With this post we continue a monthly chapter-by-chapter discussion of The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Lévi, the book that launched the modern magical revival. Here and in the months ahead we’re plunging into the white-hot fires of creation where modern magic was born. If you’re just joining us now, I recommend reading the earlier posts in this sequence first; you can find them here. Either way, grab your tarot cards and hang on tight.
If you can read French, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of Lévi’s book in the original and follow along with that; it’s readily available for sale in Francophone countries, and can also be downloaded for free from Archive.org. If not, the English translation by me and Mark Mikituk is recommended; A.E. Waite’s translation, unhelpfully retitled Transcendental Magic, is second-rate at best—riddled with errors and burdened with Waite’s seething intellectual jealousy of Lévi—though you can use it after a fashion if it’s what you can get. Also recommended is a tarot deck using the French pattern: the Knapp-Hall deck, the Wirth deck (available in several versions), or any of the Marseilles decks are suitable.
Reading:
“Chapter Twenty: Thaumaturgy” (Greer & Mikituk, pp. 369-376).
Commentary:
There are many things that one can do with magic, and our text has touched on a few of those. It’s an interesting detail of Lévi’s understanding of magic that the one that comes first in his mind, and the one that fills the current chapter, is healing. The word “thaumaturgy” (from the Greek words thaumata, “wonders,” and ourgia, “work”) literally means the working of wonders, the art and science of causing amazing things to happen; there are many branches of thaumaturgy in magical tradition, but “the immediate action of the human will on the body,” to use Lévi’s own turn of phrase, is the one that fascinated him most.
He’s by no means unique in that focus. It bears remembering, for example, that the term “medicine” in most Native American dialects of English means both medicine and magic; the term “medicine man,” for example, is a common and widespread term for Native American shamans. In much the same sense, practitioners of conjure (the traditional magic of the American South) and exponents of old-fashioned witchcraft in rural Europe are at least as frequently consulted for medical treatments as for magical workings. In a thoughtful book entitled Wondrous Healings, sociologist James McClenon has argued that the ability of charismatic healers to cure illnesses without using physical medicines is among the wellsprings of human religion and magic around the world.
In Lévi’s time as in ours, of course, to discuss such healings as a form of magic is to risk treading on certain very sore theological toes. Jesus of Nazareth, whose example is a constant theme in our text if not always an explicitly stated one, owed much of his reputation during and after his short public career to his ability to bring about sudden healings in apparently incurable patients. For most of the last two thousand years it has been common for the promoters of Christianity to stress the miraculous nature of those healings while downplaying or denying equivalent healings performed by the holy people of other faiths; Lévi’s exploration of the psychological basis of sudden healings challenges that rhetorical strategy to its core.
In doing this Lévi stepped straight into the middle of one of the major philosophical feuds between materialists and Christians. Then as now, the most common Christian theory concerning miracles has it that God, having created the laws of nature, can set them aside any time he wants to. Then as now, the most common response by materialists is to insist that this kind of arbitrary interference with natural law would plunge the universe into chaos. In his usual way, Lévi offends both sides by cutting straight through the middle of the quarrel and defining miracles as “the natural effects of exceptional causes.”
Take a moment to think through this definition; it explains an enormous amount about what magic can and cannot do, and not just in the sphere of healing. Consider the spells typically cast by folk magicians around the world. None of their effects involve any violations of natural law. Healing spells? It’s entirely natural for people to recover from illnesses. Love spells? People do fall in love now and then, you know. Prosperity spells? We all know of people who have risen from poverty to wealth. Spells to bring good or bad luck? Extended streaks of fortune or misfortune happen all the time.
What makes magic distinctive, in other words, is not the nature of its effects but the nature of its causes. The effects are natural; the causes are exceptional—or simply poorly understood. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, whose volume On the Will in Nature was as far as I know the only major work of 19th-century philosophy to take magic seriously, argued that what made magical spells effective, as well as philosophically interesting, is tha tthey worked through a mode of action rooted in consciousness and distinct from ordinary material cause and effect. (Readers who are familiar with Carl Jung’s writings on synchronicity will recognize the same concept under a different label.)
Lévi’s approach in this chapter, however, is considerably subtler. As several earlier chapters have shown clearly enough, he seems to have been one of the very few people in his time to make a close study of what is now called the placebo effect and its nasty twin sister, the nocebo effect. The confidence of the patient in the healer, he pointed out, is the most important factor in healing even in official medicine; when reinforced by a good working knowledge of human psychology, it allows remarkable healings to take place.
The stories that Lévi cites of miraculous healings brought about by inadequate or ludicrous means, so long as the patient believed in the healer’s power to heal, show clearly enough how he conceived of miracles. For that matter, some of the Gospel stories of the miracles of Jesus bear the same interpretation readily enough: what does “Thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matthew 9:22 etc.) amount to, after all, but a restatement of Lévi’s theme in this chapter?
This was not entirely a new concept in occult teachings when Lévi wrote. Back in the sixteenth century, in the pages of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Cornelius Agrippa discussed the importance of religion and superstition as helps to the magical practitioner, and the Picatrix—the classic handbook of early medieval magic—stresses the importance of the magician having faith in the power of his workings. These earlier texts, however, held that magical power comes to the practitioner from the cosmos, and faith is simply a necessary part of the process by which that power is accessed.
It was left to Lévi to propose faith as the prime mover in its own right. That followed naturally from the central theme of his work. As we have seen, his intention all through The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic has been to ground the powers of magic in human will and imagination, rather than tracing magical powers to realities outside the self. If it is individual will and imagination that heals, some explanation has to be found for the varied material means of healing used in different traditions around the world and across time. The power of faith is one hypothesis, and a strong one.
At the same time, Lévi does not quite reduce magical healing than clever psychology. Our texts talks about warm and cold exsufflations—this is a fancy way of talking about breathing on an afflicted body part as a means of healing. Most people can learn how to do both of these in a moment. Hold the back of one of your hands close to your mouth, and breathe out slowly and steadily through a mouth held as though you meant to say the sound “aaah;” the breath will feel warm on your skin. Then breathe out more forcefully, through pursed lips, as though you meant to blow out a candle; the breath will feel cold.
With a little practice, it’s easy for most people to learn to use both these breaths for healing purposes, and experience will show that they have noticeable benefits. As our text points out, the warm breath brings energy and increased vitality, while the cold breath clears away inflammation and congestion. Combined with a healing intention held strongly in the mind of the practitioner, especially if this is reinforced by imagination, they can have remarkably good results. (I encourage interested readers to try this for themselves and see.)
How much of this is the placebo effect, and how much is the transmission of the astral light, the mysterious force to which Lévi attributes so many of the results of magic? It’s all but impossible to say, not least because the astral light in Lévi’s theory forms the bridge between mind and matter and thus provides a mechanism for the placebo effect to take place!
Homeopathy, which Lévi also discusses, is another healing modality in which psychology and subtle energy intertwine inextricably, though here some degree of chemical effect is also involved. For those who are unfamiliar with homeopathy, it takes compounds that cause illnesses in large doses, and give them in extremely low-dose dilutions—for example, one part per million in a little pill, or in a few drops of alcohol in a glass of water—to cure those same illnesses.
It’s a tolerably effective system of healing, though you probably don’t want to mention that around true believers in standard modern medicine; like everything else that doesn’t make money for multinational pharmaceutical corporations, homeopathy is denounced as quackery by the medical mainstream. Understanding how it works is a little complex because it draws on all three of the factors just discussed. There is the biological effect of microdoses of active ingredients; there is the effect of the astral light, which old-fashioned homeopaths understood very well—Dr. James Tyler Kent, one of the leading American homeopaths at the turn of the last century, wrote about the astral ligt at length as “simple substance”—and then there is the placebo effect, which comes into play whenever a patient is confident of the healer’s abilities.
All three of these have to be taken into account to explain the effects of homeopathy, or any other healing modality for that matter, including those of the medical mainstream. I’ve thought more than once that one of the reasons that the medical industry here in the US does such a very poor job of treating people’s illnesses is that its practitioners have lost track of one of the basic principles of placebo medicine: unlike the slightly mad nun Lévi discusses, they stopped listening attentively to their patients. Their evident boredom with their work and lack of concern with their patients’ well-being inevitably communicated itself to those same patients, and lessened the effectiveness of the otherwise powerful medicines they prescribed.
Certainly, however, the skill at attentive listening exercised by occult healers and rural witches in earlier times has been preserved more or less intact by alternative health care providers, which goes a long way to explain why they continue to thrive despite savage legal persecution by the mainstream medical industry and its government enablers. Quite a few of the alternative modalities that emerged in the Western world originated in circles strongly influenced by the same magical traditions Lévi discusses, though most of those have gone out of their way to avoid talking about that aspect of their heritage.
All the same, it strikes me as unfortunate that the simple forms of thaumaturgical medicine Lévi discussed have apparently dropped out of use. I have yet to meet an occult healer who knows how to charge the simple medicines Lévi mentions—water, oil, wine, camphor, salt—and use them for healing purposes, nor has insufflation remained anything like as common as it was in Lévi’s time. It might well be worthwhile for today’s more traditionally minded occultists to experiment with a revival of these methods.
Notes for Study and Practice:
It’s quite possible to get a great deal out of The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by the simple expedient of reading each chapter several times and thinking at length about the ideas and imagery that Lévi presents. For those who want to push things a little further, however, meditation is a classic tool for doing so.
Along with the first half of our text, I introduced the standard method of meditation used in Western occultism: discursive meditation, to give it its proper name, which involves training and directing the thinking mind rather than silencing it (as is the practice in so many other forms of meditation). Readers who are just joining us can find detailed instructions in the earlier posts in this series. For those who have been following along, however, I suggest working with a somewhat more complex method, which Lévi himself mention in passing: the combinatorial method introduced by Catalan mystic Ramon Lull in the Middle Ages, and adapted by Lévi and his successors for use with the tarot.
Take the first card of the deck, Trump 1, Le Bateleur (The Juggler or The Magician). While looking at it, review the three titles assigned to it: Disciplina, Ain Soph, Kether, and look over your earlier meditations on this card to be sure you remember what each of these means. Now you are going to add each title of this card to Trump II, La Papesse (The High Priestess): Chokmah, Domus, Gnosis. Place Trump II next to Trump I and consider them. How does Disciplina, discipline, relate to Chokmah, wisdom? How does Disciplina relate to Domus, house? How does it relate to Gnosis? These three relationships are fodder for one day’s meditation. For a second day, relate Ain Soph to the three titles of La Papesse. For a third day, relate Kether to each of these titles. Note down what you find in your journal.
Next, combine Le Bateleur with Trump III, L’Imperatrice (The Empress), in exactly the same way, setting the cards side by side. Meditate on the relationship of each of the Juggler’s titles to the three titles of the Empress, three meditations in all. Then combine the Juggler and the Emperor in exactly the same way. Then go on to the Juggler and the Pope, giving three days to each, and proceed from there. You’ll still be working through combinations of Le Bateleur when the next Lévi post goes up, but that’s fine; when you finish with Le Bateleur, you’ll be taking La Papesse and combining her with L’Imperatrice, L’Empereur, and so on, and thus moving through all 231 combinations the trumps make with one another.
Don’t worry about where this is going. Unless you’ve already done this kind of practice, the goal won’t make any kind of sense to you. Just do the practice. You’ll find, if you stick with it, that over time the relationships between the cards take on a curious quality I can only call conceptual three-dimensionality: a depth is present that was not there before, a depth of meaning and ideation. It can be very subtle or very loud, or anything in between. Don’t sense it? Don’t worry. Meditate on a combination every day anyway. Do the practice and see where it takes you.
We’ll be going on to Chapter 21, “The Science of the Prophets,” on February 12, 2025. See you then!
As I re-read the chapters I notice now that Levi likes to use a certain number of examples to make his point. He often uses four examples. Sometimes two and three, but he uses four a lot.
For example, on page 42 he writes: What is man? He is the initiator, he who fractures, who ploughs and who sows. What is woman? She is the teacher, she who consolidates, who waters and who harvests.
I thought there might be a reference to the four elements but it doesn’t seem that way. On the other hand, it could be another reference to the tetragrammaton, which is a four-letter word. But in this case, you must find the ternary between the masculine and feminine for each of the four.
In any case, when he uses a specific number of examples, it’s time to pay attention.
It rather appears that ‘placebo’ and ‘nocebo’ are simply modern medicalese for thaumaturgy.
I have often thought that at least 80% of most healings (or failures to heal) are due to the combination of the patient and the healer’s attitude and beliefs about the malady, cure, nature of the patient, and competency of the healer. This helps explain some of the more dramatic/theatrical aspects of many shamanic and folk healing traditions. Or even the dramatic aspect of modern medical devices in hospitals. That great big, wildly expensive, weirdly noisy MRI machine is difficult to dismiss when you are put into the magic hole so the “shaman” can “see” inside you! It’s so impressive it MUST be magically efficacious!
Thank you for the reminder of how often religious care and medical care have been offered by the same person or institution throughout humanity’s tenure on this globe. Undoubtedly that will also be the case in the nascent cultures arising from the rubble of the American era.
“The natural effects of exceptional causes” sounds like another definition of magic to this reader.
What do you think of the idea of taking Aurum Metallicum as a way to make, as it were, a fluid codenser of oneself? It seems to me this particular homeopathic remedy is a true gold for the modern astral-alchemical practitioner.
It seems that timing the making of a fluid condenser to the strongest period of the waxing moon would also be beneficial for making it more etherically and astrally charged.
One more for now… I’d be interested in that camphor thing. Ointments like White Flower and Tiger Balm use it as an ingredient. A well known modern day exorcist in the occult community swears by camphor for help in dealing with ridding people of parasites and other unwanted beings. Well, its gets rid of my headaches as reliably as ibuprofen and without the side effects.
This total abandonment of any shadow of placebo medicine seems to be another way the new “managers” of mainstream western medicine seem intent on destroying it.
Even with all of its flaws, western medicine back in the 1970’s or so did a good job of creating an aura of authority and competence around doctors. One entered the office to be processed by a prim nurse in her white uniform complete with hat. Then you were often ushered in to the MD’s office resplendent with diplomas and certificates. Then the doctor in his suit-with-tie and white coat would examine you in a confident manner. The cures he would dish out would often have the kind of authority that was in itself a placebo.
Now a visit to the doctor brings you to a kind of beaten down functionary dressed in the same garb as the rest of the office staff. The timid behavior of the woke era ( may I touch your back sir) gives the patient little confidence. Then in. most cases you can tell the doctor is deferring to some kind of money saving protocol, or new drug regime handed down by HMO managers and big Pharma.
Now in many cases, the smart patient ( if they have not already abandoned mainstream medicine) realizes that the clinic, urgent care or ER they are at is owned by the likes of United Health and Bain Capital. At least 40 years ago the hospital or clinic was probably owned by a catholic charity so you could imagine that the doctors authority was being managed by god and not some private equity vulture.
Alternately: “And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.” Matthew 13:58
We live in an age that would seem (superficially, at least) to have some degree of confidence in the will and the self, so I can see how such a message might resonate. I would demur, to a degree; in my view, if a person is not rooted in something greater than the self, I suspect it is like a branch without a vine. But, perhaps it’s that very connection that has something to do with why those simpler medicines don’t readily take (several of them are still used in the church as sacramentals, and seem to have quite potent effects). My family had a habit of sharing a simple moment together over olive oil and salt that I always remember with fondess, a focal point that had a sort of grounding effect…
Axé
Acquisition of three dimensional reality. Here in India at an Aryuvedic treatment center the grounds, the workers, the animals and plants are pervaded by that astral light driven by the healing by advanced practitioners and the ancient Vedic prayers recited on a daily basis and given by excellent recording to recipients of treatment in the treatment rooms. There is an instantaneous confluence of spirit among the animal and plant denizens- for example an admiration of the beauty of the resident peacocks can result in finding a perfect feather along a path, an appreciation of the resilience of the numerous wild boar in the surrounding woods can lead to an unexpected visit at night by a mother boar and her child, seen through a window despite darkness. The admiration does not cause the effect, admiration and response each reinforce the growth of the other.
I got placebo-ed by a crafty older dentist decades ago. He was drilling away on a tooth and the novocaine wasn’t working. He stopped because of my pain and told me to come back in late afternoon “ when teeth are less sensitive”.
I returned and after a small shot of pain killer my tooth was a numb pain free stone. I said when he was done, “Yeah, doctor, teeth are less sensitive in the afternoon” His reply “Yes, the power of the mind is a wonderful thing”.
I was puzzled by his words and wasn’t until months later I understood that I had been placebo-ed.
Hi John Michael,
I’m old enough to know folks who’ve told me that back in their day, doctors used to advise their patients to go and have a smoke whilst relaxing in the waiting room. Hmm. There’s an inherent problem in a group pretending that they’re all seeing, and all knowing, when in fact they may only have a grasp of the subject under their control. After all, the facts suggest that if they were all knowing, people wouldn’t die – which seems to be the common fate of all mankind. At best, the end point is somewhat delayed, and I have a hunch that with the rush to specialisation, the basics get ignored – probably because they’re considered boring. The nifty bits of information I’ve picked up over the years about the subject of health, is quite surprising, and I do wonder why the basics aren’t drilled into the population.
You know, the whole argument reminds me a lot of the ongoing debates about the subject of soil. (Oh! And I’ll be interested to hear how your growing experiments work out.) Anyway, the soil debate, is really an argument where people get in their ideological corners. I suspect as a civilisation, we know far less about that subject of soil than we pretend to do so. Hmm. After a quarter century of mucking around with this stuff, the core issue for me is: Does this here thing you’re talking about work in my circumstances?
It’s a bigger question than most people would acknowledge, and it is the one that most people avoid due to it challenging their belief systems.
Cheers
Chris
There is a huge, and utterly fascinating, body of medical and scientific literature on placebos (and their lethal twin, nocebos), which I have only dipped into slightly. (I can access medical and scientific journals through my University library.) Slight as my dipping has been, a few general results seem to me to have been solidly established:
(1) Placebos alone can alleviate or cure various illnesses in many people, without any other medicine.
(2) Placebos can be also often be effective even when the patient knows it is a placebo.
(3) Some patients can even administer a placebo to themselves, knowing full well that it is a placebo, and thereby alleviate or cure an illness of theirs.
(4) Use of ritual in connection with a placebo enhances the effectiveness of the placebo.
(5) Administration of placebo can produce measurable changes in the patient’s physiology and neurology.
(6) Nocebos seem to have the same powers as placebos, only (by definition) the results are injurious or even lethal, not beneficial.
All these points — and especially nos. 4 and 6 — obviously bear on the effective practice of magic.
No doubt there is a lot more to be learned — also by theorists of the effectiveness of magic! — from a deeper dive into the medical and scientific literature on placebos and nocebos. And there are obviously unwelcome implications, too, for the pharmaceutical industry.
When my daughter was an infant, I learned that if I held her after her 4am (or thereabouts) feeding, she would sleep for another three hours and I could get a little more sleep, even if it was sitting in a chair. In retrospect, I think perhaps she wanted or needed some of my etheric energy.
But something that didn’t make sense in terms of etheric energy (until now) is how I got her to go sleep by herself in the crib. She resisted being alone in her crib, but I learned that if breathed on her head for a few minutes, she would fall asleep and stay asleep for hours. Seems like I was doing warm exsufflations without knowing it…
“…it strikes me as unfortunate that the simple forms of thaumaturgical medicine Lévi discussed have apparently dropped out of use. I have yet to meet an occult healer who knows how to charge the simple medicines Lévi mentions—water, oil, wine, camphor, salt—and use them for healing purposes…”
I found this paragraph interesting, given my Mormon upbringing. Mormon men who have the higher level of the Mormon priesthood (the Melchezidek priesthood) have the ability to consecrate oil for the healing of the sick. It is actually really common. Also, healing baptisms used to be practiced in the church in the old days before it turned corporate and ironed out everything interesting.
“The confidence of the patient in the healer, he pointed out, is the most important factor in healing even in official medicine; when reinforced by a good working knowledge of human psychology, it allows remarkable healings to take place.”
Besides just healing magic, this reminds me of psi and other matters that are held in suspicion by the scientific community. What if tests to verify the reality of such phenomena fail because belief in the phenomena is necessary for it to work in the first place? The placebo effect is so interesting, because it seems to be a direct example of mental causation!
Thanks for the great post, John!
Greetings, Archdruid, and fellow readers.
I have personally discovered that cold insufflations are very helpful with painful period cramps. Its effectiveness does indeed depend on the amount of love and care it is administered with. It can be highly effective if administered by a lover or spousal partner who feels agonised by the cramps of their loved one, and therefore acts out of strong sympathy and devotion.
To make cold insufflations more effective, I recommend making the skin surface moist and cool first. I do this by filling a bowl of water, and placing it inside the deep freezer well in advance to ensure that it freezes solid (periods are, of course, somewhat periodic; we know when they are coming). When the cramps come, I pull out the bowl, take some tissue paper, and rub the paper on the ice. It becomes moist and cold. Then I rub it over her belly, and also above, below, and to the sides of her belly, so that the region becomes cool and moist. When it is cool and moist, I blow softly, steadily, and through puckered lips (to ensure that the insufflations are cool) on that region of skin. This has a very positive effect, and can help her to overcome her pain, even if for a bit.
Administering this cure once a month has taught me personally how important it is to listen to the “patient”. After all, she knows where the pain from the cramps is most severe, and where the most detailed action is needed. I have discovered that listening for instructions is the most significant part of the process – insufflations applied at the wrong locations are often unwelcome, since it does have the effect of a shocking cold, and can make matters worse on top of the existing pain.
I might want to point out that I do not personally know what period cramps feel like. I am a man and have been exempted from that agony by birth and providence.
Hi JMG,
If your are already working in health care, I can tell you that there is no need to wait to re-integrate the spiritual/life force approach to healing with the usual practice of western healthcare. The practices of the Modern Order of Essenes, for example, works into my pharmacy practice very well! When I started doing Blessing Walks, it occurred to me that I could offer my blessing to everyone who came to me for medical care. Everyone who seeks medication in a Pharmacy, whether for major illness, minor ailment, or consultations on what to do is seeking healing, relief, and comfort. It seems to me that they often need the blessing more than a medication.
In addition, my morning prayers include an appeal that I and my team will be able to ‘fill prescriptions rightly, catch mistakes, and give good advice, so that sickness may be healed, suffering relieved, and prisoners be set free.’ Also that I might be ‘a means for the grace, mercy, peace and healing of those whose lives I touch, and a blessing in my interactions with all.’
That said, I am not telling anyone locally what I am doing behind the scenes. There isn’t time for it, and it really is not about me. TSW my friends– I am finding it easier to get to the root of what’s going on, and make an effective recommendation.
Not everyone is healed. I regularly have to tell people to go to hospital, and it sometimes falls to me to talk with patients or their spouses about the end of life. Perhaps a physician should be breaking the news that someone or their spouse is terminally ill, but the healthcare system in our area has been collapsing for a while now, perhaps now at an accelerating rate. There are fewer and fewer Physicians and Nurses, so I’ve had to step up to the plate and increase my knowledge and skills.
If you work in Western Healthcare and are reading this, especially if you are in rural Canada, likely you already have an understanding of other planes of existence. I’d urge anyone in Healthcare to become an Initiate in Modern Order of Essenes or another spiritual practice, and integrate it into your medical work.
Jon, excellent. I see you’re paying attention.
Ken, of course they are. I use them because incantations in medicalese seem to communicate well to most modern people.
MOLF, it should. As for Aurum Metallicum, it works quite well — I like to dissolve four tablets in a small amount of warm water, paint that on watercolor paper, and use that to make talismans. As for camphor, good; I use Tiger Balm fairly often.
Clay, exactly. I don’t imagine they’ll figure that out in time to save the industry, either.
Fra’ Lupo, I’d tend to agree with you, but these posts are meant to discuss Lévi’s ideas, not mine.
Sarah, certainly, though, we’d both agree that the psychological effect on the patient has an effect.
BeardTree, ha! A very good example.
Chris, it’s been a few years, but when I last looked into soil science I learned that humus is too chemically complex to be analyzed by any known method…
Robert, yes, exactly. I use placebo methods on myself quite routinely, with good results; it doesn’t matter what the conscious mind thinks, since it’s the subconscious where the placebo effect works.
Random, you were indeed. Thank you for the data point!
Enjoyer, you’re welcome and thank you. I’m glad that the practice has continued somewhere!
Rajarshi, thank you for this! My late wife would have benefited from it back in the day. The trick we learned was to have me rub the lowest part of the back, just above the hips — again, listening to her and finding the right place via her guidance was crucial.
At least one of the blessed oils used in Catholic ritual is consecrated by exsufflation as well as prayer, generally at a “Chrism Mass”. Other consecrated oils are used for healing, protection, and so on, but do not seem to be consecrated by exsufflation.
“After the Liturgy of the Word, the blessing of the oils takes place. In a formal procession, olive oil is brought forward in special urns; the oil of the sick is presented first, next the oil of the catechumens, and finally oil for the holy chrism. The bishop prays over and blesses each oil individually.
“The ritual for creating and consecrating the holy chrism is different from the others. To make it, the bishop mixes oil from the balsam plant with the olive oil, breathes on the mixed oil to signify the presence of the Holy Spirit, and then says a prayer to consecrate it.”
(https://www.simplycatholic.com/what-are-holy-oils/)
Blessings of and with oils seems also to be part of Orthodox practice. in either case, blessing of “chrism oil” seem to be reserved to bishops.
I’d be surprised if the techniques of insufflation and exsufflation had fallen out of use. I suspect there are many practitioners of healing arts who use exsufflation in healing and in consecrating or charging healing materials — they just probably don’t get a lot of publicity. (For example, https://www.donnieyance.com/anointing-with-essential-oils-for-spiritual-healing/ ) For obvious reasons, healers without medical qualifications probably don’t emphasize medical claims in their healing work.
” like everything else that doesn’t make money for multinational pharmaceutical corporations, homeopathy is denounced as quackery by the medical mainstream.”
JMG, you’ve opened a can of worms with that reality, he he…
My experience with homeopathy was some years ago, before the COVIDian hysteria, and although I wasn’t healed by the homeopathic doctor, he relieved a lot my symptoms, which it (my main problems have been always in my mind). Later I tried with yoga and mindfulness and it worked in a different way, relieving my problems.
Do you think Homeopathy is effective against mental disorders? (if you can answer without problems with the “Health Church”, of course).
Hello all, and thank you for this great writing to start this new year.
Lévi’s mention of homeopathy is fascinating. I have been studying homeopathy for the last five years and am about to open my own clinic later this year – it is a healing modality that balances and unites so many seemingly irreconcilable understandings. I came to homeopathy from writings of Josef Knecht, a member of the Bonn Workshop for Experimental Magic who went on to become a practicing homeopath himself. And its lineage goes back directly to alchemy, homeopathy’s founder Samuel Hahnemann worked at the threshold from that expansive understanding of spirit and matter before science shifted fully into a materialistic practice.
JMG – I am aware of Kent’s usage of “simple substance” and saw it within the context of his spiritual beliefs (I believe Swedenborgian?). But I wasn’t aware that he directly correlated it with astral light. Do you know where in his writing that association was made?
And, apologies if this is too self-interested, but I would warmly welcome opportunity to share/learn more about homeopathy particularly with readers of this blog, via email if interested: iizzzii@pm.me.
I noted to reviewing the chapter on potions last night before bed, that Levi also gives three instances of the use of breathing on someone as a form of enchantment in that chapter when discussing the most intoxicating potions that exist by inculcating the azoth with mesmeric charges.
Btw … MOLF… I love it. I’m tempted to change this pseudonym to Mauve Imparidigitate Largical Flaneuse, but I’m not a mom and I don’t want anyone to go all Crowleyean and get their libido inflamed by lustful prayer.
Maybe I should just be quiet. The Silence might Dogood.
OT to a degree, but its magic related. I used the word “inflamed” in my last comment. Was chatting with a friend about the fires in LA. I know a few people out that way. One family, another an acquaintance. Hearing reports about arson. I used to play with fire quite a bit when I was a kid. I know lots of guys do. But I got quite dangerous with it. Later I wondered about connections to fire elementals and the like. The destruction / creation cycle of fire is interesting from a magical point of view. It got me thinking on how elementals, which have no conscience or ethics or divine spark, might be “inflaming” the situation and instigating people who are unhinged or predisposed towards that, the unbalanced, to aggravate the situation.
Medical doctors’ “evident boredom with their work and lack of concern with their patients’ well-being inevitably communicated itself to those same patients.” Luckily, I’ve only met a few of those doctors, but quickly came to despise them.
Most doctors seem to watch their patients carefully, to see if they’ll actually follow the doctor’s directions. If the patients follow orders, the doctors will become more emotionally engaged.
To Ecosophy Enjoyer, your post about Mormon consecrated oil has jogged and old memory of mine. I also had a Mormon upbringing when I was very young. My memory is, when I was around 5 years old I had a terrible earache. My father asked two elderly church members to come to the house. They performed what was essentially a ritual that involved putting a small amount of oil on my head. I remember thinking to myself that it was all nonsense. My ear continued to hurt but I fell asleep shortly after they left. I woke up the next morning without any trace of an earache.
This was over 60 years ago and I have not really thought about it until now. And now, I realize I have not once had a bad earache since then. Huh. Knock on wood…..
LeGrand, thanks for this. Not having grown up Catholic, I wasn’t aware of it.
Chuaquin, my experience with homeopathy is specifically with Schüssler’s biochemic cell salts, which I’ve been using for well over thirty years. They’re not well suited to mental conditions, but I find them very effective for physical ailments. You’d have to talk to a homeopath about the broader tradition.
RS, I may have given a false impression — I haven’t read Kent directly and I don’t happen to know if he drew that equation or not. Based on writers who cited him, I gathered that “simple substance” was Kent’s word for the Great Unmentionable of industrial culture: qi, prana, animal magnetism, od, vril, orgone, the astral light, and the list goes on.
Flaneur, glad you liked the acronym! As for Los Angeles, it seems to be quite the flustered cluck at the moment. It interests me that it’s specifically clobbering the rich people’s ghettos…
Tom, my luck may be worse than yours, then. I’ve met a great many of them, and not only when I worked in nursing homes and got to see the excuse for medical care that most doctors involved in that end of things inflicted on the elderly and helpless.
Cyclone, many thanks for the story!
I noticed the same thing about our soi distant elite.
@ Clay Dennis #6
“This total abandonment of any shadow of placebo medicine seems to be another way the new “managers” of mainstream western medicine seem intent on destroying it.”
Actually, I do not think they have, or that they can.
If you examine the concept of a “random double-blind controlled trial” (the golden standard for discovering “what works”), each and every trial is supposed to function as a workaround to shut out the noise of the placebo effect, the reality of which is implicit in the very trial design.
Ironically, the “double-blind” part of the standard clinical trial design is aimed at muting the (also implicitly admitted) contributions made by two of the three pillars of every clinical encounter – the practitioner and the patient. This is because what drives the scientific search to discover “what works” is the need of the salesman, to develop suitable slogans with which to advertise their third pillar product – the treatment itself, be it drug, device or procedure.
Thank you for this. The general Levi posts have been mostly above my head, so while I read every one, I rarely comment. But, this one feels like I might have something useful to say.
The thing that I have been mulling over for the past few years, but with more urgency lately, relates to the transmutation of what is toxic to what is healthful. One thing I have found inspiring in this regard is the vignette in one of your two shoggoth books in which Brecken takes the jagged, atonal, non musical theme of another student, and weaves the whole of it into something larger, fuller, incorporating what is discordant into something deeper, more complex, and fully harmonious.
And, the reality is that however “clean” we each try to be in our diets and lifestyles, we are exposed to toxins everywhere – in air, water, soil, food, clothes, the visual environment, the aural environment, the culture, and on and on…
So, just an example of my recent experimentation, I have been doing MOE type blessings upon everything to be consumed by anyone in this house, my all medicines given to our sheep, to the well, to the farm’s soil, to the needles and other tools in my clinic. And I am developing little jingles like “may your body hear a song that is true, may your spirit find a light that shines through…” Not the least expert, but I’m working this out as I go along. 🙂
Many of my patients are also on many, many prescription drugs, and have had many vaccinations, and some live under broadcasting masts, and are subject (as am I and everyone else) to the ordinary toxic effluent of this industrial civilisation. (Incidentally, I never ask about these matters, I know only what I am told spontaneously in the course of a consultation). I have begun to think of these toxins as “bum notes” that cause apparent discord in the overall song that is the defining “pattern” of that person, while asking, intending, suggesting, praying, that those notes can simply be incorporated into a larger, deeper, more complex harmony, which transforms such notes into participants in the harmonious pattern of that life.
It has also been inspirational, in this regard, to note that some of the “blessing walk” lessons extend those blessings to the inanimate and mechanical appurtenances of modern life. In my own case, there are nine windmills and a high energy electric line residing within the view (rural) outside my window. I have started blessing these, and “singing” them into the harmony of this bit of land we steward.
Anyway, maybe these half-formed thoughts contribute something of interest to this discussion.
Hi John Michael,
That’s my understanding of the situation too. Our brains are limited in that regard because the subject is unknowable. However, this does in no way mean that we can’t work with the stuff, and feed positive intentions, concerted effort and resources into it. It’s my belief that good health begins with the soil.
A civilisation destroying its soil is nothing new.
Since someone brought up the LA fires. I’d hazard a wild guess that the insurance woes in that part of the world, will feed into the banking system, and bond markets. The entire system of debt is predicated on not losing the asset, just sayin. Did you mention to me long ago that the Japanese response to repeated natural disasters were building standards and practices which sought to reduce the costs for replacing dwellings and other structures?
Cheers
Chris
Hello Mr Greer and everyone,
This is a fascinating topic as usual. I find it especially noteworthy as it puts rather explicitly into words something that I have begun to discover intuitively in the last couple of years – the world does not operate only according to mechanistic order as discovered by modern science, there are in fact additional layers of order operating simultaneously less amenable to study, although still open to experience under certain conditions. A good doctor will use principles on their patients that occult practitioners would associate with magic whether he or she is aware of it or not, otherwise their practice will not be effective. To generalise a bit more broadly: a thriving life requires harnessing of magical energies, which can be done unconsciously even by staunchest materialists. Some of the malaise of modern living comes from the gradual loss of ability to get in touch with these energies spontaneously. In the same way that the concept of phycical exercise would have looked ridiculous to most people a couple of centuries ago, but now deliberate phycial activity is a must due to our incresingly sedentary living conditions, so introducing some activities to strenghten esoteric energies in one’s life is becoming obligatory as the society does its best to throtle them at the source.
This is the first time I hear of warm and cold exsufflations, would anyone have a link to more information on the practice? From the description in the article, it sooms to be readily applicable. Thanks.
Greetings all!
JMG wrote: it doesn’t matter what the conscious mind thinks, since it’s the subconscious where the placebo effect works.
Fascinating discussion.
(1) Given the above does it follow then that the unconscious is not only powerful as it has the capacity to heal the body but also that it is also gullible?
(2) What other powers does the unconscious possesses?
(3) Does anyone know whether the placebo effect also works on certain animals like dogs and cats?
Thanks
@ John # 16 thank you for the tip about rubbing the point just above the hip. Guidance like this is really helpful to young couples like me and my wife.
Further to my last. I synchronously picked up a book on early Christian communities, and found a reference to Mark 16:17-18 (which I am certain Beardtree will be most familiar with), saying:
“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
I am especially intrigued by the “drinking deadly poison” bit, because, although I do not think it a good idea to deliberately go out to get poisoned, the fact is that all of us are being poisoned in some way… by substances and energies that somehow appear alien, foreign or dangerous to the living cells of our bodies, and which our bodies do not know how to process.
However, if we define the miraculous as “the natural effects of exceptional causes” then, actually, it is quite natural, although often takes many failed attempts, for cells to figure out how to incorporate and use alien, foreign and dangerous substances. The most wonderfully re-purposed deadly poison of all is, of course, oxygen. The mysteries of oxygen were plumbed, as it happens, by only one living lineage. When a community of prokaryotic cells merged to become the first eukaryotic cell, none of the partners possessed this trick. But the community were able to entice ancestral mitochondria to make themselves at home in a semi-autonomous fashion within such cells, and that cellular “symbiosis” became the foundation for building multi-cellular bodies.
Compared to oxygen, it seems to me that incorporating micro-plastic, or aluminium, or spike protein should be trivial, and I have no doubt that some cells are already working on the problem. The miracle would consist in accomplishing this work of assimilating and learning to work with novel, foreign, alien and dangerous substances at speed and without mis-steps.
OK, John, thank you for your suggestion!
Hm. It seems to me that a certain safe and effective injectable was praised to high heaven by the experts, and enthusiastically accepted by the believers (just yesterday, someone on my dreamwidth list announced, “Good news! I got my covid booster!”).
Yet the placebo failed to deliver on those promises. What happened? Was Mr. Fauci not charismatic enough?
(Fwiw, I don’t discount placebo effects. I just think they’re way overstated.)
Exsufflation is what I would categorise as prehistoric medicine. The hot and cold method by itself is very effective against simple opposing conditions, and the blowing will temporarily insert some chi into the affected area. If it’s a partner or a close relative then the beneficial effects will last a little longer, before the foreign chi dissipates. .
Medicinal saliva also works better on yourself than on others. In Shaolin medicine the method is to spit all over a closed injury and then rub it warm with a circular motion using a slightly cupped hand. In the same way if you’re pierced by a wound the method is to stuff some of your own underclothes into the hole, because they are imbued with your personal chi.
Another type of prehistoric medicine is ‘scraping’ where a bone or stone rod is used to brush down an affected area, usually to the extremities, which are then shaken out. A large number of ailments can be relieved with this method, but on the downside it soon becomes irreplaceable and over time and it has to be practised with increasing regularity.
Cavemen also knew that post-natal depression is caused by runaway internal chemistry combined with excessive attrition on the mother’s body, which is usually caused by male infants. The preventative cure is for the new mother to place a single drop of her placental blood on the middle of her tongue. This switches off her internal birth cycle, just like a deer or a cow.
Scotlyn, thanks for this. I’m delighted to hear that you’re putting the MOE material to use creatively — it’s a tradition that has plenty of room to grow, and it’s innovative applications like this that will help that growth happen.
Chris, the interesting thing is that a very large number of insurance firms cancelled all California fire insurance policies recently. Yes, this is getting some discussion, though (of course) not in the corporate media…
Soko, exactly. Everyone does magic all the time; the problem is that most of us don’t know that we’re doing it, so we do it incompetently and mess ourselves up. As for exsufflations, I don’t know of any detailed sources — anyone else?
Karim, (1) that’s certainly what the last century and a half of psychological research would suggest. (2) Nobody’s really sure. The power of the unconscious mind over bodily health and illness is still being researched, and we don’t have a clear idea what the limits are; other powers are an open question. (3) That I know of, nobody’s done the necessary experiments to find out.
Rajarshi, in that case I’ll give you the more complete description. When your wife’s having cramps, have her lean on you, belly to belly, with her arms around your neck and shoulders so that she can help support herself. Reach around her lower back and rub the whole region, especially just above the hips — she’ll be able to tell you what relieves the pain best. She can slump against you and relax as far as possible; the warmth and pressure of your body will help her abdomen relax, and you can work on the muscles of her lower back with your hands. Sara had very bad menstrual cramps when she was in her teens and very early twenties, the kind that left her doubled up in bed crying; plenty of backrubs, and a switch to organic tampons — the regular kind contain all kinds of nasty chemical residues — made them much less severe.
Scotlyn, interesting. Yes, I can see that.
Athaia, nobody’s saying that the placebo effect is omnipotent. I tend to think that the frantic sales pitch for the injectable in question probably made it less horrifically toxic for some recipients, by putting the placebo effect into the scales against its nasty medical effects; now that that’s wearing off, death tolls do seem to be rising…
Tengu, a book on caveman medicine would probably be very well received. Just saying…
@LeGrand Cinq-Mars (#17): Interesting on the oils. Presumably this same process of “exsufflation” is employed during the consecration of the host in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, no?
@ Rajarshi (and JMG) – if I may.
I am linking here to a location guide for an acupunture point called BL32 (although the illustration actually helps locate BL33 and BL34 as well. https://www.acupoints.org/bl32-acupuncture-point/
These are points that I needle in my clinic when doing an acupuncture labour induction (never earlier than 41 weeks, and only if the person is facing a hospital induction that they would love to render moot). These points appear to provide a direct connection to the uterus. These points are also among those we teach birth partners to try during labour using acupressure (obviously following JMG’s advice to follow their birthing partner’s guidance on what is working/helping and what isn’t – sometimes BL32 becomes most useful midway through labour, and as labour progresses, one can move on downwards for best effect). FYI, the acupressure technique we teach is simple. Just press. Nothing fancy, no rubbing, or circling. Just press, focussing the pressure upon the point with a knuckle or a finger, but using the whole body to build the force behind the point (otherwise the presser will quickly get a case of sore fingers) throughout the duration of each contraction, and release as the contraction ends.
What I will also say additionally, is that I gave birth myself long before I knew anything about acupuncture, and in the labour room during my second birth, I KNEW that I needed stimulation in this area, and my husband and I used a technique similar to that described by JMG above, with me leaning up against him, while I demanded that he rub my sacral area HARD! I kept saying harder! no HARDER! and, in fact, he (unintentionally) left me black and blue, while certainly giving me a measure of relief. However, years later, when I learned about these points I wondered if direct and focussed PRESSURE on these points (such as we teach in acupressure for labour classes) would have done the job more effectively.
Anyway, for what it’s worth… menstrual cramps and labour pains are essentially the same thing, but in different circumstances, and with varying severity, but if this is any use to anyone, have at it!
“Athaia, nobody’s saying that the placebo effect is omnipotent. I tend to think that the frantic sales pitch for the injectable in question probably made it less horrifically toxic for some recipients, by putting the placebo effect into the scales against its nasty medical effects; now that that’s wearing off, death tolls do seem to be rising…”
Am I the only one who’s worried that if and when it becomes public knowledge that some medical treatment or other is behind this rise in deaths, there might be a massive wave of nocebo induced illness and death?
I have lived in California since the 70’s. According to something I read by a Berkeley professor before European settlement around 2.5 million acres of California would burn yearly by lightning set fires and fires stated deliberately or accidentally by the natives. A few years back around that amount burned and it was considered an over the top event.
The past regularity of fire kept things open lowering the intensity of fires. Early American European explorers commented on the frequently smokey Central Valley.
Also in a traditional agricultural culture between grazing by animals and the regular use of firewood for cooking, heating, black smithing, smelting, crowded brush and trees would be minimized. Naturally in the brushy woody areas filled with buildings that I have seen all over the place (living close to nature is so grand) none of these archaic activities are going on so vegetation gets real dense.
While there is a safety incentive to keep things clear there is no money to be made doing so unless subsidized by government money. Therefore nothing much happens. There are tens of millions of acres brush and forest ready to burn ferociously.
I had a little miracle, something totally naturally possible but also extraordinary and, for me, linked to some extra intense causes I am making related to moving archetypal energies in my life; I’m working through that ‘sacred contracts’ book which is pretty good and in that calm season of deep winter January after the holidays which I love and which is coming up on my birthday which always falls near the lunar new year. I wanted to share it with you so I posted it on my Substack cause I can’t put pictures here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aliceem2de3u/p/janus-headed-dog
Funny, read the comments, someone immediately asked if I had seen the shadow before I took the picture; she missed the miracle of it; it wasn’t a picture a person could take with that kind of ‘on purpose’….
I really loved the chapter open face off with ‘enlightenment’ (I guess I could just use the traditional capital E) materialism
Scotlyn, I think a lot about encouraging my systems and those of my kids to learn how to transmute the typical poisons we are encountering day to day. Another useful type of hard to measure or manage miracle.
I recently found ‘You are the Placebo’ by Joe dispenza in Goodwill, mixed in with a bunch of Danielle Steele and the like. Whole book about encouraging your systems to self-heal using placebo ‘trick’… felt like a good find!
Thanks again for teaching and hosting this series, JMG!
Hi John Michael,
Yes, I also spotted that as well about the alleged cancellations. There will be much anger and dissatisfaction arising from this event. To face your assets being completely wiped out is quite an awful experience. Reminds me of being ripped off by investing in unlisted property trust units in the early 1990’s. Hmm. A harsh lesson to learn. There is no trust now.
For your interest, a long time ago I had a nice insurance company contact me out of the blue to announce that a single policy was being cancelled and they’d refund the unused premium balance, less costs. Nice for some. However, I’m now well aware that such things go on, and can happen without warning, and for no real reason. There is no trust now.
As a general rule of thumb I suggest to people relying on such systems to ask themselves the question: Are they your mates, or what? A simple and effective dispel, however, it’s been my observation that few people wish to consider worst case scenarios.
On that note, the deer population have been on the rise this year. Woke up this morning to see a huge deer munching away on a 6 foot tree fern (they’re edible although few people are aware of that) which is not all that far from the front door. Despite my disinclination, I’m going to have to send Bambi and Co. a very strong message. Man, what else do you do? Humans are their only predator down under and there used to be several deer farms in the area when it was a bit of a fad to run them. Not all of the farms culled their stock, just saying. I’m pretty sure the deer would be destroying the ferns in the creek at the bottom of the property. Some of the ferns would be hundreds of years old. Hmm. Sometimes, you can’t do nothing. Have you ever faced such a situation?
Cheers
Chris
Scotlyn, thank you for this. The area Sara liked to have me rub extended higher than that — say, up to BL25 — and went outward from the spinal column well out to the sides. (Imagine a triangle, point down, with the lowest point a little above the tailbone and the side points at the crests of the hips.) What Sara said at the time is that (according to her reading) ligaments that hold the uterus in place connect to the musculature in those areas, and rubbing the muscles puts some slack into the ligaments and allows the uterus to relax a little. I’m not sufficiently learned in acupuncture theory to know how that fits in.
Anonymous, that may be what’s going on right now.
BeardTree, yep. Add to that the increased irregularity of rainfall all over the west, along with the introduction of eucalyptus trees (which are fire-adapted and burn like torches), and you’ve got an inferno waiting to happen.
AliceEm, it’s a great photo!
Chris, I wonder if the Democratic establishment in California realizes they may have just handed the state over to the GOP. As for deer, they’re very tasty, and like all big herbivores, they need steady predation to avoid overpopulation and ecosystem collapse. Humans have played a large role in that process here for many thousands of years; the local native peoples used to plant gardens and have someone waiting with a nocked arrow when the deer did what deer do, and show up to raid the produce. Their example strikes me as very sensible…
Fra’ Lupo
(#37)
Good question. As far as I know (but I’m ready to be corrected!) , exsufflation as such plays no part in the eucharistic consecration in any rite. What is essential, one way or another, is the use of “words of institution” traditional in each rite. Now, in general, the consecration is supposed to be performed by the Holy Spirit (not by the priest) with or without an explicit invocation (the “epiklesis”) — so from an esoteric point of view, perhaps, one could say that the saying of the words, and the action of the Holy Spirit, served the same function as the breath of the priest or bishop.
“Many are the arguments of theologians”, after all. But a quick look around on line shows that there seems to be a general consensus on what makes for a valid consecration, and exsufflation by the priest is not mentioned. (See for example https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/when-does-the-host-become-the-eucharist.)
I suppose theologians might say that transubstantiation (or transmutation, from the point of view of Sergei Bulgakov) is not the same as mere consecration, in which the consecrated substance remains what it was (oil, salt, water, or whatever), so and must be understood, and enacted, differently. But in the absence of authoritative rulings by an Ecumenical Council of Esotericists of the Churches of the East and West, we must make do with what we have!
I apologize for the late Prayer List entry this week. I got hit by influenza just before this week’s post dropped, but with more willpower I ought to have been able to send this out a bit sooner, nonetheless. Well, time to keep moving.
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At this link is the full list of all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts. Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or in the comments at the current prayer list post.
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This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests.
May Sub’s Wife’s upcoming major surgery on Wednesday 1/15 go smoothly and successfully, and may she recover with ease back to full health.
May David/Trubrujah’s 5 year old nephew Jayce, who is back home after chemotherapy for his leukemia, be healed quickly and fully, and may he, and mother Amanda, and their family find be aided with physical, mental, and emotional strength while they deal with this new life altering situation. (good news update!)
May Mindwind’s dad Clem, who in the midst of a struggle back to normal after a head injury has been told he shows signs of congestive heart failure, be blessed, healed, and encouraged.
May Corey Benton, who is currently in hospital and whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won’t be treated surgically, be healed of throat cancer. He is not doing well, and consents to any kind of distance healing offered. [Note: Healing Hands should be fine, but if offering energy work which could potentially conflict with another, please first leave a note in comments or write to randomactsofkarmasc to double check that it’s safe] (1/7)
May Christian’s cervical spine surgery on 1/14 be successful, and may he heal completely and with speed; and may the bad feelings and headaches plaguing him be lifted.
May Viktoria have a safe and healthy pregnancy, and may the baby be born safe, healthy and blessed. May Marko have the strength, wisdom and balance to face the challenges set before him. (picture)
May Open Space’s friend’s mother
Judith be blessed and healed for a complete recovery from cancer.
May Linda from the Quest Bookshop of the Theosophical Society, who has developed a turbo cancer, be blessed with a successful surgery under a steady hand when she goes into the operating room in mid January, and with well-being and a speedy recovery.
May Bill Rice (Will1000) in southern California, who suffered a painful back injury, be blessed and healed, and may he quickly recover full health and movement.
May Peter Van Erp’s friend Kate Bowden’s husband Russ Hobson and his family be enveloped with love as he follows his path forward with the glioblastoma (brain cancer) which has afflicted him.
May Daedalus/ARS receive guidance and finish his kundalini awakening, and overcome the neurological and qi and blood circulation problems that have kept him largely immobilised for several years; may the path toward achieving his life’s work be cleared of obstacles.
May baby Gigi, continue to gain weight and strength, and continue to heal from a possible medication overdose which her mother Elena received during pregnancy, and may Elena be blessed and healed from the continuing random tremors which ensued; may Gigi’s big brother Francis continue to be in excellent health and be blessed.
May Jennifer, whose pregnancy has entered its third trimester, have a safe and healthy pregnancy, may the delivery go smoothly, and may her baby be born healthy and blessed.
May Scotlyn’s friend Fiona, who has been in hospital since early October with what is a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, be blessed and healed, and encouraged in ways that help her to maintain a positive mental and spiritual outlook.
May Peter Evans in California, who has been diagnosed with colon cancer, be completely healed with ease, and make a rapid and total recovery.
May Jennifer and Josiah, their daughter Joanna, and their unborn daughter be protected from all harmful and malicious influences, and may any connection to malign entities or hostile thought forms or projections be broken and their influence banished.
May Giulia (Julia) in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland Ohio be healed of recurring seizures and paralysis of her left side and other neurological problems associated with a cyst on the right side of her brain and with surgery to treat it.
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Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
@LeGrand Cinq-Mars (#44): Ah! I had just assumed that the Spirit used the priest as a sort of “pneumatic vehicle” (so to speak) through the pronouncement of the words, but I am mistaken. Thank you for the thoughtful reply and resources.
Axé
Hi John Michael,
For obvious risk related reasons, the news of the LA fires are splashed all over our news down under. And the political dimension is certainly being discussed. I’d have to suggest based on my own experiences – and I volunteered for the local brigade for a few years – that right now, emotions are running high, and will be for some time to come. But the insurance, budget and water story is going to be very hard to explain. I’ve noticed that people tend to take wins and gains lightly, whilst losses are treated far differently.
Thanks for that about the deer! From what I’ve read over the years, the indigenous folks down here did the same thing over the entire continent. It would have been an astounding achievement, and completely missed, then messed up, by the European settlers. And I’ve also noticed that deer can move of their own volition – a handy feature. Candidly, I owe some favours to the owls, eagles and foxes here who are doing great work with the rabbit population, so they might get a hefty gift. In other areas, the rabbit population has exploded as the critters appear to be adapting to the biological controls used against them for decades.
There’s a sort of dark humour about those eucalyptus trees. They were originally a gift from the Australian government. Talk about the gift which keeps on giving, and the rainfall in that city is barely enough on average to keep trees alive. Most years I get nearly three times that cities average. If I had a year with that little rainfall, I’d be freaking out living here among the gum trees.
Cheers
Chris
So in my goodwill score I got both ‘placebo’ (2014) and ‘becoming supernatural’ (2017) from dispenza. It becomes clear from the intro to ‘becoming’ that at the time of ‘placebo’ he was still trying to convince the ‘Enlightenment’ materialist skeptics (hence the medicalish name) but by 2017 he had determined to let that fight go and he was relieved and excited. he wrote this, which jives pretty great with Levi’s same position re: miracles and the materialists and the Prima Materia. ‘This book is about more than just healing, although it includes stories of people who have made significant changes in their health and have actually reversed diseases–along w the tools you need to do the same. These accomplishments are becoming quite common in our community of students. The material you are about to read lives outside of convention and is not usually seen or understood by most of the world… And of course i am hoping it will bridge the world of science with the world of mysticism. … it will help you understand that you already have all the anatomy, chemistry, and physiology that you need to become supernatural sitting latent within you, waiting to be awakened and activated. … The brains of our students function in a more synchronized and coherent fashion after participating in the advanced retreats … this increased order in their nervous systems helps them get very clear about the future they can create, and they are able to hold that intention independent of conditions in their external environment.’
And he’s got the EEGs and healing stories linked together to prove it from I gather. Thaumatugy in the modern age
@ JMG – I have absolutely no doubt that what Sara said (and the guidance she gave you) were absolutely sound. Every part of that area is connected to every other part. And there are tissues both on the surface, and deeper in, as well as channels for qi flow, and vessels for blood flow, that will all have excellent effects and are all available for experimentation and use.
My own contribution to this thread is mainly to add (while taking nothing away) both personal data points and clinical information, so as to expand the range of possibility and widen the choice of options that any person reading here and experimenting on themselves/partners can also work with.
Thank you for permitting this topic to go a bit far afield. 🙂
My brother in law is an insurance guy. He and my sister used to live in a fire prone area of California and he noticed a greater and greater frequency of homeowners with residences, in the most fire prone locations, getting their insurance canceled with no available replacement. Seeing the direction this was going he and my sister move out of the state a few years ago.
The reason ( I think) that insurance companies started pulling out of California in its entirety recently, ( this fall) is that the insurance commissioner in his infinite wisdom created regulations preventing insurance companies from canceling, or failing to write individual policies based on risk. The insurance business is based on sophisticated statistical data and letting the state ( especially California) meddle in its risk vs return calculations is a recipe for destruction.
So they did they only thing they could to get out from under the legal jurisdiction of the California insurance commissioner and left the state entirely. I think this will prove to be a very wise decision.
@JMG I’m watching my elderly mother’s care at a “good” nursing home. I’d hate to see it from the inside, to “see how the sausage is made.”
“The man who has mastered to covet nothing and fear nothing is the master of everything.”
This thought gem from the current chapter is worth at least several sessions of meditation.
“The man who has managed to covet nothing and fear nothing is the master of everything” was the proper quote.
Quin, thanks for this as always. A quick recovery to you!
Chris, it’s a running joke here in the US that every life form native to Australia is out to kill people. Eucalyptus trees don’t seem to be an exception to the rule. 😉
AliceEm, interesting. I may need to read him one of these days.
Scotlyn, oh, I wasn’t in any way arguing with your knowledge of meridians. I was just passing on the secondhand knowledge I had.
Clay, I’ve read in several sources that Los Angeles also cut its firefighting budget substantially and stopped brush removal programs in many areas, so the insurance industry may have had even more reasons to bail out of the state.
Tom, after having worked in the industry, I wouldn’t put a dog I despised into a nursing home.
MOLF, it’s a fine quote, and good guidance.
In my experience healing is a journey, quick or long. By what means does it happen? – by one or more of the many ways, from just manipulative human placebo sleight of hand to raw straight up surprise divine intervention by the Lord, or some system or hodgepodge of medicinal practice, the intrinsic self healing of the body/soul complex over time, simple human kindness and touch and words, I have seen all of those effect healing over the years.
Speaking of Homeopathy and selective championing of healing modalities;
Homeopathy can incorporate natal astrology in assessment of patients. Remedies have also been known to begin working after initial consultations, before the remedy has been ingested by the patient. Perhaps this has something to do with identifying the remedy with the physician in assement. Collaboration in consultating the Materia Medica and the natal chart may also be part of this phenomon. The potency of 1M and 2M remedies can be transformational. I wonder what applications homoepathy could have in mundane astrolgy – how to apply remedies to collective/societal illnesses.
Much still to explore there.
The Vau in YHVH, I think, is the body, or the athanor and inside of us we create a permanent polarity using our minds, imagination, emotions and outstretched arms (mental, astral, etheric and physical.) This will create a path and its resistance. These two paths form the Seal of Solomon with one triangle black and the other white. We need the polarity for movement. You can’t create electricity until a magnetic field moves around a wire, and so you need to create the opposite. It is the spring analogy that Levi uses.
But what we establish isn’t a thing. It’s more of a relationship (which could be a thing, I guess, in the world of ideas). We could also call it a circuit through which the Astral Light can flow. But if we stop there, the circuit fades away. So we need to fix the relationship into Malkuth, or the final Heh.
Holding the opposites I understand, but getting them to rotate is another. He says that a rotating square creates a circle meaning that the four becomes the one again. But how do we take our two ternaries and get them to rotate?
@Jon G,
I have been pondering polarities, too. Though instead of viewing them as relationships, I’ve been viewing them as action/reaction/interaction. (And if you don’t mind mixing metaphors, Cosmic Doctrine (if I understand it correctly) says that the Ring Cosmos is the first to rotate and that everything after that is rotating, too (if you think about our atoms being vortices of force).)
@Random
I think you’re right with the idea of action/reaction/interaction, because it’s a dynamic relationship. Somewhere Levi said that there was never an equal balance betweein polarities because that would cause stagnation. He implied, I think, that it was more of a Golden Mean between polarities that would move to one Golden Ratio on one end to the Golden Ratio being on the other end. Never totally one sided and never totally equal. This is summed up in the Pentagram.
Do you think rotation naturally occurs after a ternary is formed?
@Random
If we do a Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram before a polarity ritual, then finish with a Greater Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, we are able to invoke all five elements which may fix the polarity into the earth. When we do the Banishing Ritual, we then send the polarity outwards. Since the five elements are also a pentagram, which has the dynamic tension of the golden mean inherent within it, that could create the necessary rotation.
I also suspect that the Moon is involved, as she is in charge of the movements of the sublunar sphere and on the Tree of Life, she is just above Malkuth. The Ternary is resolved in Tiphareth and then taken into Yesod (which would be Vau) and then on to Malkuth, (which would be Heh.)
So perhaps doing this during a waxing moon would be helpful to achieve something and during a waning moon to get rid of something, as JMG has pointed out for us several times.
However, after looking at all the images in the Splender Solis that you linked for me, I can’t seem to see any image which involves the Moon or a pentagram.
Channeling my inner discordian in response to @Random and @Jon G, I’m wondering if instead it should be action/reaction/interaction/infraction/redaction
Related to the subject of the current LA wildfires, I think this is just a preview. In terms of the Long Descent into the post-industrial Dark Ages, I see a high probability of at least one major city in California being devastated by a major earthquake or tsunami. This event, couples with the eventual breakdown of the wealth from the end of the digital age as well as the inability of weakened future authorities to launch repairs, will result in a strong likelihood of Los Angeles or San Francisco having the fate of Antioch after the 526 Earthquake.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/526_Antioch_earthquake
After this disaster, the one splendid ancient city never recovered and evolved into a mediocre medieval city. As late as the Crusades, there was one Crusader state centred around Antioch. Eventually, it was overrun by the Mamluks and the local population evacuated or enslaved. This ended up being the nail in the coffin.
@Jon G,
When I was pondering this, I was thinking of smaller things that the Spheres. For non-Spheres, I think if the energy stays on the same plane, then the energy rotates around the ternary. But if the ternary is oriented so there is a change in planes, then the energies either unite or dissociate, depending on how the ternary is situated.
But each Sphere is a different Plane, so a ternary of Spheres is three different Planes, which makes things very complicated. Just cause it looks like a triangle doesn’t mean that it is really a triangle. (I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe that better. Best I can come up with is https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Transforming-Anxiety-into-Art-Thomas-Deiningers-Found-Object-Masterpieces-66aa03fd7e7ce-png__700.jpg and https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7RsOF7MSeF/ (moving pixels warning on the second!)) So are they rotating? I don’t know. For sure, there is movement. What that movement looks like? I don’t know. I’m not there yet…
@JMG, this is off topic… however, considering spanglers cycle of civilizations being a cultural phenomenon and your ecological view in ecotechnic future, the topic of how civilizations form is something i may have missed. I did some research and as empires collapse soil and ecology do tend to heal, so when the ecology hits a critical mass of healthyness do you expect empires to emerge as a function of surplus? In spanglers view does culture emerge from surplus or to fill a void left from the collapse of the last flowering of civilization? Interested in your opinion, and your hermetics podcast about collapse this month was very good! Thanks
BeardTree, of course. One of the most deeply rooted superstitions of our time is the notion that anything can have just one cause.
Ian, of course! Medical astrology is a very highly refined art and very useful. For that matter, the branch of homeopathy I practice at home, Schüssler’s biochemic cell salts, is explicitly astrological; GW Carey, one of the most influential late 19th century physicians who used the cell salts, worked out the correspondence between the twelve remedies and the twelve signs of the zodiac, and using that correspondence as a basis for healing. I haven’t worked with the high potencies at all — the cell salts are typically used at 6x potency — but it will be interesting to see what can be done with them if the current persecution of alternative health care gets stopped.
Jon, good. Very good. Keep going.
KAN, very good also. Fnord!
David, you might be interested to know that weird-tales author Clark Ashton Smith predicted that fate for San Francisco in one of his many fine poems:
http://eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/449/the-prophet-speaks
Alex, that’s a huge question, not something I can set out in a quick response here! Vico, Spengler, and Toynbee both had their theories, and I have mine, which I touched on in these posts:
https://thearchdruidreport-archive.200605.xyz/2015/07/the-cimmerian-hypothesis-part-one.html
https://thearchdruidreport-archive.200605.xyz/2015/07/the-cimmerian-hypothesis-part-two.html
https://thearchdruidreport-archive.200605.xyz/2015/07/the-cimmerian-hypothesis-part-three-end.html
@KAN,
Oh, that is good!
@Jon,
The images were not Splendor Solis, just trying to show how perspective can completely change what we think we see.
I do not know the Pentagram rituals. Are the elements associated with Spheres (or Planets?) for the ritual? In the stuff I’ve been reading, the four elements are considered terrestrial and ether is considered celestial. Is Spirit in the ritual equivalent to ether? Is Spirit considered half of the polarity and the Elements considered the other half?
If the ternary is getting resolved a la YHVH, then I think if it resolves in Tiphareth, then Tiphareth is the Vau. (Again, though, I have not studied the Pentagram ritual…) Normally that would pair to Malkuth as Heh. If you wanted to include Yesod as Spirit (and as a reflection of Astral Light), then the Vau could pair with Yesod.
Way back in my Levi notes, I had researched on the Tetragrammaton and found there was one that led to YHVH… AHYD (Aleph-Heh-Yod-Heh). Aleph starts the alphabet and AHYH translates to “I will be” and YHVH translates to “I am”. So if Yesod is Vau to Malkuth’s Heh, maybe it goes back to Aleph (to start a new cycle of AHYH), and that is you performing the ritual, being the Magician.
I thought I remembered something that would be cool… that Aleph was composed of five Yods. But I cannot find that anywhere. I can find that Aleph is composed of an upper Yod and a lower Yod, connected by a Vau (which still kinda fits), but I am going to dig through my notes and see if I can find what I thought I remembered.
Tomorrow is a new post, so I will contact you through Dreamwidth with what I find.