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

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

[deborah_bender]

Anonymous, thank you very much for this. I'm relieved that Rashi does not contradict my attempt at understanding. He goes on to make a point which I was thinking about, but did not know enough to express an opinion.

I had a rudimentary Jewish education which from time to time I try to improve. Now that you've shown me that Chabad has put some Rashi up on the Web, I will look for it when a Biblical question comes up.

My remark about Greek influence had Maimonides in mind, but I haven't studied him, so only expressing a possibility.

One of the general differences between Judaism and Christianity (IMO) is that while Jewish scholars are ready to wring the juice from a text by discussion, speculation, storytelling, allegory, mysticism, gematria and so on, the Doctors of the Church go straight to issuing an authoritative pronouncement about things that no human being can know for sure. The reason for this, I think, is that since the destruction of the Second Temple, the organizational structure of Judaism is based primarily on collaboration, whereas the structure of churches imposed by Roman emperors was strictly hierarchical. You get hierarchies whenever a religion gets tied closely into support of the political state.

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

[temporaryreality]

And wow, all this depth to answer a question prompted by a tiny zine-project with the theme "beginnings"! I am duly mindboggled (if not fully out of my depth but gamely dogpaddling, or dogboggling as the case may be). :)