ecosophia | The Revenge of Magic Monday!

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

I have a question about astral projection. Many old school esoteric authors put a lot of emphasis on it (I'm thinking particularly here of W.E Butler who's works I've been re-reading) especially in the form of actually being able to step out of the physical body, see it lying on the bed/sitting on chair and then move around viewing the physical world. How important is this in your opinion in the style of magic you practice and do you have any hints to make exteriorisation (as Mouni Sadhu, another big fan, puts it) of achieving this?

Hello John, I have read a number of comments concerning the Elemental Cross and the Sphere of Protection rituals. So here I go with my two cents worth. Cent number one. After faithfully performing both everyday for four months now, I have found that having the verbal portion of the ritual memorized so that I don't even have to think about it as I say it, allows me to focus much more on the symbolic aspect the of ritual. Actually it is almost as if someone else is reciting the verbal part, which makes the symbolic portion much more vivid and meaningful. Cent number two. I find that the ritual itself is, certainly on some days, rather routine and even mundane, but often the rest of my day seems to be spent in a heightened state of awareness. I do the ritual in the morning and I find this to be the real benefit as apposed to some whiz bang moment during the ritual itself.
Thanks for you time.

Thanks for hosting this again! I'm right smack dab in the middle of my Saturn Return. Life feels empty and I don't know know who I really am. Recently, I've started doing the SoP, and doing the meditation and divination routine you suggested on Well of Galabes.

Is there general advice you have you someone who is going through a Saturn return? Things that could help make this transit easier? Little spells or things to keep in mind? Any thoughts most appreciated!

Hi!

I just got Learning Ritual Magic and I'm about to start doing the practices. I go once a week to ashtanga yoga classes mainly for physical exercise. Is that a problem with the magical training?

Also English is not my native language. Do I translate the rituals myself, perform them in English or find more official translations in my own language?

Thanks in advance!

Not a question, but I just wanted to say that after reading your post mentioning greeting the sun and the moon when you first see them each day, I took up the practice. Well, it's been a couple of weeks now and I experience a certain thrill every time I do it. If anything, it's getting stronger. The feeling is quite like when you're a teenager and you see the girl (or boy, no doubt) your crazy about, a kind of a flutter in the heart area. I don't know where, if anywhere, this will lead, but it's interesting and enjoyable so far, thank you!

How do squares in the natal chart “turn into a source of enormous strength”? Some kind of spiritual isometrics?

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!

Plastics are made from corpses -- the bodies of long-dead animals, which is where petroleum and natural gas come from. To me, and to many other people, that's what they feel like energetically as well. I suppose they'd be useful in necromancy, but I don't practice that, and I haven't found any other magical use for them.

Been following the CDG for almost two months now. The days I do it definitely go better than the days I don't. At first it was like switching diets and getting that slight euphoria of "wow this must be working" but now made it up to wind/purification meditations and I'm starting to notice some of the anger and frustration starting to leak out from around the edges of daily life again. Probably doing some purging here, but wanted to ask about the banishing ritual. The summoning is excellent for lack of energy but wondering if the banishing also works for cleaning up those embarrassing mental sewage spills.

Thanks Much
Ira Tibble

It's your choice, of course, but these days I strongly recommend a year of solitary practice from books before trying to find a group -- your chances of being able to find a worthwhile group go up substantially if you have some background in the work already. If you want to go in for training in a group first, it would be best to do something unrelated to the Golden Dawn tradition -- otherwise you'll have to unlearn much of what you learnt, as the system in The Celtic Golden Dawn has its own distinct way of doing things.

A mage can create an artificial elemental, and I wouldn't be surprised -- the intellectual sloppiness of pop occultism being what it is -- that somebody's confused artificial elementals and faeries. They aren't the same thing at all, and no, you can't create one.

You can find detailed instructions in dozens of books on magic -- one I recommend is Apprenticed to Magic by W.E. Butler. The very short form -- and you'll want to read at least one book on the subject before trying it -- is that you build up an image of your body in your imagination, as though it's standing a short distance in front of you, and you then transfer your consciousness to that image by an act of will. It takes practice, and exercises in concentration and visualization are good preparation.

The only real dangers you face in doing astral projection are getting too obsessive about it, on the one hand -- it takes a lot of energy to do, and you can exhaust yourself by doing it too much -- and mistaking astral perceptions for absolute truths on the other. I'll be covering that in this week's post on the blog.

Hmm! I don't know that book. Can anyone else help?

It's not of great importance in the system of magic I study and practice. As far as achieving it, Butler's as good a guide to that as I know of, and as I recall, he suggests regular practice and a lot of concentration and visualization exercises as helps to the process.

Exactly. The point of magical practice is the effect it has on you over the long term, not the short term rush you get from doing it.

Face your issues. That's what a Saturn return is all about, and the sooner you suck it up and confront the things Saturn wants you to confront, the easier it'll be. You may be able to get some advice by paying attention to aspects to Saturn in your natal chart, or other aspects Saturn is making to outer planets in the heavens at the time of your return -- but it really is a matter of gritting your teeth and doing what you have to do.

Ashtanga yoga should be fine in combination with basic magical training of the kind taught in Learning Ritual Magic; if you go on to the more advanced forms of pranayama, that might become problematic, but if you're focusing on the physical-exercise end of yoga you should be fine. As for the rituals, you may do any of those things, depending on which you prefer -- as long as the names and words of power aren't changed, the rest can be put in any language you like.

Glad to hear it. The feeling's a mild activation of the heart center, which is the energy center that has to do with relationship and connections between the self and the cosmos, so having that so quickly is a good sign

The Revenge of Magic Monday!

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Travelling on the Astral plane

Can you or a reader identify a book?

Astral projection

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emptiness

Learning Ritual Magic

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Squaring off

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Watcher at the Threshold

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Re: Travelling on the Astral plane

Re: Can you or a reader identify a book?

Re: Astral projection

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Re: emptiness

Re: Learning Ritual Magic

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