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

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. Since poetry came up as a topic, how would you suggest one get started with learning to write poetry?

2. An offbeat question: Over on the other blog, you discussed how Johnny Appleseed was a kind of a spiritual businessman, which led to muse about how spirituality could combine with other professions, which led me to the question of whether there were ever occultists who were also professional criminals? The goals of both seem opposed, but this being occultism, I'm sure there are many examples. I should note that I promise I am not trying to become a spiritual criminal mastermind! :)

Also, and though it may seem otherwise considering my last question, I wanted to let you know that your recommendation on the post about the working on the eclipse to meditate on the concept of justice was really fruitful. Because of that, I will finally soon start on my as-yet-unread copy of the Nicomachean Ethics.

Thanks again!

[ecosophia]

1) I have no idea. I'm not a poet, though I enjoy reading poetry.

2) Good heavens, yes -- but they tend to be a very specific kind of criminal. Occultists who are first-rate con artists are very common in history. One of my teachers was a classic example -- a genuine occultist who made his living marketing really dubious alternative health care schemes. Hermes is after all the god of merchants and swindlers as well as mages!

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question about marketing.

Is it that marketing is inherently problematic or specific things commonly employed that make it toxic? Like making people feel lousy about themselves and telling them a product will make them feel better.

[ecosophia]

Marketing can be just fine if it's honest! If your goal is to find people who need or want your product and just don't know about it yet, you can be a completely ethical marketer. It's when you try to pressure people into buying something they don't need or want that you stray into cheap sorcery.

Votan

[(Anonymous)]

This reminds of me of the Votan novel series. I read reviews years ago but never got around to the real thing until recently. Some of them made the story seem like a comical farce of a Greek merchant ending up as Odin.

To say the reviews missed the point is an understatement; the protagonist takes spiritual realities very much as a given and has significant experiences throughout the whole story.

[(Anonymous)]

Learning to write poetry:
1) Read a lot of it.
2) Look up the rules for classic forms of poems
Haiku is more than 17 syllables. It also must have an indirect seasonal reference and a ‘shock’ or ‘leap’. Alghazal is like discursive meditation in rhymed couplets. Italian sonnets are different from Elizabethan sonents. Chinese poetry can have a visual dimension as well as a verbal one.
3) Choose a theme and write the same core experience in two or three specific forms. Then write it again in your natural tone of voice. Note the difference. Rewrite.
4) Write a free-verse or prose paragraph about an experience you wish to share. Go through and strike out every ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’ ‘that, and other clunky-sounding particles of speech. Replace every instance of the verb “to be” with an action verb and a ‘shock.’. [The apple is red outside but white inside → Apple grins red shows white teeth. Bites back.] Read the new action-y version out loud. See what happens to the rhythm.
5) Read a whole lot more of it.

[(Anonymous)]

The above is all good advice. I'd add, read poetry out loud. Both the published stuff you're going to read tons of, and your own. Notice not only the rhythms of the lines and the stresses of the words, but notice where the poet breaks lines, and also where you naturally want to take a breath.

And, if you will forgive a brief rant: for all that is holy, NEVER EVER use Poet Voice when reading poetry! That is an abomination before the gods. It obliterates the rhythm and flattens the meaning--I suspect the poets who use it are subliminally aware their poetry is terrible and trivial, and are hoping to conceal the fact

https://www.cityartsmagazine.com/stop-using-poet-voice/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPoet%20Voice%2C%E2%80%9D%20is%20the,sounds%20overly%20stuffy%20and%20learned.

[(Anonymous)]

One suggestion for learning to write poetry that I remember,and used for long enough to improve some:

Pick a simple form, common in your native language--common meter quatrains are one good choice for English-speakers.
Write a poem in that form every day for at least a month.
Pick another form, preferably fairly different (limericks, for example): repeat.
And so on.

SamChevre

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks everyone for the tips on writing poetry!