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 The Mysteries of Britain by Lewis Spence. Spence was both an occultist and a first-rate scholar, who wrote solid volumes on Mexican mythology and equally solid volumes on the legend of Atlantis. A Scotsman active in plenty of corners of the British occult scene of his time, he had connections with a variety of Druid organizations, and wrote several books on Druid Revival spirituality, of which this is probably the best; his folklore book The Minor Traditions of British Mythology, while it's not strictly speaking a work of occultism, is practically required reading if you're interested in British elves, goblins, and spirits. 

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, that means you.  See you next week!***

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com! 

Comments

[tunesmyth]

Hello JMG, and also Grover if you're reading this week, and everyone else,

The subject of Grover's MM question last week ended up being an extremely fruitful topic of meditation over the last few days. Grover's question regarded whether there might be any special meaning when he finds that the four Daughters are exactly the same as the four Mothers. As it happened, immediately the next day my morning daily reading gave me the same kind of reading -- four Daughters matching the four Mothers. I am not sure how rare this is mathematically, but I will say that it was my first time in the months I've been practicing geomancy. This was, of course, strong encouragement to continue considering exactly what this means.

Grover's reading last week indicated that four Daughters identical to their four Mothers does indeed mean something in particular-- but what, exactly? Other than a vague "look, here-- there is something to notice", that was left unanswered. I have come up with an initial hypothesis that seem compelling to me.

First, we know the four by four grid of binary grid that makes up the four Mothers as an snapshot, in pixelated form so to speak, of all the elemental forces that are at play in the situation. We know from basic geomantic theory that the four Mothers add up to the Right Witness-- the Querent and everything they bring to the question at hand. (It's even possible to bypass the four nieces entirely to do this-- just add all four fire lines at once to make a final single fire figure of one or two dots, all the four air lines to make a single air figure, and so on for water and earth, and boom! You get the Right Witness.) Likewise we know from basic theory that the four Daughters add up in the same way to the Left Witness-- the Quesited, or matter asked about, and everything they bring to the situation.

Now the most interesting thing to me, in terms of its implications, from this setup is that the four Mothers are in fact exactly the same dots as the four Daughters. The fire lines of the first Mother become the fire, air, water, and earth of the First Daughter, and so on, we all know the drill. What this means is that while the four Mothers are a snapshot of the situation from the Querent's point of view-- a 2D grid-- the four Daughters are seeing exactly the same situation in a 2D grid from their different perspective... but it looks different. But the universe at the time of the question is 3D. There is the rest of the elephant as well. By placing our right eye to the lens of the Right Witness, and our left eye to the lens of the Left Witness, we are now seeing our question in 3D: aka, the Judge.

So, back to the original question. In cases where the Right Witness and the Left Witness are exactly the same, we can say that our elemental snapshot of the universe for the Querent and for the Quesited are exactly the same down to the fine details. Another way of putting this is that, regarding the question at hand, the elemental forces at work on and in the Querent are exactly the same as they are as the forces at work on and in the Quesited. Our Judge pressing their eyes to their left and right eyepieces sees exactly the same image in both; at the 4x4 level of resolution we are working with here, there is such an exact accord between both Witnesses that our Judge might take their stereoscope and shake it a little bit to check of everything was locked into place, for it would seem as if they weren’t seeing an image in three dimensions at all!

This means, first of all, that the world as it appears to the Querent— at least as regards the question at hand, in the moment it is asked— is pretty much how the world really is. Because the facts of the matter that they can’t see agree with their viewpoint down to the fine particulars. Thus, they already have the answer, even if the pieces haven’t all come together for them yet.

Also, this strong congruence between the one doing the asking, and the thing they are asking about shows a state where they are in complete balance. It also suggest that since the forces of the universe are acting on both Querent and Quesited completely equally, this is a situation that any small action by the Querent can shift this balance (but the same goes for the Quesited)-- so it is a prompt for speedy action in the desired direction.

Another corollary is that the future that is coming for the Querent is will be mirrored in the future coming for the Quesited as well, and vice versa for that matter. As a small aside, on the day my Daughters equaled their Mothers, both Witnesses were Carcer, and of course the Judge Populus. It occurred to me even at the time that the two rings resembled eyes (which certainly matches well with the analogy of a stereoscope). Well, through the course of the day, one notable occurrence was that one of the girls that go to the school where I work got poked in the eye by the corner of a portable whiteboard and had to visit the hospital to check if it was serious. She was okay, but there were tears (Populus?). Then, as I rode my bike home in the evening, a bug flew into my eye. I was okay, but there were tears for me, too!

Finally, matching Mothers and Daughters is a configuration of at least some power, because in all cases, both the Left Witness and the Right Witness will be pushing and pulling in all of the same directions, and the same flow and flavor of energies come from both, so the forces surrounding both Querent and Quesited at play are working both streams in unison . This is reflected in the fact that in all such cases, the Judge will end up as Populus— a visual representation of two streams in unison.

I had more insights stemming from these thoughts, which lead to a more focused, proper question—but it seems I've run out of time to explain enough to ask it! I hope I have time later for it. In the meantime, I guess I'll just ask: JMG, does all of this seem reasonable to you so far?

Thanks,
Umber Refulgent Cow

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Yes, that does seem reasonable. What's needed at this stage is close comparison of a great many readings that have that pattern to the events as they turn out, to see if your analysis is mirrored by events more generally.

[(Anonymous)]

I sure hope this is less depressing than the other topic is getting.

[ecosophia]

Well, let's make an effort together to make that happen.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

1. In your opinion, will the scientific method retain its stronghold over natural epistemology in the distant future? I don’t mean scientism, but the study of questions that are amenable to the empirical, naturalistic approach (which is only a subset of all questions that can be asked). Do you see something else replacing science in this area, and if so, what would that be?

2. Related to the above: do you see humans ever arriving at a definite approach to metaphysics, in the way that agreement has more or less been reached in the study of the natural world at the present time?

3. Does a substance in natural magic have any particular significance for an individual if the astrological correspondence of the substance is present their natal chart? For example, Angelica for an individual with Sun in Leo.

4. What happens karmically prior to great historical disasters like the Black Death or the Mongol invasions? Are they some kind of karmic payoff on a massive scale?

[ecosophia]

1) If modern science follows the same historical curve as equivalent discoveries such as logic and mathematics, the next millennium or so will go into sorting out what can and can't be done with the scientific method, and it will end up being spread among most or all literate societies as a standard element of the intellectual toolkit of educated people. At the same time, it won't have anything like the prestige it has now.

2) That's impossible to know in advance. No Roman thinker could have predicted the emergence of the scientific method.

3) Not that I've seen, but by all means experiment with it and see what your results are.

4) In theory, yes -- major disasters are supposed to discharge large-scale buildups of negative collective karma. I don't know that I'd want to try to identify the specific causes, though.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

I'm planning my first natural magic working after picking up your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic earlier this year (great resource, by the way), and I would appreciate some constructive criticism.

My intent is to do a personal transformation working for courage & strength of will. To that end, I chose the correspondences of Aries, Mars and Fire. The form of the working will be an amulet or small red sachet worn on the right hand (the location chosen due to the Aries correspondence, and the red color chosen due to the Mars correspondence).

I picked the following ingredients:

- Basil (airy, Mars in Scorpio); use the leaves
- Bloodstone (fiery, Mars in Aries)
- Cinammon (fiery, Mars in Aries); use the bark
- Nettle (fiery, Mars in Aries); use the leaves

Timing will be chosen using electional astrology, when the Moon and Mars are in favorable positions.

Any general feedback would be welcome, and I also had the following concerns:

a. Are there any easy consecrations I could do as a novice? If not, I plan to just put the ingredients together at the opportune time and leave it at that.

b. Is it OK to source the ingredients commercially, as long as they were ethically produced? I'm not sure if I want to invest in a garden just yet.

[ecosophia]

That seems like a very workable choice. The one thing you might want to consider is adding a suitable stone; that would give you five ingredients, five being the number of Mars, and a stone will hold the energy longer than herbs will. A beryl would be a good choice as it grants victory and strengthens the will; you could also choose garnet.

a) Assemble the amulet during a day and hour of Mars with the Moon waxing, and leave it at that for now. You'll need to learn and practice ritual if you want to go beyond that.

b) Of course you can use reputable commercial sources. Most people these days do.

[(Anonymous)]

How complete was Yeats' Castle of Heroes material?

[ecosophia]

Incomplete and not entirely coherent -- there are two drafts of most of the core rituals and they don't match well. Somebody's going to have to put in a mess of work someday to build a working system out of the material.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

1) I have Saturn well-dignified in my natal chart. What are some interesting things I could do with Saturn-based magic that would be less effective for someone lacking a good Saturn placement?

2) I’ve been doing the LBRP every day since beginning to practice magic 6 months ago. What benefits have I likely experienced without necessarily being aware of them? Are there any subtle differences between my former self and my new, LBRP-enhanced self, in terms of how other people treat and perceive me? (I’ll use the lockdown as an excuse for why I’m unable to judge from experience)

3) When starting out in natural magic, is it better to go straight ahead to the workings that we’re interested in doing, or do practice workings to build up our skills, and then do serious workings?

4) Are there any diminishing returns in natural magic from doing the same working over and over again to practice, like playing the same scale in music? Can ingredients be re-used for this?

[ecosophia]

1) You can expect to get very good results with agricultural magic, and any form of working with earth energies. You will find it easier to make sense of old magical systems, very nearly the older the better, and your capacity to use meditation to get really deep into occult philosophy will be better -- Saturn governs philosophy and deep thought generally. When you do a binding, your target will stay good and bound, and when you do a blocking spell a bulldozer would have trouble getting through it. I know this from personal experience, as Saturn is well dignified and well aspected in my chart!

2) Good question. The personal equation makes a lot of difference here.

3) It depends on what workings you're interested in doing, of course. If they're simple, start with them. (You can always do another working later.) If they're complex, start with something simpler.

4) Yes, there are diminishing returns, and no, you can't use the same ingredients more than once. If you want to practice natural magic the way you would practice scales, do something like hoodoo baths and floor washes, or a weekly candle ritual for some long-term purpose.

[(Anonymous)]

A couple of questions about LRM:

1. Should there be a circulation of energy during the Qabalistic Cross? I sometimes visualize a flow of energy from the top sphere, through the cross of light, into the spheres at the feet and the left/right arms (depending on which name I’m vibrating), but the instructions only say to visualize the sphere itself and the light going into it.

2. When doing the Qabalistic Cross after the MP, I often feel an increased activation in the top sphere compared to the QC before the MP, to the point where I feel the need to sit down and recover. I believe this is normal, given that the MP is supposed to “open up” the energy centers, but I’d like to hear your opinion.

3. When you meditate, do you write down your thoughts in real time, or keep them in mind for later?

[ecosophia]

1) Experiment with these and see what works for you.

2) Yes, that's normal. You'll get used to the increased energy in due time.

3) Keep them in mind for later. Don't interrupt the flow of the meditation to write!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm starting to write an astrological history of Canada since the British North America Act, 1867 took effect. My plan is to start by looking at each Great Conjunction, as well as the major conjunctions of other outer planets to see if they have effects, and then the ingress charts, then eclipses, and finally lunations, essentially working my way inwards.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach to you? Is there anything you'd add?

[ecosophia]

Sweet. That sounds like a great plan -- and a serious contribution to the study of astrological history.

Echols and Emil Pales

[(Anonymous)]

JMG

Well I imagine with how lively the other blog is right now you are bit busy so I will try and keep this brief. Buts it’s been a week for questions.

1. Have you played with Damien Echols variation of the LBRP adding Metatron above and Sandalphon below? I am experimenting with it right now and wanted to see what other people have experienced with it.

2. Are you familiar at all with Emil Pales’ book Seven Archangels? It ties cyclical history to the arch-angels and astrology in a way that looks interesting. It’s a small book but I don’t have the astrology chops to dig to far into the comparison. (Homework assignment 327)

3. Lately I have had a issue come up during my Middle Pillar exercise. When I am pushing out the white, green, and or gold light from the heart center to make a sphere around me I have difficulty pushing the energy up and right. It can be forced with more or less difficulty depending on the day. I find it odd that it is always and only that section that I have difficulty with and am at a loss to explain it.

Your resident C student
Cobalt Tangential Wombat
Other Dave

Re: Echols and Emil Pales

[ecosophia]

1) Nope. It's a perfectly valid variation, but I haven't been working with archangels for quite a while now.

2) No, but it sounds like he's basing it on Johannes Trithemius' De Septem Secundeis, "On the Seven Secondary Powers," which does the same thing and has some very interesting results.

3) That's a common experience and relates to imbalances in your energy body. Keep with it and it'll balance out.

[boulderchum]

Salutations JMG!
I bought both a physical copy of The Celtic Golden Dawn and a digital copy to read while the former ships to Canada. I've been reading and thinking hard all day, and I need to sleep on what I've read and think further. I've discovered that my heart is truly in Bardon and the practices that can be slotted into his system, but Geomancy was pushing me towards CGD very hard. Geomancy also indicated that practicing Bardon after I had mastered CGD was A-ok and recommended, so after further self reflection I concluded that perhaps what I need right now is the discipline and structure of the CGD to refine myself so I can approach the more difficult and self-directed Bardon work later. At least that was the hypothesis that has me on the verge of committing whole hog to CGD. I need to sleep on the massive book I just read, and I'm sure I'll have a barrage of CGD questions for you next week, but for now here are a couple saved up questions:

1. What is Deja Vu from an occult perspective? What plane and what energies are involved? I get it occasionally, usually while performing some mundane task. I recall in my youth reading an unsatisfying materialist explanation about one eye closing sooner than the other and causing a glitch in the brain, which never satisfied me. Knowing now that occult forces exist, what is going on here?

2. What do you think of the beings behind the Enochian system? Based on others' experiences, they're clearly very powerful. They also seem somewhat untrustworthy (or veiled in their true agenda) and a bit creepy. What are they? Why are they...the way they are?

P.S. I know some people are feeling down thanks to ongoing events, and I wish I had something clever to put you all in better spirits. PeThe spring here on Vancouver Island has been incredibly vibrant, just looking at all the shades of green in the grass and trees has been a joyful experience on par with listening to the crescendo of Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia." Maybe taking time to appreciate the gentle joy and detachment from human concerns of local flora would help? Genuine heartfelt love to you all from "Tangerine Transcendent Wombat" over here. <3

[ecosophia]

1) I've never seen it addressed in occult literature. Not everything is, you know.

2) They're spirits, not angels, and they definitely have their own agenda. It's possible to work with them and get good results, but I never found them particularly congenial, and worked intensively instead with angels and intelligences from the Cabalistic tradition, with excellent results. As for why they are the way they are, I doubt any human being can answer that.

3) That sounds like an excellent idea!

-- Magenta Hyperactive Puppy

[(Anonymous)]

No question here, but a while back you said the best way to deal with addictions was to manage them and build willpower until you could blink and realize it had been a week or whatever since the last use, and I decided to give it a try. It worked!

Well, I've still got my porn problem, but I blinked and realized I've cut down from 3-4 times a day to once every 1-2 days without realizing it. I've got a ways to go, but I've come a long ways, so I'm quite optimistic about this.

[ecosophia]

Excellent! That's the way the will works, when it works -- there's no strain, no struggle, you just change.

[ecosophian]

JMG,

1. I'm trying to reconcile (in my mind) the narrative of spiritual evolution with the narrative of the necesity of balance. You said (and I'm probably mangling the quote) that an adept radiates positivity and so banishes negativity around them. Wouldnt such person be in a way unbalanced? In a Jekyll and Hyde kind of way.

2. Is there a place or way to exchange books on occult matters? Like an occult library? There are some books I would like to get and also some I would gladly donate...cough Modern Magick cough... and by the way I do have the book from the cover of today's magic monday!

[ecosophia]

1) No, because positivity is balance. Remember that a virtue is the midpoint between two vices, not the opposite of one.

2) I don't know of one -- but it would be great if something of the sort existed. I've got some occult books I'd like to get into other hands, for that matter.

planetary hours

[(Anonymous)]

I have a hour long oral exam that is scheduled for a Friday, starting during the hour of Mars. Some minutes into the exam the hour of Sun will commence.

1) So... should I stall the interview for a few minutes or will I be fine in this case?

2) Any additional magic measures I could take for good results in an academic test?

Re: planetary hours

[ecosophia]

1) Never show up late for an exam. Can you delay actually starting to write answers for the necessary few minutes?

2) Burn an orange candle on Wednesday in the hour of Mercury, and repeat the Orphic hymn to Hermes (if you're a Pagan) or pray to the angel Raphael (if you're a Christian).

[(Anonymous)]

Could you recommend a book in English that is a practical, rather than historical or theoretical, way in to the French tradition for beginners, in anyway comparable to your own LRM?

[ecosophia]

I know of none. If one exists, it hasn't been translated into English.

[(Anonymous)]

A question on possible sex/magic fallout:

It is rather clear-cut that visualizing someone concrete (e.g. your neighbors wife, your classmate, Ariana Grande) during masturbation is a bad idea and might be unwise to do as far as karma is concerned.

What would happen (theoretically, I know that it's a bad idea!) if one has sexual relations with a prostitute and visualizes someone else during the act. The build up energy of the release should pass into the prostitute I'd think.

But what would be the consequences for:
A) the john
B) the prostitute
C) third person ?

What I am basically interested in are the etherical (dis- or cross-)connection(s) that would result from this.

[ecosophia]

The etheric body doesn't particularly care what you're imagining -- it's going to link up with the other person's etheric body. It's on the astral levels that you're going to get weird results, mostly involving a confusion between the prostitute and the third person that will start in the john's mind and potentially affect both the other people involved. It might, if done repeatedly with intensity, produce an astral link between the two, though how that would play out would depend on karmic issues.

Middle Pillar question

[tresbla]

Hello JMG. Thanks as ever for hosting this.

I've been working with the Middle Pillar exercise since the Spring Equinox, and have already seen many positive changes in my life.

However, I suspect my Yesod energy centre may be functioning less than optimally due to certain past events. I'm aware you recommend the techniques in Regardie's 'Art of True Healing' for healing a damaged energy centre. But I like working within the seasonal cycle and my instinct is to defer experimenting with these techniques until the Winter, as it's the season of recuperation. Furthermore, I'm aware that my daily practice of the basic MP ritual has instigated a process of change which I feel still has a way to run before it settles down. While I recognise there's never such a thing as the finished article when it comes to one's spiritual development, nevertheless the rhythm in the way things are naturally unfolding compels me not to rush to a more specialised of the ritual before I've thoroughly explored its basic form and the potentials therein.

Do you think this is reasonable?

Also, is it possible that the damage to my energy centre could be healed by the basic MP, without me ever needing to resort to the specialised version? I do feel there is something going on down there.

Re: Middle Pillar question

[ecosophia]

Yes, exactly. Regular practice of the MP exactly as given will do a lot of healing all by itself, and yes, you should certainly work the exercise in the ordinary way for a good long while before going on to the more complex versions of the practice.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have been doing the SoP for six months now with the Greek pantheon, to which I have always felt a particular connection. The results have been modest, and I have been wondering about one of the other exercises, with a different pantheon (angels maybe?) is it ethical to do this? Or even to experiment with several possibilities? Do I need to ask the Greek pantheon’s permission to ignore them? Do you have a suggestion for anyone who has just done the SoP?

[ecosophia]

I don't recommend it. The effectiveness of the SoP doesn't depend on which deities you invoke, it depends on how skillfully you do the ritual, and it takes time to build skill. Stick with your existing practice and let the results ripen in time, as they will.

Books

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG and fellow posters, I am currently reading the so far very thoughtful and considered, Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas, and a small and entertaining book, Letters of Light The Magical Letters of William G Gray to Alan Richardson.
Has anyone read them? Any thoughts?
Gray's opinion of sex magic (at the time) and Gerald Gardner is worth the price of the book alone!
Regards
Helen in Oz

Re: Books

[robertmathiesen]

Anything by Gray is worth reading, if only for the pungent sense one gets of the man himself. It's not for nothing that Alan Richardson's biography of Gray was titled "The Old Sod." (PS Gray was also a very competent magician, with a deep understanding of how magic could be made to work by a skilled enough worker.)

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. Once you have incorporated the Grail working into the SOP, do you still do the working to awaken the two currents every so often, or is it assumed that if you have done that working once and started the Grail working, the two currents are awakened and you no longer need that working?

2. Do you think it's possible to do a rain working in a Grove Ceremony? It's starting to get pretty dry here, and we could definitely use some rain, but I doubt I'm far enough along in the DMH to try such a working, so I'm just asking out of curiosity.

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

1) Once you've begun regular practice of the Grail working, that'll keep the currents flowing all by itself. The workings to awaken the currents are there to kickstart the Grail working.

2) Yes, it can, but weather working can be problematic; I recommend doing serious divination before attempting anything of the kind. The atmosphere is delicately balanced, and messing with it ignorantly can produce awkward results. (I've known people who did a rain working and literally got flooded out of their home.)

Bibliomancy. And Elephants.

[(Anonymous)]

Not a question, but some comments, and thanks.

I'm normally pretty lazy about regular Bible study, but thanks to you, JMG, I'm keeping up a semi-regular reading through, and meditation on, the Psalms and Gospels. It's been very beneficial-- thanks!

"Baptist Divination" or as you call it, bibliomancy, is a thing I've used over the years, like many Christians, when something is troubling me or I need advice. I pray, I open the Bible wherever, and read. And generally find comfort and good guidance therein. Often with surprisingly specific details-- for example, COVID concerns yielded the story of Elijah and the widow's son (It's going to look really bad, but it'll be OK in the end), which contains the phrase "there was no breath left in his body." A neighbor conflict yielded a story where Israel was in conflict with its neighbor Moab. And FWIW, when I do this without a particular concern, motivated by idle curiosity, I get stuff like "don't tempt the Lord". So: Go away, and don't ask unless you have a serious concern.

Which brings me to tonight. The riots have a lot of folks on edge. I was shocked to hear an old lady I know talking about shopping for a gun purse. We are far from any major urban centers, but things are weird out there right now. I asked: Do we need to prepare for civil unrest?

I landed on 2 Maccabees chapter 15. Easy enough to look up for anyone who's interested, but it's long so I won't quote it here. Seemed a clear "yes, but..." and as you might say, a good subject for meditation :) The Lord grants victory to them that are worthy of it. We shall endeavor to be worthy.

But the thing that pulled me up short:

Not long ago, on the other blog, there was a thread, joking (I thought) about high-ranking Democrats' verbal confusion, the Belbury banquet, and tigers. It concluded, we are just waiting for the head-chopping and elephants now.

That passage contains both.

Re: Bibliomancy. And Elephants.

[ecosophia]

I just looked up 2 Maccabees online -- my Bible doesn't have it, being a standard King James version of the sort presented to Freemasons -- and yeah, that's quite spooky.

And I just remembered: there was a news report last night, unsubstantiated, of a tiger on the loose in Oakland, CA.

Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis. That's what Merlin said at the banquet at Belbury...

[katylina]

Hello JMG
I've got 2 questions:
(1) I'm working through LRM and i'm on the second lesson. How large should I make minutum mundum? Is A4 enough?
(2) In my city there are several mounds that were raised in antiquity/early medieval period. They are connected (when you stand on Krakus mound on 2 may or 10 of august you can see sun rising over Wanda mound, and vice versa, you can see a sunset over Krakus mound from Wanda mound at 6 of February and 4 of november). I suspect there could be a ley line between them or some other connection. However in modern times several other mounds raised in honor of distinguished poles such as Kościuszko or Piłsudski, while several other, Esterka mound and one on the wawel were destroyed. Would that interfere with whatever original moundmakers were trying to accomplish? Sorry for my bad English, i'm not a native speaker.

[ecosophia]

1) Whatever size will allow you to write in the various words and Names. I did it on 8.5"x11" paper, which is more or less our equivalent of A4.

2) How fascinating! I didn't know that there were alignments like that in Poland; thank you for the data point. Yes, destroying some of the old mounds may have messed up the flow of energies, but it would be hard to say exactly what would happen without doing close investigations on the spot. The usual practice, to begin with, is to get a good map of the city and mark all the ancient sites -- mounds (existing or destroyed), sites of old temples or very old churches (usually built on the sites of Pagan temples), and so on. See what alignments you can find, and if there's open country between any of them, walk the line and see what you find -- there are often old trackways and other indications connecting them. Alfred Watkins' The Ley Hunter's Manual is a good place to start.

By the way, your English is considerably better than that of many Americans. It's also a heck of a lot better than my Polish! ;-)

Tracks in space

[ferngladefarm.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

Ah, all things Pangalactic should be celebrated, and I feel it is my personal duty to inform you that we have created (from raw materials of course) a very nice white rum with subtle coffee and not so subtle chocolate overtones. True Green Wizardry, all done with solar power of course. :-) Such dark and arcane knowledge takes a lot of experience to achieve. Anyway I am unsurprised by the Eldritch Eel naming (although there was more divulged however it is unwise to let the masses know one's true nature). You'd be a slippery beast too I imagine (or have been at some stage in the past). Hehe!

So, I mentioned to you that the overall direction of the many different tracks in space produced by us humans could also be described by the word: Culture. And I am truly curious as to your opinion of this observation and was wondering if you could illuminate the dark recesses of my mind?

Mind you, I could be way off the mark.

Cheers

Chris

Re: Tracks in space

[ecosophia]

Excellent! Yes, a culture is a set of tracks in space laid down by the repeated actions of one group of human beings.

Middle Pillar Exercise

[(Anonymous)]

I'm still the LBRP, I've found that the best results come from starting the day with a summoning, and ending before bed with a banishing.
I've also kind of put into a blender all three of the LBPR variations, the Heathen, the Polytheist, and the Celtic Golden Dawn variations and found one that kind of fell together by accident.
I read in your Druidry book that this sort of thing is common for those who follow the Druid path. About 6 months ago, I ordered the Mysteries of Merlin and it turned out it was finally delivered in the post and, wow, I devoured that book, suddenly finding myself inspired.
So, I'm working up my own version of the Middle Pillar Exercise and, again, it seems to be something of a blender. The curious thing, and here is my question, I seem to be calling on almost the same deities as the ones I found for the LBPR. I'm not going to ask if they are appropriate, because I'm about 99% sure of what your answer will be, which is the same way I came to those deities: meditate. What I will ask is, is that common? To find the same deities repeated in the ritual, I mean? Do you know of anyone else who has found this?

Renaissance Man.

Re: Middle Pillar Exercise

[ecosophia]

In the original Golden Dawn system, three of the four Divine Names vibrated in the four quarters are also vibrated in the Middle Pillar -- YHVH, ADNI, and AHIH. So yes, you could say it's fairly common. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

1a) I am nearing the final week of candle magic and planetary charity workings.
They will be finished before the solstice. But the weeks leading up to the solstice are such a potent time for certain types of magic, I feel like I should be doing something with them if possible, to know for the following six months or so that I made the most of it. Should I? I

1b) How much does it matter that there is Mercury retrograde for the last few days of that period? You've said that it gets exaggerated as a bogeyman in contemporary pop astrology, but are there some things to avoid in magic and ritual? Is Mercury retrograde just about the planet, or about Mercury/Hermes the god as well? Does it have anything to do with other messenger or psychopomp gods?

2) Can there be clashes between two gods who have similar domains but are in different pantheons? If so, how can clashes be avoided by someone who worships or works with both of them?

3) Last week someone posted about feeling drained by banishing. I have been getting this too, though I have been banishing regularly since you put the SOP on this blog last year. I knew it was because I have been banishing several big things at once, as well as not getting enough sleep. As I am not vegetarian or vegan, the last few days I have started eating more meat again as you had advised that can help. I think I feel generally better with that, but I am one of these people who gets more energy from eating meat anyway. The banishings still feel a bit draining however. They are to do with complicated personal situations, some of which are related to current events, some of which would have been there anyway. I have realised that the things being banished could be grouped as "threat to" two or three areas of life. But if I mention that area, then going by what you said about banishings needing to be negative, I shouldn't mention the positive thing. e.g. banishing "threats to work" could sound too much like banishing "work".
Is there a good way to group banishings like this so they are less draining?

[ecosophia]

1a) Unless you planned something along those lines from the beginning, just go ahead and continue your working as before. It's not generally a good idea to mess with a sequence of ritual workings midstream.

1b) Mercury retrogrades are a bad time to begin new magical workings, but I've never had any trouble continuing a working through one. The basic rule is that any verb beginning with "re-" is something that works well in a retrograde, and "repeat" qualifies.

3) That really varies from person to person. Try experimenting with different wordings. Oh, and remember to invoke vital energy when you invoke Fire, Spirit Below, and Spirit Above!

[rafiwinters]

This time around it told me "Umber Tangential Weasel." hahahahaha!

[ecosophia]

Heh heh heh.

-- Mauve Eldritch Cow