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!*** 

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com! 

Comments

Re: Fae Souls

[ecosophia]

We discussed that in last month's commentary on The Cosmic Doctrine, curiously enough. Human beings and others who are on the same broad evolutionary track start off as souls and very gradually, through much labor, evolve bodies; elementals and others who share their evolutionary track start off as bodies and very gradually, through much labor, evolve souls. Interacting with human beings can help elementals in their evolution, which is one of the reasons why some magical traditions -- the Rosicrucians are especially well known for this -- do a lot of work with elementals.

The concept is much older than the Comte de Gabalis; as I recall, CS Lewis' fine book The Discarded Image includes a discussion of medieval and Renaissance lore about elves and their kin which can point you to sources.

Re: Fae Souls

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this. I’m in the process of reading through the discussion on the Cosmic Doctrine. I was re-reading Poul Anderson’s ‘The Broken Sword’ and there is a passage describing this idea and that’s what prompted my question.

After reading the discussion about elementals on the other blog I’ve realized that I encountered an elemental, years ago in my late teens. I was sitting in a chair writing in a journal when I perceived a vast body of energy moving throughout the room. The customary noises of the house disappeared, with the exception of wind rustling the trees outside, and I must have slipped into some kind of trance state. While I couldn’t see the elemental I could somehow track it with my eyes and eventually it came over to me and I was completely enveloped by what felt like a body of vast energy. There followed very extreme sexual stimulation, as if someone had attacked electrical wires to my nerves and was sending wave after wave of energy down them. At that time I was an evangelical Christian and terrified of the implications of what was happening so I told it mentally to go away. It responded by increasing the waves of stimulation and speaking to me in a woman’s voice, though somewhat unemotional and machinelike. Eventually I projected enough will that it forced the thing to leave, and the regular noises returned to the house. I’ve never had an experience like that before or since, though I get sleep paralysis tolerably often. I’ve often thought back and in some way regretted that I sent the being away, but after reading about elemental obsession in the discussion on the other blog I believe I might have made the right decision to resist.

Re: Fae Souls

[ecosophia]

The Broken Sword! Now there's a fine old fantasy novel.

That may have been an elemental, but it may also have been something worse. There are predatory spirits that behave that way, and since evangelical Christians generally have a lot of unused sexual energy, they come in for a fair amount of attention from such beings.