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. 

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

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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
an odd question, and I’d entirely understand if you felt there was nothing useful you could say in response.
You have suggested journaling number of times on your site, and it’s an idea that I’ve frequently come across in the past. But I have an almost pathological aversion to doing it, or indeed to writing anything personal which could, theoretically, one day be discovered by someone. As far as I remember I’ve had this feeling all my life, and it doesn’t have any particular origin in personal events or circumstances. I’ve written millions of words professionally, but virtually nothing about myself. In almost thirty years of Internet presence, I have systematically chosen usernames, passwords and email addresses which reveal as little as possible: alphanumerics, nonsense words or names in foreign languages (I went through a period of using names of angels). I subscribe to almost everything on the Internet under a series of assumed names, and in general try to use fictitious names or personal details when I can in everyday life. I never enter written questions when consulting the I Ching, for example, and I seldom make written notes on anything if I can avoid it. I’m nervous about having physical copies of books on magic (including yours) or acquiring any of the materials for magical workings. (Coincidentally or not, having steered clear of magic all my life, since starting the SoP last year I have had a series of injuries to different parts of the right-hand side of my body). I should add that all this isn’t shyness: I have been on stage, and I frequently do lecturing. I’m much happier to talk about personal things than I am to leave any tangible trace of them. This is, of course, an anonymous post.
Meditating on this, it’s clear that I have a real fear of some force that is tracking me, but it doesn’t seem related to any actual event in my life. The I Ching (which recommended that I ask you this question) doesn’t seem to have any more idea than me what this is about, but encourages me to wait calmly for the situation to resolve itself.
I have always thought that this is just one of those irritating little foibles that we all have. But since discovering your work I have started to wonder if there’s a dimension I am missing. I’m well aware of cultures where names are powerful, and concealing one’s name is a form of protection. I’m also well aware of various direct correspondences between the Internet and the spirit world.
Does any of this mean anything to you?
Thanks.

[ecosophia]

Have you considered the possibility that this has to do with memories of your previous incarnation? Very often, when somebody has this kind of strong quirk in place for no obvious reason, that's what's behind it. (I've disliked riding in cars since earliest childhood, for example, and never wanted a driver's license; I was well past thirty when I finally started getting memories of the really ugly head-on auto crash that ended my previous life.) In your last life you might have been a spy, say, or a member of a resistance movement who was betrayed and executed due to inadequate security; those or other life patterns of the same kind might account for it.

It generally takes years of practice before past life memories begin to surface, and it's unwise to force them. In the meantime, do you think it would be possible to cooperate with your need for secrecy and still do some aspects of the work. For example, you could do some journaling on flammable paper, then burn the paper to ashes and flush the ashes down the toilet.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you. I hadn't thought of that, but it feels intuitively convincing. Are there ways of getting in touch with such memories, and even discharging them, without, as you say, forcing it?

[ecosophia]

The only way I've ever heard of is regular meditation, which builds the inner capacities that eventually let you make contact with the memories.

[causticus]

Interesting. I have a very similar aversion. Since I was very young, I've had a strong dislike of writing down personal information about myself, or really anything that records my inner thoughts and feelings about things.

And for some strange reason I always try and plan out my actions (no matter how mundane and inconsequential) through an OPSEC lens. So maybe I was also a spy/agent in a past life?

Also, do weird phobias sometimes have a past-life origin? For example, since I was young I've had a very irrational fear of flying, stinging insects, even if they're a safe distance from me. (SOP/banishings seems to have mitigated this to some degree over the past year)

[ecosophia]

Yes and yes. There have been a lot of spies over the last century or so, so finding two on one comment thread isn't that surprising...

[(Anonymous)]

1) Hmm.... My entire life I've had a profound need to keep nearly everything about myself secret, a surprisingly easy time coming up with cover stories, a near constant fear of being watched no matter what I'm doing, and an obsession with gathering secrets, even if they serve no purpose, and even though I'll do nothing about them. I might be former spy number 3...

2) Is the large number of spies over the last century or so a Pluto thing?

[ecosophia]

2) I think two of the biggest wars in human history, followed by a Cold War in which espionage played a central role, might have had something to do with it. ;-)

But astrologically speaking, yes, it may well have been a Pluto thing. Watch to see if espionage agencies begin to contract and lose funding in the years ahead.