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#7 - June 2017 - Kami and Genius Loci
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Kami & Genius Loci- Spirits of Place
Featured Courses: Geomancy Mini-Course
Featured Talisman: 3rd Sun Pentacle
Kami & Genius Loci- Spirits of Place
Sacred Rock with shimenawa & shide |
Now I hear a lot in New Age circles how "religion and science are moving closer together" and quantum physics gets thrown in, but you only hear this from the New Agers, despite some individual, off the record individual scientists, official Science is not in any hurry to reconcile with religion. In any case, even those self described as religious, have a materialistic view of reality. Fundamentalists accept that material reality is paramount by insisting on the literal truth of the Bible. Modern astrologers insists that astrology works through some sort of energetic or material causality.
So if we are going to engage with the spiritual world and spiritual beings we need to step out of the modern world view and be guided by traditional societies and traditional practices. Western society is doubly lost, we outlawed our traditional pagan religions in the 4th and 5th centuries AD in favor of Christianity and then dropped Christianity after the Enlightenment. One of my favorite traditional religions is Japanese Shinto. In Shinto the entire world is full of spirits, called kami. Kami are enshrined in formal Shinto shrines, and in small personal shrintes called kamidana. Here is my personal kamidana.
In Shinto everything has a kami and can become a kami, animals, people, and particularly unusual natural formations like trees and rocks. There is a good size boulder in the southwest corner of my yard and I've been greeting/praying to the kami in the rock daily for several years. This is a video of is how you show respect to the kami. Recently I decided to go ahead and put shimenawa and shide around the rock and you can see a picture of my rock above. Shimenawa are coiled ropes that mark off a sacred space and shide are folded paper streamers that are given as offerings to the kami. Here is more information on shimenawa. Rocks are very typical resting places for the kami and known as iwakura.
How we react to situations really depends on our worldview. If we are materialists there MUST be a materialist explanation, as anything that doesn't fit our worldview must be explained away. Mere coincidence is a very useful way of plastering over any discrepancies in the atheistic-materialist worldview. Of course, credulous belief is the counterpart in a spiritual worldview. So that being said, let me tell some stories about my rock. Your reaction will reveal your worldview. First, there are a good number of garter snakes around the rock. In classical Roman religion, the lares, or genius loci of a house and family were often associated with snakes. My sense is that the garter snakes are the kami of the rock. I am very careful when mowing to avoid the snakes and when I occasionally find them groggy in our basement after hibernating, I carefully take them outside.
Abe no Seimei's White Fox Mother |
Very weird! How did the window get rolled down? If it was a break-in why was nothing taken? Why was there white fur on the driver's seat? For a materialist the answer must be something like, "well some kid had been petting a white dog and he somehow rolled the window down and got fur everywhere" Now I don't rule that out, but I add some additional possibilities into the mix. One of the kami that I have enshrined in my altar is Abe no Seimei. Abe no Seimei was a famous onmyoji which be be compared to astrological magic. His mother was reputed to be a kitsune, a white fox shapeshifter. So, I include the possibility that that was white fox fur in our front driver's seat!
Featured Course: Geomancy Mini-Course
Geomancy Mini-Course |
The earth part comes from how the figures were generated, at first by poking holes in sand. A line of holes that added up to an odd number produced one dot, a even line of holes, two dots. Four lines in the geomantic figures the total possible figures are 16. Actual traditional geomancy got needlessly confused with feng shui (literally "wind and water") the traditional Chinese art of landscape configuration, which is also sometimes referred to as geomancy. Not the same thing at all!
What's cool about geomancy is that you get a lot of bang for the buck! Not as difficult to learn as traditional horary astrology geomancy nevertheless is pretty accurate. One of the things I like about it is that it uses the 12 astrological houses which makes it easy for astrologers to learn. Geomancy is one of the areas of knowledge taught in Golden Dawn, but their methods can be confusing and don't always follow traditional geomancy.
The Geomancy Mini-Course is a great way to learn traditional geomancy. It includes four pdf traditional geomancy texts: Cornelius Agrippa's On Geomancy, John Heydon's Theomagia, John Case's Angelic Guide and Christopher Cattan's Geomancy. Hudnreds of pages of rare traditional geomancy texts! It also includes Geomanticon my geomancy software. Graduates of the Geomancy Mini-Course receive a certificate of completion.
Like all courses, full or mini, the Geomancy Mini-Course is available via CD or download. Check out all of the Renaissance Astrology Courses here. Because the Geomancy Mini-Course doesn't have a paperback course book it is ideal for download, why pay for shipping a CD? Cost for the Geomancy Mini-Course is $49.95, plus shipping for the CD. Here is the link to register for the Geomancy Mini-Course!
Featured Talisman: 3rd Sun Pentacle
3rd Sun Pentacle |
username: 2017access
password: regulus313
Let's talk about pentacles. These are very popular, since almost everyone has heard of the Pentacles of Solomon. These are part of a very popular tradition in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Solomonic grimoires. The Greater Key represents the astrological side of this tradition. Currently we have both Sun Pentacles and Mars Pentacles available in the Renaissance Astrology Inner Circle.
This issue of Marginalia features the Third Sun Pentacle which is for success, power and authority. The Third Sun Pentacle, "...serveth to acquire Kingdom and Empire, to inflict loss, and to acquire renown and glory" In addition, the 3rd Sun pentacle also contains the powers of the 1st and 2nd Sun pentacles! Cool! Sun pentacles and talismans are great if your Sun is in (ie "your sign" that is your Sun sign) is Leo or Aries. Probably not the best choice if your Sun (your "sign") is Aquarius or Libra. Any other sign is fine!
The Third Sun pentacle is Golden Bronze with cord plus images and consecration instructions. $249.95 plus shipping. You can order here use your esoteric student username and password or
username: 2017access
password: regulus313
Check out the all the Renaissance Astrology currently available talismans or currently available pentacles or currently available magic mirrors. To access these links use your esoteric student username and password or
username: 2017access
password: regulus313
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Specializing in Horary Astrology, Electional Astrology Astrological Magic and Astrological Talismans.
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