Magic Monday
Apr. 20th, 2025 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
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.)
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***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-21 04:43 pm (UTC)2) I spent a few weeks doing some of the first stage Bardon practices, then spent a few weeks doing Golden Dawn work, and decided I liked the GD work more. It really was as simple as that. I'm not sure if there's anything more complex involved.
3) In my experience, ritual is very good for beginners. It's the scaffolding you put up while you build yourself a strong and focused magical will. Once the building is complete, though, the scaffolding can be taken down. Equally, divination is the scaffolding you put up while you build intuition, and it, too, comes down once the building is complete. At that point, will plus intuition is all you need.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-21 05:56 pm (UTC)(Not the OP)
I hope you don't mind me asking some questions in relation to your response.
Q1. What is the magical will, in your opinion?
Q1. A) How does it differ from "normal" willpower (if at all)?
Q2. What would you do instead of ritual once you've dispensed with it?
Q2. A) Would things like New Thought apply here? That is, will plus imagination and things like affirmations etc?
Q3. Can New Thought get the same results as ritual magic? Or is it like comparing apples to oranges?
Many thanks to you.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-21 06:51 pm (UTC)2) I use a variety of approaches -- affirmations, yes, but also hoodoo workings such as candle spells, as much because I enjoy doing them as for any other reason. Others make their own choices.
3) There's some overlap and some things that each can do that the other can't.