Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

 As noted on the blog last Wednesday, instead of an "ask me anything" post this week on ecosophia.net, I'll be hosting a "Magic Monday" today. What does that mean? It means "ask me anything about occultism, and I'll post an answer here." Since this Monday is a busy day for a lot of people, being sacred to two popular religions -- Christianity on the one hand, and Consumerism on the other -- if comments trickle in on Tuesday et al., I'm not going to be a stickler for the point. 

That said, have at it! 

***PLEASE NOTE: as of midnight, 26 December 2017, this Magic Monday has packed its tents and gone away. If you have questions you haven't posted yet, please save them for the next Magic Monday on January 1!.***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

How would you go about formulating a hwptagram ritual to work with planetary energies?

[ecosophia]

Well, are you working within the Hermetic Golden Dawn tradition or any of its offshoots? If so, you'd want to begin with the LVX signs, then trace a heptagram in the four quarters, then finish with the IAO analysis. The heptagram? You'd take that from the ceiling of the Vault -- look at color plate 6 in the new seventh edition of Regardie's The Golden Dawn for a handy diagram. The points are labeled in Hebrew with their Sephirothic correspondences, so you can take the planetary correspondences from that.

If you're not working within the Hermetic Golden Dawn tradition or one of its offshoots, you can still do the same thing -- the number of groups utterly unrelated to the Golden Dawn that make use of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram is pretty impressive -- or you can borrow equivalent symbolism from your own tradition. I'd have to have some idea of what you're working with to be able to make any more constructive suggestions.

intentions of different magic systems

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG

You’ve mentioned in a few places how different magic systems make use of different energy centres/symbolism/techniques/etc because they have different goals. Could you describe the overall intentions which shape such factors in systems you are familiar with?

Also, on the Well of Galabes, I think there is mention about a future post on the drawbacks of the Golden Dawn, which I would be curious to hear more about if an additional question isn’t too greedy.

Merry Magic Monday!
Bewilderness

Re: intentions of different magic systems

[ecosophia]

That's a huge issue! Very broadly speaking, the midline of the human body is like the string of a musical instrument -- say, a violin, because it doesn't have any frets built in. Wherever you put your finger on a string, you define a note, and the different scales you can play require different placements of your finger. In the same way, the human energy body resonates with different levels of existence at different points along its midline, and wherever you concentrate, you bring out that resonance.

So if all you want is the particular set of resonances that make you a good martial artist, you concentrate strictly on the point along the midline that's about two finger widths below the navel -- thats the hara or dantien, the energy point used in most East Asian martial arts. If all you want is a certain mode of intuitive clairvoyance, you concentrate on the point between the eyebrows, and so on. If you want a more balanced set of results, you work with a series of points.

Symbols and techniques are the same way. What do you want to achieve? If you want visionary experiences, there's one set of practices; if you want the capacity to move and shape subtle energies, there's another; if you want the kind of transformative experience generally known as "enlightenment," there's another, and so on. All roads emphatically do not lead to the same place, and if you're in New York and want to get to Boston, you don't take the highway headed south.

As for the Golden Dawn, that's actually fairly simple. The rituals of initiation are keyed to the Spheres of the Tree of Life, and that results in a very predictable kind of blowback if you take an initiation for a Sphere you haven't already integrated. The usual problem comes with the Adeptus Minor ritual, since very few people have integrated the Tiphareth level of consciousness; when they take the initiation, unless they can successfully coordinate the influx of energy with their existing state of consciousness -- which does happen, fortunately, but not as often as one would like -- the initiate manifests the Qliphothic side of Tiphareth instead, and becomes an arrogant jerk convinced of his own omniscience.

That's why there are so many people like that in the Golden Dawn scene; it's an unfortunate side effect of the structure of the grades. That's also why Dion Fortune and so many other offshoots of the Golden Dawn tradition scrapped the existing grade structure and replaced it, usually with a system of three degrees not linked to the Tree of Life; you get the same positive effects without the blowback.

[(Anonymous)]

Regarding breathing in light/CGD I'm having a bit of trouble with the visualization. Not getting the ocean of bright colorless light as much as blobs of translucent jelly, kinda like when you break a glowstick. Tried to go more by feeling instead of visualization which seems to help, but want to make sure that's okay.

[ecosophia]

Yes, it's okay -- in fact, it suggests that you're developing astral clairvoyance, which is a very good thing to have. Keep practicing, and you'll notice that the blobs spread and merge, and eventually you'll get the ocean of light.

Three-planet problem

[(Anonymous)]

How do you interpret the effects of closely conjunct stellia in a natal chart?

Re: Three-planet problem

[ecosophia]

Is the Sun involved? In that case the other planets are combust, and their influences are partly subsumed into that of the Sun. You'd expect in that case that the native would have a hard time differentiating things under the planetary rulerships from his own identity. For example, I have Mercury very close to my natal Sun, so my personal identity is very much wrapped up with my ideas and my thoughts.

If the Sun's not involved, you get the same intermingling without any one planet being dominant. The aspects of the native's life ruled by the planets in the stellium won't be easily separable -- for example, if Mercury and Venus are part of the stellium, the native will have a hard time keeping thinking and feeling separate. The basic rule is that in a conjunction -- and this is true no matter how many planets are part of it -- the planets mingle their identities and influences.

Alive but "already gone"

[quietmagpie]

JMG,

A lot of the previous thought about spirits, the will, and death has led me to a question. A number of people in my social circle have had to deal with friends and relatives who are suffering from Alzheimers. One of them described the experience as having to watch their mother die twice, because although she was still technically alive "she" was gone. I was reading in the Divine Comedy that Dante meets a number of souls in hell who's bodies were still living on earth and it got me thinking: is it possible for the part of the self that wills beyond simple instinct to pass on while the body is still alive and even speaking and walking?

Re: Alive but "already gone"

[ecosophia]

If there's speaking and walking going on, there's more than simple instinct present, and that means there's still at least some connection between the material body and the personality. In Alzheimer's, as I recall from my days working in nursing homes, there still seems to be some connection until the last voluntary actions stop and you've got an empty shell lying in a bed.

[(Anonymous)]

(Violet)

Many thanks for hosting this! In the past few weeks I've spent a goodly amount of time with dice, doing geomantic readings about possible paths I can take in the near term future. While doing this, I've been noticing that I struggle to imagine a path, or even a destination. It's like the future is extra-foggy.

For about 9 years I've practiced different systems of divination, and the last time I had this sort of uncertainty was during the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis. I'm concerned that it may be difficult to 'see' into potential futures because of disruptions in the normal flow of emanation from spiritual plane on down, or put differently there is a kind of 'storm' in the anima mundi, or the part of the anima mundi that relates to human groupings. Sometimes of a future imagining has, seemingly led me, to its realization on the physical. My guess would be that I feel some sort of contraction of possibility in the near term future. My question is: how does one best proceed when the future is murky, and it's hard to even get a good visual? How does one proceed when the amount of possibility, rather than just desirability or pragmatics, is hard to discern?

[ecosophia]

How does one best proceed? Very, very carefully! Occult tradition has it that as a society drifts further and further into delusion and dysfunction, one consequence is that the lower astral plane -- the end that resonates with corrupt emotional states, degraded thoughtforms, and the like -- becomes overloaded with energy. That makes it very difficult for ordinary astral functions such as clairvoyance and precognition to operate. (The reason psychic phenomena are so much rarer and weaker today than they were in earlier times, according to the theory, is that the modern era has seen a buildup of static on the lower astral unparalleled since the days of a certain legendary and long-drowned civilization.) That proceeds until the corrupted energies find a way to discharge themselves into matter, usually by way of disasters of various kinds. These become more frequent and damaging until finally the lower astral is reasonably clear. I think you're right that a "contraction of possibility" is approaching -- that's a useful phrase, by the way! -- and divination may be of limited use until it passes.

Communicating with gods.

[(Anonymous)]

At the moment I am reading Iamblichus and he talks about dreams being a major way of communicating with gods. What methods have you found most successful?

Re: Communicating with gods.

[ecosophia]

I've never had much luck working with my dreams. Some people find that very effective, but here as so often, different people have different gifts. Myself, I find prayer the most useful method, but that may have a lot to do with a standard Golden Dawn training in the use of the imagination as a means of perception; I pray, and then I listen, and generally there's an answer.

Magic Monday Greetings!

[ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

Thanks for this opportunity to ask open questions on occult lore! Your reply over at Ecosophia about the timing of ceremonies has given me much to ponder and consider.

A couple of weeks back we spoke about the perception of time becoming more fluid if the mind opens to the possibility of where country (i.e. the land) has been and where it is going to. As usual that has left my mind with more questions than answers, but I was wondering whether you reckon we are trained to ignore consequences and possibilities and instead focus on abstract concepts, so as to ignore that faculty of the mind? Dunno, but it is a possibility?

Cheers

Chris

Re: Magic Monday Greetings!

[ecosophia]

It's more than a possibility. Education in the modern industrial world is as much a matter of teaching people not to think in certain ways and not to pay attention to certain perceptions as anything else. A fixation on arbitrary abstractions is central to modern education, and I don't think it's accidental; the gap between the world people actually experience and the one that modern ideologies insists people ought to experience is so vast that convincing people to pay attention to the right abstractions rather than to the evidence of their (more than five) senses is pretty much the only way to keep the circus running.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm having a difficult time visualizing the organization and interrelationships among the various planes. I work better with diagrams and mathematics, unfortunately. Could you give a quick overview and/or point to some diagrams summarizing the structure? I'm also about a third the way into _The Cosmic Doctrine_ and I'm afraid I don't have a much clearer picture than when I first started.

And thank you for this open occult question session today.

[ecosophia]

When you read The Cosmic Doctrine, do you take the time to imagine each visual image as clearly as possible before you go on? That's essential to working with the text; as the book says, it's there to train the mind rather than informing it. As for the planes, you may be overthinking it. The planes relate to one another the way that the different sections of the electromagnetic spectrum relate to one another: they're all present in the same space, but you tune into one or another at a time. There are various ways of dividing the spectrum, but they all fit into a continuum reaching from pure spirit to solid matter; it's just a matter of where you draw the dividing lines.

Association of elements with directions

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John, and thanks for this opportunity to ask questions.

How important is the association of the elements with the four cardinal points? Traditional Golden Dawn has Air, Fire, Water and Earth in the East, South, West and North respectively. However, other systems associate them differently, e.g. inverting Water and Earth. Similarly, some people invert the associations with the tarot suits, so Air/Swords and Fire/Wands are often coupled instead: Air/Wands and Fire/Swords.

What are the bases in occult theory for these permutations? Is it just 'what works' or is there a logic that can be explained?

Gigoachef

Re: Association of elements with directions

[ecosophia]

It's more or less arbitrary; different systems use different correspondences. What's important is to use the specific set that goes with whatever magical tradition you're working with, as it'll have been chosen for good reasons, and unintelligent tinkering with established systems is one of the primary sources of failure in magical practice these days.

Incarnations and Pan

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, Happy Holidays and a Merry Ole Magic Monday Sans Christmas Music Treacle -

(from Will M)

Two questions - you mentioned that, according to Druidic perspective, a soul must corporeally incarnate until every human experience is indeed experienced, this before the soul can move on to higher realms. I'm wondering tho if by Druidic perspective a soul by dint of desire and the will-power to see it through, can skip certain incarnations, can spiritually elevate itself in one incarnation so that other incarnations do not have to be experienced. Or is it absolutely necessary that the soul experience everything no matter how elevated it might become in any one incarnation?

Also, going back to your Death of God post - though the god Pan "died" with the advent of Christ, would it be fair to say that Pan really took a back seat to the New God in terms of immediacy and power? After all, people have continued to see and experience Pan albeit in isolated cases. I imagine that Christ will continue to exist similarly, with a depleted immediacy and power, perhaps to be integrated into a new god and religion.

Re: Incarnations and Pan

[ecosophia]

The teaching doesn't say that you have to experience all things in every incarnation. Since you don't know what you've already experienced in previous incarnations, don't worry about it. If you've reached the point that you want to elevate yourself spiritually to what the Druid teachings call Gwynfydd, the luminous life, then you've probably already had the experiences you need -- otherwise you'd be longing for those, or for the things that would bring those about, rather than aspiring to Gwynfydd.

The one very notable exception to this rule is if you're trying to attain spiritual elevation in an attempt to run away from unsolved issues in your life. That doesn't work. If you're longing for Gwynfydd because you think it's easier than dealing with relationship problems, or your difficulties with work or money, or what have you, stop and deal with those first. It's when you've experienced what incarnate life has to offer and are ready to go on to other things that you're ready for Gwynfydd.

Druidry and Daoism

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, this is Bogatyr.

As I’ve mentioned before om WoG, I’m from the same town as Iolo Morganwg. I’ve walked the same woods and fields that he knew, and drunk in the same taverns. I read the Mabinogion over and over when I was younger. The Druidry that you’ve presented in your recent blogging resonates with me, and I’d like to explore it further.

However, as you ay have gathered, i live now in China. My Green Wizard, learn-a-skill-for-decline plan is focussed on learning Chinese Medicine, specifically acupuncture and qigong. The forms of taijiquan and yiquan that I’m learning include a lot of neigong. So, I’m doing a lot of energy work in the Chinese tradition.

To what extent are these compatible, given all that you’ve said previously about combining Western and Eastern energetic systems? (What would be great would be a handy guide to what’s safe, what’s not, and where to progress with caution - but that’s too much to ask!)

Would the OBOD course be OK (safe?) for someone doing a lot of neigong?

Thanks for the work you’re doing, and thanls in advance for any thoughts you may have on this topic!

Re: Druidry and Daoism

[ecosophia]

I don't know a lot about the current OBOD curriculum; the original version doesn't conflict with taijiquan and qigong, but I can't guarantee that the newer version won't. Since you're studying a coherent, effective system of spiritual training, I'd encourage you to stick to that when it comes to practices, and pursue Druidry only as a philosophy and a spirituality. The basic rule of thumb is don't mix energy work. Since Iolo didn't teach any energy work -- that all entered the Druid Revival tradition after his time -- you're on pretty safe ground there, and since there are some fairly intriguing parallels between Druidry and Taoism, you ought to have fun becoming a Taoist Druid. ;-)

Protection against accidental curses

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

I have two friends whose family member - let's call her Jill - likes to give them advice in the form of implications:

"If you do very slightly risky thing X, bad thing Y will happen."

This probably sounds very reasonable, until you learn that:

1. Most people who have done thing X in the past did not suffer from bad thing Y.
2. When one of my friends does thing X, bad thing Y usually does happen.

It took my friends years to realize that the reason Jill's words so often came true was not because of her special insight, but because she would say it with such conviction that the statement accidentally became a curse. Both of them tried talking to her about it, but she insists that she means well, and she doesn't even believe in magic. Because her intentions are mostly good, they do not want to cut her out of their lives.

Can you recommend any reliable resources where my friends can learn:

1. how to protect themselves against any further curses of this type?
2. how to cancel any existing curses which have not yet come true?

Re: Protection against accidental curses

[ecosophia]

It depends very much on what kind of magic your friends are willing to do. I'm far from certain the curses are as accidental as you suggest, though -- the habit of saying something like that with conviction and intensity of focus is not exactly innocent, you know.

Possession

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, this is Bogatyr again. Thanks for the reply upthread. I also have another question, namely: where does possession fit into the system of Druidry? (If it does at all).

I ask because the tradition of the Mari Lwyd endures in my hometown: a mare’s skull on a pole, with a shroud-like white sheet covering the bearer. A few years back, I was part of the group taking the Mari around the local taverns and was under the sheet, carrying her, when we went into one of the older pubs (which, yes, Iolo would have known). I can only describe what happened next as a case of possession.

Much like I’ve read about hypnotism, my mind was present and I felt like I could stop if I wanted to. Yet, it definitely felt like I was off to one side while a different intelligence ran the meat-puppet for a while. It was a *very* mischievous, fundamentally well-meaning, and slightly naive spirit - and very much a strong-willed personality - ie, the Mari Lwyd.

I never felt in danger, there was never any doubt that the Mari was going to leave after she’d had a bit of fun, and it was really only when I looked back that I understood what has happened.

When I lived in Singapore, I knew tang-kis, the traditional Chinese spirit mediums, who act as hosts for folk deities. Their experience is different, however: as with voudun, the possessed are not aware of events while they’re being “ridden”, and have no subsequent memory of what happened.

Where does all of this fit in with Druidry?

Re: Possession

[ecosophia]

Good question. Remember that Druidry is a very diverse movement, and has a complex and often contested relationship with Celtic folk custom! It might make more sense, rather than "where does all this fit in with Druidry," to ask "Where does this fit in with my Druidry?" and find your own answer to that question.

Yay Magic Monday!

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks so much for Magic Monday, JMG. I learn so, so much from the questions and your answers.

I don’t know if this question is strictly of the occult variety, but have you an opinion of the practice of ho’oponopono? It’s apparently a Hawaiian practice, modified by Westerners (that makes me a bit wary) where the practitioner focuses their attention on the intended recipient either in person or not, and says “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.” Numerous times. The aim being to heal the relationship.

Any thoughts?

Appreciatively,
OtterGirl

Re: Yay Magic Monday!

[ecosophia]

Hmm. That could either be really healing or really creepy, depending on the underlying intention. Don't do it without getting the permission of the target first.

SoP

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John, and thank you for hosting this forum. I’ve been working through the Druid Magic Handbook and have just reached the seventh gate/ complete SoP ritual. I’ve lived in the Central Valley of California nearly my whole life and have formatted the ritual to associate the mountains in the east (vibrating the word “Sierra”) with Air, the deserts to the south (vibrating the words “Sonora-Mojave”) with fire, the ocean to the west (vibrating the word “Pacifica”) with water, and the forest to the north ( vibrating the word “sequoia”) with earth. The fifth, sixth, and seventh gates ive left how you have them in the book minus any mention of the welsh gods. I’m early in my practice (3 months) but want to know if my approach is too generic. Am I going to have diminished effects by not calling upon the gods and is my association with places to the elements not appropriate? I use these places because they have been a big part of my spiritual life and lead me to a pursuit of a nature religion. The results are pleasant but tepid, as expected in the early phases of work. Let me know if I have misappropriated the ritual. Thanks!

Re: SoP

[ecosophia]

Yes, you're probably going to have diminished effects by not calling on gods, but if that's what you prefer to do, then them's the breaks. It really is up to you.

[(Anonymous)]

In the Sphere of Protection, does the tracing of the banishing form of an elemental symbol erase the original tracing, or renew it?

Is there a reason for the particular order of the different rotation directions in the SoP Circulation of Light?

[ecosophia]

(a) neither one. It banishes, according to your intention.

(b) yes.

Unlearning, mourning the loss of a living mind/earth

[(Anonymous)]

Howdy,

I've been struggling with parsing my training as a "rational" and scientific thinker from my early childhood and into young adulthood with the imperative to honor the living earth as a conscious entity. I cringe and balk at some ideas of magic and occultism, most of it scares or doesn't interest me — though I do have a strong interest in druidry and local environmental knowledge. However, I want to explore the spiritual aspects of the earth and how our species can be a co-creator in the spirit of our regions. I want to reconcile these with my (forced) training into the dominant scientific-rational-technological culture. In a way, I sometimes feel like I'll never truly unlearn this culture and that I'll be stuck in a material, dead universe. Sorry I'm throwing out a lot of things here,

So I suppose my question is — how long did it take you to unlearn or transition from being resistant to magic, druidry, spirituality et al? To a place where it began to feel natural with meaning and purpose in your life? Are there any books that help along with this process of transition into intuitive/spiritual/magical knowledge and practice? Books that perhaps sound "more sane" to someone straight out of the West?

Re: Unlearning, mourning the loss of a living mind/earth

[ecosophia]

I'm probably not the right person to ask about this. From earliest childhood, I felt that the dead world of matter that I was taught about by parents, teachers, and the media was a lie. As a child I was fascinated by anything and everything that strayed outside the materialist consensus -- I was an expert on werewolf trivia at age ten, for example, and crazy in love with fantasy fiction -- and when I found my first manual of training in operative magic, I felt as though I'd come out of a dark cold room into sunlight and springtime.

I'd make two suggestions. The first is to put some serious time into reading mythologies and folktales instead of modern "serious" books. The second is to consider taking up some kind of magical practice. Actions speak louder than words, in this as in other contexts; it can be very frightening to actually do the work, but that's the best way I know of to shake off the "mind-forg'd manacles" that Blake wrote about.

Ancestor worship gone bad

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG, please accept my best wishes for 2018!

A couple of posts ago, in response to a comment on the subject of veneration of ancestors, you mentioned that it had in at least one case degenerated into a very negative affair.

I have a sketchy idea of how the Inca of Peru invented a religion of the ancestors that sucked up a huge portion of the productive land for the ‘support’ of the royal dead, which effectively evicted the living and required every new monarch to go out conquering the world just to get a post-mortem ‘livelihood’. And I have come across oblique indications that something of the sort probably happened in pagan Europe. Can you fill us in on some more detail, or direct me where to look for such information?

Re: Ancestor worship gone bad

[ecosophia]

I don't know of a good book on the subject, but basically what happened was this. There was a very old set of spiritual practices by which individuals would step outside of the cycle of reincarnation for a time, to serve as spiritual guardians of a place or a community. It involved intensive spiritual practice, followed by a deliberate death in an earth-sheltered stone tomb (to keep the subtle body from being disrupted by sunlight). The long barrows of northwestern Europe were places where this was done. Only a few people in any generation did this; the others simply died and were reborn in the usual way.

Later on, as societies became more hierarchical and materialistic, members of the ruling classes started to use a variant of this to try to escape death. That's when you went to individual burials in round barrows and the like, with grave treasures and the like. Offerings of various kinds were used to replace the spiritual disciplines. That's what became standard practice in Egypt and other places -- the king would be mummified and buried in a stone tomb, and offerings would be used to nourish his spirit. Of course the problem was that you ended up with more and more of the economy being diverted to the support of the dead, resulting in a galaxy of economic and political troubles.

The backlash happened in different ways in different places, but that's why in classical times the dead were burnt, not buried, and why Christian practice into early modern times was to bury the dead in relatively shallow, unsheltered graves until the flesh rotted, and then heap the bones in an ossuary. The result in all cases was to make the Second Death happen promptly, so that the dead didn't hang around and make nuisances of themselves.

The final, decadent version of the old tradition is dimly recalled in the legends of vampirism. The would-be vampire tried a do-it-yourself version of the old tradition, for the wholly selfish purpose of dodging death as long as possible. Predation on the living took the place of offerings. It rarely worked for long, not least because people figured out how to mess with it. It was an ugly ending for what had started out as a profound and very positive spiritual technology.

[(Anonymous)]

What are your thoughts on meme magic? Mere psychological warfare, or something greater still?

[ecosophia]

Depends on who's doing it and what kind of magical technique they include in their memetic work. I do a lot with memes, as you may have noticed, and I vary from purely psychological methods to other things.

[(Anonymous)]

Ray Wharton.

I Just got back from three weeks out on the Dineta herding sheep. Most of my waking day was spent wandering in the dry gulches following sheep or burying apricot pits. During that time I spent a lot of time reflecting on spiritual matters, specifically ovate grade meditations from CGD. Two highlights include a comparason of the serenity prayer to the three rays of light, and a meditation on water while watching sheep flow from gully to gully. I am going back for another three week spell as soon as a few responsibilities in Cortez are done.

Upon returning to a artificial house in a bright lit trailer park, with TV viewing roommates I am sickly crippled. Its like a tea totaler trying to go shot for shot with a career alcoholic; my resistance is atrophied. During the day time here I am expected to urinate inside of the structure like a dumb puppy, gross.

Anyway, the question. I have also been thinking a lot about the planes and what sorts of entities... how to say, have their being concentrated in a roughly limited section of the planes. How strange, among embodied beings, is the human connection to the intellectual plane? There are some many intelligent patterns, from the patterns in eroding hill sides, to the construction or behavior of biotic forms that it is clear the intellectual plane is doing just fine embodying itself with out us.

I read an interesting book out there, The Spell of the Sensuous, it was pretty good exploration of why Western civilization is so obsessed with living in a dead universe. The writer focused on our use of an alphabetic writing system, and how it affects our relation to others; he intentionally stretched the point too far, that it causes us to relate to ideas that seem unchanging, written and fixed, and inspired a special focus on ideas over sensation or feelings.

But, this isn't a book review, the point I am trying to circle in on is that it occurred to me that writing, and certain other popular mental activities of recent millennia, including the fancier forms of maths and such, have opened us to encounter a range of entities concentrated around the ideal plane like Australia encountering cane toads and cats, thereby causing a radical disturbance and re-balancing, which is a very messy and costly process, rich with sad happenings.

I have come to suspect that I became sensitive to the intellectual plane early and acutely, but that it is actually kinda a rough neighborhood to find oneself in, filled with Ideas which would be very pleased to enslave me and set me to work materializing them on one form or another. For instance, I have explored the arithmetic of the Fibonacci numbers for hundreds of hours, maybe thousands, and in many ways it has been a healthy relationship, at least healthy enough that I an glad to continue it, and has taught me beautiful things and shaped me in beautiful ways. Other thoughts have grabbed me less constructively, and in order to realize anything in my life I am needing to fend on these courting Ideas, that I can focus.

At the moment I am all but possessed by thoughts of building Guastavino Vaulting for a cellar. Seed saving. Sheep Herding. Flute music. Magic. Dry land farming. Leather working. A lot of these are from denser planes, but I am coming to terms with the fact that my interests have their own interests in me.

The beings I am meeting in magic are those I have long known with out knowing that, to be exact with words, they knew me. What should I be wary of as certain relationships transform from I-It to _I-you, what is the hazards of that transition?

[ecosophia]

Deal with them the same way you'd deal with people you know, and you should be fine. Maintain healthy boundaries, maintain your own center, and choose your relationships rather than having others choose them for you: all the usual stuff.

"Fortune Cards"

[(Anonymous)]

My husband got me a set of Madame Endora's Fortune Cards for an Alban Arthuan gift. I had never touched a tarot deck or "fortune cards" or a Ouija board or anything like that. Nor had I ever had my fortune told in any way. I hadn't ever thought of doing it either, but decided to read the directions included and try it. I was really shocked that the cards were applicable to my life and to the question I asked. I later did two other readings that also seemed very accurate.

What, or who, actually provides these answers? I hadn't expected this kind of result. I thought the person doing the reading would have to have a certain level of skill or ability that I'm pretty sure I don't have. I didn't even know the meanings of the cards before I did it. After the first one I did, I actually went through the deck to check the other cards and make sure that it wasn't the case where any card would have worked. There were definitely cards that would not have made sense for my life or the question I asked.

What kind of being answered, and can he or she be trusted to be honest?

Re: "Fortune Cards"

[ecosophia]

You are doing the answering. Divination is a way you bring to the surface the things you know subconsciously but not consciously. When you shuffle the cards and cut the deck, micromovements of your hands guided by your subconscious mind control which cards are waiting to be dealt out.

All this is perfectly natural. Some people have to develop skill with divination cards, but others have a natural talent for it, and the fact that you evidently have such a talent is something to celebrate, not something to be afraid of! You now have an ability that will help you guide yourself and others through the complexities of everyday life. Have fun with it, keep a journal of your readings, and use your talent wisely, and it'll bring you many blessings.

Magic Monday Questions

[marcu]

Dear Mr. Greer,

As is tradition for me at this time of year I'm reviewing the past year and trying to structure my plans for the next. As such your Magical Monday comes at a very opportune time since I have a few questions that I would appreciate your insight on.
-Do you have any thoughts or recommendations on studying the magical Cabala (Paths of Wisdom) and Druidry (Druidry Handbook) at the same time? Or would you recommend doing one before the other?

-In the Druidry Handbook is the intention to pick one of the paths or to pursue all of the paths concurrently?

-As I understand your books are aimed at students who intend self study, but especially for the magical Cabala, do you have any recommendations on finding like minded individuals to study with or to find teachers to assist with questions?

Thank you for the opportunity to ask these questions,

Marcu

P.S. I hope everything is on track with The Weird of Hali: Chorazin, I'm really looking forward to the next book!

Re: Magic Monday Questions

[ecosophia]

a) Always, always do one system of magical training at a time.

b) You do all three of them concurrently.

c) If you're working with The Druidry Handbook, the Ancient Order of Druids in America at www.aoda.org is the place to go -- the book is a study guide to AODA's approach to Druidry.

d) Last I heard, everything's on schedule for Chorazin. I'll be happy to see it in print as well!

AODA curriculum

[amritarosa]

Hello JMG,

In a not too distantly past response to a comment on a post over at the other blog, I remember you mentioning that there had been a change in focus of the AODA curriculum that you found unfortunate.

If it is appropriate to comment on here, what changed about it that lessened its usefulness, in your view?

many thanks!
Bonnie

Re: AODA curriculum

[ecosophia]

The old curriculum had a set of seven spirals that worked very well. When we upgraded the curriculum in 2010, I think it was, we replaced that with something more freeform, which didn't work anything like as well. Since I retired before the next curriculum revision, I didn't have a chance to revise things again -- if I had, we'd have gone back to the spirals.

metal in body

[(Anonymous)]

(rabtter)

Does having mercury tooth fillings or a metal greenfield filter in an artery affect etheric energy around your body?

Re: metal in body

[ecosophia]

I haven't noticed any effect from tooth fillings. Since I haven't encountered the other situation, I can't speak to it from experience.