Review: Mo: Tibetan Divination System – Jamgon Mipham

Mo: Tibetan Divination System – Jamgon Mipham, translated and edited by Jay Goldberg
Snow Lion. 1990. 156pp. 9781559391474.

While a lot of has been written on Tibetan Buddhism there is still a lot more to be translated and written about in English. This book covers one such area, Mo –which just means divination– in this case refers to a system of dice divination. This text is based on the version put forth by Jamgon Mipham (1846-1912), a renowned master from the Nyingma school, based upon his study of the Kalachakra Tantra and The Ocean of Dakinis, along with other texts and his own insight.

This system is deceptively simple, you role a die twice, and that gives you one of thirty-six possible answers. The die is rolled to make a pair, twice, the second two rolls being used to indicate how strong or weak the answer is, or how fixed or changeable it is. Each answer is split into eleven categories so that instead of a blanket statement you get information that is specific to family, money, enemies, spiritual practice, health, and the like.

One thing I really enjoy with this system (and there is a lot I enjoy) is that it is eminently practical. It is part of a religious system so when it says something is wrong it sometimes tells you what caused it, but it also recommends what sutras to read, or Boddhisattvas to work with, or what rituals to perform in order to increase your chances of success. I like having that answer right there, you may have to work out the physical side but this gives you the spiritual work to undertake. Of course the advice is specific to Buddhism, and some is specifically Tibetan Buddhist, which can limit the usefulness to non-Buddhists. Though some of the advice is simple enough that even someone without familiarity with Buddhism would be able to undertake, such as reading the Prajnaparamita.

Traditionally the die has six Tibetan letters on it, but you can substitute a numeric die or order a proper Mo die from the Snow Lion website. (This is where I felt a touch let down, as far as I can tell they don’t sell the die and book together, which I think is a mistake, and inconvenient). Also each letter has various attributes: directions, body parts, Buddha families, elements, and so on. These attributes can be used to give you more insight into the answers, and Goldberg mentions this but doesn’t explain how. While I’ve been cobbling together my own system of finding increased meaning it would have been nice to see more of it.

Also the nature of the advice/answers doesn’t allow for the same freedom of form in your questions that you would get with something like tarot. It took me a while to learn how to ask the right type of questions, which in many cases is just “Tell me about my health” “What’s going on with Frank’s job?” and so on. It’s a small thing but it wasn’t addressed and I wish it had been as I believe knowing how to ask the right questions is an important part of getting a relevant divinatory answer.

Regardless of my few quibbles I think this is an excellent book and essentially unique in topic, and as such I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in adding a bit more depth to their study of Tibetan Buddhism, or varying divination systems in general. I’ve experimented with the system many times in the last month and I’ve found the results very insightful as well as practical and synchronicistic to a degree that surprised me.

Wednesday Webshares: Crowley, Spare, Potlatchs and More

Let’s start off this webshare with more Crowley because despite being dead you can’t keep a wicked man down, in fact I’m pretty sure that’s part of what got him in trouble much of the time…

If you have a few hundred pounds to spare Treadwell’s books currently has a collection of early edition Crowley texts for sales. Aside from going to collectors this shows again that there is a demand for Crowley books that isn’t being met.

Continuing with Crowley a new biography is being released in September claiming to be “the first complete” and “definitive biography” of Crowley. It is a large claim to fill, but we shall see in time if there is much new to say about the Beast from this book.

And the last bit of Crowley for the week: Abrahadabra is releasing the Grimoire of Aleister Crowley. A collection of the rituals along with deeper exploration into their purposes and explanations on their meanings and structure.

Following the book pattern Jerusalem Press is rereleasing The Book of Pleasure by A.O.Spare. In general I think it’s great that Spare’s working is getting some fresh print time, but especially as in this edition they’ve gone to great lengths to get new or high-quality versions of the images from the original and includes an intro by Alan Moore. Now this may not be news to some, it’s from a few months back, but apparently I either missed this or it slipped my mind.

If you’re more in the mood to receive random possibly magickal knickknacks, tchotchkes, and more the good folks at The Hermetic Library have suggested an “eclectic, esoteric postal potlatch.” You either send in something, or donate, and they’ll send you something back. I think this is a neat idea and I’m curious to see what I’ll get and to hear what other sorts of things get sent through this.

While I hate to jump on any finding and claim “this proves magick!” I recently came across an article that mentions “slogans trigger resistance while logos slip through.” Their wording caught my eye especially as when I describe to people why sigils are effective it’s in part due to their ability to “slip through” our filters into some abstract depth of our mind. This article is somewhat reinforcing this idea, our mind rejects slogans (verbal) but accepts logos (visual). While obvious more to it than just a good parallel to sigils I found it interesting that theory is reflected in this study.

A while back I linked to a new computer program/algorithm being used to help sort out the various authors of the Old Testament (hint: it wasn’t Moses) and now it seems that the same technology may be useful in helping us date the Gospels. Interesting, though I admit the dates tossed around in the article have me looking askance at it, for their initial dating (which they believe may be even earlier) is far earlier than I usually see stated for the dates of the Gospels, outside of heavily Christian biased and unresearched sources of course. If they manage to prove the Gospels date to within a decade of Jesus’s apparently life I wonder what that would mean to people?

Another necropost link (I forgot I had many of these put aside) that was of personal interest to me was from The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn blog spot where Tabatha shows several examples of common errors or “corruptions” of Divine and Angelic names. Of course of interest to me considering this has been part of my language posting recently, that names become altered, corrupted, and yet they still work. It was good to see the research and actually watch the progression of a name changing.

Another month late posting but Egypt’s own Indiana Jones wannabe Zahi Hawass has finally been fired. This man was essentially the face of Egyptian archaeology, when there was a discovery to be announced he was there. There have been rumours (as there always will be, especially about anything Egyptian) that part of this was to establish an “official story” that Hawass took the releases so information that conflicted with his views and theories didn’t make it to the light. I’ve heard it go so far as he rabidly suppressed findings, but as always such claims never had much evidence. I don’t know if it is rumours or not, but as much as I liked the man’s personality it will be nice to read about or watch a new Egyptian discovery and have someone else discuss it.

Finally one last book because it’s me. It’s not out, but I just received the announcement for Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture set to come out in May. A quote from the publisher about it:

Examining this magical system from its Renaissance origins to present day occultism, Egil Asprem shows how the reception of Dee’s magic is replete with struggles to construct and negotiate authoritative interpretational frameworks for doing magic. Arguing with Angels offers a novel, nuanced approach to questions about how ritual magic has survived the advent of modernity and demonstrates the ways in which modern culture has recreated magical discourse.

So sounds good to me. Hope everyone is surviving this Wednesday in Mercury Retrograde

Review: The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage – Dion Fortune

The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage – Dion Fortune
Weiser. 1930, 2000. 92 pp. 9781578631582.

“This book upon the esoteric teaching concerning sex is addressed primarily to those who have no occult knowledge of the subject” (1). To clarify this introduction Dion Fortune is not talking about sex magick and the procedure of, but rather exactly what the title says the “esoteric philosophy” of it. Now the first sentence is misleading because while it mentions sex, sex itself is rarely mentioned in the text, it is primarily about marriage, which is often referred to as mating to separate it from the legal/religious institution.

So what is this text really about? It’s a spiritual philosophy book on the nature of humanity, how we became matter and more, what makes up our bodies (on various planes), what are sex, love, and marriage. Fortune puts forth the sevenfold model of reality: physical, astrals, mentals, and spiritual planes, and how we operate on them, and more relevant to the theme of the text how we interact with our partner on those various levels. Also how we don’t interact with them, and the problems and benefits of relationships that exist on different levels.

For example she discusses the problem with relationships where one person has “activated” a higher body than their partner (48) which while at first I felt as a bit odd as I read this, but as I thought about it more I could see the problems I just understood it through a different model. She covers how we relate to our partner on each plane in what she sees as alternating patterns of opposites and similarities, again I ended up agreeing with her, after I disagreed with what levels related how. She even discusses Soul Mates and Twin Souls, both in very positive lights, but stressed how exceedingly uncommon they are.

This book was written in the 1930s and it bears a lot of the traits of that time. Fortune mentions the great potential of psychic energy that is an unmarried childless woman (45) after all without a husband or kids women have nothing else to do with their time and energy. The book is written in male pronouns (which I always find odd with female authors) and explicitly about straight married coupled. Sex without marriage isn’t horrible, but not recommended. Masturbation or sex with someone of the same-sex cause great “injury…upon the nervous system” and forms horribly evil and destructive thought forms (87), and between those warnings I’m surprised my house hasn’t burnt down and my brain isn’t fried. She also claimed that “European civilisation has always valued women highly” (63) which is the half-truth of inter-war England with the battle of the babies and racial purity, but hardly the reality.

If you’re looking for a practical book on sex magick (and with a title like this I don’t know why’d you’d expect that) this isn’t it. If you’re looking for an interesting take on the esoteric unpinning of relationships, especially according to the popular models of the early 20th century, and can handle the racial and gender views of the era for what they are then “The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage” will make for a good read.

Failure is the Sign of the Magickian

Failure a sign of a true magickian. Perhaps not by the literal meaning of the word, but more by my own ideals of what a magickian should embody. Some might wonder if an ideal magickian could fail, but to me the ideal magickian is not omnipotent or omniscient, meaning failure can and should be part of the picture.

To see why an ideal magickian fails, one must think about why a “flawed” magickian would not fail.

One reason why a magickian may never fail is a lack of critical or detached thinking. If one is too attached and/or lacks critical thinking, then one would be unable to view results as they are, or could convince themselves otherwise. This leads to another fault, the inability to be honest, perhaps with others, but more importantly the inability to be honest with the self.

Perhaps the most important reason for a lack of failure is a lack of ambition. The path of the magickian is one of change and growth. If a magickian attains a level of accomplishment where they no longer fail, it means they have stopped pushing their boundaries and abilities. A magickian without failure has stopped trying to climb the mountain, and merely enjoys their view.

The contrast to these faults makes up the ideal magickian; someone detached and critical enough to view the world and their results honestly; someone honest enough to admit their failures, even if only to themselves; and perhaps most importantly an ideal magickian does not stop trying to achieve more and attain higher and deeper levels of understanding.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~Albert Einstein

Wednesday Webshares: Mercury, Crowley, and Scrolls

Welcome to another Wednesday Webshare on the first full day of the current period of Mercury Retrograde. This is a video heavy posting, sorry about that.

Remember if you’re ever unsure about which direction Mercury is going and don’t want to bother with an ephemeris and numbers there is the site Is Mercury in Retrograde which provides a handy countdown for when you have to stop blaming Mercury and find another thing to blame for your bad communication skills and travel disruptions.

I haven’t discussed this much here (I’m managed to be surprisingly impersonal) but I’m a practitioner of Traditional Japanese Reiki. If you know what Reiki is…well it’s not really much like that. I’m the crotchety old geezer who complains that what gets called Reiki in the Western world isn’t that close to Reiki anymore. Regardless I was sent an interesting video recently. Judith Pennington studies EEG (Electroencephalographs or brainwaves) specifically in some relation to spiritual practices. She had studied many “Reiki Masters” but then studied someone who practiced Traditional Japanese Reiki (TJR) and found that the brainwaves were different between western Reiki users and TJR practitioners. This doesn’t surprise me considering the differences in how Reiki is accessed in those systems. I enjoyed watching the videos and it is food for thought, but I wish that Pennington stuck more with the actual observations (like what the brainwaves actually are) without her recoding it into her newage psycho-spiritual language. I’m not saying her interpretation is wrong in any way, but I think a stronger case would have been made without discussing “the field” and such and focusing on how interesting the brainwaves are.

And here is her write up based upon the experience.

Oddly enough I have an EEG machine (that isn’t odd…is it?) and I’ve recorded myself performing things like the LBRP, Middle Pillar, the Sphere of Self, as well as various meditations, but it never occurred to me to record my brainwaves while doing Reiki. I’m not sure if I’ll get the chance in the near future, but we’ll see. This wasn’t done in the most controlled manner, but still it is nice to see some slightly scientific research going into it and something to think on.

Out of the East and over to the Near East the Dead Sea Scrolls are up for adoption. For a mere £1,200, or $1888 (Canadian, Yankees can do your own conversion) you can adopt a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Sadly it’s not like adopting a kitten, it’s like adopting an animal at the zoo, your name will get put on a plaque beside your fragment at the museum so people know this is your baby. Personally I’d love to own parts of The Book of Noah, or the Book of Sirach: Angels and Lovecraftian horrors in the Jewish tradition, but $1888 is a lot for a book, especially one I don’t actually get to keep.

In slightly related news, the University of Oxford is stepping into the future of internet teamwork. There is a wealth of untranslated Greek papyri and they’re turning to the internet for help. Over at Ancient Lives you can look at papyri and help label/identify letters on various pages to help make the process of decoding these ancient texts go quicker. Largely they will be early Christian texts (they assume) but frankly those are the fun ones. I mean that’s where I got the actual quote about Archangel bukkake on Eve, I wasn’t making that up. I wish I could have. Angels were freaky. The less I say about that lipstick wearing leather daddy Azazel the better.

I’ve been watching Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, hoping it would be nearly as good as Xena. I’ve been wrong but there was an interesting Crowley reference I just saw. Basic context and spoilers. Outside of our world is Dahak, some big-bad evil that even the gods are afraid of -all of them Greek, Sumerian, Celtic, Norse- he crept into this world and possessed Iolaus and set up a religion of light, love, and debauchery…and well…apparently the evil from beyond our world is Aiwass.

Speaking Crowley, he makes an amusing cameo in the satirical public service video “The Bizarre World of the Bisexual.” Reading the comments I’d like to point out this is satire, if you watch the other videos they all play with a similar humour, if you take it serious it will be offensive (about sexuality, not about Crowley).

The US Army is apparently looking to create technological telepaths . Money for machine telepathy, thank goodness your country doesn’t have some sort of financial issue that this could be better spent on…wait what? Seriously though I think this is fascinating and I wonder how far this research will get, and what non-war applications it might have.

Lastly for a bit of Lovecraftian awesomeness I’ve recently come across the awesome and hilarious site Better Myths in which myths are retold…kinda. Aside from the awesome written versions the webmaster also does videos. This is a three part retelling of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath

Again, sorry it’s so video heavy, that’s just the way the net worked for me this week.