To doublecheck, if you know the date when the incident occurred, cast a chart for the place it happened for that day. There should be major aspects between the planets on that day and the planets and angles of your friend's natal chart.

[(Anonymous)]

Good Morning!

Two questions on Geomancy - one general and one about a specific reading:

1) Am I right in my interpretation that company of houses does only count as a mode of perfection if the figure in company makes any additional connection? If you have, for example, fortuna minor and puella in the first and second house, but those two figures do not appear anywhere else in the chart this does not count as perfection? I treat it this way, but became unsure after re-reading the corresponding section of your book...

2) I was mulling over why I am constantly considering starting a regular practice of a banishing ritual but never do it and divination usually gives me negative answers about this. I think the most important driving force behind my endeavors into spirituality and occultism is my longing to get a definitive sense of "TSW" (on the other hand, what would count as such? What would I need "on top" of what I have already experienced to "convince" myself? Would I REALLY want this?). I started to wonder if that is a sensible way to approach the matter and decided to look from a different, more "technical" perspective. For a start, I cast a geomantic reading on the question whether some kind of magical protection would make sense and be beneficial for me (and my family). As answer I got 1st puella, 2nd amissio, 8th amissio with rw populus, lw and judge amissio. No further connections.

I interpret this as "Yes, it would make sense but it is currently out of reach for you - possibly because of your fickleness." Do you think that's a valid interpretation or did I miss something?

Thanks a lot for your advice!
Nachtgurke

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, very much so. Company of houses doesn't perfect a chart by itself -- it just opens up another possibility for perfection.

2) That seems like a valid interpretation to me. Taking up magic because you want to prove to yourself that magic is real is usually a bad idea, btw -- most people who do this are deeply conflicted about whether they want magic to be real or not, and will twist themselves into the most embarrassing mental contortions to keep from having to acknowledge once and for all that TSW. "Prove It To Me" is a classic interpersonal game in the Transactional Analysis sense of the term, and a lot of people play it inside their own heads.

Hypnosis and etheric crud

[(Anonymous)]

When I was 10 and my sister 12, we attended a couple sleep-overs with a neighbor who was also 12. There were a couple other guests. Our friend introduced us to a "game" that I think was some sort of hypnosis. In a nearly dark room, she would have a volunteer lie down on the floor and rub their temples to relax them as she told them a long story that was always ended with how the volunteer murdered their boyfriend in a fit of jealous rage. I don't think any of these girls even had any sort of boyfriend yet, but they really took in the story, screamed, frantically cried with real tears, snot, and red faces, and had to be assured that they had not really murdered anyone.

I volunteered once to be the subject, but told myself I would not let the story affect me. Really, that was easy as the stories were very hokey to me, especially as romantic relationships were the furthest thing from my mind at that age. So I was a dud as far as this party game went.

Fifty years later, though, I still feel sorry that I even participated as an observer of the "game." It was traumatic to those girls, and I understood it to be a cruelty at the time. I always hoped that the cruel stories did not stay with the girls somehow, burrowing into their brains forever. It seems like party-trick type hypnosis is supposed to have a signal to end the game, to turn it off so to speak. As far as I can tell, there was no end signal to come out of the trance, other than the girls' own trauma, like waking from a nightmare. So I fear the suggestion, the accusation, might have long been in them, needling and indicting.

You've used the phrase "etheric crud". I'm thinking this kind of game has added to the etheric crud out there, and that little waves of it wash up on unknown beaches. Make sense?

Re: Hypnosis and etheric crud

[ecosophia]

That's astral crud rather than etheric crud. The etheric level is the level of life force; the astral level is the level of imagery, emotion, and most ordinary kinds of thinking. With that amendment, though, yes, it makes perfect sense -- and that's a ghastly thing to do to a young person.

An auspicious day to retire, but not retire

[scotlyn]

Hi JMG
I have been thinking about winding up my job (bureaucracy a oriented, pays the mortgage) in order to devote my time, my energies and my learning entirely to my clinic (a vocation, which earns a small amount, but mostly "orients" me in the world in a wholesome way.

I was going tobask last week for advice on an auspicious planetary day to give notice where I work, but events got ahead of me and last Thursday at around 3pm I told my boss that I'd be leaving in the spring, after training in my someone to replace me.

Anyway, the announcement is now done, but I still have leeway to choose a last day at work. I will be leaving on good terms, and intend to leave no unfinished business. I especially I do not want to inadvertently close any doors (via raspberry jam OE otherwise) to the potential for the clinic to support me and mine in our modest needs.

Two questions.
1. Before or after equinox - will this make a difference?
2. Time & day of the week? Will this make a difference?

Re: An auspicious day to retire, but not retire

[ecosophia]

Look at your natal chart, and choose a day when a waxing Moon is applying by trine, sextile, or conjunction to the natal position of the planet that rules your ascendant or tenth house, and none of the malefic planets are applying by square or opposition to any planet in your natal chart. (Separating aspects are fine; they represent something that's passing off.) That's going to be a good day to make any significant change.

Are you one of Wheelock's?

[saturns_pet]

JMG:

1) Did you study Wheelock's Latin while you learned some Latin for some of your projects? I do hope that, like me, you are one of Wheelock's. :)

If not, and, if you please, then will you reveal a book or two you did study to learn some Latin?

2) If you were to give the astrological aspect of Mars (in Libra) conjunct Saturn (in Libra) the name of an anti-hero or villain, then what would it be? I'm not asking for input for a commercial project but rather for mnemonic purposes for my own education. Thanks!

If any other readers of this would like to drop a name or two as well, then please do so. Open offer.

Loving the Yuga,

Saturn's Pet

Re: Are you one of Wheelock's?

[ecosophia]

1) I took two years of Latin in college and yes, Wheelock's was our textbook. Make sure you pick up a copy of Wheelock's Latin Reader to go along with it -- that's the best way I know of to make the transition to reading texts.

2) I have no idea. That's a kind of question I've never been any good at.

Geomancy health issue (1st)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I’ve a couple of questions on Geomancy and I’ll post them separately.


A friend’s five month old daughter has developed an allergy to whatever in her mother’s milk which is causing a certain health problem.

I cast a “Shield Chart” to foresee a probable outcome and the question was:
“Tell me all about the baby’s health prospects”

I got the folowing Court :
R.W. = Fortuna Minor, L.W. = Conjunctio, Judge = Amissio

The newborn will need help (Fortuna Minor) and there will be several attempts at finding the real cause (Conjunctio), before cure is attained at last (Amissio).

Is this a fair conclusion?
Do you think the question was well phrased, or was it too vague?
Should I’ve been explicit about her “condition” or “disease”?

Thank you.

Re: Geomancy health issue (1st)

[ecosophia]

That seems like a valid interpretation. Did you trace the Way of Points, and if so, where did it go?

Geomancy health issue (2nd)

[(Anonymous)]

Now, if I were to cast a House Chart to get a more detailed account of the baby’s health issue I’d have to consider it a third-party question, correct?

1st house is me
11th house is my friend
3rd house is my friend’s daughter (5th from the 11th)
8th house is the daughter’s condition (6th from the 3rd)

Is that right?
How would the question be phrased? Maybe like, “ What are this disease’s characteristics?”

Thanks.

Re: Geomancy health issue (2nd)

[ecosophia]

1) That's correct.

2) Well, what do you want to know? Geomancy can only give you a modest amount of detail when it comes to diagnosis -- there are only sixteen figures, after all.

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning, and thank you for hosting Magic Mondays!

I notice that modern Western astrological texts draw charts in a circle, with the house cusps radiating outwards from the center. In Renaissance European texts, charts are drawn in a square with the house cusps forming triangles around its outer edge. I assume if one goes back further, charts are drawn in still other ways.

I'm curious about who, when, and why there was a shift from the square form to the circular one, and also about other ways these charts have been represented in the past. Do you know of any good sources I can read about that in?

Thanks again!

[ecosophia]

The reason for the square form is very simple. Back before you could get printed astrological charts, you had to draw the chart form by hand. It's the easiest thing in the world to draw the square form using compass and straightedge; it's a little more complicated to do the circular form, and so the square form was common as a convenience. Once cheap printing became available and you could buy pads of horoscope forms from astrologers' publishing houses, the circular form became more common because it's easier to read aspects at a glance.

I don't know of a source off hand that covers the history of horoscope forms; good histories of astrology should discuss it, but I'm far from sure if there are a lot of those!

[(Anonymous)]

1) I'm Canadian, but I have a lot of American relatives, and so spend a great deal of time in both countries. One thing I noticed is that before 2014 or so, astral conditions in the US seemed about the same as Canada. Both were quite toxic, but about equally so. Starting in 2014, astral conditions in the US began to deteriorate markedly. This seems to be starting in Canada as well.

a) Did you notice anything similar with astral conditions noticeably deteriorating from 2014?

b) I'm tempted to link this to the rise of Trump, but it seems a little early for that. Time on the astral plane can be a little weird though, so were the noxious conditions starting that early because the aftermath of the Trump campaign/election reverberated back in time?

c) Am I right to think starting to feel this noxious astral pollution likely means we're going to witness something which sends a sizable fraction of Canadians into insanity sometime in the next few years?

2)What do you make of the push for plant-based meat? I also find it mildly disturbing I've heard more than one person say that since people won't buy it, it shouldn't need to be labelled as plant based meats....

3) I recently picked up magical practice, and a few nights ago had a what appeared to be a precognitive dream. How would you go about checking if this was a regular dream or a precognitive one?

[ecosophia]

1a) My take is that astral conditions have been deteriorating in the US for a lot longer than that. They certainly took a marked turn for the worse around 2014.

1b) I suspect you have cause and effect backwards. It's not that the rise of Trump caused astral conditions to go haywire; it's that astral conditions went haywire, and the rise of Trump was one of the things that followed. The material plane is the plane of effects, not of causes!

1c) That seems likely to me. Your next federal election may be interesting.

2) I see it as a last frantic attempt by vegans to stave off their inevitable surrender to the lure of the bacon cheeseburger. It'll just whet their taste for the real thing.

3) See whether it comes true. If you've just started magical practice, you've got a good long ways to go before other options come into play.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG
First thank you for MM and a BIG thank you for your series on Discursive Meditation.
I've followed along and it's going very well. Duck - water etc.
As a data point I've been immersed in the Indian spiritual traditions for several decades; as you know there's a lot of umm "discursive thought" expended on sacred text, stories, images, mantras and yantras, just not usually in a directly meditative format.
I find that this approach is much more natural for ma compared to the other methods I've used - I've always liked thinking:)
If you would three questions on Discursive Meditation.
1 on a visual image is the process to maintain the discursive (verbal) thought on the image?
2 Occasionally in the past you've mentioned note-taking after meditation, is that a particular practice? If so how does it work?
3 Some while ago you commented that you had worked out a "thinking system " "I worked up one for the Dolmen Arch course based on some scraps of the original course. It has seven concepts and seven questions: " I assume that would be useful in Meditation,?

And lastly not a question but a "DUH" moment. I just realised that over here all the Brexit terror is because the UK will (?) go BACK to a past situation/ Back!! Horror! That means reversing Progress! Oh My God/
Thanks again
Mark

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it. I also found discursive meditation far more congenial and effective for me than other methods I'd tried.

1) Yes. If you're meditating on the image of a Hindu deity, for example, think about each of the deity's attributes. If it's Shiva, for example, he's got the trishul trident, the damaru drum, the crescent moon in his hair, and so on -- each of those is an anchor for a cascade of specific meanings, which can be unpacked through discursive meditation. If it takes you less than a month of daily meditations to get through a single divine image you're probably not giving it enough time!

2) This is standard practice in many schools of Western occultism. You have a practice journal, and when you've finished your practices each morning you write down a brief description of what you did and how it went. When you write about your meditation, you note down the theme of the meditation and any insights that occurred to you. It's worth doing, as it helps anchor the insights.

3) Indeed it would be. That's what it's there for, in fact. ;-)

4) Yeah, that's a lot of what the shrieking is about. Of course there's also the economic factor -- open borders means it costs less to maintain a middle class lifestyle, and if that means the working class starves on the dole, it's their own fault, right? Right?

French Druidry

[(Anonymous)]

In your Druidry Handbook you briefly discuss that French Druids made a large contribution. I admit I haven’t gone through the further reading sections, but are there books discussing Druidry in France? Could you give some titles, or discuss French Druidry here a little?

Re: French Druidry

[ecosophia]

Sure. The French Druid scene is, well, French -- meaning that it's strongly influenced both by other trends in French occultism, and by the French tendency to factionalism. (I think it was Charles de Gaulle who once said in despair, "How can one govern a nation that has three thousand varieties of cheese?") So the Breton Druids generally won't talk to the French Druids, and there are various groups of Breton Druids and French Druids alike who won't talk to each other either, and competing books teach diametrically opposed teachings, and all the usual backing and forthing you already know about if you're familiar with French politics or, for that matter, French Freemasonry.

As for books, good heavens, yes. Among those I've read are Robert Ambelain's Les Traditions Celtiques and a flurry of books by Paul and Rene Bouchet, of which Les Druides is probably the most widely available. There are scores of others, ranging from the thoughtful to the giddy.

[(Anonymous)]

John--

To the extent you are able to answer, what benefits, lessons, disciplines did you gain and/or would you say would be gained from membership in the Masons? In particular, what benefits or aids, if any, with regard to your spiritual/magical development over the years?

The reason I ask is that I may have an opportunity to apply to the local lodge, but I'd like to learn more about the order before I take that step. And aside from the acquaintance whom I discovered only yesterday was a member, you are the only other Mason I know :)

--David BTL

[ecosophia]

The Masonic initiations are still valid on a magical and spiritual level, even though the vast majority of the brothers who confer them have literally no notion what they're doing -- they follow the traditional practices by rote, and get results. The results in question? As with any initiation, the partial opening of certain psychic centers and the establishment of a link with the egregor of Masonry, which for all the checkered history of the Craft is still relatively sane, balanced, and energized. I'd recommend Masonic membership to any man who believes in a Supreme Being and can handle having that Being addressed in traditional Judeo-Christian terms.

A vast amount depends on the personality of the lodge you join, and also of its members. Talk to your acquaintance and see if you can arrange to attend the public installation of officers of the lodge. Let the brothers know that you're potentially interested in petitioning for membership and want to know about the lodge and what it does in the community, and if it's like every other lodge I know, you'll get an earful.

[avalterra]

What terrific timing! I had been waiting for MM to occur to ask you if you have plans to do any other translations such as the Picatrix?

[ecosophia]

I've been working on and off on a translation of Johannes Bureus' Adul-Runa, the first book on rune magic published in modern times; it's been on the back burner for a while, but once I finish recovering from long shifts at the tentacle-fiction factory I plan on moving ahead with it a little more energetically. Other than that, nothing in particular -- I'd have to find something in a language I know (French and Latin are the options here) and that interests me enough to keep me going through the long slog of translation work.

When local nature spirits get playful...

[walt_f]

As you explained in your guide to the SoP, the elemental banishing portion e.g. "doesn't banish water -- it banishes other things with the help of water."

Is there any magic that banishes actual water? Say, for instance, a hefty flowing spring that just appears one day in the middle of ones crawl space?

(Don't worry, I'm not forgetting Canute's point. I have material solutions in progress, and the spring might turn out to be a gift I'll use and appreciate once I get the mess cleaned up. But the situation made me curious.)

Re: When local nature spirits get playful...

[ecosophia]

Nope. The planes are discrete and not continuous, and a spring of water on the material plane has to be dealt with by material means. You might talk to the water elementals and see if there's a specific reason for the spring showing up, though!

Mediums/Contacting the dead

[(Anonymous)]

There's a question I have been meaning to ask for a while, but today is the first Monday I've been able to. It's mainly what you feeling are regarding mediums. As I have mentioned, I had a particularly traumatic childhood, but at the same time was close to my father (who was more like a brother) and my grandmother, who raised and adopted me. My grandmother died in the mid-1990s while I was living in Scotland, and I knew when she died, I literally felt it. She has come to me a few times over the years, almost like a "fairy grandmother".

My father disappeared for good when my grandmother died. He was a heroin addict from before I was born, spent much of my childhood in and out of prison, and the only reason he wasn't homeless was because of my grandmother. When she died, he finally did become permanently homeless, I was in my early 20s, on a year abroad, completely broke living on student loans and homeless on and off myself. I looked for him on and off over the years, but due to the HIPPA laws and his homelessness I always lost the trail. My horrible aunt and cousin kept telling me he was dead, but I could feel that he wasn't. 2 years ago the County of Los Angeles found me via social media and reached out saying he was in a nursing home in Hollywood dying, requesting I apply legally for conservatorship. It's all very complicated legally...so my husband and I raced down to LA to see him before they moved him and I lost track again. He was about 100lbs, in a fetal position and basically in a coma like state, on feeding tubes, etc. Because I didn't have legal rights, they wouldn't tell me anything. All I know is he spent 20+ years on and off the streets of LA, and in and out of hospitals due to severe mental and physical health issues. He finally died last year, and I paid for his cremation, and have him in an urn in my backyard with a makeshift shrine to him with all the rocks and shells I collected over the past 30 years (he loved the ocean, and nature).

That's all probably more than you need to know, but I think it matters that he lived such a tormented life. He was such an important part of my childhood, and despite all that happened, he was a very special person to me and a huge influence. And while I could feel he was alive all these years, now I feel nothing, and have so many questions. I have thought about going to see a medium, but two things scare me. One is, maybe it's best to not reach out, and it's best to just let him be? Maybe that's why I don't feel anything? The second is, if it would be OK to reach out, how on earth would I find someone that's a real medium that could handle something like this? I really feel like I need some sort of closure with my father, but perhaps there is a better way to seek it?

Tude

Re: Mediums/Contacting the dead

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend using mediums. There are some honest ones, but the great majority are dishonest and use various tricks to establish and maintain their clienteles. M. Lamar Keene's book The Psychic Mafia, by a corrupt medium who finally couldn't live with himself and spilled the beans on the spiritualist racket, is worth reading in this context.

What I'd recommend is to simply maintain the shrine you've created, and talk to him when you feel like it. He'll be working his way through the afterlife process, absorbing the lessons of the life just past, and your love will help him in that process. If you have a relationship with a deity, prayer is another really good way to help a dead person work through the process. Closure isn't really an option in our world; the best you can do is to help, and let things unfold.

Bulfinch Mythology Edition

[(Anonymous)]

Good day! Is there a specific edition of Bulfinch's Mythology that you recommend?

Thanks for everything!

Re: Bulfinch Mythology Edition

[ecosophia]

Any complete edition is fine. I recommend getting both The Age of Fable and The Age of Chivalry, by the way -- they're both great reading, and will give you a degree of cultural literacy few people have these days.

Aries

[(Anonymous)]

I recently had an odd experience: while praying for someone, I clearly saw an Aries symbol (the little V with the curly ram horns). It was lavender colored, canted about 45 degrees to the right, and travelling in a northeasterly direction. Having no interest whatever in astrology (I had to look up the symbol), I'm mystified. Is that more of a "pay attention" sort of thing, or a "random noise, ignore"?

Re: Aries

[ecosophia]

Probably that was just what occultists call "astral static." If you start seeing astrological symbols more generally when you pray, you may want to pray for guidance about that; it may be indicating a gift for astrology.

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

This one is about time. I cast a house chart for the question
"How many more months can we expect our furnace to keep working correctly?"

1: Rubeus
2: Amissio
3: Laetitia
4: Tristitia
5: Conjunctio
6: Laetitia
7: Rubeus
8: Tristitia
9: Cauda
10: Carcer
11: Cauda
12: Aquisitio
RW: Caput
LW: Puella
J: Fortuna Minor
R: Laetitia

If you count Conjunctio as positive, the 16 figures are perfectly split between favorable and unfavorable. The 4 cardines are all unfavorable, but the 4 final figures are all favorable. The significator of the querent passes across to the 7th, and perfects via mutation with the significator of the quesited passed to the 8th.

That puts Rubeus in the 7th into square with Tristitia in the 4th, the house of the quesited. And into opposition with himself in the 1st.

Tristitia, as the sign in the relevant house (building, underground, old age), suggests that we have 30 months left on the furnace if the chart is generally unfavorable, or 58 months left if the chart is generally favorable. I counted 99 points total in the 16 houses, so fine-tuned, it adjusts to 31 months worst case, or 60 months best case.

If I'm reading it all correctly, the difference in those two determinations hinges on whether the negative aspects count with the figures in mutation. Do the square and/or opposition (Rubeus with himself) matter? Or is the mutation the only thing that counts there? Or is Rubeus in the 1st trying to tell me something completely different? Like, it's already not working correctly. (Which might be the case; it's cycling on and off in a weird pattern, prompting me to ask the question in the first place.)

Thanks so much for your time!

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

Rubeus is fairly often a signal of danger. With that in the first house and Tristitia in the fourth, I'd encourage you to call a furnace repairman right away, to make sure that you're not running the risk of a fire, carbon monoxide poisoning, or some other serious issue.

[(Anonymous)]

Depending on the source, various different colors are suggested for the pentagrams and circle in the LRP. Electric blue and golden sunlight are popular ones, but many alternatives are also given. Could you say what impact the color used has on the ritual, or is there someplace I can look this up? I've tried using different colors to see if I could detect a difference, but it wasn't so clear to me.

Thanks for Magic Mondays!

[ecosophia]

I've never noticed a difference; I've used, white, blue-white, and golden with equally good effects. As far as I can tell, it's a matter of personal preference.

Mundane astrology of past major events

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a subscriber to your mundane astrology readings and was wondering if you had any interest in interpreting charts in relation to past major events like the beginning of the US civil war or WW1, the French revolution, the crack up of the USSR, the Rwandan genocide that set off Africa's 'world war', etc.

I think It would help me understand the average 'boring' readings if the more 'interesting' readings were there for contrast.

I understand the time commitment it would take on your part and would personally be willing to pay more each month for it. If you're not interested, or if not enough of your other subscribers are interested, I'd certainly understand.

Re: Mundane astrology of past major events

[ecosophia]

That's actually something that interests me. Right now, as part of the run-up to the December 2020 grand mutation between Jupiter and Saturn, I'm casting a series of charts for past Grand Mutations, starting with 1425 -- which resembles this one fairly closely -- and comparing what they say to what happened thereafter. That one will be posted in a few days; the 1663 and 1842 grand mutation charts will follow (and since Raphael did an interpretation of the 1842 mutation when it happened, we'll do a retrospective of that as well.) After that and the various national charts for the grand mutation, I'd like to do an extended study of the astrology of the Second World War -- not least because the British mundane astrologer CEO Carter screwed that one up so badly -- and then, yes, other such charts would be worth doing. A good book on mundane astrology that used such case studies as examples is something that's badly needed, and yes, I'm considering writing it.