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.

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With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- and yes, this means you. See you next week!***
 

Comments

Re: Divorce anguish

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Lunar,

you cannot know how your post hit me. I've found JMG's blog few years ago at my lowest point, asking the universe for help for any help in the loneliest misery I am stuck in. Yes, speaking of the coldest, most brute person ( and you're married to him with two kids as well; 15 years) wanting to destroy you and enjoying every piece of damage he can detect. One is so naive to think initially ( for many years) that you can reason him and yourself out of it. Finally my tormented brain started to see the patterns, every few weeks or months of 'normal' then to be hit by everything from in best case a silent treatment to worst accusations of moral and life failings. This caused me physical and well, mental symptoms, where I doubted my existence was worth anything at all. Yes, I know how it sounds, like I'm not a full-on adult, able to recognize what's going on around me.
Children are involved to full extent too to see that their mother is insufficient and not really needed just him.
Long story but I just stopped talking, at all. Just silence all the time. Yes you can go on for weeks with saying maybe one, two words a day ( really!), like " did he eat? ( my son). There is a huge power to silence!
Yes, it's a bad, bad life, a shameful misery that you cannot think to yourself about. I talked to friends finally, who I thought would laugh at me - but they were all supportive!! I couldn't believe it! They actually believed me! Yes, listen to JMG and talk to your fellow Masons, anyone you think likes you. And so you know, your loneliness is their weapon, he used to hit on all my girlfriends, the ones I had left - yes, the very ones I finally opened up to and who stuck with me.
Also I don't think it has anything to do with your condition, she just picked that because it was so easy to hurt you there. Speaking of double impact: she is the one who is damaged by harming you!! Yes, you actually believe that after so many years. I actually started to believe myself ugly while he himself used to say that he married me for my looks. Going on for years without anything physical and asking yourself what is this body even good for? Finally after research ( !) it downed on me that they would never go for a not attractive person because it would reflect badly on them! Right? I bet you look just fine, right? You need research bc you don't trust your own mirror or clothes! Plus you do actually sometimes look like wreck since you cannot sleep for nights at end.
When your friends tell you that you deserve happiness and you think they speak in tongues. Details are different for different people but the abuse does the same thing. Yes, it's crazy, crazy all around, that's what it makes you.
Anyone can have something, I think my issue is my parent's catholic, sacrificing, silently bad marriage that thought me all the wrong things to be expected from a relationship. When I read JMG's comments about his wife and other men here it's like a different world I don't belong to.
And probably other things, yes it is that hard to rework your own mind and I'm still at it.
So I applaud you for taking your life back, your kids are older then mine so it'll be easier for them I hope. Write down all the things she said, with dates, like office memos. Same for any physical incidents like destroying things, threatening the kids etc. Make copies of all financials and keep them with someone else. Keep some cash away. Talk to some lawyers, some charge $100 for an initial consultation, don't expect them to understand unless they've dealt with someone like that. Same for therapists, don't EVER go to a therapist with her; she'll turn them against you and you'll feel double stupid. Journaling like JMG usually suggests may be good too, you may have to destroy the paper right after you're done since she's going through your stuff.
If you really leave or right before, she might take it up a notch and make you a new little hell. That's a dangerous time a therapists told me once.
I really wish you all the best and am so thankful for our host who gives help and hope to so many! Thanks for this Church of Sanity!
So happy New Year and hail to January, the month of divorces!
A.

Re: Divorce anguish

[(Anonymous)]

I meant brutish in a sense of mindset, not in a physical way. It's all on emotional level.