Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just past midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Jean Dubuis, one of the most influential alchemists of recent times. Born in 1919, he studied alchemy and other branches of occultism in a variety of initiatory orders. In 1979 he founded Le Philosophes de la Nature (The Philosophers of Nature), which played a crucial role in spreading the teachings of the French alchemical revival of the early 20th century worldwide; while he dissolved the organization in 1999, feeling that it had strayed from its original purposes, its correspondence courses are still readily available in French and English from L'association PortaeLucis, an organization founded to preserve his legacy. (I worked my way through several of the courses during the years when I studied alchemy, and they're very worthwhile.) 

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

[(Anonymous)]

Good afternoon from China!

JMG, I don't know whether you know John Beckett, or follow his Patheos blog, but he has been posting for some time about Gods claiming individuals to work for Them; his latest post on this is here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2019/11/sometimes-the-gods-take-what-they-want.html I myself had an incredibly intense, I might say life-changing, experience of this last week.

His observation is that the Veil between the worlds is thinning, and the Old Gods are finding it easier to reconnect with us. Where this overlaps with your own areas is the idea of Tower Time: that the cheap energy of the last couple of centuries is coming to an end; the foundations of our Tower (aka our economy, society, the religion of Progress) are being washed away, and the time is approaching when the Tower will fall.

In his latest post, John talks about how he knows the Gods are virtuous, yet he sees them behaving badly, and how he struggles to reconcile this. Another commenter points out that we mortals cannot comprehend the Gods' view of virtue, and I've added that perhaps we should look at the virtues that prevailed in the societies in which these Deities were mainstream.

In the Celtic and Norse cases, for example, these were tribal, aristocratic, warrior societies, with the values which that would entail.

I wonder what you think of this in general and, in particular, how it relates to your own ongoing discussion of the breakdown of unitary states, the rise of proto-warbands, and the likelihood of full-blown warbands in the future. Is the rise of these values in this world making it easier for old gods which share those values to return?

Bogatyr

[(Anonymous)]

I had not known about John B, thanks!

If people on JMG’s sites continue to recommend interesting stuff, I’ll have to go back to work so I’ll have time to read everything during the commute!

Yet Another Geomancy Question

[(Anonymous)]

I felt a weird and toxic energy on me during much of the day, and it was strong enough that it would seem to "jump" to my wife-- she would be near me and feel agitated, tired or in physical pain. A couple of days ago I got a dental infection, and it seems to have co-incided with that-- with the sense of weird energy accompanying severe tooth pain etc.

I chased it off, at least for the time being, with a hoodoo bath followed by the OIW rite (the latter proceeded by a divination to make sure it was safe to do in the same house as my pregnant wife.) I then did a house chart on the question, "Is this weird energy due to a curse or astral attack of some kind?"

The results have Cauda Draconis in the 1st house and Puer in the 12th. The chart is perfected by Albus in the 2nd and 11th houses. Puer also jumps to the 9th house, so the chart is also perfected by aspect.

A couple of questions--

1. This is the second or third geomancy chart relating to a sense of hostile, outside energy I've done which has been perfected by Albus. My sense is that it regularly indicates a person obsessing about me, which I then perceive and feel due either to the person's natural psychic ability, my own hypersensitivity, or a combination of both. Is this your read on it also?


2. The quesited jumps to the 9th house, as I said, and perfection is accomplished by translation via the 2nd and 11th houses. I am not sure what to make of the 2nd, except that I've had to turn down work due to the dental infection, so it has impacted my money. But what about the presence of the 9th and the 11th? The 9th suggests religion, but I'm not an active member of any church. (I am technically a baptized Catholic.) I participate in an online group for religious occultists, and I used to regularly attend 12 step meetings. There are very spiritual people that I respect a great deal that participate in both of these things, but both also attract people whose energy is... stunningly toxic. Could it be that a member of one of these groups is sending nasty energy my way, deliberately or not?

3. Or is there something else I'm not seeing?

4. (I don't pay much attention to the Judges and Witness in a house chart, but those are RW: Laetitia, LW: Cauda Draconis, J: Conjunctio, if that helps.)

Re: Yet Another Geomancy Question

[ecosophia]

1) It's quite possible that Albus is trying to tell you something about the person who's responsible, and so yes, that's a reasonable interpretation.

2) Yes, that's very likely, and in fact Albus might indicate that someone is praying for (or, rather, at) you, thinking that they're acting out of good intentions.

In your place I'd get busy with ritual magic. Do you have enough confidence in your ability to create protective amulets, consecrate them, and place them in the rooms where you and your wife spend most of your time? That would be one helpful strategy.

LRM Recollection Practice and Dreams

[(Anonymous)]

I am on lesson three of Learning Ritual Magic, and have been doing the Recollection exercise for several weeks now. I do it at night in bed, as instructed, and often fall asleep before I am finished.

I have noticed that my dreams have become unusually vivid and lucid since I have been doing this. Is that a normal reaction? It seems as if my recollection of the day blends seamlessly into a dream, which then veers off in some other direction.

Re: LRM Recollection Practice and Dreams

[ecosophia]

That's not only normal, it's a good sign. Keep at it!

Initiation, Theogony

[(Anonymous)]

I wanted to share an interesting experience I had lately.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I have, for many years, bounced between different religious traditions, unable to keep to one, and how a Geomancy chart seemed to indicate that this is just kind of where I'm at right now. (Puer in 9 in response to "If there is a religious tradition for me, what planet is it under?) You responded that Syncretism is a time-honored tradition, and why not just accept that that's what I do and own it?

Well, first I wanted to thank you for that. It's not like I've made any actual change in response to you saying that-- I've kept my hybrid Druid-Taoist-Catholic-Hellenist practice the way it is, except I've stopped guilt-tripping myself for it!

But something interesting happened recently that I wanted to share. For the last month or so, I've been lighting an appropriate candle and singing an appropriate Orphic hymn every day. The result has been that the planetary deities have been manifesting very strongly and clearly in my life, which has been wonderful. I took up the practice in order to connect more clearly to astrology, but it's gone well beyond that now. I've started obsessively reading the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and it's clearer and easier for me than ever before! I used to struggle to get through a page of Aristotle; now he's a joy. I've been devouring Gibbon and youtube lectures on Plotinus and Neoplatonism.

And then a couple of days ago I picked up the copy of Hesiod that's been on my shelf for, literally, years. For some reason I just couldn't get through a sentence of it. Now-- Well, I devoured the Theogony in an evening and had to force myself to stop and go slowly through Works and Days. It's not just that I am enjoying them. It's that-- You've talked about how a work of fiction can function as an initiation, and cited Dion Fortune's work in this regard. Reading the Theogony was an initiatic experience, as powerful as meditating through the Celtic Tree of Life. It wasn't like I was unfamiliar with Greek myth before this. As a child my favorite book was a giant collection of Greek myths. But now I'm seeing things-- but not just seeing, perceiving, under-standing-- for the first time. In Hesiod's world, the Sky is a living being, and so is Night, and so is Love, and so is Oath, and so are Wealth and Poverty. Everything one can encounter-- natural phenomena, cultural phenomena, human emotions, human experiences-- all of these are living Powers with whom one can relate. Today's weather and the authority of the king are both the presence of a living power named Zeus. Demeter gives forth the holy grains; grapes are the gift of Bacchus. Rivers are living beings, the children of the ocean. Night is the mother of Dreams and Sleep, and Nemesis, and the Fates and the Furies, and Oath who I mentioned before-- and reading, one feels that none of this is a metaphor, but simply the way things are.

As I read, I continually feel: This is the world that I want to live in. This is the living world, enchanted, sacred, and above all else, inhabited. And it's so different-- utterly and completely-- from the Modern world, or even the Christian world that preceded the Modern world. This is the Living World. And it's the only world I want to live in!

Re: Initiation, Theogony

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it. You invoked the gods -- and they answered.

Amulets

[(Anonymous)]

Are amulets like the salt and nail one only relevant if the wearer is spending time in person in places with cruddy energy? Do they have any use for the internet and other remote communication?

Re: Amulets

[ecosophia]

That's a good question to which, as far as I know, the answer is not yet known. You might consider doing some experimentation...

[miles_l]

Would you be willing to create an addendum to the FAQ or a whole new page with many of the wonderful how to posts you have made?

This comes from not being able to find the http://www.orderofessenes.org/ website. Took me quite a long while searching to find the article that mentioned the site.

It would be nice if there was one place to go in order to have links to the SoP and the other wonderful how to's that you have created. Right now they are spread all over the place. As a long time reader I am aware that they exist. A new reader would not know about everything you have put up. Plus being knowledgeable and having an idea what to look for, it is still difficult to find information on the dreamwidth site.

Thank you for considering this.

[ecosophia]

Er, I'd have to find them all, and since I've been doing Magic Mondays for quite a while now that would involve a lot of spare time I don't really have. I also don't know which of the how-to posts you consider wonderful! If you or another reader would be willing to put in the time and effort to gather the links and put them in a Word file, though, I could certainly post something on my blog website.

[booklover1973]

Good morning, JMG, I have several questions:

When doing practical magic with the Sphere of Protection, does one do this instead of, or additionally to the normal Sphere of Protection?

When doing magic with the Grove Ceremony, is the working performed only once or seven times in a row? I ask because the Grove Ceremony is stronger than the Sphere of Protection alone.

Is there a good book about building one's own rituals for purposes outseide ceremonial magic proper?

[ecosophia]

1) If it's using the simple methods in The Druid Magic Handbook, you can do it instead of the regular.

2) Depends on how much power you want to put into it.

3) I wish I did! A book like that would be worth having.

Dealing with unmannerly souls

[(Anonymous)]

Many years ago, a distant uncle died. He was not in his right mind when he passed, having accumulated much trauma being the subject of medical experiments during WWII, and ended up making an infernal racket outside his old house, demanding that his wife let him in. This went on every night, with the house occupants praying frantically, but it took a few days before he moved, or was moved, on.
Right now I have a mother with dementia. She was an abusive parent and drug abuser while in her right mind and I'm afraid she will be a nuisance when she dies. We live in different countries and while I consider her toxic, she is still my mother and I'd like to do something to help her along her way and/or prevent her from haunting my family and myself after she passes.
Unfortunately, our family members are all psychically sensitive, so it's not a case of ignorance being bliss. Does the venerable Archdruid have any learned suggestions on how to reduce nuisance calls from irrational souls who have difficulty letting go?

Lex

Re: Dealing with unmannerly souls

[ecosophia]

Ceremonial magic is very effective at dealing with such things, but you have to have the necessary training. Lacking that, prayer to a relevant deity or saint is probably your best option.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. Are magic and musical earworms related in any way? I suppose musicians craft them to stick in one's mind, which I suppose at least affects consciousness. During this morning's SOP, I tried to banish an earworm during each element's banishing section, but right after I finished the SOP, unhappily the earworm returned. I fixed it by replacing it with a different, better earworm (thanks, Bach).

2. During the SOP section of the Grove Ceremony, with both the Elemental Cross and the Circulation of Light, does it matter if one imagines the center of these being the altar rather than solar plexus? When I do the Circulation of Light, it seems more balanced to put the center of the rotating sphere in the middle of the grove (the altar).

3. A couple of weeks ago, you gave me some great advice about dealing with childhood fears, many of which come from my relationship to my parents, and an affirmation: "I release my childhood fears". This is the post in question: https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/72089.html#comments

This matches very closely with one of the examples in the DMH of the Transforming Yourself working in which one invokes courage and banishes childhood fear in each of the 4 elements. I thought of doing this, I have been meditating on different aspects of this for some time, and cast an Ogham reading: Reversed Ngetal, Ur, and Straif. Reversed Ngetal seems to tell me to wait, I am not yet ready to begin*. Ur shows that the working is the right one to do, and it is powerful, but for the outcome, Straif seems to be telling me that the result will be difficult, and even connected to my fate. But another interpretation of Straif is that I actually can't change myself in this way, that the working won't actually work. How would you interpret that reading? I'm getting better and better at interpreting Ogham readings, but Straif in this case has me puzzled.

* I believe I am supposed to wait until I have finished reading Scripts We Live by Claude Steiner, I am halfway through and it is helping with this issue greatly.

Thanks once again!

[ecosophia]

1) Not that I know of. I've had to do the same thing quite often.

2) That's a perfectly valid variation; do it if it works better for you.

3) I'd read Straif as saying that magic isn't going to make the problem go away; you have issues involved that you're going to have to face directly. The reading as a whole says to me that the working will be good for you but it's going to be the beginning of a process, not a quick fix.

Re: Hoodoo Bath, a quick question

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John Michael Greer,

In the recipe for the hoodoo bath would it do to substitute paprika for cayenne pepper? I live in a part of the world where it is very difficult to find cayenne pepper, but paprika, no problem.

PS Thank you for hosting this blog. It is a most valuable and fascinating resource.

Re: Hoodoo Bath, a quick question

[ecosophia]

How hot is the paprika where you live? What we can get here in America is sweet and rather bland, and won't do much in a hoodoo bath. You can use any hot pepper, whatever the color, and you can also use hot spices such as ginger.

[aldabra]

I'm about to get an allotment. It's going to be bare earth when I get it. I want to permaculture it (but the allotment committee is very jumpy indeed about the possibility of the Council appropriating it for housing, and very into tidiness and legible linear monoculture; I'm going to try to make the structure legible and hope this gets them off my back about the monoculture).

a) Is there anything I need to know about layout? I want to do a mandala. Plot runs North-South, long and thin; there's a good tree to the North and a public access path along the southern boundary, which I'm thinking of a raspberry screen across. There's a nearby church roughly eastwards; should I acknowledge the church? It's not my spirituality, to put it mildly, but it clearly exists.

b) I want a little patch of "lawn", maybe chamomile and thyme, for meditation. Does the discursive meditation you've been describing work if done cross-legged on the ground, with the earth energy coming through the base of the spine rather than the feet? Does it need adapting?

c) Are there plants I should definitely have or avoid? [Cambridge UK, USDA zone 8.]

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

It sounds to me as though you've just set out a very good schedule for your next few months of daily meditation. You're there, I'm not; you have the opportunity to visit the allotment, sense its relationship to the other plots and to its surroundings, see how the sun, wind, and weather play around the area -- all the things that make for a responsive garden plan. (I'm guessing you also have permaculture training, which I don't.) You don't need my advice; you need to let the land and sky speak to you, and give you their advice.

W B Yeats

[(Anonymous)]

A somewhat "scholarly" question. I´ve heard (on an YouTube clip called "The Irish Magical Tradition" at OpenSourceOccultTV) that the Golden Dawn got their ideas from an Anglo-Irish magical tradition popular among the Protestant Ascendancy, including W B Yeats. Is there any truth to this? Yeats was a member of the GD, but didn´t the GD get their ideas from the "normal" Hermetic tradítion, or was this tradition particularly strong in Ireland?

Re: W B Yeats

[ecosophia]

I've never seen a scrap of evidence to support the claim that Yeats had any contact with an Anglo-Irish magical tradition, and huge amounts of evidence that conflict with that claim. His father was a rationalist atheist, and as a young man Yeats got involved in Hermeticism and the Theosophical Society precisely because he wanted a connection to spirituality he didn't get from his upbringing -- he wrote about that at quite some length in some of his more autobiographical essays, and also his letters. That led him to the Golden Dawn, which he joined in 1890, three years after the order was founded -- so he certainly wasn't around to help found it, and I don't recall any of the other early members coming from Anglo-Irish circles (though I could be wrong here).

The Golden Dawn's origins, rather, are straight out of the English Hermetic movement with some French additions. The cipher manuscripts were originally written by Kenneth Mackenzie -- Darcy Kuntz demonstrated that some years ago in a fine bit of research -- and drew on material that had been circulating in the London occult scene since the 17th century.

W B Yeats

[(Anonymous)]

I forgot to add that the W B Yeats question comes from me, Tidlösa in Sweden!

Book on Grand Mutations

[(Anonymous)]

You said a few weeks ago that you were planning a book to do with the 2020 Grand Mutation and that the Patreon posts were a basis for that. When do you think the book might be out?

Re: Book on Grand Mutations

[ecosophia]

It'll be out a year or so after I finish the various posts. When will that happen? I have no idea yet!

1226

[(Anonymous)]

Are you planning on doing this chart, seeing as it was also a change to Air?

Re: 1226

[ecosophia]

That's a good point -- yes, I could do a delineation of that Grand Mutation as well.

Becoming a writer.

[(Anonymous)]

Besides journaling and practice, are there any books that helped you the most in developing your writing and your voice in it?

Re: Becoming a writer.

[ecosophia]

I found books of the "how to write" variety to be very unhelpful in my own growth as a writer. Basically, the only thing I found that helped was (a) to write every single day, (b) to read voraciously, (c) to think about the books I loved most and go over the best passages word by word, trying to understand how they did what they did, and (d) to apply what I learned to my own work.

DOGD temple

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

Not sure if magic mondays is the appropriate chat for this, perhaps the DOGD group would be better - but I’m loathe to post there now with all that’s happening with Yahoo groups. If not, feel free to delete this!

If you were to have land and funds to build an ideal DOGD temple, what would it look like and what would it be constructed out of?

- Brigyn

Re: DOGD temple

[ecosophia]

It would be a quiet, unobtrusive building surrounded by trees and a large herb garden, close to public transit, and with off-street parking for bicycles and cars (for those who really need those latter). It would be made of wood, with as little metal in the structure as possible. Two stories, a pitched roof, the downstairs given over to a kitchen, dining room, office, library, and alchemical laboratory, the upstairs a plain rectangular lodge room with an anteroom and another big storeroom for ritual gear.

occultism and health

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John,

this is the first time I have contacted you although I started reading your blog more than ten years ago. Since then you have been part of my life. Thank you for helping me understand the world and my life better.

What made me write is that I had a dream about you which I interpreted as a nudge. By the way, I know you are good at languages, but I don’t suppose you can speak Czech, my mother tongue. In the dream, however, you could say simple sentences, which made me feel delighted. Hardly anybody learns to speak Czech ;-)

I would like to ask whether practising magic requires good health. I suffer from a kind of autoimmune disease close to lupus, but in a very mild form. The most unpleasant symptoms are weakness and fatigue. There are better times and there are worse. Now I am slowly crawling out of one of the worse phases.

My major textbooks are your The Druidry Handbook and Ogam: The Celtic Oracle of the Trees by Paul Rhys Mountfort that you recommended. I try to do the exercises, practise meditation (mostly on ogham fews) and ogham divination, but to be honest, I sometimes skip, not always due to tiredness. Even so, ogham seems to be working for me. I asked it whether I should do more about occultism, for example start studying The Cosmic Doctrine with you, I asked other questions too, but most of the answers seem to be pointing in the same direction: get stronger, pay attention to your body, seek healing and don’t try to push too hard. At least that is my interpretation.

And yet I don’t want to give up. Do you think it is possible to stay with the current practice and add more when I feel up to it? I do not know where exactly my limits are. That’s the thing with boundaries that you learn where they are only when you cross them. I don’t want to get too far behind, but I don’t want to be too cautious either. On the other hand, could it be magic that might help me to get better health?

In some Czech fairy tales there is a character of an old woman living outside a village, who is a herbalist, very wise and kind. The princesses didn’t appeal to me much, I projected myself on this woman. I am 43 now, married, but without children (not willingly). I think I still may have enough time to get closer to my model. If nothing else, I may be able to grow old ;-)

Hana

Re: occultism and health

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Hana,
I have something that sounds the same as what you have. I started studying and practicing from the Druidry Handbook and the Druid Magic Handbook about five years ago. I have often been blocked from going as fast as I like in my studies by my divinations which were uniformly negative for the first two years. I finally showed my cards to my sister and asked what they were about. She said, "It is about your health, Dolly." I had thought it was something spiritual...

So, I started taking better care of my health and my cards and magic practice both got better. As for knowing what our limits are, I find it safe to assume I can only do about 50% of what i think I can do. You might also try one up one down as a way to get your health better. This means, one hour up doing things followed by one hour down resting flat on your back. You can read or pet the cat for that hour but nothing more strenuous.

In all, I have found my magic studies a great boost to my health, happiness and peace of mind. I wish you the best in your journey.
Maxine

[(Anonymous)]

Good morning! I've been working through the discursive meditation posts, and have been able to keep it up much more consistently than I thought originally. I'm also reading the DMH. I have a question about selecting themes.
It's easy enough for me to meditate on correspondences for elements and fews, but when I want to meditate on something broad, like Nwyfre, it's hard for me to state my theme concisely. I can still usually have some productive sessions by just thinking about Nwyfre in a broad, abstract sense, but I need help developing tighter themes.
Many thanks!

[ecosophia]

That's something that comes with practice. You've already caught onto the most important detail, which is that the more tightly focused the theme, the better the meditation. If you're going to meditate on nwyfre, in other words, narrow it down -- choose some specific aspect or manifestation or expression of nwyfre and meditate on that, then go on to another aspect, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

John—

I wanted to thank you for your advice last week re my contact with the local Masonic lodge. We met again, I got a quick tour of the hall, and I asked about attending the installation of the officers, which was readily agreed to. The election is this week, in fact, and the date for the installation should be known shortly thereafter.

And there was something in that hall. Even I could sense it.

One further question, however. I’ve done a bit more research on Freemasonry and have a little better understanding (not much, but a little) re its structure(s) and nature. There seems to me to be something of a split between the exoteric and esoteric aspects. Social club & community service (both good and necessary) versus the more, shall we say *philosophical* aspects of the Craft. If I am particularly interested in the Esoteric Work, is there a particular thread I can follow? Is there a way to find others with similar interests? The local lodge is not are large one (60 some-odd members county-wide). I understand there are additional paths (I’m more likely to take Scottish than York, given the Christian emphasis of the latter), but there’s little mention of anything remotely esoteric on the Northern Jurisdictions’s website...though that is perhaps by design.

Thanks, as always, for the help.

David BTL

[ecosophia]

In my experience, in every jurisdiction where I've been active in Masonry, Masons interested in the esoteric dimension of the Craft tend to find somewhere to congregate. Fairly often, it's in the Scottish Rite, but it can pop up anywhere that it's convenient. It's almost always informal and unadvertised, because many jurisdictions aren't supportive of it, but it's there. Once you're a Master Mason, keep your ears open to references to Masonic philosophy and the like, and sooner or later you'll see where the hints are pointing.

SOP 'bathroom breaks' and Dion Fortune!

[(Anonymous)]

A couple of questions this week, if I may, this week:

1 – Early on (I’d say within one month of starting) in my daily practice of the complete SOP, I had a rather strange thing happen: as soon as I would invoke the element Earth I had a very strong urge to void my bowels. This occurred every day for the span of about one week. Then it stopped and never occurred thereafter. My main question is (a) what’s up with that? (I make the obvious connection of feces with the Earth element, but if there are subtler aspects to this phenomenon, I am oblivious to them); a secondary question is (b) does ‘breaking’ the SOP for a call of nature, or other essential activity, nullify or reduce the efficacy of the SOP? (I did not find it so, but I am not phenomenally sensitive or, for that matter, observant)

2 – Is there a good biography (or two) on Dion Fortune that you could recommend? The more I read her works, the more I am in awe of her. I am especially amazed by her monumental efforts during WWII and consider her to be one of the great unsung ‘war heroes’ (albeit on the inner planes) of that epic conflict.

Many thanks, as always, for generously sharing your encyclopedic knowledge on all things occult!

Ron M

Re: SOP 'bathroom breaks' and Dion Fortune!

[ecosophia]

1) Hmm! Your body may have been cleansing itself of noxious energies -- that's one of the things that defecation does. I've occasionally had to interrupt the SoP for one reason or another, and it weakens things somewhat but not fatally.

2) Janine Chapman's The Quest for Dion Fortune, Charles Fielding's The Story of Dion Fortune, Gareth Knight's Dion Fortune and the Inner Light, and Alan Richardson's Priestess are all worth reading.

Neptune in Pisces vs Aries

[(Anonymous)]

A few months back there were some comments about how some of the recent behavior in the culture wars might be connected the generational effect of Neptune moving through Pisces. That SJW might be particularly sensitive to the planet or something.

If this is the case, how would those people who are sensitive to Neptune's energy react to it's move into Aries?

I'm still rather new to astrology, trying to get a feel for how Neptune would express itself in that sign.

Re: Neptune in Pisces vs Aries

[ecosophia]

Well, Neptune was last in Aries from 1861 to 1875, so some historical reading about what was going on at that time might be a good place to start.

[(Anonymous)]

I would like to know how to do a binding spell – I do the SoP and have some hoodoo experience. Can you help please?

[ecosophia]

Hmm. Since binding spells can be used to harm as well as help, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about handing over details in a public forum like this one.

In-Law Troubles

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG. Do you know of any ways to ameliorate troubles with In-Laws using New Thought techniques -or some other magic? Basically my wife and I are the black sheep of the family -not surprising since we aren't "mainstream" in typical American ways. She was estranged from her father until maybe a year or so before we got married, and even though things have improved over-all for the better with their relationship these past ten years, the relationship between us all has never been easy. There is always an underlying tension.

I seemed to have upset them recently when I didn't include mentioning them in an annual holiday letter I sent out. It was an oversight -or perhaps, a subconscious slight ? (I am willing to admit it may have been). I have sent out holiday cards for Halloween in the past and everyone seemed to like getting them (because I won't send them out for Christmas -hail Krampus). This time I decided to try an old fashioned holiday letter with news about our family. I included news of my parents surgeries and recent retirement -but didn't mention anything about them, and they were greatly offended! --so much to bring it up several times. Rest assured if I do this again, they will be mentioned in next years letter. I really don't mean to sow discord, but I'm having trouble thinking of how to sow accord and make things sweeter for all of us.

I did pray about it this morning, and using bibliomancy with the psalms, prayed with Psalm 25... which seemed to fit. I was curious if you had any other thoughts. I'm sure I'm not the only son-in-law who isn't really liked very much by his wife's father. Around the holiday's it all seems to bubble up (one reason I'm on the side of the Krampus).

Re: In-Law Troubles

[ecosophia]

Okay, to begin with, remember that you use affirmations to change yourself, not to change other people, and that's generally your best bet with magic as well. As you've noted, in-law troubles are eternal -- though problems with the wife's father aren't anything like as legendary as problems with the husband's mother!

If prayer and the psalms are something you're comfortable using, Psalm 133 is traditional for family harmony; burn a blue candle while repeating it, and follow with prayer.

Geomancy and General elections

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,

Two weeks ago I mentioned that general elections were due in my country. I did a house chart reading. There were 3 main parties contending for power.

1st house: Party X which I support. Populus
7th House: Opposing Party Y (in Government before the elections). Rubeus
8th House: Party X. Populus
10th House: (House of Government): Rubeus

I interpreted the above as Party Y returning to power with support from Party X (due to populus in the 8th house)

Actually Party Y won by a comfortable margin and does not need Party X to govern.

Can I say that to some extent my reading was correct and that geomancy offered a valid reading?

Many thanks

Re: Geomancy and General elections

[ecosophia]

I'd have read that as saying that Party Y was going to win (because its significator perfected to the 10th by occupation, the strongest mode of perfection) but that something Party X did helped Party Y win (because its figure went into conjunction with the significator of Party Y). So your reading was correct but your interpretation was a little off. Next time you get a chart like that, you'll have this experience to draw on in interpreting it.