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

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.