The Return of Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, I'm back from my January hiatus, and so it's time for a new Magic Monday. As I was getting kind of low on poster children for the occult tradition, I've decided on something new:  the most important classic books in Western occult literature, in my not entirely humble opinion, one at a time and in no particular order. We'll begin with the book that kickstarted the modern magical revival, The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Levi, originally published in 1855. This was the book that reintroduced magic to Western intellectual culture as a philosophically rich and intellectually coherent practice, and it has had a massive influence on occult philosophy and practice all over the Western world ever since its publication. 

(Yes, there's an older translation by Arthur Edward Waite, titled Transcendental Magic, but it's incomplete and not always accurate. Mark Mikituk and I did this new translation precisely because the Waite version was so bad.)
 
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

[booklover1973]

In the Druid Magic Handbook, there is at one point described how to work with the Oghams to invoke certain qualities and energies to help getting more precise magical results. Would it theoretically be possible in this ritual to use symbols from other symbol systems, provided that the symbols have meanings and colors associated to them?

A while ago you have written in "The Changeover of the Gods" that many Christians don't get results for their prayer, because God has removed even further from the human realm. At the same time, there are many Christians who still get results for prayer. How does that fit together, since a god presumably cannot be present and be too far removed at the same time?

When a group or a country has finished working through its collective karma, how does that express itself in regard to what happens to the country or the group, resp. on the material plane?

[ecosophia]

1) Of course. This is simply one application, within the DMH system, of a very widely practiced magical technique.

2) There are two factors at work. First of all, people vary in their sensitivity to the divine and their ability to pray, in the same way that a good radio can still pick up a fading signal when a cheap radio hears only static. Second, I'm far from sure that everyone who prays to the Christian god is actually praying to the same being. If, as Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them," the fruits are far too diverse to be coming from the same tree...

3) You're always creating more collective karma, so when one set is worked out, you can get going on the next. With any luck, if you've learned a lesson or two, the new set will be beneficial rather than painful.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG,

Welcome back! I’m excited for the return of Magic Monday... even when I don’t have a question of my own, I always learn a ton from reading the conversations.

Last magic Monday (all those ages ago...) someone had mentioned feeling drawn more to pornography after studying the gwersi in the OBOD course, and if I recall correctly he was the second person to say so. I wanted to chime in because, well, I’ve experienced the opposite: as I’ve gone deeper into the OBOD bardic grade, my pornography consumption is way down. I’m not only able to resist the temptation more often, I experience the temptation itself much less and enjoy it far less when I do give in. I think it’s fair to say that as I’ve progressed in the course I’ve begun to lose the taste for it.

I just wanted to chime in with another data point, lest anyone think that increased desire for pornography is a universal experience with the newer OBOD course... Not sure what the magical explanation for either phenomena might be...

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this. I was startled to hear from the guys who found that the OBOD work stimulated their attraction to pornography; of course I worked with the old course, not the new one, but the Bardic Grove and Light-Body exercises (which I believe are the core of both old and new versions) didn't have anything remotely like that effect with me. I had very good experiences with the course, and with OBOD generally.

Welcome Back!

[(Anonymous)]

Did you miss us?

Re: Welcome Back!

[ecosophia]

I didn't have the spare time to notice! I corrected five different set of page proofs, finished one novel and one nonfiction book, edited two hefty anthologies, and did a bunch of other writing. Now I actually have time to notice what day it is. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

Hello Mr. Greer,

could you say somehing about the confluence of the spirit world and (very vivid) dreams?

I‘ve been daily practicing your christian banishing ritual since you posted it in late November or December, I think.

In the first half of January I had a dream that felt very real about three grey-faced hags that seemed to ignore me at first, but then tried to grab me when I made an attempt to walk past them. They felt malicious and extremely evil.

My instant reaction was to rattle down the banishing, which made them disappear.

I know that you generally don‘t like to interpret dreams, but could it be that these beings where more than some random neurons firing? It felt all very meaningful to me at the time.

Thank you.

[ecosophia]

First, I'm delighted that you've been practicing that ritual daily. Every time somebody takes up a banishing ritual and does it regularly, a little of the astral crud that makes life so difficult in the world these days is cleared away, and a little more light shines on everyone. Thank you.

With regard to your dream, some people experience the astral plane -- which is part of the spirit world -- in their dreams. Other people dream symbolic dreams, which have hidden meanings (think of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dream about fat cows and thin cows.) In either case, it's not just neurons firing. You may have had an actual encounter with malign beings on the astral; alternatively, the dream may have been trying to communicate to you that doing the banishing will protect you against three dangers. You might consider praying and then meditating on the dream, and seeing if any meaning presents itself.

[(Anonymous)]

If one were to learn the sphere of protection after working with the CGD system, would it make more sense to work with the deities associated with the elements as given in your write-up here on the Dreamwidth, or to instead go to Belisama, Toutatis, etc, with Hu, Ced and Hesus for spirit above, below and within?

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to do with the set I posted here. The elemental deities are less well suited to the SoP than they are to the more intensive magical work of the CGD.

Maybe strange question...

[hungryghost108]

Hi.

I’m a longtime reader of your blogs (Report and Ecosophia) as well as some fiction and nonfiction books. I’ve always been agnostic with respect to occult matters, just as with religion. I figure maybe it exists and maybe it doesn’t, but either way I’m not much interested.

However, after reading about the fapping question you talked about a few weeks ago, something occurred to me, and it seems so reasonable, so obvious, so *true* that I feel like I can’t have been the first person to think of/see this. Is there a word for this idea, a body of writing about it?

I feel like there is an ethereal entity (for lack of a better word) on some non-here plane, that is separate from me but intimately tied to or associated with me and only me. It possesses no cognition or will or memory—just pure life force, which it lends to me. Meanwhile, my actions also affect it on some level. I envision something like a candle flame, and my actions make it dimmer or brighter, or change its color. These changes then affect me in turn.

This could be a soul, although it feels more like a companion with a symbiotic relationship than a soul, which should be part of (all of?) me. Perhaps this is a mechanism for reincarnation: my body and personality die, but this entity goes on, maybe imprinted with memories and maybe not. That makes it a soul, though, and that doesn’t feel like what I’m talking about.

The thing I get stuck on is its relationship to me. It’s reflective of me but not me per se. It nourishes me and somehow enables my existence, and my actions affect it back. We are distinct from but not independent of each other.

What is this thing, and is there more writing about it I could delve into? I have no idea where to even begin looking. Thanks.

Re: Maybe strange question...

[ecosophia]

Not a strange question at all. You even used the right word -- "ethereal." You're experiencing what some Druid traditions call the enaid, the body of life force, which is not "here" in the sense that it's not in the world of matter, and it's also not "you" in the sense that it's not your personality. In Hermetic magic, it's called the etheric body. There's quite a bit written about it; if you put the phrase "etheric body" into your favorite search engine you'll get a double shale-ton of material on it.

[(Anonymous)]

(Regular poster posting anonymously given the subject matter.)

An interesting reflection from over the break: at least for me, there was a distinct similarity in sensation between browsing porn and browsing TVTropes and to a lesser extent other Wikis (and possibly social media in general). I'd describe it as roughly "must see the next shiny thing"; at first I thought there might be a distinction with porn going "have you checked me lately?", but on second thought I'm not sure there's actually a difference between that and the drive to check your email/social media sites/article sites for the day!

You've commented before on suspecting demonic influence in the Internet more broadly; one or both of getting trapped in TVTropes/checking social media being obsession-related would fit with that.

[ecosophia]

That makes a great deal of sense.

One I’ve been saving up, and another

[(Anonymous)]

I’m about to start a vegetable garden on a shady sloping site partially recovered from encroaching woodland. Not promising but it’s what I have, and I have ‘feelings’ for the land. Before I started I actually asked for permission out loud I simply because the possibility of genius loci has become rather real to me. On the other hand, I have no idea if I got an answer, yes or no, although the process has been successful so far.
Are there any esoteric practices I should be looking into to get things to flourish, any books you could recommend?

On an entirely different topic, the star Betelgeuse (right shoulder of Orion) may be about to go supernova, it’s dimmed visibly in the last few weeks - a known precursor. Is there any mundane astrological significance to events of this nature?

Andy

Re: One I’ve been saving up, and another

[ecosophia]

1) Listen to the land! Ask it to guide you to the practices and resources you need, and then follow the promptings you get. The land knows what it needs, and it will work with you if you attend to it.

2) A chart for the beginning of the visible nova has roughly the same importance in mundane astrology as a comet chart -- if it happens, I'll certainly cast and interpret it. Novas are traditionally malefic indications, so the chart will predict what sort of unwelcome event will happen as an echo of the event.

Novice questions

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer - I've read the ADR and Ecosophia blogs continuously over the years and more recently I've been reading the Magic Monday posts and the Well of Galabes material. However I'm pretty sure this is my first time posting in any of these forums. So firstly let me say thank you, thank you agus go raibh mile maith agat for all that you do (that 'all' is doing a lot of work there!) and many, many blessings to you! Oh and a Happy New Year to boot (:

Please forgive me if this post is quite long... However, I think that your answers will be short so I hope it's not too much of a liberty! This has been building up for weeks.

For different reasons, all the 3 groups of ritual magic practices you provide study and instruction materials for appeal to me. I've been wavering for several weeks about which way I will go. The Hermetic Golden Dawn tradition is calling most to me. However, it's also the tradition that is least 'neutral' to me, so to speak. I was raised in Roman Catholicism, in Scotland and Ireland, but it's something that I rejected in my late teens and I am neither a Catholic nor a Christian now. I have not been a fan of Catholicism for some time. Whenever I've had to endure a mass (such as for a funeral), I've bristled at some of the stuff being communicated (we're all sinners etc.). That being said, my antipathy towards the RC church is probably not as acrimonious as it once was - I realise that there are, even now, many good people practicing spirituality and communion with the divine within that church, and plenty of it is actually right and good, despite terrible historical and on-going actions of this particular church. The other thing too is that although there is crossover in symbolism and deity-like figures (forgive my vagueness but I'm only really getting started on this path), I have the sense to know that I'm approaching (or will be approaching) these from a new and entirely different viewpoint. And perhaps this sounds egotistical, but I feel like I've managed to appreciate the good of the religion/spiritual tradition i was raised with (the appreciation of beauty, the power of prayer and ritual and tradition, the humility, the awe of the mystery of the divine), whilst being able to reject the 'bad' stuff. I don't practice anymore but I recognise that it wasn't all bad and some was actually quite powerful and beautiful. Given all this, do you think that I would be safe enough to work with the Golden Dawn tradition, replete as it is with Judeo-Christian symbolism? Would you recommend I do something to perhaps clean out or nullify any latent misgivings I have or may have about the general concept of Judeo-Christian worship?

My second concern is that, from a combination of my own observances and understandings of others' religious experiences, plus reading what you and others have written, I suspect that I will find out that I'm a 'polytheist'. But despite that, there is a pull towards the Golden Dawn tradition more that the Druidic traditions. As such, is it foolish to go down that path? This question and response you once gave on a Magic Monday ( https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/72089.html?thread=6371993#cmt6371993 ) says that the Qabbalistic Tree of Life is compatible with polytheism. However, is practicing magic in a Golden Dawn tradition, as outlined in "Paths of Wisdom", also compatible with polytheism? I mean a sort of belief in polytheism, rather than polytheistic practices.

I have a copy of your "Paths of Wisdom" book and "Circles of Power" is slowly making its way to me in the post. I bought these before I saw that your "Learning Ritual Magic" book existed. I'm happy with what I'm reading in "Paths to Wisdom" and it seems to me that the basics of what a novice mage needs are clearly laid out within. I feel like I can go ahead with this - would you agree?

For future reference, is it better to buy books from you on Amazon? I generally avoid Amazon as much as possible but I noticed that you are the listed seller on Amazon, so I'm thinking that perhaps you get a larger cut of the proceeds if I buy from you on Amazon, as opposed to other online sellers (e.g. I bought "Paths..." on Indigo).

Finally, a question re. proper or wise motivation for taking up magic. There are several strong pulls for me - one is the focus on self-awareness and the discipline and practices needed to achieve such. Second is that it speaks to me more than other esoteric or 'self-knowledge' and growth practices I've lingered around (mainly Buddhism, Yoga and some 'New Agey' practices). But thirdly, there is enormous curiosity. I know you've warned before that 'proving to oneself that magic exists' is not a good reason to take up ritual magic. I've no doubt (for several reasons) that magic does 'exist'. But is curiosity ok? I would like to emphasize that it's curiosity combined with a sincere desire to gain greater understanding of self, of reality and to evolve as a being - it's not a curiosity of "oh let's do this for 'sugar' and giggles", so to speak. And also there has been a spiritual pull towards connecting with the divine and looking beyond the mundane my whole life, but I've never found a satisfactory way of working with that tendency. I've a strong feeling that magic can be the vehicle. But I'd be lying if I said that curiosity and wonder aren't also motivating factors in taking up magic as a means to those ends, rather than, say, an Eastern spiritual tradition. "Paths to Wisdom" is simply more exciting to me than the copy of "The Three Pillars of Zen" that I bought 8 months ago. So is it ok that 'curiosity' is an important part of the matrix of motivations that draw me towards magic?

- Cathal.

Re: Novice questions

[ecosophia]

It's possible to work with Golden Dawn magic from a polytheist standpoint, but if you do, you need to be able to establish a working relationship with the Christian god in his three forms. If that's not something you're comfortable doing, and you still want to work a Golden Dawn-style magical system, you might consider my book The Celtic Golden Dawn -- it's Welsh in focus rather than Irish, but it wouldn't be at all hard to rework it with Irish deities, not least because William Butler Yeats already did the groundwork and I have copies of his papers on the subject.

Amazon pays the least to publishers and authors of any of the big online sources. If you can order directly from the publisher, that's actually best.

As for curiosity and wonder, it's purely a Catholic notion that there's anything wrong with those. Hermeticists and Druids are fine with them.

Sphere of Protection

[(Anonymous)]

Something of a mystery to me. In the SOP there is no visualization for indigo. What reason, other than staging opportunity, is there for this omission? Also, what potential for detriment would there be in substituting indigo at the opening?
Thank you in advance for all your time and efforts.
This is Black Tuna and Hand.

Re: Sphere of Protection

[ecosophia]

1) That strikes me as a very good theme for meditation.

2) Don't tinker with a ritual until you've done it as given extensively -- for example, daily for a year -- and understand it well enough that you know what you're doing. It's very common for people these days to want to change everything around to suit themselves, but the old parable of the Zen master and the teacup comes to mind: doing that is a very good way to avoid learning anything genuinely new...

Divorce anguish

[lunarapprentice]

Hello JMG. This long winded tale does have an occult-related question at the end. Please be patient.

After 18 years in a marriage which really had been failed from the outset, I have emerged from denial, cowardice really, and told my wife I seek a divorce.

I happen to fit the description of Asperger’s syndrome, which I endorse. My wife, “Kim”, often reminds me of this and cites it as a major cause of her suffering, not that she wants divorce, quite the opposite. Our dysfunctional dynamic, in terms of the Eric Berne system of Transactional Analysis (i.e. the ego states of Inner ‘Child’, Inner ‘Adult’, and Inner ‘Parent’…), frequently plays out with me in the dysfunctional ‘Child’ state; anxious, conflict-avoidant and on the defensive, and her in the dysfunctional ‘Parent’ state; angry, judgmental, scolding, controlling, and unpredictable. Every negative thing we experience she weaves into a narrative about her victimhood, with me in the role of victimizer. She even often portrays herself as victim of our 2 daughters (9 and 16), such as when one speaks abusively to her, she’ll tell ME how hurt, devastated and demoralized she is. An example: while holiday shopping last December, our younger daughter was repeatedly rude to her, and Kim turns to me all hang-dog, expecting sympathy saying, “I’m sure having a wonderful holiday, aren’t I?”. I replied, with rare frankness, “If you want to play victim, one excuse is as good as another”. Then she lit into me about how unsupportive and callous I was. Me: “But this problem really isn’t about you”. She responded, indignantly, with a series of intrusive questions about my mental state, and repeatedly asked “What do you mean ‘about me’? ” On another occasion, we were walking about town, and Kim says she’s hungry, so I spontaneously reach into my coat pocket and offer her my chocolate bar. She lashes back at me enraged: “You know I HATE chocolate. You must really not care about me all if you don’t know that. How can you really love me if you don’t know something so basic about me that I’ve told you about a MILLION TIMES!!! F**K YOU!!!” This is followed by an interrogation as to how and why I might have forgotten, and grave conclusions about my character.

She has multiple chemical sensitivities, can’t tolerate perfume, artificially scented soap, the outgassing of new buildings or new household goods, so we usually buy floor models. The EMF from her iPhone burned her hands, so she ordered a model that emits less. Once she became so angry at me, she acted out by violently thrashing about on the bed, like a fish landed on deck, and she pulled a muscle, making her moan and cry, then she became even more angry at me for not being supportive and sympathetic. Have you heard the fairy tale about the princess who is so delicate she can’t sleep atop a stack of 7 mattresses if there is even one pea at the bottom? Kim makes her look like a stoic.

At least 2/3s of our interactions are negative if not toxic. She is daily admonishing, correcting, criticizing me. When I say something she doesn’t like, or more often, fail to say what she would like, she will literally coach me with correct lines as if in theater rehersal. Every other encounter prompts her to mention how I fail to fulfill her expectations in one way or another. Her questions are typically past-oriented “Did you…”, with a feel of interrogation under a klieg light, and often intrusively about underlying emotional/mental states. Her voice inflection frequently has a sing-song affectation as if she performing were on stage in high-school theater, and at times I have an unsettling sense that she is only performing. Our daughters notice these speech/language patterns too, and often call her on it, but to no avail. She replies “That’s who I am.” She often examines and criticizes my reading material and then criticizes me for reading it (including your other blog, and she doesn’t seem to know about this one). BTW JMG, did you know that you are an extremist right wing bigot? And her friends all agree.

She doesn’t drive out of personal preference, so I’m the family chauffeur. I am the sole breadwinner. Her custom humanities BA confers no marketable skills. She has not worked since before our 16-year old daughter was born, though she is now on a 10+ year plan to become clergy and hospital chaplain. She has so far completed 6 years of her education and training, and has an estimated 5 more to go before she becomes credentialed and employable in her new profession. She is 51 years old, and our 16 year-old daughter is embittered that her mother’s educational expenses and lack of income are depriving her of funds that rightfully should be for HER education.

My wife and I had a bitter argument last October. She is a true-blue SJW and Feminist, and had been castigating me for avowedly being neither, and she again chose to “Share my Feelings”, as she puts it, about Feminism. But to me, her imperative, uncompromising wording and scolding tone amounted to a non-negotiable demand that I become a Feminist, explicitly including becoming an activist myself. I refused outright, and she mounted a full court press demanding reasons for my refusal. Of course I knew she was treating our argument as a tacit negotiation, and would counter with some canned talking points that obviously would refute the validity of my refusal. I refused to play that game, and told her the conversation was finished. She said “That’s stonewalling! Stonewalling is abusive! Marriage is all about communication. Don’t you dare turn your back on your own wife when she is trying to communicate to you.” After repeated attempts to disengage, I snarled at her “Get your g*d d****d jaws off my ankle” (invoking the image of a pit-bull), to which she responded with the righteous fury of a True Victim of sexist abuse, proving her original point.

After that fight, something changed. I admitted to myself that our marriage had failed irretrievably. I felt at one time, that I had been working to build a successful union with conscious, good-faith effort, just the way, I imagined, that arranged marriages must surely be built. But such effort never did, and never can, produce that result for us. Over time it morphed into pretending and denial. I was shocked that I had not really admitted it to myself until now; I wondered why and how I did this, and explored my memories of the emotions which arise when I think of Kim, and I realized that apprehension, even dread, were always in the background. Always. And shame. Those emotions in turn forcefully reminded me of my early childhood. They had sucked the life out of me, crippled my Will (which I wrote about on this blog a year or so ago), and made a coward out of me. The only way I can keep those emotions from being elicited by Kim is to fully disengage from her. It took several months for me to gather enough courage to declare the marriage over.

What happened next was that she guilt-tripped me for having ruined her life, for “deceiving” her all the years I supposedly loved her, making her the victim of unrequited love, and depriving her of the career she would have had if I hadn’t “deceived” her, and now with a divorce she will have to withdraw from her chaplaincy program, robbing her of a career again! Other times she just sobs. For the past 3 weeks she is on her best behavior, being pleasant, agreeable and personable with only sparse, restrained appearances of her scolding, intrusive, accusatory persona. She did at one point ask me to move out the house (No), then asked me to move out of the bed-room (done, no need to have asked). She asked me to spend at least 2 or 3 evenings per week out of the house, and not eat at the table, because it breaks her heart to see me in the house, but also asks me to act normally around her, and not be avoidant. She has threatened to call my Freemason lodge brothers (I recently joined and am now initiated) and report me as morally corrupt to get me expelled. She accused me once inappropriately touching our oldest daughter 12 years ago (false), but lately she has turned off all the negative stuff. Allways, she is pleading/pressuring me to not divorce. At first, she would talk at me 20 minutes non-stop, with me facing away, she making a case obviously intended to elicit guilt “…for what you are about to do me and our daughters… You don’t have to do this… I still love you…All my friends agree with me…”. I learned to be silent, even though that still elicits the “stonewalling” and “abuse” charges, which I’ve learned are specific crimes of sexist men, and she gave me a book on why and how men should and can be feminists. Though this past 2 weeks, she has become circumspect and conversational in her entreaties.

Now for the occult-related question: I feel I’m being mind-fracked and almost fighting for my life. Kim’s goal seems to be to retain control over me, with us staying married whether I love her or not. Failing that, I wonder if she wants to destroy me. She has employed misrepresentation of the past, then gas-lights me when I disagree with or don’t remember her version, as well as guilt-tripping, unpredictability, volatility, emotional intimidation, coercion and blackmail. This seems worse than just a bad break-up. I feel that I’ve grabbed a demon by its forked tail, and malignant and powerful one. I fear that I’m vulnerable. I secretly practice a daily banishing ritual with the middle pillar exercise, and usually recite an Orphic Hymn appropriate for the day (though lately I’ve flagged in my practice I think from the stress). I secretly pray to a number of Helenistic deities. I practice affirmations (which somehow don’t seem pertinent). What else do you suggest?

Re: Divorce anguish

[kataskion]

I look forward to seeing JMG's magical advice here, but until then I want to throw my two cents in as the survivor of a break-up with an abusive narcissist (as your ex sounds to me). One of the helpful things I learned was the acronym JADE. It stands for "Justify Argue Defend Explain." These are things to not do. I'll explain - with someone who isn't dangerously toxic, when there's a disagreement or an accusation of wrong-doing, you can talk about your side (justifying, arguing, defending, explaining), the other person will listen and come to see your perspective. The disagreement might persist, but through the process two people at odds can come to better understand each other. People like your ex will use this system, you desire for empathy and your sincere belief that rational understanding is possible, and use it to control and hurt you. Someone like your wife will take these reasonable actions and use them as weapons against you. Justifying yourself? "You're making excuses but you are clearly wrong because you aren't doing things my way. Here's why you're bad..." Arguing for your perspective? "You are attacking me!" Defending your position? "How dare you imply that I am in the wrong here, you're the one in the wrong!" Explain yourself? Now you're just handing them more information that they can use to twist and hurt you with. There's no winning strategy except to end the conversation and walk away. At that point, as you observe, you might get accused of stonewalling or not being willing to communicate or whatever. That's an attempt to get the cycle started again, since then you're tempted to start explaining what you're doing. It's all a control game. As long as she keeps herself as the victim and you as the bad guy, all is right with the world. Any shift to a more equal footing would be terrifying for her. so she can't do it. You're not going to be able to get there. Protect yourself however you can from her legally speaking (she sounds unhinged and I hope you have a good lawyer already) as well as magically (that's for JMG to address of course.) If you catch yourself JADE-ing with her, just stop. She'll hate it, but this is about protecting your mental health, not whatever her image of you is.

Of course I'm basing this on a lot of assumptions that I can't really know about your ex, but your description of her behaviors sound so similar to my ex's (right down to "All my friends think..." because other people's opinions are so very very important to a narcissist) that I wanted to share that and also to let you know that I see what she has done to you. I hope you are able to get away safely. Emotional abuse is so insidious because it eats you away from the inside until you don't know which way is up. I'm glad you're finding your compass.

Inappropriate death

[(Anonymous)]

It's been said before here that when somebody commits suicide they generally have to hang around in the astral plane until the point of when they would have naturally died. (Correct me if I am wrong).

Is this true of all deaths that come about out of synch with somebodies higher self. For example enough bad energy resulting in an incorrectly landed murder, or perhaps large events to a populance. I'm leaping now to an assumption that perhaps this is behind the practice of ritual sacrifices which would perhaps then link the soul to a deity and strengthen that deities influence within the astral and thus earth.

I ask out of observation of something that happened to a dear pet (he always seemed highly evolved to my perhaps biased outlook) of mine after some serious ill will, we were sure we would have him for a very long time, and he seems to have remained with us on an astral level.

Re: Inappropriate death

[ecosophia]

It really does vary from case to case. The afterlife is complicated -- and of course we also don't necessarily know when a death is inappropriate. (The person who got murdered "by accident" could well have been working out their karma through that experience, for example.)

the naked hermit

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

recently I read the book "the naked hermit" by Nick Mayhew-Smith, in it he proposes (among other things) that the central theological peculiarity of the early Celtic Church lay in their interpretation of the beginning of Genesis where God gives 'dominion' over all animals to Adam and Eve.

According to Mayhew-Smith the theologians (in his example Bede Venerabilis) felt, first of all that the 'dominon' was lost in the fall of man, secondly that Bede chose to interpret 'dominion' as a state of balance between man and nature.

Some quotes:

"As the story of Adam and Eve makes plain, this antagonistic relationship with our environment was not part of the original design, it came about because of our sin. To put it another way, there was once a harmonious chain connecting all of creation to the Creator, with humans occupying a pivotal role in the middle. The moment that human link was broken by disobedience, disorder tumbled down through the rest of the created world: everything became tainted by human failing.
This notion of paradise lost is of course not even remotely innovative - it is a mainstay of the Bible and also reflected in other religious traditions. But what is truly remarkable in Bede's formula is the notion that a devout human being is capable of turning the clock back and reverting to this initial state of harmony. And he does not mean this as any sort of supernatural feat [...] He means that this lost paradise is actually right here. The ground beneath our feet, the wind that brings storms and the waves of the sea bear within them a latent imprint of primal perfection."

(Mayhew-Smith 2019, 41-42)

"Human sin from the outset caused damage to the environment, and it is the mission of the faithful man and woman to put that right. There is of course no sense that Adam and Eve were responsible for any form of mass environmental destruction of the type we see today, but rather that the imposition of human values on a naturally balanced hierarchy introduced harmful changes that cut both ways.
The notion that humans should seek to restore any lost 'dominion' over nature might sound dangerous to anyone who longs for a more sensitive relationship between us and the environment. Yet it is also unarguably true. We are at the top of the tree, in evolutionary terms, and we are entirely capable of altering our planet's natural resources, to the extent of destroying pretty much all of them. We might as well accept that our actions and choices are absolutely pivotal when it comes to the health of the natural world around us. 'Dominion' does not mean fighting and overcoming, in any case; it means the original harmonious and orderly coexistence."

(Mayhew-Smith 2019,45-46)

"To deny something such as as global warming, and even more obviously the plastic pollution of our seas and waterways, is to deny the Message of the Bible, from the first book onwards. 'For by the sin of man the earth was cursed', to repeat Bede's understanding of Genesis, if you put that at the heart of your faith, some very interesting consequences will follow."

(Mayhew-Smith 2019,46)

This interpretation of scripture seems to have been more common in the earlier Church but got steamrolled later by the highly anthropocentric form of Christian theology preached by St. Augustine.

Mayhew-Smith's book has some very interesting things to say (especially chapter 2: "Celtic nature theology") but also contains a fair amount of not-so-interesting filler. I'd recommend getting it via interlibrary loan rather than buying it outright if someone is interested. One could also check out Bede Venerabilis and St. Ambrose of Milan.

What do you think, would this be a workable stepping stone for people interested in fusing Christianity and Druidry?

Good to have you back!

Re: the naked hermit

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I wasn't aware of Bede's concept, though it makes sense in terms of early British Christianity. Yes, from my outsider's perspective, that sounds as though it would be worth exploring by Christian Druids.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

There is a confusing pile of literature on lucid dreaming and its relation to out-of-body experiences (OBEs). Materialist writers say that OBE is a special case of lucid dreaming, while some occultist writers suggest lucid dreaming as a stepping stone for OBEs. What is your opinion about the relation of lucid dreaming to astral practices (like astral projection, scrying, pathworking etc.)?

[ecosophia]

In the dream state, you experience the astral plane -- that's what dreams are. So lucid dreaming is an experience of the astral plane in which you retain waking consciousness, and some people can develop lucid dreaming to the point of astral projection.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

Is it possible to observe the shape and trajectory of subatomic particles by using clairvoyance?

[(Anonymous)]

I have a strange form of synesthesia (I assume that's the heading this capacity would fall under anyway) that makes it possible to see air molecules (or maybe their energy signatures) moving around me. There's a pairing of two identical atoms there - could be oxygen or nitrogen. And over here is obviously a carbon dioxide. Pretty weird. Although I can generally block it out whenever I don't want to see it. But whether it's synesthesia, or clairvoyance, or something else entirely, subatomic particles are beyond my scope for sure. Others' mileage may vary of course.
Tripp

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer,

When you invoke similar type of deities from different traditions (let's say goddess of earth from Celtic polytheism and another goddess of earth from Greek polytheism), do they respond to you similarly? I'm asking this because I wonder if these deities are entirely separate entities, or there is a single archetypal deity (a single archetypal "goddess of earth" for the example above) wearing different personified masks for different cultures. (Or maybe these "deities" might be daimons which are working as intermediaries for a single archetypal deity.)

[ecosophia]

In my experience, at least, it's somewhere in between those two. Deities as I experience them have definite personalities, and a Celtic and a Greek Earth goddess can have sharply different personalities and behave in different ways, but I get the sense of a shared underlying energy that flows through the personalized forms. I suspect that it may be not unlike the relationship between a human Individuality -- the part of us that endures from life to life -- with the separate personalities we take on in each life.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

I hope you had a great break, and you managed to finish all the projects you intended to work on!

In the interim, I spent time reviewing the DMH exercises and fine-tuning the SOP (with great results) and went down a rabbit-hole of readings related to Carl Jung. Among other books, I re-read Steppenwolf by Hesse, a book-length interview with Marie-Louise von Franz about Jungian psychology and dream interpretation (by Francis Boa), and an essay you wrote in the AODA journal about the connections between Jungian psychology and the SOP. All very fascinating! Reading von Franz in particular was eye-opening, when you say that Jung was an occultist in a psychologist's clothing, I now see what you mean!

1. Do you have any advice about coming to terms with one's fears? This month, I realized how much influence fear has had over me, and so I journalled and meditated on it, and then started doing the SOP to invoke courage and banish fear in each element. I thought that my fears came mainly from social anxiety, but delving into it made me realize it went deeper: at heart it's fear of irrelevancy and ageing. And even deeper, it may even be fear of choice, of actually being free to make choices every moment. Part of the answer seems to be intentionality: if I focus on my fears, I will continue to have them, but I don't think that's the whole picture.

2. Related to that: I know that magic and psychology are not the same thing but sometimes walk arm-in-arm, but is there anything with magic that relates to the midlife crisis?

3. Since starting the book about Jung and dreams, I've had quite a few. Even closing my eyes for a few minutes often results in dreams. Yesterday during meditation, as I tried to concentrate on the theme, my mind suddenly switched to an image of a woman then an elderly bearded man, neither of whom I recognized. Later on, I closed my eyes for a second or two and instantly another face popped involuntarily into my mind's eye. What might be happening there - why I am getting these images? Have I psyched myself into dreaming now that I've read about dreams?

4. Once I've recorded a few more dreams, is it wise to meditate on them to interpret them myself? In the book, von Franz is emphatic that only external parties should interpret one's dreams because only another can be objective.

5. In the DMH, you wrote about intentionality, and on not focusing on the lack of something, because it will reinforce the lack. In the section on magical symbolism, you wrote that the role of symbols is to help avoid concentrating on emotionally charged imagery and slip into the dangers of focusing on the lack of something (wanting, not having). During an SOP when banishing specific qualities, I presume that one shouldn't therefore focus on the emotionally charged imagery and imagine it being sucked away into whatever element I'm on, and instead just say the words and imagine that quality being swept away in the abstract? For example, if for Fire I banish a lot of parental injunctions which have led to a lack of self-confidence, I should not try to conjure up those memories and then banish them, because the emotional charge might disrupt the working?

I'm very grateful, as always!

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I got most of it done.

1) Meditation and journaling are the way I dealt with mine. There may be some other approaches out there that work, but those are the ones I know.

2) The midlife crisis is the point at which you complete the process of being born and begin the process of dying. That sounds harsh, doesn't it? But the point is that the first half of your life is spent working your way into incarnation and gathering experiences, and the second half is spent processing those experiences, making sense of your life and yourself, and preparing for the end of incarnation and the transition to the afterlife state. It's very common for people to get depressed at the changeover, and though this is unfashionable to say, that's not necessarily a bad thing -- it's worth spending some time mourning for the things you've lost and the dreams you know you won't achieve. The important thing is not to get stuck in the grief; once you've done your mourning, you can pick yourself up, decide what you're going to do with the life you have before you, and go do something magnificent.

3) That's very common. You'll find that if you keep reading Jung, your dreams will also become increasingly Jungian. The subconscious is very suggestible, and responds promptly to this sort of thing by playing along!

4) Remember that von Franz was trying to sell her services and those of other Jungian shrinks. Of course you can meditate on them yourself; that's the classic way in occultism to deal with dreams.

5) Yes, exactly.

Aurum chloratum potency ranges

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, dear JMG!

I just bought the Encyclopedia of Natural Magic to complement my CGD studies and would now like to begin experimenting with fluid condensers. However, since I know nothing about the potency ranges of homeopathic substances, I'm unsure which kind of aurum chloratum I should purchase for an eyebath for developing clairvoyance: the Austrian seller whose products
I've been perusing lists the following potency ranges for liquid aurum chloratum: D (10-200), C (5-200), LM (1-120) and Q (1-30). Are you able to say how they correspond to the 1x, 2x and 3x potencies you mention in this context? (And is there a difference between the European and US formats in this regard?)

Thanks so much again!

Re: Aurum chloratum potency ranges

[ecosophia]

The D potency range in Europe is the x potency range in the US, so D10 is 10x. If you can't get anything smaller in the D range, D10 will do -- it has the full etheric quality of the gold, though the very limited amount of physical gold means you'll probably have to use it more often to get the same result.

Question from a dream

[(Anonymous)]

I had this vivid dream in January, and in it I wanted to ask you for advice on a Magic Monday. Not dream interpretation, because you don't do that, but advice about what to do if a person were in the situation from the dream, if it is all right to ask you a hypothetical question.

In it I was sick and broke and I had lost my job and I had no choice but to move back in with my elderly mother. She had recently moved to a place that was very cheap - because there had been two lots of murders committed there decades apart, and it had been empty for years. Neither my mother or I are the most robust of people, so not the best specimens to be living in a place with bad vibes like this. She is an atheist and doesn't believe in ghosts but is pretty senstitive emotionally and physically.
In a cupboard there was even a picture of the last person who was killed in the house, with a yellowing newspaper cutting, and it was gruesome. The woman had been a devout Christian and the murderer had tortured her for days and eventually crucified her.

So not only are there a heck of a lot of bad vibes, there was this Christian dimension too. In the dream I was getting increasingly worried that it would be impossible to get better in this place, I couldn't afford anywhere else without a job, wasn't well enough to spend much time away from home and I was feeling like the house would drag us both down with it. I felt like daily banishing rituals couldn't possibly be enough.

Re: Question from a dream

[ecosophia]

If you end up in a place like that you need to find another place to live. A really capable mage, or a devout and experienced mystic, could clean up that kind of mess, but it takes heavy metaphysical artillery, so to speak.

[(Anonymous)]

I seem to recall you (or perhaps someone else on the blog?) saying that you knew people who had had decent results in magic using electric candles, where it was impossible to use real flames. Maybe because of strict fire regulations in accommodation, or severe asthma or other lung disease, I don't know. I remember being a little surprised but also relieved, as I need them, but can't find the post again. Do you have any advice on how to choose them or how long to use them, or can you link to advice?

[ecosophia]

I've used electric candles in ritual with fine results. A flame turns chemical energy into light, and an electric light bulb connected to a battery does exactly the same thing, so the difference isn't important. One advantage of electric candles is that you can make sleeves of colored paper to slip over them, so (for example) if you need a blue candle, you just put blue paper over it. You can also anoint the paper with oils, write words and draw symbols on them, etc., just the way you would on a wax candle.

The ones I've used came from a craft store; they're white, about 8 inches tall and just under an inch across, with a flame-shaped light bulb on top. If you can find those, you can use those for every magical purpose; be sure to stock up on batteries, though, so you can replace them quickly if one of the candles begins to dim in the middle of a working.

Astrology

[hwistle]

Welcome back John! Hope you had a restful and re-vitalizing break from full-time blogging.

I have two question of an astrological nature, if I might...

1. When two planets are in a an aspect relationship, are both planets influencing each other equally or are we talking of one planet mainly influencing the other? And if the last, how do you tell which planet is the 'Aspecter': Is it the one closest to Earth or the one farthest?

2. When a sign is ruled by more than one planet (traditional and modern) Do we take both planets' influences in consideration or focus in just one? My AC is in Scorpio so I'm not sure if my chart ruler should be Pluto, Mars or both...

Many thanks for this and for keeping Magic Mondays rolling again, oh, and belated Happy Imbolc!

Re: Astrology

[ecosophia]

1) When two planets are in aspect they're both influenced by it. It's habitual among astrologers to say that the faster-moving planet aspects the slower-moving one, but that's just for convenience; when Mercury squares Mars, Mars is also squaring Mercury, and both planets' energies are affected. This is even true in a transit, say; if Mercury is squaring your natal Mars position, for you, both Mercurial and Mars energies are affected, though of course the aspect only influences people who have the same Mars placement in their natal charts that you do.

2) I assign two signs to each of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars) and one to each luminary and outer planet (Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Minor bodies such as Pluto and Ceres have their own equivalent of rulerships, of course -- Pluto is strong in Scorpio and weak in Taurus, just as Ceres is strong in Virgo and weak in Pisces -- but I don't assign actual rulerships to them. So as I would read it, Mars is the ruler of your chart.

Politics

[(Anonymous)]

Glad to hear your time was well spent. This past month was very exciting especially taking into consideration your astrological predictions.

Speaking of which:

In Levi’s book it says occult practitioners should not get involved with politics. Obviously Eliphas had some issues with the law before beginning his studies, but in your case much of your writing takes a firm stance on some political issues and yet you seem to be a perfectly functional and highly productive mage.

Obviously there is a line somewhere between sharing opinions and insight vs spending all day wallowing in the kind of hardcore nastiness that could easily send the unitiniated down the wrong path. I am asking as a writer and someone involved in organized labor as well as other groups who are against constitutional infringement.

Thanks!

Re: Politics

[ecosophia]

I don't think Levi meant that occultists shouldn't have political opinions, or that they shouldn't engage in the political process in the same way most people do -- voting, for example, or belonging to advocacy organizations. Dion Fortune's War Letters also show that there are ways to engage in political action that are wholly appropriate -- but there are also ways that are not.

To some extent, I think Levi was reflecting on his own experience; before he met Wronski, his occult teacher, and got into occultism, he was very active in radical politics and did two stints in jail for writing subversive literature. Going whole hog into politics, or occultism for that matter, leaves only so much room for the other: that's the point I think he was trying to make.

Geomancy question (will I reunite with a lover?)

[(Anonymous)]

I posted a geomancy question earlier, but realised I messed up the interpretation of the house chart; I had confused Albus and Rubeus when reading it.

Please disregard the earlier query if possible!

Geomancy question: Will she be my lover again?

I class this as 7th House because I want to have a long term relationship with her, not just a short-term one.

Four Mothers:
Carcer, Albus, Puella, Puella

I met a girl, we bonded really well over a short period of time, she's my favourite girl I ever met from a dating app. But due to a few issues, it seems she doesn't want to see me again.

She follows modern astrology, and she feels like my Mars in Sag doesn't mesh well with her Mars in Virgo in terms of passion and sex, and also secondarily, my Mercury in Sag vs her Mercury in Capricorn indicates we have communication difficulties. Otherwise, our planets seem very compatible and our personalities and interests likewise.

1st - Carcer. Fits my current state quite well honestly.

7th- Fortuna Major

There is perfection by mutation from the 2nd to the 6th. 3, 4, 5 are all Puella, which is interesting.

I recently spent a substantial amount of money (2nd) on astrological talismans (6th as "other people's magic"), they'll be arriving soon, so I suspect that could be the 2nd-6th link.

The Reconciler is also Fortuna Major, the figure of the quesited. So in the end, whatever happens, it will be fortunate I guess.

I would read this as saying that I have a chance of seeing her again, perhaps mediated by the power of the talismans?

Re: Geomancy question (will I reunite with a lover?)

[ecosophia]

If the chart perfects the answer is "yes."

Welcome back, teacher! We missed you...

[(Anonymous)]

I've been dealing with a "prostate" issue for over two months now - 30 days of antibiotics had very little affect on it - then felt led to reread some entry-level material on the standard GD rituals I've been doing for 8 months now.

Turns out I wasn't doing the Middle Pillar quite like you recommend, so I altered it to the original form and benefitted immediately...down there. Then I cast a geomantic house chart about whether the improper MPE I'd been doing was damaging my etheric body, represented in the Yesod sphere. The answer came back very clearly YES. So I now view the corrected MPE to be something akin to medicine every time I practice it. And, with one episode of physical imbalance on Imbolc aside, things seem to be steadily improving in the Yesod department for a change. Happy for that, believe me...

One of the only things I've gotten any relief from through all this has been regular dunks below the waist in a cold stream (the effect of cold showers didn't seem to be as robust). Lately I've taken to doing my creek dunks completely naked from the waist down, which has helped even more. Time before last I started vibrating the trad GD name of power for Yesod while I'm submerged. Figured I'd add the violet sphere visualization next time (it's a fairly breathtaking 30 seconds or so and my brain isn't always on top of its game!).

But I do wonder, is it safe to invoke in an unbanished space like this? Does the cold rushing water cleanse the space on its own? This has been quite the learning experience!

Many thanks,
Tripp

Re: Welcome back, teacher! We missed you...

[ecosophia]

Yes, you can invoke in a natural environment in relative safety, especially if you are doing the Middle Pillar regularly; and yes, cold running water will do a fair job of banishing all by itself. You might want to pick up a copy of Israel Regardie's fine little book The Art of True Healing, which gives instructions for using the Middle Pillar for healing purposes.

Divination

[(Anonymous)]

In the comments below the Coelbren post in January you said something about switching oracles every 6 months to a year (IIRC). Should we all be doing this? If so, why? Seems like the more time you spend with an oracle the better your results will be. Or do the folks on the other end of the line get bored or annoyed with us curious humans and need a vacation or something?

Tripp

Re: Divination

[ecosophia]

No, it's not something you need to do! I do it purely because I've got so many irons in the fire; I'd be a better diviner if I stuck to just one -- but as a teacher, I need to be familiar with the whole range of oracles in the traditions I'm teaching.