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, since I've been indulging in Ross Nichols' poetry of late, is The Cosmic Shape, published in 1946, which contains his brilliant essay "An Examination of Creative Myth," which discusses the need for nature-myth and ritual as a counterbalance to the artificialities of modern life, and his related Arthurisn poem-cycle "The Cosmic Legend," as well as other poems of his and his fellow poet James Kirkup. He clearly discussed these ideas with his good friend Gerald Gardner; those ideas ended up playing a central role in the creation of Wicca as well as the transformations of 20th-century Druidry. Here's a bit from "The Cosmic Legend": 

I have made my ceremonies; the crisis
comes. None may reproduce, no water flow,
until the sword is from its sheath pulled.
Only I, the medicine-man Gawain, instructing 
at midnight Galahad, the pure one of 
spring -- only I can save you, faithless 
with the fallen leaf. I prove to you,
O my dead people, once again that
I alone am your strength.

In the first ray beating touching on the centre altar-stone
to the eye prepared at vigil-end, the vessel of the sun,
cup and heart, to Galahad. 

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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

[ecosophia]

This is surprisingly clean for Hughes -- much less posturing and handwaving than his usual spells, and much less diffuse in its formulation. He's apparently more open to learning from his mistakes than I expected, which is good to see.

The problem here is twofold. First of all, you use black candles to curse, not to invoke justice, so he's got his usual problem of thinking that symbols mean whatever he wants them to mean, not what they actually mean. So at best, the person who does this is calling on the harshest form of eye-for-an-eye retributive justice, Saturn in a bad mood rather than the restorative justice of Jupiter; at worst, it's a malevolent curse with a little rhetorical window dressing -- and that, with strict retributive justice, is also going to manifest itself without mercy or forbearance in the lives of the people who do this working. If they are perfectly just in all their thoughts, words, and deeds, they'll be fine -- but how many human beings can live up to that standard?

The second problem, of course, is the usual issue that he's splashed this onto the internet, so that everyone who disagrees with his political agenda knows exactly what he's doing and can work magic to mess with his spell. I'm not going to explain how, as I don't think throwing gasoline on an already blazing fire is a good idea, but there are plenty of ways to monkeywrench a working like this and see to it that its effect boomerangs on the people who follow his instructions. I'd expect, to begin with, that the people who committed arson and other crimes during the recent riots are going to have a much harder time staying out of prison than they otherwise would...

[(Anonymous)]

Or a lot of the people involved will find themselves victims of criminal cops.....

[ecosophia]

That too.

[ecosophia]

I'm going to ask that further discussion of George Floyd not take place here. I just had to delete a couple of angry comments responding (or, rather, not really responding) to a comment on Floyd's criminal history. None of that is relevant to magic or occultism, and there are plenty of other places online to debate such points. I have therefore deleted the comment and the replies. 'Nuf said.

[(Anonymous)]

I recognize this working from Magic for the Resistance, and so I know for sure that there are alt-right mages who've already done workings to ensure they threw a monkey wrench into this. Considering one of the ones I know about, if you have a lot of white people casting it, particularly with the line, "I ask for repentance for the sins of my ancestors and for forgiveness of my own racism and offenses," this will get very ugly.....

[ecosophia]

Yeah, I expected that. It continues to be one of those epic face palm moments for me...

...that he published all of his rituals in convenient book form, so that everyone who wants to mess with him can pick up a copy, analyze all his strategic and tactical vulnerabilities, and work up nasty counterspells at their leisure. That's just so jawdroppingly stupid!

[(Anonymous)]

My personal favourite is the fact that people are binding the people trying to bind Trump to never to be able to repeat his lies, exploiting that line in the working. It's very hard to explain why something is a lie if you can't say the lie in the first place!

[ecosophia]

That sounds like the 'Pede sense of humor!

[(Anonymous)]

Not to mention harmless blow back: how often do Trump supporters need to be able to repeat Trump's lies?

[(Anonymous)]

It also strikes me as an example of wisdom: accepting Trump's weakness, and using an opposing working to transform it into a strength....

Ego Issue

[(Anonymous)]

Is it common that undisciplined practitioners, believing themselves to be most powerful, brazenly publish their own rituals and workings to the public to show off? Displaying a "I am above the petty counter workings of other squabbling mages" line of thinking ect.

Re: Ego Issue

[ecosophia]

You see it now and then among the clueless-newbie brigade, but they usually find out pretty quickly that everyone more experienced is rolling their eyes, and stop. It's rare for someone to keep on doing it as long as Hughes has.

Re: Ego Issue

[brendhelm]

I'm wondering if either:

1. He isn't actually doing the workings himself, just promulgating them for others to use and suffer as he sees fit,

2. He is taking the blowback, he's just not recognizing it for what it is (e.g. attributing it to bad luck, or as an enemy attack)

Re: Ego Issue

[ecosophia]

It could be either. I've watched people go through the most astonishing mental contortions to avoid noticing that they were suffering the predictable blowback from their own actions.

Re: Ego Issue

[open_space]

I also recall an anon saying that someone was working to make it difficult to see the stupidity of doing those workings or something like that so maybe Hughes' own ego is being fed to mess up with him so that someone can keep using all the energy gathered against them.

There is a video of him doing the bind trump working on Youtube too so I think he is doing it and possibly him being used the same way that the parasitic fungi cordyceps uses ants to turn them into Zombie ants and spread spores.

Re: Ego Issue

[(Anonymous)]

Dear gods. From the Bind Trump working: "That he may do no harm
To any human soul"

Now, if you've got Hughes creating a large number of insane workings and publishing them, and the Magic Resistance gobbling them up, what's the most harmful thing they could do from the perspective of a die hard Trump supporter? Learn.

[(Anonymous)]

"If they are perfectly just in all their thoughts, words, and deeds, they'll be fine -- but how many human beings can live up to that standard?"

Is that even humanly possible?

[ecosophia]

I don't know. I know it's beyond my reach.