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. 

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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!***

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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

[(Anonymous)]

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

[(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]

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.

[ecosophia]

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

[(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.

[(Anonymous)]

How complete was Yeats' Castle of Heroes 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?

[(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?

[(Anonymous)]

Got any good tentacle 🐙 jokes?

[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.

[ecosophia]

Sure. What's the friendliest Lovecraftian monster? A Mi-go!

[(Anonymous)]

Yeesh.

[(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]

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.

[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)]

Bloodstone is not considered a stone?

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

[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)]

Ouch, did he manage to work anything out?

[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!

[ecosophia]

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

[ecosophia]

Sure. I simply cited two stones I knew would work well; it wasn't meant to be an exhaustive list.

[ecosophia]

The project was still in developmental stages when the Golden Dawn blew itself to smithereens, and Yeats was on one side of the schism while Samuel and Moina Mathers (who were heavily involved in the Castle of Heroes project) were on the other. So it came to a sudden stop, and Yeats never did anything further with it.

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.