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John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2021-12-05 11:41 pm
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Magic Monday

astrologer at workIt's getting on for midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. 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 more than likely just 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.

The illustration?  An astrologer at work. I've begun studying financial astrology, using the writings of Walter Gorn Old (aka Sepharial) and David Williams as initial guides. Since my mundane astrology project has gone very well so far, with several hundred subscribers, I figure it's time to start expanding the range of things I know how to do, and I feel rather like the guy in the image -- well, except I don't wear a ruff. 


 I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use the button above to access my online tip jar. If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 
 
Bookshop logoI've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain other gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I now have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

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

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***
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Meditation

(Anonymous) 2021-12-06 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Salutations JMG.
Is the mental training taught in Mouni Sadhu's books [i]Concentration[/i] and [i]Meditation[/i] compatible with the training of an occultist in the western tradition? I found [i]Concentration[/i] seemed to lean really heavily on the idea that the natural world is not real and needs to be escaped to the "real" world beyond manifestation. It seemed very Buddhist/Christian.

1) Maybe I'm overreacting, but will his training make my mind become really terrible at thinking just like those people who lobotomized themselves with "mindfulness meditation"?

2) Will it interfere with my druidical aspirations of connecting to the spiritual foundations of the natural world by focusing my mind too heavily on the unmanifest?

I'm interested in Sadhu's books because my CGD meditation still seems indistinguishable from normal intense thinking and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
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Re: Meditation

[personal profile] ecosophia 2021-12-06 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
Mouni Sadhu's own spirituality was esoteric Christian with a big helping of Hinduism on the side, and so yes, he was into the idea that the natural world is an illusion and we need to bail out of it. That ideology doesn't influence his practice as much as you might think! If you want to approach his work as a Druid, do the first three series from Concentration but not the later ones, and the first four series of practices from Meditation, replacing the later ones with your own choice of themes instead of his.

You're not doing anything wrong. Meditation takes time to ripen; if you've got to the point where you can engage in ordinary intense thinking on a theme at will, you've made good progress.
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