Magic Monday
Jun. 7th, 2020 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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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The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-08 07:14 am (UTC)I had a couple of nice pathworking sessions using one of the Hindu Mahavidyas. I was not sure if pathworking would work on them but it did and it was fantastic! Honestly it got me by surprise to see how the world starts building up and even though I was familiar with some of the things that I saw as if images from my astral repository where borrowed it didn’t feel as if I was consciously doing it and some other things seemed from somewhere outside myself. It’s pretty trippy! And it feels so much richer than psychedelics for example because I’m fully conscious of what is happening. Cool stuff!
I took my image from a nice illustration while looking for spiritual artwork and I thought it would be something somewhat related to it but as soon as I opened the door with the image there she was, the goddess receiving me on the other side on a completely different setting from the picture and odd things happening with a young Shiva playing with what seemed a miniature version of the universe. She didn’t talk but her presence seemed to transmit something else as if she was awkwardly using a human form. I got a lot of symbolic elements from that scene and then it vanished into a different, less symbolically charged one. A child version of her peeked through the entrance of a temple looked at me with deep dark eyes and ran inside laughing innocently as if she wanted me to follow her. When I came out of the session I had a massive grin on my face. Thank you for showing me how to do that!
A few questions:
1) Is there something like astral sound? I didn’t hear the laughter physically but it felt like the equivalent of the images in sound form.
2) So now I know, thanks to a comment you gave me a few weeks back that my mind and it’s qualities are not happening precisely inside my brain. Which is mind blowing, literally. It is a tool and you can use it to explore other dimensions of life! WHY did I not learn this at school but memorized useless and often inaccurate facts instead? smh. Now it starts to make sense why the Inner Planes are whole planes by themselves. I used to think of them as handy models of the human experience but after this pathworking sessions it feels more like a completely different realm of experience with its own laws and ways of being... Fascinating.
3) So chakras are meeting points of Voor in the Etheric plane and organs are physical manifestations of those energy centers it seems. Are there equivalents of chakras or rather subtler versions of them on say our astral bodies or are they uniquely etheric?
4) How is occult anatomy discovered and studied? I assume since it is beyond the material it has to be through psychic senses but is there anything particular to it?
5) This is one is more practical in a sense. I was having a conversation with someone dear to me the other day and as of now, I have not particularly hidden what I have been studying and practicing just being careful with the words and phrasing but I think I pushed it too far when I said that the thing that I had been looking my whole life seemed to be occultism. So she asked what I have been up to and I answered but instead of the reaction I was expecting to get followed with some questions or clarifications I got a grim and somewhat worried look. And that is when I knew what it feels to be judged with strong prejudice. I got the standard arguments about Satanism, black magic and oogie boogie monsters. The more I tried to calmly explain how it is not, the more I got the dismal look and the stronger the arguments became. Because what can be more frightening than a calm tone hiding something evil, because when you can’t change deeply engrained past the line of questioning in somebodies mind they will make everything possible, even if ridiculous to not change their stance. And it is not her fault at all, honestly I feel a little guilty of making her worried about me and putting that on her face. So, do you have any advice on how to maintain a social life when these things start to get more of my time and attention? I am a little worried because even though I have seen some changes already, like loosing interest on some things I don’t know how to proceed as spirituality becomes more important to me. Should I just fake it?
Thank you and I hope this pie suits the occasion! It’s virtual but still tasty.
https://imgur.com/a/0h1usiE
—Crimson Transcendent Platypus
Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-08 05:09 pm (UTC)1) Very much so. There are astral equivalents of all the physical senses.
2) If they'd taught you this at school, you'd have been better prepared to make your own decisions and choose your own life...and that, of course, is anathema to the current educational system, which is intended to turn out cookie-cutter human resources for its corporate masters.
3) Chakras exist in the astral as well as the etheric body. They'll exist in the mental body too, once you finish developing a mental body -- that's one of the reasons that it's good to meditate on them, under appropriate guidance from a qualified teacher.
4) As you develop the capacities of your astral and etheric bodies you'll get to the point that you can perceive the subtle bodies directly. Many people can learn to see one or another of the auras -- some see the etheric or health aura, some see the astral aura, some see both. Regular meditation is the best way to develop these abilities.
5) The four virtues of the occultist are to know, to dare, to will, and to be silent. (One of my teachers always used to say for the latter, "and to shut the f*** up!" People who are not on the Path find discussion of these things very unnerving and upsetting, and that's appropriate -- they're not ready for it, so their fear protects them from getting into something they can't handle yet. What that means, though, is that as an occultist, you need to learn not to talk about occultism to anyone who can't deal -- and most people can't deal
-- Taupe Nocturnal Wolverine
Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-09 02:44 am (UTC)1) That sounds pretty cool. Is that the same as the clair-senses? Does that mean that the life-force is not unique to the etheric plane but rather exists on all the planes simultaneously? I though that was the case and that they way that magic directs it through intentionality would be because of a trickle down effect.
2) Makes sense... and it is sad too. I always thought that my university was trying to please overworked and worried parents, employers and students who wanted to pose, party and get married but as soon as you asked a question about studying you got a blank stare. I’m glad all my grumpiness about that is somewhat justified and now being channeled into making a life of my own. In hindsight becoming lonely was a good thing.
3) Ah so that is what it’s meant to do...
4) I'll keep meditating my way into occult anatomy then. Muahaha
5) That makes total sense too. I’ll shut the f*** up. That way I’m happy having a healthy social life and they are happy not having to deal with it. It feels impolite now. I guess I’m having the urge to talk about interesting things happening to me, though sounds like a good way to train myself against following urges and as an excuse to finding occultist friends. Good that Magic Monday exists! Many thanks for that, as always.
P.D I finally found a way to search comments in your journal since we don't see the search bar that you see. It does not search only on your journal but was good enough to find some comments that I was looking for. I contacted dreamwidth support to see what can be done for that search bar to appear and if it is of interest I could share it when they reply back.
Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-09 04:00 am (UTC)2-5) Good!
Yes, I figured out in due time that the search bar is purely for my convenience. Sorry about that.
Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-09 04:29 am (UTC)Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-08 07:04 pm (UTC)For what it's worth, as a relatively new occultist, I take advantage of the widespread acceptance of Eastern practices in my neck of the woods to explain things to others.
So every evening, I "meditate" (a term I use to encompass a number of things, like the SOP, discursive meditation, divination). Sometimes I talk about prayer, as that's also relatively acceptable, depending on the audience. Tarot seems to be acceptable among a wide swath of people, and "meditation cards" are also a handy way to hint at divination without scaring people. Your mileage may vary, depending on your local context.
-lp
Re: The first few stirrings of a wider world and some occult anatomy questions
Date: 2020-06-08 09:53 pm (UTC)The tradition I currently work with is eastern and pretty open about what they say so I think some of that spilled into my daily interactions. I get surprised that just because it is eastern it is easier to digest because it doesn't have the baggage that occultism does even though what they are saying is pretty much the same thing in a way. Yoga works with a lot of "occult" stuff but because it also means a stripped down exercise that you do with tight clothes people are okay with it. That is until you get to the Tantric methods where all the fun happens and then you get the overtly sexual stigma...