Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's just shy of midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. The picture is of Elias Ashmole, one of the great figures in the British tradition of alchemy. An extraordinary scholar interested in just about everything, he was among other things fascinated by alchemy, and put together and edited several important collections of English alchemical documents from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. A capable astrologer, he was also one of the first people known to history who joined a lodge of stonemasons without being in the building trades, and his initiation is thus one of the early mileposts in the emergence of Freemasonry. 

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

A vision

[(Anonymous)]

Archdruid, is there any chance of you doing a book club series on the book A Vision by Yeats? I've found the book fascinating but have had a hard time fully understanding it and would greatly value your input!

Re: A vision

[ecosophia]

That's one of the possibilities I've been considering, because it's a neglected classic of occult philosophy, and it's also influenced me a great deal. Right now I'm trying to decide whether that or Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah would be the best option for the next book club; whichever one doesn't come next will probably be right after that.

[(Anonymous)]

Last week, I posted about a porn and demon issue. I've taken up the first step, a banishing ritual, and have temporarily shelved the journaling which led me to figure this out in the first place, as I figure that first, I need to prioritize, and the willpower I could use establishing that habit is better spent elsewhere; and second, journaling may not be the most productive habit until I get this demon out of my head.

My first priority right now is establishing a habit of banishing daily. So far, I've done it, using the opening and closing of the SoP daily since Tuesday, although it's proven rather hard to actually do it each day. I've run into some internal resistance, and I'm far from sure it's all my own mind and not this thing.

Now that I know to look for it, whenever I pay close enough attention to my thoughts I can tell it's there. I assume if it's there when I pay close attention to my mind, it's probably there all the time.

It seems to be hammering home on a few points, all of which seem intended to do one of a few things: break me down so I can't resist it; keep me sexually aroused so I feel the need for porn; make the rest of my life horrible so I have no real reason to fight it; or keep me from making it harder for myself to access porn.

1) My life is currently a mess. You mentioned last week something about demonic obsession, and how victims aren't entirely sane. I've been questioning my sanity for a while now (this is part of why I picked up journaling), so it may fit me. Does this sound like the case for me?

2) I think my main priority for now is to get rid of this thing. One of the only ways I know of is to practice a daily banishing ritual and get good at it. Are there other steps I can take to get rid of it? I assume using porn less will weaken the link, but am I correct, and are there other ways to rid myself of it?

3) If this sort of spirit is common, might it explain the existence of a traditional prohibition on pornography in several spiritual traditions?

4) You mentioned last week it likely feeds on me during orgasm. Would you mind elaborating what you meant by that?

5) I've been looking at the no-fap/pron-free communities online and find that a lot of people describe porn as a demonic force which takes over their lives. Nearly everyone clarifies it's a metaphor, and one of the things which this spirit is trying to do is question my sanity whenever I pay close enough attention to notice it. Thus, do you think part of the reason materialism is so popular among so many dysfunctional people might be malevolent spirits pushing it, to keep them from thinking that a malevolent spirit even exists, let alone might be affecting them?

I'm particularly wondering if this might help explain the odd habit of atheistic demonolatry....

[ecosophia]

1) That's hard to say. Our society right now is clinically insane -- I mean that in the most literal sense -- and so it's very difficult to tell what counts as the kind of personal craziness that might be the product of obsession, and what is the collective craziness that pervades our culture.

2) Yes, using less porn will starve it, but of course it'll double down at first, trying to get fed. If you go to the Magic Monday FAQ cited in the post, you'll find instructions for a hoodoo protective bath, and for an amulet using salt and a bent nail. Both of those would be useful in your situation.

3) Yes, indeed it would.

4) Orgasm takes place on the etheric as well as the material plane, and just as you ejaculate on the physical plane, you extrude a certain amount of etheric substance -- the substance of the life force -- on the etheric plane. If you're having sex with another person, that's not a problem, because the other person's body absorbs your etheric substance, just as you absorb the substance the other person extrudes; one of the reasons lovers so often feel nourished and healed by lovemaking is that each of them has taken in some of the other's life force, which can then flow through the subtle body and fill in where there's a shortage. In masturbation, there isn't anyone else to absorb the etheric substance, and so a noxious spirit can dine on it -- thus the feeling of weakness and depression so many people experience after masturbation.

5) Ding! Yes, exactly. Do you read science fiction and/or fantasy? If so, have you ever read C.S. Lewis' space trilogy? He makes the point there that it's a central strategy of malevolent spirits to keep people from believing in their existence.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there anything in occult literature that might shed light on why I find I can listen to and enjoy most contemporary music, aside from current Christmas music? I find the older stuff enjoyable, in both cases, but it's only Christmas music that makes me feel literally sick....

[ecosophia]

I don't know of anything in occult literature, but if you mean the nonreligious stuff that fills supermarkets and shopping malls at this season, there are perfectly good reasons for that. Most of it is really dreadful music. Good music has richness and variation in the melody line and harmony; it evokes a variety of emotional responses, sometimes a very great variety. By contrast, holiday schmaltz has a dead uniform emotional tone, a vapid plastic cheerfulness meant to get you into a good mood so you'll buy stuff you don't need. And the performers -- dear gods, the sheer oozing fakeness of their voices! The fact that they make you sick shows that you have decent musical taste.

[(Anonymous)]

While scribbling on a piece of paper during some waiting time at my working place (at school, I'm a teacher), the thought occurred to me whether it would be possible to make additional use of the process of drawing a house chart (the lines separating the houses - not the content) in form of a small ritual. I am aware that you have devoted a section of your book on the theurgic method (which I have not tried so far) and that my approach may be rather childish and unwise. Additionally I'd be rather surprised if I were the first to do this. However, since I don't believe I have heard about it before and I realized the idea seems to have developed for some time in my mind and took shape rather spontaneously, I didn't want to dismiss it right out of hand. Here it is:

Draw the three squares of the house chart clockwise from outside to inside, then draw the four lines separating the edges clockwise and from outside to inside. During the process say a brief prayer asking for guidance / clarity / insight / protection or something along these lines. Then cast the chart and interpret it. At the end of the process, retrace the lines in the opposite order from the beginning, counterclockwise and from inside to outside. During the process thank and release the powers you have invoked.

I cast a house chart asking "Would it beneficial to add this practice to my regular divination?" Here's the result:

1-conjuncio 2-puella 3-acquisitio 4-albus 5-rubeus 6-amissio 7-puer 8-conjunctio 9-puer 10-caput draconis 11-cauda draconis 12-puella RW-amissio LW-acquisitio J-via

Taking this as a 9th house question, the chart perfects by conjunction (1->8) and mutation (7->9), which however means opposition to the first house. I read this as a "yes, you can do that!" Puer in the 9th house and passing into opposition to the 1st might suggest, however, that this approach is rather coarse and could bear some difficulties. That message seems to be enforced by the cardines (conjunctio - caput draconis - puer - albus) which also suggest deepened insights after those difficulties are overcome.

What are your thoughts about this? Thank you in advance!
Nachtgurke

PS: One additional question, if I may: In the background of the cover of The Art and Practice of Geomancy one can see equations that look like being scribbled on a whiteboard in a physicists office... Particle physics maybe, and charged particles moving through electromagnetic fields as far as I can tell. Am I right to assume that there is no real connection to your book and those equations were put there just for design purposes? Or is there some story behind it?

[ecosophia]

A reading that has two modes of perfection is a "YES!!!" The movement into opposition and the cardines modify that without changing its basic message; I suspect that what this means is that you'll go through a process of adjustment as you modify the ritual, and after that's completed you'll find that it's very effective indeed. Aside from what the reading says, my take is that it's a good idea and worth trying. As for the cover art, I have no idea why the artist put the equations there -- authors have very little influence over the covers on their books, and I was simply happy to get something that was more or less appropriate and not insanely ugly!

[(Anonymous)]

What books would recommend on Hoodoo?

[ecosophia]

I studied hoodoo with Cat Yronwode, and her books and pamphlets on the subject are central to my practice -- her Black Folder is especially worth having. I also recommend Orion Foxwood's The Candle and the Crossroads, and any good guide (there are many) to the use of the Psalms in magic -- there isn't much you can't accomplish with a suitable Psalm, a set of colored candles, and some suitable oils you've blended up.

water, affirmations, "in the beginning," and time

[temporaryreality]

Dear Archdruid,

I have a few questions this week, if that's ok.

1) on a prior MM I asked about whether there were pitfalls to meditating my way through the elemental correspondences of the Ogham fews and coming up with my own interpretations (Answer: no, but crosscheck results with reality). This week I'm contemplating water. In the DMH you mention that Druidry has its own interpretation of water's meanings compared to other systems, so I wonder if it's problematic if my meditations lead me toward the more common ways water is understood (if it turns out that most of what I've subconsciously picked up about water comes from those other traditions) or if, in the context of Ogham, I need to more closely adhere to "druidly" understandings.

2) as I was honing my affirmation sentence, it occurred to me that a useful step (maybe?) is the "packing" of the terms I'm using, by which I mean that I carefully explored and explicated what I meant by every word in the affirmation. This allowed me to keep a pithier sentence than would've otherwise been possible had I tried to verbalize the more extensive meaning of what I'm trying to affirm. Is this an accurate take on it? So long as I KNOW what the words mean, is that what's important?

It also made me think of the mantrayana practice of using "seed syllables" that appear nonsensical but that are imbued with layers of deep meaning that practitioners "unpack" as they work with them. Someone at some point had to pack them up though, and while English is nowhere near as elegant as Sanskrit and Tibetan (it certainly doesn't lend itself to sonorous chanting in the same way), maybe we'll get there someday! Maybe that's what my prayer beads are hoping for anyway (since I'm using them for my affirmation rather than for Om mani pedme hung).

3) Can you (and other readers) point me in a direction for how to go about searching for origin and creation stories and theories that do NOT rely on the universe being created from nothing. You'd conversed with Lady Cutekitten about the Judeo-Christian belief that God created all from nothing and said not every tradition supposes the same thing - is there a term I can use to do some googling? Is this a discipline of study? I'm curious to know what's at the beginning of other traditions' beginnings.

and 4) for more research-direction assistance. Is there a Western occult tradition that works with (or considers, or philosophizes about) time? I've got a story with a main character who needs to learn the mystic or occult ways of working with time and if I don't have to invent all of such traditions out of my little newbie brain, I'd be more likely to get the story a little closer to being finished. I'm good at springboarding off of details, so if there's even just the merest hint of concepts of time in a tradition somewhere, that'd be helpful.

Likewise, is there a Western analog for Feng Shui or place/placement 'divination'? Obviously geomancy isn't the term (though some use it), but I don't know if we have such a term or practice. Do we?

Many thanks, as always.

Re: water, affirmations, "in the beginning," and time

[ecosophia]

1) No, not at all. The point of meditating on these things isn't to hew to some specific set of meanings, it's to figure out what they mean to you, and to give those meanings the time and attention to ripen and develop. Let them lead you where they want to lead you.

2) Yes, very much so. When you've taken the time to contemplate what a word means and how it links to what you're trying to achieve, your subconscious has no trouble responding accordingly.

3) Well, how about Hesiod's Theogony, the Kojiki, and any suitable account of the Norse origin myth? More generally, what I'd recommend here is that you go pick up some volumes of mythology from your public library, choosing myths from as many different parts of the world as you can, and see what they have to say.

4) In the West, astrology serves as the esoteric science of time. The Chinese are a little more explicit about it, the I Ching being their main textbook. You might consider reading Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend for a glimpse at the older, deeper dimension of this. As for a Western equivalent of feng-shui, we used to have one, but it's one of the things that had to be let go of when the Western occult traditions had to go into survival mode for all those years, and only a handful of scraps survive; you'll find some of them in old Greek medical writings and in Vitruvius' book on architecture.

Meaning and matter

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,

I’m making my way through the CGD and would like your input on something. I have been meditating on the definition of alchemy and the different roles the three circles of the ToL play. My thoughts have been centered around the idea of spiritual forces and meaning influencing the structure of the material world. The doctrine of signatures seems to make the case that the virtue of a substance is apparent in its form. Is this also why phrenology was popular in the Victorian era? To what extent is it useful to consider form an indication of its more subtle influences? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Re: Meaning and matter

[ecosophia]

Excellent! The doctrine of signatures is entirely valid, but it can't be used in an mechanical way. As Jakob Boehme points out in one of his books, the ability to perceive the true signatures of spirit in matter is something that arrives with a certain level of spiritual awakening. From my perspective, it's like learning to read a language -- there are the physical signatures, which are the letters, and then there's the grammar and syntax of the language, which is the spiritual meaning; you have to be able to perceive both to make sense of the language.

Phrenology is much the same. Pursue it in a rigid, materialist fashion and it's nonsense, but a competent phrenologist back in the day could read an enormous amount about the character and mentality of a person, by perceiving the shape of the skull as an expression of spiritual patterns.

Smoking habit

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I consume around 1 package of cigarettes per day. Does this habit/addiction have any possible negative side effects on practicing occultism?

Re: Smoking habit

[ecosophia]

Not really. It's not a good habit but its negative effects are on health, not on spirituality.

[(Anonymous)]

I realized a little over a week ago, during a different ritual, that I'd been doing the SoP in the wrong directions for months. But it had worked really well for me. I became confused, couldn't decide what to do, and ended up not doing the SoP for a few days, by far the longest break I'd had since finding it on your blog here. Then I felt I got a sign from Hestia that I'd better get back to doing the ritual and offerings - the worst spillage on carpet I've had to deal with for years, totally avoidable, and all down to me. I was still unsure whether I should correct all the directions or not and I felt apprehensive about changing them because it seemed to have worked so well as it was. So I started doing it again with the wrong directions as I had before.

I am wondering about maybe keeping on with the way I had already done it, and only experimenting with changing or correcting once or if certain difficult situations seem resolved.

Do you have any advice?

[ecosophia]

There's an old story about an enthusiastic young monk from Tibet in the early days of Buddhism in that land who made the journey down to India, because he wanted to receive a proper mantra and mudra (sacred gesture) from one of the great teachers there. He didn't know a word of the local language, so when he got to a big Buddhist monastery in India late one evening he simply made his way to the place where the abbot was sitting, prostrated himself repeatedly, and hoped that the abbot would have the spiritual insight to know what he needed. Sure enough, the abbot regarded him for a moment, then said a couple of words and made a gesture. Delighted, the young monk prostrated himself again and then walked all the way back to Tibet.

There he found a cave in the mountains and began to practice, reciting the mantra and making the mudra thousands of times a day, practicing austerities and throwing all his effort into the quest for enlightenment. The local herdsmen, recognizing him as a holy man, kept him supplied with barley and yak milk. Years passed, and the young monk became enlightened; his prayers sent demons fleeing; his touch cured illnesses; he attracted students who became enlightened in turn.

Finally, having reached middle age, it occurred to him that he should go back to India and offer his heartfelt thanks to the guru who had given him such valuable instructions. He made his way back down to India; of course by this time, since he was a famous holy man, he had a bunch of students with him and the people he'd helped donated the money to hire him an interpreter. So he got to the monastery, and reverently asked for an audience with the abbot, who was by this time a very old man.

Upon hearing the story, the abbot was astonished. "My son," he said, "when you came here all those years ago, I had just become the abbot here, and I had not yet mastered the vices of impatience and irritation. That evening I had just finished dealing with dozens of people, all of whom wanted something from me; I was irritated and tired, and when you showed up all I wanted was a little peace and quiet. So what I said to you was, "Oh, go away," and the gesture I made was meant to communicate the same thing!"

That is to say, keep practicing the ritual as you originally learned it, and make changes in it only when you feel ready to do so.

Affirmations

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I have some Affirmations questions please.

1. How many is too many? Do they spread my focus and attention too thin to have more than one or two?

I’d like to have about 5 ideally (each related to family, career, fitness/martial arts, making new friends etc). Is that too much? Should I just pick a couple of the highest priorities for focus, and switch them around after a year or after I’ve made progress on the first couple?

2. I assume the future tense is wrong - so I would NOT use “I, [NAME], *will* achieve [goal] or *will* become [goal]”? Just stick to present tense "I am", OR "I am becoming" for ongoing improvement?

3. In terms of the format, I am assuming something like “I, [NAME], am a great husband and father” OR “I, [NAME], am becoming a better husband and father every day” would both be fine? Is one of those better?

For other stuff, is it okay to focus on my end goal in the format “I, [NAME], am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu” (even though I’m not)? Or is it better to do “I, [NAME], am getting better at BJJ every day”?

Ditto for career stuff - should I do “I, [NAME] am an Executive Vice-President at BigCorp (or whatever position is my goal)”? Or more general “I, [NAME] am progressing and getting better in my [career/field] every day, leading to financial security for myself and my family”? Or even "I, NAME, am successful in my career and financially secure"? Or better to be more specific about what I mean by career success?

Re: Affirmations

[ecosophia]

1) More than two will spread your focus too thin.

2) Yes, because if you use the future tense your goal will always remain in the future.

3) Depends on what you want to achieve. Too much focus on the markers of success -- a black belt or a specific corporate job -- can be a mistake, because you can be promoted above your level of competence! Something like your last example is more useful. On the other hand, "Every day I am getting better at..." is a classic approach that has good results.

[logicalmagic83]

Mr. Greer,

Good Monday to you! First, I wanted to pass along that I began the Life Sciences course through the Order of Essenes last week. After reading the intro, I reread your essay A Few Notes of American Magic and took into consideration your cautions regarding taking on these practices. I am generally a well balanced person and avoid emotional extremes. I have a strong sense of personal responsibility and therefore it seems these sort of practices would be suited to me. I look forward to working through them and reporting my progress. 

My question, however, is unrelated to the above. My mom has always been fairly intuitive and is exceedingly compassionate/empathic. Recently in our community an elderly man with dementia went missing and after a couple of days mom got a strong sense that he was near a specific creek although she could not say for sure which exact area. (Around 40 miles of creek wind through the community.) He went missing on 11/17 and his remains were found by volunteer searchers in the creek today, the same creek mom had intuited. When I was talking to her about it today, she was experiencing some guilt that she was not able to determine specifics in order to help him be found sooner. She also said she’s been having more of these intuitive moments as she’s gotten older. (She’s 64) She wants help honing this ability and managing the resulting emotions so I’m open to any suggestions you may have. She does use prayer and is a pretty grounded person. We also do tarot together and she is a frequent reader.

Oh and before I forget, I did an ebay search for magic/occult correspondence courses and came across one titled Complete Collection of Ophiel’s Correspondence Courses (Edward C. Peach.) It’s listed for $150 and it appears they have sold multiple copies. I don’t know much about the author, but for those interested, they may want to look into it.  

Thank you!

Kerry

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it!

For your mother, I'd recommend W.E. Butler's useful book How To Read the Aura and Practice Psychometry, Telepathy, and Clairvoyance. Butler was one of Dion Fortune's students and a first-rate Christian occultist in his own right, and he gives a great deal of useful advice.

As for the correspondence courses, I'm delighted to hear that somebody's got the Ophiel courses back in circulation! Those were very popular back in the day.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

There is a mysterious figure called Dhul-Qarnayn, mentioned in Quran. Literal meaning of this name is "he of two horns", but no one knows who/what he really is. There is a debate over whether he is Alexander the Great or Persian king Darius, but due to lack of clear description, it is still disputed. Given the habit of Abrahamic religions to turn Pagan deities into saints, angels, demons and heros; could Dhul-Qarnayn be originated from a Horned God figure (similar to Cernunnos)?

[ecosophia]

I'd always heard that he was Alexander, who was equated with the horned god Zeus-Ammon aka Amun the Egyptian creator god from Thebes. Here's Alexander with horns, from a coin:


The thing to keep in mind is that a great many deities from the eastern Mediterranean had horns. For example, all Greek river gods were horned. Here's the river god Achelous, for instance:


So yes, in a sense, but not if you want to take it in a Wiccan direction... ;-)

Divination/Meditation

[(Anonymous)]

Last Tuesday morning I was rewarded with a wonderful lucid vision while settling into the spiritus mundi on the way into meditation. I was wrapping up an intense week of detailed examination, attempting to synthesize what I’d learned from the Strength trump, in my bedroom, displaced from my normal practice space by my visiting in-laws. All week.

This card represents my own sun sign, Leo, of course, and I had just “verbally” committed to deepening my geomantic practice here the day before, and then worked through a thoroughly shocking divination sequence following that. As I started my breath cycling a landscape suddenly coalesced out of the mist – a sweeping forested mountain valley, peaks rising on both sides, and a cold, clear rocky river rushing out of it right at me, sharp as a photograph.

Clearly an image of Fortuna Major! What a sight!

I spent the rest of the day in reverie and awe at what I’d seen. Which was timely, considering I spent 6 hours that afternoon picking my way through nightmare traffic in Atlanta and its northern suburbs, getting my wife’s parents to the airport and then meeting a guy to purchase a Craigslist item well east of home. It was a Winter Solstice gift for my son, and by the time I picked my wife up from the library, an hour and a half late, I was mumbling “I love my son. I love my son. I love my son.”

But how blessed I felt, despite the insanity of the rest of the day. And since then that image has become a sort of anchor for drawing my focus down into the corpus and spiritus mundi as I prepare to cast geomantic charts. It feels like a gift.

Pretty cool experience...
Tripp

Re: Divination/Meditation

[ecosophia]

TSW!

Astrology

[(Anonymous)]

Hello Mr. Greer,

1) Just to clarify the process of doing planetary charity by means of the planetary Archangels:

Say I want to propitiate Saturn:
Step 1: I pray to God, Saturday morning at sunrise, and ask him to bless me by means of Sachiel.
Step 2: I'll give a donation of $27 (3x9) to a homeless shelter (during the same planetary hour).
Step 3: I do it again the following two Saturdays, giving a total of three donations to the shelter.

Is this about correct?

2) What would be a good course of study to get to your skill level concerning Political Astronomy?

3) Can I just pick up your translation of the Picatrix and start making talismans or is there some good literature at the beginner's level to work through first?

3) In your book on Geomancy in chapter 7 you give ways to identify unknown persons.
I tried to get a hint (first, middle, last letter) on the names of the next US president, UK prime minister and German chancellor, but received only gibberish results. Are there ways to improve my readings? Maybe someone in the commentariat tried something similar and got interesting results?

Thank you a lot!

Re: Astrology

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, that's the process. I was reminded by another commenter, though, that I had a brain fart while listing the last two planetary archangels. Sachiel is the archangel of Jupiter, of course, and Cassiel is the archangel of Saturn.

2) Get a couple of good books on mundane astrology -- I recommend Raphael's and H.S. Green's, both of which are titled Mundane Astrology -- and start casting and delineating mundane charts, then check your work against what happens. I don't know of a better way.

3) I recommend Chris Warnock's Secrets of Planetary Magic as a good introduction, and you might consider taking his correspondence course in planetary magic as well. The Picatrix is a very challenging text to work with if you don't have a solid background in traditional astrology.

4) Good question. I included that technique because it was in the sources, but I never had much luck with it myself.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

I noticed that the number of Welsh deities described in the back of the DMH correspond to the number of spheres on the Tree of Life. I’m aware of the assigments of the CGD deities, but these aren’t identical to the DMH ones.

Have you ever mapped the DMH Welsh gods to the Tree? If so, how would you assign them? Some seem obvious, such as Ana and Celi and Coel and Hu, but I’m unsure of many others.

Yours in Druidry,
Brigyn

[ecosophia]

What an excellent theme for your next month or so of meditations!

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

Good Day JMG,

A couple of months ago you answered a question on whether Taphthartharath would be the right spirit for a theurgic daily divination.
Your answer was: “... that's certainly one good choice, or you could invoke the spirit corresponding to the planet who rules the rising sign in your astrological birth chart.”

My questions are:

1 - When it comes to Geomantic Hours, do they have any effect on the casting or do we use them only for works like consecration of talismans and gamahes?
2 – What about casting during Tristitia's hour since it is favorable for matters of the Earth and also occult pursuits?
3 – Tristitia’s corresponding planet being Saturn what should we expect when invoking Zazel for a daily or weekly divination?

FYI Saturn doesn't rule my rising sign.

Thank you.

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

1) I haven't found the geomantic hours to be useful except for magic, and for elections -- for example, choosing a geomantic hour of a favorable figure to do something can make success more likely.

2) Again, I haven't found the geomantic hours useful for this, but by all means experiment if you feel called to do so.

3) Given my comments above, why would you do that?

Astrology images

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I was wondering if you have any suggestions for images representing the zodiac, planets, etc that would be good to do discursive meditation with?

Hope you are having a most happy Monday and thanks for hosting this!

Re: Astrology images

[ecosophia]

Well, there's a great collection of them in Giordano Bruno's On the Shadows of the Ideas, but my translation of that is out of print at the moment. Have you considered meditating on the Tarot trumps corresponding to the planets, zodiacal signs, etc.?

Occultism and bagpipes: redux

[(Anonymous)]

A while back, someone asked about the occult significance of bagpipes. I’m a piper of nearly two decades, and while I didn’t have an answer at the time, I’ve spent the last few weeks meditating on it. My apologies this post is a bit, ahem, long-winded.
First off, thanks to whoever asked, and I hope you get this response! You prompted me on an unexpected yet very rewarding line of inquiry! Second, there are many, many species of bagpipes and what I discuss is mostly the Great Highland Bagpipe, which comes to most people’s mind when they think about bagpipes. Third, these are wholly personal musings and reflections, and not well-researched, so take it with a grain of haggis. Ok…

1. If we consider the first part DF’s definition of magic as causing changes in consciousness, then I think the effect of the pipes is pretty clear. The change in consciousness it causes is that it grabs your attention and seems to amplify lets people know “I’m here! You have to recognize me! I’m not going away!” The Highland regiments used it for communication on the battlefield as much as they did for intimidation. It was a way to psyche out the opponents, which, when successful, may constitute a change in consciousness in accordance with will.

1a. As an emotional amplifier, I very often meet people who, despite never seeing a bagpipe in person or meeting a piper, they nevertheless know what bagpipes sound like, what they are, and how they feel about them. I’ve found that people love or hate the pipes, often regardless if they’ve ever heard one live. This instant recognition of bagpipes and robustness of opinion about them doesn’t hold for similarly obscure instruments (say, a sousaphone or a concertina). Further, the pipes rile people up in a parade or bring them to tears at a funeral, in a way that is much harder for a single instrument to do (again, in my experience). Bagpipes are an attention-grabbing powerhouse of an instrument. They’re like the Donald Trump of the woodwinds.

2. Considering the pipe’s historical use as a war instrument, and the fact that modern pipe band culture is derived from the traditions of the British military, we might make a case the instrument has some correspondence with Mars. Some historians speculate that the earliest pipes used sheep skin for the bag and bones for the pipes, and think that shepherds would have been the folks that “invented” bagpipes. Before Mars was promoted to head of the War Department, he was an agricultural deity, particularly of livestock, so some connections are there. OTOH, pipes are also instruments of delight and celebration, which is more Venusian, while the sheer brashness of it is arguably more Solar, so more research would be needed to pin down astrological correspondence.

3. There are 3 drones, which harmonize with 9 melody notes played on a fourth pipe called the chanter (we’ll let the significance of the numbers 3 and 9 pass for now). Since the player is limited in note range and has no way to control the volume or pitch, all the expression is rhythmic; coming from subtle variations in the written tune. Hold this note just a bit longer than is written, cut that one just a bit shorter--this is the intuitive part of piping music. If you follow the rhythm too closely, the playing sounds rigid and forced. If you don’t follow the rhythm enough, then you lose the beat and the tune is lost to incoherence. A good piper can play the melody and play it cleanly, but a great piper can follow the rhythm, and play it in a unique, effortless and mellifluous way. Traditional pipe music is designed to sound like someone singing in Gaelic, and in fact, in Gaelic the verb used for a piper is “sing”. He sings the pipes, rather than he plays the pipes. And superior playing really does sound like singing. For me, not only is this a remarkable musical skill, it holds a wonderful meditation on the art of living. Namely, one has to acknowledge and respect the limits and rules of the world, but in an intuitive way that allows you to express unique, graceful, creative energy.

4. Lastly, if we consider the sound of the pipe, you have a formless, yet constant droning, with which the melody harmonizes. This reminds me of Tolkien’s creation story of the Music of the Ainur (or the pipe-flutes of Azathoth!). I wonder if this could be stretched into an analogy of DF’s discussion of the manifest emerging from the unmanifest. The manifest being a unique, structured and active phenomenon, (the tune played by the piper) whereas the unmanifest is the background, formless and constant (the drones). They are very much distinct; but they harmonize, and both are enhanced by this harmony, and are ultimately united. When and if I get around to actually meditating on the CosDoc, it’ll be interesting for me to see how well the analogy holds. But in the meantime, the idea that a sound/music/instrument can be representative of profound spiritual ideas is a fascinating one that will definitely warrant further consideration. Schopenhauer said that music is the purest expression of the Will, and I think I can just make out his footprints.

Alright, I’ll leave it at that! Again, this was such a cool series of meditations that you inspired me to take and I can’t thank you enough, and no doubt I will be mulling this over for a while. I’m sure a lot of this can be said about other instruments, and creative endeavors in general. My apologies to JMG and readers for any cringe-worthy misunderstandings of occult teachings, et cetera. Please correct as needed.

sláinte mhaith!

Re: Occultism and bagpipes: redux

[ecosophia]

Good heavens -- thanks for this. It so happens that in the tentacle-fiction novel I'm currently working on, one of the characters plays a bagpipe. It's not the Great Highland pipes, but the smaller provincial French version called the cabrette ("little nanny goat"), like this:


Of course, given the theme of the story, you knew already that the player's friends jokingly refer to her instrument as la cabrette noire...

But all this is very useful. Many thanks!

opus animalis

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

2 weeks ago there was a query about opus animalis, the most secret branch of alchemy and you mentioned that there are good reasons for it to be so secret. Can we know of these reasons?

Re: opus animalis

[ecosophia]

Nope.

Stradivarius, alchemy and sacred geometry

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG!

Sometime ago you mentioned Stradivarius, stained glass windows and alchemy.

Can we have some references on the matter.

I find that quite fascinating!

Thanks.

Re: Stradivarius, alchemy and sacred geometry

[ecosophia]

I'm irritated to find that I can't locate the book I read many years ago on sacred geometry in Baroque musical instruments; there used to be a copy in the music library at the University of Washington but it's apparently been discarded. For the role of alchemy in stained glass windows, start with Andre VandenBroeck's book Al-Kemi, which is probably the best introduction to R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, the French alchemist who figured out how the stained glass was made.

[(Anonymous)]

When you had to choose between Western occultism and Chinese tai chi, you said you chose Western because it satisfied certain spiritual needs. What does it have that the Chinese system doesn't?

[ecosophia]

I'm not Chinese either by ethnicity or by culture, and as a result there are aspects of Chinese spirituality that will always be a closed book to me. Western occultism, in effect, speaks my native language. Your mileage may vary, but that matters to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Are there some trees that don't like hoodoo bath water? I started alternating it between the plum tree at the back and two apples and a pear tree at the front. The front garden trees seemed enthusiastic at first, but then I started sensing doubt and not feeling quite right later in the day

[ecosophia]

Apparently so. If the trees don't want it, don't pour it on them.

[(Anonymous)]

There are internal alchemists who have their bodies stored in earthenware jars for a number of years after their deaths so they can continue their work. There were also those who were buried in long barrows so they could become a local protective spirit. Are there any other ways the dead can continue to do things?

[(Anonymous)]

The Egyptians were quite deft at averting the 2nd death...

Tripp

[(Anonymous)]

John--

Are there any magical properties (along the lines of your encyclopedia on natural magic) inherent in driftwood? We see a good bit of that here along the shore of Lake Michigan, stripped and weathered and smooth. I find myself compelled to pick up pieces now and then and I was wondering if there would be a magical use for it.

--David BTL

Z'ev's magical driftwood sculptures

[sothismedias]

Hi David BTL...

I don't know about specific magical properties of driftwood (though the properties of the wood itself, if it could be identified, plus the property of the Water element is a good place to start...) ... but this reminded me of something.

There was an industrial music drummer & Qabalist who went by the name of Z'ev who died a few years back. He was a very interesting fellow. In addition to being a drummer he made sculptures and wrote. One of the things he did was make sculptures out of things he found mudlarking along the Thames when he was living in London. The way he collected the pieces of driftwood & other materials was his way of communing with the spirit of the river, Tamessa.

You can read about it here, his website is still up:
http://www.rhythmajik.com/the-long-story.html

& more here: http://www.rhythmajik.com/sculptures.html

I've often thought of collecting driftwood along the Ohio or other rivers here as a way of communing with that river. You may find that a driftwood collection from Lake Michigan might help you commune with the lake?

Those are my thoughts anyway.

All the best,

Justin

ethics of divination and temple workings

[kallianeira]

Hello Archdruid and readers.

Butler puts great emphasis on respecting the privacy of other people in magical practice. This has given me pause in respect of certain divination questions I'd like to ask.
For example, I suspect I might have a sibling who is not part of the family. My family are not the sort of people ever to speak about such things, so asking them outright, or even indirectly, is not viable. I feel that this concerns me personally enough to be entitled to know either way, but also wonder whether finding out would violate my parents' rights ethically. What do you suggest in such situations?

Further, I am sorry but I am somewhat confused as to the deities available to make a polytheist temple working coherent. I do the CoP and LBRP with 5 deities and the MP with 5 others. There are further deities with whom I feel on cordial terms. They are from a range of traditions.
Can the deities invoked in this ritual and the rituals of the Pentagram within it be any combination from this set?

Many thanks for your generosity in sharing your insights with us.

kallianeira.

Re: ethics of divination and temple workings

[ecosophia]

1) How about doing some divinations about whether that would be a good idea?

2) That's not something that can be answered in the abstract. I'd encourage you to talk to the deities in question and ask them how they want you to handle it.