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!*** 

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

Comments

[ecosophia]

Magically speaking, BDSM is like any other form of roleplay -- it's not noticeably different from, say, being active in the SCA or dressing up in Civil War uniforms on weekends to march with your friends and fire muskets. I suspect that in at least some cases, what's going on has much more to do with working off karma than with generating it.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, in this case, it has something to do with working off childhood abuse. Was just wondering if new karma could arise from it. Seems like a kind of drug as well.

[ecosophia]

Interesting. I don't happen to know; that end of sexuality doesn't appeal to me at all so I've never really looked into it.

[(Anonymous)]

It's easy to see how masochism can be karmic. What about sadism? Is the lesson there to learn how to control those impulses or express them in as healthy as way as possible?

[ecosophia]

Sadism can also be karmic. If you spent your last incarnation -- say, as a social justice activist -- full of hate for anyone who hurts other people, you might well end up reborn as someone who can only find sexual release while inflicting pain...

[(Anonymous)]

That's na past life I would rather not remember. :P

[brendhelm]

Uh-oh. That suggests that there could be an upsurge in sadism next incarnational cycle...

[ecosophia]

True enough.

[(Anonymous)]

For me at least, it seems to have functioned as a relatively safe way to learn how to embody and express Martial energies, as well as a way to work through some issues around power and vulnerability and connection.

[ecosophia]

Fair enough. If it works for you, it works for you.