Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just shy of midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Michael Sendivogius -- that's Michał Sędziwój if you happen to be fluent in Polish -- one of the great alchemists of the later European tradition. Born in 1566, he studied with several important alchemists of the period, and finally learned the secret of transmutation from the Scots alchemist Alexander Seton after helping Seton escape from the dungeons of the ruler of Saxony. Like most alchemists of his time, Sendivogius traveled from country to country, seeking patronage from monarchs and aristocrats who were willing to help fund his experiments. He was among other things the first person to sketch out the nitrogen cycle in nature and to recognize the role of oxygen in supporting life. He died in 1636. 

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

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed in the comments thread of the old post detailing the heathen lbrp that you said some revisions were on the way. I've been working on a daily practice using that working for about a month now. Just curious if you and Sven had gotten around to those revisions or not?

As always, thanks for this forum!

HV

[ecosophia]

Sven and I have both been up to our eyeballs in other projects. The basic form seems to work well, though, so by all means keep with it.

Atheist to Christian

[(Anonymous)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xCs2EfiXA

This interview with British historian Tom Holland is a great data point or bellwether for anyone interested in our host's prediction that a portion of the early 21st century's atheist movement will eventually turn to Christianity.(and neopagans - he says at the start that since he was a boy he liked the Greek gods.) It is video but can be listened to as audio, all the important content is spoken.

It is also a great account of an intelligent person explaining a journey on which he changed his mind - during the writing of his new book Dominion. (Subtitled in the US "How the Christian Revolution Remade the World" and in the UK "The Making of the Western Mind".)

He is talking from the UK perspective on Christianity where the liberal Church of England is the main face of public Christianity and atheism is the norm among educated people, so it is quite different from the US.

Re: Atheist to Christian

[ecosophia]

I'd be interested in seeing a transcript if there is one. As you describe it, though, it's exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to see -- what makes the Second Religiosity pick up is an interesting combination of working class believers who've never abandoned their faith and intellectuals who've run into the hard limits of reason.

Air Grand Mutation and collapses?

[(Anonymous)]

From Richard Nolle's 3000-year table of Jupiter Saturn conjunctions, it looks like the Fall of Rome and the Justinian Plague, and the Black Death, both happened during air eras.
JMG, have you written elsewhere already about the astrology of collapses? This could be a fascinating crossover of interests.

Re: Air Grand Mutation and collapses?

[ecosophia]

Intriguing. No, I haven't written on that subject yet, and I'll need to put in a lot of further research before I attempt anything of the kind!

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for fielding so many questions every week, JMG.

A few Magic Mondays ago, you mentioned that consecrating a wand with solar symbolism and attar of roses would help with the R+C ritual if incense was not an option. https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/68693.html?thread=5923413#cmt5923413

I am in a similar situation with the CGD's OIW ritual and was wondering if the wand mentioned above would work for OIW as well given OIW appears to be related to R+C.

[ecosophia]

Solar symbolism yes, attar of roses no -- that's specific to the rose symbolism of the R+C ritual. For the OIW ritual you need either a wand made of oak, or better still three rowan (mountain ash) twigs bound tightly together into a wand. In either case it should have three cords, one white, one blue, and one green, tied around the wand.

So I started rereading a good book-

[(Anonymous)]

- and I read '-Belinda had used spells and potions to waken her breasts to their duty'.

Have you come across any historical spells or potions for that?

Re: So I started rereading a good book-

[ecosophia]

No, that was one of the thinga I invented for the sake of the story. No doubt if the tentacled Great Old Ones existed, those spells and potions would exist too. (Thank you, btw.)

Meditation and Anger

[(Anonymous)]

Hello-
First of all, thank you for your time and advice. I did a hoodoo bath several days ago, and afterwards, I found myself in an elevated mood for the rest of the evening.
I've been doing the Sphere of Protection almost daily since around September, and I've been doing discursive meditation, for, at most, a month. One of the things that's happened is that I've become more aware pf my anger. When I was meditating today, I decided to focus on my anger, in an attempt to figure out what is causing it. I felt it as a black pit of pent up energy, coiled up in the pit of my stomach like a spring. I decided to enter it, and let it wash over me. After I had done this, my anger seemed to have released, and the black coil was gone. What on earth happened?

Re: Meditation and Anger

[ecosophia]

Exactly what it looked and felt like. Emotions are astral phenomena; you had a bunch of pent-up anger in the section of your astral body corresponding to the pit of your stomach, where you'd bottled it up; you unbottled it by allowing it to rise to consciousness, and away it went. That's a perfectly ordinary experience in terms of traditional occultism!

Problems with starting SOP

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
after several months of indecision and half-hearted attempts, I finally began seriously doing the SOP about six or seven weeks ago. Progress was slow (I’m up to the calling of Fire), in part because of a whole series of little negative events in my life: a small but very nasty domestic accident, a filthy, flu-like episode still in progress, the return of chronic insomnia, personal disputes, and the theft of some valuable things while I was in a shop. All of which has drained energy and time that might have been devoted to better things. I don’t feel very protected somehow. So far as I can see I am doing the rituals correctly, and finding them more familiar and pleasing, although I have been too tired recently to devote as much time as they probably need.
So what’s going on? My divinatory tool all my life has been the I Ching, and I asked it what was going on. The first hexagram was 41 (Decrease) with moving lines indicating sacrifice of things and possibly (depending on the translation), too much time and effort devoted to others, and the second hexagram was 40 (Deliverance), which is optimistic on the face of it for the longer term.
Any idea what’s this is all about, and any suggestions on what I should do?
Thanks you.

Re: Problems with starting SOP

[ecosophia]

Okay, what's going on is common enough that I probably need to add something about it to the Magic Monday FAQ. Trad occult literature calls it "karmic culmination." When you begin serious spiritual practice, various bits of unresolved business come to the surface in a hurry, and you end up getting a flurry of bad luck for a while. It's temporary, and once it passes off you'll find that a bunch of old issues have gone away for good, but yes, it can be very annoying while it's happening.

That is to say, the Book of Changes was as usual spot on. You're Decreasing your old karma and will be Delivered from it as you continue to practice.

Geomantic magic and astrological timing?

[(Anonymous)]

Is geomantic magic dependent on astrological timing?

E.g. if I wanted to create a gamahe of Carcer, would I have to wait for Saturn to be well aspected, or can I just plan it by geomantic hours?

I was looking through old Magic Monday posts and I saw you commenting that geomantic magic operates by the planetary influences mediated by the Earth's aura (IIRC, hope I didn't misquote you). I was wondering if that meant that it depended more on the telluric current rather than the solar one.

Re: Geomantic magic and astrological timing?

[ecosophia]

That's correct. When I use geomantic magic, I follow the geomantic hours strictly and don't worry about the planets, because the planet that matters in geomantic magic is the one you're standing on.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I'm up to the point in the DMH where I've started scrying the elements during the grove ceremony. The threefold practice of the SOP, meditation, and Ogham divination has been enormously helpful. I do all three every morning, and they have become an indispensable daily habit. I wish I had started with the DMH earlier in life.

The effects of doing this practice have manifested in my daily life, and perhaps partly as a result, at my job I am being strongly encouraged to be promoted to low-level management, which is forcing me to deal with social anxiety issues, psychological issues, and childhood fears with dealing with other people (facets of which I've asked about on MM before).

I didn't start doing the DMH to get better at my job, I actually wanted to eventually escape the rat race and hoped that magic would help me do that in the medium term. Yet I seem to be pushed further into my job; I have a good reputation at work and I keep being trusted with more complex things. I recently read Dion Fortune's chapter about the Path of the Hearth-Fire, and it may be that rather than focusing my efforts to leave my job, I'm being forced to get my house in order first, both psychologically and literally. (I've tried escaping before, but due to a lack of clarity about my own motivations my attempts have consistently failed).

Yet I can't tell if this is some sort of test, that my job and the benefits that come with it are somehow becoming more seductive, that the unhealthy aspects of our society are resisting as I get further along with magic. Still, my gut feeling tells me that in the absence of a clear opportunity in the medium term to escape the rat race, I should stay put, learn the lessons it has for me and get my house in order as per the Path of the Hearth-Fire. Is this resistance I perceive a normal phenomenon as one starts doing magic? If so, how should one deal with it?

I did some meditation and an Ogham reading on the question of what I need to know if I stay in my job and accept the promotion: Reversed Beith, Reversed Fearn, and Luis, which shows that I although I think my job has been a waste of time, that if I avoid being wilfully blind to the opportunity the job presents and pay attention that I will often be out of my depth, I will learn from it and more choices will be available down the road. They are all Air fews, so the challenges and results will be mainly intellectual.

Thanks very much for any advice!

[ecosophia]

This is a very good sign. I'd read the Ogham reading the way you did, and in your place I'd accept the promotion and deal with the challenges. You are where you are because that's the best place to learn the lessons you need to learn; when you're ready to do something else, the opportunity will appear for you.

Ogham casting

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,
I would like to ask about Ogham casting. I have been practising it for several months now and I have developed some personal understanding of it, but I would like to make sure I am not on the wrong track.

It feels to me like a kind of communication using a common language that exists in the form of Ogham fews but can be developed in a personal way between me and those (whoever they are) that answer. Can it be like between people who have known each other for a long time that certain words have special tinge comprehensible just to the people involved or even that they are used in a different way entirely?

There are two reasons why I am asking about it:
1. I have so far encoutered several sources on the meaning of Ogham fews and they differ in the meanings, they differ in the final aicme and they differ in the trees attributed to the fews in the first aicme. Still, all these systems work for the people who use them. I simply chose one and stick to it, but is this diversity possible because the other side knows which system I am using and what the fews mean to me?

2. I use visualisation of the fews that is presented in Paul Rhys Mountfort’s book. Doing so I add details to the scene that he does not describe. Yet during one of the previous castings I asked a question and the first few laid down and the image I had in my head so precisly corresponded to the question asked that I was stunned.

Am I imagining things too much and inventing something that is not happening or could it possibly work the way I described?

Thank you,

Hana

Re: Ogham casting

[ecosophia]

That's exactly how it works. The other side of the divinatory process works with what's in your head, not with what's in any given book -- that's why people who have completely different interpretations of the symbols of an oracle can both get accurate divinations with it. When you add details to a scene in your imagination, you're enriching the language of imagery in ways that give the intelligences of the Ogham more to work with, so it's no wonder you're getting good results.

[(Anonymous)]

I was talking with someone about occultism recently and she asked something I'd not thought of before. Is occult philosophy compatible with the theory of alternate realities where all possible outcomes happen?

[ecosophia]

Sure. From that perspective, occultism can be seen as a way of deciding which of the many realities you want to inhabit -- you use meditation and divination to find the choice points, and ritual magic to make the transition from one reality track to another.

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

My wife's mother is flying from Seattle into Atlanta, then 1.5 HR drive north, for an extended Thanksgiving stay starting tomorrow. I cast a house chart to see if she would arrive safely and looked through the specific indicators you talk about in APoG. The first time I toured the houses as if the querent were in the normal 1st house and found Rubeus in 12 and Puella in 6.

Then I reread it based on 3rd party shifting -to the 7th for wife, then the 10th from there for mother, used that (the 4th) as the 1st house of the querent, then got Rubeus in the 12th and Cauda in the 6th.

Both Puella and Cauda are one line off of Puer, which would indicate disaster. And I have a couple of questions:

1) Was it correct to shift the houses to the 3rd party for this?

2) Does a reading that close to being disastrous mean anything? Like they may have a close call or something? Or is it simply an "all is well" shaking up a novice geomancer?

Thank you so much!

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, turning it to the third party is correct.

2) No, Puer doesn't necessarily mean disaster! It could mean sitting next to a loud and obnoxious young man on the flight. One of the most common mistakes in any divinatory method is reading things in their worst possible light.

Silk sleep masks

[(Anonymous)]

I use a black silk sleep mask after getting very good sleep in my brother's house from the one he lent me. It covers both eyes and forehead, hence the 3rd eye chakra. From first principles, this should keep out any external magical influences, good or bad, during sleep. But would it reflect back anything my own mind was putting out, or just be self-blinding? And would it have any influence on dreams?

Re: Silk sleep masks

[ecosophia]

It'll keep your third eye center from perceiving things when you sleep, but you'd have to sleep between silk sheets and wear a silk hat in bed to be screened more generally. As for whether it has an effect on dreams, you'd want to experiment and see what happens; my guess is it won't. (And silk doesn't reflect, it just insulates.)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG!

1) I noticed that in your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic you describe the phlegmatic and the melancholic personality type in a way that is "switched" from most of the other descriptions I've seen. While it makes much more sense to me that a melancholic as you describe them would be associated with earth (and the same with the phlegmatic temperament and water), the characteristics seem to be the other way around according to most authors, with dreamy, artistic people being seen as melancholic and practical, orderly people as phlegmatic. Do they get it wrong?

2) I recently did the Heathen R+C for the first time. When I compare the ritual to that of the traditional R+C, I notice that in the latter version you return to the center of the space when you put the incense aside, but in the Heathen version you seem to remain in the Southeastern corner of the room, facing the corner. Is that intentional?

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

1) Interesting. I used the descriptions exactly as given in medieval and Renaissance literature, so I'm not sure where the other authors got their version.

2) It was an oversight. You should return to the center.

Training

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, Dear Host, and thank you once again for MM! Monthly tip for your jar on its way.

So I'm easing up on 6 months of daily practice this week. Started with the CC, then added the LBRP a week later, then the MPE 5 weeks after that, went daily with my journaling about the same time I picked up the MPE, daily card divination by then as well, daily affirmations since your article on the subject, studying and practicing geomancy like crazy (75-ish charts cast in the last 6 weeks), 8 weeks into the Fool's Journey, now doing Do-In when I feel like I need it, and a whole lot of subject reading. 1-2 hours a day total at this point, all told. Plus I've just started going barefoot on the earth whenever I have the chance.

And it has been soooo good....

But the Watcher is all over me right now, trying to convince me that I've been wasting my time, that it's all BS, or worse, that magical practice is turning me into an insensitive a-hole, that the rest of my life (family, friends, internet correspondents) is suffering for my commitment, that sort of stuff.

I assume this is normal, and that passing the 6 month mark is probably an important early milestone, and that the Watcher is doing his best to derail me before I hit that mark?

Would maybe learning a new ritual to replace or enhance one of the current ones, or perhaps a new weekly ritual to add on, help reenergize me? Got one to recommend? I'm loving geomancy; maybe something along those lines?

Again, many thanks!

Re: Training

[ecosophia]

That's absolutely normal, and the thing to do is stick with your practices exactly as you're doing them now. Don't add practices when the Watcher is acting up, add them when you're feeling comfortable and confident with what's going on in your life and you're ready for the next step.

Geomancy Supreme Court

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I want to know how the Supreme Court would rule on a certain case.
Question is: Will the Supreme Court dismiss the case against Mr. Smith?
This is the House Chart:

1st – Laetitia
2nd – Amissio
3rd – Conjunctio
4th – Populus

5th – Fortuna Minor
6th – Albus
7th – Conjunctio
8th – Populus

9th – Albus
10th – Conjunctio
11th – Cauda Draconis
12th – Conjunctio

My doubts:
1 – Is the Supreme Court the 7th (lawsuits), the 10th (judge, authority)?
2 - Which house stands for Mr. Smith since me and him are not related in anyway?
3 – If I were to look at it as a Shield Chart, would it be fair to say that the figures below show things getting heated up in the Court, many secrets revealed and a bittersweet victory for Mr. Smith?

Right Witness: Rubeus
Left Witness: Laetitia
Judge: Fortuna Minor
Way of the Points: 1st Daughter – Fortuna Minor

Thank you.

Re: Geomancy Supreme Court

[ecosophia]

The Supreme Court is the 10th house from the house of the querent. If, for example, Mr. Smith is a politician, his significator will be Conjunctio in the 10th, and the significator of the Supreme Court will be the 10th from that, or Conjunctio in the 7th. The answer to your question in that case is yes -- or, rather, YES!!! -- because the two significators perfect both by occupation and by translation (Albus in the 6th and 9th). If that's the reading I'd expect to see the case dismissed with prejudice.

...and I don't recommend trying to read the same reading as a shield chart and a house chart at the same time.

Cosmic Tides / Invisible Helpers

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG. As I re-read “The Magical Battle of Britain”, I have been struck by several references by Dion Fortune to “Cosmic tides” which she does not explain, likely because all her students are already familiar with the term. I, however, am not familiar with it and cannot tell from the timing of the references as to whether they are particular combinations of solar and lunar phenomena (e.g., waxing Moon during the “brightening half” of the year) or something more subtle. Can you shed any light on it?

A second question. During the bombing of London (September 1940), Fortune wrote, “… the stress of an air raid heightens psychic perception, and many a person will witness the parting of the Veil and see into the Unseen who, under normal conditions, might have to work long before they achieved such an experience”. This almost sounds like a psychological matter, where the additional stress causes a piercing of the veil… When I read this, I reflected on the Hindu concept of the yugas, wherein our present age (Kali) has the “curse” of life being more brutal and short, but the “blessing” that any spiritual effort made during this age has many times the efficacy of spiritual efforts made in the more “spiritual” ages. So, in this way, being in the midst of a bomb raid is kind-of like “Kali yuga on steroids”! But there is more to it than sheer intensity of experience, since a couple of paragraphs later, Fortune states, “[i]f the turmoil can be stilled even for a few seconds, it will be possible to pick up the inner contacts with every probability of vision opening and enabling us to see the work going on the Inner Planes, for the Invisible Helpers come very close to earth at these times” (p.58). So, it would appear that it is not entirely psychological. Perhaps these “Invisible Helpers” are more accessible during times when so many souls are passing through the Veil (i.e., people dying en masse). Or perhaps there is another reason for their close proximity to earth during such times. Any further information on this matter would be most appreciated!

Ron M

Re: Cosmic Tides / Invisible Helpers

[ecosophia]

1) The Cosmic Tides are indeed solar and lunar. The Sun governs the astral tides, the Moon the etheric tides. In both cases, the brightening half is divided into two parts, a tide of cleansing in the first half and a tide of sowing in the second; the darkening half is likewise divided into a tide of reaping in the first half and a tide of storing, planning, and preparation in the second.

2) It's pretty much all of the above. The threat of sudden death makes it hard to stay comfortably settled in one's habitual mental ruts -- and when many people are dying, yes, there are helping spirits who come close to the world of manifestation to help them through.

Knife Gift

[(Anonymous)]

Good day, JMG!

I was considering giving my 11 year old kid a pocket knife for Christmas as she has been asking for one, but I remembered something you wrote about knives as gifts. If I remember correctly, it is a bad idea to give a knife as a gift to someone you actually want to keep in contact with.

So, do you have any ideas about giving my daughter a knife that gets around this? If I give her money with a note that says she could buy a knife with it if she wants does that break out of the box?

Many thanks as always.

Re: Knife Gift

[(Anonymous)]

If I may: The traditional solution for this is to put a penny in the box and let her give it back to you, this way she "buys" it and you'll be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

I've now heard from two people that they've started down the process of studying and adapting the Star Trek Vulcan's philosophy for the real world. My family is very into Star Trek, and so I know a fair bit about it, and out of curiosity looked into it. If it was one I'd assume it was just an odd person, but with two I'm now wondering if there's something more to it.

Both people are upper class intellectuals, but as far as I know they have no contact with each other. If this becomes a big thing among a certain class of intellectuals, I fear it'll become a world class mess: the Vulcan philosophy is unhealthy (suppressing an emotion ends badly, while suppressing all emotions would end up even worse); and the practices are poorly defined but at the very least include a nightly meditation, which depending on what they do with it could be very dangerous.

1) Have you heard of anything like this?

2) What do you make of it? I hope it's just my family is way too deep into Star Trek and hang out with weirdos, but we'll have to see.

3) If this becomes a big thing, what would you expect to happen?

[(Anonymous)]

(Not JMG)

Which version of Star Trek are they using? And why’d they pick the Vulcans? Why not the Romulans or Cardassians or some other group?

Morning "General" Affirmations

[tunesmyth]

I have a question about the "general" affirmations you suggested for morning times in the original affirmations post. I've been doing one for some time now, but I'm experimenting recently with a new morning schedule where I'm up well before dawn-- which means that the instruction about going to the preferably open window happens in pitch dark.

Is it better to do the general affirmation as soon as possible after I wake, so as to access my subconscious more easily or the like? Or is it better to wait until dawn, so as to breathe in the morning energies, so to speak, as I say the affirmations?

Re: Morning "General" Affirmations

[ecosophia]

Do the affirmations as soon as you get up, whatever the hour. I tend to get up around noon -- yeah, I know, writer's hours -- and the lack of morning energies doesn't seem to make it any less effective for me.

[(Anonymous)]

The last few weeks I've seen the discussion of Mercury retrograde being a good time to rewrite, but not write something new. I've got a couple of bits of fiction I've been meaning to write, when would be a good time to start?

[ecosophia]

Right now. Mercury's turned direct and is picking up speed.

[(Anonymous)]

The idea of initiation is all about passing something on, whether from a more experienced person, to yourself in your next life, or a civilisation preserving its innovations for a later one to work with. Can we set it up so after this universe ends it passes something positve to the next? It'd be nice to leave them something other than demons. :)

[ecosophia]

I figure that's something you can worry about countless ages from now, when you're an enlightened being and doing something about the fate of the universe is something within your pay grade... ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

1) My family got a "smart" home assistant two years ago, and I've noticed they descended into madness fairly quickly since. Do you know if there's something more than the stress from the fact that they spend a lot of time fighting with it?

2) More generally, aside from the mundane reasons not to want these things, are there any occult reasons? These rely on the internet, and if I remember correctly, you said that the internet is demon infested. Could demons use these sorts of devices as a way to access people?

3) I find it eerie watching them spend more time and effort trying to get the thing to turn on a light than it would to get up and flick a switch. Is this another example of glamour, or is there something else going on?

4) I'm living at home due to finances, and I'm getting worried about these sorts of things affecting me. I used to use the device for music, but I've decided that's not worth it anymore, and so I do not use the devices at all. I've taken up a banishing ritual, but are there other steps I can use to protect myself while living at home?

[(Anonymous)]

(Not JMG)

What are those “smart” things like? You mentioned it’s harder to get one to turn on a light than to flip the switch yourself; is that the case across the board, or are there some things it actually can do?

[(Anonymous)]

1) Is it ok to do the Rite of the Rays on its own sometimes? I'm doing the LBRP/Central Ray in the evening most of the time, but it works better for me to meditate in the morning. I like the energy and simplicity of the Rite of the Rays, and wonder about using it right before my meditation, as doing something active like that helps me get into the right mind state. I know you said it's usually used to frame other rituals, but I'm wondering if there are any safety issues or risks of imbalances.

2) Thank you for your guidance about spagyrics and fungi a couple weeks back! I'm glad I checked with you. How about doing spagyrics with roots? Is it the same procedure as with above-ground leaves and flowers? I'm wondering about elecampane and echinacea specifically.

[ecosophia]

1) Sure, you can do it as a separate ritual. Try doing it before and after each meditation session.

2) Roots are fine -- they tend to concentrate telluric rather than solar energies, but that's not problematic, as we need both of them. The procedure is pretty much the same, except you won't be able to powder most roots in a mortar and pestle. Grind them up first and you should have good results.

[(Anonymous)]

There's an alternative funeral practice that uses mushrooms to speed up decomposition and neutralise any toxins in the body. If mushrooms concentrate death energy, is this a good idea?

[ecosophia]

It's a very good idea. A dead body has plenty of death energy in it, for obvious reasons, and the fungi absorb that and cycle it back into the energy cycles of the cosmos in a healthy way -- that's their job.