Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight as I write this, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Let's start things out with a quote again: 

 

"The growth of the soul takes place through many incarnations, and different attainments are required of it at different stages of its development, therefore no objective standard of achievement is set; a principle is taught, an ideal is held, and each student is counseled to apply that principle and follow that ideal in the circumstances in which he finds himself, for it is only as he proves faithful over few things that he will be entrusted with many." 

That's from Dion Fortune's The Training and Work of the Initiate, one of the books of hers that did an enormous amount to shape my understanding of magic and the occult.   

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. (Any question received after then will not get an answer, and will probably be deleted.) 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 -- as in, attempts to ask new questions will be deleted. See you next week!***
  

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

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

1) I suspect that some time over the past few months my mother has become obsessed by a demon. Her personality has shifted, becoming far more paranoid, passive-aggressive, domineering, and emotionally unstable; she has become utterly unbearable to be around even aside from that, giving a serious negative vibe; she’s demonstrated an uncanny ability to cause disruptions to my life which seem intentional, but require her to know things which she shouldn’t be able to (ex: giving me a truly rude and obnoxious call exactly when I started my meditation yesterday); and she’s become utterly fixated on Covid. She can’t go for more than about ten minutes without bringing it up, and usually a lot less.

a) Does this sound like demonic activity? I’ve drafted all the later questions on the assumption it is, so if it’s not, feel free to just say it’s not demonic and I’m overreacting.

b) At this point in my occult training I have no hope of helping her, and am instead focusing on protecting myself. I plan to work through LRM, and use that as a framework for this, but are there other things I can do to keep myself safe? I just started Lesson 1 Wednesday, so I’m aware my options will be extremely limited while I learn how to do occult work. Would the prayer, “Blessed be thou, Adonai, enlighten me through thy initiation,” be helpful? Should I be taking cold showers? Is there anything else I should do?

c) I’m trying to distance myself as much as possible, but she has taken it upon herself to make this as difficult as possible. I moved recently, which is a very good start, but she has taken it upon herself to see to it that I’m stuck spending as much time as possible with her (ex: showing up practically unannounced to “help” me set up whatever thing I don’t want but she has decided I “need”; deciding that when I agreed to Sunday dinner with the family I really agreed to Sunday brunch as well, and that she would happily pick me up, Saturday afternoon [she decided that since Sunday brunch is early in the day, she would pick me up the night before, and then from there that it made sense to make it early enough to join them for dinner Saturday]; devising all sorts of family events and then throwing fits if I say I can’t/won’t join [THERE’S A PANDEMIC GOING ON! WHAT ELSE CAN YOU BE DOING?!”, etc.). She’s also decided to go full on totalitarian, getting in touch with me quite regularly (several times a week, sometimes more than once a day) to make sure I’m “keeping safe during the pandemic”, and losing her mind if I either don’t respond right away or am doing anything which involves human contact (even something as mundane as grocery shopping).

As soon as my lease expires I plan to move somewhere and not tell her where I’ve moved and change my phone number, email, and every other way to contact me, but for the time being my mundane options to get distance are somewhat limited, as she knows where I live and has demonstrated no problem showing up unannounced, and for most of a year yet I’ll still have a lease I can’t afford to break. Do you have advice on anything I can do at this point?

d) I slept over at her house last night and had a truly weird experience: I have no idea what I was experiencing before hand, but I felt the need to force myself awake. I could feel something trying to hold me asleep, and I desperately tried to wake up. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I’ve also noticed my dreams have become much calmer since moving out, with the exception of last night. Do you know what’s happening here? Is this linked to the demonic entity?

e) I have siblings who are living at home and I want to try to protect. Is there anything I can do for them, or is that something which will need to wait?

2) I also have a few questions about what I’ve experienced so far in LRM.

a) Am I correct to think the review the tarot exercise serves a dual purpose, of first helping to commit the cards to memory, and second of teaching how to focus in a non-meditative/ritual fashion?

b) I’ve noticed that my daily recollections tend to be very, very scattered and disorganized. I’m assuming this is normal to start, but I also noticed that even a small amount of alcohol makes them that much more disjointed: I had a small amount to drink twice since starting LRM and both nights the daily recollection was much worse, despite the fact I didn’t drink enough to notice, and I drank it several hours earlier. Is this a known effect, or is it a peculiarity to me? In either case, I’ve decided to avoid alcohol for the duration of the time I work through the course.

c) What do you do if your meditation is disturbed? After the phone call yesterday, I decided to continue on. I was fuming from it, however, which interfered with the meditation, but I assume it’s best to try to work through it. I assume part of the practice of learning to meditate is learning to do so even under less than perfect conditions, and that thus putting the effort in to focus despite my anger is going to help in the long run. Does this line of thinking make sense to you?

[ecosophia]

1a) It could be an obsession, but it could also be something considerably more ordinary. A lot of people are under enormous stress these days, and that's making them behave in some pretty spectacularly dysfunctional ways. It also occurs to me that she could be freaking out in response to your move -- some parents literally can't handle the thought of their children becoming independent beings

1b) Maintain your practices exactly as given in the lessons. That's your proper approach at this point.

1c) Always unplug your telephone (if it's a land line) or mute it (if it's a cell phone) before you begin any magical practice. Leave it off any other time you don't want to be bothered, and if she fusses, tell her it's because you aren't five any more and don't need mommy checking on you every ten minutes. Push back hard -- when her demands escalate, tell her that you're going to leave for an undisclosed location and not bring your cell phone, and then do it. Tell her in so many words that if she doesn't let you live your own life you are going to move to another city and not give her your contact information -- that you aren't willing to put up with the way she's treating you. Be prepared to follow through on that.

1d) Quite a number of things can do that, including a toxic psychic atmosphere.

1e) There's nothing you can do for them at this stage.

2a) Those are two of its purposes, yes.

2b) That may be a peculiarity to you, but your decision is likely the right one.

2c) Yes. Start right back up and go through with it. That builds strength of will, and eventually the mental discipline that will enable you to brush aside interruptions.

Self-discipline vs willpower

[(Anonymous)]

JMG last week I ask how to avoid diabetes by changing my self-indulgent character. You counseled learning self-discipline and becoming acquainted with discomfort. That was good advice, thanks. As I thought about that this week I wondered how self-discipline relates to will power. Are they the same or different? Dose training one train the other etc. We talk about training the will here mildly often. All that to dare to will to be silence stuff.

Thanks as always

Will O

Re: Self-discipline vs willpower

[ecosophia]

Self-discipline is one of the things you do with willpower. Willpower is like electricity; self-discipline is like a toaster oven -- one of the things it can power.

Cut and clear

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,
could you please help me out with a simple cut and clear spell for a love gone sour. The current waning moon would be a helpful influence, correct? Plus should I perform it on Monday at Moon hour?

btw
the Saturn tax timing worked like a charm this year again! Thanks alot!

Re: Cut and clear

[ecosophia]

Put the person's photo, or signature, or something else that they have touched or handled and that represents them to you, in a small glass jar or bottle. Take it to a river that flows away from where you live. Toss it into the river to carry them away from you, and then return home by a different route. That's one of the standard simple methods.

[tunesmyth]

Happy Monday, JMG!

First of all, I just wanted to let everyone who might be interested know that even despite it finding its legs in the Mercury Retrograde, Conjunctio, the geomancy discussion group, has gotten off to a strong start, hosting quite a number of interesting conversations so far. SDI, a tech savvy members, actually went so far as to create a public domain geomancy chart generator that allows one to quickly and easily share whole charts with other people. The results look great. For instance, a shield chart with mothers Amissio, Puella, Carcer, and Cauda would look like this:

https://shedivesin.github.io/emoji/western/shield/5d/97.svg

(I gave the Mothers as the actual image is hosted elsewhere— just in case Stuff Happens, as it does occasionally.)

The site can also handle outputting house layouts, but in this particular case, it was a shield chart question: “Would it be a good idea to begin daily planetary devotions via the Druidic gods associated with the planets in the Dolmen Arch?”

Obviously this was a quite positive reading. My question isn’t how to read this, but rather: As I’m not someone who has engaged in Druidic devotional practice before, do you have any tips on how to approach this? Up to now, I’ve been performing the Taylor Orphic hymns with incense or scents according to the specifications given, along with a simple offering of food or drink. I assume there are no specific hymns in common currency, but if there are any tracks in space set up already along these lines for Druidic planetary devotion, could you let me know what they are? I’d be happy to try it on for size and contribute to the existence in the world in some small way.

[ecosophia]

You're going into new territory here -- which is a good thing. You'll have to invent your own rites and lay down your own tracks in space, but that will make it easier for other people to do the same thing later on.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have any thoughts on the growing popularity of Hecate and practice around her?

What spiritual traditions or pantheon do you see as being the most up and coming in popularity these days?

[ecosophia]

1) I haven't really followed it, so don't have a clear sense of what's involved. I hope the people involved are doing it respectfully; it was traditional in ancient Greek times that people who offended Hecate got eaten by dogs.

2) We're in something of a hiatus right now, with a lot of pop spiritual movement coming apart and politics filling the gap. I expect to see African diaspora religions do quite well in the decades ahead, though, as well as Heathenry and probably some new approach to Christianity.

[(Anonymous)]

I did a chart a few days ago, asking if a relative was going to visit, and got this:

1 M: Tristitia
2 M: Puer
3 M: Cauda Draconis
4 M: Amissio
1 D: Caput Draconis
2 D: Conjunctio
3 D: Fortuna Major
4 D: Fortuna Minor
1 N: Fortuna Minor
2 N: Rubeus
3 N: Tristitia
4 N: Via
RW - Laetitia
LW - Cauda Draconis
J - Conjunctio

I took it as a "yes". Conjunctio is a figure of connection after all and there was a positive witness. Well, I was wrong, and this isn't the first time I've gotten a chart like this wrong. (Conjunctio J and 1 positive witness.) Am I missing something?

[ecosophia]

No, I'd have taken that as a "yes" as well. Odd.

[(Anonymous)]

How would a Hermetic SoP go?

[ecosophia]

That depends very much on what kind of Hermeticism we're talking about. There are forms of Hermeticism that use the Judeo-Christian divine names, forms that use Greek divine names, forms that use Gnostic divine names, and forms that use Egyptian divine names -- just for starters. What did you have in mind?

Prayers for Kiki and for Mr. Tux, a feral cat who passed away

[kimberlysteele]

My cat, Kiki, is battling some severe constipation. It's common for older cats to battle with constipation -- she is 14 years old. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow to possibly get an enema. I ask for prayers for her to heal. Here is a link to her photo:

https://kimberlysteele.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/img_3878.jpg

Also, there was a feral kitty named Mr. Tux who had an uneasy death after one of my neighborhood's Trap/Neuter/Release advocates captured him. He had bad lower teeth, so they removed his teeth, thinking this would help in his rehabilitation. He wasn't in good shape to begin with, so the surgery caused him to seize the next morning. He had to be put to sleep yesterday (Saturday). Please pray for his soul to cross the Gates smoothly. He loved my backyard and the feral cat feeding station. He often waited for me to come out with food in the morning and I almost stepped on him a couple of times, he was so quiet. He used to hang out in my herb garden.

Thank you!

Re: Prayers for Kiki and for Mr. Tux, a feral cat who passed away

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,
Your cat is beautiful, a real witch's cat? Perhaps we should be praying for the vet who will have to give her an enema?

I am going out to pray in the garden now and will pray for both your friends.
Maxine

[(Anonymous)]

On the other blog you talk about binding demons but you've said before binding them to do good never works out. I guess my question is what is the difference between the two?

[ecosophia]

The mode of binding I talked about in last Wednesday's Cos.Doc. post is a way of locking them into a static condition. If you try to bind them to do something they'll twist that, but if you can lock them into stasis they can't do anything at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there any kind of cleanse or fast you recommend that might go along with regular etheric cleansing?

What helps process anger?

[ecosophia]

1) No, quite the contrary. Cleansing and fasting tend to focus your attention away from the material plane, while etheric cleansing works best if you can be well grounded in the material plane. It's when your etheric body and etheric environment are in good shape that you can start thinking about cleansing and fasting -- that's why it was standard for yogis in India to go to forest hermitages, where the etheric environment hasn't been made grubby by human activity, before they began fasting and practicing.

2) Anger is a secondary emotion -- that is, it's something you feel because you don't want to feel the primary emotion, which is usually fear, shame, or grief. You have to get down below the anger to the primary emotion and let yourself feel that; as you do that, the anger will go away.

[(Anonymous)]

1. Does the SOP suck practicioners towards the Druid Revival tradition the way that the LBRP sucks one towards GD?

2. Where did the rest of the series of rituals that are common to the DMH and the DA come from?

3. If one already had a strong meditation practice, divination practice, and both of those supported the idea, would it be alright to work through that series of rituals from the DMH without the Ogham, scrying, and enchantment? Assuming one has also been doing the SOP for a year and been expanding work with it.

[ecosophia]

1) No, because it didn't start out as a Druid Revival ritual. It was created by one of the members of the Universal Gnostic Church, and was adopted by people in the whole series of magical orders associated with the UGC -- the Modern Essene Fellowship, the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn, the Ancient Order of Druids in America, and so on. It might well draw you toward the kind of openminded attitude toward traditions that the UGC had!

2) Some of them came from the UGC tradition, and I invented the others.

3) I don't recommend it. Why not give the Ogham, scrying, and enchantment a chance to teach you?

Limitations of the oracles

[vitranc]

Good morning JMG,

Going trough some of your old writings I came upon your comments on not taking personal students. The justification being, that they were a reliable source of disappointment. And how other occult teachers throughout the ages have spoken thusly as well; Dion Fortune, the authors of the Picatrix, ...
So I wondered, why don’t occult teachers, adept in the use of oracles, use divinatory methods to discern prospective students?
Lets say a student comes to a master and the later makes an astrological reading “teaching is a worthy endeavor and every soul needs some guidance. But Set your hopes not to high for this one” On a different occasion the master throws an Ogham or Tarot reading for a prospective student and the name of Garret Knight is all but spelled out in the cards, while angels sing in the background. :-)

I presume I am not the first person to think of this, so there must be some reason or limitation.
To think further of it, could people not use divinatory means to gauge other relationships, like business or personal partners?

Best regards,
V

On a separate note; From last weeks discussion. I went and set the Gingko trees and performed the DH tree blessing. The one set at my mother-in-law’s place, the first one, has taken very well to the ground, has beautifully green lively foliage. And is industriously sprouting new leaves. It is a joy to watch.
:-)

Re: Limitations of the oracles

[ecosophia]

That's a perfectly reasonable way to go about it, and if I ever decide to try teaching personal students again I'll probably do that. As for business and personal partners, astrologers do that kind of work all the time -- there's an entire branch of astrology called synastry, which compares the birth charts of two people to see how well they would get along as lovers, spouses, business partners, or what have you.

Glad to hear about the ginkgos!

[(Anonymous)]

I have to pace back and forth for many hours on my job.

How might I better use that time spiritually of I cannot speak (loudly) or read while walking?

Thanks.

[ecosophia]

Come up with an affirmation that addresses some quality you want to develop in yourself, and use the time to recite it. You can also come up with a mantra and use the time for mantra meditation.

Acronyms

[(Anonymous)]

Is there an FAQ page here or at the other site listing the common acronyms used here? I'm slowly figuring out some of the acronyms for book titles and occult systems and rituals (SoP, LRBP), but if there's not yet a reference page listing them, I'd be happy to help create one to help newcomers with orientation.

Re: Acronyms

[ecosophia]

That would probably be a very good thing, but no, there isn't one yet. Please do make one, and I'll post it.

Re: Meeting Ceridwen at the Crossroads...

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, exactly. It's standard in Golden Dawn tradition for the Binah influence to also govern Daath, and those are spelled Dofydd and Iau in the CGD work.

2) Study them, meditate on them, scry with them, and once you've gotten a good handle on geomancy, divine with them.

3a) It's very much of a Pan/Cernunnos figure, but it's also the giant Yspaddaden Penkawr, who won't let Olwen marry Culhwch. No, it's not unbalanced as it is in the Hermetic GD system, because that system assigns the Trump to a very different influence and energy; it's simply a source of limitations.

3b) I'm already talking to an artist. There will be a lot of changes, some subtle, others much less so.

Geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question about a geomantic chart regarding a piece of land my partner and I are planning to purchase to build a home on. On many levels, the land has a magical draw, for intuitive as well as practical reasons. We put in a conditional offer last month which was accepted, and need to finalize the deal this Wednesday if we want to go forward.
Here is the chart I cast for the question: should we move forward with the purchase of this land:

First mother : Coch
Second mother: cyswllt
Third mother: fford
Fourth mother: Fford

First daughter: bendith fawr
Second daughter: fford
Third daughter: pen y ddraig
Fourth daughter: bending fawr

First niece: gwyn
Second niece: pobl

Third niece: bendith fach
Fourth niece: coch

Right witness: gwyn
Left witness: llawenydd

Judge: Colled

Overall I feel good about the chart, but don’t want to overlook the fact that the judge is not favourable. How would you interpret colled in this context? One reality is that this is definitely stretching us financially - there is cheaper land in the same area, but we have a feeling of rightness and affinity with this land In a number of ways that would be long to get into.

I’m inclined to read this chart as: So long as you are wise and prudent in how you go about your decisions (Gwyn) (I.e. being prudent with building costs) you will be happy with this choice (llawenydd), but it’s going to cost you. How does that sound to you? In spite of some trepidation and a certain number of bumps in the road thus far, when we connect with our sense of purpose on a grounded level, we want to go ahead with the land, but I don’t want to be sugar coating a negative reading to justify try at decision. So if you think I’m doin go that, by all means say so!

I feel encouraged by Bendirh Fawr in the third and fourth triplicates, representing home and spouse specifically (success after a delay, success through effort and persistence, which both feel very realistic).

The way of points leading back to Fford I’m not sure what to make of. That this will involve travel (it is a significant geographical move)? Representing movement as in we should go for it? Or, representing that we should let this go and move on?

I’m also mindful of your advice to avoid making major life decisions on the basis of a single divination as a beginner, which I am. For that reason I have opted not to do divination regarding this at all over the several months we have been working on this, and sticking to other modes of decision making. But today I had a feeling to go for it. If you (or anyone else) has suggestions for other questions to explore different aspects of this issue, I’m open to that, too. Thanks!

Re: Geomancy

[ecosophia]

That's how I'd read it. The property in question will end up costing you much more than you expect, but the outcome will still be good. The Way of Points indicates what's behind the question -- in this case, it's a referelce to the move, but also suggests to me that you've come a long way to the point at which this is an option.

[(Anonymous)]

(Tokienguy)

You've mentioned the "cut and clear" spell to force someone out of your life. Is there a spell to make you stop thinking about a person? About ten years ago I had a girl who things ended very badly with (mostly my fault), but I have not been able to stop having an emotional longing for her, and have come to resent her over the years. We live in different states now and have no contact, but today I was visiting my home state and passed the highway exit for the town she lived in when we'd known each other-and found myself flipping the exit sign off and yelling "[Undruidly word] you, you vampire! You drove me out of my home!************** you!" [My cross-state move was partially motivated by the hope I wouldn't think about her anymore in a new place.] Some time later it occurred to me that this is probably not healthy and I probably need to do something to make myself not be so emotionally bound up by my memories of her. Like I said, is there some version of the cut and clear spell you can do on yourself?

Also, (asking for a friend), say somebody wanted to use the cut and clear spell for its intended purpose-to get someone out of their life-but this person lived on an island in a city built around a many-branching harbor, so there's nowhere that's really "downstream". (You've visited this city-its one of the largest cities in the US, but I don't want to say the name on the public internet). What would this person need to do-throw the bottle into the sea?

Also also, I just found out that a family member has developed an occult interest as well. Specifically, they now have a crystal pendulum on a chain, which they swing to ask questions, and a cloth sheet with "Yes", "No", and some numbers and astrological signs on it-the thing works rather like a Ouija board in practice. I know you have said that messing around with things like Ouija boards is dangerous if one doesn't take the proper precautions-how dangerous can it be? Should I try to teach this person the LBRP? Also, we will be in the same apartment for a week-is it especially important that I protect myself?

[ecosophia]

1) A cut and clear spell won't cut it. That kind of thing indicates unfinished business, either karmic or psychological. If it's psychological, journaling and meditation can help; if it's karmic, it's karmic, and you'll probably have to deal with the person again in your next incarnation.

2) Throwing it into the sea is also an option.

3) What makes a Ouija board problematic is that it's normally done with several people at once, and that builds enough of a groupmind that various things can get their claws into it. The kind of thing your family member is doing is much less problematic, and people have been doing it for decades now with no more problems than any other kind of divination has. In your place I wouldn't worry about it.

[(Anonymous)]

If you have permission to do magic for someone else, what kind of things can you do for them? Are there some things a person can only do for themselves? What's the most impressive case you've ever seen of magic done for another person (assuming it's something you can talk about)?

[ecosophia]

Given their consent, you can do anything magically for another person that you can do for yourself. As for the most impressive example, it's probably the time a woman I knew was being hassled by an abusive boyfriend; she asked for help, I did a binding spell on him using a cut-out signature of his from a letter, and he left the state the next day. I was pretty happy with that, and so was she.

[(Anonymous)]

How much of sacred geometry relates to three-dimensional shapes? I know old architecture used to use it, could you also make a hand-held 3D form that would have specific effects and channel energy a certain way? There was a 2002 short film Solid Geometry that ended with someone being sent to another dimension using occult origami. :)

[ecosophia]

There's an entire branch of the subject that starts from the five Platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron) and goes from there. (Those correlate to the five elements, btw.) Yes, you can do quite a bit with that, though I doubt you could send someone to another dimension!

a conjunction of synchronicities

[(Anonymous)]

One of my goals for our rolling lock-down was to refresh my Russian language skills. That was proceeding apace until I saw a guy with both his arms in casts at the local supermarket. Since I have had multiple wrist breaks, four wrist surgeries, and four shoulder surgeries, including having my right wrist in a cast and my left arm in a sling at the same time, I had some idea what he must be going through. So I went over and asked what had happened.

He could barely explain in English that he had come from Belarus in February to work, got locked-down, and then fell off a ladder once the lock-down eased. I asked some questions in Russian and realized that he knew no Russian speakers in our neighborhood. So we started going for long walks every day, and I started carrying his groceries and taking out his trash. I was his moving crew when he found a cheaper apartment with other Russian speakers; then I drove him around his new neighborhood to get his bearings. His English and my Russian are improving rapidly, and his wrists are recovering quite well.

As a competitive athlete and coach, he was very worried about how his wrists would recover. I know quite a bit about all sorts of hand and wrist injuries after two full years of asking questions at occupational therapy. So I could explain to him that the casts would get replaced with splints and that a physical therapist would then give him exercises. On our walks I always asked which of his fingers he could touch with his thumbs, and other little reassuring victories. Now that he is going to therapy, he will only do his partnered exercises with me because I've gone through the same process so many times.

I certainly wasn't praying for a bewildered Russian speaker to show up with both his wrists broken, but that's what the universe provided. I also wasn't feeling any particular urgency about retiring the karmic debt I had accumulated from so many people helping me both when I was incapacitated and when I first moved to Indonesia speaking very little Indonesian. I hadn't even realized that with so many people adamantly social distancing, I was missing just being able to lend a helping hand. The gods are so much better at recognizing our needs and weaving together synchronicities that we couldn't ever hope to come up with.

In some ways my life has had some wonderful synchronicities, but never this easy. While it's nice hanging out and telling jokes in the back yard with Ukrainians and Belarusians, what on earth is going on? It feels like the resistance to things working out well is just not there like it used to be. Like a great disturbance in the Force has resolved, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in relief, and were suddenly freed. Has the energy that the ruling class used to put into making everything go awry, now been diverted into desperately trying to hold together their crumbling status quo?

It really feels like less energy is needed to try new things. And that I can follow through on the things that promote life with less effort than before. Of course, the panic police are still Karening and cancelling their way to nirvana, but they have sort of faded into the background noise here. Perhaps that's all they ever were. Is anyone else feeling relieved of a depleting burden? Does it feel like life is being allowed to flow along its natural course again, at least for a brief while? Like the teacher has stepped out the room, and we can show real interest for once in something other than the prescribed lesson?

—Christophe

Re: a conjunction of synchronicities

[slclaire]

Yes, I do feel relieved of the depleting burden that had begun with the COVID lockdowns and extended through June. I'm also experiencing some synchronicities that I am enjoying.

[(Anonymous)]

Do the phases of the moon affect the rate at which human hair grows? I'm *sure* my stubble was growing faster than usual each day a couple of weeks ago, but this is completely subjective (I've not yet attempted keeping any records of this, just something I noticed...)

[ecosophia]

That's a standard part of the old lore. If you want to encourage your hair to grow long and thick, trim it when the moon is waxing in a fertile sign (a water or earth sign); if you want to encourage it not to grow, cut it when the moon is waning in a barren sign (an air or fire sign).

geomancy

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid,

I came to spend a few days with my mother this summer, and had the weird filling I should stay longer than I has initially planned. She has a frail health, but seam's to be ok, so I am a bit mystified by my reluctance to leave . I made the mistake of asking geomancy if her pass away is to be soon (although I am not very intuitive neither gifted with premonitions), and here goes the answer:
FM: F. minor
SM: Albus
TM: F. Maior
FM: amissio
FD: carcer
SD: laeticia.
TD: caput D.
FD: Albus
FN: cauda. D
SN: carcer
TN: tristitia
FN: acquisitio
FW: caput D
SW:Albus
J: F Maior
So whereas the court looks affirmative, that her time would be soon, the rotated chart perfects ( carcer in the SN her significator and carcer in the FD her 8th house) but the figure itself, carcer indicates that it will not be so soon. Still, I will stay around a little longer as I am not sure she will be around next summer...Do you think it is a reasonable interpretation?
Thank you for your time and attention.

Re: geomancy

[ecosophia]

Since you didn't define "soon" in your question, it's impossible to tell what the geomantic intelligences meant by that -- soon in geological time? Always be specific with geomancy!

On a purely practical basis, it might be a good idea to stay around for a while. You may be more intuitive than you think.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I was mulling over asking you this question, and then lo and behold you select a quotation this week which is directly relevant to it. Must be a sign, I said to myself.
I've been interested for a long time in the idea of Non-duality, which for those who haven't encountered it, very briefly, is a "consciousness only" model of the universe, in which we are simply temporary, limited implementations of a universal consciousness. It has its origins in Eastern teaching, although there are Western writers (Meister Eckhart, for example) who say similar things. Instead of the classic distinction between the world "out there" and the world of consciousness, it proposes that the world is "not two", (ad-vaita in the original Sanskrit) and all is consciousness. Time and space then, are human constructs rather than existing independently.
I've been wondering how, if at all, this could be reconciled with the theoretical frameworks of magic. Your own writings (eg Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth) seem to take a very differ tack, and of course the idea of reincarnation itself, as in today's quotation, isn't immediately compatible with the non-existence of time. On the other hand, modern non-duality teachers like Rupert Spira emphasise that what we perceive in the world has to be treated as real, and has consequences, just as the things we perceive in the dream-state have reality there.
So I was fascinated to see, following one of your recommendations, that Mouni Sadhu, in his book Ways to Self-Realisation, talks a great deal about the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, the most distinguished modern figure on non-dual teaching. He, at least, appears to think that non-duality is compatible with magical practice, or to be more precise the theory behind it.
What do you think?

[isaac_hill]

I'm not JMG, but I'm working in both a western occult track and a self-inquiry/non-duality track, though most of the contemporary neo-advaita teachers (including Spira) leave me unimpressed (of course, there are also many contemporary occultists who likewise leave me unimpressed.) Reconciling the differences has been an interesting part of my practice, but one teaching that has really helped is that of Rob Burbea and his take on emptiness (Seeing That Frees is his great book, but he has many hours of audios on "Imaginal" practice that basically fuses Dharma practice with Jung/Corbin and ends up with something like scrying and diety work...) but anyway, the basic teaching is that there are many ways to view the world, and each view is inherently empty, but even the view that every view is empty is empty. Seeing that on a deep level frees one to utilize different views without being caught up in any one of them... all views are true in a way, and ultimately false in that they only glimpse a fragment of Reality, if any amount of Reality at all. When it comes down to it, many teachers say that Self-Realization can't really be talked about, and can only be experienced directly, and until that happens, conceptual frameworks of a nondual universe can hinder as much as help. As Fortune says, these teachings are "to train the mind, not inform it."

Btw, this site was made by a friend and includes reviews of some of the "nondual" teachers I find more useful, including some personal mentors: http://www.spiritualteachers.org/

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings,

A few days ago, while taking one of my dogs out, I was looking around the sky as I often do and saw a very clear pair of cloud signs. There was a definite feeling of significance to them. I saw them not only one right after the other, but the second was right beside the first. The general meanings of both signs are quite clear and obvious - the details less so.

I was thinking of using divination to work out said details, but I currently only use Geomancy and am still a fair beginner. I've been having trouble figuring out proper questions, but more so, I'm unsure how to read for some of the questions I do have.

Some of what I'd like to ask, in a series of questions of course, are thus: first, whether the two signs are truly related, as they would seem to be at first glance; second and then some, whether each sign in turn relates to certain people or groups that I have reason to suspect they might. However, I'm not sure how to go from there - or, admittedly, if I'm even framing the questions appropriately for Geomancy.
Through your book, I know how to read if a dream is significant, and I presume that similar interpretations could be used for other divinatory signs, being Ninth House purview. (In fact, I have done just such a reading not long ago and got a fairly straightforward chart.) I also know that House Charts are good for "yes/no" questions. However, how might a "yes/no" question regarding a divinatory sign's subject be read? Or are there better ways of finding more details, through Geomancy or otherwise?

I appreciate any insight you can provide, even if it is simply to think and meditate further on the matter. (Or, in the entirely possible case I've managed to overthink something, to rein my thoughts back in.)

-I. B.

[ecosophia]

You can cast a geomantic chart about an omen of any kind; it's a ninth house question, and best done with a series of house charts, one for each question. If you get a mode of perfection between the first and ninth houses, that's a "yes," and if not, that's a "no." Very straightforward!

bears

[(Anonymous)]

Not a question, just another data point about possible omens. Recently, several comments have mentioned bears--both the adventures of an amorous bear in Missouri and a bear in a compost pile. Last month a bear was sighted (and unfortunately shot) in Havre de Grace, Maryland in a very populated area:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/harford/aegis/cng-ag-hdg-police-bear-20200623-jtc5ikyvnzgn7he3oodx5hd3c4-story.html

Then just yesterday a black bear cub was sighted at Lake Roland Park, a park on the Baltimore City/County line. The news has only been shared on the park's social media at this point, so I don't have a link.

Two sightings in short order in populated areas may not be all that uncommon--though I don't remember it happening before--but it may be something more.

Re: bears

[(Anonymous)]

Moar bears!

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/07/12/bear-spotted-in-baltimore-county-dnr-says/