ecosophia | Magic Monday

Current Mood: annoyed by a dull book
Current Music: George Winston, "February Sea"

Entry tags:

Magic Monday

Midnight is almost upon us and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note: Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will just be deleted. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says. And further: I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

The image? I field a lot of questions about my books these days, so I've decided to do little capsule summaries of them here, one per week. This is my seventy-fourth published book, the sequel to The Way of the Golden Section, an adaptation of some aspects of John Gilbert's version of the Golden Dawn system to the Golden Section Fellowship. What that means in practice is that this book, The Way of the Four Elements provides a sequence of rituals, meditations, exercises, and practices keyed to the four elements of ancient magic and philosophy, which unfolds over the course of a year and builds on the material given in the earlier book. Rituals for the solstices and equinoxes, and the making and consecration of the four elemental working tools of the tradition -- the book of air, the wand of fire, the cup of water, and the pentacle of earth -- are among the things included. Interested? You can get a copy here in the US or here if you live elsewhere. (I recommend getting the hardback edition; if you do the work in this volume, you'll put heavy wear on your copy, and the hardback will stand up to that.)

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

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 either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) 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.

I'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 gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I 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, and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Dear JMG,

1. You have said that once we evolve the mental body we can process karma through understanding rather than through suffering. Is it possible that a strongly developed mental sheath can process karma in a similar way but to a lesser extent?

2. Do all people who are well on their way to enlightenment remember their past lives or only some of them?

3. How should we view spiritually inclined people who seem to sincerely seek after wisdom and enlightenment but suffer from intractable and serious mental illness? Is it impossible for them to attain enlightenment in this life?

Hi JMG, I've been thinking of some of the subtler qualities of writing. I've heard before that food tends to taste better when it's prepared with care, because this action infuses it with etheric energy, and this tracks with my experience; I've had really simple dishes cooked by friends that taste much better than complex professionally prepared dishes, even at high-end restaurants. I feel like writing is the same way. If a person is having fun writing something and really cares about the topic the result is more readable and engaging, even if it's a highly technical scientific paper. I find the converse to be more common these days; material written by someone who clearly didn't care about doing it can be downright painful to read.

You've written before about how modern hospitals tend to have an intensely negative resonance that acts counter to their supposed purpose as centers for healing. I feel like there's something similar going on in academia with regards to writing and language. Most current scholarly writing and even more so textbooks feel like the literary equivalent of eating soggy cardboard. I've noticed that academic writing from further in the past tends to be more engaging and enjoyable, even if it's a dense discussion of a complex topic. Does it make sense to you that the same downward spiral of etheric poverty and parasitism is overtaking the educational system?

1) To a very limited extent, yes. Until you have a mental body with its own organs of perception and action, there's very little you can actually do on the mental plane; mostly, you can speed up the process of working out karma by understanding the meaning and purpose of what you're experiencing.

2) Depends on what you mean by "well on their way." Past life memories usually surface spontaneously in your last material incarnation.

3) They've got hard karma to work through, and the mental illness is how they're doing it. "Impossible" is a very strong word and not one I'd use; it's more likely that their work in this life will pay off either between lives or in their next incarnation.

Yes, and then some. Good writing brings us very nearly as close as we can get to the mental plane -- it reflects glimpses of meaning and value from that plane down into the upper reaches of the astral plane. To make that happen requires much more than technical skill. You can't write clearly, to begin with, unless you can think clearly, and you can't write thoughtfully unless you've actually thought about the topic! But prose also reveals the character of the writer, to such an extent that it's almost embarrassing to think about. When you write about something you really care about, you're basically walking around in public with your clothes off.

The modern education system is dedicated to preventing this from happening. It's all about regurgitating approved, pre-chewed thoughts, and don't you dare have an original idea -- that'll get you marked down on the multiple choice test, you know. The first thing I have to do when advising someone who wants to write is convince them to ignore all the lies they were taught in their English classes -- and yes, that harsh language is appropriate. Schools these days go out of their way to keep people from learning how to write well -- not least because they can't stand the thought that students might think for themselves and reflect on the things they're being taught.

I was reading back over the old Well of Galabes essays and found the discussion regarding being able to use any strong emotion for polarity magic. This and the mention a few Mondays back that a couple practicing polarity magic before their relationship became physical may result in the relationship settling down into friendship rather than anything more got me wondering whether polarity magic could finally be a productive use for and way out of TDS. But there are the following difficulties:

0) This is naturally assuming the point of the ritual is to discharge one's strong emotions towards a locally positive and constructive result with the practitioner left (hopefully permanently) divested of said strong emotions. It is not for feeling proud of one's self for having had a tantrum with the intent of throwing another one next week. That ground rule being set...

1) What is the ethical dimension of this type of working? Does polarizing with an unsuspecting person with whom one has strong parasocial feelings nonetheless have an effect on that person or can one assume they are working with their own personal inner polarization?
2) Would the energies of extreme anger towards someone be a pragmatically safe source of power for a magical working or would the noxiousness of said energies be a safety concern either causing direct harm to the practitioner or poisoning the results of the working?
3) Obviously the God Emperor is not omnipresent (yet?), will not likely have time to be personally present for any ritual of this kind, and probably doesn't care that He is living rent free in the practitioner's head. Can polarity magic work with a single mage polarizing with, for example, an image of the person they have strong emotions toward without the other person present or personally invested in the working?

Okay, let's start with a few basics. Yes, you can use any strong emotion that exists between two people to work polarity magic. Your TDS sufferer could therefore do fantastic magic with Donald Trump. In fact, you could probably get a whole room of them to polarize with Trump all at once, and raise an intensity of power like nothing I've ever witnessed.

The difficulty, of course, is that the person doesn't have that relationship with you. They could probably raise a fair amount of energy by pouring out hatred and rage at a photo of Trump, but it would be hard to do anything with that energy, since you're not part of the loop.

Finally, though you can use negative energy to raise polarity, it's inherently explosive. The lodge that I know that used it, putting two women who couldn't stand each other in a polarity in lodge, had one of those women leave the lodge shortly thereafter and never come back. Trying to do a TDS-based polarity working would be even more risky, I think.

All things considered, I wouldn't recommend it.

I recently started talking with someone which I really, really liked and never thought she would be interested in me. After I had the guts to reply back her messages --for as much as they were not romantic at all but just a general sense of interest-- I was bombarded with a psychic discharge, so the speak, that literally makes me feel dizzy sometimes and I have to get a grip of my feelings so they don't go overboard. We've seen each other a few times and it tends to feel great, except when I start wanting to go faster than the situation merits and it's been more than once that it's been interfering with me keeping my cool and even feeling too vulnerable, to the point I feel my emotions depend on her. As I type this, a message of her came through and can't stop smiling! (and when she doesn't I have a bad day) It made me think of the chapter on Magical Equilibrium by Levi:

"When the magnetic atmosphere of two people is so balanced that the attractive qualities of one absorbs the expansion of the other, an attraction is produced that we call sympathy; and thus imagination, in evoking all the rays or analogic reflections that it is experiencing, creates a poem of desires which carries off the will, and if the persons are of a different sex, there is produced in them, or more often in the weakest of the two, a total intoxication due to the astral light, which we call passion, in the precise sense of that word or love"

Now, I am sure I sound like a teenager when I write this, I certainly haven't felt this since I was one, but I would like to ask.

What is going on in the metaphysical sense? I certainly qualify as the weakest of the two and I do feel intoxicated.

What can I do to balance things out and not screw things up with her? I certainly don't want to fall out of love with her but I don't want to scare her, given that I feel the polarization of the two of is discharging heavily on my end and I might come off too intense. Nobody wants to date someone that is clearly dying for you, even though she clearly likes me. What has worked out for me so far, is to remove some of my mental attention from her and diffuse some of the energy by talking or hanging out with other women... but that clearly goes against my intentions. And... masturbation thinking about her seems way out of proportion right now. I don't want her receiving raw sexual energy just now, but it needs to go somewhere or I will explode! More than magic itself, can I take into advantage the occult philosophy about the dynamics of this exchange, to crassly describe love, and make it work in my favor?

Hello, I've started working through The Way of the Golden section and I have one bit of confusion. The hand movements in the opening of the sphere of protection, do you touch the third eye center with your palms or with the back of your hands?

Thank you.

That makes sense. Do you have any advice for what a writer or other creator can do to try and "let some light in" for people who have been steeped in material with such a negative resonance? I've noticed that when many people are exposed to "higher-vibrational" material it seems like they can literally space out and just not perceive it. There are great artists I know of who seem largely invisible to the public and I feel like this is part of the cause. Is there a way to at least somewhat cut through this veil of perception?

Good morning JMG,

Over on twitter, a few accounts have been doing a day by day retrospective of the 45th year anniversary of Mt St Helen. A theme that emerged was that the scientists knew that the volcano was going to erupt, but with no idea as to when.

Interestingly, the first tremors that indicated the beginning of the eruptive cycle occurred within a few hours of the Aires ingress. The entirety of the 1980 volcanic cycle has been well documented, especially in regards to the time and place of various tremors and eruptions. This makes for a great test case for testing out any preexisting astrological lore regarding volcanic events.

My question is, what lore is there in mundane astrology with respect to volcanic events? As to the uncertainty the scientists faced, would using the lunation charts help in this? The new moon of May 13th, right before the May 18 eruption had an exact opposition between Sun-Moon and Uranus, with the Cancer on the 4th house cusp as measured from Olympia, WA.

Lastly, as someone in the region at that time, do you have any recollection of what the occult press had to say about said events?

This week I have two observations RE: recent experiences with the Sphere of Protection (and one question to ask):

1. I'm getting close to one year of daily SoP practice. I'm noticing these last few weeks that the visualizations come easier. This is due to some intention on my part; but I'm noticing powerful if subtle effects at the step of drawing in the energies of the invoked element/spirit. There's a friendliness? involved in this exchange, almost as if there's more of a giving matching my intention to see and feel, if that makes sense.

The creation of the Sphere itself in the final step has felt extra potent. The mingling of banishing energies from Below and Above feel like a rushing current of water. A few times in the last 10 days I felt like I cleansed half the neighborhood.

I'm using the version John Gilbert described in the FHR papers, if that's of any interest. On that note, a second observation:

2. I recall a mention that Gilbert changed the SoP to move it away from the more distinctly Christian cross symbolism as he received it (or someone did -- I may be mistaken in the particulars).

In any case, while meditating on the symbols and their positioning, it occurred to me that the completed sphere could nevertheless be taken as three interlocking Greek crosses, with arms of equal length (unlike the more familiar Latin crucifix) and often found with an encircling ring.

There's the flat plane of the four elements, and once Spirit Below and Spirit Above add the third dimension, two additional crosses can be drawn with arms out to the left/right and front/back respectively.

The few essays I've read from Gilbert gave me the feeling that he had no little interest in Christian symbolism, if in its (IMO more interesting) subtle mystical forms rather than the better-known codified cousins.

The ringed Greek cross, by happenstance, is also the rough shape of the mandala figure that appears so often in Carl Jung's work.

I draw no conclusions from any of this, but it seemed worth a share.

To ask:

JMG, when casting geomantic charts for questions with yes/no answers, you've mentioned that the answer is given by the balance of (un)favorability of the two Witnesses and the Judge.

Let's say I cast a chart for the question "Is [person S] lying to me?", and receive extremely favorable figures as L/R Witnesses and Judge.

Assuming that S lying to me is an unfavorable outcome, is this a literal "yes" to the precise question as asked ("yes, S is lying to me"), or does it point to a favorable answer to the question (S is not lying to me)?

Sorry if this sounds too nitpicky over clear advice, but it's bugged me when interpreting a few recent charts.

Thank you.

Edited 2025-04-21 06:46 (UTC)

Dear Mr Greer,

Since childhood I have had what’s commonly called eye floaters. Small specs of apparently collagen floating around in front of my vision. Most people have some, I have a lot and it’s very frustrating.

I’m well read in magic but a novice when it comes to practice. Since medical intervention is not advised at my age, I was wondering if there was some working I could do to not notice the floaters as much? It seems a good application for a change in consciousness.

Thanks as always for this forum.

Not OP

You won't have seen it, with your dislike of television, but the early seasons of the Simpsons had an independent thought alarm that would go off at Springfield Elementary, if any students showed independent thought, in a parody of the modern American education system. Three independent thought alarms in one day was a notifiable event, later determined in another parody to be caused by too much coloured chalk in the classrooms.

Where does parody sit on the planes. I imagine it's fairly high up the astral too?

How do Bardon practitioners banish negative influences from their surroundings? The best I can discern from reading his book is that the strength of the aura is multiplied greatly and would offer some type of protection. Would this have a similar effect to daily banishing rituals?

A lead in to another question...How did you decide a ritual based system was better for you? I think you mentioned you tried Franz Bardon’s system, but moved away from it. What do you find is the difference is between people that work better with rituals vs meditation-centric systems?

In another Magic Monday you said “The LBRP is essential if you're going to do GD-style ceremonial magic, but that's not something I practice these days; I've found that I get equally good results from simpler methods of magical practice, and prefer those for a variety of personal reasons.”

I keep coming across this sentiment from people that have practiced magic seriously for decades. One well known practitioner of 60 years talked about needing only correct thinking to have success on the material plane and magic is unnecessary. Can you comment on getting equally good results from simpler methods? I thought I read a post where you referenced ceremonial magic as “all that hand waving” which made me laugh out loud.

Many thanks

Hi JMG,

I wrote a choral piece that I hope will be sung in 2026 as a tribute to the US' 250th anniversary. I did a geomancy reading on sending it to a college and if they would like it or not. My two witnesses were Populus, which made the judge Populus. I have hard time with neutral readings. Since Populus is neutral, do you think that it will just be ignored? Thanks.

Tangerine Tangential Cactus

Dear JMG,

I have a few questions about the model of the planes you’ve written about.

1. Do what we call emotions range across the planes? I believe in your model emotions are considered etheric, but does an emotion, for example love, extend upwards into higher planes? What I mean is that along with the feeling of love (etheric), there are the symbols of love (astral), and the idea of love (astral, mental)? And/or is it more that concept of what love is that changes across the planes? In other words, on lower planes, love is closer to lust, and perhaps more like agape on higher planes?

2. Taking this further, I am trying to understand why certain religions place love and compassion ahead of other emotions. The model of the planes you use seems to imply that thoughts and feelings get clearer as you recenter yourself up the planes. Is the result of this recentering what those religions mean by compassion - i.e. the experience of recentering on a higher plane is the same thing as what those religions call compassion or love? And this is why those religions place importance on them?

Many thanks in advance!

Not the OP. When I think, I will often think in words, but it’s as if the motivation for thinking those words is that there is something pushing behind them that is trying to be expressed. It’s as if there was a thick dough that wants to ooze out from somewhere, and getting forced through a bunch of word-shaped cookie cutters in my mind that may or may not completely express what the doughy substance wants to say, and the effect is compounded even more once the words get down on paper.

When I write words, suddenly what I mean changes in a weird way, and what I originally meant can vanish such that I may not remember what I originally meant, and the assembly of words as written take a life and meaning of their own. Sometimes I will re-read what I wrote some time later and, because the doughy substance that motivated the writing is gone, I’ll believe that I what I wrote was actually what I originally meant.

Would I be right in thinking that the doughy substance has to do with the mental plane, while the cookie cutter words are astral symbols?

I recently read a text about 'compromised energetic boundaries' and found that I tick almost all the boxes. Examples are extreme sensitivity to other people's emotions, a raw feeling of walking around without skin, energetic merging with other people animals and environment, general hypervigilance, environmental sensitivities and feeling uncomfortable in groups.

I suspect these symptoms are also known to occultism and wonder how an occultist would characterize this and what remedies would be suggested. What would you say?

I’ve been enjoying your Monsters manual. Though the details are excellent, what I find compelling is how the ensemble paints a wide and rich magical world view. It is sort of a Magic 101 textbook and I wish I’d got to it sooner, nicely done!

When reading about the qlippoth, I was struck by the similarity to a concept Eliphas Levi brought up in Dogma. The self-created écorces (husks) in which the dead burn and purify in a sort of purgatory. I was curious whether there is a connection between these two pieces of lore, give similarity of translation.

All those who requested healing hands last week have been fulfilled. I'm traveling for work this week so no time for new requests, but I will be back at it next Monday. In the meantime, I offer blessing energy to whoever may read this post and accept it.

You've made it pretty clear in your books on magic about the importance of divination before rituals to confirm one's intention is appropriate.

My question concerns something like color breathing. For example, choosing to do red color breathing for increased energy or and physical vigor.

Question 1) Does this require a divination, or is the intention so vague that it is not an issue?

Next, Pagan Prayer Beads mentions using an ogham rosary for meditation or as a memory aid.

Question 2) what are your thoughts about using an ogham rosary for running through daily intentions, like "may I have the clarity of mind of Luis, the grace of Saille, wisdom of Coll..." etc? Or does this run into the same problems with divination and intentionality?

Do you have any suggestions for natural magic stones/gems to bring in the earth element? My natal chart entirely lacks earth, except for an 11th house Neptune in Capricorn, whose only aspect is a square to Jupiter in Aries in the 2nd. My only angular earth house is the IC in Taurus. Otherwise my chart is quite harmonious and supportive, but I do feel this lack of earth in some day to day matters, particularly in managing clutter in the home and successfully gardening.

Do you have any suggestions for gemstones to bring in a bit more earth day to day? I would wear them as small stud earrings.

Thank you!

Dear JMG,

At what time do you wake up and is writing a part of your morning routine? I saw comments from other writers that they found the morning to be the most effective time for writing. Do you find the same to be true?

Greetings
Just wonderful reading The Carnelian Moon - truly enjoyed - and being reintroduced to Nicodemus. Wonder-full too to concurrently have several Lenten readings this season (John) talking about… Nicodemus!! Thank you!

My question: Does the capacity to observe with detachment and discernment one’s reactive thoughts and emotions come from the mental shealth?
Thanks again JMG for all your help and wisdom.

Jill C

Hello JMG and all!

Thanks for hosting this space. I am wondering about dream tools/objects being used for healing— and also how the objects that hurt us also have the power to heal us.

I had a dream a few years ago where I was in some orange tinted desert wearing cowboy garb and stuck in a pistol fight with some unseen assailant.

I ended up getting shot in the leg, and some mustachioed dream man appeared next to me and helped dig the bullet out of my thigh. Then, he handed me the bullet and said, “here, don’t forget to use this to dig out the energy wound” I promptly began to shovel what seemed like goo out of the wound, and when I looked down again the wound had completely healed.

Now I’ve mentally held onto that same bullet, and during a period of intense daily meditations I imagined it in my hand and used it to “dig out” places in my body where I’ve been hurt before.

It was especially effective on a wrist I’ve broken twice. I became overwhelmed with tears and vivid memories of being bullied as a child as I dug out the goop.

Do you know of any writing on something like this that I could look into? To further my understanding of what I’m actually doing.

Also any writings or books about how weapons that cause hurt can also be used to heal?
I faintly remember in a Robert Anton Wilson book Sigismundo having to track down a sword that sliced someone so that they could use it to heal the same person, but I could be wrong.

Final question:
Have you ever read or engaged with the books of Thomas Pynchon? His novels regularly use tarot and the Kabala as themes, and at least I don’t find them dull, others may. He has a new book set to be published in October about a midwestern PI hunting for a Wisconsin cheese heiress in 1930s Hungary.

If you took the time to read all this, thank you! Wishing you all what you need on this spring Monday.
J.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 8

Magic Monday

About enlightenment

Aetherodynamics of the Written Word

Re: About enlightenment

Re: Aetherodynamics of the Written Word

A Use for TDS?

Re: A Use for TDS?

no subject

Sphere of protection

Re: Aetherodynamics of the Written Word

no subject

Sphere of Protection

Magical healing

Re: Aetherodynamics of the Written Word

no subject

no subject

no subject

Re: Aetherodynamics of the Written Word

Energetic boundaries

no subject

MOE Healing Hands

Prayer Beads

no subject

no subject

Mental Shealth

A bullet as a healing tool