Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight as I type this, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. This week's classic of Western occultism is A Vision by William Butler Yeats. As most people know (I hope!), Yeats was one of the 20th century's great poets, but he was also a lifelong occultist and a high-ranking member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A Vision was the result of a joint magical working he and his wife Georgianna (also a Golden Dawn adept) carried out over many years. I know of nothing with which to compare it other than the I Ching; like that Chinese classic, it's a set of symbols expressing a cyclic theory of time, but A Vision works with 28 phases, each of which is linked with a symbolic phase of the Moon, and each of which expresses a particular moment in the life of an action, a creative project, a human life, a series of incarnations, or an age of the world. Deep?  Plunge into it and it just keeps going. 

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!***

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Comments

Stoicism

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
I read a bit of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations every day. I have been meditating on snippets from The Meditations for a year or so and have found the practice to be a great benefit to my life and my study of Driudry. I find I think before I speak and Marcus' words often come to me as a reminder before I form my reply.
Maxine

Re: Stoicism

[amritarosa]

Hi Maxine (& JMG too),

What translation of Meditations do you have/like?

Is there a favored version of the Enchiridion as well?

Thanks!
Bonnie

Re: Stoicism

[barefootwisdom]

If I may, I'm very fond of Robin Hard's translation of Epictetus (the Enchiridion, or Handbook, together with the much longer Discourses), which appears in the Oxford Worlds Classics series of inexpensive paperbacks. It combines really smooth prose with great accuracy, plus some genuinely helpful endnotes for those who are so inclined.

Re: Stoicism

[amritarosa]

Thanks!
B