Magic Monday
Feb. 16th, 2020 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
It's a little shy of midnight, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. This week's classic book of Western occultism is The Kybalion, the most enduring of the many works that blended occultism with New Thought. (New Thought? That's the classic American movement of self-help through mind training that emerged after the Civil War as people started paying attention to the way that thinking shapes experience and emotions affect health.) It's the original source of the Seven Hermetic Principles -- the Principles of Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender -- and of many other core concepts of 20th century American occultism. According to the cover, The Kybalion was written by "Three Initiates;" in fact, it was written by one, the redoubtable William Walker Atkinson, one of the most influential American occultists of his time. If Hermes can be Thrice Great, no doubt Atkinson can be Thrice Initiate...
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***This Magic Monday is now closed -- and yes, this means you. See you next week!***
Jean Markale
Date: 2020-02-17 05:03 am (UTC)Re: Jean Markale
Date: 2020-02-17 05:14 am (UTC)LRP In Cluttered Spaces
Date: 2020-02-17 05:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 05:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 05:33 am (UTC)I know I’ve got a ways to go before I can use the tarot for divination with any confidence (several months in I feel like I can come up with a plausible post facto interpretation from my daily readings more often than not, but moments of genuine insight/TSW are much rarer, occurring with about as much frequency as complete stumpers), but I also find myself growing increasingly astrologically curious. I gather that you’d recommend sticking to one system of divination at a time, but do you think it would be biting offf too much to pursue a study of the basics of astrology while continuing to use tarot for daily use (For what it’s worth, I did try a tarot reading on this question and drew the Ace of Wands, the Magician, and the Wheel of Fortune, which struck me as broadly positive)?
Finally, on an unrelated note, after having recently changed to more physically demanding job than I’d been previously used to, I’ve been waking up with sore muscles nearly every morning. This past week, after reading the discussion here I started taking cold morning showers (or rather, your washcloth variant) and have found, much to my surprise, that contact with cold water completely removes the pain I’ve been having, pretty much instantaneously. Not sure if the effect is physical or etheric, but either way I’m grateful. So, thanks for that, and for your advice as always!
-NPM
Re: LRP In Cluttered Spaces
Date: 2020-02-17 05:38 am (UTC)Weird of Hali Series
Date: 2020-02-17 05:40 am (UTC)This has nothing to do with The Kybalion. I just wanted to let you know I have started reading The Weird of Hali series and am absolutely loving it. I haven’t had this much enjoyment from a series of books since my first reading of Tolkien. I completely fell in love with the ancient history of the elves and am now completely enthralled with the ancient history of the Great Old Ones.
Thank you!
Elizabeth in Seattle
(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 05:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 05:49 am (UTC)2) Oh, by all means learn the basics of astrology any time you like. You can even spend some time studying your natal chart -- always the best way to take astrology out of the realm of theory and start seeing how it works in practice. Just remember that astrology is far and away the most complex and richly developed Western system of divination, by a couple of orders of magnitude. Be prepared to put years into getting a basic grasp of it.
3) Fascinating! That's good to know.
Re: Weird of Hali Series
Date: 2020-02-17 05:51 am (UTC)Re: Weird of Hali Series
Date: 2020-02-17 05:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 06:07 am (UTC)1. I had a most enjoyable experience just now doing the SOP in a dark room, as in it being night time with the lights turned off. Would practicing it in this manner pose any particular problems in your experience? For me it made visualization of each of the 6 glyphs a bit easier and more vivid for me.
2. Not really a question per-se, but rather a personal data point I'd like to share with you and everyone here. SOP has been helping me greatly with my lifelong moodiness and crankiness issues. Before doing spiritual practices I would too often knee-jerk react to the crummy energies around me and sometimes snap at people in ugly ways. But now it seems like when I come into contact with other people's negative energies I'm able to internally process these emotional sensations in a more detached manner and actually observe them as internal phenomena rather than just blindly let these feelings make me react in a predictable and unreflective manner. I've thought about this and it seems the main problem has been a rather unclean astral (or etheric??) environment I've been in close quarters with some quite some time. I've always been extremely sensitive to other people's moods and habits and at times have become a recluse to avoid the emotional weather (or maybe just weird vibes) other people emit. It really does seem the unseen environment out there really is a colossal mess! And hopefully I'm now doing my tiny little part of make the area immediately around me less unpleasant. SOP was very subtle at first, but the cumulative effects really seem to be stacking up now that I've been at it for about 6 months now.
3. This one is a question. I've been studying up on the 7 elements and the 8-spehere/wheel chart as you present them in DMH. Some questions:
(a) At first glance some of the correspondences strike me as a bit novel (or at least unconventional) when compared to more established systems. For example, associating Saturn with the spring equinox, Venus with Air (tbh, I've seen different systems present totally different hot takes on what Venus corresponds to), and Mercury with Spirit (ether??. Out of curiosity, how did you arrive at the correspondences in this system come about? I do realize that your system does seem to bring out different aspects of the elements and planets and in general the planets are probably way too complex and multifaceted to be associated with just one element. Did I just answer my own question?
(b)I've seen another magical system that uses 7 elements and instead of Spirit Below and above, the added elements (to the usual 4) are Wood, Metal, and Spirit. are used. As these getting at the same sort of thing as the SOP elements?
(c) Is there a direct correlation between the 7 SOP elements and the 8 spheres of the calendar wheel? Obviously one set has 7 and the other, 8. Which element of the wheel is left out of the ritual? Is Mercury/Spirit? Or is that fused with the 3 spirit elements?
So far I've figured:
Gwyar = Spirit Within / Lunar Current
Nwyfre = Spirit Above / Solar Current
Calas = Spirit Below / Telluric Current
Earth = Earth/North
Water = Water/West
Fire = Fire/South
Air = Air/East
Spirit = All 3 spirit elements?
This sound about right? Apologies if this is pedantic, as my brain tends to go into OCD mode when presented with elements and correspondences.
Re: Weird of Hali Series
Date: 2020-02-17 06:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 06:23 am (UTC)2) Very glad to see it.
3a) Well, the answer I was going to give was "What a wonderful set of themes for meditation!" but your answer is close enough. ;-)
3b) Nope. As a rule of thumb, different symbolic systems are no more interconvertible than the grammars of different languages. (Rule-of-thumbly, systems symbolic different than of different languages the grammar intercomvertible no more are...)
3c) Here are two pies of equal diameter. I have cut one of them into eight pieces and one into seven. Which of the eight pieces are left out of the pie that's been cut into seven pieces?
(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 06:25 am (UTC)Hoodoo washing the dishes and Orphic Hymn to Mercury
Date: 2020-02-17 06:40 am (UTC)Also, I published my first in a series of Orphic hymns. I've written about 16 or 17 of them. It's downloadable at no charge and I made free sheet music for guitar.
https://queeniemusic.bandcamp.com/track/orphic-hymn-to-mercury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZLNhvUdBtg
Mental disjunct sets
Date: 2020-02-17 06:59 am (UTC)1) I am not sure I understand correctly the difference between astral and mental. I understand that astral es the realm of dreams and some thought but then the mental, if I recall correctly, is more concerned with the basic building patterns of thought. What does the matter mean?
2) Using my mind is one of the things I value about myself but I feel my mind is strong in an unbalanced way, for example someone that has gone to the gym to build big muscles but when it comes to dexterity it just fails. What is a way of becoming a mental martial artist in order to balance and shield my mind? Discursive meditation also does this? If so I have much work to do...
3) Concerning the blindness of some thought patterns, like the one our progress-drunk society has or for example someone very rich that behaves like a yerk (convinced he is entitled) or apparently Crowley. What is this apparent disjunction that makes some thought patterns blind you against others? It also works the other way around, for example good and honest people have trouble identifying lies or lying themselves, not because they are naïve, they seem to literally not see it. Is this somehow how consciousness affects our perception and how are actions and thoughts affects our consciousness?
I think I have to stop, concerning my trouble of not being able to stop thinking to the point of a headache but, this kinda makes me think we some things seem completely outside our reach and look like gibberish until you have the right “consciousness” to actually “see”. On the other side it also is a cautionary tale from now on to me, of the dangers of not having any sort of spiritual practice in today’s world... If you are under the effect of some nasty ness, you are completely blind to it!
Many thanks, shall I say again, for your work has had a direct impact on my life and wellbeing.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 07:29 am (UTC)The idea I had was to look at the history of when each planet was discovered, and how they reshaped society. This lead me to conclude that each planet brings forth most, but by no means all, of their effects on society through a single thing.
Thus, Uranus brings forth its effects through Utopianism, by attempting to bring forth the perfect, and rejecting the establish imperfect society, radical change of a sort not seen prior the discovery of Uranus occurs. The irony of it all is that this idea which fuels Uranian cultural forms is often rejected by people with a strong Uranus, but the universe seems to have a good sense of humor, so it seems plausible.
Neptune brings forth its effects via the idea of evolution; it reveals changes, unities, but is often misunderstood; additionally, plenty of fields were revolutionized during the period when Neptune came into focus by noticing how evolution occurred, and revealing hidden linkages between things. Fields such as religious studies, biology, linguistics, and anthropology were all created or revolutionized during the time around the discovery of Uranus by evolutionary thinking; and the unities, delusions, and strange ideas which emerge from the ideas of evolution continue to bring forth many of the Neptunian elements of society to this day.
Ceres brought forth the Romantic Era, which is perhaps easiest to see due to the fact it ended, and is not part of the world anymore. At its heart, Romanticism was an embrace of the natural world, and not just as something outside of us, but as something which defines us as human beings. It was about embracing our connection to the world of nature, in all of its glory, and power.
Finally, Pluto brought forth many of its effects by the oil age. The growth in organized crime occurred due in large part to the totalitarianism of the 20th century governments; this was only possible due to the huge amounts of energy contained in oil. Nuclear power was only possible due to the oil subsidy; massive pollution, global dimming, came from oil. As did the alienation, due to car culture. The brutal wars were fought using machines powered by oil; the rejection of the natural world was also only possible due to the oil age.
There's something which got started at the period when I'd expect to see Eridian themes coming into focus, which has radically reshaped society, and which seems unlikely to last much longer: the internet. Now, what's the main use of the internet been? Porn and theft of various kinds. Both of these are strongly Eridian in nature; the world's governments either tolerate a level of lawless chaos which is horribly destructive to society in exchange for surveillance capabilities which make the KGB look lackluster, or use it for horrific, totalitarian control (or both); it's payed for in no small part by theft and sex trafficking; and the level of abuse it enables is incredible.
1) Does my analysis of how astrological planets affect society sound plausible to you?
2) Do you think it's possible the internet is evidence Eris functioned as an astrological planet?
3) I expect I'll need to spend years working on getting the basics before I can look into it further, but what would you look for to see if Eris was a planet?
(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 07:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 07:50 am (UTC)The first theme was the secular vs regular clergy distinction. I took it as a theme, and found I saw exactly why it is Druidry would prefer to use a regular clergy, and Christianity a secular clergy, given the general Uranian ethos of the former and Neptunian ethos of the later. I then saw it as a binary, and so decided to try to resolve it into a trinary.
This was today's meditation, and it was very fruitful. The summary is that the binary is due to a focus on the role of the priest: a secular clergy focuses on the effects on the community; a regular clergy on the effects on the self. If one does the work out of love for the divine, without thinking of any of the effects, then that would be a distinct way of looking at it that leads out of the binary. This would be a Venereal form of clergy though, alongside Uranian (regular) and Neptunian (secular); this then made me start thinking about the possibility of other types, and now I'm wondering if each planet has its own type of clergy (Mercurial clergy would be theologians, without a doubt, but I'm not sure of the others).
1) Does this sound like a good set of meditations on the theme?
2) The question of different types of clergy mapped onto each of the astrological planets, as well as the implications of the "general Uranian ethos of Druidry" both seem like they would be wonderful themes for meditation, but I suspect this would be taking me too far afield for my present goals.
I suspect there's a balance to be found, between following these ideas out and unpacking as much as possible, and sticking close to the text and avoiding going off on tangents. Do you have advice on how to maintain this balance?
Tracking spell?
Date: 2020-02-17 07:56 am (UTC)First my background is basically doing SoP daily for the past six months, an not much else of experience with ritual magic.
I was walking in the forest and thought about all the tracks that must be there and how nice it would be to see more of them (yelous of my dog perhaps, because she seems to have a very interesting time when we walk in the forest). Is there any way of seeing etheric tracks or similar to enhance the ability to track someone or something?
Second question is perhaps premature since I havent finished the Circles of Power yet, but reading the rituals in the book makes me wonder where one should insert the carefully formulated phrase tha is about to be willed forth by the appropriate ritual(s)?
If I invoke Fire for example, using the greater ritual of the pentagram, then when do I ask it to do my bidding? Perhaps I'm confusing this to much with prayer?
Thanks in advance, Ola
Re: Weird of Hali Series
Date: 2020-02-17 07:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 08:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-17 08:31 am (UTC)Geomancy
Date: 2020-02-17 09:30 am (UTC)regarding the publication of scientific papers I assume it is a third house mater(?) So, I cast this chart to figure if this particular journal will accept my paper to publication:
1 - acquisitio
2 - caput D.
3 - tristitia
4 - caput D
5 - populus
6 - puer
7 - acquisitio
8 - via
9 - albus
10 - conjuctio
11 - puer
12 - amissio
RW rubeus
LW Caput D.
J - Fortuna Mayor
I read the chart as being favourable , as it perfects with Caput D in the 2nd and the fourth house, tristitia in the third would mean that major revisions would be asked, and the whole process would take some time.The court didn't look so bad either. So and I mad the submission but the journal desk rejected it - they did send it to a transfer desk to be submitted in another journal with an editorial line more "quantitative". Still, I have never been so wrong reading a chart, and I still didn't figure where did I misread the chart. Any opinions?
Thanks!