Toward Ecosophy

What are the energetic properties of plastic/synthetic materials? Has anyone looked into this?

I am drawn to the Celtic GD, but very much want to learn from/with people, not alone with a book-- would being trained in the Hermetic GD first be a sensible approach? I am not keen on the aloof attitude to earth and matter and such, but I might be able to suspend my philosophical qualms.

I recently ran across the concept of a mage creating a faery-- are you familiar with this? What does it entail?

If faeries can be made, that would seem to have interesting implications regarding their nature...

Hello!

In the open post of last week, you mentioned that to perform astral projections is not that difficult. Can you resume the technique for me please?

Are there any down side to it or dangers?

Thank You

Hi JMG,

For many years I've been looking for a book that my town library had in the mid-1980s. Given the breadth of your knowledge of literature, I'm hoping you (or perhaps another reader) might be able to identify it. The book was at least partly on the subject of a magical household. It had a chapter entitled "The Witch's Garden" or something similar, with nifty little diagrams as seen in gardening books of herbal and woody plantings for a magically inclined cottage garden, possibly printed in brown ink (though I may have confabulated that part over the years). I recall it as being a very large-format, but fairly thin, paperback. I'm pretty sure it was not one of Scott Cunningham's books. I will be very grateful for any suggestions. Thanks very much,

Dewey

My grandmother (born around 1900) used to say not to plant parsley in your garden as it attracts pixies. When I was a kid that kind of appealed to me, but she exxplained that pixies cause mischief (and you don't want that, do you?)

Do you have any experience with parsley and/or pixies? Was this just nonsense from my old grandmother?

Hi JMG,
On your other blog, a commenter brought up the Watcher at the Threshold, which was the first time I'd seen the term, and I was wondering if you could speak more about it.
Is it a fairly common phenomenon? I've been slowly working through the Druid Magic Handbook for about two years now, and I have a hunch that I've encountered a version of the Watcher - but I don't want to get cocky.

Our house has consistent, recurring, low-level plumbing issues. Each time we bring in a plumber to fix the apparent issue (a leaky pipe or a malodorous septic system), something else comes up (another small leak in a faucet, a corroded drain pipe). The issues are usually pretty minor, but they've come up enough that it's given me pause. Are there any possible or likely magical causes for this sort of thing - i.e. is the house (or something in or around it) trying to tell us something, and can we do anything gentle in the home-remedy way to address these issues?

I ask about gentle because we have a young baby at home, and I take seriously your advice about avoiding serious spiritual summoning or work in a home with young kids. Thanks!

JMG
About 2 years ago I adopted as best I could a ritual observance from your book, which I had to hand, Gnostic Celtic Church. This ritual seemed to generate protection for 'our grove', that is our family & dog, and our large plot with trees and other inhabitants. From the beginning I extended the Grove mostly to family scattered elsewhere in Britain.

I became aware from comments on your blogs that this ritual was different from the full Sphere of Protection available elsewhere, but persevered anyway with the /E/W/S/N visualization and with drawing down the vertical influence from the 'Sun', meeting the tellurium (?) moon influence from the Earth. Despite my personalized version - I still need my own approximate visualization - there seems, if very gradually, to be some help available. More recently 'the sun' seems to have helped specifically in a difficult repetitive dream - for which thanks. In a roundabout way the family connections have been worth attending to, including appreciation of some deceased members in particular an appreciation of my parents.

My question is really about the value of this rather limited exercise versus the perhaps more detailed other version(s), and the usefulness of my extending 'our grove' beyond the immediate location. I can easily visualize people creatures and locations, past and present.

best
Phil H

Am I too late?
I'm still working through Ovate grade in CGD and find it odd that the figures Gwyn and Coch have respectively water and air active.
However, air is of the Mind and forms and water is of the emotions, so given your meanings of both Gwyn and Coch, I'd imagine their active elements would be swapped - thoughts?

Also, you say the circumambulation at the end of the Rite of Rays is counter-clockwise so my intuition is to also do the water purification and fire consecration at the end also counter-clockwise. Im even inclined to do the closing pentagram counterclockwise with banishing. Is this ego or worth doing? Thoughts?

Many thanks for your guidance
Best

Hi JMG,

As you know, I live in China. Books, and mail, from overseas often don’t make it through, which make me wary of ordering books, or to some extent even of enrolling on the OBOD course.

I will be flying back to the UK next week, and will be staying for a couple of weeks. It’ll be my best chance for who knows how long to stock up on books on Druidry.

You’ve covered a lot of really interesting topics recently: reincarnation, the ascent of the soul through different stages, the way mammals and plants etc have different paths, the different planes, the Welsh gods, and so on. Is there any one book, or two, which covers all of these? I have the Druidry Handbook, but it doesn’t go into the depth of your recent explanations.

Diolch yn fawr

Bogatyr